Enjoy the convenience of organic products in a re-circulating system

Re-circulating systems are a convenience but some growers feel they are restricted to using conventional salt based nutrients. Thus, they miss out on the rewards associated with organics. Here is how to use organics in a re-circulating system.

Reduce your conventional salt based nutrient to a 70% concentration. Then add an organic base nutrient at 30% the recommended strength.

The addition of the organic nutrient will help stabilize the solution chemistry while buffering the salinity and pH value of the synthetic based nutrient in the root zone and growing media. Also, the additional building blocks supplied by the organic base nutrient will increase yields, crop health, flavor, aroma and essential oil production.

Mini Caddy Hydroponics System

Do you have a spare closet? Introducing the "Mini Caddy", the ultimate compact home hydroponics system. Terrific for confined spaces.

The Mini Caddy is small enough to fit in any closet and is ideal when space is a concern. The inline cooling system keeps the inside of the cab always under 5ºF above room temperature. With this cabinet your growing will be easy, high yielding and above all, safe. The Mini Caddy arrives pre-assembled and requires less than 15 minutes of setup time to start growing. This affordable hydroponics system is perfect for experts and beginners alike.

Light vs temperature to keep plants cool

During the summer months, you may need to make a compromise between light levels and the optimal temperatures for your plants. Otherwise you could end up over- heating the tops.

Your HID (high intensity discharge)lights will also contribute to high temperatures. This creates high heat in both the growing area and the internal core of your plants.

By raising the lights a few inches you can help reduce some of the heat stress on the
plants. This slight loss of light will do much less harm than the heat.

When to water... more or less

When to water and how much has always been something of a guess. Generally speaking, plants begin gradually using more water at the start of their flowering cycle. Peak water consumption comes just after mid-flowering. After that, water needs taper off.

During the ripening phase, water use is lessened even though the plants are at their largest mass. It's easy to over-water during this phase so be careful not to drown the
roots.

Most self-help studies stress the need to create a perfect environment to be able to live a "successful" life. From the most famous celebrities to the most celebrated politicians and all of us mere mortals in between. To be truly happy, therefore, one needs to be fulfilled and so our environment is crucial for us to be are able to share and give to our fellow humans.

Whether it's a city street, a rural farm or a Hollywood stage, finding the environment that suits your character can be a lifelong search, so the journey must be enjoyed.

Get in touch with nature and re-assure yourself that the natural world will carry on no matter what. Draw from the creativity of a flower growing, a vegetable being formed, insects oblivious to what's on TV tonight, and water flowing over naturally formed rocks.

Try an experiment... spend a full half hour or more alone in a forest or next to the sea or, failing that, a park where you won't be disturbed. Make sure you feel safe from wild animals and humans and just let your mind wander, allow your thoughts to flow freely. Call it meditation time if you need an excuse to spend some time on your own. Just enjoy and allow your thoughts to wander free and your imagination to leap into fantasies.

Benefits of a Grow Chamber

Technically, grow chambers are not classified as a hydroponics growing technique. It's actually a housing or a container for the hydroponics system, accessories and lighting fixture.

Grow chambers are perfect for the home grower because the system is enclosed, putting everything in one container and out of view. Of course, keeping your grow space nice and neat is only one of the many benefits a grow chamber offers.

Some systems are approximately the size of a refrigerator allowing you to grow your plants in one side of the chamber and mother plant with clones in the other. Grow chambers varies in size.

Most systems are built with a reflective interior to efficiently distribute light and increase the amount of lumens reaching the plants, resulting in a higher yield.

Not enough Soil for a Garden?

Hydroponics gardening is a great idea for anyone who wants a garden but doesn't have enough land or soil. Hydroponics gardening is, essentially, a way to cultivate plants using a nutrient solution instead of soil. With hydroponics gardening, it's easy to grow lovely flowers and succulent vegetables virtually anywhere you want! It's true that hydroponics gardening needs much less time than an ordinary garden. In fact, you might spend only five minutes a day maintaining you're hydroponics garden. Once a month the nutrient solution will have to be changed but this will only take a few minutes.

While hydroponics gardening can be a little confusing sometimes when starting out, you'll soon get the jist of it. The same as you need gardening supplies for a ordinary garden, you'll need hydroponics supplies for your hydroponics garden. The most popular system is the passive system. This is where the plants sit directly in the nutrient solution. All passive air systems use an aquarium air bubbler otherwise the solution can become deoxygenated and could rot the plants. If you can find the right system for you, hydroponics gardening will provide you with all the flowers and vegetables you could possibly want.

A Summertime Warning

If the roots of your container plants are sitting in warm water, they may become
susceptible to contracting pathogens that lead to root rot. How do you prevent this?
Here are several suggestions:

First make certain that your containers are well drained.

Next, add an enzyme product to your nutrient mix. Buy quality. You want plenty of live enzyme action that will quickly break down older decaying roots, turning them into valuable food sources. Too many inexpensive enzyme products contain only dead
enzymes or the shelf life is so short that by the time you buy the product the enzymes are all but useless.

Remember, root decay is a normal part of the root growth cycle. You can't avoid it. But you can make certain that the decayed materials are turned into a valuable food source through enzyme action.

Increase your Root Mass

Obviously, the bigger a plant's root mass the better it can absorb nutrients and water. But how do you encourage extra root growth?

There are a number of products on the market that are formulated to increase the size of a plant's root mass. Some of the best can provide a root increase up to 700%. Here are some things to look for when buying these products:

Search for products containing super strains of Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR). When this product is combined with bacterial and fungi inoculates, it can provide almost magical root and plant development.

The inoculates you want to add to your media are trichoderma, endomycorrhizal and ectomycorrhizal fungi. You may have to buy two different products to get a full range of inoculates. For example, some products contain 8 species of trichoderma and others have 18 species of endomycorrhizal.

These are living organisms so be certain to buy quality products that are relatively fresh. When applied to your media, they will colonize both inside and outside your plant roots, making them stronger and healthier. (voodoo juice, piranha, tarantula)

Clones from Clones?

There are two things to consider when cloning plants, particularly if you want to preserve the genetic characteristics for future crops. These are genotype and phenotype.

Genotype is the genetic make-up (DNA) of the plant, which is quite stable. Only in rare instances will genes tend to mutate, thus creating a slight variation.

The phenotype is the physical expression of a plant's DNA and may change under
different environmental influences. For example, the same genes grown in two different rooms may be similar but could appear slightly different in the finished product.

As long as you maintain a consistent environment and avoid a prolonged stress on a
mother plant or clone, a clone from a clone should remain very much like the original. However, it's often a good idea to start new mother plants from seed every few years. This helps maintain higher levels of vigor. Stuff can happen to plants after being grown for several years.

When NOT to use organic teas

If you are using a purely water based media, such as deep water culture, it's best to avoid organic teas. A salt based fertilizer is generally preferred because it is absorbed directly into the roots.

However, organic teas are an ideal companion for growing in media such as rockwool, coco coir or Sure to Grow. It will provide a harmonious and fertile environment for the roots of your crop.

Exceptional Lighting Kit

These “Power Plant Kits” are custom designed lighting systems with all of the latest horticulture technology. Rather than try to mix and match a variety of different ballasts, bulbs, and reflector from different manufacturers, they've put the best of everything into one offering.

Each kit includes a digital ballast, 6" air cooled reflector, 2 bulbs (one MH and one HPS), a timer, 2 light mover pulleys and a video grow guide. It works on 120 volts.

I suggest you shop around and realize what an incredible deal this kit is.

Hydroponic Technology

Hydroponics is a technology for growing plants in nutrient solutions (water and fertilizers) with or without the use of artificial medium (e.g., sand, gravel, vermiculite, rockwool, peat, coir, sawdust) to provide mechanical support. Liquid hydroponic systems have no other supporting medium for the plant roots: aggregate systems have a solid medium of support.

Hydroponic systems are further categorized as open, where after the nutrient solution has been delivered to the plant roots, it is not reused; or closed where surplus solution is recovered, replenished, and recycled. The definition of hydroponics has been confined to liquid systems only, which blurs statistical data and leads to underestimation of the extent of the technology and its economic implications. All hydroponic systems in temperate regions of the world are enclosed in greenhouse-type structures to provide temperature control, reduce evaporative water loss, and to reduce disease and pest infestations.

Read more...

Growing in Hut or Tent

Some hydroponic gardeners have a preference to keep what they’re growing in a definitive enclosed environment. If you don’t have the money to buy a hydroponic tent, you can always use an empty cupboard but you will need to make it light proof, feed in a light supply and ensure circulation of air. You may have the problem that while your plants start off fitting inside the cupboard, they might out grow it, so you will have the added complication of re-housing your plants.

Hydroponic tents come in various sizes. They are totally light proof so you know that you won’t have a problem with light spillage from inside the tent and outside light will not intrude during necessary dark periods. Hydroponic tents can be quite expensive due to the light containing material they’re created from.

Grow your own Mushrooms

Growing your own edible mushrooms has never been easier. The FUNgus Factory comes complete with everything you need to grow your own edible mushrooms indoors in any dark corner of your house.

Each kit comes standard with enough mushroom food and supplies to grow over ONE POUND of your favorite fungus. When your kit runs dry simply order Spawn Sac replacement for unlimited growth potential.

Don’t waste your time fighting off molds and mildews. This kit will help you see serious results in just a few short weeks.

More Advanced Nutrients

If you want amazing yields and high-quality crops, use Connoisseur Part A. Through its special blend of highest quality ingredients, Connoisseur Part A gives you control over a wide variety of plant mechanisms. When used in conjunction with Connoisseur Part B, this two-part formula can be varied according to your particular needs and the individual conditions involved.

• Increased number and quality of flowers and fruit
• Contains specific classes of poly amino alcohols
• Earlier flowering and maturation
• Enhanced potency, taste, and aroma
• Enhanced market value of harvests

Start using Connoisseur Part A one week after flowering has been triggered, mixing it directly into the reservoirs. An initial dose of 2.0 ml Part A and 2.0 ml Part B per each litre of nutrient solution is recommended, to be followed by applications at rates falling between 1.5 to 5.0 ml of fertilizer per liter of water. Connoisseur Part A should not be used on its own, but together with Connoisseur Part B. Floral growth should be carefully monitored before exceeding the recommended 2.0/2.0 ml per litre dosage.

B-52 Nutrient Booster

Designed to boost the metabolism of the plant with vital B vitamins and crucial amino acids that are essential for optimum growth. B-52 increases plant metabolism, strengthens its immune system making it able to grow more vigorously.

B-52 also contains several naturally occurring hormones. You can use B-52 as a foliar spray and a drench to soak cuttings/seedlings for a healthy start. If stretching is not desired then it will help keep the plant shorter. B-52 also increases the lateral growth of the plant.

Brand New Lighting System

Here's some very exciting news. A manufacturer of hydroponic cabinets has just announced that they've tested over 20 brands of LED UFO's from different manufacturers and have finally found their favorite!

This model tested the best out of several growing results comparing 630nm Red's, 660nm Red's, Tri-Bands, and even a 400w HPS Hortilux bulb. This unit outperformed ALL OF THEM!

Here are some of the highlights:
1.) Virtually No Heat Production, So Cabinet Stays At Room Temp.
2.) Lower Operating Costs With 180watt consumption versus 400 watt
3.) No Noise, Which Results In A Stealthier Cabinet
4.) Lower 'Intensity' Light Results In Less Burning Of Plant Tips
5.) Longer Life (10years for LED's) versus 1-2 for HID Bulbs
6.) Higher Plant Growth Yields In Both Veg & Bloom

A Garden for the People

The Volksgarden® brings simple, clean, and amazingly effective hydroponics gardening to the comforts of your own home. Grow what you want, when you want! The Volksgarden® unit allows you to grow up to 80 plants at once. Herbs, Vegetables, Fruits, and Grains can be harvested easily and continuously by even beginner gardeners.

The Volksgarden® utilizes a rotating cylinder housing the plants arranged around the light at the center. The result is highly effective use of lumens, water, and nutrients. Ultimately, you'll have a garden that grows fast, strong, and healthy through each season of the year. The Volksgarden® is truly a garden for the people!

Growing Potatoes in Hydroponics

Article by: Tracy Ballisager

The first thing you need to do is make sure that you have all your supplies. You will need seed potatoes, straw, perlite, wood chips, or sand, and a planting container. Now that you have everything you need, you can get started.

When growing hydroponic potatoes at home, you need to make sure that you have a good setup. This means you want an area that is dark and cool. You never want to plant your potatoes in an area that will ever be more than eighty degrees ever. If you do, you will find that it will have difficulty producing any new products.

Now, to get started, cut your seed potatoes in half. Allow them to dry just as they are for as long as a week. When they have dried, plant the halves within your choice of growing method. It will only take a few days to sprout new potatoes.

As mentioned you want to keep the plant dark, no sunlight is necessary. In fact, using straw to cover the entire thing will do the trick and it is cheap at the same time. As time goes and you are ready to harvest, all you need to do is reach in and grab. This is important because it will provide room for the others to keep growing.

If you have troubles at first, growing hydroponic potatoes in your home, do not fret. Potatoes are very difficult to achieve in this medium simply because they require so little, which makes it so hard. When growing hydroponic potatoes, just remember that you need dark, cool, and seed plants to get started.

Hobby Hydroponics

In this wonderful indoor hydroponic garden, Emily's Garden, each plant thrives in its own small one-gallon container. These stand in a reservoir filled with nutrient solution.

Fresh air is bubbled through the solution to provide the high oxygen level needed for robust growth. As you can see, the plants just love it. The garden comes complete and ready-to-run; just add seeds of your choice, light and water!

All-In-One Nutrient

Moon Dust is an All-In-One nutrient designed specifically for hydroponic cabinets.

Instead of purchasing over 10 different products, Moon Dust combines the best of several well tested plant additives and base nutrients for a well balanced start to finish formula.

Simple for beginners, but powerful enough to out grow nutrient programs the pros use.

Outstanding for all plant types.

# Super concentrated, pH stabilized, and superior chelating (the way the plant foods interact with each other).
# Includes beneficial additives such as Carbohydrates (similar to CarboLoad), Humic Acid (similar to Grandma Engy's), Silica Blast (similar to Barricade), Kelp Meal (similar to Iguana Juice), and other vitamin complexes (similar to Vita Boost Pro).
# Includes over 18 Beneficial Funguses (similar to Piranha), 19 Beneficial Bacteria (similar to Tarantula), and 2 Trichoderma Species for outstanding symbiotic assistance for accelerated plant health.
# Moon Dusts base fertilizer consists of 19-8-13, with a well balanced formula for growing from start to finish, instead of difficult to use grow and bloom formulas. It also includes added Calcium and Magnesium for extra strong cell walls, and higher insect tolerance.

Healthy eating with Hydroponics

Everybody values good health and staying healthy means eating healthy. To stay healthy, you should always be sure that you eat a balanced diet. This means eating a good variety of fresh foods and giving your body the essential resources it needs.

With an hydroponic growing cabinet or garden in your home, the task is easy. You know where the food comes from and when it was picked. Couldn't be fresher. The plants have the oportunity to develope their natural sugars and so pass them on to you. It's a good lifestyle habbit to maintain.

Hydroponic Lettuce all Year Round

Hydroponics - growing plants without soil. What could be easier? No more recalled lettuce because it has been contaminated on the long journey to your local store. These highly efficient cabinets will allow you to grow your lettuce year round with no more scares. Tastes like real lettuce, too!

You are what you eat - someone smart said that.

Soilless Gardening

Many gardeners are beginning to switch to Hydroponics gardening for a variety of different reasons. These types of gardens are small and can easily be grown inside the home and are perfect for most vegetables, especially the red tomato. Also the equipment required for Hydroponics gardening is not expensive and they are relatively easy to manage.

Hydroponics gardening is the growing of plants without soil, in other words, “dirtless gardening”. There are many methods of Hydroponics gardening, most of which work better than regular soil gardening because it is easier to give the plant exactly what it needs when it needs it. Plants will only receive what you give them; therefore you will be able to regulate the pH, nutrients, nutrient strength, water amount, and light amount. This makes it imperative that you research the kind of plants you will be growing so you know what they need to survive.