There’s always something interesting growing at Gen Hydro, and so I wasn’t too surprised to wander into the office kitchen and find these oyster mushrooms on the counter. It’s an inoculated substrate and all it needs to throw off one or two rounds of delicious ’shrooms is moisture.
This is the second round that has bloomed off this little plate, and they look great. The first set is drying up nicely. I generally eat them fresh, but drying them is a simple way to preserve their amazing flavor. Anyone else cultivating mushrooms in their kitchen?
The dates have been announced for the 2010 Indoor Gardening Expos. Start making plans now to visit us in Montreal- June 5th and 6th and San Francisco- July 24th and 25th. These industry trade show events are the best place to learn about new products and recent innovations. And after hours, they are some of the most epic parties of the year.
Right now we have a crop of dark, leafy green kale going nuts in the greenhouse. It’s a power veggie, packed with vitamins and minerals. Most people know that it’s super nutritious, but did you know that vegetables grown with General Hydroponics nutrients actually have more nutrition than most soil grown crops? This is due in part to the fact that our products have the complete macro and micro nutrients needed for growth, and that those nutrients are formulated to be easily available to the plant.
But just because we know kale is healthy, it’s often a challenge to want to eat it. Here is a super short and entertaining presentation on “How to Crave Kale”
In our time of emerging technology in Hydroponics, it is easy to get overwhelmed. I talk to a lot of people that are constantly searching for “IT”. Call this a friendly reminder to not get caught up in all the hype. All you really need is a plant, and an ability to care.
This is a gifted Pelargonium with a beginning height of 6 inches transplanted 1 month ago into a GH CocoTek 8” Basket filled with a Blend of GH Mixed Brick Coco Coir and Ancient Forest, our new Alaskan Humus Product. It has been fed some of the General Organics (BioThrive Grow, CaMg+, BioRoot, BioWeed) and Floralicious Plus. I like to top-dress it with Ancient Forest every two weeks. It lives on my kitchen countertop under a mounted ‘under-cabinet’ fluorescent fixture, on for about 15 hours a day. Note how many of the bigger leaves are curving in from the sides, in an attempt to procure more light. This Simple Drain to Waste System provides an easy way to hydroponically grow your favorite houseplants
I am beyond thrilled to introduce General Hydroponics Europe our readers. The GrowGH blog will be expanding our coverage to include posts from the team there, to keep you updated on our international brethren. Our blog will spotlight their dynamic team, including, Noucetta, William and Frederic, and their efforts in hydro.
GHE has long been working to bring the quality and results of GH to their unique market. GHE not only distributes our formulas, but has created some of their own products, available only through them, that serve the specific needs and trends of growers there. Beyond that, they maintain an exotic greenhouse, and support numerous events and causes that are uniquely GHE.
In 1995, we created GHE in the South of France to better serve the European, African and Middle Eastern markets. At that time General Hydroponics was not well known outside of the English speaking countries. In only a few years GHE built a dominant position in European and global markets, primarily thanks to the quality of our products and to our commitment to common goals: sustainability, quality, innovation, simplicity and value. We printed out labels in numerous languages, built a website in numerous languages (www.eurohydro.com) and registered our products according to the regulations in each market.
With time due to the difference in markets and suppliers on both continents, the two lines, GH and GHE, diverged slightly due to specific needs in regional markets; except for Flora Series, the original nutrient that built our reputation and remains the global leader in sales and product recognition. In Europe as in California, we continue our research to show the diversity of plants you can grow with our technologies. We have developed a line of ‘organic’ nutrients and supplements that work well for hydroponic growers. You can visit our greenhouse online at youtube (enter ‘eurohydro’), or if you are traveling in our area, contact us to arrange a visit us here.
Noucetta Kehdi, William Texier, and Lawrence Brooke
These living walls are beyond amazing. Green Fortune is a company that designs and installs living walls, clearly for the high end client. Architects and designers take note: the benefits of installations like this are cleaner air, more beautiful light, and ultimately enhanced moods.
PS, check out their fun little hydro system, the Stream Garden. It’s obviously not designed for high yields or aggressive growing, but it looks good on a desk!
I’m in between turns right now, and I tend to dream about room improvements when the garden is down. In particular, I am very interested in light movers. My space is long and narrow and I know they would be the best way to optimize my garden. Gualala Robotics has a killer looking kit, has anyone out there got one? If you do, let us know how you like them in the comments. Light movers are pretty spendy, so I’m especially interested in hearing from
Urban Garden Magazine posted a great article about growing strawberries yesterday. I love strawberries! GH grows their berries outdoors, and one year I picked ripe berries from March until December. In fact, the photo above is my GH strawberry harvest from December 5th, 2007.
Andy Troutman, Sales
Hometown: Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
Dog: Oscar, an Olde English Bulldog
Favorite Food: Supplication, a brew by Russian River
I’m very happy to introduce you to my new friend and the newest addition to the General Hydroponics sales team at our headquarters in Sebastopol, California: Andy. He works every day taking tech calls, responding to emails, and placing orders.
Andy is an amazing resource for GH because he is a devoted, experienced, and knowledgeable grower. He has 6 years of academic hydroponic achievements and a BA in environmental studies with a minor in geography and urban studies. Andy has long been fascinated with hydro, and chose to write his senior thesis on Urban Sustainability of Hydroponic Crop Production. Part of that process was teaching an entire team of people about how to garden without soil and expirimenting with different methods and techniques. He then applied to building a UV filtered, gravity driven, NFT hydrosystem for Temple University.
He is also going to be contributing sometimes to the GrowGH blog, and so it’s going to be really great to get to know him in a way that goes beyond just hydro. Andy is 1/5th the board of directors for the Muddy River Jam Festival. Its a 3 day musical event happening 7 miles from Philadelphia in Salem County. The festival is in its 6th year, and this year is estimated to double attendance from the 800 who made it out to dance and camp last year. The Muddy River Jam sound is based on the electronic-jamband-expirimental-dj national touring acts that fuel the Philly area, including Telepath, BioDiesel, Indobox and the MJ Project. Check it out at muddyriverjam.com
Everyone here is glad to have Andy as part of our sales team, and I am glad to finally and officially say. “Welcome!”
40 miles from Port au Prince Hans Geissler has established an aquaponic farm to help feed orphans at an orphanage. Now it is feeding victims of the earthquake. Visit the farm with a news crew and learn about his goals for producing foodby clicking this link and choosing to watch the video story.
Windowfarms is one of the coolest hydroponic projects that I’ve seen in a long time. It’s a simple DIY drip system that is made from recycled materials, specifically built for placement in a window. The garden has a flexible design but is generally uses plastic waterbottles, with plants growing in hydroton or other lightweight soilless media. Each plant hangs above the next, and a simple pump waters and feeds liquid nutrients.
The project began as a response to the idea of vertical urban farming. Instead of waiting for the agricultural model to change it’s infrastructure, Windowfarms encourages individuals grow cheap food in their owns homes now. But beyond hydroponics, Windowfarms is a great example of a web 2.0 online community. According to the short video I watched on their site, the founders, Britta Riley and Rebecca Ray are determined to build a crowdsourced platform that creates widespread social change. Users are encouraged to sign up, download instructions and build their Windowfarm. Growers then troubleshoot their gardens online with feedback and guidance from other members. With support from a network of users, it becomes natural for participants to innovate and evolve the Windowfarm project.
It’s been a wet winter, and I’ve been out several times foraging for mushrooms. In general, I don’t find many edibles, but I have a great time exploring the forest floor. There is nothing that inspires me more than the beauty of nature.
The top photo is of a Chanterelle, considered by many to be the most tasty of wild mushrooms. Don’t let the bottom photo fool you, it’s a non-edible look alike.
Did you know that Lawrence Brooke, founder of GH came up with his first hydroponic system because he too was inspired by nature. He saw that plants thrived on the banks of a creek, with bubbling, oxygen filled and nutrient rich water constantly pouring over them. As I was walking through our complex coastal forest, I realized that while all of our products are inspired by nature, one in particular will actually allow you to replicate nature’s forest floor.
SubCulture-M is the GH mycological root inoculant for soil. It is literally a web of symbiotic life. In the forest floor, mushroom spores identical to those in SubCulture-M live throughout the earth and root zone. They serve two crucial functions. Mycelium forms a hairy protective barrier around the root that allow plants to weather drought and fight off disease. They also increase the plant’s ability to uptake nutrients.
One of my dear friends recently returned from a trip to Tehran, and she snapped these great shots of a living wall. The trend of vertical gardening is taking off in urban areas across the globe, and this is a beautiful example. These systems are easy enough to create and I am excited to see more and more of them being planted.
Last year on January 8th I posted about the flowering trees behind the office here at GH. They were starting to flower out, and I was worried it was a bit early for them. It’s such a shame to see the delicate blossoms loose their petals to rainfall, or worse yet, watch the young buds succumb to bud rot. But they survived to fruit and now are opening again, just about the same time of year. It’s always great to keep records of your plants through the season ,and now that I’ve written about the Farm Lab for a whole year, the blog serves as a sort of garden journal. Having notes and then referring to books like The Old Farmer’s Almanac makes for better understanding and better planning, and ultimately a more rewarding harvest.
The greenhouse team has been busy at work potting up an entire orchard worth of fruit trees. These trees will eventually be transplanted into the General Hydroponics Farm Lab orchard, but for now they are cozy and warm indoors.
In case you haven’t heard, an earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale struck Northern California this weekend. The epicenter was 25 miles off the coast of Arcata, just 225 miles north of the offices here at General Hydroponics. The quake did much damage, but thankfully there were minimal major injuries. Since then, aftershocks as strong as 4.5 have continued to strike the region, including one just less than 24 hours ago.
At General Hydroponics, we have many friends, family, stores, and customers that are affected by this dramatic event. It’s been slow getting ahold of them in the wake of widespread power outages and the sheer amount of work to be done cleaning up. We will be providing updates on the blog in the coming days, and putting together strategies so that we help get the area back on its feet. It’s going to be a long process of recovery, with the property damage to just the city of Eureka reaching at least $12.5 million dollars. To read more, check out this article on SFGate.com.
By the people who brought you the Ant Farm, the Hydro Greenhouse 2! It’s like an aeroflow, but for kids! Anyone out there given this a try? I’d love to know what you thought!
January is a stark month for most outdoor growers. The earth is cold, perhaps even frozen. Plants are bare. There’s little to do. Or so it seems. January is a great time to get caught up on chores. Here are some excerpts from a great list of winter garden tasks. Add your own winter habits in the comments below:
– Damage control. As for those frost-damaged plants, wait to prune blackened branches until March, when the true damage will be more apparent. Mother Nature often stages amazing comebacks.
– Buy bare roots. Now’s the time to take advantage of the bare-root season, that once-a-year chance to buy plants without soil clinging to their roots. Bare-root plants are cheaper and easier to plant. An entire orchard or rose garden will fit into the trunk of your car.
– Step lightly. Remember that soggy garden soil should not be walked on. This is particularly true of clay soils, which compact easily. Wait until the soil dries out some before walking on it.
