Growing media suppliers offering both products and resources

We reached out to several of these companies to learn more. Here's what they had to say.

What's the latest innovation your company is working on or has recently introduced?

ASB Greenworld: Some the latest innovations that our company has introduced in our media is the availability of wood fiber as an ingredient in media. Wood fiber mixes can have better physical properties and create better assurance of supply being available.

Berger: Innovation is a priority at Berger. With our new, state-of-the-art research greenhouse, we have a lot in the pipeline right now. We are currently developing and fine-tuning many products for well-established markets such as floriculture, but also for emerging markets such as leafy greens. We are very excited with all the data we are collecting from these ground-breaking studies. Innovation in not limited to our R&D department, though. We have also recently opened a brand new, high-tech growing media factory in Oakbank, Manitoba. The meticulous design was years in the making and flawlessly executed by our dedicated engineering team, during a pandemic nonetheless. We are extremely happy to have this additional manufacturing site to help us answer the ever-growing demand for our high-quality growing media.

Kekkila-BVB: Our BVB Grow Squares and Strawberry Boards are dry compressed growing media slabs that can perfectly fit square pots that are commonly used for example for growing medicinal cannabis or long containers used in strawberry cultivation. The dry compressed boards are handy because they are light and small, so they are easy to store and logistically smart. With these types of boards, it is easy to estimate the amount of growing media needed because one square or board is needed per container. Filling the pots and expanding the product is also quick, clean, and simple. What makes them unique is that as they are peat-based which means that they have a high water-holding capacity, good water distribution, and an excellent nutrient and pH buffer when compared to similar products made out of coconut coir.

Grodan: Our most recent innovation is binding technologies that distribute water within the plant. These improvements allow for better water holding and the ability to refresh the nutrient solution and manage water content, so the grower can be more confident in uniformity and crop steering.

Harvest Hero, a division of Dicalite Management Group: While horticultural soil media has been around for decades, Harvest Hero's teams of agronomists, engineers, and operations personnel put their industry experience and expertise to the test to challenge the status quo in soil media. We've partnered with leading horticultural institutions like North Carolina State University to test the efficacy of a nutrient-coated horticultural perlite particle. Positive results from internal and external testing led our team to develop the first fertilizer coated horticultural perlite product on the market today. In fact, our patent-pending Enhanced Perlite Mix is recognized by states' departments of Food and Agriculture as both a fertilizer and a soil amendment/growing medium. We've added one more component to our flagship product: Natural Diatomaceous Earth (DE). DE, now recognized by the American Association of Plant Food Control Officials (AAPFCO) as a beneficial plant substance, rounds the 3-in-1 formula with the addition of soluble silicon. The inclusion of Diatomaceous Earth fortifies plants cell walls, adding greater resilience to stress conditions such as drought or water logging.

Jiffy Group: Jiffy's introduction of Flexistart, a stabilized media, will help change the way growers look at automation. This innovative media produced in the Netherlands allows growers to improve efficiencies with the newest generation of automated equipment available for today's growers. The select line of mixes is available in several pH ranges and starter charges to help growers reduce labor costs, and improve the general quality of their plants.

Klasmann-Deilmann Americas: TerraAktiv Plus is a substrate component based on GWC (green waste compost), GreenFibre (wood fiber), and microorganism inoculants to improve plant health and reduce the use of pesticides. Log & Solve is a digital platform to organize the records of crop data, like analysis, fertilization, irrigation, sensors, etc. This data can then be shared among growers within the same organization and provides the data base for future production planning.

Profile Products: As the parent company of HydraFiber, we continue to provide new solutions to growers to help them integrate HydraFiber into their growing media program. Our new HydraFiber Coir blocks provide an OMRI Listed solution that combines coir pith with HydraFiber. It opens through most existing coir equipment; it can be used as a stand-alone mix or can be further blended with other growing media components and additives. With the difficulties of finding freight, this product is gaining traction quickly as you can get roughly 40% more yield out of a container compared to your standard straight coir container.

Sakata Solutions: We offer a perlite-free option for our most popular mixes. Some end users prefer to have a mix that is completely biodegradable and do not want the perlite particles remaining in the final soil. This includes landscapers and home gardeners as well as any growers that might be discarding the growing media after harvesting a crop. By adjusting the particle size of the peat in the mix, we can offer the same physical properties as our standard mixes with perlite.

Click here to read more on Greenhouse Grower.

Photo created by prostooleh - www.freepik.com

Source: Greenhouse Grower