Horticulture
Sustainable Farming at Beechlawn Organic Farm
Padraig Glynn writes about Beechlawn Organic Farm, a leading organic horticulture enterprise in Ireland, growing a variety of vegetables using sustainable practices, which recently hosted a successful farm walk highlighting organic farming techniques and benefits.
14 September 2024
Grow herbs to give your garden a touch of the Mediterranean
Chris Heavey, Lecturer at the Teagasc College at the National Botanic Gardens, offers top tips on growing herbs, noting that on wet Irish summer days, they create a little Mediterranean oasis to cheer up both yourself and your kitchen.
29 June 2024
Wireworm IPM in field vegetable crops: An update on practical monitoring and risk assessment
William Deasy, Teagasc Specialised Vegetable Advisor, looks at recent advances in ways to monitor and assess the risk of wireworm damage with Martyn Cox of Blackthorn Arable Ltd., UK, who in 2022 completed a comprehensive review for CUPGRA to help growers combat the problem of wireworms.
15 June 2024
Setting the scene for automation in mushroom harvesting
The Irish mushroom industry was invited to Teagasc Ashtown, where the Teagasc Mushroom Automation Seminar took place on Tuesday, 11 June. The event focused on mushroom harvesting automation technologies.
13 June 2024
Teagasc at Bloom
Horticulture, education, forestry, crops and countryside management are all featured on the Teagasc stand at Bloom. Teagasc have joined with Bord Bia and the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine at Bloom in the Phoenix Park, to create an informative and educational feature in the food village.
31 May 2024
Horticulture is Life - Teagasc at Bloom 2024
Bord Bia Bloom is one of Europe's premier horticulture events, drawing approximately 100,000 attendees over its five-day run. In 2024, Bloom will take place from May 30 to June 3, transforming the Phoenix Park in Dublin into a vibrant celebration of gardening, lifestyle, and sustainability.
30 May 2024
Teagasc students compete in HortiChallenge in Estonia
Aoife Hester and Chelirs Brecq, students in the Teagasc College of Amenity Horticulture, will fly the Teagasc flag at the ongoing HortiChallenge 2024 in Estonia.
24 May 2024
ISNA Plant Fair heading to Kildalton College
Garden enthusiasts and plant lovers are gearing up for an exciting event as the Irish Specialist Nursery Association (ISNA) announces a plant fair at Teagasc Kildalton College, Piltown, Co. Kilkenny, on Sunday, May 19 from 11am to 4pm.
11 May 2024
Pointing the way forward for increased Irish apple production
The first Apple Research Update at Teagasc Oak Park involving industry stakeholders marked a pivotal moment for Ireland's apple industry, offering a comprehensive overview of advancements and future directions in applied research since the programme's inception in August 2022.
19 April 2024
Seeking alternatives to peat for the mushroom sector
Mushrooms are Ireland’s most successfully-grown horticultural crop, producing 67,000t annually or the equivalent of 6 million mushrooms harvested each day.
19 April 2024
Inflation and weather double whammy for vegetable sector
Irish field vegetable growers were hit with a double whammy of rising price inflation and extreme weather events in 2023, which has posed profitability challenges for the sector, the recently published Horticulture Crop Input Prices 2024 report has revealed.
16 March 2024
Horticulture Crop Input Prices 2024
The Horticulture Crop Input Prices 2024 report from the Horticulture Development Department provides a comprehensive analysis of the state of input price inflation within the Irish horticulture sector for the year 2024, building on annual insights since 2021.
11 March 2024
Four years of significant input price inflation in the horticulture sector
Input price inflation in the horticulture sector in Ireland has been significant in recent years and 2024 is no exception, with average input prices rising across the horticultural sector.
21 February 2024
'Where are the women?'
During the opening and closing of her address to the recent conference on Irish Agriculture and the EU 50 years on, a journey through 50 years of Ireland’s EU membership, EU Commissioner Mairead McGuinness posed the question 'where are the women?'
12 November 2023
Teagasc welcomes horticulture apprentices with sportsturf and agriculture intake imminent
The Teagasc College of Amenity Horticulture at the National Botanic Gardens welcomed the first ever land-based apprenticeship class recently.
01 November 2023
How plants in your garden remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
Analysis: They're up there with forests, bogs and oceans as serious players in the business of taking and storing carbon from the atmosphere.
22 September 2023
New Horticultural Apprenticeship Programme available
Are you Interested in an Apprenticeship in Horticulture? The Launch of the new Horticulture apprenticeship programme may be for you! Covering a range of different streams such as Fruit, Garden and Parks, Garden Centres Landscaping, Nursery and Vegetables.
09 August 2023
Is an Apprenticeship in Sportsturf Management a career option for you?
The first apprenticeship in Sportsturf Management is due to commence in September 2023. It is a two year course leading to a Higher Certificate in Sportsturf Management QQI Level 6. Learners can apply via Teagasc and SOLAS.
31 July 2023
Innovation drivers in horticulture
Dermot Callaghan, Head of the Horticulture Department, examines some of the challenges and opportunities facing the horticulture sector.
09 July 2023
Beautiful plants which thrive in acid soils
One of the great beauties of the late-spring garden is the abundance of acid soil loving plants doing their thing. Chris Heavey, Lecturer at the Teagasc College in the National Botanic Gardens, has many favourites and first among them is Magnolia, which comes in evergreen and deciduous species.
25 June 2023
Beyond Peat, potential peat alternatives for Irish horticulture
To highlight the work being done to meet that challenge, we spoke to the core Beyond Peat Mushroom team: Senior Research Officer Helen Grogan, Technologist Brian McGuinness, Specialist Advisor Donal Gernon, and Research Officer Eoghan Corbett.
25 June 2023
Getting SMART with weed control in field-grown vegetables
The Crops and Cover Crop Cultivations event will play host to a mechanical weed control demonstration, that will be of interest to all vegetable growers – both conventional and organic.
20 June 2023
Ripe for the picking
Seeking to bolster the market for Irish apples, a new screening project will develop in-depth blueprints of customer preferences, allowing growers to focus on producing the most desirable varieties.
12 June 2023
Success for Teagasc students at Swiss landscaping competition
Two Teagasc students, Niall O’Brien, Kildalton Horticultural College, and Eoighan Mountaine-Barry, College of Amenity Horticulture, Botanic Gardens, won the People’s Choice award at a recent landscaping competition in Switzerland.
28 May 2023
International Day of Plant Health
To celebrate International Day of Plant Health 2023, the National Botanic Gardens hosted an event, in conjunction with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and Teagasc College of Amenity Horticulture to raise awareness on how each one of us can play our part to protect plant health.
12 May 2023
Flying the Teagasc flag at a landscaping competition in Switzerland
Two Teagasc students, Eoighan Mountaine-Barry from the College of Amenity Horticulture, Botanic Gardens, and Niall O’Brien, Kildalton Horticultural College, will represent Teagasc in a landscaping competition at the Valais College in Switzerland this weekend.
05 May 2023
Developing an Irish apple sector
A research orchard has been established in Teagasc Oak Park to support the development of an Irish apple sector.
30 April 2023
Gardening tools: Think before you buy
Chris Heavey, Lecturer at the Teagasc College at the National Botanic Gardens, explains why the secateurs and the spade are the two gardening tools he can’t do without in this article.
23 April 2023
Horticultural input price inflation continues in 2023
In recent years, input price inflation in the horticulture sector in Ireland has taken a firm hold. It has its roots in Brexit, the Covid pandemic, and more recently the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine.
21 March 2023
TAMS for Organic Farming
Joe Kelleher, Organic Specialist, tells us; the recent announcement that the opening of the TAMS 3 scheme is imminent has been greatly welcomed by organic farmers and it is great to see the list of eligible investment items that organic farmers can avail of has been greatly increased.
15 March 2023