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Find us in The Scotsman

Updated: Jul 19, 2022

Here at SilviBio, we’re accustomed to designing and creating new, innovative products for a whole host of pressing issues facing today’s growers without much fanfare. However, it is nice–from time to time–to be acknowledged in the wider world as we were in the June 23rd issue of The Scotsman.


Nestled within one of Scotland’s leading national newspapers, “Sustainable Scotland: Field trials of special hydrogel promise greener forests of the future” told the story of the many people and organisations contributing to Scotland’s drive towards net-zero. In truth, addressing climate change really is a group effort. No one person or organisation can do it alone, and we very much appreciate the care the reporters and editors over at The Scotsman took to emphasise this fact.


For example and as the article says, the UK is planning to plant 30,000 hectares of trees annually by 2024 to create more woodland. However, changes in Scotland’s and the wider UK’s climate may put these ambitious targets at risk as the climate becomes warmer and drier. Such a change in conditions can dramatically decrease germination and seedling survival rates in both trees and crops–like wheat–or at least require increased irrigation (which, of course, assumes a grower can afford and has the capacity to irrigate).

Thus, the question becomes: how can we achieve this worthwhile goal even when it is becoming harder to achieve it?


Surely, no one person, company or government alone can tackle such a large-scale project. However, when we work together and support each other, such conundrums become manageable as our partnership with Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) demonstrates.


Our hydrogel helps resolve the issue of our increasingly drier climate harming tree seed germination and seedling survival rates. We’ve been able to show germination improvements of up to 40% with no irrigation. This amazing result is due to how the seed coating absorbs water and swells like a sponge, thereby creating a life-giving reservoir right where it is needed most–by the seed.

With these promising initial results, we’re going to further refine our product in order to maximise its positive impact and enable it to benefit foresters and farmers across the UK. For now and in the future, we hope to continue our relationship with FLS and together support Scotland and the UK achieve their ambitious tree planting goals.


We’d love to hear from you and would enjoy answering any questions about who we are, our cutting-edge products and anything else on your mind.

Simply contact us, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.


Written by Philip Shelton.

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