Thursday, 19th February, 2026

The Day’s hand-picked ideas, tips to better grow Vegs, and meet people you should know.

1

Wax On, Pests Off

“This is an ecological, efficient, and multifunctional alternative for crop protection, especially in view of challenges that climate change poses to modern agriculture. Beyond providing passive defense against diseases, it enhances the environmental resilience of plants and reduces the ecological footprint of crop cultivation.” Meet SafeWax: a beautifully simple idea from Israel’s Technion that could slash chemical pesticide use by more than half. Instead of inventing yet another poison, researchers led by Prof. Boaz Pokroy studied the plants themselves specifically how lotus leaves and broccoli use a natural waxy cuticle to self-clean and repel pathogens. They created a biodegradable spray-on coating made from fatty acids (which can even be sourced from food waste!) that forms a thin, superhydrophobic layer on plants. It blocks fungal spores from germinating, filters UV damage, slows dehydration and crucially doesn’t mess with photosynthesis. Tested successfully on tomatoes, peppers, grapevines, and bamboo. EU-funded and backed by BASF and the University of Bologna, this is biomimicry at its finest: stop fighting Nature, start copying her homework.

2

Grinding to a Halt

“Nature functions like a self-repairing engine, constantly swapping out old parts for new ones. But we found this engine is now grinding to a halt.” Here’s a finding that should worry every gardener and grower who depends on healthy, resilient ecosystems. A major new study from Queen Mary University of London, published in Nature Communications, analysed a vast global database of biodiversity surveys covering land, freshwater, and marine habitats over the past century. The expected result? That accelerating climate change would speed up how quickly species replace one another locally. The actual result? The opposite. Species turnover has slowed by a full third since the 1970s. “We were surprised how strong the effect is,” said co-author Axel Rossberg. The culprit isn’t climate itself, it’s the degradation we’ve caused through habitat destruction, pollution, and fragmentation, which has shrunk the pool of species available to colonise and keep ecosystems dynamic. A stable-looking ecosystem isn’t necessarily a healthy one; it might just be running out of parts. For those of us who grow food, this is a stark reminder: biodiversity isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s the engine room.

3

A Tough Cell

“Imagine, you are planting crops that stimulate bacteria in the soil to create the fertilizer that the crops need, naturally. Wow! That’s a big difference!” UC Davis Professor Eduardo Blumwald and his team have used CRISPR gene editing to create wheat that makes its own fertilizer. Yes, really. They boosted the plant’s production of a natural compound called apigenin, a flavone that wheat already produces but not in surplus. The excess apigenin seeps out through the roots and convinces soil bacteria to wrap themselves in sticky biofilms creating a low-oxygen cocoon that enables nitrogen fixation. That’s the holy grail: atmospheric nitrogen turned into plant food, no factory required. In the developing world, where smallholder farmers can’t afford synthetic fertiliser, this is potentially transformative. In the US, where farmers spent $36 billion on fertiliser in 2023, even a 10% reduction translates to over $1 billion saved annually. The technology has already been licensed by Bayer and extended to rice, with more cereals to follow. The synthetic fertiliser industry should be watching its back and we should be watching the soil.

4

People you should know

“Nature is in crisis but we know people, especially younger people, want to grow. The problem is that the seed industry is still stuck in the 1950s, a vast yet stagnant multi-billion-pound industry dominated by legacy brands, with almost no consumer-facing innovation.” Meet Max Mancroft, a 27-year-old from Wotton-under-Edge in Gloucestershire who ditched a career in corporate finance in London to start Seed Revolution, a company on a mission to make growing wildflowers and organic vegetables exciting, accessible, and unapologetically cool. With bold, Instagram-friendly packaging designed for the shelf rather than the back of the shed, Max is tapping into a generation that discovered gardening during lockdown (83% of young people now describe it as ‘cool’). At the brand’s heart is a love for native British wildflowers: with a devastating 97% of UK wildflower meadows lost since the 1930s, every packet scattered on a garden corner, balcony, or neglected patch helps nature bounce back. Seed Revolution also partners with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage on 19 organic vegetable seed varieties. One seed packet at a time, this is a revolution worth joining.

5

Never a dill moment

“Soil carbon sequestration is a long-time storage of carbon in soil which represents 70% of the carbon in land. The results indicate that the agricultural practices for different farming systems enhanced the soil properties.” A fresh five-year study just published in Scientific Reports compared conventional, organic, and biodynamic farming across four crops maize, tomato, faba bean, and potato. The results are emphatic: organic and biodynamic methods delivered higher yields, better soil carbon sequestration, reduced water consumption, lower CO2 emissions, *and* the highest total net profit. For those keeping score at home: biodynamic soil carbon sequestration reached up to 5,986 kg per hectare versus 4,783 for conventional. This is yet more ammunition for anyone arguing that organic isn’t just idealism, it’s increasingly the smarter economic bet.

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+ Biochar: The Carbon Sponge Getting Serious: “Biochar can simultaneously lock carbon into soils and regulate microbial processes that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A comprehensive new review published in Biochar X this month synthesises the science on how this charcoal-like material produced from organic waste doesn’t just store carbon for hundreds to thousands of years, its porous structure physically shields existing soil organic carbon from microbial breakdown while stimulating what scientists call a “negative priming effect,” slowing decomposition of native soil carbon. Dual action carbon capture. Biochar trials in Spain have shown it provides over 50% plant available water compared to just 7% from conventional compost, a game-changer for water-stressed Mediterranean (and increasingly British) gardens.

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+ Morrisons Backs British Farming with £1.6 Billion: “Now, more than ever, at a time when farming is under pressure, we stand shoulder to shoulder with British farmers, providing them with long term financial stability and practical support.” Morrisons has pledged over £1.6 billion to British agriculture in 2026, supporting 2,500+ UK farmers. They’ve also introduced a shared farming agreement for potato growers that underwrites 100% of growing costs. In partnership with McDonald’s and the NFU, they’ve launched the UK’s first School of Sustainable Food & Farming at Harper Adams University.

6

Bottom of the compost pile

+ The 200-Year Hide and Seek Champion: “For years, the plant was believed to have originated in the Caledon Bredasdorp area of the Western Cape, around 300km away, meaning researchers had likely been searching in the wrong place.A plant species called Prismatocarpus fastigiatus, last collected in 1830 by German horticulturist Johann Franz Drage, has been rediscovered in South Africa’s Northern Cape after nearly 200 years of being considered lost. Biodiversity officer JP le Roux spotted it during post-fire fieldwork and uploaded photos to iNaturalist, sparking excitement among botanists worldwide. Why was it hidden for so long? A misrecorded location (researchers were looking 300km away) and the fact it flowers in mid-summer when few botanists venture out. A glorious reminder that Nature still has plenty of surprises hiding in plain sight.

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+ Zombie Fungi and Bloodstained Orchids: Kew’s Greatest Hits of 2025: “As many as 3 in 4 undescribed plants are already threatened with extinction.” Kew’s scientists and partners named a staggering 125 plants and 65 fungi new to science in 2025. The top 10 list reads like a botanical thriller: a ‘zombie’ fungus (Purpureocillium atlanticum) that parasitises trapdoor spiders in Brazil, a critically endangered ‘bloodstained’ orchid from Ecuador, and a fiery red shrub (Aphelandra calciferi) named after Calcifer from Studio Ghibli’s Howl’s Moving Castle. The sobering context? Many arrive already threatened with extinction, and at least one Cryptacanthus ebo from Cameroon may already be gone in the wild.

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+ McCain’s Farm of the Future Lands in Yorkshire: “Farm of the Future UK will show that regenerative farming works in practice and aims to provide a blueprint for others, helping secure the future of farming for generations to come.” McCain has launched its most advanced Farm of the Future yet: a 202-hectare working site in North Yorkshire trialling controlled traffic farming, year-round soil cover, and the UK’s first circular nutrient system using pig manure to enrich soils. In partnership with the University of Leeds on a 20-year research agreement, the site will independently validate outcomes in soil health, biodiversity, water efficiency, and greenhouse gas reductions. Potato production starts this year.

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Keep Growing-

Anthony - Veg Geek