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Wetting Agents in Hydroponics · Hydroponics Daily

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  Hello there plant fans, welcome back to Hydroponics Daily, your go-to podcast
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  for everything soilless cultivation.
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  I'm your host, Dr. Russell Sharp, I am the founder of Eutrema Limited.
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  We manufacture bespoke fertilisers, novel biostimulants and organic biopesticides.
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  And one of the things that we manufacture and produce are wetting agents.
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  Or also known as surfactants.
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  And these are basically glorified soaps
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  and they are used for a
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  range of different uses in horticulture and
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  hydroponics so i thought i would go through the different uses
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  and different types that there are okay so
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  there are three main types of surfactants anionic cationic
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  and non-ionic now if you remember from
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  chemistry in school cationic means positively charged
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  anionic means negatively charged and non-ionic
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  obviously means there's no charge electrical charge
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  on that molecule now the way
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  i always remember this is i think of a
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  cat with a cross on its back and that is
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  cationic for the cat is positive really
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  really stupid mnemonic that one but i remember
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  it that way and basically cationic surfactants you can ignore because they're
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  rarely recommended in horticulture because they're really really strong antimicrobial
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  but also they kill algae they kill plants they kill a lot of life so unless
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  you're disinfecting things and you want permanent disinfection.
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  Not transient, non-residual, then avoid cationic surfactants and wetting agents.
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  You're going to be focusing on anionic, really, in hydroponics.
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  These are the ones that are used in grown media and in fertilisers.
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  And the reason they're used is when your grown media has dried out to the point
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  where it becomes hydrophobic.
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  So a lot of soil, cocoa, coir,
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  peat, even compost, can and
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  i guess synthetic growing medias
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  as well they can once they dry go beyond
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  a certain point of dryness they can become
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  hydrophobic so very hard to re-wet and shrink
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  down and if you've been growing your plants
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  in them for a long time and they have shrunk and compressed
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  then adding an anionic surfactant
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  or wetting agent helps open that up again
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  and so that's why you use them now you
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  can buy purpose purposely a wetting agent and
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  at utrema we manufacture two one's called clay drainer because
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  it's used in soil to help with improve the
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  drainage of clay and but it can also be used in in hydroponics
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  as well as just a wetting agent and the other one is yucca extract which is
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  a natural anionic surfactant a soap what we call a saponin from plants i've
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  talked about yucca extracts in the past and that's a good way of opening up
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  growing media is either applying a yucca extract or.
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  Our clay drainer product, other products are available, the wetting agents,
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  and will be based on similar technologies.
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  Now some fertilizers contain anionic surfactants already, some saponins natural-based
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  ones as well as some synthetic ones, and it's really up to the choice of the
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  fertilizer manufacturer.
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  I tend to not include them in with the fertilizer because I'd rather have the
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  option of having that surfactant in there because a bit too soapy,
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  if you have a recircularity system it can get a bit too bubbly a
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  bit too much foam and things like that i think shogun
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  fertilizer has a surfactant in it but
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  don't quote me on that don't sue me equilabs
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  but yeah check out their product if you're looking for a product with a
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  surfactant in said they got some sort of technology in there some sort
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  of wetting agent based thing according to the blurb on
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  the back of the label but as i say utreema we don't
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  include any because we we offer them as
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  a separate product and we don't feel we need to add add them
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  we give you the choice and then non-ionic surfactants.
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  You might come across when you're mixing pesticides
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  or foliar sprays because these.
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  Mix well with agrochemicals so
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  if you're mixing a pesticide a
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  herbicide an insecticide a fungicide it might contain
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  a non-ionic surfactant they're rarely used
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  as wetting agents for grow media or soil the non-ionic.
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  Ones they're more used as sort of what we call an adjuvant an
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  additive to a pesticide to make it
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  work better whether a biological pesticide or a
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  chemical pesticide so that's those
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  what else can we say there is something else i
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  needed to add that i have not covered let me
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  stall for a second while i pause this podcast i have
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  remembered yes it's a lot of insecticidal soaps
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  are also based on surfactants allionic
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  surfactants and now a
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  lot of the expensive products are actually based on sodium lauryl
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  sulfate which is the same thing that is
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  in your washing up liquid and in detergent that's
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  fine for you and you're washing up but it's not great for plants because plants sodium
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  is toxic to plants it's as toxic as arsenic is
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  to you arsenic sodium is to plants it's
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  so you don't want to be applying it in any product at all you should
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  always avoid sodium-based products so companies
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  that sell sodium-based products come on let's dish some dirt you know i always
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  don't i don't skirt away from controversy on this product this podcast by naming
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  companies i'm just going to go and double check before i get sued two products
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  i'm pretty certain contain sodium laurel sulfate and.
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  Sodium is toxic to plants, so you should look for an alternative.
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  Let me just go and check that.
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  So I found those two products and checked their safety data sheet,
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  and yes, they contain sodium lauryl ethyl sulfate.
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  The first one is SB Plant Invigorator, which is a popular product in both North America and the UK.
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  SB Plant Invigorator is an expensive product and contains basically washing
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  up liquid, sodium lauryl ethyl sulfate, at very low concentrations as well.
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  So the alternative to that would be something like
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  Eutrema's insecticidal soap which is non-sodium based
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  and provides plant nutrients rather than toxins
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  and the same goes for Canna Cure by
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  the very big company Canna now they hide their
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  safety data sheets really really well on the
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  internet but they have a number of Italian safety
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  data sheets the most up-to-date one I can find is
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  from 2018 as well but they're deep
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  in the 2018 safety data sheet from italy
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  it says it does contain sodium laurel
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  ethyl sulfate and but it
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  says it in italian sodio la terri sulfato
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  and but the cast number complies with
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  the same as sodium laurel sulfate and so yeah don't
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  use those products i would advise use a sodium free one so yeah they're very
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  common in a number of insecticidal products because they break down the waxy
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  exoskeleton of the insects so it's a physical mode of action that's how they can be used.
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  And just like washing up liquid breaks down the
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  waxes and the fats that build up
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  on the food on your plates and on your glasses the same
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  goes on on the the insect if you spray it
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  and deluge it with with surfactants
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  then the wax will break down and they will simply dehydrate
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  and die and that's how they work those insecticidal soaps and
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  it's a fine balance between making sure it doesn't happen to
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  the plant as well so you have to get your formulation right not any
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  idiot can do it but this idiot can here so
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  yeah wetting agents have a number of uses in plants they're very
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  good for re-wetting dried out hydrophobic grow media or grow media that's been
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  compressed they can be used on soil as well for the same reason non-ionic surfactants
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  can be used with pesticides to improve their action what we call adjuvants improve
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  their stickiness their spread things like this and.
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  Anionic subactants are often used as well as insecticidal
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  soaps but make sure you use a sodium-free one all right that's
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  been hydroponics daily for today hope you found it interesting if you did
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  please leave an apple podcast review obviously if
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  you're from sp plant invigorator or canna you're probably going to leave a zero
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  star review but fine doesn't bother me if you're not on apple then please check
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  out utreema and check out our insecticidal soap i'll leave a link in the show
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  description for you as well all right and you're correct extracts well i'll
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  leave a link for that if you've got a wetting if you need a wetting agent for
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  your growing media and it's become,
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  hydrophobic i'll leave the links to all those at the bottom of the page thank
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  you very much for listening until next time goodbye.