With conventional horticultural practices i.e soil, most bacteria are beneficial to plants in terms of breaking down organic matter enabling the mineral elements contained within to be readily absorbed by the plant. In a hydroponic or aeroponic environment, these beneficials are not present, therefore the potential for problem airborne or soil borne micro-organisms attacking hydroponic crops is very high.

Prevention

Even with a good preventative maintenance program in place, problems can still occur such as algae blooms, pythium outbreaks, mould and mildew attacks. These can occur because of pH shifts, lack of oxygen, poor environment control and imported organic materials transferred by growers from other sites. In an indoor hydroponic environment the above is even more prevalent as the grower effectively becomes mother nature, therefore the need for an effective preventative maintenance program is vital.

What is it?

Microbial Is a wide-ranging aqueous solution derived in part from naturally occurring plant extracts. Microbial is non toxic to humans, animals and plants and is totally biodegradable and environmentally friendly

What does it do?

Microbial acts as a micro-cleanser and plant conditioner, which cleans and rejuvenates plants. This allows the plant to naturally withstand attacks from common pests and biological contaminants like bacteria, fungi, algae and viruses.

Microbial can either be applied directly onto the leaf surface or as a rootzone additive.

Before Microbial the only method of treating the above problems was by using heavy chemical sanitisers, fungicides and pesticides which in some cases do more harm than good, especially to crops that will eventually be consumed by humans.

Throw away the fungicides and pesticides

The horticultural industry as a whole will benefit by the use of Microbial in their respective growing environments because then the use of pesticides, fungicides and other harmful chemicals can be reduced if not totally eliminated, in turn reducing grower overheads and also benefiting the environment we live in as well.

Microbial will undoubtedly be the preferred method of overcoming plant related problems in the future and should be adopted by all growers in the horticultural industry as an integral part of the grower's overall preventative maintenance programme.