Busy GLAS 2025 topped off with ‘Best new product award’!

We were pleased to welcome many of you to the ICL stand at last month’s GLAS trade show in Dublin, where our Fibagro® Advance Pot Topper FT was awarded Best New Product 2025.

Supporting weed suppression and moisture retention in container-grown nursery stock, this high-performance woodfibre-based pot topper features Fusion Technology (FT) – ensuring it stays in place, even if the pot falls over.  Comparing it to existing bark toppers, many show visitors particularly rated the fact it remains on the pot – not only on the nursery, but during transit and at the retail outlet.

To arrange a product trial or request technical information, please get in touch.

Best New Product 2025 award – Fibagro Advance Pot Topper (FT). (From left) Andrew Wilson (ICL Technical Manager Ireland and UK), Brendan Howell (ICL Sales Development Manager for Prof Hort in Ireland) and Matthew Miller (ICL Marketing Coms Manager)

Total Solutions

A busy event, GLAS provided a great opportunity to showcase our Total Solutions approach to peat-reduced growing.  This included our four high-performance grades of Fibagro Advance woodfibre which are providing proven structural integrity and consistency as a base for modern growing media.

Award winners! (From left) Nuala & Rachel Young of Young Nurseries (ICL customer) – winners of Supplier of the Year 2025 and Best Hardy New Plant 2025 awards, together with ICL’s Brendan Howell – winner of Best New Product 2025 award for Fibagro Advance Pot Topper (FT). 

Beyond peat panel discussion

Taking part in the panel discussion Beyond Peat, at the GLAS Learning Theatre, I reported that nurseries across Ireland are increasingly adopting highly successful peat-reduction strategies in collaboration with ICL. Meanwhile, in the UK this transition is already more advanced, with ICL actively supporting many nurseries to become peat-free.

From our dedicated growing media production facility at Cúil na Móna, ICL offers Irish nurseries a fully integrated ‘Total Solution’ approach – designed to support sustainable, high-performance nursery production.

A theme further developed by my colleague, Andrew Wilson (Technical Manager for Ireland and UK) in his subsequent session titled Total Solutions for Peat-Free Growing.

Having examined the physical and chemical properties of peat alternatives, and production aspects including water quality and irrigation management, Andrew highlighted ICL’s expanding portfolio of technologies designed to mitigate the challenges of growing in sustainable media.  Ground-breaking products including our H2Gro water management tool, enhancing substrate wettability and water distribution; together with Osmoform High N and Osmocote N which provide targeted nitrogen supplementation.

Andrew concluded his seminar with insights from the latest ICL trials, reinforcing the efficacy of this integrated approach in commercial nursery operations.