The innovative company Tubesprout has signed a collaboration agreement with Swedish forestry giant Holmen Skog. Successful testing of the biodegradable planting tube will pave the way for the future of forestry planting. “This is a huge milestone,” says Olof Guldbrandsson, development manager at Tubesprout.
Tubesprout is a product that has been developed over a long period of time, but after successful testing by SLU (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences), it was commercialized in 2021. The planting tube acts as a micro greenhouse for each forestry plant. That will, amongst other advantages, help the plant to retain moisture better and make handling more efficient.
“At the end of last year, we initiated field trials of our product with Holmen Skog. Essentially, it was about testing our product with their newly purchased forestry planting machine – which plants trees while also preparing the ground,” says Olof Guldbrandsson.
“The trials were successful; we can already see that it will work on a larger scale. The machine fed our Tubesprout even though it was not fully adapted to our product yet.”
Following the successful tests, a collaboration agreement has been signed by Tubesprout and Holmen Skog. This means, among other things, that Tubesprout’s planting tube is now being tested in Holmen Skog’s nursery and has the potential to be integrated into the production line in the future.
“For us, this is a huge milestone. When we received verification of our product from SLU in 2021, it was huge for us, but this is up there as well. It is one of Sweden’s largest forestry companies, and being allowed into their nursery is not something that happens easily. It’s a great sign for the future!”
The prospects for the collaboration are significant, with the possibility of revolutionizing the way forestry is planted in Sweden through predictability and the ability to plant larger volumes.
“Now we have plants that are with Holmen Skog, and the first step is to see that they are germinating properly. Hopefully, we will be able to start up large-scale production of our product in the near future.”
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