Vigilis-Bio Reaches 5-Year Research Milestone

April 2023 will mark 5 years of research, development and infield testing of the Vigilis-Bio Tree Shelter and mark over 2 years of Vigilis-Bio shelters being planted in situ across the UK and US.

A truly innovative tree shelter, the Vigilis-Bio retains the performance and productivity benefits of a traditional (plastic) tree shelter, but without the environmental burden at the end-of-life.

5 years of growing protection

2 years of soil biodegradation

Made from potatoes, wood, corn and a custom biodegradable polymer.

So, what have we learnt from these 2 years?

Great news! The shelters are performing in line with our R&D laboratory-based, accelerated weather-tested samples.

As we set out on our journey to develop a soil-biodegradable tree shelter, it was always our ambition to let the results do the talking from the largest UK biodegradable trial of plastic-free tree shelters. Upon visiting a number of our UK test sites, various tests and measurements are taken in observation of our planted shelters.

The graph compares the structural properties of our in situ shelters vs the accelerated weather-tested samples.

One big question we face is “will the shelters last?”

Our shelters are designed to gradually weaken over a minimum of 5 years, to enable soil biodegradation to take place. They sadly won’t degrade with a click of your fingers. Our results concur that the structural properties of our in situ shelters are weakening at the predicted rates as per our laboratory tests. This is amazing news for the removal of plastic from our forests and the protection of those young trees that need it.

We have also lightened the colouring of the Vigilis-Bio shelters. This is to improve how the shelters blend into the forestry setting as well as increase light transition through the shelter.

The browsing animals have not been found to nibble the Vigilis-Bio shelter.

We are still utilising standard, plastic cable ties. Once the functionality of our bio-degradable ties is perfected, we will be swapping these straight out. We aim for this to be in place by the UK 23-24 planting season.

We will continue to monitor Vigilis-Bio tree shelters and provide further updates throughout the journey.