Waimea Plant Laboratories

Waimea Plant Laboratories is a tissue culture lab based in Hastings, supplying domestic and export customers with a range of tissue culture plants.    Part of Waimea Group, which also includes Nelson-based fruit tree nursery Waimea Nurseries, the lab was purchased in September 2020 from Peter Bennet who operated the business as Plant Propagation Laboratories.

Waimea Group director Bruno Simpson said the opportunity to purchase PPL came at a time when Waimea Nurseries was requiring an increased quantity of tissue culture propagated apple rootstocks and other plants.  

“This is to meet the demands generated by the growth in horticulture and the garden industry,” he said.

During the last 18 months of ownership, the lab has continued to supply it’s range of house plants and garden plants to wholesale nurseries in New Zealand and overseas, as well as adding apple rootstocks, blueberries and hops to the production range.  It’s likely that strawberries will be added to the range soon, as well as other berries.

Waimea Group Commercial Account Manager Kate Marshall said that “growers are looking at tissue culture as a way to rapidly increase plant material volumes, compared to traditional propagation methods like cuttings, as well as providing virus-free and pathogen-free plants”.

For all Commercial tissue culture and plant enquiries please contact:

Kate Marshall kate.m@waimea.group    Mob: 0274 201 033