Sunflowers have many uses: The seeds provide food for humans and wild birds, they support bees by supplying pollen and nectar, and sunflower oil is extracted for cooking and use in beauty products.

We wanted to study the interactions between Growthful and Sunflowers so HydroGarden Ltd. led the way. They conducted a study to observe the performance of sunflower plants grown in re-circulating flood & drain systems with or without the addition of Growthful.

HydroGarden

HydroGarden is the UK’s leading manufacturer and distributor of hydroponic equipment
and services. HydroGarden has been supplying specialist hydroponic equipment to the
trade since February 1996 and is a leader in the UK and international markets to
retailers, commercial growers and research organizations.

Trial Details

Location: Greenhouse, HydroGarden Ltd., Coventry, England

Date: February 2018 – May 2018

Substrates: ROOT!T sponges, VitaLink Clay Pebbles, VitaLink 100% Coir, VitaLink Clay Coir Nutrients: VitaLink – PlantStart, RootStim, Coir Classic Grow SW

Sunflowers: Topolino seeds from CN Seeds

For a detailed account of the procedures and findings – this pdf contains all trial information:

Results

Growthful produced an almost 68% increase in fresh mass weight of fully opened flowers.

Plants from the treated group were visibly bushier than plants from the Control group, their average height was also 6% higher.

The difference in fresh mass weight of all fully opened flowers was considerable. For plants from the group treated with Growthful it was 1.126 kilograms in total and 0.094 kilograms on average, while for plants from the Control group this was 0.672 kilograms in total and 0.056 kilograms on average. There was an almost 68% increase in fresh mass weight of fully opened flowers when treated.

The treated group also appeared to grow and develop faster than the control with the main flower fully opening sooner on average.