Hydroponic gardeningAll about hydroponic gardening information

When I think of gardening I think dirt, weeds,bugs and cold, dirty fingers. I also think of wonderful, flavorful, fresh and pesticide free food and that’s the reason I tolerate all that other “stuff”.

Would you be interested in getting rid of the dirt, weeds,bugs and the cold dirty fingers and still get great garden produce. What If you could grow all this indoors with almost no effort? Does this sound like something you want to do? Then you need to think Hydroponics.

A method of growing plants both for home and commercial use without using soil is hydroponics. The interest in home hydroponics is a recent phenomenon and is increasing in leaps and bounds and with very good reason. Hydroponic plants are usually more healthy, mature earlier, and use less space.They can be grown year round.

If you are serious about growing clean, flavorful, healthy food and herbs at home year round I would suggest you get one of the many portable hydroponics systems. Get one that promises to have all the instructions you need. If you don’t have a large window to supply enough light for growing plants, get a system with a proper light source

If you are interested in constructing your own system you will be able to find lots of information on the various types of system to build. Don’t let the idea of building your own scare you. It is really quite simple.

Try this to get a beautiful lettuce crop: Get yourself a cheap plastic tote from any hardware store. Be sure it is dark colored. (light colors allow excess green algae growth) You will need 2″ thick styrofoam slightly smaller than the tote. This needs to be carefully shaped, pay particular attention to the corners. It has to move up and down freely inside the tote. (It will float on the liquid underneath). Cut it so that you do not allow any more light than necessary under it. Cut 2″ holes in the styrofoam raft to accommodate your plants growth. they should be 7″-8″ apart.

Next you need an air pump, an air stone and a length of plastic tubing from the pet store. Put the air-stone in the bottom of the tote and carefully place the tubing down the corner so as not to interfere with your styrofoam raft. Use a bead of silicone and press the tubing into it and let dry for a few hours. The air stone infuses the solution with oxygen. Cut foam rubber discs the same size as the holes in your raft. Cut these about 2/3rds of the way across. These will hold your seedlings in the raft. That is essentially all there is to the construction.

By: Carm Paynter

If you’ve always dreamed of ditching your big-city life in favor of growing your own food in the back woods, get started now with container gardening! You would be surprised at how many plants can live happily on a balcony and in the house. Many varieties of fruit and vegetable can be grown in a small space.

Evaluate your space before you purchase gardening supplies and plants. Some plants can do well in smaller containers, but need more sunlight. Some need larger containers, but can be grown with little sunlight. Herbs, for example, can be grown in small containers, but need at least 5, preferably more, hours of sunlight. Leafy greens, like lettuce, need less sunlight.

You can put plants in just about any container; however the container should allow for adequate drainage with either a pot-in-a-pot setup, or a pot with gravel at the bottom that allows water to run through the soil instead of staying. Different container materials have different properties – plastic and terra cotta can weaken after long exposure to the sun, for instance. Extend the life of planters and avoid unsightly floor stains by lifting your containers off the ground with plant stands or wire shelves. It might be a good idea to place something – even a decorative mat – underneath this set-up to catch any drips. A rolling platform that allows you to move your plants easily around the room is another option.

Planter size is very important. Your container plants need adequate room for their roots to expand. Consider having a few plants share a big pot, which will enable their roots to grow and save you space. Roses and garlic are a good example of two plants who get on very well with each other. Plus, it gives your planter a more interesting appearance. Mixing vegetables, fruit and ornamental plants can change a ho-hum grown-for-food planter into something really stellar. Ask the advice of staff at a nursery for more information on compatible plants.

Think creatively when choosing plants. Many practical plants can be hung in planters and allowed to trail tantalizingly over the side, giving an ordinary vegetable an exotic look. One example is a Time Magazine “best invention”, an upside down planter that can be used to grow many vegetables and herbs in an unusual, attractive way. You can find it at hangingtomato.com. You may want to buy or make some cages or trellises for some plants to climb on. Shelves can also allow you to place more plants in less room.

Your soil should be light and sandy, giving the roots plenty of air. You can purchase suitable pre-mixed soil or make your own out of 1 part peat moss, 1 part loam, 1 part (clean) sand and the appropriate amount of fertilizer (check the bag).

Make sure you water! The climate inside and just outside your covered balcony is not the same as the climate in a conventional garden! Learn how much water your plants need and water accordingly. Many plants suffer from under watering. Try the finger test; stick your finger in your plant’s soil – if it’s moist, you’re probably good.

Talk to the staff of your local nursery for advice on starting out with container plants. With a little investment of time and money, you can have a lush garden in your apartment/condo/townhouse that contributes to a restful atmosphere and provides you with fresh fruit, herbs and vegetables.

By: Joshua Keen

UFO LED lighting is a fairly recent developing in indoor gardening lighting. It takes the power of tiny LED lights and combines and configures them in such a way as to produce indoor light perfectly suited for growing plants. There are many types of indoor gardening applications where the UFO LED grow light can be beneficial.

Seed Starting and the LED Light

Many different types of seeds benefit from the application of appropriate light during the seed germination process. Seeds such as lettuce, mullein and evening primrose achieve germination only when light is applied. If they are outside in the garden, they rely on natural sunlight, but if indoors, it is up to the gardener to apply the light they need. The UFO LED light is suited to this purpose, because it not only offers the bright light needed for germination, but in the case of lettuce, which requires cooler soil and air temperatures for germination to occur, the LED UFO grow light produces no heat. This allows you to more easily control the air and soil temperatures so you can achieve the best germination rate for your seed. You can do this without the added expense of fans and vents, which are typically used with other types of lighting.

Seedling To Mature Plant Growth and UFO Lights

The UFO LED grow light is especially popular with indoor gardening enthusiasts because it produces a very bright light. When compared with other commonly used grow lights, such as high pressure sodium grow lamps, the UFO LED lighting typically puts out a more intense light than a 400 watt HPS grow bulb. It is especially important that seedlings receive very bright light as they are growing, because without it they will develop weak, spindly stems as they struggle to reach the little light that is available.

It is also important to understand the basics of color temperature and how that applies to plant growth and UFO LED lighting. Color temperature is measured in kelvins, notated as K. Lower color temperatures, in the 2200-2300K range are seen as warm colors like red and orange. These are the colors that plants need for flower and fruit production. Higher color temperatures in the 6000-6500K range are seen as cool colors such as blue, and these are suitable for vegetative growth. Therefore, you want higher color temperature for seedlings, and lower color temperature for mature plants that you are trying to get to produce flowers or fruits.

The LED UFO grow light is ideal for all phases of plant growth because it utilizes only the light spectrum required by plants. UFO LED lights also save money because they use no wasted light spectrums, such as green light. UFO LED lights use less power than other common grow lights, and UFO LED lighting creates less pollution as well. Finally, the LED UFO grow light has a long life of 80,000 or more useful hours.

By: Susan Slobac

Garden grow lights are influential items for an indoor garden to flourish; poor indoor lighting can cause a failure to set fruit or bloom and turn your leaves yellow. There are several types of garden grow lights that are used for different styles of indoor gardens.

Indoor grow lights can replace the natural lighting or complement the sunlight needed for growing. There are indoor plants that have a problem with direct sunlight but benefit from artificial grow lights. The sunlight that plants use converts the carbon dioxide into the sugars that are needed for proper growth. The garden plants such as vegetables, herbs, and flowers will need from 6 to 8 hours of full sun each day for them to set fruit or bloom. This feat is basically impossible unless you are constantly moving your indoor garden from window to window. This is the reason we give our plants the additional artificial light for growing healthy.

Fluorescent lighting is a form of grow light that is very common because they give off a good amount of light for your plants without the risk of burning them and they are less expensive to purchase. The fluorescent bulb labeled T-5 is an ample source of light because of being small and they give out a more concentrated light. This type of light is good for plants that like to have some shade. Indoor vegetable gardens that contain lettuce and spinach and indoor herb gardens prefer to have this type of lighting.

HID or high intensity discharge lights are a very effective lighting for indoor plants. They are available in two different types: HPS or high pressure sodium and MH or metal halide. The HPS are used most often used as flower grow lights because they give off a red or orange light which inspires the plants to flower. MH garden grow lights are best suited for stimulating leaf and shoot growth due to the blue spectrum light they emit. Incandescent grow lights are mainly used to add extra light to some of the plants that do not absorb very much natural sunlight. Incandescent bulbs tend to be more expensive than and not as effective as other types of grow light systems. These bulbs also give off more heat than light and if the plants are too close to them they will burn the foliage. Incandescents are best if used for highlighting plants instead of helping them grow.

Mercury vapor lights can be very expensive if you grow a large number of houseplants or a large indoor garden. The mercury vapor bulbs will give off more light and less heat than the incandescents. This means they are a great source of light for any type of indoor plant. LED or light emitting diode indoor grow lights is the newer style for indoor plant growth. These lights do not send out any damaging heat and will emit more light per wattage; because of this, these lights are able to be placed closer to the plants and do not cause damage.

The lights you use should be placed as near as possible to the plants without burning any part of the plant. A 25-watt incandescent should be no closer than one foot from your plants; the 100-watt bulb, two feet away and the 150-watt 3 feet away to prevent burning. Most of the indoor plants will need grow lights from twelve to sixteen hours each day. To help encourage foliage growth, MH lights need to be running 18 to 24 hours each day. You will only need 12 hours each day for the HPS grow lights for budding and flowering.

The way your plants are growing informs you if the are getting sufficient lighting. Some of light deficiency symptoms include long stem lengths between leaves, very little or no growth of the plant, the leaves are smaller than normal and there are no buds or flowers. The foliage on some plants might turn yellow and fall off prematurely. If any of the symptoms occur you may need to relocate the lights or purchase better garden grow lights.

By: Barbara Volkov

The use of a home hydroponic system is literally growing in popularity – it’s discreet, does not require a lot of space, and plants respond well to this method of gardening. The term hydroponics was derived from the Greek word hydro, which means “water” and ponos, which means “labor or water-working.” Just like with traditional gardening, plants require sufficient light, water, temperature, and nutrients. But with hydroponics, no soil is used. Instead, hydroponics uses a wet growing medium and a special nutrient solution that goes directly to the roots. This enables the plant to spend more energy growing above the surface, producing more vegetation, larger fruit, flowers and vegetables.

In hydroponics, the nutrient solution is used to feed plants instead of plain water. Your plants should be fed through the nutrient solution more than three times a day, which is usually done using a pump and timer. The nutrient solution maintains the proper pH levels, so your plants receive everything they need to produce the best yield. A hydroponics system can be fully automated, and since it is water-based, there is no soil to dig or weeds to pull. Also, the solution can be re-used to prevent waste.

Anything can be grown with a hydroponic system, but some plants prove to be more space efficient, such as tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot chilies, lettuce, spinach, squash, cucumbers, broccoli, beans, snow peas, herbs and flowers of all types. No matter what you grow, you’ll get a better yield because the plants receive everything they need, so they tend to be healthier, faster growing and generally more productive. Expect 30% faster growth with many crops.

Hydroponics is the gardening method of the future. Scientists know that hydroponics offers the ability to feed parts of the world beset by hunger. They also recognize it as a means of decreasing the use of pesticides.

In general, home hydroponics allows you to grow plants of all types in limited space and without using soil. It’s an amazing way to produce perfect specimens and offers many advantages over traditional gardening.

By: Denise S.

Practicing indoor vegetable gardening is simple, if you know the basics. Here are the three conditions you need to keep in mind if you want to start indoor vegetable gardening:

1) Light

Light is an essential aspect of successful indoor vegetable gardening. The first thing you need to ask yourself is this: How much natural light do your home interiors receive? If you have solarium, you might have to provide additional lighting. Otherwise, you’ll have to select plants that thrive in low or minimal lighting. Also, how much light do each of your vegetable plants need to thrive? Knowing the answer to this question will help you select plants that are suited for indoor growing. Leafy vegetables such as lettuce and kale can thrive with light from an adjacent window. Herbs can also thrive well.



2) Water

Make sure that the water you use for your indoor plants is the same as the temperature of the room. If it’s too cold or too hot, the stem and roots of your plant will be shocked by the temperature change. Apart from this rule, follow basic watering tips such as wetting the soil rather than the leaves, and avoid over watering.

3) Temperature

Another critical aspect of indoor vegetable gardening is the temperature. Remembering the point mentioned above about watering, avoid any rapid changes in the environmental temperature of the plant. If it suddenly gets too cold or too hot, this will be damaging to the delicate balance existing inside the plant’s system. Also, know the ideal temperature for your vegetable plants to grow in. This will serve as a guide on how warm or cool you need to keep the house.

If heating or cooling your entire house this way will become costly, especially during extreme seasons like summer and winter, then isolate all your plants in a single room or build a small indoor greenhouse.

Indoor vegetable gardening is a great option if you don’t have much space outside your home, or if you are renting an apartment or condominium. By taking good control of the available light, water, and temperature, you’re on your way to having a fruitful indoor garden.

By: Tim R Warren

There is a large variety of nutrient brands on the market for hydroponic gardening. A question that is always asked is which one is best. Growing healthy and productive plants is more involved than just choosing a good brand of nutrient. If you feel that you are unhappy with the nutrients you are using, there are a few things that you should consider before changing to another brand.

First is the volume of your nutrient reservoir. This needs to be determined by how many gallons each specific plant needs in the system; larger plants require more nutrient solution and water than smaller plants. Your plants should be your guide for how much nutrient solution is needed. A tomato plant is a common plant grown with hydroponics; a minimum of 2.5 gallons of nutrient solution per plant in the system is required to have a healthy and productive crop. Smaller plants like lettuce need a minimum of 1/2 gallon of nutrient solution per plant.

This is a very important factor to being successful; larger volumes of nutrient solutions will have a smaller fluctuation in their nutrient concentration as plants uptake them. Basically it helps in keeping the nutrient solution evenly balanced as they are depleted by plants. Another factor is transpiration, plants will use more water in warm weather than cold. When more water is used by plant uptake, the concentration of nutrients rise, they can soar to toxic levels of concentration, and even by topping off with fresh water in smaller reservoirs a lot of fluctuation can occur with the nutrient concentrations that will not do your plants any good.

When it comes to the recommended dosage of a brand, there are a lot of variables that can affect it. These dosages that they recommend are good to start, but there will be adjustments that need to be made, some trial and error is needed to adjust as needed. Plant size, growth phase, type of media all affect nutrient concentration, and also growing plants under favorable conditions.

When mixing the nutrient solution, add all the water to your reservoir first, and remember that there is a reason that two and three part nutrients are separated. Premixing them into a concentrated form in small amounts of water will allow some of the elements to bond, and a white precipitate, calcium sulphate, may even be visible forming in the solution. Mixing mixing each concentrated part of the nutrient separately into a larger volume of water will keep the diluted so they wont bond together. If they do bond, they will be in a form that is unusable to your plants.

Keeping the nutrients mixed at all times in the system is very important, adding an air blubber to the reservoir will keep water moving. This will keep the mineral elements of the solution from settling and concentrating at the bottom of the reservoir. Water movement will also prevent created pockets of high and low pH levels where mineral elements would be out of their pH range and not beneficial to plants. Plant uptake of nutrients can only be achieved in the proper pH range; checking the pH levels often is very important. Immediately after mixing your nutrient solution, the pH needs to be checked, adjusted as needed, and rechecked until it is in the proper range. A pH level that is out of range will deprive plants of the nutrients they need to thrive.

Nutrient solution are only as good as the conditions they are used under. Monitoring is a very important part of hydroponics to be successful.

By: John Yazo

People pay a premium price for organic produce to ensure high quality. However, with the onset of hydroponics in 1930, this marked the change of agricultural production from conventional to the growing trend of hydroponics farming.

Hydroponics is a means of soil less production at which nutrients are supplied to the crops through nutrient solution.

Food production

In the US, the hydroponics have been phenomenal in food production. First produce of this agricultural procedure are tomatoes but nowadays, farmers are trying out other crops like lettuce and cucumber. The paradigm shift was due to its claimed advantages that crops are better produced with hydroponics since the growing conditions of crops are controlled. As estimated, in US statistics, it is expected that within the next 5 years, 50% of the mentioned crops would be produced using hydroponics farming. Top growing hydroponics facilities in the US and Canada report average yields of more than 650,000 pounds of tomatoes per acre.

The largest hydroponics farming facility can be found in Europe, with Euro-fresh producing tons of tomatoes in the previous years. Moreover, studies show countries having substantial commercial hydroponic production facilities includes Israel – 30,000 acres, Holland 10,000 acres, England 4,200 acres and Australia and New Zealand around 8,000 acres between them. The fastest growing area for commercial vegetable greenhouses is Mexico.

Hydroponics is favored not only due to its efficient nutrient supply system but also due to reduced produce risks such as effect of food pesticides and crops pest. Plants grown hydroponically are not at risk of soil borne diseases and are much less susceptible to pests. Moreover, yields are higher without the hassle of environment conditions since crops can be cultured in greenhouses. This also gives the advantage of seasonal extensions of growing of crops. A good example would be Mexico which adapted the system due to its winter conditions and too hot summer.

Cost of farming

The initial investment for hydroponics farming has been more economical than the first introduction of the procedure to farming, much more in lower scale. Vertical system of hydroponics farming has been developed in the recent years. Compared to the traditional flat garden the vertical system takes up less space and capitalizes on light energy supply. Vertical system can be used indoors with portable assembly materials and can be set-up on per plant basis. While new techniques and set-up has been developed to lower the set-up cost, farmers testifies that cost of farming has been lowered due to less use of pesticides, irrigation system and lower risk costs.

The growing global market trend of hydroponics will continue to surge due to its efficiency and high quality of production. Though much of the producers are based in the First world countries, many greenhouses in other countries use hydroponics technology, indicating that hydroponics have been recognized for its efficiency in agricultural production.

By: Keith Turner

Though, hydroponics is now an established method of plant cultivation certain misconceptions about it have worked against its wider acceptance among laypeople as well as gardening enthusiasts. Though associations and bodies representing concerned professionals, enthusiasts etc. have sought to dispel these myths, many of these have persisted through the decades and continue to bedevil the hydroponics industry. With the growth of the Internet and the easy availability of specialized information on the subject, however, one can expect much improvement in public perception of this. Here is a sampling of the more persistent myths, some amusing, some fanciful, but all of these are grounded basically in ignorance of the subject.

Hydroponics Isn’t Simple, It Requires Special Expertise

It is quite true that once upon a time, this wasn’t quite as simple as it is now.
This was especially so with regard to nutrient preparations that had to be mixed meticulously to ensure the nutritional requirements of the plants were met. The easy availability of pre-mixed nutrients that require only to be mixed in the right amounts of water has now simplified matters. Growers need only to add water and use grow lights.

You Need to be a Scientist

This one probably originates from the association of hydroponics with tubes, troughs, meters, gauges etc. Additionally since much scientific material is available in the form of lab reports, experiments etc. it creates a false impression of complicated lab procedures etc. Actually you don’t need to be a scientist, nor do you need to have a lab in the house to grow plants indoors, all you need is interest and dedication.

You Don’t Get the Taste, besides its all Water

With the right kind of nutrition that plants get in hydroponics they grow to their fullest genetic potential. They usually grow much faster, mature quicker and give higher yields but they taste just the same as normally grown produce. It is not possible to tell a lettuce grown hydroponically from on grown the normal way only by taste. Taste is basically determined by the nutrient elements plants absorb and as long as they get all the nutrient elements taste is not affected.

You get to eat Mouthfuls of Chemicals

The chemicals that a plant absorbs when grown in soil are not different from the ones that are used in hydroponics. With the rights amounts of chemicals it uses, it leaves nothing to chance, unlike conventional cultivation in which there is always a chance of under nutrition, nutritional deficiencies or uptake of harmful chemicals like lead that may be present in the soil. The chemicals used in both normal cultivation and hydroponics end up in the plant tissue as beneficial compounds and not as toxic or harmful chemicals.

Hydroponically Grown Plants Don’t Taste Great Like Organically Grown Plants

Taste and flavor have much to do with our first impressions when we first tasted the plant. If the plant gets the all the elements it needs, it will taste great. The rest has much to do with other extraneous factors and subjective experiences. With the precise control over the nutrition that hydroponics offers, hydoponics growers have much better control over the flavor and nutritional value of the produce.

Hydroponics Doesn’t Work Outdoors

This is all about growing plants in a controlled environment. In the outdoors, growing plants in greenhouses offers a way to control the growth environment and even extend day length. Commercial hydroponics, which requires large areas for commercial scale production is best done in greenhouses. Greenhouse production allows year long growth and also helps control pest damage without the use of pesticides. With grow lights greenhouse production can be extended across seasons for best plant performance.

Grow Lights Ratchet Up Power Bill

Power is billed on kilowatt hours, which is1000 watts for one hour. Though power rates vary from state to state, in many parts of the U.S. a 1000 watt light will run for less than ten cents per hour. A 250 watt light will run for four hours on 10 cents. High intensity grow lights are exceedingly cost efficient lights as they give much higher illumination per watt of power consumed. High pressure sodium grow lights put out almost 10 times the light that incandescent grow bulbs produce, that is 10 times the efficiency of incandescent bulbs.

Grow lights must run 24×7

Plants adjust their growth cycle in response to the length of light and dark on which they determine the season. During fall, plants accelerate flower and fruit production to prepare for winter. Grow lights enable control over the light available to plants irrespective of the seasons outside. This makes it is possible to have long, long days in the winter and fall.

High intensity lights harm the eyes

While it is true that looking at a bright object will cause distress and even harm the eyes, and grow lights are no exception in this respect, would be indoor gardeners need not worry overmuch as simple precautions are quite adequate. Indoor gardeners learn quickly not to look directly at the lights, which suffices in most cases.

High Intensity Lights Tan the Skin

High intensity garden lights do not give off much light in the ultra-violet range, which is what causes burning of the skin. Plants do not need much light in the ultra-violet spectrum and with good quality grow lights there is no need to worry about getting a tan.

By: Richa Parera

How does extending your growing system from a few months to all year round sound? Wouldn’t it be nice to have fresh tomatoes in the middle of winter. If you answered yes to both of these questions then one of the many hydroponics growing systems could be just the thing for you.

There are hundreds of different types of hydroponic systems on the market today, and there are the same amount that you can put together yourself from parts found at your local home supply or hardware store. The hardest thing is deciding what kind of system you will start with.

There are four questions that you should ask yourself to determine which one of the many hydroponics growing systems is right for you.

What kind of plants will you be growingHow much time do you have to dedicate to this projectHow much space do you haveWhat is your budget

After you have decided how much of a commitment that you can make, it is easy to match which type of hydroponics growing systems will be the one for you. I always recommend that beginners start out with either an bubble bucket or ebb and flow system. Both of these systems are not costly or complicated.

Hydroponics Growing Systems are versatile and can be adapted for just about any type of environment. The advantage of hydroponics is that they let you start out with a small system and slowly add to it as your time and budget allows.

Some categories of systems that you should consider are as follows:

Passive Systems – A hands off system that uses wicks to deliver nutrient solution to the plants roots.Active Systems – A system that delivers nutrient solution to your plants roots using pumps.

It is recommended that you start off small scale and uncomplicated with your first attempt into hydroponics growing systems. A Ebb and Flow system is perfect for this and you can successfully grow tomatoes, lettuce or herbs. The main suggestion is to start off with baby steps and gradually get deeper into the hobby of hydroponic gardening.

By: M. T. Varnado