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.