I used to love General Hydroponics' products, especially their three-part Flora series. Company started by a guy that was literally a rocket scientist in the '70s (worked in the industry, at least). Was growing his own, mixing up his own nutrients (from their components, not a couple of "Hydroponics Nutrients™" jugs), and his buddy told him he ought to start selling them to other people. Went from a scientist mixing nutrients in his spare time to (eventually) selling them to NASA for use in orbit, lol. Clean and stable nutrients. Between the base and the supplements, one has the ability to tailor one's feeding to just about any plant in existence (cannabis or otherwise). Probably did more to introduce the world of cannabis growers to the concept of hydroponics than any other entity.
Fast foward, lo these many years... and the founder / former owner of General Hydroponics sold the company to... The Scotts Miracle-Gro monster. Someone was kind enough to give me a set of their three-part this year, and I have some (old) bottles of supplements from past purchases. So I'll continue to use the products until my current supply is gone. But I doubt I'll ever buy any more, and have real trouble recommending anyone else do so; I don't believe in feeding the monsters. This particular one has been (and continues) to buy up companies that have been big names in the hydroponics/cannabis industry. Which should have even those who don't care
who ends up being their "masters" - S-MG has been caught knowingly selling bird feed that was full of... bird poison. It's also in bed with other huge entities that are less than friendly to the human race, like Monsanto.
Is the Hawthorne Gardening Company a Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing for the Cannabis Industry? - CULTURE | MERRY JANE
General advice time: Before buying a product (any product), ask yourself this: Who profits from my custom?
I've kind of been a fan of Osmocote Plus controlled-release fertilizer, too - and they bought
that company.
1993 - Bought the Grace-Sierra Horticultural Products Company (Osmocote, Metro-Mix, Banrot, Peters, etc.).
1988 - Bought Hyponex (the largest producer and marketer of organic growing media products in the US).
1997 - Bought Levington Horticulture Ltd. (the U.K.'s leading producer of consumer and professional lawn fertilizer, organics and horticultural products).
1998 - Bought EarthGro, Inc.
1998 - Bought 80% of plant breeding company Sanford Scientific, Inc.
1998 - Bought Rhône-Poulenc Jardin (continental Europe's largest consumer lawn and garden products company).
1998 - Scotts MG entered into a collaboration with the
Monsanto Company ("...Under the agreement, Scotts and Monsanto agreed to share technologies, including Monsanto's extensive genetic library of plant traits and Scotts' proprietary gene gun technology...").
1999 - Closer ties with Monsanto (Roundup, Ortho, et cetera).
2005 - Bought Morning Song birdfood brand (...and procedes to kills massive amounts of birds over the next three years or so).
2015 - Realized that some people don't like the name Scotts Miracle-Gro (
for some reason
) and decided to form Hawthorne Gardening Company shell company in hopes of obfuscating the real ownership of its purchases.
2015 - Bought General Hydroponics.
2015 - Bought VermiCorp Organics.
2016 - Bought Gavita Horticultural Lighting.
2016 - Bought American Agritech (aka Botanicare).
2017 - Bought Can-Filters (Canadian carbon filter and fan company).
2018 - Bought Sunlight Supply, Inc.
I skipped several, BtW.
