In recent years, ARALUR has made a great effort to develop new products and to improve the formulas in order to provide a better service to its clients. As part of this effort we can identify three main areas of work:
- Improvement of vegetable substrates.
- Development of a topsoil for mushroom crops.
- Creation of a new ecological substrate for hydroponic crops.
Improvement of vegetable substrates.
The result of an R&D project developed with the Department of Vegetable Production of the Public University of Navarra which has been carried out for the last four years and is still being continued, has included dozens of tests on horticultural and ornamental nurseries, analysing the physical, chemical and biological characteristics and the formulas which best adapt to the behaviour of the different vegetable materials in the different sectors of production.
As a result of these tests, the ideal mixtures have been determined which have given excellent results, on a par with or exceeding those of the traditional mixtures used by the professional producer.
Development of a topsoil for mushroom crops.
ARALUR S.L., with its technical team with more than 20 years of experience in the field of mushroom production has developed, over the last four years, a topsoil with excellent properties, due to its high humidity retention capacity, its high stability, and its capacity to increase the performance of the mushroom harvest by facilitating its collection and not staining the product.
Creation of a new ecological substrate for hydroponic crops.
This point refers to one of the most ambitious products that has been developed under the I&R&D programme. Applying a new defibration technique, through a thermal-mechanical treatment, ARALUR has developed and patented a wood fibre-based substrate with excellent physiochemical properties for its use in "soilless" production. Within the wide I&R&D programme, this product has been tested in Almeria, Sartaguda (Navarra), Altza (Guipúzcoa) in collaboration with the departments of vegetable production of the Public University of Navarra, (UPNA) and the University of Almeria (UAL) and the ITGA (Technical Institute of Agricultural Management). These tests have proved that Fibralur® (commercial name of this material) is a productive, economic and ecological material with huge possibilities as an alternative to traditional substrates for hydroponic crops.
Tests are currently being carried out on a large scale in Navarra, Guipúzcoa, Vizcaya and Almeria on horticultural production and in Murcia and the Region of Valencia on the production or citric plants whereby private producers are experimenting "in situ" with sacks of Fibralur®, with excellent results in terms of health, precocity and production.
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