Hydroponics Daily

In this episode we examine why carnivorous plants and bonsai often struggle in coco grow media — coco (coir) can contain high sodium and is frequently buffered with calcium nitrate, resulting in elevated calcium and nitrogen compared with peat. The host suggests a fix: use raw high-sodium coco and flush it with Liquid Gypsum (calcium sulfate) to remove sodium without adding nitrogen, creating a peat-free grow medium suited to carnivorous plants and bonsai and a potential niche business idea. https://eutrema.co.uk/shop/soil-conditioners/liquid-gypsum/ Ryan Neil — Bonsai Mirai Bjorn Bjorholm — Eisei-en Bonsai Michael Hagedorn — Crataegus Bonsai Peter Chan — Herons Bonsai Walter Pall — Freelance Bonsai Artist Mauro Stemberger — Italian Bonsai Academy Kimura Masahiko — Kinbon Bonsai Garden Takeyama Takashi — Fujikawa Kouka-en Shinji Suzuki — Kaizen Bonsai Boon Manakitivipart — Bonsai Boon Jonas Dupuich — Bonsai Tonight Sergio Cuan — Bonsai Empire Colin Lewis — Freelance Bonsai Artist Kevin Willson — Bonsai Willson David Easterbrook — Freelance Bonsai Artist Graham Potter — Freelance Bonsai Artist Mauro Di Lorenzo — Bonsai Studio Italiano Eric Schrader — Bonsaify Andy Smith — Golden Arrow Bonsai Tony Tickle — Yardley Bonsai Jim Doyle — Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt Kathy Shaner — Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt Kathy and Jim Doyle — Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt Bill Valavanis — International Bonsai Arboretum Frank Mihalic — Bonsai Artist Nick Lenz — Freelance Bonsai Artist Dan Robinson — Elandan Gardens David Benavente — Bonsai Kai Pedro Morales — Bonsai Sur Salvatore Liporace — UBI Bonsai Jan Schlauer — Carnivorous Plant Society Europe Barry Rice — Carnivorous Plant Society Stewart McPherson — Redfern Natural History Andreas Fleischmann — Botanische Staatssammlung München Charles Clarke — Monash University Fernando Rivadavia — Universidade Estadual de Campinas Robert Cantley — Borneo Exotics Alastair Robinson — Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria Andreas Wistuba — Wistuba Carnivorous Plants Lubomír Adamec — Institute of Botany, Czech Academy of Sciences Peter D’Amato — California Carnivores Barry Meyers-Rice — International Carnivorous Plant Society Richard Nunn — Freelance Carnivorous Plant Grower Ivan Snyder — Freelance Carnivorous Plant Grower Thomas Carow — Green Jaws Marcel van den Broek — Carnivorous Plant Nursery Christian Klein — Kleins Carnivorous Plants Marcel van den Berg — Dutch Carnivorous Plant Society Brian Barnes — California Carnivores Tamlin Magee — Meadowview Biological Research Station Aaron Ellison — Harvard University Paulo Gonella — Universidade de São Paulo Kai Müller — University of Würzburg François Mey — Société Botanique de France Nicolas Riddick — Freelance Carnivorous Plant Grower Adam Karremans — Lankester Botanical Garden Kamil Pásek — Best Carnivorous Plants Christian Dietz — Freelance Carnivorous Plant Researcher Adrian Slack — Carnivorous Plant Author Paul McMillan — Freelance Carnivorous Plant Researcher Tony Tickle — Bonsai Artist Koji Hiramatsu — Shunkaen Bonsai Museum Kunio Kobayashi — Shunkaen Bonsai Museum Masahiko Kimura — Kinbon Bonsai Garden Naoki Maeoka — Japanese Bonsai Artist Taiga Urushibata — Japanese Bonsai Artist Ryuji Suzuki — Japanese Bonsai Artist David De Groot — Bonsai De Groot Andrew Robson — Rakuyo Bonsai Leo Eshkenazi — Freelance Bonsai Artist Jason Chan — Eastern Leaf Kevin Wilson — Bonsai Willson Mark Fields — Evergreen Gardenworks Brent Walston — Evergreen Gardenworks Michael Tran — Muranaka Bonsai Nursery Roy Nagatoshi — Royal Bonsai Garden Mas Iida — Iida Bonsai Nursery Peter Tea — Freelance Bonsai Artist Tony Remington — Freelance Bonsai Artist Harry Harrington — Bonsai4Me Damon Collingsworth — California Carnivores Mike King — Carnivorous Plant Nursery Andreas Fleischmann — Munich Botanical Collection Stewart McPherson — Redfern Natural History Productions Matt Opel — International Carnivorous Plant Society Bob Ziemer — Meadowview Biological Research Station Ron Determann — Meadowview Biological Research Station Tom Luecking — Freelance Carnivorous Plant Grower Richard Myers — Carnivorous Plant Society UK Adrian Yeo — Singapore Botanic Gardens Ch’ng Khoon Meng — Singapore Botanic Gardens Paul Harwood — Carnivorous Plant Society UK Jan Schlauer — Botanical Researcher Barry Rice — ICPS Peter D’Amato — California Carnivores Ryan McEnaney — Chicago Botanic Garden Kevin Wilson — Bonsai Willson Jonas Dupuich — Bonsai Tonight Bjorn Bjorholm — Eisei-en Bonsai Stewart McPherson — Redfern Natural History

In this episode Dr. Russell Sharp explains how dosatrons work and compares practical alternatives for run‑to‑waste hydroponic systems, including Venturi injectors, electric metering pumps, and simple fertigation tanks. He outlines the pros and cons of each option — cost, accuracy, power needs, maintenance, and scale — and covers considerations about recirculation, environmental impact, and regulatory risk. Ideal for growers choosing the right dosing method for medium to large greenhouse operations. https://eutrema.co.uk/shop/fertiliser/liquid-gold-unique-complete-fertiliser/ Jean-François Hannequart — Dosatron International Eric Roudaut — Dosatron International Philippe Martin — Dosatron International Pascal Lacroix — Dosatron International David Hull — Dosatron USA Bill Toler — Hydrofarm John Lindemann — Hydrofarm Terry Fitch — Hydrofarm Peter Wardenburg — Hydrofarm Gaby Miodownik — Netafim Ran Bar-Tal — Netafim Eliezer Zilberman — Netafim Poul Due Jensen — Grundfos Anne Grønbjerg — Grundfos Morten Bach Jensen — Grundfos Mikael Geday — Grundfos Bent Jensen — Grundfos Jeremy Brown — Iwaki America John Miersma — Iwaki America Andreas Kleimann — Iwaki Europe Marco Gandolfi — SEKO Davide Galli — SEKO Roberto Mantovani — SEKO Carlo Pizzocaro — SEKO Jim Lauria — Blue-White Industries Brian E. Cooney — Blue-White Industries Paul Van der Wal — Autogrow Systems Chris White — Autogrow Systems Shaun Whiteman — Autogrow Systems Scott Peters — Growlink Ted Tanner — Growlink Ryan Boyle — Growlink Ross Sherwood — Bluelab Darryn Keiller — Bluelab Colin Jennings — Bluelab John Kinsella — Hanna Instruments Oscar Llobet — Hanna Instruments Mark Johnson — Stenner Pump Company Kevin Perry — Stenner Pump Company Paul Riley — Walchem Kevin McDonnell — Walchem Dan Myers — Milton Roy (LMI) Thomas Pfitzner — Milton Roy Maurizio Bianchini — EMEC Marco Bernardini — EMEC Giorgio Bassi — Doseuro Stefano Bertolini — Doseuro Yossi Tal — Tefen Eyal Cohen — Tefen Hanu Pappu — Jain Irrigation Anil Jain — Jain Irrigation Naresh Patel — Jain Irrigation Harmen van der Meer — Priva Rick Van Der Zanden — Priva Erik Jansen — Priva Ben Nijland — Argus Controls Rick Mosher — Argus Controls Pat McIntyre — Argus Controls Don Janssen — AmHydro Gary Hickman — AmHydro Steven Bacon — CropKing Mark Doherty — CropKing Brian Young — General Hydroponics Ron Wold — General Hydroponics James Thompson — Netafim USA Steve Bradley — Netafim USA Mike McDonald — Dosatron USA Tom Ball — Dosatron USA Chris Higgins — Hort Americas Jeff Timmons — Hort Americas Scott Lowry — Current Culture H2O Derek Ruschmann — Current Culture H2O Mark Tracey — Nutriculture Graham Smith — Nutriculture Andrew Turnbull — HydroGarden Lee Stephenson — HydroGarden Nick Brook — Pure Hydroponics Oliver Edwards — Pure Hydroponics Matthew Hay — Autogrow Systems Ben Parsons — Autogrow Systems Chris Higgins — Lumigrow Ryan Donovan — LumiGrow James Eaves — Rivulis Itzhak Nir — Rivulis Moshe Ben-David — Rivulis Daniel Grant — Irritec Marco Sironi — Irritec Yaron Dagan — Bermad Rami Levi — Bermad Avi Peleg — Bermad Paul Shed — Nelson Irrigation Wade Jones — Nelson Irrigation Simon van der Walt — Greencube Pieter van der Merwe — Greencube Steve Mallory — Autogrow USA Mark DeKoster — GrowControl Daniel Stacey — GrowControl Jim Pantaleo — Xylem Patrick Decker — Xylem Kenji Sato — Takemura Electric Works

Hello there, and welcome back to Hydroponics Daily, your go-to podcast for everything soilless cultivation. I am your host, Dr. Russell Sharp, the founder of Eutrema Limited, a company that makes truly unique fertilizers, biostimulants, and biopesticides that you won't find anywhere else. The technology is completely unique. And today, the topic of the podcast is what I would do if I was faced with a virus in my crop. Specifically a crop where you want to protect the genetic material and you can't just throw the plants away often when we say when you've got a virus the first thing you should do is just destroy all plant material but what if you've got a strain a variety a cultivar that only you've got or is protected or is endangered or you need it for a breeding program or something like that and you need to get rid of the virus what are you going to do you can't give plants tamiflu that technology is not available you can't just wait for their immune system to fight the virus off because they don't have immune systems and so there's only really one option that i'm aware of and that's heat treatment so you when you're planting out cuttings tubers bulbs or seeds immersing them in hot water for a defined period can help with virus control. So we're talking about temperatures of 45 to 55 degrees Celsius. So you wouldn't keep plants, not many plants would live at that sort of temperature, they would soon die off, especially unless the humidity was really, really high. But the duration of which you give this treatment is only like 10 to 60 minutes. So in crops that's regularly, perennial crops, herbaceous perennial crops where they regularly suffer from viruses like sugar cane, sweet potato, banana, even grape vines and some ornamentals, you can do this and with success and control viruses. And you're best obviously doing it with smaller plants because smaller the plants, the more effective the treatment will be because of just the temperature profiles and things like that. Now obviously there's a big challenge there it could be phytotoxic it could just kill your plants from the heat but with a bit of experimentation you could find what is the sweet spot for your particular plant and in fact if I was going to do this if I had a plant that I needed to control the viruses I would do it until the plant breaks so I would get maybe 100 cuttings from a virus infected plant and I'd treat 10 at. What did I say the temperature was, 45 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes, and then all the way up to 10 that would be treated at 55 degrees Celsius for 60 minutes. No idea what that is in Fahrenheit, apologies for American listeners, but it's pretty warm, it's sort of like steam room temperature. So I would do a range and find out at what point did the plants die, and just go slightly below that, and really really stress it, because you don't want any virus particles in that new plant because it will be a source of infection and you will not get a chance to do this twice really so obviously seeds is the easiest but very rarely you won't go on to do that it's after that tubers something dormant a bulb they're going to be much more resistant much more tolerant of those high temperatures whereas a cutting is probably going to be the most sensitive but i would do it until it breaks if you're prepared to lose a few cuttings you could do it on unrooted cuttings and rooted cuttings i'd probably start with rooted cuttings see if you could get away with it because, severely stressing a cutting that's not rooted and then trying to get it to root you know you're not you you're in for a bad case there because you really struggle because it's all the cells are going to be weak and stressed from that heat treatment so i do it on rooted cuttings, newly rooted cuttings, not too much growing media around them. Okay, so that would be my. My suggestion, what are the success rates? If you're doing it on seeds, the sort of typical virus elimination you can achieve is 60 to 90%. Whole plant cure rate, typically around 50%. So you may need to screen the plants and quarantine and destroy any plants that are not completely successful. Micropropagation as well. There's often a technique that's used in micropropagation because you can, these plants are so much smaller than a normal cutting than a normal plant that you can quickly get them to the temperature and then back down again quickly whereas a a large corm or bulb or tuber you could think you can get in the center of that tuber to 50 degrees celsius means much longer and the outside temperature will have to be a lot warmer so so yeah that's probably going to be lower success rate there what else can we say this is sort of the term is thermotherapy by the way so what else can we say about it you can do it on whole plants large plants but you would probably need a grow room dedicated to it with a sort of a temperature of high 30s probably early 40s for two to six weeks that's a lot of heat if you're not in a tropical or arid area but you've got fruit trees large fruit trees ornamentals that are just infected then it might be worth it for targeting systemic viruses and preserving the whole plant structure rather than going back down to cuttings and starting it all over again. The heat stress will reduce the vigour and survival of the plants. You'll probably get some scorching on the leaves and things like that. So if it's an ornamental plant, you might reduce that. The success rates for whole plant thermotherapy are lower. So 30 to 70% virus elimination. And just because the temperatures are lower, so the virus isn't exposed to such a high temperature. And maybe this is why, you know, when you get a virus, like a cold or a flu, your body heats up because viruses don't like high temperatures. But, you know, tropical plants still get viruses. So I'd imagine this is harder to do on tropical plants and easier to do on temperate plants, because tropical plants are going to be exposed to these high temperatures anyway, and the viruses will be adapted to them. It will depend on the virus and its genetics, because even though they're not alive, they have genetics, they have genes, whether that's RNA or DNA. So the virus biology will have an effect and the host tolerance the ability to withstand those high temperatures will be key and the precise treatment i would probably do a water bath would probably be the easiest way to do it with cuttings now a water bath you can set to a set temperature and and dunk them in what's that thing they use in kitchens is it a bain marie when they when they're cooking steaks very precise temperatures you could potentially use one of those as well and or Or if you fail in that, a pot on a stove or something in an oven, some water in an oven that could get the plants to 50 degrees Celsius uniformly. So you don't want to put them in dry heat in an oven because they're exposed to all sorts of temperatures there. Definitely don't just put them in an oven. Definitely use a water bath for cuttings and things like that. So that would be my top tip. Just sort of Google there. You can pick up a Bain-Marie for like 100, 140 pounds. So that's not a lot considering the value if you're going to go to these lengths then the value of these plants must be considerable if you're going to spend the time and effort to try and eliminate viruses from them and potentially you know with virus testing getting better and better and more what's the word i'm looking for accessible you could potentially have a nice little hydroponic. Business selling certified virus-free heat treated cuttings that could be one of the things if you if in your industry cuttings there's a there's a business is selling cuttings and you're looking for a unique selling point then potentially you could say our product our cuttings are all heat treated and checked and checked for viruses before they leave the nursery and that could be a really good small little venture little bootstrapped hydroponic company to get you going up and running, selling, cuttings, and propagation material. Anyway, that's been Hydroponics Daily for today. If you found it interesting, please do give us an Apple podcast review because it does help spread the word of hydroponics with the wider horticultural gardening community and scientific community. If you're not an Apple, just make sure you follow the podcast so you don't miss an episode. We've got about 14 episodes left of 2025. I've done an episode every day,  at the very least check out www.Eutrema.co.uk for all your amazing. Fertilizers, biostimulants and biopesticides. None of our products control viruses because you can't control a virus. You have to either destroy your plants or heat treat them. You can use insecticides to prevent the spread of aphids, which transfer the viruses. We don't sell insecticides, we sell an insecticide or soap and that's about it. So yeah, that's been Hydroponics Daily for today. Thank you very much for listening and I'll see you again tomorrow. https://eutrema.co.uk/shop/fertiliser/liquid-gold-unique-complete-fertiliser/ Roger Hull — John Innes Centre David Baulcombe — University of Cambridge James Carrington — Donald Danforth Plant Science Center Andrew O. Jackson — University of California, Berkeley B. W. Falk — University of California, Davis Anne Simon — University of Maryland Herman Scholthof — Texas A&M University Siddarame Gowda — University of Florida Ralf Georg Dietzgen — University of Queensland Ioannis E. Tzanetakis — University of Arkansas Bryce Falk — University of California, Davis Karl Maramorosch — Rutgers University John Hammond — USDA Agricultural Research Service Robert A. Owens — USDA Agricultural Research Service Véronique Brault — INRAE Thierry Candresse — INRAE Stephane Blanc — INRAE Yiguo Hong — Zhejiang University Shou-Wei Ding — University of California, Riverside W. Allen Miller — Iowa State University Karen-Beth G. Scholthof — Texas A&M University Scott Adkins — USDA Agricultural Research Service Hanu R. Pappu — Washington State University Michael J. Adams — Rothamsted Research John Walsh — University of Warwick Peter Palukaitis — Seoul National University Said Ghabrial — University of Kentucky Rajagopalbabu Srinivasan — Texas A&M University Feng Qu — Ohio State University Michael M. Goodin — University of Kentucky Yongliang Zhang — Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Xueping Zhou — Zhejiang University Shahid Siddique — University of Tennessee Ping Qian — Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University Shouhua Feng — Chinese Academy of Sciences Satyanarayana Tatineni — USDA Agricultural Research Service Aiming Wang — Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Feng Li — University of South Dakota Jinling Huang — East China Normal University Byungwook Ahn — Seoul National University Chikara Masuta — Hokkaido University Nobumichi Saitoh — University of Tokyo Tetsuo Meshi — Kyoto University Kei Fujiwara — University of Tokyo Masayuki Ishikawa — National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences (Japan) Toru Fujiwara — University of Tokyo Sung-Hwan Yun — Seoul National University Kook-Hyung Kim — Seoul National University Yijun Zhou — Nanjing Agricultural University Jianping Chen — Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Fengming Song — Zhejiang University Shou-Wei Ding — University of California, Riverside Jean-Michel Hily — INRAE Christophe Ritzenthaler — CNRS Hugues Vigne — University of Strasbourg José-Antonio Daròs — IBMCP-CSIC Ricardo Flores — IBMCP-CSIC Vicente Pallás — IBMCP-CSIC Pedro Moreno — IVIA Valencia María Teresa Gutiérrez — University of Granada Eugene S. Dennis — CSIRO Peter Waterhouse — Australian National University Mikhail Pooggin — Friedrich Miescher Institute Thomas Hohn — University of Basel Michael J. Oliver — USDA Agricultural Research Service Gary P. Munkvold — Iowa State University William O. Dawson — University of Florida James Schoelz — University of Missouri Claudio L. Bassett — USDA Agricultural Research Service Jorge A. Sánchez-Navarro — IBMCP-CSIC Rongxiang Fang — Chinese Academy of Sciences Yijun Qi — Tsinghua University

Dr. Russell Sharp explores the growing interest in perennial arable crops like Kernza, perennial rice and sorghum, explaining their environmental benefits, current commercial status, and the agronomic challenges they face. The episode also discusses breeding and gene-editing opportunities to improve yield and resilience, and considers how perennial grains might fit into hydroponic and niche high-value markets. https://eutrema.co.uk/ Maqsood Ali Wagan — Sindh Agriculture University Farhan Ali Wagan — Sindh Agriculture University Andrius Grigas — Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry Dainius Steponavičius — Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry Indrė Bručienė — Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry Ričardas Krikštolaitis — Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry Tomas Krilavičius — Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry Aušra Steponavičienė — Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry Dainius Savickas — Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry Alejandro Perdomo López — Reaseheath College / University Centre Adrienn S. — Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences S. Upreti — ICAR–Indian Agricultural Research Institute Monica Dutta — Indian Institute of Information Technology Deepali Gupta — Indian Institute of Information Technology Sumegh Tharewal — Indian Institute of Information Technology Deepam Goyal — Indian Institute of Information Technology Jasminder Kaur Sandhu — Indian Institute of Information Technology Manjit Kaur — Indian Institute of Information Technology Ahmad Ali Alzubi — Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University Jazem Mutared Alanazi — Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University Sreehitha Padala — St. Francis College for Women Saniya Vaishnav — St. Francis College for Women Revathi Saravanan — St. Francis College for Women Basanti Chintapalli — St. Francis College for Women Sandeep Indurthi — Assam Agricultural University Ira Sarma — Assam Agricultural University Chereddy Maheswarareddy — Assam Agricultural University M. R. Islam — Bangladesh Agricultural University M. A. Rahman — Bangladesh Agricultural University S. K. Paul — Bangladesh Agricultural University A. K. Singh — ICAR–Indian Agricultural Research Institute R. K. Yadav — ICAR–Indian Agricultural Research Institute P. K. Singh — ICAR–Indian Agricultural Research Institute J. L. Minhas — ICAR–Central Soil Salinity Research Institute V. P. Singh — ICAR–Central Soil Salinity Research Institute H. R. Sharma — Punjab Agricultural University S. S. Dhillon — Punjab Agricultural University M. A. Al-Khatib — King Saud University A. A. Al-Harbi — King Saud University N. H. Batool — University of Agriculture Faisalabad M. A. Nawaz — University of Agriculture Faisalabad Y. S. Kim — Seoul National University J. H. Lee — Seoul National University T. Matsuo — University of Tokyo K. Yamamoto — University of Tokyo P. J. Botha — University of Pretoria M. J. van der Merwe — University of Pretoria R. N. Singh — Banaras Hindu University S. K. Verma — Banaras Hindu University Alice Withrow — Purdue University

Dr. Russell Sharp explains how Dosatrons (water-powered dosing pumps) mix concentrated fertilizer like Gold Leaf/Liquid Gold into fertigation systems, describing the piston-driven mechanism, proportional injection, and why it maintains a constant concentration despite flow changes. The episode covers practical setup tips for off-grid hydroponics — solenoids, drippers, solar pumps, and how a Dosatron enables accurate, electricity-free dosing, along with limitations (not for powders, pressure loss, very viscous or abrasive chemicals) and a brief mention of Venturi injectors. https://eutrema.co.uk/shop/fertiliser/liquid-gold-unique-complete-fertiliser/