Casey: House & Garden was founded by William Van De Zwaan in 1990. A third-generation biochemist, he took his grandfather’s A&B recipe for tulips, roses and carnations and modified it for our market. And in the following years, he developed the rest of the line to what we know it as today.

CASEY: In 2015, the founder was ready to move on, so we relocated our manufacturing facility to Humboldt County, California under new ownership. The current owners were actually the same team that introduced the House & Garden brand to the United States market. So there was a long-time relationship in place and therefore the trust that the transition would honour the brand and maintain its stellar reputation.

NATE: I joined in 2017, and was really amazed by the painstaking detail we took here in the US to make sure the manufacturing was the exact same as it had been in Holland and the way we maintained continuity and kept that quality. We shipped everything from handrails to stairs from the manufacturing facility in Holland and rebuilt it so it was exactly the same, it was pretty amazing. The lead mixer from Holland came to the US for a full year to train our staff on the products too!

SO ARE THE PRODUCTS STILL EXACTLY THE SAME TODAY AS THEY WERE WHEN YOU WERE BASED IN HOLLAND?

CASEY: A lot of people worried that the recipes would change when House & Garden moved to the U.S. People already relied on and loved House & Garden products and didn’t want anything to change. We loved House & Garden products too, so none of us wanted anything to change either! We kept all the recipes, raw materials, and mixing processes just the same. And we had the lead mixer from Holland on-site to ensure we did everything exactly as they had done in Holland. And since our manufacturing process is designed for small batch mixing, we have more control over quality and consistency than other brands on the market. Combine that with our quality control laboratory, and we’re in a position to provide top-notch quality and consistency. The only change has been the innovation and addition of some exciting new products like Magnesium Boost.

LET’S GO INTO YOUR PRODUCTS IN A BIT MORE DETAIL…

ROOTS EXCELURATOR IS THE MOST WELL-KNOWN, THE BIGGEST SELLER. CAN YOU GIVE US ANY HINTS AND TIPS ON HOW YOU USE IT IN THE STATES?

CASEY: We use it at 0.3ml per litre all the way through veg into your third week into flower, longer if you have a longer flowering period. Something a lot of people don’t know is there’s an enzyme in it that helps to cure root rot. It’s definitely a game-changer if you’re in hydroponics or have a really wet growing medium. It kills off the dead roots causing new root hairs to grow which a lot of other root stimulants don’t do. The proofs in the pudding: trial our Roots Excelurator against another root stimulant, take two cuttings side by side and in a couple of weeks you’ll see the root hair, the actual root structure, that’s when you see a real difference. Also, you’re not going to get a root stimulant for the price that’s that good and concentrated.

NATE: A big sales point for Roots Excel is that you can use it on your clones and cuttings to get faster roots.

ANOTHER TOP PRODUCT IN THE RANGE IS AMINO TREATMENT, IT’S PERHAPS LESS WELL KNOWN THAN ROOTS EXCELURATOR. CAN YOU TELL US MORE?

CASEY: Amino is a really special product. The ingredients of the product have always been kept quite secret at House & Garden. It took even us a few years before we were allowed to know what was in it! Amino Treatment offers three products in one, including amino acids, humic acids, and an extremely plant-available form of silica. A lot of companies would rather sell you these ingredients in three different bottles! Amino Treatment brings a great value by supplying all three ingredients in a single bottle, and our blend is optimized specifically for our favourite flower. Having the silica mixed with amino acids doesn’t mess with your pH like a standalone silica product does. With that you put the stand-alone silica in your reservoir first then adjust your pH, as this is mixed with amino acids, you can add it to your reservoir at any point without the pH being messed up. It helps calcium uptake, stress relief, helps all your macro and micronutrients and it’s a really neat product – my favourite product of all most definitely!

MOVING ON TO ANOTHER PRODUCT IN THE RANGE, MULTI-ZYME. HOW DOES IT WORK?

CASEY: You use it all the way through veg and the third week into flower, but the main benefit is it’s breaking down all of your dead root material and making it available to the plant. There are a lot of other enzymes out there that use 3–4 times as much and are usually 3–4 times more expensive. Like all our products, ours is highly concentrated.

WHAT ABOUT BUD-XL? WHAT ARE THE MAIN BENEFITS?

CASEY: With Bud-XL, you can see the difference between using it and not using it. I did it a few times just to see the difference using the same plant and same cuttings and it makes a major difference! It’s our carbohydrate boost and it contains an enzyme that takes all the sugars in your sugar leaves on the outside of your flowers and locks them back into the flowers so they don’t get wasted. Basically, your plants’ creating all these sugars and Bud-XL’s like “hey we made all these sugars I’m not gonna waste them” and it brings them back into the flower site and that’s when you get that flavour and aroma. It really makes a big difference in the overall quality of the fruit. It comes in about week 4 or 5 in the flowering period depending on the plant and that’s once the flower sites have already started forming.

NATE: Stand-alone I would say Bud-XL is essential because you do see that difference, really showing off what the plant is capable of, whereas a lot of carbohydrate products on the market get complaints that they make all plants smell the same or give a flavour that isn’t natural. Part of our philosophy is to naturally accentuate the plant’s true potential, so the finished product can be a little more complex, a little more true to what it’s been bred to be.

SHOOTING FOR SUCCESS: WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TOP SHOOTER AND SHOOTING POWDER?

CASEY: Top Shooter is just a liquid version of Shooting Powder, there’s no real difference. We had hydro guys who didn’t want to deal with powder so we created a liquid version. You use it in the last 3 weeks before you flush, it’s superior to other big finishers because they take about 3–4 days to break down the particles and for the plants to get all the phosphorous and potassium. Shooting powder is instantaneously available to the plant, that’s what makes it such a different product because you use it and 24–48 hours later, you noticeably know you’re using shooting powder. It also triggers a second set of flowers that come in and push the flower to its fullest potential in size.

NATE: Shooting powder is also sieved into a superfine powder for better bio-uptake in the plants.

CASEY: The reason we don’t do it in big tubs is because you can maintain quality control. With big tubs you can get moisture and start to lose quality and with it being opened and closed it can be affected by humidity. Having it in smaller sachets ensures you’re getting the same quality of product every time.

WOULD YOU FEED DIFFERENT VARIETIES DIFFERENT RATIOS?

CASEY: It’s down to knowing your plant, everything’s going to be different. Some plants are heavy feeders some are not, so it’s making sure they’re not starving and not overdosing, they’re just happy.

NATE: For varieties that require extra magnesium, our Magnesium Boost product provides all the additional Magnesium needed to keep the plants healthy and the leaves green. Varieties that are bushy and have a lot of leaf canopy are more likely to require this. They’ll tell you if they need more magnesium. You’ll start to see yellowing between the veins in the older leaves. Plants held in vegetative states for longer than a couple weeks will benefit from the additional nitrogen provided by our Nitrogen Boost product. And if you’ve noticed that your variety is sensitive to high EC (electrical conductivity), I’d recommend playing it safe and feeding Top Shooter/Shooting Powder and Top Booster at half strength. It’s a safer bet to slowly add more over time than to risk damaging sensitive plants by pushing them too hard.

NATE: Yeah, we’re running trials and we’re always innovating, which is exciting, but that’s all we can say for now…

WHY SHOULD GROWERS CHOOSE HOUSE & GARDEN?

CASEY: The high concentration levels, we only put just enough water in our bottles to make them shelf-stable, a lot of people have a lot of water and that’s why they have higher dosage rates. Secondly, a lot of companies don’t have the same quality control, if our product is 0.01% off, we won’t bottle it, so you’re always getting the same level of quality. Those are the key factors, you get quality and consistency with House & Garden.

NATE: Another thing that’s unique is that we drive to bring out the authentic tastes and quality and we’re focused on maximising a plant’s potential versus pushing all plants similarly and compromising on taste and quality.

We caught up with the product specialists to give us insight into House & Garden’s key products.

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INTERVIEW WITH HOUSE & GARDEN: The lowdown with Casey & Nate