Innovations That Help You Grow, From Propagation to Postharvest
Oasis Grower Solutions and our OASIS® substrates are staples in the greenhouse, nursery and controlled environment agriculture (CEA) industries. Growers worldwide have been relying on OASIS® propagation media for more than half a century. The number of breeders, growers and researchers devoted to our substrates continues to grow. So does our suite of innovative products to help them succeed. As a division of Smithers-Oasis, our roots in engineered substrates run deep. Your substrate choice is critical to your success, but substrates alone don’t make the crop. That’s why our horticulture and CEA experts, along with our Research, Innovation & Development team, continually work to expand our product lines. Yes, they’re designed to complement our substrates. But above all, they’re designed to help you grow, sell and be profitable. Propagation Solutions You’ve probably seen us refer to our latest substrate introduction, OASIS® RhizoPlug™ Tray, as The Ultimate Propagation Experience. For precision vegetative propagators, this next-generation substrate delivers a next-level experience — and results. OASIS® RhizoPlug™ substrates significantly outperform earlier generations of our engineered substrates. But they’re also up to 20% faster to root, extract and transplant compared to loose fill, stabilized and bonded media. Plus, everything is cleaner with RhizoPlug™, from the substrate itself to your propagation area’s benches and floors. If you haven’t tried RhizoPlug™, you owe it to yourself. Of course, RhizoPlug™ substrates aren’t the only propagation innovations we offer to help you grow. From the poinsettia propagators’ dream substrate, OASIS® Wedge®, to OASIS® Fertiss® stabilized media, we have innovations and expertise to help you excel. Whether you’re propagating challenging varieties, fragile tissue culture, or just young plants you want to take to their full potential, we can help you achieve your growing goals. Hydroponic Solutions Our OASIS® AeroSubstrates™ offer hydroponic growers an exceptional cultivation experience that transcends what CEA farmers have come to expect. Technologies, markets and competition are changing rapidly. Staying up to pace with CEA’s evolution is vital for growers set on feeding the world. If that’s you, we’re here for you. One common misconception about controlled environments is that nothing outside matters. But we understand that’s not the case. Seasonal shifts, weather extremes and climate change all have an impact, even in CEA. Our low-carbon-footprint OASIS® AeroMax™ and OASIS® AeroSelect™ substrates were developed in response to requests from growers dealing with CEA’s realities. Substrate options in our super-clean, food-safe OASIS® AeroSubstrates™ line are optimized for varied climates, crops and CEA growing systems. From moderate climates to tropical locales, and from microgreens and baby leaf to finicky spinach, we have a precision hydroponic substrate for you — and you have a partner that listens and responds to your needs. Production Aids Helping you grow more efficiently, effectively and sustainably matters to us. From essential plant nutrition to wetting agents, our production aids support stronger margins, improved quality and a better world. If you grow hydroponically, get to know OASIS® Hydroponic Fertilizer 16-4-17. Designed especially for young plant production, this fertilizer resulted from a research collaboration between Vijay Rapaka, Ph.D., our Director of Global Grower Operations & Research, and Cari Peters, Ph.D., of Jack’s Fertilizer/ J.R. Peters, Inc. (Our research update on their work could make a difference in how you grow.) As unpredictable weather and operational costs rise, wetting agents will become indispensable for greenhouse and nursery growers seeking to grow sustainably and competitively. Our OASIS® SOAX® standard and advanced wetting agent formulations can help. From improved longevity for stored media to heightened irrigation efficiency, these premium surfactants help optimize water management and inputs and improve overall plant health. Postharvest Quality Here at Oasis Grower Solutions, our concern for your profits and plants doesn’t stop with production. Postharvest practices to preserve quality can make or break a business when your crops hit retail garden centers and landscapes. Our expanding postharvest quality line helps fight shrink and the factors that jeopardize unrooted cuttings, liners and finished plants during shipping. We have you covered with visual appeal and improved sell-through at retail, too. EthylBloc™ ethylene-action inhibitor, invented by our own Jim Daly, Smithers-Oasis VP of Global FloraLife, Oasis Grower Solutions & Research, works naturally with plants to block the damaging action of ethylene gas. From ethylene-sensitive unrooted cuttings to truckloads of finished tropicals, EthylBloc™ helps maintain your shipment’s quality from your dock to your destination. Protecting box shipments from common humidity-related damage is simple with convenient, easy-to-use FloraLife® Transport Paper. Fast-drying FloraLife® LeafShine aerosol is the perfect fix when foliage plants need cleaner leaves and a natural shine to capture shoppers’ eyes. Cultivate’25, July 12-15! As this month’s news goes out to you, AmericanHort’s Cultivate’25 event in Columbus, Ohio, USA, is just two weeks away. We’re always excited to share our innovations with everyone we see at the show. But we’re even more excited to hear about your operation and learn how we can help you grow. If you’ll be in Columbus, we invite you to stop by and see us in Booth 1315. If you can’t make the show, reach out to us at +1 (855) 585-4769 or [email protected] instead. We’d love to share more about innovations that help you grow, from propagation to postharvest. We’re Oasis Grower Solutions. We have the answers you need.
OASIS® Wedge® Season Is Here!
Another poinsettia propagation season (aka OASIS® Wedge® season) is well underway here at Oasis Grower Solutions. Poinsettia propagators worldwide are prepped to receive their unrooted cuttings and start sticking the 2025 crop of the world’s favorite holiday potted plant. This year, like every year for decades, the overwhelming majority of the millions of poinsettias grown will get their start in OASIS® Wedge® propagation media, from mother stock for poinsettia cutting production to finished plants. It’s no coincidence that’s true year after year. Whenever poinsettia propagation season approaches, our team fields quite a few questions about how OASIS® Wedge® can make your life easier and improve your results. Sharing knowledge and helping you grow is paramount to us, so we’re answering a few common Wedge® questions here. Q: Why do you call OASIS® Wedge® The Poinsettia Propagator’s Dream Substrate? A: We didn’t come up with that name ourselves — poinsettia propagators did — but we’re happy to claim it as our own. OASIS® Wedge® is an excellent substrate for many types of challenging plants, but our team was focused on poinsettia propagation when Wedge® was born. The development of this substrate was fueled by input from the world’s leading poinsettia breeders and propagators. It’s the only engineered propagation substrate that can say that. From cleanliness and superior cutting hydration to the wedge shape that drives fast, consistent and uniform root development and growth, OASIS® Wedge® and poinsettia URCs were literally made for each other. It’s no surprise that more poinsettia breeders and propagators worldwide use OASIS® Wedge® than any other substrate. Q: Why should I use OASIS® Wedge® instead of peat-based media? A: If you propagate poinsettias, you know how crucial hydration is during the critical period of root initiation. You also know larger foliage and high evapotranspiration rates of poinsettia URCs can make hydration challenging. Excessive misting sets off a chain of additional problems, from nutrient leaching and pathogen growth to extra labor costs. While OASIS® Wedge® has many benefits over peat-based mixes, matric potential is a major differentiator — and an inherent problem with peat. Compared to Wedge® engineered media, peat has a much higher matric potential. That means that peat holds water more tightly and restricts the water availability, even when the substrate is saturated. Cuttings try to pull water, the peat fights back, and a tug-of-war ensues. In contrast, Wedge® keeps water readily available, so your cuttings don’t have to fight for a drink. Instead of wilting, excessive misting and overwatering with peat, you get superior cutting hydration with Wedge.® (For more background, see our research on poinsettia cutting hydration in Wedge® versus peat-lite soilless mix.) Q: How does OASIS® Wedge® help reduce pest and disease pressure? A: When Wedge® ships to your propagation operation, it leaves our facility clean and free of pathogens and pests — including fungus gnat larvae and other surprises often found in peat mixes and other substrates. When you combine cleanliness with a substrate that balances water availability and proper drainage, you’re ahead of pest and disease pressures from the start, even with problematic or disease-prone plants. Overwatering is the most common mistake propagators make with poinsettia cuttings. Used properly, Wedge® eliminates the risk of overwatering. That also eliminates the waterlogged root zone conditions that poinsettias hate — and bacterial pathogens love. Rather than creating a rooting environment that favors pathogens, Wedge® does the opposite to minimize disease pressures, from meltdown to Pythium and Erwinia. Q: So how can OASIS® Wedge® make my life easier? A: Besides the reasons above, OASIS® Wedge® saves you time, labor and mess. This substrate comes preloaded in trays or strips, ready to go on demand. No delays to fill trays or wait for equipment repairs. With Wedge®, the variability and inconsistency of loose fill trays is a thing of the past. You can trust every batch will be the same. Our versatile OASIS® Wedge® Strips make it easy to review the propagation bed at callus formation, and simplify spacing, handling and moving throughout propagation. You can optimize flexibility in scheduling and make more efficient use of bench space and your staff. Our Wedge® Strip Carrier Trays make it easy to hold the strips on any surface during propagation (and shipping) to streamline the process and make your life even easier. With robust, uniform root formation of OASIS® Wedge®, your cuttings can be ready for extraction when cuttings in peat-based substrates are still days away. And when transplant time comes, for you or your liner customers, you can count on Wedge® for no transplant shock or delay. (You can find the research and best practices for optimal transplant quality on our site as well.) To answer your next question, yes, there’s still time to get OASIS® Wedge® this year. You can learn firsthand why the world’s leading poinsettia breeders and propagators rely on Wedge®. Reach out to your Territory Sales Manager or contact us at [email protected] or +1 (855) 585-4769. Keep those questions coming. We're Oasis Grower Solutions. We have the answers you need.
Building a More Resilient Future with AgBiotech Research
AgBiotech, short for Agricultural Biotechnology, isn’t a term you often hear around horticulture and greenhouse businesses or even in CEA. But that’s changing quickly. Field agriculture and row crops such as corn, wheat, rice and soybean are coming into the greenhouse, thanks to AgBiotech research. And we’re pleased that our Oasis Grower Solutions products, from substrates and fertilizers to wetting agents, are helping AgBiotech researchers build a more resilient future for us all. Why AgBiotech Research Is Important New plant varieties have always been important in commercial horticulture and agriculture. But recent years have added urgency to the work of traditional plant breeders — and AgBiotech researchers discovering and developing new plants. With climate change, weather events are more extreme. Growers and farmers bounce from drought and water scarcity to torrential rains and flooding. Plant diseases and insect pests thrive where they couldn’t survive before. And urban sprawl eats up crop land. Meanwhile, global populations keep growing. In response, AgBiotech researchers focus on increased crop yields and nutrient content; improved tolerances to pests, diseases and herbicides; resilience to extreme wind events; and plant-based vaccines and medicines to help feed and protect a growing world. Our Director of Global Grower Operations and Research, Dr. Vijay Rapaka, studied agricultural science before going on to earn his Ph.D. in Ornamental Horticulture. “It has always been a dream of mine to further the development of row crops,” he shares. “To see our products being used as tools in such pioneering work is a dream come true.” How AgBiotech Research Has Expanded One researcher using OASIS® products explains that AgBiotech initially focused only on row crops that constitute the vast majority of the world’s food for human consumption and animal feed. Today, AgBiotech extends to vegetables, fruits and flowers, as well as industrial crops such as hemp. Before joining our team last fall, our Plant Scientist, Erin Yafuso, Ph.D., conducted plant research using AgBiotech methods, including using CRISPR to switch-on oil genes in sugarcane, and research in strawberry and poinsettia propagation. “With OASIS® growing media, I could manipulate the foam and consistently root plants in controlled environments,” Dr. Yafuso says. “This included rooting strawberry runner tips for nutrition studies in deep-water culture and rooting poinsettia for exploratory research using CT scanning to study root-zone water management.” Through the years, the AgBiotech industry has incorporated more horticultural practices, regardless of the crop, to improve control during research and preserve the value of individual plants selected for further study and development, which can then be scaled up in production settings. Regardless of the crop or scale, control is critical at each stage within AgBiotech research to allow for the discovery, phenotyping and development of new crops. Our Oasis Grower Solutions products are valuable tools at each stage in these AgBiotech processes. How Our Products Aid AgBiotech Research In addition to traditional breeding and selection techniques, AgBiotech researchers use many less conventional technologies as they seek to discover and develop new plants and crops. Blending horticulture and agriculture with genetics and chemistry, these technologies include varied tissue culture methods, from simple micropropagation to complex techniques like embryo rescue and double haploid production, as well as marker-assisted selection (MAS), genetic engineering, gene editing and more. Our Oasis Grower Solutions products help provide researchers with the control they need in the propagation and establishment of seedlings or cuttings, care of selected tissue culture plantlets during early characterization and sampling, water and fertility management, and the transition of plant material to production environments whether greenhouse or fields. AgBiotech researchers tell us our products provide the following benefits and more: + OASIS® engineered foam substrates can be sanitized or sterilized chemically or physically without breaking down or altering their physical structure. + Predibbled holes in our sterilized media permit the damage-free transfer of fragile tissue culture plantlets into a substrate environment. + Our foam substrates’ open cell design permits easy root development, even for fragile young plantlets and seedlings. + Experimental treatments can be added to and easily replaced by washing or vacuum suction from the cellular foam substrate, allowing for greater control in treatment environments. + OASIS® foam substrates give researchers flexibility to apply more treatments while minimizing plant stress, preserving the plant’s inherent value early in development pipelines. + Convenient OASIS® fertilizers offer a complete nutrient blend to meet the need of transplants, whether in hydroponic conditions or foam-based media into peat. + OASIS® SOAX® Wetting Agents help manage and revitalize substrates to improve full rooting access throughout the production container. As the vital work of AgBiotech researchers continues to expand and advance, we’re grateful that our Oasis Grower Solutions products play significant roles. From AgBiotech research to greenhouse and nursery production to CEA cultivation, we exist to solve your problems with innovative solutions and integrity. Reach out to us at +1 (855) 585-4769 or [email protected]. We’re Oasis Grower Solutions. Let us help you meet the future and excel.
Microgreens. Fast, Simple and Super Clean.
The last few years have seen Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) expand beyond mainstay crops. Leafy greens and high-wire crops remain the stars, but diversification is the buzzword for new and existing farms. A recent industry survey reported microgreens are experiencing steady growth among CEA farmers seeking new revenue streams. If you’re one of those growers or plan to be, we have some advice: Take a close look at OASIS® AeroSubstrates™ microgreens sheets and OASIS® Hydroponic Fertilizer 16-4-17. Short and simple, this microgreens duo delivers an exceptional cultivation experience with results to match. From moisture retention to germination and growth, our engineered low-carbon-footprint microgreen substrates help lift microcrops to their full potential — fast, simple and super clean. You can lower production costs, improve microgreen quality, and gain a competitive edge at market. It’s a new kind of cultivation experience, from start to end. Precision. Even in Short Crop Cycles. By definition, microgreens have crop cycles less than 21 days, but many varieties harvest in half that time. When every day can represent one-tenth of your crop cycle, every aspect of cultivation gains importance. From enhanced moisture retention and nutrient uptake to cleanliness at every step, OASIS® AeroSubstrates™ microgreens sheets excel. Precision growers can exert maximum influence, ensuring microgreens reach peak performance in their brief lifespan. Designed for precision hydroponics, like all OASIS® AeroSubstrates™, our plain, undibbled microgreens sheets are optimized, beginning with thickness and water holding capacity that eliminates the need for daily maintenance. OASIS® AeroMax™ targets maximum air porosity, moderate climates and lower water demand. OASIS® AeroSelect™ offers higher water holding capacity for warmer climates and higher water demand. We understand the size, shape and form of your ideal microgreens substrate may be totally unique to your operation. We’re ready to respond with substrate customizations tailored to your production needs. Whatever food-safe OASIS® AeroSubstrates™ product suits your program, you can expect uniform germination, easy and rapid root penetration, and unrestricted microgreen growth. Free of pests and pathogens, our engineered substrates deliver structural stability, uncompromised air-to-water ratios, and maximum precision throughout microgreens production. Results. Maximized From Day 1. When we talk about our substrate performance, it’s based on hands-on experience from our in-house research and trials in the field. While our engineered substrates deliver superior results, they’re even more impressive paired with OASIS® Hydroponic Fertilizer 16-4-17. Some camps hold that microgreens require few or no inputs, but we suggest there’s a difference between minimum requirements and exceptional performance. More than a decade ago, research by Vijay Rapaka, Ph.D., now our Director of Global Grower Operations and Research, identified a gap in nutrient requirements between seeding and germination with hydroponic lettuce. He notes that microgreens, like lettuce, are a crop where time, space and efficiency are critical to grower success. At a time when most growers advised withholding nutrients until after germination, Dr. Rapaka and Cari Peters, Ph.D., formulator and managing partner at JR Peters / Jack’s Fertilizers, discovered that seedlings benefit most when the radicle emerges to readily available nutrients, not a nutrient gap. That discovery spurred the development of OASIS® Hydroponic Fertilizer 16-4-17 and our unwavering recommendation for nutrients from Day 1. In on-site microgreens trials at our RI&D greenhouse, our Product Application Specialist Sarah Miller reports OASIS® AeroSubstrates™ microgreens sheets “far outperformed” competing bio-based nonwovens or felt pads: “Our substrate held moisture better, had more uniform germination, and faster growth.” As evidenced by microgreen crops like the one in the image below, every day counts toward superior, substantial growth. Cleanliness. Translated to Sales. One factor driving CEA interest in microgreens is their growing popularity with health-conscious consumers. Years of ongoing research at the USDA’s United States Horticultural Research Laboratory confirms the health benefits of these small but mighty crops, including vitamin and carotenoid levels about five times that of their mature versions. While nutritional value is a central selling point as growers look to microgreens as a viable commercial crop at scale, it’s not the only factor impacting sales and profitability. Appearance, quality and convenience rank high on the list of drivers for consumers and growers alike. The cleanliness of microcrops grown in our engineered substrates can be a differentiator for your farm — from enhanced food safety to reduced labor costs to increased sales. From our perspective, clamshells filled with vibrant super-clean microgreens, uncontaminated by remnant soil, win at market every time. If you’re still growing in loose fill, you and your customers are in for a treat. As Sarah reminds us, “Growing in our substrate leads to a cleaner, easier harvest compared to loose fill, which tends to stick to the crop and make a mess.” With precision hydroponic OASIS® AeroSubstrates™ microgreen sheets and OASIS® Hydroponic Fertilizer 16-4-17, you can have faster, cleaner times to harvest and faster, cleaner harvesting times, too. For automated or manual operations, our low-carbon-footprint engineered hydroponic substrates keep your microgreen production fast, simple and super clean. Whether your next crop is microgreens or something else, we’re here to help solve your problems and help you excel. We’re Oasis Grower Solutions. Reach out to us at +1 (855) 585-4769 or [email protected].
Reach Higher. OASIS® AeroSubstrates™ Are Here
Take hydroponic cultivation to the next level with next-generation precision substrates. The Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) industry has seen more than its share of upheaval lately. As this rapidly evolving industry settles, the competition among the companies still standing is tougher than ever before. Growers need every competitive advantage to help lift them over the line to long-term success. We understand many factors go into creating healthy, productive hydroponic growing environments. But the importance of substrates can’t be overemphasized. The right choice can help you conserve resources, optimize inputs, reduce labor and shorten crop cycles, which translates to more product for sale. OASIS® AeroSubstrates™ can help you achieve all of the above and much more. If you’re already a fan of earlier generations of OASIS® hydroponic media, we encourage you to move into the next generation. If you’re a distributor looking for an edge to offer your customers, it’s time you took a closer look. And if you’re a grower searching for a superior hydroponic substrate, look no further. Reach higher with OASIS® AeroSubstrates™. Clean, free of pests and pathogens Cleanliness and food safety are two of the most pressing issues facing CEA growers today. Our labor-saving OASIS® AeroSubstrates™ support cleaner cultivation and food safety from seeding to harvest — with no messy peat, organic materials, or coarse itchy fibers. Used properly, OASIS® AeroSubstrates™ engineered foam media is a valuable component in effective food safety programs, one that supports you for the long haul. By the time OASIS® AeroSubstrates™ arrive at your operation, they’ve undergone intensive processes to ensure they’re free of pests, pathogens, physical contaminants, pesticides or excess chemicals — as are all our engineered OASIS® substrates. Our manufacturing doesn’t include any agricultural products. Our production process itself includes kill steps that help address food safety risks, so you don’t have to worry about disinfection and/or sterilization of our products. We also thoroughly inspect shipping containers and trucks to prevent any contamination risk. Our ISO 9001:2015 certification demonstrates our desire to always perform at the highest levels of quality and efficiency. Optimized for Climate, Crop — and Crop Steering Climate change is rewriting the rules of farming. Seasonal and year-round environmental shifts impact general hydroponic production, but also the specific crops you grow and the resources it takes to grow them. Our OASIS® AeroSubstrates™ expand your choices for hydroponic media to accommodate these shifts. OASIS® AeroMax™ substrates, available as sheet media (including microgreen sheets) and automation-ready plug trays, support crops and conditions with lower water demand. With root zone air porosity maximized, crops enjoy uniform germination, rapid root penetration and unrestricted seedling growth — and the drier substrate surface minimizes algae formation. OASIS® AeroSelect™ substrates, also available as sheets and automation-ready plug trays, represent our response to requests from growers working with crops and conditions with higher water demand. These grower-driven solutions optimize water-holding capacity and air porosity for exceptional performance, even with finicky spinach. Cultivators also benefit when it comes to precision nutrient control. These inert substrates ship without a starter charge, so you can target specific crop needs with maximum ease, flexibility and precision, even when environmental conditions shift. Your nutrients stay fully dissolved in water and readily available for plant uptake. Low Product Carbon Footprint Making the switch to OASIS® AeroSubstrates™ isn’t just about growing more profitably. It’s about growing more sustainably, too. As we’ve shared in the past, our third-party Product Carbon Footprint Assessment conclusively confirmed that OASIS® AeroSubstrates™ are a sound choice for sustainability-minded growers — which we believe encompasses the CEA industry as a whole. In a Cradle-to-Grave carbon footprint assessment comparing OASIS® AeroMax™ to two peat-based products, including one of our own, the CO2 equivalent emissions for Pressed Peat were more than 40 times higher than an equivalent OASIS® AeroMax™ plug. Gravity Filled Loose Plugs came in with CO2e emissions 12.5 times higher than our equivalent engineered substrate plug. If you know us at all, you understand that we’re serious about improving the sustainability of all our engineered substrates even more. Are we there yet? Not quite. But we will be — and our customers will be there with us, too. Available When and Where You Need Us A final point we want to make today is about reliability. Structurally, our OASIS® AeroSubstrates™ are so reliable they’re used by AgBiotech researchers in rigorous research. But, even more importantly, you can also rely on the OASIS® AeroSubstrates™ supply chain. Our established global presence and international manufacturing capacity ensure a stable, reliable availability for growers and distributors worldwide. Once OASIS® AeroSubstrates™ are on site at your operation, they’re available when you need them there, too. Our ready-on-demand, preloaded singulated OASIS® AeroSubstrates™ PlugTrays and grower-ready OASIS® AeroSubstrates™ PlugSheets — pre-dibbled for single or multi-seed, undibbled for microgreens — are ready to save your automated or manual operation time and labor. And they’re ready to elevate your results with improved uniformity, better quality, higher yields, and crop cycles up to 20% shorter than their predecessors. Whether you’re a loyal OASIS® customer, a potential customer discovering our edge, or a distributor looking to secure your business share, why not reach higher? Lean into us. We’re Oasis Grower Solutions. OASIS® AeroSubstrates™ are here.
Have It Your Way, with Ready-to-Use OASIS® Fertiss® PlugTray
Every aspect of the growing business is on the fast track these days. That extends from new technologies and production practices to the crops you grow. End consumers are demanding new standards and fresh choices, and retailers follow suit. Meanwhile, your competitors are racing to meet those requests before you do. At Oasis Grower Solutions, we’re here to help you make the most of new opportunities — and support you in times of change. One way we achieve that is with OASIS® Fertiss® PlugTray and our customization options that let you do stabilized media your way. The OASIS® Fertiss® Advantage Before we get into custom options to complement your unique operation, we want to remind you why leading propagators and producers pick OASIS® Fertiss® PlugTray stabilized plug media over the competition. Your Oasis Grower Solutions Technical Sales Representative can share even more reasons, but we’ll start with five: These labor-saving, ready-on-demand stabilized plugs arrive at your dock or door preloaded and protected in stackable trays, not compressed or crushed. You can focus on propagation and growing instead of filling machines and plug production equipment — or, worse yet, equipment breakdowns that keep your team idle. Our specialized manufacturing process allows us to retain control of the media’s density and composition as soilless OASIS® Fertiss® PlugTray media feeds into its stabilizing wrap. Unlike some of our heavily compacted competitors, our stabilized plug media stays consistent, uncompacted and ready for you. Vegetative cuttings for annuals and perennials insert quickly and easily in our even, uncompacted plugs. You save on time and labor, with no more worries about tip damage and wasted cuttings. Incidentally, OASIS® Fertiss® excels with seed, too. Even tender Stage III tissue culture is simple, easy and damage free when you choose OASIS® Fertiss®. Our standard OASIS® Fertiss® plugs, composed of Canadian sphagnum peat moss and perlite, ship at ~60% moisture content with high-quality advanced wetting agents to support thorough, rapid rewetting on your end. The uncompacted media makes it easier to maintain consistent moisture levels, too. Our specially designed trays keep your plugs secure and promote natural air pruning the full plug length. That translates to multiple benefits, from shorter bench times and optimized production costs to superior transplant performance. And, if you’re shipping young plants, your customers will appreciate the easy extraction and intact root balls, too. For one last word on how our stabilized media compares, we asked our Product Applications Specialist Sarah Miller, who coordinates research trials at our on-site Research, Innovation & Development facility in Kent, Ohio USA. For Sarah, who’s stuck her share of cuttings in OASIS® Fertiss® plugs and competing stabilized plug products, the answer was simple: “From my experience, sticking in OASIS® Fertiss® is way easier and faster compared to other wrapped plugs.” Options to Make OASIS® Fertiss® Your Own Order our standard, peat-based OASIS® Fertiss® PlugTray and you can choose from more than a dozen cell and tray configurations right from the start. From full and split PlugTrays to convenient PlugStrips, those wide-ranging options help streamline spacing, handling and grading during propagation and production. OASIS® Fertiss® also offers multiple plug dimensions to suit the plants you grow — or plan to grow. Whether you’re propagating the latest trending tropicals or claiming your share of the growing demand for culinary herbs or ferns, OASIS® Fertiss® offers a stabilized plug option to help ensure you succeed. While our peat-and-perlite OASIS® Fertiss® plugs are the standard, we understand that standards are changing — and your desire or need for media blends may be changing, too. If you’d like to talk about custom blends or custom mixes — including peat-free customizations like coco, or peat-only plugs for those low-pH crops — reach out now. We welcome the opportunity to hear about your needs and walk you through the possibilities available to you with OASIS® Fertiss® PlugTray. As you may know, our standard pH-adjusted OASIS® Fertiss® PlugTrays ship with no starter charge. But you can customize both your pH and the fertilizer charge to meet the needs of the crops you grow. Finally, OASIS® Fertiss® PlugTray is available in case quantities, as well as full, half and quarter pallet quantities. And if you don’t see what your operation needs, we want to hear about it. Providing solutions to help you succeed is what we’re all about. It’s time to say goodbye to labor-intensive loose fill, limited options and tough-to-stick compacted plugs. Move into stabilized plug media done your way with OASIS® Fertiss® PlugTray. We’re Oasis Growers Solutions. We’re here to help you grow.
Grow Sustainably with OASIS® SOAX® Wetting Agents
Whether you’re producing greenhouse crops or nursery stock, irrigation efficiency is a crucial part of your success. How you manage — or don’t manage — your water use will significantly impact your operational costs, plant quality and the environment. As water scarcity, labor and input costs increase, we’re focused on developing and providing solutions that can help you grow more efficiently, profitably and sustainably. Surfactants like those in our family of OASIS® SOAX® Wetting Agents are near the top of the list. How Wetting Agents Can Help You Grow Wetting agents work by reducing the surface tension of water. What does that mean for a grower? Put simply, instead of water molecules sticking together, channeling down the side of containers and creating runoff, water can penetrate and spread through your substrate easily and evenly. You can trade labor-intensive spot watering for regularly scheduled watering events and more predictable and uniform production. If you’ve ever had a substrate dry out on you unexpectedly, you know how difficult rehydrating that growing media can be — and how young plants and established container crops can suffer as a result. With OASIS® SOAX® Wetting Agents at work, you can avoid that scenario and prevent dry down from happening. And you can get your substrate back on track more easily if it does. Smithers-Oasis Horticultural Research Manager Garry Legnani, PhD., our resident wetting agent expert, tells us, “Water use efficiency is the cornerstone of a sustainable growing operation and the foundation our wetting agent research. In essence we are trying to get the most efficient use out of the water molecule.” When a premium liquid or granular surfactant like those in the OASIS® SOAX® family is part of your substrate preparation, ongoing maintenance or a pre-shipping drench, that substrate is transformed. That may sound like a big claim, but it’s true. It’s not the same old substrate anymore. Benefits You Can See With OASIS® SOAX® OASIS® SOAX® Wetting Agents provide your crops with protection in the greenhouse, the field and on challenging retail lots, even when unexperienced seasonal staff steps in. As Dr. Legnani notes, your plants can face their greatest challenges after they leave your control. “Unfortunately, good watering practices are the exception and not the norm in the retail environment,” he adds. But how your plants perform on customers’ lots can be the difference between costly claims and happy customers. With OASIS® SOAX® Wetting Agents, you can: Optimize water efficiency and nutrient inputs Accelerate initial substrate wetting and rewetting Maintain more consistent substrate moisture Improve water penetration and nutrient uptake Prevent water repellency, minimize channeling Reduce irrigation frequency and spot watering requirements (and related labor) Protect plant quality and retail sell-through, and more! All those benefits add up to improved sustainability and better plant performance, which bring more value to your plants before and after they leave your dock. Which OASIS® SOAX® Wetting Agent Is for You? With the surfactants offered in the OASIS® SOAX® family, your operation is covered for new mixes, stored substrates and varied longevity requirements: OASIS® SOAX® Liquid Wetting Agent is designed to optimize the initial wetting and rewetting of new substrate mixes that won’t be stored. It’s ideal for incorporating into new mixes before filling containers and keeping your greenhouse or nursery crops well hydrated from propagation through retail. OASIS® SOAX® Granular Wetting Agent targets new substrate mixes that don’t require prolonged storage. Paired with a vermiculite carrier, this low bulk density surfactant blends into new mixes easily and uniformly, with no extra water required during mixing. That’s a bonus, especially for cold-climate growers. OASIS SOAX Advanced Liquid Wetting Agent was formulated especially for extended longevity to provide accelerated wetting and rewetting for substrates, whatever your needs. This proprietary blend of surfactants helps you optimize water efficiency, whether your substrate is headed for immediate use or storage for several months. What’s Next for OASIS® SOAX® Wetting Agents Let’s just say our work in developing new wetting agents to solve your real-world problems isn’t finished yet. Research on new and improved wetting agent products and applications is a priority for our team. Dr. Legnani says, “The learning never stops as we focus on ease of application for the customer and the incorporation of naturally derived sustainable chemistries." Vijay Rapaka, Ph.D., our Director of Global Grower Operations and Research, explains why wetting agents — and sustainable plant production — deserve our attention and yours: “With irregular weather patterns and the rise in micro-regional flash droughts, it is more imperative than ever before to consider wetting agents an everyday essential for greenhouse and nursery crop production. On top of that, wetting agents are the right inputs for a successful sustainable plant production program.” If you’ve never used wetting agents at your operation, let our team of horticultural experts help you explore how your business can benefit. If wetting agents are already a staple at your operation, let’s talk about why you should give OASIS® SOAX® a closer look. If you’re already a satisfied OASIS® SOAX® customer, let us know. We’d love to hear from you, too. Reach out to us at [email protected] or +1 (855) 585-4769. We’re Oasis Grower Solutions. Solving problems for growers is why we’re here. Let us help you excel.
Do You Know? What’s New About Our Next Generation Substrates
One of the most common questions we get here at Oasis Grower Solutions is how our new “next generation” substrates, like OASIS® RhizoPlug™ Tray, are different from the OASIS® substrates you’ve come to know and trust through the years. Before we go any further, let us make this clear: Your favorites in that previous generation, including OASIS® Wedge® propagation substrate, aren’t going anywhere. However, for many of you, the crops you grow and how you grow them have changed a lot since the first time the predecessors to our next-generation substrates landed on your dock. Young plant production with today’s growing environments, new genetics and production technologies — from climate controls and supplemental LED lighting to automation and sticking robots — looks a lot different than it did just a few years ago. If you’ve been following the narrative on our new OASIS® RhizoPlug™ Tray — aka The Ultimate Propagation Experience — you know this new generation of foam substrates came about because we believed that industry changes demanded a new approach. OASIS® RhizoPlug™ was the result. Is it the substrate for you? We’ll let you decide. But understanding the generational differences between our substrates can help. Bulk Density and Crop Considerations OASIS® Wedge® is an exceptional propagation media for poinsettias and similar crops. Known as The Poinsettia Propagator’s Dream, it was designed with poinsettias in mind. The bulk density and corresponding resistance of OASIS® Wedge® suits sturdy cuttings well. But soft, fragile annuals and Stage III tissue culture crops are a different story. One of the drivers behind the development of OASIS® RhizoPlug™ substrates was a request from floriculture growers for an engineered substrate that could handle tender cuttings without breakage, tip damage and cutting loss. In OASIS® RhizoPlug™ substrates, we decreased the foam’s density and resistance. The result is fast, easy, damage-free sticking — even with fragile varieties. Porosity and Cutting Hydration and Recovery One of things poinsettia propagators love about OASIS® Wedge® is the ability to mist cuttings as needed, without worrying about overwatering — the No. 1 error in poinsettia propagation. The higher air porosity of OASIS® Wedge® ensures poinsettias and similar cuttings stay well aerated and well hydrated during critical root initiation. When our Research, Innovation & Development team designed OASIS® RhizoPlug™, we took rehydration and recovery up a notch, with a broader range of floriculture crops in mind. With this new substrate generation and its advanced surfactant technology, cuttings rehydrate and recover faster. That translates to an earlier reduction in misting frequency, reduced pest and pathogen pressures, and less labor, too. Cell Structure and Capillary Action As poinsettia breeders and propagators regularly tell us, the water holding capacity and capillarity of OASIS® Wedge® is ideal for poinsettia propagation. At transplant, the substrate interfaces well with inorganic growing media. But in some cases, organic media can rapidly draw water away from the plugs, causing them to dry out if growers aren’t vigilant. At the request of propagators of other floriculture crops, we developed the ultrafine cell structure you experience with OASIS® RhizoPlug™. The result is higher water holding capacity, improved capillarity and an outstanding transplant interface with both non-organic and organic growing media, including peat, coco, wood fiber and other blends. Ease of Extraction and Automation Readiness OASIS® Wedge® has many benefits, but being automation-ready isn’t one of them. We don’t consider that a fault, simply a fact. This generation of substrates wasn’t designed for automated sticking or transplanting. Instead, the different configurations were designed for ease of manual handling, sorting, grading and spacing. OASIS® RhizoPlug™ Tray represents our very first automation-ready engineered substrate. Every aspect of the product — from the labor-saving preloaded trays to the singulated plugs themselves — was designed for seamless integration with automation equipment. Easy sticking, no root tangling, no broken roots at transplant, no transplant shock. That goes for manual operators, too. Research Trials and Young Plant Quality As we write this, our next generation substrates are proving themselves with floriculture growers across the country, from border to border and coast to coast. The results confirm that OASIS® RhizoPlug™ substrates deliver significantly improved rooting performance, with faster establishment and root formation compared to its predecessor. Before we brought OASIS® RhizoPlug™ Tray to market, we conducted rigorous trials against loose fill and specialty media, including stabilized plugs. This new generation of engineered substrate delivered faster, better, more consistent and more uniform rooting, plus profuse root and shoot growth for exceptional young plants — and cut down bench time by up to 20%. As Dr. Vijay Rapaka, our Director of Global Grower Operations and Research, often tells us, Oasis Grower Solutions is here to solve problems that growers face. Do our OASIS® RhizoPlug™ substrates solve your problems? Give us a call; we’ll help you decide. Don’t worry, there’s no hard sell here — just honest, solid advice from people who have your success foremost in mind.
Step Up to the Ultimate Propagation Experience
Being in the business of growing plants has never been easy. It took determination, commitment and passion to build the floriculture and horticulture businesses that make the world a better, more beautiful place. But thanks to climate change, rising input costs and unstable labor markets, growers today face a whole new set of problems. Problems that demand a new approach. As you should know by now, here at Oasis Grower Solutions, we’re in the problem-solving business. We exist to support breeders, propagators and growers like you. We listen to your problems, take them back to our Research, Innovation & Development team, and respond with new products to help you succeed. That’s why we developed the Ultimate Propagation Experience: OASIS® RhizoPlug™ Tray for precision vegetative propagation. Whether you’re running a manual hoop house operation or automated young plant production on indoor vertical racks, we believe this substrate can help overcome the challenges you face. We invite you to dive into the future of substrates. Step up to OASIS® RhizoPlug™ Tray. Combat Labor Costs and Shortages Skim through any “State of the Industry” survey in floriculture or horticulture, and labor issues top the list of grower concerns. Labor costs continue to rise, qualified labor is in short supply, and in some regions, even unqualified labor is tough to find. For more and more growers, automation is one answer to the labor challenges you face. With automation-ready OASIS® RhizoPlug™ Tray, your vegetative propagation substrate comes preloaded in trays and ready on demand. You can stop worrying about time and labor spent filling trays, inconsistent tray-filling techniques, and downtime when your filling machine breaks down. The savings in time, labor and peace of mind applies across the board, to automated and manual operations. Whether you’re sticking cuttings by machine or the hands of your trusted team, you’ll enjoy faster, damage-free sticking with OASIS® RhizoPlug™ Tray’s ultra-low density and resistance — even with fragile-stemmed varieties. Cutting insertion is faster, labor is less, and you run cleaner and leaner from start to finish. Tackle Weather and Water Management Ever since people started growing plants, weather has been a factor in their success. That’s multiplied today. Weather patterns are changing dramatically. Extreme weather events are becoming common. Climates are warming, and plants bear the brunt of higher temperatures and transpiration rates. Add in shipping delays, whether you’re talking offshore unrooted cuttings (URC) or homegrown liners, and young plants have a lot to overcome. With OASIS® RhizoPlug™ Tray and our advanced surfactant technology, your cuttings rehydrate rapidly and water stays readily available for uptake. Faster cutting recovery means an earlier reduction in misting frequency, which in turn translates to lower pest and disease pressures, more efficient water use, and reduced labor, too. In this next-generation substrate, designed for the problems vegetative propagators face now and in the future, your cuttings don’t have to fight for a drink. At the same time, the optimized air-to-water ratio of this substrate eliminates the risk of overwatering when used properly. Even with inexperienced staff, efficient and effective water management is easier than ever when you step up to OASIS® RhizoPlug™ Tray. Overcome Rising Operational Costs With expenses for even the simplest inputs on the rise, every day on the bench makes a difference in how competitive you can be and hold healthy profit margins intact. Energy, water, nutrient efficiency and pest management, from scouting to chemicals or beneficials, all impact your bottom line. OASIS® RhizoPlug™ Tray ships dry, saving on shipping costs and prolonging shelf life. But it also ships inert and clean and free of pests and pathogens. You have maximum flexibility for precision nutrient delivery to make the most of new technologies like lighting and crop steering recipes that push plants stronger and faster than ever before. We don’t have to tell you what up to 20% faster to root, extract and transplant could do for your bottom line. Input-responsive, low-density OASIS® RhizoPlug™ Tray allows cuttings to push roots faster, while nutrient solutions stay readily available. The result is rapid cutting establishment, profuse root and shoot development, and extreme uniformity and consistency. That’s followed by super-clean, easy extraction — manual or automated — and vigorous transplant growth. When we say clean, that’s not just clean propagation. That’s cleaner everything, including floors, benches and walls. True to our roots as propagation media pioneers, newly designed OASIS® RhizoPlug™ Tray substrate isn’t just relevant to modern-day propagation, it’s the substrate of the future — and it’s time to dive in with us. If you’re a large-scale grower with state-of-the-art technology or medium- to small-scale without fancy equipment, OASIS® RhizoPlug™ Tray can help you excel. Step Up to the Ultimate Propagation Experience and experience OASIS® RhizoPlug™ Tray for yourself.
Understanding Ethylene and Plants
If you’re in commercial floriculture or horticulture, dealing with the effects of ethylene gas is part of everyday life. With every hour that passes, whether your flowers and plants are in the greenhouse, in transit or at retail, ethylene gas is influencing how they perform. While many beneficial processes in flowers and plants rely on ethylene, there’s also a destructive side. Industry research shows that ethylene’s harmful effects are responsible for up to 30% of costly shrink. That comes in the form of flower and bud drop, leaf yellowing and leaf drop, accelerated flower aging, reduced quality, shortened shelf life and more. What can you do to protect your plants against ethylene’s harmful effects? Actually, you can do a lot. But managing ethylene gas most effectively and efficiently starts with understanding what it is, where it’s found, and how EthylBloc™ ethylene-action inhibitor can help. What Is Ethylene? Ethylene is a gaseous plant hormone present in almost all flowers and plants. It plays an important role in good things, like helping those mum buds crack to show the perfect glimpse of fall color. Anyone who’s ever used an apple or banana to make other fruit ripen faster has seen — and tasted — ethylene gas at work. So has anyone who’s received a delivery of rapidly declining flowering potted plants or opened the sleeve on a tropical foliage plant to find it filled with dropped leaves. While ethylene gas occurs naturally in flowers and plants, unnatural stresses put its production into overdrive. One example of this adaptive response is when offshore unrooted cuttings (URCs) wing their way to your facility, spending three or four days in darkness with temperature extremes, constant vibrations, and rapidly accumulating ethylene gas in shipping bags and boxes. Plant shipments via truck can also stimulate ethylene. So can improper watering, disease pressure and production stresses. The negative effects of ethylene gas are seen when it locks onto ethylene receptors in the plant and begins to trigger natural changes at unnatural speeds. This endogenous or internal ethylene gas accelerates plant damage, including botrytis damage. But that’s not the only ethylene source affecting your plant shipments before and after they leave your operation. Where Is Ethylene Gas Found? Endogenous ethylene from plants, fruits and produce, or URCs threatens plant quality in transit and on retail shelves. But the environments along the way often intensify the risks. Ethylene is one of the world’s most widely produced organic compounds. It’s used to create other chemicals and a variety of materials and products — from rubber and plastics to paints, textiles and detergents. Natural gas and propane fuels used to power your greenhouse heaters are sources of ethylene gas. So are motor vehicle exhausts from the trucks at your docks and the forklifts, skid steers and other equipment helping get your plant shipments on their way to customers. (So is tobacco smoke drifting in from break areas outdoors.) From propagation through retail sell-through, your plants are exposed to all types of external sources of ethylene gas — on top of what they and all the other plants that fill greenhouse bays produce. Add the stress of shipping and receiving, overwatering and underwatering by inexperienced seasonal staff, and light and temperature stresses — and ethylene exposure and damage adds up fast. But you can change that and stop ethylene-induced damage before it starts. How Can You Manage Ethylene? While many factors go into making sure your plant shipments arrive safely, EthylBloc™ ethylene-action inhibitor protects your plants against ethylene-induced damage and loss. Available in convenient sachets as well as truck kits, EthylBloc™ contains an active ingredient (1-methylcyclopropene gas) that works naturally with plants by irreversibly blocking their ethylene receptors, inhibiting the potentially harmful action of ethylene gas — from both internal and external sources. If you’re a young plant grower, you know the severe leaf abscission that can happen during transport of ethylene-sensitive URCs. Research by our Director of Global Grower Operations & Research, Vijay Rapaka, Ph.D., showed that EthylBloc™ treatment can reduce leaf abscission in some ethylene-sensitive URCs from near 100% to nearly zero. That same innovative, quality-improving technology can protect mature flowers and plants as well. With our online Grower Support materials, you can learn more about how EthylBloc™ can protect the Potted Flowering and Bedding Plants you grow, along with Potted Foliage Plants and ethylene-sensitive Potted Flowering Bulbs — and vegetative unrooted cuttings, too. So don’t send your shipments out unprotected. Let EthylBloc™ help you pare down shrink, maintain plant quality, improve your profit margins and keep your customers happy. Lean into us. We’re Oasis Grower Solutions. Propagating Innovation is what we do. EPA Reg. EPA Reg. 71297-5-32258 ©2024 EthylBloc™ is a registered trademark of AgroFresh Inc.
Experience the OASIS® Fertiss® Propagation Media Difference
Here at Oasis Grower Solutions, we understand that one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to propagation substrates. We also understand your substrate choices significantly impact your operation’s quality, profitability and long-term success. With so much riding on that decision, it’s not surprising some propagators avoid change. But we’re here to tell you that sticking with the substrate status quo — especially if that means loose fill — could be keeping you from the lower operational costs and stronger margins you’ve been hoping for. That’s why we invite you to experience the difference that labor-saving soilless OASIS® Fertiss® PlugTray stabilized propagation substrate can make in the quality and speed of rooting and transplant performance, and much more. Strengthening Margins with OASIS® Fertiss® As a propagator, you’ll appreciate the benefits of OASIS® Fertiss® PlugTray from the moment you unpack the box. These stabilized plugs come preloaded in stackable trays that protect your plugs during shipment, so your propagation media never gets compressed. Ideal for vegetative, seed and tissue culture (stage III) propagation of floriculture crops, culinary herbs, vegetables and soft fruits, OASIS® Fertiss® PlugTray ships at 60% moisture content with advanced surfactants to enhance initial saturation and rewetting. When you’re ready to go, OASIS® Fertiss® is ready on demand. Instead of filling trays, you can stay focused on growing — and save time, equipment and labor before you even touch a plug. Once you do start sticking cuttings, even more margin-building benefits come into play. You’ll understand why some of the world’s finest propagators forgo the status quo and choose OASIS® Fertiss® PlugTray for their high-value crops. The Gravity-Fed OASIS® Fertiss® Advantage You’ve probably heard talk about gravity-fed growing media. But you may not understand fully what that means for OASIS® Fertiss® and for you. When we manufacture OASIS® Fertiss® PlugTray, we use a high-quality blend that stays consistent throughout the season. The soilless media is fed into its stabilizing wrap by gravity — not by vacuums, like some of our competitors do. Our gravity-fed production process gives us greater control over the media’s density and composition, so plugs are always even, consistent and uncompacted. Even with delicate Stage III tissue culture propagation, you can easily tuck your micro cuttings into the media with a quick dibble and a gentle hand. With standard vegetative cuttings and OASIS® Fertiss®, you can skip predibbling altogether. Cuttings insert faster and easier, minimizing any damage to cutting tips. You optimize your URC investment and save time and labor again. It’s a world of difference from trying to seed or stick inconsistent, compressed, vacuum-fed plugs. During young plant production, the savings you gain with OASIS® Fertiss® keep stacking up. You’ll see a higher strike rate on tougher crops. The unique tray design that protected your media during shipping also promotes natural air pruning for dense fibrous roots the full plug length. With advanced surfactants still at work, irrigation efficiency and related labor are optimized, too. With OASIS® Fertiss® PlugTray, young plants establish quickly. Spacing, sorting, grading and handling are simpler. Bench times are shorter. Plugs extract easier, whether your operation is automated or not. Transplanting is faster and easier, too. Plus, you don’t have to worry about transplant shock. Grower-Driven Options For 55+ years in the propagation media industry, Oasis Grower Solutions has stayed true to our promise to provide propagators and growers with the solutions you need. With OASIS® Fertiss® PlugTray, that’s abundantly clear. We offer this quality, labor-saving stabilized plug media in well over a dozen different options, including trays, strips and split trays, with multiple plug sizes. If your operation would benefit from an OASIS® Fertiss® configuration not listed on our website, we want to hear about it. That’s how all these options came to be. And they don’t stop there. Our standard, peat-based OASIS® Fertiss® PlugTray ships pH adjusted, without a starter fertilizer charge. But customizations for fertilizer and pH are available. If your needs include custom blends or custom mixes, including peat-free options such as coco, we’re ready to talk about that, too. So don’t let the substrate status quo keep you from exploring new ways to achieve your goals. Lean into us and experience the OASIS® Fertiss® difference. We’re Oasis Grower Solutions.
Propagating Innovation for 55 Years
As Oasis Grower Solutions celebrates its 55th Anniversary, grower-driven innovation remains the heart of all we do. Innovation is more than a buzzword for us at Oasis Grower Solutions. When our division of Smithers-Oasis was established 55 years ago, innovation was already our driving force. As we look back on five and a half decades of helping growers grow, the thread of innovation binds it all. When our first growing media was introduced to commercial greenhouse growers in 1969, it had been 15 years since V.L. Smithers changed the floral industry forever — thanks to a water-absorbent floral foam he called OASIS® Floral Foam. That same spirit of invention and innovation drove the development of foam-based propagation substrates for growers. When OASIS® O-903 Rooting Blocks launched in 1969, it represented a first-of-its-kind entry into the commercial substrate market. With stable pH, uniform growth and higher yields, it captured growers’ attention. Fifty-five years later, our substrate innovations still do the same. Real-World Solutions for Real Growers One thing that sets us apart — aside from the next-generation technologies behind our latest substrates — is our focus on helping growers excel. Our innovations aren’t driven by available technology, trendy marketing campaigns or our competitors. They’re driven by the real-world needs of growers who depend on our products to build their businesses. That was the case in the mid-1970s when a Smithers-Oasis employee named Charles (Charlie) Walton listened to his friend and customer Paul Ecke, Jr. of California’s famed Ecke Ranch poinsettias. Ecke needed a high-performance, lightweight propagation media to ship Ecke poinsettia liners worldwide. Charlie took on the challenge. The duo collaborated, a new foam formulation was developed, and OASIS® ROOTCUBES® was born. All because we listened and responded when a grower needed a solution to their problem. OASIS® ROOTCUBES® led to the eventual development of OASIS® Wedge® — the preferred propagation media of the world’s finest poinsettia breeders and propagators. Incidentally, Charlie became President of Smithers-Oasis from 1982 to 2006, when our current President and CEO Robin Gilbride took the helm. Research-Driven Innovation & Development As Oasis Grower Solutions hit its teenage years in the mid-1980s, innovations and advances in our grower products continued. We built our first research greenhouse facility on the Smithers-Oasis campus in Kent, Ohio USA. With that, we could run our own in-house substrate trials and compile real-world results growers could trust. Dr. Vijay Rapaka, our Director of Global Grower Operations and Research, joined the Oasis Grower Solutions team in 2008 as Senior Grower – Research Scientist, advancing to Corporate Grower Research Manager in 2009. Those early days conducting research laid the foundation for the innovative substrate technologies we’re bringing to market now. “Substrate research is one of the most complex and intriguing subjects — one through which we can most influence plant growth and performance,” Dr. Rapaka says. “Here at Smithers-Oasis, we have an excellent team of polymer scientists and plant physiologists working on various aspects of plant growth, quality and performance. This is an area where we can never become complacent because there is always room to innovate for the plants to excel and express their full potential whether it is propagation or production.” Ten years ago, we built a new Research, Innovation & Development (RI&D) facility. Tour that facility and you’ll find numerous trials underway. Some involve advancements or new options for existing products, like our OASIS® Fertiss® PlugTray, or our newly launched OASIS® RhizoPlug™ Tray singulated foam substrate. You’ll also find yet-to-be-released substrate formulations undergoing rigorous testing to ensure they deserve a spot in greenhouses like yours. The Future of Substrates As we look forward to Oasis Grower Solutions’ next 55 years, we have more real-world innovations in store. Our clean, food-safe, pest- and pathogen-free substrate introductions are reshaping the substrate market. From our perspective, the future of substrates is clear. 2021 saw the launch of our Low Carbon Footprint OASIS® AeroMax™ PlugSheet, the first substrate in our OASIS® AeroFamily Substrates line. It was joined by OASIS® AeroSelect™ PlugSheet in early 2024, with more options in this rapidly expanding family coming soon. Developed specifically in response to grower needs, like all our products, these OASIS® AeroFamily Substrates offer precision hydroponic growers unprecedented flexibility to meet climate- and crop-specific production demands. Fall of 2023 introduced growers to our OASIS® RhizoPlug™ Sheet substrate. Thanks to our RI&D team, growers could be certain this substrate could significantly outperform its predecessor. Just this month, July 2024, we launched OASIS® RhizoPlug™ Tray. Our first singulated plug substrate (but not our last), OASIS® RhizoPlug™ Tray excelled in our RI&D trials. Now it’s doing the same for customers who dive into the future of substrates and Make the Switch to OASIS® RhizoPlug™ Tray. As we celebrate 55 years of serving growers, we’d like to thank you for your confidence and trust. You can count on us to keep propagating innovation with you in mind. As our President Robin says, inventing products that solve problems for our customers is why we’re here. Let us help you grow. We’re Oasis Grower Solutions. Here’s to another 55 years!
Foam Substrates, Hydroponic Fertilizer and You
Here at Oasis Grower Solutions, we know it’s common for people to say growers shouldn’t apply nutrients until seeds germinate. But you won’t hear that from us. Browse any of the Product Usage sheets for our engineered foam substrates and you’ll find instructions to always fertilize with your initial saturation and seeding. Ideally, we’d like you to make that first nutrient application with our OASIS® Hydroponic Fertilizer 16-4-17. But what we’d like even more is for you to experience the difference that optimal nutrients from day 1 can make. Research shows that starting nutrient application at seeding can increase lettuce fresh weights up to 200% by day 14. OASIS® Hydroponic Fertilizer 16-4-17 was developed to help you achieve similar results. Collaboration + Inspiration = Innovation A little more than a decade ago, Oasis Grower Solutions and JR Peters – Jack’s Fertilizers collaborated on a project involving greenhouse rice seedlings and foam substrates in Japan. Spurred by that experience, the team began exploring nutrient targets for hydroponic crops — specifically leafy greens and herbs. Vijay Rapaka, Ph.D., our Director of Global Grower Operations and Research, was our Corporate Grower Research Manager and lead research scientist then. He recalls identifying a gap in nutrient requirements between seeding and germination. Dr. Rapaka notes that early hydroponic nutrient recommendations were based on field production and the idea that nutrient reserves in seed should sustain early growth. “However, with hydroponic lettuce farming, you are on the clock,” he says. “The most important resources are time and space. You want to maximize the production efficiency and reduce crop time.” Together with Cari Peters, Ph.D., Formulator and Managing Partner at JR Peters - Jack’s Fertilizers, Dr. Rapaka focused on nutrient timing and concentrations. Dr. Peters shares, “We embarked on a series of trials, formulating solutions with varying nutrient ratios and feed rates.” Would supplying a nutrient solution from day 1 enhance the development of newly germinated plants? If so, what would optimal concentrations be? Several discoveries followed. “Through our experimentation we found that lettuce seedlings benefit the most by having nutrients readily available when the radicle emerges right after the seed germinates,” Dr. Rapaka says. “The most surprising thing is that seedlings benefit the best with relatively high nutrient concentrations.” With optimal nutrient concentrations applied from day 1, a unique ratio of water-soluble nutrients significantly increased root development and branching, increased biomass production and shortened the production cycle, without salt burn — and our water-soluble fertilizer was born. Dr. Peters adds, “For me as a formulator and fertilizer chemist, this type of discovery exemplifies the gratifying nature of fertilizer experimentation, where exploration can lead to breakthroughs that benefit plant growth.” What Makes Our Nutrient Blend Special? Dr. Peters explains that the unique nutrient blend in OASIS® Hydroponic Fertilizer 16-4-17 isn’t your normal starter fertilizer: “Despite containing a low overall phosphorus concentration, the OASIS® 16-4-17 fertilizer delivers a well-balanced nutrient profile with enhanced micronutrients over a broad range of pH that promotes rapid and efficient growth in young seedlings.” With OASIS® 16-4-17 Fertilizer, you enjoy a simple, one-bag approach to young plant production — reducing labor and costly mixing errors. With this blend’s low salt index, salt burn isn’t a worry. Neither is nutrient availability; an advanced chelated micronutrient package supports superior growth and yields. Plus, a proprietary blend of iron chelates helps maintain iron availability, even at pH levels as high as 8.0. To get the best growth response, Dr. Rapaka says, “The bottom line is that, especially with inert and engineered media like OASIS® foam substrates, it’s imperative to start watering with fertilizer at the right concentration with the initial soaking.” Dr. Peters tells us the Jack’s Technical Team often recommends this formula to grow anything hydroponically, especially when paired with OASIS® substrates. “This high-quality, low-salt formula is a powerhouse of readily available nutrients,” she says. “It delivers a balanced blend of extremely soluble and available nutrients ensuring your plants receive the optimal nutrition they crave from the very first stages of life.” Whatever you grow, our team and our products are ready to help — from substrates to hydroponic fertilizer and much more. Lean into Oasis Grower Solutions. Let us help you excel.
Cultivating a Greener Floriculture Industry
There’s a lot of talk in the floriculture industry about sustainability, and rightly so. More and more industry members, including us, talk about the need to do more. Here at Oasis Grower Solutions, we recently shared the results of a Carbon Footprint Assessment of one of our engineered foam substrates. While that was a step in the right direction, we realize there’s much, much more to do. So, when a sustainability initiative arises that goes beyond the talk and takes action to make an industry-wide difference, we’re eager to listen and get involved. Sustainabloom, a collaborative initiative established by the American Floral Endowment (AFE) in 2022, is just such an endeavor. We hope you’ll help make a difference and join us in supporting the Sustainabloom Movement. Looking to a More Sustainable Future As the floriculture industry’s leading charitable organization, AFE has been at the forefront of innovative research, floriculture internships, scholarships for next-generation floriculture leaders, and educational grants for more than 60 years. (In fact, AFE’s annual R.I.S.E. fundraising campaign, your chance to invest in the future of floriculture, is underway May 15-June 28: https://endowment.org/rise2024) As the floriculture industry moves forward, its members and our customers increasingly desire and demand sustainable practices and products. It’s only natural that AFE should step up and help lead the industry into a future where the “journey from cultivation to customer” reflects sustainability and responsibility at every turn. Oasis Grower Solutions, a Division of Smithers-Oasis, is proud that Smithers-Oasis is a founding partner of Sustainabloom. Smithers-Oasis President and CEO Robin Kilbride understands the challenges floriculture faces in tackling sustainability — and the potential for the Sustainabloom program. “When we launched the Smithers-Oasis Do Good. Every Day. global sustainability program in 2021, it was a huge undertaking. Sustainability is more than better products and reduced resources — it impacts every part of a business. There is a lot to digest and it can be difficult to find a starting point,” she shares. “So when AFE approached us to be a founding sponsor of the new Sustainabloom program, we jumped at the chance. By working together in the industry and sharing best practices, implementing sustainability initiatives in our respective businesses can be less overwhelming. I’m thrilled with the work the Sustainabloom Committee has completed over the past two years. I’m excited to see what comes next!” Jim Daly, Smithers-Oasis VP of Global FloraLife, Grower and Research, adds, “Smithers-Oasis — including Oasis Grower Solutions, FloraLife and Design Master — takes sustainability very seriously. It's on the top of our research goals, packaging and new product goals, which is why we saw the importance of being a major supporter of the AFE Sustainability program. All of the flower industry’s future depends on it moving forward.” Uniting the Industry Through Resources Sustainabloom’s approach to ensuring floriculture’s sustainable future emphasizes providing industry members with the resources we need to assess our current practices and products and achieve our sustainability goals. That involves simplifying complex sustainability challenges so that we all can succeed, whether our businesses are small or large. Over the past two years, Sustainabloom researchers and industry advisors have collected and analyzed more than 800 documents relating to sustainability in floriculture. They’ve identified gaps in research and resources and made plans to fill them. They’ve also augmented existing resources and created new ones to fill the new Sustainabloom website at www.sustainabloom.org with research-driven, user-friendly resources for you and your staff to use and learn. Current resources on the new platform focus on effective waste management, integrated pest management strategies, consumer demand and preferences, and energy-efficient practices. The new platform also houses valuable resources relating to certifications, assessment tools and more. Our own Director of Global Grower Operations and Research, Dr. Vijay Rapaka, serves on the AFE Board of Trustees. “Sustainability is the biggest buzzword in pretty much every industry including floriculture and horticulture. Although this is extremely complex, everybody is on their own journey,” he says. “As far as I know AFE’s Sustainabloom is the only organizational initiative that is trying to consolidate and provide meaningful resources to research and educate the industry. It is a great honor to serve on a board that is working on such an impactful agenda.” We invite you to visit the Sustainabloom website regularly as it continues to grow and evolve. Its resources are already fostering sustainable practices in the floriculture industry. You can share your own sustainability story, make a donation to the program, or get involved in other ways. So join us in the Sustainabloom Movement and a greener future for us all.
The Poinsettia Propagator’s Dream Substrate: OASIS® Wedge®
According to the latest USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) Commercial Floriculture Survey, when it comes to units sold, poinsettias remain America’s No. 1 potted flowering plant. More than 42 million poinsettias sold in 2022 alone — more than 21% of all potted flowering plants sold in the U.S. that year. That’s an exceptional achievement for a plant that traditionally has a six-week selling season each year. We’ve shared before that we have a soft spot for poinsettias here at Oasis Grower Solutions. Half a century ago, our quest to create a foam propagation substrate for Ecke Ranch poinsettias led to the launch of OASIS® Rootcubes®. But our poinsettia connection had just begun. After that success, our team continued working with Paul Ecke, Jr. to develop a propagation substrate even more ideal for poinsettias. The distinctively tapered engineered foam substrate born from that collaboration, now known as OASIS® Wedge®, became synonymous with superior poinsettia propagation performance. The overwhelming majority of the millions of poinsettias grown annually worldwide, including mother stock for cuttings production and finished plants for consumers, get their start in OASIS® Wedge®. Poinsettia-Perfect Propagation Substrate Of all the propagation media options, very few substrates offer the focus of OASIS® Wedge®. While OASIS® Wedge® is ideal for vegetative cuttings of a wide variety of plants — including many problematic, difficult-to-root crops prone to disease — its development hinged on poinsettia propagation challenges. No wonder some call it “The Poinsettia Propagator’s Dream.” World-renowned poinsettia breeder and ornamental horticulture consultant Steve Rinehart of Rinehart Poinsettias has relied on OASIS® propagation media throughout his career, including three decades with Ecke Ranch, where he rose from grower/production manager to Chief Operating Officer. As Rinehart Poinsettias continue raising the bar for poinsettias worldwide, Steve still turns to OASIS® Wedge® — and only OASIS® Wedge® — for poinsettia propagation. Every propagator will identify with his reasons why. “Use of OASIS® Wedge® in propagation allows me to mist as I need for the plant needs, without the need to be concerned about oversaturation of media,” Steve shares. “OASIS® Wedge® provides a clean media free of fungus gnat larvae and provides a media easy to store and to set out for propagation. I can easily review the propagation bed at callus formation and easily repair to make solid strips of non-injured plants for beautiful finish of rooted cuttings.” Steve isn’t alone in his appreciation of this poinsettia-perfect propagation substrate. Clemson University Professor of Floriculture Physiology Dr. Jim Faust — widely known for extensive research on poinsettia propagation and production, as well as cultivar trials — knows this substrate’s benefits firsthand. “The beauty of OASIS® Wedge® is how easy it makes water management during propagation. The high porosity/aeration of OASIS® Wedge® eliminates the possibility of over-misting or overwatering during the critical stage of root initiation. Basically, you can't overwater the cuttings, which is the single biggest error made by beginner and experienced propagators,” Jim explains. “Additionally, every drop of water in the OASIS® Wedge® is available for the cutting to uptake. In contrast, peat-based substrates have much higher matric potential, meaning that water uptake by the cutting is restricted before the substrate starts to be dry. Thus, cuttings in foam will not wilt as quickly as cuttings propagated in peat. Finally, every batch of OASIS® Wedge® is the same, which eliminates the variability of loose-fill substrates caused by inconsistent tray-filling technique,” Jim says. Rediscover OASIS® Wedge® With OASIS® Wedge® at the core of your poinsettia propagation, you and your customers can benefit from the decades of proven propagation excellence found only in OASIS® Wedge®. From the tapered shape that directs roots downward for rapid root development to superior cutting hydration, OASIS® Wedge® can help you shorten bench times, transplant earlier, minimize transplant shock and speed post-transplant establishment — and be in the company of some of the world’s greatest poinsettia experts. Whether your crop is poinsettias or something else, we’re ready to help you excel. Lean into us. We’re Oasis Grower Solutions, your source for real-world, grower-driven innovations.
Discover the OASIS® AeroSubstrates Advantage
These next-generation precision hydroponic substrates target real-world crop, climate and production demands. OASIS® AeroSubstrates have been attracting attention in the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) industry lately. Here at Oasis Grower Solutions, we recently released a Product Carbon Footprint Assessment for OASIS® AeroMax™ PlugSheet, then followed that up with the launch of OASIS® AeroSelect™ PlugSheet at Indoor Ag-Con ’24. We’re happy to see this rapidly growing family of precision hydroponic substrates generate the interest it deserves.