July 19, 2011
Good Afternoon All,
 
A.M.A. Hydroponics, a part of A.M.A. Plastics Ltd. held a successful Grower Day yesterday, July 19th, at its Kingsville, ON facility, to introduce The New Substrate, BVB Sublime, to the North American market.  Holding the grower day in Kingsville, right in the heart of Canada’s largest greenhouse production area, meant representatives of some of North America’s largest hydroponic vegetable growing operations were in attendance in addition to professional grower consultants and greenhouse crop researchers and advisors.
 
BVB Sublime is a polyurethane substrate engineered expressly for hydroponic vegetable crops.  Developed through extensive research over the last 4 years, in a partnership between Bas van Buuren bv (BVB Substrates), of De Lier, Netherlands and Huntsman International’s, Everberg, Belgium facility, BVB Sublime (pronounced sue-bleem), offers many benefits to aid grower profitability.  Several representatives from BVB Substrates and Huntsman were on hand to deliver technical and product information through excellent presentations by John Noordam (BVB); Laura Eaves (Huntsman, TX) & Rob Weggelaar (Huntsman, BE).  Also presenting was Esther van Echtelt of Philips Lighting bv of Eindhoven, Netherlands, Esther spoke about Philips’ involvement in the rapidly developing market for LED lighting in greenhouse crop production.
 
BVB Sublime is designed to hold water while offering maximum air/water ratio throughout the crop life.  Roots develop throughout the slab rather than developing at the bottom of the slab.  This leads to more efficient water and nutrient use, and most importantly, increased yield.
 
BVB Sublime is inert, clean and safe.  The grower has complete control.  There are no dust issues with Sublime for employees handling the product.  It also means reduced food safety issues and no tannin leaching compared with coir substrates.  Water recycling becomes much easier.  Greenhouse troughs are cleaner too, compared to coir.
 
BVB Sublime can be re-saturated in the event that it dries out, with no difficulties even if it occurs many times.  This substrate does not collapse over the crop cycle nor if it is stepped on or somehow crushed.  It bounces back to its original shape.
 
BVB Sublime solves another large problem for growers.  Sublime does not become costly waste to dispose of at the end of the crop cycle.  BVB Sublime becomes fuel for bio-mass or coal boiler systems, or for industrial furnaces.  It has the same caloric value as coal, even with the plant material in it.  It’s simply mixed into the regular fuel stream.
 
Grower controllability, sustainability and profitability are built into BVB Sublime.  A.M.A. Hydroponics is proud to be assisting growers with this new, leading edge product.  Our involvement in hydroponics supplies dates back to 1996 and today, we are suppliers of J-Hooks, Truss Supports and The Best Tomato Clip from Deleco and we offer the finest Horticultural Twines available today from Lankhorst Yarns.  Our line of compostable and degradable twines and clips offer sustainable options for our customers, especially when combined with BVB Sublime Substrate.  We operate A.M.A. Hydroponics from a separate, restricted access, clean facility and maintain substantial inventories.  We can ship anywhere in North America.
 
For more information, call Shawn Mallen, Manager, Hydroponics & Manufacturing at 800-338-1136 or 519-322-1397, or visit us at www.amahydroponics.com.
 
Thanks,
Rick Bradt