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New AeroMax Growing Media From OASIS Grower Solutions Increases Hydroponic Crop Growth by Up to 30%
Engineered with a unique open matrix, the increased porosity of the new Horticubes® AeroMax growing media leads to greater airflow and maximizes the opportunity for oxygen to get to a plant’s root zone
(Kent, OH) – OASIS Grower Solutions, a worldwide leader in propagation and division of Smithers-Oasis Company, understands the importance of propagation. Not only helping plants grow but generating big ideas as well. The most recent of which is the revolutionary new substrate engineered for precision hydroponic farming called Horticubes® AeroMax.
New Horticubes® AeroMax growing media introduces a higher level of porosity for faster, healthier hydroponic crop root growth.
Before creating a new media to support the production of leafy greens, herbs, and other crops for hydroponic farming, Vijay Rapaka Ph.D., Global Research Manager set a rather lofty goal: “To create a smart substrate designed for today’s precision growing systems. Through extensive research over the last 24 months, we’ve achieved an ultra-low density that allows unrestricted root growth of young plants, so they can express their full growth potential of up to 30%. This innovative purpose is precisely why we named it AeroMax.”
Engineered with a unique open matrix, the increased porosity of the new Horticubes® AeroMax growing media leads to greater airflow and maximizes the opportunity for oxygen to get to a plant’s root zone. This helps crops grow faster and stronger, allowing young plants to prosper in the maximum air-filled substrate. Due to its enhanced porosity, air and nutrients constantly replenish a plant’s root zone, promoting stronger and healthier roots through each watering cycle.
The maximum airflow created with new Horticubes® AeroMax substrate helps get this young lettuce off to a great start.
Created with support from John Bonner of Great Lakes Growers, AeroMax has already delivered some impressive results. “The more porosity, the greater opportunity for air to contact the root zone,” begins Bonner. “And that happens more often with AeroMax, so we get fuzzy, almost hairy-looking roots. And when you get that type of growth, the plants simply grow faster. Since we started using AeroMax, we’ve seen faster crop growth upwards of 15%,” grins Bonner.
In addition to delivering greater oxygen to the crop’s root zone, AeroMax’s increased porosity and airflow enables it to drain more easily. This improved drainage keeps the top of the AeroMax growing media drier, dramatically reducing algae blooms and subsequent disease – creating a wonderfully clean and pathogen-free environment for young plants to grow.
Dr. Vijay Rapaka of OASIS® Grower Solutions and John Bonner of Great Lakes Growers review the incredible success of the new Horticubes® AeroMax.
AeroMax has a multitude of other functional benefits that support improved propagation. Its rich black color was strategically selected to increase the surface temperature and synergize well with photosynthetic light spectrum to produce more well-toned young plants. Plus, the less dense, almost spongy nature of AeroMax minimizes dust generation throughout the production process, making it easy to work with.
AeroMax has also been designed to separate easily at transplant through a unique etching around each cube, which also supports uniformity and precision growing. AeroMax growing media works well in NFT, Deepwater, and Vertical hydroponic systems, and is available in single-seed and multi-seed dibbled sheets of 50ct, 104ct, 162ct, and 276ct. The 50ct, 104ct, and 162ct sheets are top-grooved for easier separation.
For more information on Horticubes® AeroMax, contact Shannon Enoch, at Senoch@smithersoasis.com, customer service at 855.585.4769, or visit us online at www.oasisgrowersolutions.com/aeromax.
Growfoam Is Gearing Up For The Next Revolution In Controlled Environment Agriculture
The agricultural market stands on the verge of a true revolution and Growfoam is destined to pave the way for growers around the globe. Their mission? Enable growers to grow Greener, Safer and Faster
The agricultural market stands on the verge of a true revolution and Growfoam is destined to pave the way for growers around the globe. Their mission? Enable growers to grow Greener, Safer and Faster.
Rising demand for fresh & healthy vegetable crops.
With an increasing global population and rising global welfare, the fruit & vegetable market is expected to increase towards 260% in 2050, compared to current levels.
This rise in demand for fresh & healthy crops has resulted in a boom of investments towards greenhouse projects (e.g. in China and the US) and a steep rise in VC investments in AgTech Scale-ups. Such a swift market development offers the AgTech industry both a challenge, as well as an opportunity: we need to push ourselves in growing Greener, Safer and Faster.
Growfoam knows it is possible to sustainably feed a growing population. They contribute to this goal by continuously innovating their growing media and collaborate with growers around the world. This way Growfoam enables growers in cultivating their crops Greener, Safer and Faster.
Future-proof farms aim for de-risking the value chain
The horticultural industry continues to offer consumers fresh produce at increasing quality standards while maintaining efficient pricing. This trend will be further enabled by emerging technologies such as vertical farming, hydroponic cultivation, big data, and autonomous greenhouse cultivation. The next big leap for farms across the globe will be to de-risk the entire fruit & vegetable value chain.
Vertical Farms and other Controlled Environment Agriculture technologies are already enabling this by growing their produce locally near end-consumers while utilizing stable and predictable year-round cultivation methods. And it doesn’t stop at just predictable year-round cultivation, improved technologies such as automation and completely clean starting materials (e.g. clean Growfoam growing media) enable growers to further de-risk the value chain by offering traceable, pathogen-free and thus fully safe healthy greens.
These de-risked and highly efficient future-proof farms offer added value for the entire value chain by producing safer produce.
Reducing operational costs (OPEX) is key to farm success
The last major hurdle for vertical farms and hydroponic cultivation techniques is to increase production efficiency and reduce OPEX.
Although many important breakthroughs (e.g. lowered CAPEX/m2 farm, optimized growing methods, increased automation) have been realized in overcoming this hurdle, there is still much to win. One major enabler in reducing OPEX is the correct choice in growing media: most of the growing media available on the market today are less suited for vertical farms and hydroponic cultivation techniques.
Loose-fill growing media offer significant challenges in automation, increasing labor costs as well as maintenance costs. Growing media consisting of organic components such as peat and coir offer significant safety challenges by introducing potential pathogens into the farm and are destined to be banned completely over time. They increase risks of crop failure due to high variation in batch-to-batch consistency and increase logistical risk due to limited resource availability due to swift expansion of the horticulture industry.
Non-degradable growing media increase waste disposal costs when disposing of the growing media after crop cultivation. These waste disposal costs can be easily reduced and sometimes even be avoided by utilizing biodegradable alternatives such as Growfoam..
New website and brand identity
Today Growfoam unveiled its new brand identity. This premiere marks the start of a new era for Growfoam, to match the ambitious and innovative nature of the Growfoam products and signifying the evolution of the company from an innovative startup to an exponentially growing scale-up. Growfoam has created a cross-platform brand experience that is future-proof and authentic, focusing on their main client groups; vertical- and hydroponic farmers.
‘The new Growfoam brand design marks the start of great things to come,’ says Martin Tietema, CEO and one of the founding partners of Growfoam. ‘By formulating new content, sharing knowledge and with out-of-the-box solutions for growers all over the world, Growfoam is enabling a fast transformation towards a future with full circular possibilities for every vertical- or hydroponic farm. Now is the right time to make the new attitude of our brand visible to the outside world.’
The brand promise ‘grow greener, grow safer, grow faster’ can be seen and experienced in the design and production of the Growfoam products, in customer contacts, and the brand presentation as a whole.
Growfoams Chief Commercial Officer, Niels Steenvoorden, explains: ‘We have created a new global brand experience on all channels and across all touchpoints.. Our aim is to truly connect with our clients, grow with them, share knowledge and enable them to do what they do best; grow great crops.’ ‘We invite growers to contact us and join us on our journey to establishing the perfect grow zone for their crops. Enabling them in growing Greener, Safer and Faster.’
The new visual brand language will be very different from that presented by Growfoam to date. It will be bolder, more colorful and the focus will be on real-life situations and actual challenges of the controlled environment farmers.
An abstract representation of the foam bubbles they produce is incorporated in their new logo. The bold and bright colors they use are a direct link to both the RGB lights in vertical farms as well as the water used in hydroponic farms.
The strategic foundations for the new brand identity were laid by a joint team of Foamplant and JEEN, a marketing agency in Agri and food, over the last few months.
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While Everything Is Falling Apart, It Could Be Easy To Miss The Incredible Opportunities That Are Coming Together Right Now
Check out the awesome opportunities growing on with access to the CEA census provided by Agritecture Autogrow and global market reports by Forward Fooding and United Nations
Take a look at the state of agriculture renaissance, with thousands of companies, and millions of people working toward food system transformation designed to sustainably feed 10B people, with 70% living in cities, using less energy, water, and waste, and reversing climate change.
Check out the awesome opportunities growing on with access to the CEA census provided by Agritecture Autogrow and global market reports by Forward Fooding and the United Nations
Some of the Numbers:
5.3k+ companies
$65B invested since 2010
$17B 2020 (up from $15B 2019) 42% CAGR
21% of funding went into AgTech and CEAs
5% went to digital services
48% to food delivery
Impact is being divided into five sustainable food action tracks - 10% Access, 35% Consumption, 40% Production, 5% Equity, and 15% Resilience aimed at innovative disruption.
Out of 300+ CEAs
40% were founded in the last two years
36% got funding from family and friends
35% from angel investors
80% were operating in indoor vertical farming
49% had no agriculture experience
46% were between ages 21-30
28% prefer using Coco Coir as a soilless growing medium
Largest crops microgreens, salad greens, leafy greens and herbs.
The Top 5 Hydroponic Growing Mediums You Should Use
Hydroponics is a farming method that doesn’t require soil to grow plants or foods. Soil is not used in this form of farming. Other hydroponic growing mediums are used instead
Hydroponics is a farming method that doesn’t require soil to grow plants or foods. Soil is not used in this form of farming. Other hydroponic growing mediums are used instead. This article is going to cover the five best hydroponic growing mediums to use for your garden.
Perlite
Perlite is a volcanic rock that is exposed to high heat to turn it into a lightweight, porous medium. You can mix perlite in with other mediums or use it on its own. This porous medium is well known for its high water retention ability, and it is effective at retaining oxygen due to its porousness. The downside to perlite is that it is lightweight, which can cause it to float in high water settings like with ebb-and-flow systems. It’s better to use perlite in hydroponic systems with draining systems.
Coco Coir
Coco coir is one of the hydroponic growing mediums that has become more popular to use. Coco coir is grounded coconut husks and is a reusable medium, which helps create less waste. This medium effectively retains water to help hydrate your plants and is a great medium for beginners since it looks like soil. However, it isn’t soil and still requires nutrients and a controlled pH level.
Clay Pellets
Clay pellets are another popular hydroponic growing medium because of its porous material. A benefit of using clay pellets is that they are pH neutral, and they quickly soak up excess moisture. Clay pellets are reusable as long as you clean them between every growth cycle. It’s best to use clay pellets when you’re having issues with draining, but be careful clay pellets can drain and dry very quickly, which may dry out your roots.
Starter Plugs
Starter plugs are a newer hydroponic growing medium that is made from organic compost. This sponge medium is useful when you are growing seedlings or cloning, so you can later incorporate them into your hydroponic systems.
Rockwool
Many hydroponic growers use rockwool as their go-to medium. Rockwool is a melted rock that’s spun to create thin, long fibers, which are pressed into a cube shape. You will have to balance its pH before using it by soaking it in pH balanced water. Since it retains water so effectively, you will have to make sure it doesn’t oversaturate your plants. It’s an effective medium to use to ensure your plants get a majority of the necessary nutrients. However, it isn’t a biodegradable medium, and you do have to balance the pH before each use.
Knowing which hydroponic growing mediums to use can be a tough choice since there are so many options available. If you want to learn more about innovative farming methods, sign up for our microgreens class to learn more! Or, you can become a patron member to See Behind the Greens, where you’ll witness how food can be grown in closets, kitchen counters, living rooms, and more so you can learn how to do it too!
#hydroponicgrowingmedium #hydroponicgrowingsubstrate #bestmediatogrow #growmedia #rockwool #starterplugs #cococoir #perlite #claypellets #growingmedium #growmedium #growsubstrate
Best Media For Your Hydroponics Setup?
Does it puzzle you to select the right media for hydroponics setup growing vegetables using the hydroponic method? different Hydroponic formats and hence require different kinds of media
Does it puzzle you to select the right media for hydroponics setup growing vegetables using the hydroponic method? different Hydroponic formats and hence require different kinds of media.
Hydroton
Hydroton or clay balls is expanded round clay pellets and is one of the more widely used media in India. It can be used on its own in hydroponics, aeroponics or deep water culture (DWC) or combined with other media esp. in drip systems (Grow bags, Trough system or Dutch Buckets). It allows maximum drainage and aeration. Hydroton can also be re-used if cleaned and sanitized properly with hydrogen peroxide.
Perlite
Perlite is a medium that is commonly found in soilless mixes. It is made from amorphous volcanic glass that has relatively high water content, typically formed by the hydration of obsidian. Be careful using this media by itself, as it will float.
Cocopeat
Coconut Coir is the most popular medium in India. It is Ph neutral and can be used for multiple months without sterilizing again. It works best when combined with another medium such as hydroton. Coir has excellent nutrient and water holding capacity. It should be cleaned and sterilized after around 6-8 months.
Oasis Cube
Oasis Cubes are manufactured from water-absorbent foam, Phenolic foam, also known as Floral Foam. They act as good starting plug for seedlings and plant cuttings, and not so much as a full growing medium. They are very cheap but have to be changed after every crop.
Jiffy Bags
fine cloth netting is filled with high-quality cocopeat and then compressed to form a “tikky” like coin pellet. It grows to approximately 7 times in height as soon the water is added. Cocopeat is held together by cloth netting and ensures optimum air/water exchange. Available in 1.25 Inch size. It is slightly costlier than the oasis cube but offers better seedling. Like oasis cube, it should also be changed after every crop
Conclusion:
Media plays a very important role in Hydroponic, hence selecting the right and Best Media for your Hydroponics setup is very critical for the optimum growth of vegetables.
OASIS®Grower Solutions Horticubes® Retail Pack Offers Growers Foam Media for Fast, Clean and Consistent Growing for Hydroponics
Smithers-Oasis Company offers a new retail pack of its Oasis® Grower Solutions Horticubes® growing media, a lower density and higher drainage foam that is specially engineered for hydroponic seed germination of vegetables and herbs.
Oasis® Horticubes retail packs ideal for smaller and hobby growers, as well as larger growers to use for trials..
KENT, Ohio – August 2018 – Smithers-Oasis Company offers a new retail pack of its Oasis® Grower Solutions Horticubes® growing media, a lower density and higher drainage foam that is specially engineered for hydroponic seed germination of vegetables and herbs.
Horticubes higher drainage design helps to maintain an ideal air-to-water balance, even under heavy watering conditions. The enhanced drainage keeps the top of the media drier, helping to minimize algae growth and the lower density of the foam media enables superior root growth.
Manufactured in sheet style, Oasis Horticubes fit easily into the industry’s standard 1020 trays. Each Horticubes sheet is pre-scored for easy separation of single cubes, blocks of cubes or strips of cubes. Pre-dibbled seed holes, available in single-seed dibbles or multi-seed dibbles, are uniform in depth and spacing, making it ideal for automated seeding processes.
The new retail pack is available in three sizes, 276-, 104- and 50-count sheets, containing two sheets of the foam media per box. Designed with smaller or hobby growers in mind, the Horticubes retail packs are also ideal for larger growers to use for trials before purchasing in bulk quantities, which are also available.
“The success of our Rootcubes® retail packs inspired us to offer our Horticubes in packs perfectly sized for smaller or hobby growers and ideal for larger growers to use for trials prior to purchasing in bulk,” said Jeff Naymik, global marketing manager, Oasis Grower Solutions. “This initiative reflects the Smithers-Oasis continued commitment to a scientific approach to providing solutions for optimal growing and solving growers’ needs.”
The foam media is sterile and pathogen-free to help reduce disease and insect issues. Horticubes are ideal for lettuce, herbs and other vegetable crops.
With a solution for the entire plant journey, Oasis® Grower Solutions products include foam medium for tissue culture, plant propagation Rootcubes®, Terra Plug, Fertiss®, PlantPaper, Horticubes®, Oasis® Easy System, hydroponic fertilizer, Soax® wetting agent, disease control, and greenhouse cleaners. It also offers an ecologically sustainable (eS) line of products.
Oasis Grower Solutions provides for the strong, healthy, clean start and post-harvest care and handling of plants and flowers throughout their lifecycle to ensure the best consumer experience. The entire plant journey includes the breeder, propagator, growers, retailers, distributors and finally, the end consumer.
About Smithers-Oasis
Smithers-Oasis’ global expertise of the plant and flower business stretches from propagation to presentation. With locations in 20 countries and resources around the world, Smithers-Oasis manufactures floral foam products, postharvest products, growing media and flower arranging supplies for the floriculture industry. OASIS® and Floralife® are two of the company’s most recognized brands founded in 1954 and 1938, respectively. With more than 60 years of experience with foaming technology, Smithers-Oasis also develops specialty foams for a wide variety of applications including packaging, impression, absorption and molding. The company’s driving purpose is “to help people express and experience emotion by adding value to flowers and plants.” Smithers-Oasis, a privately owned company, is headquartered in Kent, Ohio, USA.
For more information on Oasis Grower Solutions Horticubes retail packs, contact Global Marketing Manager, Jeffrey Naymik at jnaymik@smithersoasis.com or visit www.oasisgrowersolutions.com.
Media Contact:
Rosemarie Ascherl Rosemarie@NMVStrategies.com 216.970.4329
Photo caption: Oasis® Grower Solutions Horticubes® retail packs are ideal for smaller, hobby growers or for trial runs with larger growers.