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Cardboard, Hemp & Sawdust: Unconventional Microgreens Media Trial · Hydroponics Daily

• 0:00
  Hello there and welcome back to
• 0:02
  Hydroponics Daily, your go-to podcast for everything soilist cultivation.
• 0:06
  I'm your host, Dr. Russell Sharp, the founder of Utrema Limited.
• 0:10
  We make premium fertilizers, bespoke biostimulants and organic biopesticides.
• 0:18
  We're based in the UK, but we sell our products all around the world and we
• 0:22
  do a lot of research and development.
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  And today I set up a trial in our microgreens laboratory looking at different
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  growing media because I was very fortunate to receive a sample of some growing
• 0:35
  media from one of our listeners.
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  It was Chris Evans, not the radio DJ if you're from the UK,
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  not the famous actor from the United States,
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  but a guy who's growing microgreens or
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  setting up a hydroponic facility down in Dartmoor
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  and down in devon and he's
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  kindly sent me a some micro micro greens
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  matting and some hemp matting that he's
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  imported i think from canada and i wanted to
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  compare it to what we're currently doing which is no grow
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  media at all or just some paper towels
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  and we also tried like
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  cotton toweling as well because I
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  think I want to develop a nutrient-free grow media so they can use liquid gold
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  or as it's called in the US gold leaf to supplement and supply the microgreens
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  with the nutrition so I don't want to be using cocoa or compost or grow media I want to do completely.
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  Sterile or certainly nutrient-free grow media and so I'm going to compare these
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  two but I'm also going to compare it to cardboard which sounds crazy but in
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  our factory we get we recycle a lot of old cardboard unprinted glue-free cardboard.
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  We have a machine that perforates it and spits out
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  big sheets of cut up perforated cardboard and these fit perfectly well into
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  the microgreen trays so i'm going to trial soaking that pressing it down and
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  using that as a grow media so i'm doing two species to begin with chia and onion,
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  and i'm going to see how they do on so three
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  different types of grow media the two from chris and cardboard
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  and then i'm also going to try really coarse wood it's
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  like sawdust from wood chippings things like this because
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  traditionally you would say no sawdust you can't
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  use as a grow media but that's more like a long-term grow
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  media type situation where you're keeping plants
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  alive for multiple weeks obviously becomes nutrient
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  deficient and things like this but i want to know if you
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  supplied some fertilizer into the sawdust and
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  it wasn't too cloggy it wasn't too fine and you
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  will it provided good aeration could you do sawdust
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  so my brother-in-law guy is going to supply me with some sawdust and we're going
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  to do a trial of that as well so we'll do the same again so some interesting
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  grow media i'm not expecting amazing results or but certainly some interesting
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  results we can work around and theorize around.
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  If you've ever used cardboard or sawdust as a grow media for microgreens or
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  any other type of plant cultivation in hydroponics, then let me know.
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  I think the cardboard probably stands the biggest chance of success.
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  If it doesn't, it'll be due to it just decomposing and going mushy.
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  Maybe even mold growing on it. Same with the sawdust.
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  Sawdust could get some severe nitrogen deficiency or something like that certainly
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  some sort of maybe toxic phenolic compounds being released by the the wood that
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  might harm the plants and things like this so interesting days ahead i am sure
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  so thanks to everyone everyone who's helped me with this chris and guy.
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  And let's look forward to the results in the near future.
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  Obviously, paper is used as a grow media in microgreens.
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  Certain species, you just sew them on a piece of paper. So I can't imagine cardboard
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  is too much different to that.
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  Like a corrugated cardboard provides lots of air and nice nooks and crannies
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  for the roots to grow into and soak up a lot of fertilizer as well.
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  I did hear once that borax is used in cardboard, and that can be a bit poisonous
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  to plants. too much boron, but I'm not sure if it's used that much anymore. I don't know.
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  I'm not a cardboard expert. Maybe you are.
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  Apparently, chat GPT says it might be used in some of the adhesives used in corrugated cardboard.
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  That's something I'm not logged into, the adhesives in corrugated cardboard.
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  I'll look into that and see if it's going to be an issue for microgreens and human health safety.
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  But it doesn't stop the experiment, does it, in the meantime?
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  So thank you very much for listening to Hydroponics Daily.
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  If you're on Apple Podcasts, please leave us a review. If you're not,
• 4:54
  chill out, relax, and I'll see you on the next episode. Goodbye.