Jessica Lilga, one of our ambitious sales reps, went to Seattle last weekend for the Green Festival. The event is all about ecology, food, gardening, and organics. It is produced Global Exchange, a world renowned non profit, in conjunction with a major national non profit, Green America. They are held in Denver, San Francisco, Chicago, [...]

It’s been 6 months since we launched the blog, and I think its been a great success. Right now, the blog offers practical information about our products and a glimpse behind the scenes at GH. But I still have big goals. I want to bring the spirit of Web 2.0 to our blog.  Web 2.0 [...]

I am happy to announce that the brand new General Hydroponics Catalog for 2009 is now available.

These catalogs are invaluable, to stores, and to our customers. For our first print run of this edition, we printed 30,000 in English, and 5,000 in French. They provide the most up to date information on our nutrients, systems, and even [...]

Earth Hour on Saturday was a complete success. I will admit, I am often “eco-skeptical” about gimmicks and tricks and buzz words like “green.” But I loved participating; shutting off my power for an hour really made me feel connected with like minded people around the globe. 

I wanted to keep it easy, so I just [...]

Imagine that you live a very busy life, and don’t pay as much attention to your plants as they might like. Now imagine that when your plants need watering, that they can just call you up on the phone. That is the new reality of Botanicalls.
I first learned of the project in 2007 at the [...]

Yesterday I was not blogging, because I was dealing with some Poison Oak. And so this morning, I thought I would write about a plant that no hydro grower would ever consider growing! And in fact, research scientists aside, I can’t really think of any person who would intentionally cultivate poison oak. 

The “poison” of this [...]

It’s spring time, and when you grow indoors your plants can get a spring cleaning with Flora Kleen. Ok, that’s kinda cheesy, I’ll admit. But flushing your plants is crucial.

Flora Kleen is a blend of acids in a dilute solution. It flushes excess salts with the magic-like power of osmosis.  Many growers know to use [...]

When I checked out the greenhouse this morning, I was happy to see that one of the test rows has started to gain a real advantage over the other. It’s really neat to see one tray of plants that looks good, and right next to it one that looks even better.
Side by side.

This is the [...]

Here’s an easy step by step showing how to plant an orchid on a board with General Hydroponics Coco Coir. 
Repot your orchid only after it blooms. With sharp scissors, cut the spent stems.

Remove the orchid from its pot, and gently remove the bark from the roots.

Wrap wire around two opposing corners of a square or rectangular piece [...]

I was wondering around the GH FarmLab, and discovered asparagus! Things took a while to sprout this winter, I’m not suprised that I hadn’t noticed it till now. There are about a hundred plants with thin spikes poking up from the ground.
So, here is where I blew it: I snapped off a couple dozen spears [...]

Anyone know why the basil is way happier than the other herbs in the Aerogarden? Does basil just grow that much faster than everything else, or is it better suited for the system? 

The purple on the back of the thyme leaves is so pretty!

This weekend I was making some amazing juice blends with fresh fruits. We made orange-mango-papaya-strawberry-ginger juice. It was so good! I cannot wait until the strawberries start producing here at General Hydroponics. Yum! And I started wondering about the different nutrients in various fruits and vegetables. There is a great website called nutritiondata.com, and it gives you all [...]

I am thrilled to announce a new contest here on the GH blog. Green Circle Hydroponics is looking for a mural, and has given us the opportunity to search out the artist on here on the blog. 
Green Circle Hydroponics has been in business for 17 years! The owner Kelly told me about the history of [...]

What a great story coming from the White House:
Mrs. Obama Breaks Ground on Kitchen Garden

Here at the General Hydroponics office, we have a large collection of gardening magazines. They are mainly hydro mags- Max Yield, Urban Garden, and back issues of Growing Edge. But recently, GardenWise magazine from Canada has been added to the collection.

While my ecosystem is very different in California than what they’ve got in Canada, I [...]

This is completely unrelated to hydroponics, except that the iceberg featured may very well have been grown hydroponically. This clip isn’t new, but it’s Thursday, a perfect day for video.

One of our blog readers sent in this shot of their GH carbon filter hanging from the ceiling in their grow room. Nice technique!

General Hydroponics Premium Carbon Air Filters are crucial to the success of my grow.

My gardens are in airtight boxes made with recycled packing crates and cardboard under my house in the Northern California redwood forest. And my style is *lazy* – it’s not the cleanest environment. So I rely on filtered intake air to keep [...]

Purple veggies are pretty, delicious, and very healthy. I have been eating tons of the purple kale growing in the GH FarmLab.  I just wilt with a steamer basket, and put a bit of sea salt and crushed black pepper on top. Some times I pour some locally produced organic apple cider vinegar on it as [...]

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I am all about this holiday! Don’t worry, I’m not drunk on Irish beer…or whiskey… yet. Corned beef and cabbage is an annual treat as well. I love it, but it’s not even a traditional Irish dish. It’s a dish born in New York City, and has roots in the Jewish [...]