This project is one of the first field-scale trials of growing a bulrush (typha) crop on re-wetted agricultural peat. The seed heads will be harvested for use by textile company Ponda® to create BioPuff®, a revolutionary sustainable and eco-friendly replacement for the use of synthetic fibres or goose feather down in padded jackets.

This five-hectare site is being worked and managed - with support from landowner Peel L&P - by its current tenant farmer Steve Denneny, who has undertaken works to raise the water table before sowing and growing the typha. The first harvest of the seed heads is planned for Autumn 2025.

The typha has been sown by a drone using both seeds suspended in clay pellets and a gel, and is being grown with two different water table depths, at the surface and at 50cm below ground level. Greenhouse gas (GHG) levels are being measured across the site and then compared to a neighbouring control site to determine the decrease in GHGs from the re-wetted site in comparison to business-as-usual levels.

Recent monitoring of the trial's biodiversity has shown that the wetter farming field has had an increase of nearly 400% in dragonflies and damselflies compared to the control sites.

​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.