A Kent Science Park company is the first in the country to receive the endorsement for a plant or soil treatment from the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), the UK’s leading gardening organisation.

PlantWorks, a science-based business, has developed Rootgrow and become the first plant or soil treatment to be licensed by the RHS after working with the gardeners for the past eight years.

The portfolio of Plantworks’ Rootgrow products harnesses the power of mycorrhizal fungi to enable plants to establish a healthy root network and become a secondary living root system so plants can extract nutrients and hold onto water in difficult soil conditions.

The company, which developed its Rootgrow product at Kent Science Park, is now well established at the forefront of research and development in the growth, production, application and marketing of mycorrhizal fungi-based products worldwide.

The RHS gardeners endorsed the Rootgrow product after they found that plants treated with it have better developed root systems, more natural vigour and are more able to cope with drought conditions.

Robert Patten, Managing Director of Plantworks, said: “The endorsement of Rootgrow is testament not only to the extremely high quality of our product, but also to the hard work of our scientists based here in Kent and their collaboration with the RHS.

“Since we arrived at Kent Science Park in 2000 we have become a world leader in our industry which has an unparalleled library of mycorrhizal fungi which can be tailored to improving the growing conditions on any continent.”

James Speck, Site Director at Kent Science Park, said: “Plantworks’ expertise is in developing mycorrhizal fungi products that can be applied to a single garden or to the landscaping of massive infrastructure projects, such as the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. As a result Plantworks itself as a company has huge potential to grow and we are delighted they are based at the Park.”

The RHS branded Rootgrow products are now available in 150gm pouches from nearly 700 garden centres across the country.