Hey all! I spoke with Byron at Grow A Lot and told him about this thread. He read it and got a kick out of it. In repsonse to some of the other responses up there, he had this to say - I'm parephrasing (or however you spell it).
As to him being a cop... he laughed.
As to the assumptions made about what is being grown... he says he doesn't make any. As explained to me, because his new location isn't up and running yet, the majority of his sales are to commercial growers. San Diego is a big agriculture area, so, from what he tells me, there are commercial orchid, pointsetta, and culinary herbs growers around. He also caters to organic fruit growers like avocados, citrus, and the like. he was tellign me that hydroponics (and particularly organics) is really becoming more main stream and that alot of the people coming in are growing to eat healthier/safer food. he also pointed out that the 20 year old wearing the bob marley t-shirt and reaking like weed is a pretty easy assumption to make.
As to odor control he said: YES! An indoor tomato crop, according to him, absolutely stinks, but moreso is the nutrients and organics used in there. He explained how 2,500 square feet of fish emulsion would make you want to die. Odor control, despite my previous assumptions, is more of a money maker with the commercial growers than the stoners.
If you ever talk to the guy, he can tell you all about his garden and how he uses almost everythign he sells at home in one way or another. An example he used was GH Floralicious. He says it's great for hydro and soil, but what he uses it on is that he mixes it in a bucket of water and uses it to activate his compost pile. breaks it down faster or something. He said that, right now, he gets more baby boomers growing their own veggies than medical patients growing their own weed. He's a med pt. so he's down for the cause - but siad he would prefer not to know if he's helping you break the law.
FYI - his company is developing a new product that is a hydro, soil, or foliar feeder and it kills fungus/mold AND most of the pests that plague us. He's going to let me be one of the dudes that tests it out. Anyone else that knows him/of him, ask him about it and see if you can get hooked up too. He doesn't know what they're going to call it, so I don't know what to tell you to ask for. I won't post his e-mail here (not sure he'd mind or not), but you can contact him through the website and just say you heard about it or something.
To Puff: He said for tomatoes, he would actually recommend Rare Earth, Floralicious, Sweet, and combine that with Happy Frog Tomato and Open Sesame. Said they'd be the best tasting tomatoes you've ever had.
The dude's pretty smart, so it wouldn't matter what you're growing, you can pick up some good info from him. He's the kind of guy that knows a little about everything and can talk to you about whatever topic you choose.