Across the country and the world, growers are looking for practical solutions to protect crop quality, improve irrigation efficiency, and reduce related labor without adding complexity to daily production routines.
At Oasis Grower Solutions, we thrive on helping growers grow more efficiently, profitably and sustainably. Not just during tough summers, but year-round.
As weather patterns and operational costs grow less predictable, hydration products like wetting agents are crucial to grower success. So this month, we’re answering some of the most common questions about wetting agents and how OASIS® SOAX® wetting agents can help reduce plant — and grower — stress.
Q. What are wetting agents?
A. Often referred to as surfactants, wetting agents are substances that help irrigation water work smarter and spread more evenly through growing media — instead of beading, channeling or running off. Wetting agents help you get more value from every drop of water and every irrigation-related labor hour.
When you treat growing media mixes with premium wetting agents, like our OASIS® SOAX® line, you can use water more efficiently to help improve uptake of water and nutrients and help with faster growth. Wetting agents speed initial media wetting, improve water holding capacity, promote more consistent root zone moisture, and make it easier to rewet and revitalize media if it dries out.
The benefits continue after shipping. Wetting agents help plants tolerate inconsistent or inexperienced retail watering, reduce retail shrink, and improve the experience when consumers take plants home.
With versatile OASIS® SOAX® wetting agents, available in liquid, granular and advanced formulations, you can help ensure your greenhouse or nursery crops stay well hydrated from propagation and production through retail and beyond.
Q. How do wetting agents work?
A. Wetting agents work by reducing the surface tension of water. That’s simpler than it sounds. Water molecules naturally attract each other, which creates surface tension.
In soilless substrates — especially those containing peat moss, bark or dried organic materials — media particles can become hydrophobic (water-repellent). When that happens, you see water bead or channel, not spread and get absorbed.
A high-quality wetting agent reduces water’s surface tension, so that doesn’t happen. Instead, water penetrates your growing media. And irrigation water, nutrients and other inputs you invest end up where you intended them — distributed throughout the media, helping your crops thrive.
With wetting agents, your water works smarter to optimize irrigation events, quench plant thirst more sustainably, enhance nutrient uptake and input ROI, and support overall plant health.
Those gains aren’t just for challenging summers. OASIS® SOAX® wetting agents support plant production year-round.
Q. Who can use wetting agents and when?
A. The short answer: Anyone who grows plants, any time.
Whether you produce bedding plants, potted tropical foliage, native perennials, fall mums, ornamental shrubs, container trees, ball and burlap — you name it — your operation can benefit from wetting agents.
(Even AgBiotech researchers use our OASIS® SOAX® wetting agents to help advance their research.)
If you want to optimize water management, improve irrigation efficiencies, maintain healthy root zone moisture levels, reduce related labor costs, get more value from fertilizer and other inputs, and improve overall plant growth and health, the right wetting agents can help.
With the premium products available in our OASIS® SOAX® line, you can use wetting agents as part of your growing media preparation, with options designed for media mixes intended for immediate use as well as mixes destined for longer storage.
You can also amplify your operational efficiencies by using wetting agents for ongoing maintenance throughout the growing season. Finally, wetting agents used as a pre-shipping drench provide an added advantage and extra protection as your crops go out the door or leave your dock.
Q. How can wetting agents benefit me?
A. Our Oasis Grower Solutions Territory Sales Managers welcome the chance to help you choose the OASIS® SOAX® wetting agent that suits your operation best. But, in the meantime, here are three areas where the operational value of wetting agents clearly benefit growers every day:
- Better Water Management: With OASIS® SOAX®, dry down becomes more uniform and predictable. Irrigation follows suit. Wetting agents can reduce the necessary frequency— and length — of irrigation events. That helps conserve water, minimize spot watering, reduce labor and lower your production costs.
- Better Nutrient Management: By helping prevent water-repellent media and minimizing channeling, wetting agents enable improved penetration, distribution and uptake of water and nutrients. You improve the effectiveness of your inputs, maximize your ROI, minimize leaching, and reduce waste.
- Better Root Zone Management: Wetting agents facilitate media wetting and rewetting, so substrates maintain more consistent, predictable root zone moisture. The result? Improved plant health, quality, resilience and performance overall — for you, your retailer customers and home consumers.
If you’re ready to improve irrigation efficiency and crop performance, contact an Oasis Grower Solutions Territory Sales Manager or our inhouse technical team at [email protected] or +1 (855) 585-4769.
We’re Oasis Grower Solutions. We solve growers’ problems. Let our products and our people help solve yours.
Interested in opportunities to trial future OASIS® SOAX® formulations? Let your Territory Sales Manager know when you reach out.
Available in liquid, granular and advanced formulations.