OGS did extensive research on when and how to fertilize to improve the yields, and they found out that a lot of young plant growers don't use fertilizer from day zero. "They typically fertilize once the seeds are germinated, from day three, four or even from day five onwards," says Vijay. We found out that especially when you're dealing with synthetic media, you want to start fertilizing right with the initial watering. When you do this, you'll be able to increase the yield by 100%."
Vijay Rapaka and Gary Sainsbury of Oasis at the Canadian Greenhouse Conference last week in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
The reason that it's good to start fertilizing from the very beginning of propagation is that the nutrients are readily available for uptake by the seedlings. "If you only use clear water in the first days, the media is fully saturated with that clear water. When you fertilize on day 3, when the seedlings are ready to start the nutrient uptake, the fertilizer is not readily moving into the rootzone because the media is fully saturated with clear water. And even if the fertilizer is moving to the rootzone, it is not being available at the concentration that was applied. So that's why we recommend to use fertilizers right with the initial watering" says Vijay.
The OASIS Hydroponic Fertilizer was developed in collaboration with JR Peter Inc. This fertilizer is specifically designed for hydroponic lettuce, herbs, and greens. This is not only suitable for young plant growers but also works well for the small and medium scale finished plant growers. "They want simple solutions and they are not really interested in changing the nutrient ratio's, so for them this one-bag fertilizer is perfect." The bag has most of the micronutrients in chelated form and especially iron is made available through multiple chelates (EDTA EDDHA, and DPTA), which makes the plant's uptake of critical nutrients even easier.
The OASIS 16-4-17 hydroponic fertilizer is rather new in the market, yet there are some growers that are already using it. "And they're loving it," says Vijay. There's just one important note for the grower who's interested in the fertilizer; it doesn't work well with rain water or clear water. "I recomment using medium alkalinity water. Further, the fertilizer can be used with horticubes or any other kind of growing medium."
The one-bag hydroponic fertilizers are currently available in bags of 25 pounds.
For more information :
OASIS Grower Solutions
Vijay Rapaka
vrapaka@SMITHERSOASIS.COM
919 Marvin Street
Kent, OH 44240 USA
T: 800-321-8286, or 330-673-5831