Hygrolon

Magnus,

Thank you for piling on.

"Generic" products tend to be "the same, but now no longer under the more costly brand name". My intention is to produce a better product.

As far as the creativity is concerned, at several times in the past, when I was planning to introduce something new, I have established a "name-the-product" contest, allowing others the opportunity to have a little bit of fun and potentially get a bit of free stuff in the deal. Sorry if that offends you.

 

Its my understanding that dusk didn't invent anything. Hygrolon is a product widly used for shoe and chair and epiwep is basically industrial cleaning pads. Dusk just simply rename the product for orchid use... At lease for what I have heard.

 

Ray, I have been around for a while and seen how you, after you got the agency for Epiweb, screwed Mikael at dusk by buying a similar material and selling it under your own name in the US. A material very similar to Epiweb so you could benefit from the original promotion work.
And now you are at it again by taking an idea and trying to benefit from Mikaels long efforts, years of testing and hunting for the perfect material! I just hope you will do as extensive real growing tests over years to verify your substitute’s properties. Just to make sure your customers get a material that do not kill their orchids... But seen the history you probably going to sell it without having grown a single orchids in it...

As for keithrs comments, I have used Epiweb for years and have seen a significant change in the material since Ray lost his agency for Epiweb in the US. Mikael has done some serious development since, and optimize the physical properties of Epiweb. I have continually bought Epiweb for about 8 years and seen the gradually change to a better product!


And a last comment, this forum goes bananas every time someone happens to use some ones picture without permission... When someone steals an idea and starts a competing commercial business this forum goes very silent...

 

Well thanks for the invitation, Magnus, I do think it's about time some other voices jumped into this pile!

What exactly is wrong with Ray competing with Mikael? Effective entrepreneurial markets are predicated on competition, which tends to make products better and more affordable for consumers. Monopolies or other lack of competition, on the other hand, stifle innovation and price many out of access to useful products. While Mikael and Ray both deserve recognition and thanks for their innovations in orchid culture, how does that entitle either to exemption from legal and ethical competition?

I realize that as an international forum we may have some differences in cultural/business norms, but regardless of what you view as 'fair' in business I think Ray is being mistreated here. His past and present relationship with Mikael is between the two of them, and if there's anything untoward in it then that's for them to settle, not us. Hurling emotional accusations and baseless smears on a public forum is both juvenile and unfair, and such degeneration of discourse doesn't do ANYONE any good...

Mikael, thanks for having the grace and wisdom to stay out of this artificial 'dispute.' I appreciate what you're doing for orchid culture and look forward to seeing where you take things in the future.

 

I don 't come very much on this forum any more.. just discovering this post! I have absolutely no way to know what happened and who did what to have an educated opinion.
I have managed to get some hygrolon and if there is a product that wets more, I would be interested and if the product is different, yes I see it as competition. (Though perhaps this competition does profit a great deal from Mikael's research and trials..)

So name your product hygroplus, hygrorave, hygrotop....
if you don't want to use Hygro use Aqua
like Aquatela ( water-mesh)
feel free to use those! it's a pleasure and it only took 30 seconds of my brain time

 

Just because it holds more water doesn't mean it's better, that's ridiculous.

I'm using hygrolon for all my plants, and the great thing is that it stays evenly moist, if it stayed overly wet or soaking then i would probably not have any good results.

 

No argument, Jeff. How wet something stays depends upon your environment and watering habits, but that is not to say that staying wet is a bad thing either. If the structure is "open" enough that it remains airy when wet, it's no issue, and may even be beneficial. We know that from the extensive experience have with semi-hydroponics and active hydroponic systems for orchids and other plants.

I have a local customer who grows all of her cacti and succulents in S/H culture, and wins all sorts of awards from them. Personally, I would have though the concept was ridiculous, but I am, apparently, incorrect in that assessment.

Back to the fabrics for a moment, in my experimentation, I showed that the thicker material holds more water, but if you actually look at the volume held per volume of fabric, rather than mass, they're about the same, suggesting the thicker material is a larger reservoir, but not a more dense and suffocating one.