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Inside Our New Patented Root Stimulant: A Phosphite Alternative · Hydroponics Daily

0:00
Hello and welcome back to the podcast. I'm your host Dr.
0:03
Russell Sharp and this is another one of those podcasts where I will record
0:07
the same episode for Hydroponics Daily, Grass Me Up, the Lawn Care and Sports
0:13
Turf podcast and Serial Killers for Arable Growers.
0:18
And the reason I'm going to do it across three is because it's a really exciting topic.
0:22
I'm going to talk about a new root stimulant we're developing.
0:25
We haven't launched it yet, you can't buy it and may be able to give you a cheeky
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free sample if you're interested but that's about as far as it goes,
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but i'm really excited so i want to give you an update on how we're building
0:36
that and how we're going to develop that,
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before we get to that a couple of key updates obviously the weather has been
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horrendous from a growing perspective yields in the fields are down because
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of the drought mazes looking terrible.
0:50
When it comes to lawn care and sports turf obviously we've had a massive Hose
0:54
pipe band, lawns are yellow.
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Most parkland golf courses are looking like a Lynx course at the moment.
1:00
But the rain has returned. So as of yesterday, there were thunderstorms,
1:04
but massive amounts of rain dropped. And that in turn can cause its issues.
1:09
If you're not using a wetting agent to get the water to penetrate the hydrophobic
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clay, then that's causing an issue.
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Probably going to take at least a week for the grass to really start growing
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and for crops to recover.
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And from a lawn care perspective, you won't see demand coming back from people
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until they actually get back in their garden. So when it's raining,
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you think, oh, it's rained.
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People are going to want to buy things and use services, but they're not,
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not until you get back in the garden. So I have to wait for the rain to stop. That's the ironic bit.
1:37
From a hydroponics perspective, obviously that heat wave, 38, 40 degrees Celsius.
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If you're an indoor grower or in a greenhouse or a polytunnel,
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that's, you can add at least 10 degrees Celsius to that. And so could have wiped
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out a lot of crops and if not wipe the crop out, certainly reduce quality.
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So that's an interesting issue. Other things from weather perspective and i
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mean from in my industry you can survive that that drought then you can survive
2:03
anything because there's only two things that really really impact,
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our sales here at utrea man that's prolonged droughts,
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and chancellors of the exchequers proposing tax,
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changes not doing tax changes just sounding them out in the news that will kill
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us for a day of sales i don't know about you,
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if you're selling to the public but that is just an absolute killer chance for
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the exchequer and long prolonged droughts winter we're fine with we can get
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away with winter we can get away with loads of rain but droughts so if we can survive this well we're,
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it's all gravy now because we've gone through it so really happy with that but a rain gauge.
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To see just because i was just wanting to raise so much but one off amazon don't
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buy a crappy cheap rain gauge off amazon they don't work first of all they don't
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they don't register small amounts of rain.
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The thermometer that's integrated didn't work. What was the other? There was one.
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Really, I don't care about the amount of the rain. What I really care about
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is the soil moisture level.
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So if anyone's got any good suggestions of a rain meter that includes a soil
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moisture level and a thermometer, that would be really good because that would
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really help me with planning. Things like that.
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Because the sort of thing I do is sort of integrate weather into our marketing
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perspective. So if you've seen adverts, if you've seen one of them,
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you've probably seen a billion of them because we do tend to retarget.
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And so that's what we sort of do. And if you're selling to the direct-to-consumer
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and you want any tips on that give us a shout so what else have we been doing.
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Today is Friday the 28th of August, or in Utremaland, it's Black Friday.
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So you may have received an email from me, you might have seen a social media post.
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We're promoting humic acid today. Now the rain's returned.
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If you're on sandy soil, or you've got sandy golf greens, or sandy sports turfs,
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or sandy soil in your farm, then humic acid is a really good product.
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Or if you're in hydroponics and you've got no soil at all, then humic acid and
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fulvic acid, fantastic product to put down, and will help with feeding beneficial microbes,
4:04
absorption of nutrients, all the sort of things that the black material in soil normally does.
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So if you've got sandy soil, it's not normally dark black. That's the organic matter.
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And that's the benefits of that humus and the blackness that sort of,
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you add that to sandy soils by adding humic acid. So a nice low dose of that.
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So we've got a Black Friday offer. I thought that would capture people's attention.
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If you use the code HUMIC15, all one word, on our website, you'll get 15% off
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any humic acid product or potassium humate granules if you're a farmer and you
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want to apply granules or dissolve your own product.
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So that's a really good one. So check out our Black Friday offer.
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We don't do offers or discounts.
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Very, very rare that I will offer a discount. And so yeah, if you're interested
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in that product, best to get hold of it now.
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So my amazing root stimulants. I'm really excited about this.
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I can't remember the last time I was this excited for developing a product.
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Normally, I dread developing products because it's a lot of effort and.
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It's a lot of money to develop them, even if you're not going to register them or patent them.
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Still a lot of time and effort. And just the new labels and things like that,
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you're talking thousands of pounds to launch a new product at the bare minimum.
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Pesticide, millions. So outside of our remit and a patent product,
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normally, you know, it's at least £100,000.
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But we've got this amazing root stimulant, and it's looking to replace potassium phosphite.
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Not phosphate, phosphite.
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And that's a product we already sell however its days are numbered potassium
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phosphide because it's not allowed to be sold in the eu anymore.
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And it's chemically similar to glyphosate and so that's why people are going
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for it no there's no hazard data that says you should ban it but it's an easy
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one for the eu to pick up and as,
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kirstama and andy burnham are both of them have looked to get closer aligned
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with europe i can see potassium phosphite going out the window so rather than sit there and wait to be,
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knocked over we're going to develop a new root stimulant and it's going to be
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better than potassium phosphite why is it going to be better than potassium
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phosphite because it works further downstream on the metabolic pathway that phosphite,
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works on so it's a product that is further downstream and so it's more targeted
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more specific it's also biodegradable and tank mix compatible,
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which Phosphite wasn't.
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And it's so...
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So safe that it's food grade and that's how good it is and there's a really
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good story behind it as well so there's a really good link there,
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with um other things that people will instantly recognize so there's a good
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tie-in there's a good story for the for the marketing so i'm really happy about
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that and the other thing i'm gonna i'm really excited about is that i'm actually
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gonna patent it or patent,
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this product which i've never done before i've never patented any of my products
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it's all know-how it's all secret ingredients because as soon as you patent
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something you tell other people,
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how to make it and they can just sell it and they can copy it and they can they can just put.
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The middle finger up to you and say, swivel on this, I'm going to copy a product,
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try and sue me. And unless you've got millions of pounds in the bank,
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it's very difficult to sue.
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However, with this one, it's such a good story. They can't sell the product
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without using the same story that I'm going to use to sell this rich stimulant.
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And so that's why I'm going to patent it. And the other reason I'm going to
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patent it is normally, previously it would cost you maybe 50,000 pounds,
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80,000 pounds, maybe 100,000 pounds to use a patent. And that's,
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you know, that's conservative.
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Now with ai i can get the ai bots to write my patent for me all i need is the
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base data and the information i can plug that in might send it to a patent attorney to give it once over,
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but certainly the costs have just fallen off a cliff when we think about ai
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taking jobs patents attorneys is the number one it's taken,
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to do that i'm going to have to test my product now to make the product was remarkably.
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Easy for me because we do a lot of solubility and chemistry but to test it we're
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going to have to test it on nine different plant species at least that's because
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you can't get a patent on a product,
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unless you've tested it on nine plant species to say that the whole plant kingdom
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will respond to this product so i have to use a diverse range of crops i can't
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just say it works on tomatoes therefore the patent covers wheat and cereals
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and also other crops. So doing it on nine.
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It should improve nodulation as well in beans and pea crops.
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So that's really interesting.
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And it works in the same way as phosphite. So it won't promote just masses of
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roots and massive tap roots.
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So if you're like a carrot, it won't just produce a really long carrot.
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What it does is actually stops the growth of the bottom root,
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the meristem, the growth point, and encourages the growth of lateral roots. So a shallow,
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intense, what's the word? Dense, a dense, shallow root system.
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And so that is of interest. Really, I think crops like wheat respond really well to phosphite.
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Other crops, not so much.
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Beetroot, that supposedly responds well. Sugar beet to phosphites.
9:16
And so we'll be doing, and there, it's a foliar treatment.
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So normally you think a root treatment, you would apply to the roots,
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a root drench but actually phosphites really will as a.
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As a folia so we're going to do that we're going to do split pot tests which
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i used to do down at lancaster at lancaster university where you split the root
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system into two different pots you treat one
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pot completely different to the other and then you pull the roots out of the
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system out to the system and hopefully,
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the one treated with the root stimulant will produce lots of roots we'll also
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do a phosphite treatment just to check that it's a similar response.
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And so yeah loads of experiments going on i'm sat in the small office here at
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utreuma hq which is now because we've moved into our other unit this is now
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the podcast studio but it has also been commandeered as a,
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propagation unit for seeds so we've got various seeds trays stacked up and hopefully
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next week they will have germinated took some wheat seeds.
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Seed store and they were the first we did. Then we've done tomato,
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lettuce, carrot, onion.
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I've got peas and sweet corn arriving today. So that'll cover maize and all the legumes.
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So it's really exciting and I'll keep you updated on how that's going.
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One of the other things about phosphite is it's often used as a sort of backdoor
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fungicide for controlling things like potato blights and other oomycetes,
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water mold diseases like Phytophthora.
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And this product won't have any fungicidal activity, which you might think, oh, that's a downside.
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But the fungicidal activity of phosphite has been used as a stick to bash it,
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by, not environmental groups, but regulatory groups.
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People who don't like biostimulants say that they are backdoor pesticides.
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So if we can replace phosphites, then that's really good.
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It's got global, because it would be patented, it's got global potential so
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this could be a massive one for eutrema globally and it provides,
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sort of the regulators and the registration bodies around the world with an
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alternative to phosphide now a lot of times pesticides don't get banned because there's no.
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Suitable alternative to them if there was a cheap and cheerful and environmentally
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friendly alternative to glyphosate it would be banned tomorrow but but there
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isn't so that's why it stays on not saying that glyphosate is bad just saying that,
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there's a lot of nematocytes you know are quite toxic but they can't they haven't
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been banned because there's no suitable alternative so once we've got this alternative
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to phosphite hopefully there'll be pressure for people to move,
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to it hopefully we can win just on the agronomic and crop responses.
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I won't be pricing it any cheaper than phosphite put it that way um it's a unique
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product and then if we work with distributors and people like that then they'll
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have exclusive access to the product as well so if you are interested in a sample of this for,
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obviously if you're a broad acre farm i'm not going to give you 20 liters,
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as a sample for numerous reasons but if you are a small grown like to try a
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trial a cheeky new root stimulants,
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then let me know there might be other other interesting responses as well because it also
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has potential to induce plant defenses so not a fungicide activity but potentially
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could induce plant defenses so could have some novel activity that is different
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to the other sorts of elicitors we have such as salicylic acid,
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and chytosan so really exciting times if you've got any questions about root
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stimulants then let me know,
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you will find it's certainly in say the hydroponic sector and in the and the
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lawn care and sports turf there will be products that contain phosphite,
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that are don't say that on the bottle because they don't have to because it's
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not classified hazardous a lot of the you know,
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insert funky trade name here you know powerful root builder products if they're
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not brown like a seaweed extract then they probably contain a phosphite so,
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this will be replacing that we'll also look at shelf life stability and things
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like this and and tank mix compatibility as well because they're all very important.
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Since i last spoke on the podcast we have done a tank mix compatibility chart,
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One of my colleagues and myself spent just weeks and weeks and weeks in the
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lab creating a tank mix compatibility chart, which you can now find on our website.
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If you just Google Utrema compatibility chart, you will find it.
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Every one of our products mixed with every other of the products to check whether
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they are compatible at the ratios we suggest with water.
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Not whether you can mix them neat. We don't never recommend that,
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making up your own potions.
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You can do that, but you obviously that's your risk and you have to determine
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whether they are stable and they've got shelf life a lot of the time the preservatives
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don't work if you mix them and things like that but if it's a tank mix compatibility
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we've created the chart red for,
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not compatible don't mix these two together either because they'll fall out
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of solution or because you'll lose activity so it might not become cloudy or gritty but it will,
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lose activity or green for perfectly fine mix that together and or yellow fine
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as long as you don't use the maximum dose and.
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The other thing to say about that is that we don't do three-way compatibility
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tests because it would be like a 3D chessboard. It would be ridiculously complicated.
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You can do three-way tests. You can mix three products at the same time,
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but just remember that you have to do a bucket test before to confirm compatibility.
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We used hard water because obviously the hardness of the water can be an issue.
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So really proud of that. Don't want to repeat that too often.
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I'll have to repeat it again once this root stimulant hits the market because
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then we have to confirm that. But yeah, One product's not so much of an issue.
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What else can we say? What's been going on recently? Been pretty quiet.
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August is always our quietest month of the year. You would think it would be
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December or January, but August is always dead. People are away.
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Every person in the UK goes on holiday, so it is a pretty quiet month.
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September, October, November, they become very quickly the busiest months.
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So hopefully we'll still be doing podcasts and I'll be on social media.
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But if you've got any questions just feel free we always answer questions probably like,
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in this very unless i'm asleep i'll answer your question via email and same
15:44
for my colleagues so just get in touch we only do one trade show a year and that is grounds fest,
15:52
i'd make sure not groundswell that is the arable crop well that's the.
15:59
Regenerative farming in very much inverted commas one we don't do that one because
16:05
for a variety of reasons but grounds fest we do that is specific to lawn care
16:10
and grounds maintenance really good product really good,
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show we get a really good return when we go there lots of interest a lot of
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our key customers are there,
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we could do some other shows that might might,
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be good for us but it's a lot of effort so this is the one that i enjoy the
16:28
most it's really good if you want to come down and talk to us about anything
16:30
if you even if you if you're a hydroponic or an arable farmer or a sports turf
16:34
person then come down to grounds fest it's at stone lee park in kennilworth,
16:39
in september it's a really good laugh there's things like,
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lawnmower racing it's like competitions where they see how fast someone can
16:47
chop things with various tools
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and chainsaws really unless you're a professional i wouldn't get involved.
16:53
But stone lee's a really good location for trade shows i really like it there's
16:56
a really good cafe compared to like the nec something like glee where it's on
17:00
under sodium lamps the food's ridiculously expensive and you have to pay 20
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pound parking i will not be exhibiting at glee,
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anytime soon and the same goes for any other show that's at the nec unless there's
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free parking top tip if you are going,
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to a show at the nec go to resort world next door grab yourself a five guys,
17:19
get your parking there and then just walk across cost you three pound versus
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20 quid at the nec that's my number one top tip,
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and you can put it on expenses so there you go so there you go.
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Hopefully, you've survived the drought. All your competitors have gone bust.
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You are the last person swimming in the sea, and the rain returns,
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and milk and honey, and all that.
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So yeah, Black Friday, Humic 15 is the code.
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We've got a fabulous root stimulant coming. Hopefully, we'll do some field trials,
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on wheat, on hopefully, well, I'll have a speak to people in the industry.
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Whether we'll be putting it down in the spring, because we need all the data
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on the lab trials, the greenhouse trials,
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and the grow room trials first before we get a dose rate because that's important
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we need to know what dose rate we're going to get once we've got a dose rate
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we'll go on on a wheat crop either a spring wheat or a winter wheat,
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and we'll probably invite some people who want to look at that to to monitor
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the results but we'll certainly have the the greenhouse trials soon and i'm
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quite happy to once once the product once the patent is,
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filed i'm happy to reveal what the product is how it works and all that and
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and sell the product we don't need to wait for field trials because we'll know
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it works some people are early adopters some people are mid-range adopters and
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some people won't buy a product until all their,
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friends and family and neighbors and competitors have used it which is fine,
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but we do reward our early adopters of any technology and we do provide them
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with lots of goodies and rewards and contact and things like that so yeah watch
18:56
this space have i think i've covered everything there.
19:00
I would say I'm really into my golf at the moment. I've really got into golf.
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So if any golf clubs want any free samples in return for a round at your course
19:08
in the Midlands, let me know.
19:09
Playing at the Leicestershire golf course at the moment, we sponsor the 16th
19:13
hole and that's it. That's what I've forgotten about. My golf balls.
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I've bought 144 golf balls with the Utrema logo on. They're green golf balls,
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which means they're ridiculously hard to find, which means I lose a lot of them.
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But when people do find them on the back, it says, waterlogged grass,
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we've got the solution at utreema.co.uk.
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And so that's my new marketing effort. It's genius because when I tee off with
19:37
my driver and I slice it into the woods, I know I can go, well,
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that's two pounds spent on marketing rather than, oh my God,
19:45
that's two pound lost. I need to buy another ball.
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So that's my strategy. If you play golf and you would like some golf balls,
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let me know. I'll send you some in the post with your next order.
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They are wilson golf balls i i need someone who's really good at golf to try
20:02
them because i don't know how long the the text lasts on them because i lose
20:06
a ball about every five holes and so,
20:09
i've never kept hold of the ball long enough to give it a really good whack
20:13
around a couple of courses.
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And frustratingly, I played Brampton Park golf course with my good friend, Adam, the pro there.
20:21
And that's got a lot of streams. So I lost all my balls into the streams.
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Lost about four balls into streams and ponds, which is no good for marketing
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because they're then lost.
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So if you are going to lose one of these golf balls and you get some off me,
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please lose them into the woods and the rough. Don't lose them into the water
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because that's the last you'll see of them.
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They're only a marketing the only good marketing spend if they're lost into
20:44
the rough all right and don't lose them on some local municipality where people
20:48
are too poor to actually afford utremer products,
20:52
if they're using miracle grow and dunlop bull balls then they're good for marketing
20:56
we need people who are using tight list pro v1s normally to find these balls
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we need people that you know,
21:02
wentworth and lock lowmond and say andrews to find them but not american tourists
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oh it's a sweet spot all right that's enough drivel of me talking about golf
21:10
i know not everyone's into golf,
21:11
whatever sport you're into i hope you enjoyed this weekend whether you're watching
21:15
or participating the premier league is back,
21:18
liverpool drew with newcastle mit in liverpool,
21:21
don't ever walk alone i'll see you on the next episode goodbye.