Well, you are involved in the local club as well.
I kicked that ball going as it .....was..... well....just that time. UKAPS can help you save a lot and achieve a lot of goals.
Cost: some time. Some plant sales drives
The goal here is similar. Some time = some plants grown out and sold.
But
the services provided are very different and synergistic.
This is true for any other free forum, local club etc.
I am not trying to be like any other forum, we have plenty as it is.
This forum is all plant business and produces a newsletter every month that is unlike anything else. There are not any hobbyists that routinely respond in the hobby like myself. There are excellent Aquatic plant Biologist, but they rarely if ever post anything. So in that regards, I am unique, however it's not something I have pride for, rather regret, I wish there were more like me.
I wish folks could see and put this stuff together easier. I'm certainly not the best, but I try given the time constraints I have.
Still, there are not other folks that will do this, test this, write this, share this etc.
I'm not trying to sell you, I'm a lousy salesman, I am trying to help the hobby out as well as you.
If I save someone 100$ with my help(test kits alone for most folks save this with using EI), then some $ for good articles specifically on plants, mixing research and practical aspects is a pretty cheap and good deal.
I kill no trees in the process(maybe later for the book), it goes out at the same time all over the world, no mail issues, and folks want to read something more than the same old things and never understand why or look to the future about how and why things work in our tanks the way they do.
No one really answers these basic questions about planted tanks.
They give you some quick trite explanation, in some cases it might be right, but any good answer will lead to 3 or more questions. So if you get a good answer, you should have good questions all over the place.
Thus the hobby and our understanding of it evolves.
As that occurs, we also have more control and better management ability to achieve our horticultural goals.
Knowledge is far more powerful than heating cables
Regards,
Tom Barr