Beyond plant pests & diseases? Richard Higgins on how going 'beyond organic' could revolutionise horticulture

HortWeek Podcast

Good Gardeners International is a charity that since 1962 pioneered the no dig system in the UK, based on Sir Albert Howard's research on organic farming.

Richard Higgins became involved in 1995 after a formative trip to India and inspired by Howard, developed the HH-2 (Howard-Higgins Agricultural and Horticultural System) Waste Management and Horticultural System.

The HH-2 equipment reproduces specific fungi and bacteria that creates a sustainable habitat to enable the colonisation of the root hairs of plants giving them huge boots of previously unattainable nutrients. It claims, along with a unique, manure-based feedstock, to be able to renew degraded soils in one season.

Adoping a no-dig appoach complements this as keeping the soil intact protects the "mycorrhizae, and that is the network that feeds the nutrients from soil into the root hairs of plants. So if you don't dig, that's preserved."

Higgins explains: "[HH-2 is] a composting system that breeds fungi, specific fungi and bacteria. Now, ordinary compost doesn't do that; this system does, and it's this fungi and bacteria that makes plants so resistant to disease. I mean, we already cured slug snails and caterpillars 30 years ago!"

Initially marketed and sold to amateur gardeners, "it's so popular and farming today is in such a problem with soil depletion and pollution in rivers, etc., that we've blast into farming. It applies to farmers as well as gardeners".

He says a focus on 'new varieties' has stymied research into how soil conditions can impact plant health. GGI has a demonstration farm where, he says, "we've got universities, colleges, agricultural colleges queuing up to come and see it, because people don't seem to know how to stop these common agricultural pests. We don't use any supplementary feeds like comfrey or rhubarb leaves in... no nets for the black fly, white fly, carrot fly, you know. We don't use any nets at all and we have none of these problems."

Higgins discusses startling claims for treatments that could reverse the effects of ash dieback and says he is in the process of liaising with scientific institutions, agricultural research stations and soil scientists with a view to carrying out trials and scaling up production for wider distribution to amateur, and professional growers.

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