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Hydroponics Wrapped 2025: Triumphs & Tough Lessons · Hydroponics Daily

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  Hello there and welcome back to
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  Hydroponics Daily, your go-to podcast for everything soilless cultivation.
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  I'm your host, Dr. Russell Sharp, and I have been doing this podcast daily for over 350 days now.
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  It was my New Year's resolution to do one every day of 2025.
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  And so I thought I'd do a podcast-wrapped episode talking about the highs,
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  the lows, the most listened to and least listened to episodes to give you a
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  flavor of what people are interested in in hydroponics.
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  So we'll start off with that. Let's look at the top 10 podcast episodes and
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  let's see what people are actually interested in when it comes to hydroponics.
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  And there's a bit of a theme that emerges.
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  That's because number 10 is unlocking the secrets to prevent nutrient lockup in hydroponics.
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  This is a key theme, not so much nutrients, but lockup and pH comes back again
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  and again is very high on the list of things that people are interested in.
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  So that's number 10. Number 9 is ICL, White Phosphorus and Gaza War Crimes.
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  I promoted this one a lot so we can see why it's high up. I think it would be
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  even higher if I hadn't had to re-record.
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  An episode about icl because initially my first episode i said
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  that icl the israeli chemicals limited they don't
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  like that to go by that name so much i wonder why when they're
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  selling and marketing they i said that
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  they were selling white phosphorus which is a chemical that
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  burns skin when it lands on civilian populations i said they were selling it
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  directly to the israeli army and that was not true they were selling it to the
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  us army who were then selling it to the israeli army and those white phosphorus
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  shells have been found in Lebanon and Gaza.
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  And they got a letter from their solicitor saying this is not true,
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  but it is because these US army documents that say it's true that ICL sell to
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  the US army for military use.
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  And also there was people on Twitter showing ICL sponsored soldiers burning down greenhouses.
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  The Gadza 585 were burning greenhouses in
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  southern gaza not a good look for a horticultural company to be burning a greenhouse
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  and i'm pretty certain disrupting food supplies in a war situation is a war
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  crime so yeah no wonder that's number nine at number eight was hydroponic moss
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  cultivation and talking about how.
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  Researchers were looking at prisoners people in
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  jail who had plenty of time on their hands to study the
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  very slow growing moss and how moss can be used as
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  hydroponic moss is a good alternative or good potential alternative
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  to wild source moss which strips
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  natural scientifically important and ecologically
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  important environments in canada and forklund islands and stuff like
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  that of of a of a keystone
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  species or certainly a valuable species and
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  releases co2 at number seven was the absolute bare
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  minimum hydroponic checklist and that was a great episode
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  that's one of my favorites it talks about what you actually need
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  to start hydroponics there was a couple of
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  episodes that day and the next day
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  so the there was one on the equipment and then there was
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  one on setup and knowledge
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  and things like that so if you haven't listened to.
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  That episode and you're getting into hydroponics the absolute bare
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  minimum hydroponic checklist was was good we've also got
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  a hydroponic checklist resource work toolkit
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  if you email me it's in my email signature that's a
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  fantastic resource for anyone who's getting into hydroponics so
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  no wonder that's number seven number six the role
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  of gibberellins in hydroponics probably linked to
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  people who are looking at growth regulators and things like that it's
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  a big issue in legal cannabis and illegal cannabis they
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  use nasty in illegal cannabis a
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  lot of them use legal growth regulators which are nasty and potentially do a
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  lot of harm to developing fetuses and things like this so yeah avoid them if
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  you can number five a massive greenhouse collapse and giveaway i must have been
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  giving us something away and that attracted a lot of people there and there
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  was a big greenhouse collapse in Holland,
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  and many hectares of glass house just collapsed.
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  Remarkably no one was injured which is
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  in the health and safety world is a big red flag
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  so when no one's injured in a massive industrial accident like
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  that i think it's been cleared up and the
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  issue was that they'd removed all the side braces and it
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  went over like a pack of dominoes number five sorry
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  number four ph in hydroponics essential and
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  master tips so again like nutrient lockout ph is
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  a big issue for people so lots of people listen to that uh number
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  three hydroponics daily no soviet
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  secret labs just space pizza i haven't
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  cannot remember what that episode was about it sounds good though doesn't it soviet
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  secret labs space pizza was about some uh
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  it was about wrexham university getting local schools.
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  To grow each school grew a different ingredient to
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  make a space pizza using hydroponics so a
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  pizza that could be grown in space using hydroponics so some some far
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  there's some skills we're growing tomatoes there's basil
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  i don't know what they're doing for the cheese wheat for the
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  base what else do you need pepper i suppose can't grow
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  salt so yeah that was an interesting
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  episode number two was hello darkness my microgreens
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  friend embracing the dark for bigger
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  sweeter shoots in microgreens did a
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  lot of work on microgreens this year really enjoyable and a
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  lot of people out there listen to podcasts are interested in microgreens so and
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  it was a good learning curve for me because you know
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  you're not growing microgreens you assume that plants in the dark it's a waste of
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  time but darkness was crucial to growing a really good crop of microgreens so
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  if you're interested in microgreens go and listen to that episode and then number
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  one was why garden center fertilizers suck the truth behind the label where
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  i went in and looked at all the popular brands of fertilizer like miracle grow fostrogen.
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  Tomorites and explained what was in them and why these is just,
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  rubbish ingredients and overpriced diluted a
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  lot of time it was chloride based it was
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  extreme ph it was very very dilute
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  you just buy water in a bottle a tiny amount of fertilizer so
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  definitely go and listen to that one that was in the top listen to
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  podcast of 2025 what was
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  my also my rap what was my favorite event of
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  the the year possibly the
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  world congress on indoor farming down
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  in plymouth that was really good shame that one's not being repeated this year
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  it was a free event it was really well
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  organized there was you could have a trade stand
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  a little table for free and it
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  got to go down to plymouth which was a nice little drive and little
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  drive long drive i like plymouth it's a nice town
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  so that was a highlight for me green tech as always was a good
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  show fruit attraction in madrid
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  was a bit of a damp squib i thought
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  it was just a lot a lot of people trying to take fruit from one section to the
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  other dp world and people like that yeah you know once you've seen one store
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  with a load of oranges on you've seen one you've seen them all really and there's
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  a few good contacts but it wasn't really worth the day out and Madrid,
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  definitely prefer fruit logistica or green tech.
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  So they're my highlights for events.
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  Probably from a cultivation perspective, the lows were probably just really
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  struggling to grow spring onions.
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  No matter what I did, really struggled to grow spring onions this year.
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  I was hoping to get really good bumper yields.
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  What else did we what did we grow that was really well grow well grow well tigerella
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  tiger tomatoes they were a success grew them early on indoor did a hybrid growing
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  technique and started them off in january and by the time spring came i was
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  growing loads and loads of tomatoes giving them away,
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  my kids love the tiger stripes on them so yeah
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  that was a big win some of our
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  customers had some really big wins this year start of
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  the year um our hop grower jim
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  he won hop grower of the year because he'd used
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  some of our amino acids humic seaweed
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  and silicon and
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  protected his hops when at the end of 2024 when
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  everyone else was getting hail damage and rain damage and they were rotting
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  and his grew really well established really well and
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  so he won the award for hop of the year and he was very impressed and
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  very happy so that's probably a really good win for one of our for one
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  of our growers none of our vertical farming customers went
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  bust and probably all of our
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  to feel first they're going to love 2026 because a lot of their competitors
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  have gone by the wayside so yeah that's been good in a way a low has been the
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  uk sort of grow shop hydroponic sector which has really suffered this year lots
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  of shops have gone out of business and that's been bad for the community.
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  So that's probably a low for hydroponics. Hopefully that'll turn around next year.
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  Predictions for next year, I think probably more of the same, certainly for the.
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  Wait and see on these electrical charges which i talked about in a
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  previous episode for the vertical farming that could a lot of people
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  might just shut the doors when it comes to that what else
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  can we say for 2026 i always say i'm not
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  going to create any new products i'm
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  just going to focus on selling the ones i have because it
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  costs money to introduce a new product costs thousands and thousands of
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  pounds even if you don't have to register it but i
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  always come up with a crazy idea for a new product so watch this
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  space i would imagine there's probably going to be two or three new products
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  from eutreema nothing in the pipeline maybe
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  something around controlled release fertilizer we want
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  to take on icl with their osmocote products which is basically just throwing
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  microplastics into your garden and into your plant pots which is not core so
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  we want to come up with a biodegradable controlled release fertilizer that's
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  probably the priority for 2026 from a eutreema perspective and then looking
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  forward as well we're not going to be doing a.
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  Absolutely daily podcast it's not going to be every single day still keep the
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  name hundred points daily because i've got mugs and everything printed t-shirts
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  printed with the name on but we'll be doing fewer podcasts but probably linking
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  it to a youtube video and a video episode,
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  and probably doing more longer episodes see
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  how that see how that is fits with the
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  algorithm see we go up or down the charts doing that and see
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  if we get more interest or less interest doing that one
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  it's been really successful this year though we've got loads hundreds of thousands
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  of downloads and loads of customers and new
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  growers have reported back that they really love
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  the podcast so that's been really good the often with
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  podcasts the statistics are really rubbish you
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  can't track them like you can videos or other
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  sorts of social media but when you speak to people that that's the feedback
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  you get is they really engage with it so i'm really happy with with how the
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  podcast has gone this year had a low recently where the health and safety executive
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  a bit like the don't know what's called in america but basically they said that
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  we can't sell our auxin concentrates.
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  Anymore because they consider it a pesticide so that's probably going
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  to be export only that product it's a
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  shame because obviously it's an innovative product where the only people
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  are using a super concentrate liquid with any people who can do it
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  because we've got the expertise in solubilization technology but
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  yeah great for the uk government to stamp down hard
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  on a on a medium sized company and that
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  is innovating so you know i'll tell you that one because
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  you know don't want to be breaking the law do we and so
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  we carry on we roll with the punches and
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  we go again with new products so yeah i'm
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  more than happy to take that one on the chin
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  we've had some unusual stories in
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  the news locally about illegal cannabis
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  growers we had one grower we're based in damon trade
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  currently you treat me and we had one illegal cannabis
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  grower who rather ingeniously set up a
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  grow facility under the local motorway freeway and yes don't know how he powered
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  it don't know how he grew the plants under there but that is an impressive bit
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  of ingenuity and engineering he would there was a mile away from the nearest
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  road local farmer helped them out apparently.
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  But yeah, under a motorway, can you imagine the noise? It wasn't a bridge.
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  It was like a cutting underneath the motorway.
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  I think it was probably near a canal or something like that.
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  But yeah, absolute madness. And then we had a casino in Northampton, which is the local town.
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  It's not a city. The county town.
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  And there, there was a casino with 7,000 cannabis plants in it.
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  So that was a crazy bust by the police.
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  Northampton has some crazy illegal cannabis farms there
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  was there was one in Kettering another town nearby and
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  that was in a bingo hall and that was next door to a police station so yeah
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  they must have had their extraction carbon filters on point for a long time
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  but that eventually failed and they got busted and everyone got arrested so
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  yeah Northampton is the ingenious county for,
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  illegal cannabis growers don't try this at home kids obviously
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  trying to think of any new products have been launched away
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  from utreema that are interested there's obviously
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  there's always a new seaweed there's always a new tricontinol product
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  and things like this there's always a new fan
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  or filter but nothing stands out do you
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  what do you think has been the big technological breakthrough in
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  hydroponics or vertical farming or indoor growing
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  this year i'm trying to think i can't think
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  of one i'd say the big wheel type
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  growing facility at dyson that was revealed that
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  was very very cool about the size of two double decker buses that was some supreme
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  piece of technology just to look at awesome stuff so not a product but certainly
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  a piece of hydroponic technology to look at and wonder at that was so fair play
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  to dyson farming for that the people who make the vacuum cleaners i'd say the
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  current development in ai.
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  Obviously there's going to be there's ai controllers now that are
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  on the market they're a big win in 2025 and just
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  the ability to research and find information on
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  hydroponics that you couldn't get from just a google
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  a simple google search so you know the
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  nuances scrape you'll be pulling data together and evaluation
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  of different things via ai and
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  new ideas the ability of people to come up with new ideas and find
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  new ideas and and sort of test them
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  through ai without getting their hands dirty that's been
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  a big win for 2025 and we'll continue into
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  2026 so yeah that's been my wrap
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  of hydroponics for 2025 i hope you've enjoyed it if i missed anything let me
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  know and i'll do a follow-up if you've liked this episode then please give us
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  a apple podcast review especially if you've been listening all year if you're
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  not on apple just make sure you follow the podcast and check out utreema.co.uk
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  for some amazing products that would win product of the year in any award.
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  For horticulture that wasn't rigged i did
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  nominate us for podcast of the year for what
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  was it the garden media guild but they decided that
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  we weren't worthy of inclusion and all the
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  other podcasts that were nominated are not even on the podcast
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  charts and we are so um screw them we won't be nominating ourselves again in
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  2026 but if you have if you run a podcast award that is fair and based on the
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  content and the value given to growers then let me know that's been hydroponics
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  day for today i'll see you again tomorrow thank you very much for listening goodbye.