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Developing a Biodegradable Controlled‑Release Fertiliser · 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 am your host, Dr. Russell Sharpe, the founder of Utreema Ltd,
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  and we manufacture fertilisers, biostimulants and biopesticides.
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  And today, we were manufacturing chytosan, our biofungicide that is proven very
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  effective on organic and conventional crops here in the UK and further afield.
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  Very busy day manufacturing that but also in
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  the lab we've been busy working on a
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  a an alternative to osmocote which
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  is a controlled release fertilizer a granule and
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  and we we're desperate to create a
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  alternative to that so that's been our priority for the next six months in r&d
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  osmocote is bad for a number of reasons the first reason is that it is made
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  from microplastics and you wantingly add microplastics to your soil or your
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  grow media is a stupid thing to do.
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  Second reason is that it's owned by ICL and ICL fund battalions of the Israeli
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  army that burn down greenhouses.
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  They sell white phosphorus for military use to
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  the American military who then sell white
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  phosphorus munitions to Israel and they're
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  used against civilians and cause burns and things like this talked about that
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  in the past and the other reason is icl are buying up all the fertilizer companies
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  pretty much or lots of the fertilizer companies in the uk and it's becoming
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  a bit of a monopoly so we need to crack that and one of their biggest selling
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  products is osmocote and so we're
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  going to come up with a biodegradable alternative that doesn't release.
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  Microplastics so that's been and we've had a really good breakthrough in
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  the lab today with that so i'm really happy with that i've got a beer on
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  i'm celebrating that win other things we've been doing in the lab we've been
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  looking at alter not alternatives but different growing media for growing microgreens
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  hydroponically and we've had some really good results with hemp matting that
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  has been proven to be the top growing media even better than coco coir.
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  We've got a couple of different mats on trial. Chris down at Dartmouth Grow,
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  he's been supplied some samples, I'm very appreciative of that, and we compared it to,
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  you might remember on a previous episode, one of the trials we were looking
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  at microgreens, we were comparing it to corrugated cardboard that had been shredded
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  and produced like a mat, and we produced that in our factory when we are recycling cardboard,
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  and I thought, wouldn't that make a good grow media for hydroponics?
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  It turns out, it makes a rubbish grow media. For some reason,
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  which I don't know, why the
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  the microgreens were deformed the the cotyledons grew deformed and they don't
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  produce anywhere near as luscious a growth near near as much biomass so the
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  cardboard idea is down the toilet.
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  Or certainly in the compost heap for certain okay
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  some other things i wanted to mention did you know in israel
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  that 90 percent of agricultural land is owned by the government so
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  that's a really high figure that is isn't it you
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  can't think of any other country where 90 percent of the agricultural land
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  is owned by the government often people you know
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  quite wrongly people compare israel to
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  the nazis and think of them as being really right wing but
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  that is a very left-wing policy isn't it's almost communist
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  to have 90 of the land owned by the government and ipso facto if 80 90 of agricultural
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  land is owned by the government then when you buy when supermarkets like waitrose
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  are buying samphire from israel they're buying it essentially from israeli government
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  land and endorsing Israel government policies as well.
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  So yeah, it's something to consider when you're buying crops from Israel.
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  You know they're grown on land owned by the government. Other things we've been looking at.
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  We've got an ebb and flood hydroponic system on
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  the go at the moment i've ignored it i've basically
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  left it to die and it hasn't died it's been
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  watered it's had a flood you wouldn't believe this mike it's grown in clay beads
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  you know these sort of lacquer beads and water like once a week once a fortnight
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  and still the plants are surviving perfectly well they are grass plants.
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  Not marijuana plants and black grass plants they're
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  they're a weed experiment we're looking at they're growing they're
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  not even wilting they're not showing no signs of stress at all and they've only
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  been watered once a week and you wouldn't think that for a hydroponic crop and
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  ebb and flood you know you're talking like you know flooded at least twice a
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  day at least but for optimum growth but they will survive for up to three weeks
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  without being watered crazy.
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  And the other thing is we're looking at getting a shipping container for setting
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  up a hydroponic growing shipping container i suspect
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  there are some things you need to consider before you
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  do that when you're even planning growing
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  in a shipping container i've never done it but what
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  if you have done it what are the stupid things
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  you must not do when growing in a shipping
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  container what are the do you have to get a specific shipping container
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  do you have to do something to the shipping container because i don't want to
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  invest in a shipping container going to start putting kit in there
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  and then realize that i've done something seriously wrong and have
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  to take it all out and start again so if you've done that let me
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  know other interesting facts i said 90 of
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  agricultural land in israel is about the government that's not
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  anything about israel that's just an interesting fact and
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  i don't know any other country where that would be the case maybe north korea
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  you know where it's all loaned by the government
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  in europe and in spain it's thought
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  that there are a need for professional drivers
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  to take the food the fresh produce from the
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  greenhouses and take it around europe do you
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  know how many vacancies there are for professional lorry
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  drivers well i'll tell you half a million
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  vacancies they are missing half a.
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  Million hgv drivers so if you've got hgv license and you are struggling for
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  work if you need you know what you call them in america semi trucks then get
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  yourself to spain because and southern france because they are missing out on
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  half a million professional drivers and i would imagine if you're missing out
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  on half a million drivers then wages will go up.
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  And then last interesting fact, did you know that Dr.
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  Dre's album Chronic is actually derived from the word hydroponic and the rapper
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  misinterpreting the word hydroponic?
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  I won't tell you why he was interested in hydroponics because it involves historical
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  hydroponics that is not essentially 100% legal.
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  And in this podcast, we only talk about legal grows and things like that so
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  legal cannabis and and legal crops other crops so we won't be talking about
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  why he misunderstood chronic for hydroponics but it's very interesting isn't it hydroponic chronic,
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  that's been hydroponics daily today a bit of a smorgasbord.
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  And do you know what i'm going to do tomorrow i'm going to do a podcast about,
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  nice hydroponics and nice horticulture from israel
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  because i don't want to be coming across as an anti-semite because i'm having
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  to go at icl all the time so i'm going to do all the good that's being done
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  in israel on hydroponics and horticulture so that no one can accuse me of being
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  a nasty anti-semite and just because i don't like the way icl work and their business practices,
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  and their products really their microplastic products
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  if you found this interesting then please leave
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  a review on apple podcasts if you haven't found that
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  interesting then don't well you know it's
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  a free world if you don't listen on apple then don't bother
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  leaving a review because it doesn't matter on any of the other podcast providers but
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  do check out utreema.co.uk you won't find
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  our biodegradable controlled release fertilizers on
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  there yet but hopefully we'll do soon in the new year
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  2026 watch this space all right you will
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  find loads of interesting things like our periodic table of plant health our
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  fertilizers you'll find a brochure with
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  um growth charts for hydroponics sports
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  turf anything all right i'll stop waffling on now and let you get back to your
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  day i'm gonna have a beer and watch the traitors does anyone else watch the
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  traitors the celebrity traitors get rid of jonathan ross yeah anyway if you're
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  not in the uk you've no idea what that means all right speak to you later thank
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  you very much for listening goodbye.