The Greenhouse Effect (GHEDirect) is the longest running family owned hydroponic store in the UK. We opened in 2000 in a small unit on a farm in Milton Keynes, initially run just by Adam and with his wife Kath in the background. Over the years we have grown organically, making moves twice to larger units on the same site, and recruiting further family members until we made the move to our latest 10,000 sq ft warehouse in 2020 to Kingston, Milton Keynes. With ideal transport links to the M1 and only a 5 minute drive from it, it’s the perfect spot to serve both Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire. We now have 2 generations of our family working within the business.

Word of mouth – with only 30 shops in the country when we started there wasn’t another hydro shop within a 30 mile radius of us, we didn’t advertise apart from some local fliers to let local growers know we were there and then it just took off! Once we could get a customer infront of us, our knowledge, expertise and honesty (we never sell you something you don’t need) was enough to generate loyal customers and increase our recommendations.

Environment, environment, environment – we often have customers coming to us for advise on their plants – we will never get into the specifics of an issue until we have established key facts regarding the environment. If there is one product we ensure all our customers have in their growrooms it would be a thermo-hygrometer so we can establish minimum and maximum levels of temperature and humidity – the key to identifying problems or issues

Wow, lockdown was busy! We were very lucky that our new premises allowed us to offer a very successful call and collect service in a safe manner. Post lockdown we’ve recognised that we have to get the work/life balance a little better – if its taught us anything, its to spend time with family and friends, not working 24/7 (some things are more important than money). We’ve also seen our websales take off during and post lockdown, customer service on the web  being the most important driver for us.

I would say keep an eye out on the website, we run regular competition giveaways on our site and social media – look out for our great Shogun giveaway in February! We also update regularly our product spotlights and blogs from the growroom – see how your system or nutrient performs in a live setting – we are currently doing some research and development with the Wasabi plant, so look out for that. Fancy a chilli? Come in and pick a couple from our plants.

Dragon Force hands down! As a final booster/finisher its got to be one of the most cost-effective on the market and gets great results, adding weight without the use of PGR’s. We’ve also identified a way to make it work better – hence why our customers buy so much of it – but you will have to come in to the shop for us to spill our secrets on how to make it work even better!

We’ve actually been there and done it – setting up hydroponic nurseries around the world and working with commercial companies.

The feedback we get from our customers is that they come to us because of our expert knowledge and great customer service both in store and online. We are not the cheapest in the marketplace and won’t be pulled down into the race for the bottom – we only stock high quality goods, you won’t find cheap, poorly made products in our store. Our motto has always been Quality Products, Quality Advice.