Using wetting agents for sustainable growth

Whether you're producing greenhouse crops or nursery stock, irrigation efficiency is a "crucial" part of your success. How you manage — or don't manage — your water use will significantly impact your operational costs, plant quality, and the environment, states Oasis Grower Solutions.

"As water scarcity, labor, and input costs increase, we're focused on developing and providing solutions that can help you grow more efficiently, profitably, and sustainably. Surfactants like those in another family of OASIS Soax Wetting Agents are near the top of the list."

How wetting agents can help you grow
According to Oasis Grower Solutions, wetting agents work by reducing the surface tension of water. What does that mean for a grower? Put simply, instead of water molecules sticking together, channeling down the side of containers, and creating runoff, water can penetrate and spread through your substrate easily and evenly. Growers can trade labor-intensive spot watering for regularly scheduled watering events and more predictable and uniform production.

If you've ever had a substrate dry out on you unexpectedly, you know how difficult rehydrating that growing media can be — and how young plants and established container crops can suffer as a result. "With OASIS Soax Wetting Agents at work, growers can avoid that scenario and prevent dry down from happening. And you can get your substrate back on track more easily if it does."

Smithers-Oasis Horticultural Research Manager Garry Legnani, PhD., our resident wetting agent expert, tells us, "Water use efficiency is the cornerstone of a sustainable growing operation and the foundation of our wetting agent research. In essence, we are trying to get the most efficient use out of the water molecule."

"When a premium liquid or granular surfactant like those in the Oasis Soax family is part of your substrate preparation, ongoing maintenance, or a pre-shipping drench, that substrate is transformed. That may sound like a big claim, but it's true. It's not the same old substrate anymore."

Dr. Garry Legnani, PhD.

Benefits
Oasis Grower Solutions claims that Soax Wetting Agents provide crops with protection in the greenhouse, the field, and on challenging retail lots, even when inexperienced seasonal staff steps in. As Dr. Legnani notes, your plants can face their greatest challenges after they leave your control. "Unfortunately, good watering practices are the exception and not the norm in the retail environment," he adds. But how your plants perform on customers' lots can be the difference between costly claims and happy customers.

"With wetting agents, you can optimize water efficiency and nutrient inputs, accelerate initial substrate wetting and resetting, maintain more consistent substrate moisture, improve water penetration and nutrient uptake, prevent water repellency, minimize channeling, reduce irrigation frequency and spot watering requirements (and related labor), and protect plant quality and retail sell-through."