Finding Your Feed

Anyone visiting this years’ Summer Social or the social media feeds thereof cannot fail to have noticed the plant paradise of the poly tunnels. Amongst the inspired AutoPot-grown creations cultivated by Ben and the team were a number of breathtaking exhibits raised on an all-new fertiliser range. It’s called the Source. It’s driving us wild.

As avid fans of growth-maximising, health-enhancing, crop-swelling horticultural techniques we try every feed, supplement, biostimulant, and booster we can lay our hands on. Down the years these products have brought some stunning results. 

At some point though you start to dream of your perfect feed. What ingredients would it include? What would it be its nutritional profile? What would it do? Divide up the key features of plant fertilisation. How many products do you come out with? Consider all growing methods. Would your ideal range be dedicated to one technique or would it be universal?

Thankfully, some parallel versions of ourselves seem to have been considering these very questions. And they’ve come up with something uncannily similar to what we’d consider a fantasy fertiliser range. The Source had been in development for several years when first we encountered it during impressive tests at some of the UK’s leading horticultural universities. Delighted to be invited, we leapt at the chance of running it in AutoPot. The results? Simpatico! Goes down lovely with an AutoPot. Have we been on the Source ever since? You bet!

Worth considering though, is the fact that not everyone grows AutoPot. It’s ridiculous to suggest as much. We ourselves grow using any number of other techniques at home and at R&D in order to expand our experience. So it’s mightily pleasing to confirm that in our hands the Source range has proved equally successful in other irrigation systems including hand watering, DWC, NFT, drippers, and Flood & Drain systems. What about THAT range though? Isn’t it time we got you formally introduced?

Getting things underway in Source-y style is their Gro A/B Fertiliser for the veg stage. Throughout our trials it has unfailingly laid down all the precursors to full, healthy plant development. So much so that you can clearly trace a through-line to the generous harvests that Source-grown plants have delivered. The roots, the stems, the branches, the leaves it creates are going great guns right to the finish. ‘Relentless, rapid, uniform growth’ sounds about right to us. Once you’re through the looking glass and into the realm of fruits and flowers you’re onto Flo.

Flo operates a bit like an intricate mechanism in and of itself. It’s actually appreciable from watching the plants how the ingredients cue in seamlessly, like clockwork as growth advances. Structural development continues apace whilst fruits and flowers seem to effortlessly and abundantly pour forth. Complimenting the base fertilisers are a set of four biostimulants that have been designed to offer plenty of flexibility, customisation, and enhancement to your growing.

For the roots the Source produce Origin. Frankly, root boosters can be hard to rate. They’re somewhat like decent butlers in that a) they’re indispensable, and b) they perform their duties invisibly. What we can say is that our Source-grown plants have fed keenly and responded quickly to nutrient inputs. Observed during growth this responsiveness suggests a highly absorptive rootzone lies beneath. Once the plants have finished closer examination has borne this theory out. Pulled from the pot our Origin-boosted plants have exhibited a some pretty massive, growth-promoting rhizospheres. Suffice to say our head butler Origin will never feel the cruel slap of AutoPot MD, Lord Ralph-Smith’s silk gloves across its rosy-pink chops.

Alluvium is the Source’s PK Stimulator for the flowering and fruiting stage with an NPK of 0-18-20. Its rich, high purity potassium and phosphorus content has really played a blinder for us where stunning flowers and tasty fruit are concerned. Plants have inherent requirements for potassium and phosphorous and some varieties find themselves in need of a little extra leg-up now and again. Alluvium has acquitted itself well in covering both the essentials and the appetites of some pretty voracious feeders.

Substrate issues, pH issues, climatic issues, they can all affect the supply and distribution of calcium and magnesium which may, in turn, stymie development. According to the Source, Elements provides a hearty dose of CalMag to ‘keep vital processes running at full tilt, and to encourage rapid, healthy new growth.’ Everyone likes to think they’re in control of their growing environment but, inevitably, everyone slips up sometimes. In that event we can confirm that, when required, Elements has quickly stepped up to the plate and resurrected many an ailing project. 

If Elements get you back on an even keel then Delta opens up the throttles and propels your craft into hyper-fertile new realms. Packed with algal extracts, plant sourced amino acids, natural plant steroids and polyglucosides, the Source’s all-stage Boost Stimulator is responsible for literally bringing some of the most spectacular creations at the Summer Social to fruition.

Still trying to figure out if the Source is for you? Check out their website for a full breakdown of the range and complete feed chart archives for all growing techniques. If you want to nose even closer to the action follow @thesourcefertiliser for news of promo’s, expo appearances, and new stockists. The Source is available now in the UK, coming soon to Rest of World.