Coco Coir vs Rockwool in Soilless Crops
Choosing the right substrate is critical in greenhouse hydroponics. Coconut coir (coco peat) has become a renewable alternative to rockwool, and recent studies show it can match or exceed rockwool…
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Recent advances in hydroponic cucumber cultivation: media, irrigation, nutrition and biostimulants
Cucumber has become a model crop for testing new soilless technologies, with greenhouses adopting alternative substrates, precision fertigation and biostimulants. Over the last decade a series of peer-reviewed studies have…
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Foliar Calcium in Hydroponics
Calcium is essential yet poorly mobile in plants. Young leaves and fruit can go deficient even when solution Ca is adequate, because Ca rides the transpiration stream and is not…
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Do oil-producing crops need extra manganese or just enough?
Manganese is a workhorse micronutrient in plants. It is central to photosystem II, essential for the water splitting chemistry, and a cofactor for several enzymes. Given its importance, plants that…
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Moringa extract as a biostimulant in hydroponics
Moringa leaf extract (MLE) is a rather recent addition to the biostimulant market. Below I focus on peer-reviewed work in hydroponic or soilless systems, with attention to yield, quality, toxicity,…
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Exogenous Root Applications of Wetting Agents in Soilless Media
Introduction Dry peat, coir, rockwool or bark mixes can become water repellent, which creates uneven moisture and nutrient delivery around roots. Wetting agents reduce surface tension and restore wettability by…
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Root-applied auxins in hydroponics: where they help, where they don’t
Introduction Auxins can modulate root architecture, fruiting and stress responses. In hydroponic and substrate soilless systems, exogenous root-zone applications at very low ppm sometimes boost yield or quality. Push the…
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Recent findings in hydroponic and soilless strawberries: a data-first look at the last decade
Strawberry in controlled environments is not short on opinions. Research from the past 10 years has given us a lot of information on strategies to increase yields and reduce costs.…
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Recent advances in the cultivation of CEA tomatoes: evidence from 2015–2025
Hydroponic tomato yields are already high, yet many operations still leak performance through nutrient scheduling, canopy design, and stress control. Below is a blunt, data-driven synthesis for controlled environments based…
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How to easily lower the costs of your Athena nutrient regime
You can make your Athena schedule much cheaper by replacing the pH up products with simple raw salts. Branded pH management and buffering products like Athena Balance and Athena Pro…
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