Word From The StreetWord From The Street

What's going on in our nations grow shops at the moment? What are the popular products? We had a chat with Midlands grow shop owner Mike (not his real name) to see what's been selling well over the last few months.

What’s going on in our nations grow shops at the moment? What are the popular products? We had a chat with Midlands grow shop owner Mike (not his real name) to see what’s been selling well over the last few months.

SSUK: Mike, thanks for taking the time to have a chat with us. To start off, it would be interesting to know how business in general has been over the last few months.

OptiClimate environmental controllers; for the serious grower

Mike: Yeah, it’s been an interesting year to be honest with you. I’ve been in the industry for nearly five years now and 2013 has been a bit of a funny one. The weather had a serious effect on business over the last 12 months. The start of the year was very cold, so a lot of growers were struggling with low temps and were waiting for spring to arrive. Then, all of a sudden, the weather went incredibly warm which put lots of growers off starting anything. Then in late September, most people decided they were ready to start and it kicked off properly.

Do you think that tells us something about growers having difficulty to control their environment? Is more knowledge required?

Single plant systems are becoming popular amongst UK growers

I think it’s down to a number of factors. Firstly, serious growers carry on, regardless of the weather. If you look at somewhere like California, they have hot weather 24/7 and they keep growing indoors throughout the year. Professional growers will buy chillers and air-con units in the summer and heaters in the winter. I’ve had lots of interest from my serious customers in complete environmental control products like the OptiClimate, which is an absolutely incredible piece of kit. Secondly, the economy has taken a bit of an upturn and people are working again, so casual growers won’t invest in the type of equipment required to grow during cold / hot spells. I genuinely think this has an impact on sales. Thirdly, I know plenty of small-scale, personal growers that put a few plants outdoors over the summer, rather than attempt to cool their single 600w lamp powered room.

Interesting. So, what about different types of products and trends that you have seen over the last few months?

LED grow lights keep you growing through the warm summer months

Well, one thing that’s been happening for the past few years is that customers seem to be growing fewer plants per light and are striving for very high yields per plant. Five or six years ago, it wasn’t uncommon for a grower to put 16 plants under a 600w lamp, then they did nine plants, then this dropped to four or five. This year, I’ve seen a trend for growers to cultivate one or two very large plants under a single light. Until this year, the growers had to use big pots and hand feed them, or we’d knock up a custom drip or DWC system for them, but now system manufacturers have started to design and sell large plant systems – like BubbleBox and AutoPot XL - and these have been really popular.

Is this a trend that you’ve seen across all your customers? There’s obviously some repercussion for getting caught with high plant numbers.

Yes and no. I mean, I think that people always have that in the back of their mind, you know, planning for the worst case scenario. But, I also think that people are getting wise to the fact that it’s less maintenance to grow fewer plants and, with an extra week or two of vegging, they can actually get more yield from two or three plants than they were getting from nine. I still find that my smaller-scale, personal growers will do four plants. Simply because they don’t want to risk doing a single plant and it dying on them half way through a crop and – more commonly – they like to grow more than one strain in their tent at the same time.

Yes, it’s always good to have a bit of variety in the jars! What about other trends? We’ve done a few articles on LED lighting; do you have customers asking for them?

Yes, more than ever. I think that the hot weather had a real influence on the spike in demand for LED’s, they run far cooler than HID lamps and the technology has come on leaps and bounds in the past couple of years. This means that we’ve actually got the confidence to sell them to our customers now, when previously it felt like you were taking a real risk in offering them, even if your customer really wanted them. Now, we’re just careful to explain that to get the best from LED’s you need to change your growing techniques; there’s less heat emitted which affects the temperature and humidity of your room, you’ll find that your plants transpire less and drink less, this means that you can run your nutrient solution at a higher EC than when using HID lamps. And, before you ask; yes, they do work!

Thanks for that Mike, hopefully you’ve inspired a few growers to try something new. What about first timers thinking of taking the plunge? What would you recommend?

Stick to pots, soil and some basic nutrients for your first go. It’ll help you learn to spot when your plants are hungry. Buy the best light package, fan and filter that you can afford. Don’t be tempted by some of the cheap shite that’s available at the moment. The biggest factor effecting yield is environment. Treat your plants to the right environment and they’ll pay you back ten-fold in yield! Give it a go, you won’t regret it.