As Featured In

This piece first ran in Garden Culture Magazine, Issue 71 (UK & Ireland) — and if you're not already reading Garden Culture, you're missing one of the best free grow publications out there. No fluff, no filler, just people who actually know their stuff writing about growing properly.

This issue is themed "Beyond the Harvest" — planning your grow and looking after your soil once the season's done, rather than treating harvest as the finish line. Alongside our trip report, you'll find William Texier on the soil microorganisms working beneath your feet, AC Moon on spotting and fighting fungal issues before they take hold, Av Singh on picking the right biological inoculants for your rhizosphere, and Gareth Hopcroft on treating your garden as a living system rather than a one-off crop event. Properly good reading if you're serious about growing.

Read Issue 71 →

This edition, I thought I'd share a little insight into our recent trip to the Mary Jane event in Berlin. The plan was simple: go and see what all the fuss was about, catch up with people, make some new connections, and find some cool new products. Plus, not going meant there was zero chance of new opportunities. The FOMO was real.

Frankie, Ellie and Steve — the Hydro Bros crew in Berlin

The Journey to Berlin

Packed and ready for Berlin

I met Frankie and Ellie, the better-looking side of The Hydro Bros, at Gatwick early on Friday morning. We had the obligatory two beers before the flight, then nearly missed the flight. A strong start.

Once we landed, we were immediately hit with the reality of Brexit. We joined the queue to have our faces scanned, then joined another queue for immigration, where a single window appeared to be checking and stamping everyone through. Nearly two hours later, we were finally allowed into Germany.

Once through, it was into an Uber to the hotel, a quick spruce-up, and a recharge for our phones. We had enough foresight from our experience at another exposition to not rush straight into the opening queue-fest.

Final Destination: MJ Berlin

For anyone who hasn't seen the event before, the Mary Jane Trade Fair is held at Messe Berlin, a massive exhibition and convention centre. From the outside, it looks like a medieval fortress from The Hunger Games. Huge stone buildings, massive archways, and thousands of people pouring through the gates.

Inside, there was entertainment on a huge stage, loads of food options, and a vast array of exhibitors and vendors. It was a proper festival outside and a trade show inside.

Once settled, we exchanged industry news and gossip with suppliers (far too spicy for this article) before ending up at the AutoPot booth with Dan Dozzini, probably one of the last OG UK reps standing. He's been in the game for years and has seen it all.

We also bumped into Eric, some bloke who apparently works for a fairly well-known magazine called Garden Culture. We spent some time discussing the world and the industry downturn. Medical cultivation, imports, regulations, fierce competition between retailers and wholesalers, and some of the decisions made by manufacturers are all piling more pressure on an already difficult market. It isn't easy for anyone in the UK right now, regardless of what industry you're in.

Despite the glitz and glamour we might occasionally portray at The Hydro Bros, it is far from yachts and Wagyu steak. It is more like bus rides and Pot Noodles. Support your local grow shop. Fuck Amazon. Every order placed with an independent shop is basically a 1-Up that helps keep the whole ship alive.

The Hydro Bros on tour at MJ Berlin

An Informative Exhibit

Next stop was AC Infinity and VIVOSUN. They are direct competitors, and their stands were directly opposite each other.

For anyone unfamiliar with them, both brands make equipment aimed heavily at the hobby indoor grow-room market, including extraction fans, circulation fans, lights, humidifiers, dehumidifiers, heaters, and sensors. The crown jewel is the environmental controller — it lets you monitor and manage the room remotely from almost anywhere in the world.

We got our first look at the AC Infinity Terraform 9, a highly anticipated air conditioning unit expected to land in September. Over at VIVOSUN, we saw the first glimpse of the VCure and VSeed. One is a post-harvest curing unit, while the other is an all-in-one seed-to-seedling system with built-in lighting and flood-and-drain irrigation.

By the time we wrapped up day one, we — or possibly just me, actually — had grand plans of going out and getting absolutely trashed. Then age, tiredness, and the sensible foresight of wanting to remain conscious for day two kicked in, so we ended up having a quiet meal instead.

First look at the VIVOSUN VSeed

Day Two at MJ

Filming the TrolMaster WCS-9 on day two

Day two started with a visit to the TrolMaster team, where we filmed content on their new WCS-9 irrigation sensor. The WCS-9 measures the water content in growing media and feeds that information back into the TrolMaster system, allowing for much more accurate monitoring and irrigation control. Growlink has dominated this area at both hobby and commercial levels, so it will be interesting to see how TrolMaster does.

From there, we headed over to the Global Air Supplies (GAS) booth and spoke to the main man, Ian Collins, about GAS taking on wider UK distribution of AC Infinity. AC Infinity was already available here, but this move should make it much more widely available across the UK.

At first, it sounded slightly contradictory. GAS already has its own range of fans, filters and controllers, so why take on another brand that is famous for the same equipment? Once we spoke to Ian, it made more sense. The hobby market is rapidly moving towards digital automation, and AC Infinity and VIVOSUN have captured a significant share of it because their controllers are convenient, intelligent, and easy to set up. It's a bit like Apple; it just works.

One important point, though, is that both systems are largely designed around their own ecosystems of connected products, with greater flexibility in lighting. Right now, for example, there is no native way to run Global Air fans through the AC Infinity controller.

The rest of the day became a blur of meeting people, trying to find others, losing the people we had just found, and locating various pockets of alcohol around the event.

That's a Wrap

Overall, MJ was a great event. It was busy without feeling completely unbearable; there was a good mix of trade exhibitors and entertainment, and the huge outside space made a difference.

More importantly, it gave us the chance to catch up with people, turn online faces into actual human beings, see where the industry is heading, and hear what everyone else is currently experiencing.

Next year, we'll go earlier because two days was definitely not enough. There was plenty of equipment and data gathering, and did I mention we also saw Mike Tyson? He marched past us through the crowd, surrounded by his entourage, causing chaos everywhere he went. I didn't get the chance to ask him for an autograph or a picture. I briefly considered bundling into him for the prestige of receiving a celebratory punch in the face, but being hospitalised for eternity would probably have folded The Hydro Bros. Maybe next time. Preferably just the photo.

An earlier version of this piece appears in Garden Culture Magazine, Issue 71 (UK & Ireland).