I didn't really read the article, but I started watching the video. I just don't believe anything that comes out of big mikes mouth (owner of advanced nutrients). Then I checked the homepage of that site, at the very top they promote advanced nutrients. You can believe what you want, but big mike has practiced plenty of bad ethics himself, and I don't think that article is even worth reading.

He's been going after Sunlight for awhile. Not news. NGW stopped carrying his product over some reason. I think it was over false advertising and supposedly they couldn't get permits to sell fertilizers due to not meeting the requirements or something in various states. I can't recall exactly and that is just based on what I was told by a hydro shop owner locally. I do remember when the state came in to the shop while I was there and quarantined all Advanced fertilizers over permit issues, though. That instance was over not applying rather than failing, I believe. Anyway, these people are not being very smart. Yes, bad publicity is still publicity, but when your bad publicity leads to more and more people commenting on how terrible your business practices are it is not productive publicity.

Why am I not surprised to hear that? Fact is, I would buy from Sunlight Supply well before I ever considered anything from advanced nutrients. I have learned to avoid advanced nutrients like the plague. Big mike pretends to be your friend in his videos, but he's really just a Big Bully that's easy to see through.

"Big Bully" describes B.M. very well. He attacks Sunlight about once every six months. None of the shop owners I spoke to, felt that they were ever being extorted by Sunlight. Several of them hadn't even heard of Big Mike and none of them showed any interest in carrying his products. Sunlight gets the shop owners a good deal and gets a large selection of quality products to them quickly. This helps them keep inventory and operating costs down and profits up. I kind of got the opinion from these shop owners that if Sunlight didn't carry or distribute a certain product, That the product could be of questionable or untested quality.

I just thought I would add a tidbit for anyone interested. for anyone that questions the reliability of the information in that article.

I ask this:
Just how do you think that video made it's way onto that page and/or into that article in the first place if it wasn't being influenced by by the advertiser (advanced nutrients). That question needs to be addressed before I ever consider reading it.

I have never herd anything good about advanced nutrients (unless they said it). It also tells me that the publication (www.rosebudmag.com) can be influenced by corruption, so why would I ever believe anything it said? Ya, big mike, is nothing more than a Big Bully, and That's simply the way I see it.

I guess I'll toss my 2 cents in.

First up, Rosebud is published by Advanced Nutrients. That shouldn't be news to anyone, but I guess it is. None of the other magazines like it (the *nudge* "tomato grower" magazines) will let AN advertise in them.

Now a bunch of people like to attribute that to something negative on AN's part. However, I've done some digging and I've come to a different conclusion.

NGW and Sunlight supply are the same thing, right? Well that's just the tip of the iceberg. I don't believe NGW EVER carried Advanced Nutrients, but I could be wrong. If they ever dropped AN it was because they bought their own nutrient company. I forget which one(s) they own, it's a mess to try to keep it all straight.

The magazines, the nutrient companies, the lighting companies, they're all grouped up. I'm no big business guy so I can't really keep it all straight. As near as I can tell all the big boys in hydroponics own at least one equipment company, one nutrient company, and a publication.

Advanced Nutrients is the new kid on the block. They just recently started their magazine because the big kids wouldn't let them advertise in their rags. They're coming out with their own ballasts and such.

If NGW doesn't carry something, it's not because it's not good. It's because they don't somehow own the company that makes it.

The fact that the article appears in Rosebud magazine doesn't suggest any nefarious ulterior motives to me. Did anyone expect it to be in a mainstream magazine? Why would they care about some medical growers? Did you expect it to be in whichever magazine Sunlight Supply owns? Yeah, that's likely.

How about the other magazines that, btw, are only able to continue publication because NGW does their distribution for free so long as they toe the line and do what they want (like deny advertising to whomever they don't like).

There's a lot of dirty pool going on behind the scenes. But from what I have seen I think Big Mike has a reason to be pissed off. I wouldn't handle it the same way he does, but that doesn't mean he's a bad guy.

"I wouldn't handle it the same way he does, but that doesn't mean he's a bad guy."

If he is lying about Sunlight Supply killing people's plants, yes it does. My Sunlight Supply lights have been doing great, so I'd say it's a lie, but that's anecdotal. Hydroponica, please read the original post again. Or maybe the title. There is a difference between not letting someone advertise in your trade mag and outright slandering them. My competitors don't let me advertise on their websites. Nor do I advertise them on mine. Shall I start slandering them and vice versa for it? Trade mags aren't journalism. They are ads with content. Why would anyone advertise someone they don't like? That's their prerogative.

We get crap a lot on here from Advanced. Funny, we don't see NGW on here bad mouthing Advanced in retaliation. Either they are smarter or they are better people (probably the former, but that's me being cynical). Either way makes Advanced look bad.

The amount of anger you have for Big Mike is disproportionate to how well you know him or the company.

First off, he doesn't own Advanced Nutrients. He's a co-founder along with two other guys.

You tell me to read the original post again, but you've clearly failed to do so yourself. There's nothing in there about lights. So your lights have been doing fine? So what? It's not about lights.

The point about the magazines and advertising was to explain why AN (and all the bigger players) have their own magazines, not to suggest that there is something evil going on regarding the magazines and advertising.

However, AN does allow their competition to advertise in Rosebud...

It seems to me that you're trying to make this look like a story fabricated by Big Mike and/or Advanced Nutrients. It's not. It's a story PUBLISHED by them. The story exists independently of AN. I won't post links because they lead to plant-specific forums that don't need discussed here but if you take a few moments with Google I'm sure you can find the information yourself - if you care at all about the difference between the facts and your opinion about a company.

The guys involved in the suit against SS/NGW are just growers. Whether the motives of the people at Rosebud are pure in their broadcasting of these guys' story doesn't change the truth of what SS/NGW is doing to those guys.

If your competition is playing dirty, sure that's going to play into your hand. But simply because you point out they're playing dirty and it's to your advantage that people think that doesn't change the fact that they're playing dirty.

"lights" in my post was due to me typing slower than thinking. I think I must have typed "lights" because of the word sunlight still in my head. I meant tubing. I use the stuff to connect my bucket system.

Is your tubing blank or does it have writing printed on it?

I really don't believe sunlight or NGW actually manufactures there own tubing anymore than Sears ever manufactured their own automotive tires & batteries. I find it highly more likely that they order it in bulk from a tubing manufacturer to their own specifications. "Their own specifications" meaning standard tubing with the letters NGW printed on it. I find it highly unlikely that this tubing is of any less quality than most tubing on the market.
~Ken~