IZC looked to Niagara College’s Horticultural & Environmental Sciences Innovation Centre (HESIC) team to determine if a new soil amendment was going to impact international shipping and handling of plants. The HESIC team created multiple zeolite-peat moss blend ratios and determined dry and wet weights of plants potted in several different pots with zeolite-containing media.

A small-scale trial on leafy greens, specifically lettuce, in Niagara College’s greenhouse hydroponic system, was performed using NEREA® as substrate embedded with nutrients. NEREA® acted as a hydroponic substrate substitution for rockwool media.

IZ approached Niagara College’s Horticultural & Environmental Sciences Innovation Centre (HESIC) team to create multiple NEREA® and peat moss blend ratios to examine the nutrient content of leachate over time. They wanted to understand whether nutrient content within the leachate was affected by the presence of peat moss.

IZ reached out to Niagara College’s Horticultural & Environmental Sciences Innovation Centre (HESIC) team to work together to assess the performance of NEREA® as a provider of a short-term crop’s complete nutritional requirements. A small-scale trial was performed at the NC Teaching Greenhouse comparing germination and performance of Ocimum basilicum (basil) across a range of percentages of NEREA® blended with sphagnum peat moss.

Quick Plug wanted to produce a novel formulation of solid plug media applicable to several different crops, which would effectively reduce time to root emergence, ‘rooting’, without compromising plant health. Quick Plug turned to Niagara College’s Horticultural & Environmental Sciences Innovation Centre (HESIC) to conduct growing trials to evaluate two of their novel formulations.

MetaFLO Technologies (“MetaFLO”) is a Mississauga-based company that markets and distributes chemical reagents with application potential in a variety of industries, including the agricultural sector. The company is in the process of expanding its portfolio to include a new reagent: an algae-based, organic polymer formulated for use as a biostimulant.