This project will see one of the first field-scale trial of growing a typha crop on re-wet agricultural peat. The seed heads will be harvested and a market has already been secured for these with company Saltyco® to create BioPuff®, a revolutionary sustainable and eco-friendly replacement for the use of synthetic fibres or goose feather down in padded jackets.

This 5 ha site will be worked and managed, with support from landowner Peel L&P, by its current tenant farmer who will undertake works to raise the water table, before sowing, growing and after three years harvesting the typha seed heads.

The typha will be grown both from seed and from plug plants, and both will be grown with two different water table depths, one at the surface and one at 50cm below ground level. Greenhouse gas levels will be measured across the site, and compared to a neighboring control site, to determine the decrease in GHG’s from the re-wetted site in comparison to the harvest.

​We hope to show that a commercially viable typha crop can be grown at scale on agricultural peat that has been re-wetted. We aim to provide greenhouse gas emissions data to show that these harmful releases can be significantly reduced whilst allowing agricultural peat to remain financially viable for farmers and landowners. We will also investigate practical issues around farming re-wetted land, trialing the use of standard, or adapted, farm machinery.