Forestry & Land Scotland – Newton Nursery

Testimonial

“Introducing large-scale container growing to Forestry and Land Scotland is a major milestone for us. Working with BCC has helped us define exactly what we needed to achieve optimum efficiency from seed sowing, through transplanting, to packing the trees and washing trays afterwards. Their insight and practical experience have been instrumental in shaping a system that works for our people, our processes and our production targets.”

/ Bryony Hewetson Ward, Head of Plant and Seed Supply

From Dual Production to Precision Growing — The Containerized Plant Transformation

In the rolling, dry-sunny lands near Elgin in north-east Scotland — a place where summer brings almost 18 hours of daylight — lies Newton Nursery. Once one of several small nurseries across Scotland, today it stands as a transformed, high-capacity center for tree production under the stewardship of Forestry and Land Scotland.

Newton Nursery, which today is Forestry and Land Scotland’s flagship site in Scotland, is a nursery built on two complementary production systems:

1. Plug+1 for high-volume bare-root production, and
2. Cell-grown/Containerized Plants produced under strict environmental control in a fully modernized glasshouse.

With the new 12,000 m² glasshouse as the nucleus and a complete container-based production line delivered by BCC in partnership with Flier Systems as sub-supplier, a fully integrated and scalable growing environment for robust forest plants was created — able to produce about 19 million trees per year in a controlled, mechanized process.

Turning Trays into Forests — The BCC Delivery

To realize the ambition, a full production concept was installed to support containerized nursery operations. The solution from BCC with Flier Systems as the provider of high-efficient versatile seeding solution and a vision transplanter includes the entire chain:

• Growing containers
  The BCC SideSlit 81, BCC SideSlit 64, and BCC 360T have been applied to give the plants the best possible start in life, supporting optimal root development.
• Substrate handling and automated tray filling
  Consistent and precise filling of growing substrate into each cell — providing uniform conditions for all plants.
• Precision seeding into cell trays
  Equipment for accurate seed placement per cell — critical for forest species where seed quality and germination consistency matter.
• Selection and transplanting to larger containers
  After germination, the strongest plants are carefully transplanted into larger growing containers, giving roots more space to develop. This is done by using AI-powered cameras that check each plant and the strongest plants then get transplanted into the container. This step ensures healthier, more robust plants capable of surviving field conditions.
• Automated watering and climate control
  Integrated watering tunnels, humidity regimes, light and temperature control optimize germination and early growth.
• Moving irrigation booms for holding areas
  To ensure uniform and efficient watering across all outdoor holding areas, BCC delivered moving irrigation booms designed to provide consistent coverage and reliable irrigation performance for all plants.
• Tray logistics: destacking, transport, stacking, washing and sterilization
  The system enables circulation and reuse of trays with high hygiene standards — reducing disease risk and avoiding production downtime.

The result is a closed, mechanized, and repeatable production line in which every seed receives the same optimized conditions to develop into a robust, viable tree. The production line has been shaped through close dialogue between engineers from BCC and Flier Systems. This highly versatile and multi-functional concept provides Newton Nursery with the flexibility, versatility, and efficiency needed for modern plant production. Pine seeds can be sown directly into 100 cc SideSlit cells (BCC SideSlit 81), spruce and other species can be seeded into the BCC 360-T micro tray, and finally the receiving 120 cc cells (BCC SideSlit 64) can be filled trough transplanting of the young plants into their final growing container.

Life Inside the Greenhouse — Controlled, Measured, Consistent

The containerized plants are rotated between the glasshouse and holding areas throughout their growth period, which ranges from 1 to 2 years depending on the species. During their initial stage of life, the plants are protected in the glasshouses from extreme weather, soil variability, weed competition, and browsing. Root development becomes more even and stronger, with clearly defined root systems in each cell.

This is no longer a traditional nursery producing plants — it is a biological factory, where environment, quality, and flow are process variables with measurable outcomes.

Why Containerization Became the Strategic Accelerator

The container-based method offers Newton Nursery:

• Quality assurance at both root and cell level
  Each plant develops in its own container — ensuring stronger establishment when outplanted.
• Production reliability and reduced dependency on weather
  Growth cycles decoupled from external climate variations.
• Scalability in volume — without compromising uniformity
  Millions of plants can be managed, tracked, and grown under identical conditions.
• Flexibility in species selection and delivery schedule
  Production can be adjusted based on demand rather than seasonality.

A Nursery Re-Defined

With two production methods under one roof, Newton Nursery has become a hybrid facility:

• Plug+1 for volume and rapid bare-root turnover, and
• Containerized plant propagation for quality, root strength, and climate resilience.

It’s this combination that gives the modern nursery its strength — but it is the containerized part, delivered as a turnkey concept by BCC with Flier Systems, that has enabled Newton Nursery to evolve from a traditional nursery into a large-scale, optimized and future-proof plant production hub.

We at BCC are proud suppliers and grateful for the trust placed in us to be involved as a provider of our comprehensive technical solutions for Newton Nursery. We look forward to seeing the outstanding results of this project.