I have been growing some Sugar Snap Peas on the porch here in Detroit for about a month. All the peas were started from seeds that I germinated in a cup of water and planted directly into ProMix with no cuts or additives. I decided I wanted to do a side by side with the Subculture M for a blog post and here are the results.

I planted about 20 total Sugar Snap Peas and added Subculture M to two of the 20 plants when the seed was potted. They all have been kept outside (temps ranging from as low as 38ºF and a peak of 89ºF) since the seeds were planted and been watered with nothing but tap water (except a few spring showers) that was bubbled and left out to evaporate any chlorine.

As you can see the Subculture M had a very noticeable affect on both the size/height of the plant as well as node spacing and lateral branching. The difference was so great that the ones provided with the beneficial bacteria needed to be staked up due to the vertical growth and array of side shooting branches. The two testers without Subculture M (as well as the other 16 planted originally) are about half the height of the Subcultured peas and are also slowing a slight nutrient deficiency. Some of the side shoots from the peas with Subculture M are just as tall as the entire plant without subculture! Proof is in the pudding and anytime I plant something in soil, Subculture M will surely be included in the premix!

GO GH!!

There is a common motivational trope that the Chinese word for “crisis” is also “opportunity”. Well, boy did I have a crisitunity late last month. With the quick arrival of summer-y weather in Northern California, I thought I would give my basement WaterFarm tomato plant a relocation into the warm, sunny clime of my back deck. The snow fairy tomato plant had been growing and thriving pretty well throughout the winter, but I figured some fresh air would do it good.

Sadly, in the relocation process, the stalk snapped in two. Fortunately, my green-thumbed wife decided it was not the end of the world. We planted to the main stalk and root system into a CocoTek planter. We cut the healthy stems off and dropped them into some jars with a light FloraNova Grow solution and a drop or two of RapidStart.

After a week, the main stalk perished in its new environs. However, the stems in their jars were flourishing. So one evening after the day had cooled off, we transplanted one of the stems in to the planter, and after a few days, it seems right at home (center of image below). I’ll be sure to keep you posted on how they fare the rest of the season.

General Hydroponics has been working with NYSunworks for a couple years now, sponsoring their efforts to implement hydroponic education in NYC public schools throughout the city. So many valuable math and science lessons can be used as learning tools for children (and adults!). Over the past year GH has donated nutrients and systems to various public schools throughout NYC – the most popular systems are the AeroFlo systems.

Last Monday night was a benefit fundraiser to raise funds and awareness to the amazing work NYSunworks is doing. At this gala event, one of the featured products for auction was GH Rainforest system. Big names like Russell Simmons and Cameron Diaz were in attendance. Gen Hydro also provided gift bags to all the attendees that featured our FloraDuo nutrients.

We are so happy to be a part this wonderful organization, for more information:
nysunworks.org
nysunworks.org/thegreenhouseproject

Do you have slimy primordial hydroton or green Secret-of-the-Ooze growing media? I have a cheap fix for you. CocoTek Mats!

Algae can form on media when a top drip system provides water and you or the sun provides the light. Throw in some delicious nutrients and you have a green goblin loose in your system.

Last summer I had a WaterFarm and a PowerGrower on my back deck. As the temperature started to rise I noticed algae was developing on my hydroton. I had some leftover pieces of a 1/4″ thick CocoTek mat so I cut out a square and a hexagonal shape. I then poked a hole in the middle and cut a straight line down the center of the piece so that I could wrap it around the base of the stem. This covered up the hydroton which prevented the algae from being able to photosynthesize the sunlight and multiply. Just a week later the slime was no more.

The protection from light supplied by the CocoTek mat is an additional benefit to the root zone as the darkness encourages root growth. I was surprised to find that only 3 weeks after fitting the mats I had roots that were growing up into the bottom of the coco mat through the hydroton. The coco was providing additional area and support for my roots and since it was wet and dark the roots started growing vertically. The CocoTek also allows for air to easily circulate back into the plant and this prevents the root zone and top layers from getting excess heat.

Let me know if you have any other tricks up your sleeve to prevent algae growth. Grow green, but only in your canopy!

Late last year, I received a call from a retail hydro store owner who had a customer interested in purchasing 100 of our 6′ AeroFlo chambers! I thought to myself, “Yeah right. This is a dead end. Nobody sets up 100 Aeroflo chambers.” I was wrong. Mark, owner of Tasty Tomato does.

Tasty Tomato is located in beautiful Steamboat Springs Colorado. At 6,732′ above sea level, the growing season for tomatoes is very short. Hmmm, indoor climate controlled growing? But of course!

Mark grows many varieties of beautiful pesticide free, heirloom tomatoes which he sells directly to high end restaurants and at local farmers markets. I bet the other growers at the farmers markets are green with envy. “Who does that guy think he is? Heirloom tomatoes in the middle of a Colorado winter. The audacity!” Well, this ain’t your grand daddy’s farm buddy. This is 21st century farming and you either change with the times or let them pass you by.

Check out the photo gallery from Marks grow room. Impressive to say the least. He uses our Rapid Rooter trays to germinate his heirloom seeds. Then the seedlings are transplanted into our patented RainForest aeroponic system to get a jump start. No system on the market today produces growth rates like the RainForest.

Then, when they are established and ready to start bearing fruit, it’s off the AeroFlo chambers. This is where it really gets amazing. Mark doesn’t mess around.

Within several weeks, the plants go from mature seedlings to mature fruit! You can’t do that in soil. SCIENCE! Due to overwhelming demand, Mark outgrew his space and moved into a 3000 square foot facility. To produce the equivalent amount of tomatoes would require roughly three times the amount of square footage in a soil garden. Not to mention that in a place like Steamboat Springs, you would be hard pressed to even get mature fruit by the end of the season. Mark gets tomatoes year round!

Of course this can be scaled down to fit your families needs. You can do a small hydroponic system in a South facing window and get some year round homegrown produce. Or, build a small grow room with artificial lighting and climate control. It will cost a little and your produce will end up being more expensive than what you would pay at the grocery store. But, it’s all about priorities. Have you tasted a tomato from a supermarket lately. Of course you haven’t because they have no taste! Flavorless, mealy and probably covered in pesticides. So, what are you waiting for? Get growing, get healthy and get General Hydroponics nutrients and growing systems. It’s easier than you think!

Horizen Hydroponics has four stores in Michigan, including Grower’s Outlet which acts as a central warehouse and order center in addition to being a full retail store. They requested samples for the Grand Rapids Museum exhibit Facing Mars. Horizen setup a station with a hydroponic growing system, LED grow lights and the most importantly, FloraDuo nutrients supplied by General Hydroponics. The exhibit will run through May 6th and will be harvested multiple times.

Bob from Horizen Hydroponics has already received some great feedback from using the Duo on the first harvest in the exhibit. Even though they did not flush the system or media, the flavor/taste was “delicious” and there was no noticeable salt residue or build-up.

Bob provides more details about the setup:

The system is a basic aeroponics system in the Facing Mars exhibit.

We have soybeans, peppers, tomatoes and snap peas growing. The FloraDuo nutrients have worked well from seedlings through flowering. I don’t know if you can see in the pictures but we have some nice tomato fruit sets along with the peppers and I have already harvested some peas and soybeans. The peas were delicious even though I didn’t flush the system there was no noticeable salt build up in the plants.

Though there is a close relationship between TDS and Electrical Conductivity, they are not the same thing. Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and Electrical Conductivity (EC) are two separate parameters.

TDS, in layman’s terms, is the combined total of solids dissolved in water. EC is the ability of something to conduct electricity (in this case, water’s ability to conduct electricity).

The only true method of measuring TDS is to weigh residue found in water after the water has evaporated. You know those spots you see on a glass after you wash it and let it air dry? That’s TDS! That residue has mass, and it’s possible to weigh it, but if you’re not in a lab, it can be tricky thing to do. Therefore, we can estimate TDS levels based on the conductivity of the water since the hydrogen and oxygen molecules of the H2O carry almost no electrical charge. The EC of most other metals, minerals and salts will carry a charge. A TDS meter measures that EC level and then converts it to a TDS measurement. Since different metals, minerals and salts will be more or less conductive than others, there are different conversion factors that can be used. Most EC/PPM meters are set to the .7 conversion factor which is suitable for fresh water that contains very few chlorides (salts). The .5 conversion factor is suitable for salt water solutions. So, if you are using a fertilizer that is comprised of dissolved mineral salts such as FloraSeries, FloraNova or FloraDuo, you need to set your meter to the .5 conversion factor. Otherwise the meter is not compensating for the salts, minerals and metals that conduct electricity and and you will get a much higher ppm reading than you should and you will think you are over feeding your plants. If you don’t want to mess with ppm values because they are confusing, simply measure in EC and multiply by 500 to get your ppm value.

I feel like a plant in transition this week. A simple spring forward of the clocks and I am wilting over searching for the morning light. Benjamin Franklin first proposed daylight savings time in 1784 but the U.S. did not adopt it until World War I. Most people have strong feelings about this mandatory switch (not talking about you Arizona) which can cause a normally happy person to grumble and curse through the flux week.

My grumpiness got me thinking about the transition for plants from the 18 hour photo-period to the 12 hour photo-period. As most of you probably know, a photoperiod is the number of dark hours verses light hours withing a 24 hour period. We have always recommended an 18/6 (18 hours of light, 6 hours of darkness) regimen during the vegetative stage. This cycle closely mimics a hot summer day which induces the plant to grow at a rapid rate while still allowing for a period of darkness/night which is crucial for the plants development. The dark cycled during veg aids in transpiration and translocation and also provides a chance for the garden to cool down. This period of cooler air can discourage mildew and other plant diseases from running rampant in an otherwise consistently warm environment.

The transition, or “stretch” is the process in indoor gardening of switching the lighting to encourage flowering plants to stop their vegetative develpoment to focus on flowering and fruiting. This photoperiod replicates the onset of autumn and initiates hormone development in the plant that will trigger the flowering cycle. During this period of change the plant requires different nutrients to facilitate the appropriate chemical development. Most gardeners will transition a plant between these two stage for a period of a few days to two weeks. This is a critical process that changes and refocuses the plants energy and brings the plant to full maturity.

With indoor gardening we are always trying to copy the natural world. Some plants prefer more light than others, some want specific minerals that others would not be able to uptake. Finding that perfect balance can be tricky, but looking back at the plants natural environment and the area of the world in which it originates will often provide clues. Create the native environment for your plant, and you will have amazing results.

What transition tricks do you have? Do you baby your plants into the new photoperiod or do you make the switch quick and hard? Hope your transition week is almost over. Enjoy the new photoperiod!

Recently while stopped at a red light, I looked out my window and noticed a pick up truck with some leafy greens piled in the back of the truck. They looked a little too healthy and upright to be a pile of someones recent salad harvest and my curiosity was tickled so when the light turned green I fell in behind the truck. What I saw was a small garden bed, with neat rows of lettuce actively growing and fluttering around a bit in the breeze. This was an intentional garden in the back of this moving truck! I thought maybe this was the freshest greens delivery service ever invented so I did a little research when I got home. It turns out there is a growing phenomena out there of mobile gardening. Somewhere between art, urban agriculture, city beautification and education are various moving surfaces covered in plants. Primarily in dense urban environments and inner cities where there is often a lack of fresh vegetation. The mediums used covers a broad spectrum, such as buses in NY, a rail car in Chicago, shopping carts and the aforementioned truck bed.

Marco Antonio Castro Cosio the NYU designer who created the bus top gardens claims “If a garden were planted on the roof of every one of the 4,500 buses in the city’s bus fleet, the buses could add 35 acres of new rolling green space in the city.” That’s like a giant mobile park driving around the city! I wonder what it would look like in time lapse from above to see 4500 roving garden patches weaving their way through the gnarled traffic of New York! It goes to show, nature always finds a way, even in the densest urban environment.

Plants are an integral part of our world and there are a million ways to add plants to your life. Plants are endlessly beneficial, they clean the air, they beautify our environment, they feed us. I am excited every time I see a new creative way to bring plant life into our increasingly urban lifestyles. I would encourage everyone to look around and think of unique new places to grow plants, and if you feel like participating, share a picture of the strangest place you’ve ever seen a plant growing in the comments below!

As you may have gathered previously here on the GH blog, it’s unseasonably warm here in the Bay Area. So much so that I’ve decided to get cracking with garden preparations. This past weekend I broke out our heirloom seed stash and set some sugar peas into my RapidRooter tray with a bit of light nutrient solution. A day or two of darkness while they germinated, a couple of days under the light, and voîla seedlings in no time flat. Once they’re strong enough to head outside on their own, it’s into the garden with them!

I feel strange complaining while lounging around in my shorts and t-shirt in February, but if the rain clouds don’t come around soon it will be a bad harvest and fire season. Here in the Bay Area we have had only a handful of rainy days since last summer. This made me wonder just how far away California is from the next drought. I went to the Department of Water Resources and found that you can check on the conditions of our snowpack, reservoirs, and groundwater.

Nothing affects your plants more than your water, so check out this great source:
http://www.water.ca.gov/drought/conditions/

If you are outside of California. another extremely informative site is Drought Monitor:
http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/

Just in case these two links have only moistened the pallet, NOAA will quench your thirst:
http://www.drought.noaa.gov/

Take your pick, and preform a dance or a prayer. We need rain and will take it any way we can. Hopefully this is the calm before the storm.

Things are blooming here at GH... in February!

While most of the country is waist deep in winter wonderland, we here in Northern California are eager to begin our outdoor spring crops. Technically Spring doesn’t arrive for another month, but around here, with the temperatures creeping up to the 60’s F we are already in our cool spring season. It’s not quite spring but there is still some chill in the air lingering from winter’s shadow.

When this time rolls around, I begin to get antsy, eager to get my hands dirty. I’ve cleaned up and prepped my raised beds. I’ve done my winter pruning like a good gardener. I’ve begun to research which new (new to me) exciting species I want to add to my garden collection. So come this weekend I’ll head over to my favorite nursery to pick up some starts, and NOT my local home improvement store. I don’t have anything against those stores, just take my advice and go to a nursery for your starts. I’ve found that the staff in a nursery is much more knowledgeable.

I’ll be planting some lettuces, arugula, radishes, and pak choy, among other things. I always start off by mixing some SubCulture-M in to my soil and watering with Floralicious Plus to keep my fungi and bacteria happy. Soon enough I’ll start rocking our General Organics line and following our GO recipe. Keeping to the veg edition for my greens.

Happy cool spring everyone! I hope you get out there soon and get your hands dirty.

My Dad who lives in Southern New Mexico told me that a huge Algae production facility opened up in a town about 50 mile NE of him. It is producing large quantities of Algae for Bio fuel. High oil prices, competing demands between foods and other biofuel sources, and the world food crisis, have ignited interest in algiculter (farming algae) for making vegetable oil, biodeisel, bioethanol, biogasoline, biomethanol, biobutanol and other biofuels, using land that is not suitable for agriculture.

Among algal fuels’ attractive characteristics: they do not affect fresh water resources, can be produced using ocean and waste water, and are biodegradable and relatively harmless to the environment if spilled. Algae cost more per unit mass (as of 2010, food grade algae costs ~$5000/ton), due to high capital and operating costs, yet are claimed to yield between 10 and 100 times more energy per unit area than other second-generation biofuel crops. One biofuels company has claimed that algae can produce more oil in an area the size of a two car garage than a football field of soybeans, because almost the entire algal organism can use sunlight to produce lipids, or oil. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that if algae fuel replaced all the petroleum fuel in the United States, it would require 15,000 square miles (39,000 km2) which is only 0.42% of the U.S. map, or about half of the land area of Maine. This is less than 1⁄7 the area of corn harvested in the United States in 2000.

However, these claims remain unrealized, commercially. According to the head of the Algal Biomass Organization algae fuel can reach price parity with oil in 2018 if granted production tax credits. Currently most research into efficient algal-oil production is being done in the private sector, but predictions from small-scale production experiments bear out that using algae to produce biodiesel may be the only viable method by which to produce enough automotive fuel to replace current world diesel usage.

If algae-derived biodiesel were to replace the annual global production of 1.1 billion tons of conventional diesel then a land mass of 57.3 million hectares would be required, which would be highly favorable compared to other biofuels. The benefits of algae biofuel are obvious and it will no doubt replace soy and corn as the world standard bio fuel source. All you need is water, light and a little bit of mineral nutrient. Who knows, maybe your algae biofuel will be grown with FloraSeries!

While most of our happy clients love their General Hydroponics & General Organics products in quarts and gallons, many requests have come in over the years for larger sizes. The strangest request of all was from one gardener that owned an old milk tanker. He wanted to back his empty milk truck into our production facilities and top it off with FloraBloom!

As you read this we are bursting through the 6 gallon barrier and are now offering 15GL & 55GL sizes for our best selling products. You will get the same premium quality product at a great value with less trips to the shop. The 15GL has two handles to make for an easy move with a friend and it also accommodates the same spigot that is used in our 6GL container for an easy pour. The 55GL has dual openings for easy access, and works well with most siphon pumps. Getting it out of your truck is a bit trickier unless your housemate regularly appears on World’s Strongest Man.

If you are getting ready to work your monster garden and want to load up the truck, look no further than our new super sizes. Grow BIG. Grow GH.

I was visiting Mr. Green Thumbs new store in Bay City, MI and when I first walked in I noticed their extremely unique yet very cool way to display their nutrients. The store used to be an old gas station. It is on a very heavy traffic corner right off of the expressway in Bay City/Saginaw. They decided to paint the old gas pump roof and building a very bright green so it stands out like a sore thumb in a good way. The nutrients are inside the old milk, pop and dairy product fridges. Its so damn cool, they can stock the shelving from the inside of the cooler, their are lights on the cooler door that shine onto the bottles of nutrients and it just looks killer! They just moved into this location about two weeks ago. They have a pretty big parking lot from the space that the gas pumps used to occupy, so once the weather gets good they will have stacks of soils and flats of annuals being sold outside.