Created in 2004 to raise funds for charity and recognize talented, local, up-and-coming musical acts, The 2010 Muddy River Jam Festival was a 2-day festival where over 80 bands and electronic acts performed. Beyond just music, the event creates a family-like community by encouraging overnight camping onsite at the Salem County Fairgrounds outside of Philadelphia.

The lineup for 2010 was incredible. Multiple stages went off all weekend and featured great performances by The Join, Perpetual Groove, and many others. General Hydroponics was proud to sponsor the event alongside Vitamin Water. GH gave out tons of the General Organics Sample Boxes, and Chill and Randall were on hand to talk with everyone about music and growing. We are also especially proud to say that much of the entire Muddy River festy was coordinated by GH’s own Andy Troutman. Andy and his team pulled off a wonderful weekend!

Everyone on the east coast, be on the lookout for next summer’s 7th year of the MRJF, bigger and better than ever! Head to muddyriverjamfestival.com for all the details, press information and sponsorship opportunities. Be sure to check out their videos too! See you next year!

The SF TradeShow Shirt is insane. Super. Fresh. View it larger here.

General Hydroponics is proud to congratulate Natural Heroes on their 2010 Emmy Award wins! Five seasons ago GH was the founding sponsor and executive producer of a little PBS show about regular people becoming heroes to the environment. We now can say that that little show is a very big deal, with a total of five trophies from the Emmys!

This years awards include Outstanding Achievement for a Historic/Cultural Program for the episode Voyage of the Vezo, and Outstanding Achievement for a Public/Current/Community Affairs Program for the episode Brower Youth Awards.

Superior Growers Supply in Livonia, MI, had their 27th Anniversary Event on Saturday, July 31st. Jeff Gibson and his team hosted an incredible day, were customers where invited to help celebrate and enjoy a 27% discount on all products. It was an amazing day of education and celebration. GH has a table at the event, along with Grodan, Hortilux, BluLab, Sunlight Supply, and more!

Randall was hanging at the GH booth educating GH fans on the new GO Sample Box Sets, the AzaMax RTU, and all the wonderful GH products their customers have enjoyed since SGS opened in 1983.

We congratulate the SGS Team and look forward to 27 more years of success and beyond!

ABC News produced a nice video about a new restaurant in NYC that grows all the produce hydroponically on it’s own roof. The systems are weird, but I love the idea! The more stories like this on the national news, the better!

Right now this particular project is ranked 44 out of 276. To increase their chances of winning, all you need to do is visit this link, take 20 seconds to register, and then vote with a click of your mouse.

We would like to build a hydroponics and aquaculture farm to employ some that have been affected by the Gulf oil spill. While employed, they’ll also learn the new trade of growing with hydroponics and aquaculture, as well as receiving the fresh produce for their families and others. We are located in a small, rural area close to the Apalachicola Bay oyster beds. The people in this area have struggled and worked hard for years. Making their living from the Gulf is all they’ve ever known as it has been passed down for generations. Now that it may be gone for decades, it’s essential that they learn a new trade to pass down to their children. This opportunity will have a great impact on many for years to come. Our plans are to grow seafood for consumption until they can be safely released back into the Gulf.

How will the 250K be Used?

$ 100,000 Hydroponic greenhouse & Aquaculture farm
$ 75,000 Hydroponic & Aquaculture system
$ 75,000 Employee wages

Red has a great post up about his composting setup. His Bokashi can even compost meat!

From the MaxYield publisher, Linda Jepson:

Join us at the 7th Annual San Francisco Indoor Gardening Expo July 24-25, 2010 at the Fort Mason Center on the bay for the Industry’s Biggest Trade Show of the Year!

Exhibitors from around the world will be displaying their latest distinctive indoor gardening products and technologies. This expo unites the industry on a global platform to network, educate and do business on Saturday, July 24 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday, July 25 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. General Public is welcome Sunday, July 25 from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. to discover water-wise and organic techniques for growing healthier plants and produce.

Whether you’ve just started gardening or are an aficionado, there will be something for everyone at this year’s expo.

Randall was in NYC recently and visted Bronx Hydro and Garden. They offer free classes for growers on Saturdays for their customers who are interested in learning more about everything from systems and feeding to cloning and lighting. Randall had the opportunity to meet some amazing people during his talk on the Basics of Hydroponics.

Randall met with a class of about 15 students. He spoke about the basics: pH, PPM, different styles (flood and drain, aeroponics, drip, NFT, aquaponics, DWC, passive), different medias, and nutrition. Everyone was engaged and interested and the group went off on several tangents about cloning and hydroton versus coco.

At the end, Randall hooked everyone up with samples of FloraSeries, Floralicious Plus, and Kool Bloom. Bronx Hydro just opened a new store in Brooklyn (Bklyn Hydro), so people in NYC have two great options for learning about growing. I’m going to be in NYC in 2 weeks and I have their spots down on my list to check out. And when Randall heads back for a new class, I’ll be sure to let you know!

Martin in Graphics did it again! I love the Montreal Trade Show Limited Edition T-shirt!

I am so inspired by this!

For many summers, General Hydroponics has been a major sponsor of the world’s largest reggae festival, in Humboldt, California. In the beginning, it was known as Reggae on the River, and in recent years was called Reggae Rising. The festival was the highlight of our events calendar. “Reggae” was the perfect party. Endless music and 20,000 of the nicest people you could ever meet. We stoked the crowd with free samples, gave away limited edition t-shirts, and partied non-stop all weekend. But, structural shifts have once again rocked the foundations of the festival.

In 2010, for the first time in 5 years, GH is not going to be up on the Eel River for a summer Reggae festival. Instead, we are going to branch out in new venues. We are still going to support all the festival fans as Reggae reworks it’s programming, by continuing with our sponorships. We will be making a return to Earthdance, heading to the East Coast for the Muddy River Jam Festival and we are very excited to announce a new event to our lineup, Power to the Peaceful. It is a unique, lively event unlike any other, held September 11 and 12th in Golden Gate Park. Like Reggae, it’s got great, consciousness raising music acts, but it has something Reggae never had, a skate ramp!!! We can’t wait to get the vans loaded and get out on the road! See you there!

Power to the Peaceful 2009 photo by Paul Devoto

GH sent a great team to Maker Faire Bay area, headed by Luke Silverman. Karlo, our engineering assistant, also came and he took the shots I’m posting today.

They spent the weekend at our booth, which was filled with lush plants and examples of hydro systems. But my favorite part was the cush leather sofa with a perfect view of the music stage and the OkGo performance.

One of the most famous visitors to the Maker Faire is the Electric Giraffe. She walks around the lot dropping house beats. No, seriously. She’s standing in front of the Ray Gun Gothic Rocket Ship, a 4 story installation from another place and time. To get a better view, click the picture for a larger image link.

I don’t even know what this is, but its on fire and it looks like it spins. In my book, that makes it awesome!

Have you seen the Mentos and Diet Coke videos? Where they do the Bellagio Fountains? This is their soda rocket bike. This video from their Maker Faire 2009 show is epic.

Check out Maker Faire Re-Cap: Part 1, and stay tuned for more.

A maker is a person who builds- who does- who creates. Makers as individuals are people, together they are a movement. You might be familiar with their slogans: “If you can’t open it, you don’t own it!” or “You are going to poke your eye out!” A maker is anyone with a desire to hack their computer, hack their media or hack their tools. Our favorite makers are the ones who hack their food supply by building hydroponic urban gardens. We love makers with plants that twitter their need for water. And who can forget makers who build micro controllers for their gardens with nails from the hardware store as their soil condition probes.

To start our introduction to Maker Faire, I’m going to use this fast-paced action montage. The music is from GH’s very own Andy Graham. Andy is a musical genius, and his instrument of choice is the didgeridoo. He is our resident inventor, who spends most of his time as an engineering fixer. For many people, his music is the soundtrack of the Maker Faire. If you’ve ever called General Hydroponics, you will instantly recognize him as our alternative to “on hold” muzak. But his most important role is as the house drummer for the GH after-hours-jam-band. More on Andy later, for now, enjoy the tour:

Age: 32 yrs young

Hometown: North Carolina (and the road)
Everywhere else: Greensboro, NC – Boulder, CO- Granada, Spain- Miami, Florida- NY, NY

Hobbies: Cooking, Athletics, Music, Exercise & Nutrition (ran a ½ marathon in march), Basketball, Outdoor Activities

Pets: Nico, 8 yr old rescued Staffie Terrier

Favorite food: I’m a foodie, I love all food, worked in restaurants all my life – love it all when its quality. Mexican, Deli Food (sandwiches), Mediterranean Cuisine (olive oil), Diners, Dives & Drive In’s Restaurants

Favorite music: Music is a form of art communication. I love all genres of music. My background is in traditional rock & roll, however, I listen to all American root music: Jazz, Blues, Folk, (Country/Bluegrass), Rock&Roll, Heavy Metal, conscious Hip-Hop, some electronic, and many international artists and Roots Reggae. I enjoy so many different styles of music, it depends on my mood, when I’m happy, I want Ludacris, when I’m sad, I want Elliot Smith… And, I can play the guitar, bass, dulcimer, harmonica, and can hold down a beat on the drums…

What is your job at GH? I am the customer service representative for the East side of North America, from Maine to Florida.

Tell us about your background in hydroponics: I am a passionate farmer and gardener who got into hydroponics out of my love of our Mother Earth. and a desire to promote land stewardship amongst her inhabitants.
I worked and managed a retail garden store in North Carolina for five years. Anyone who has spent time in a busy hydroponics retail store knows that a hydroponic garden center is an educational center. Something is being taught and learned every hour in a retail hydroponic store. I got a crash course in all things hydroponics for the first years of my tenure in the industry, the years that followed have been implementation of that knowledge and the constant research to gain more knowledge. I am self taught through experience and personal research.

What do you have going on in your own garden right now? I live in a townhome AND I am on the road A LOT, so with those excuses out of the way, I have a small kitchen garden consisting of (1) T5 strip light with various herbs and lettuce growing. Outside I have (2) tomatoes plants in soil with General Organics trials underway, along with many house plants I have accumulated over the years. Some agave plants, purple passion vines, a palm from Florida. My favorite plant is a Schefflera plant given to me by a friend the first day I moved to Boulder, CO more than 12 years ago.

Can you share a tip for successful indoor gardening? SOIL: The best tip I can give is the easiest and most obvious: DON’T OVERWATER!!! DON’T OVERTHINK IT, if the soil is dark and damp, don’t water, if the soil is dry, water. It’s that simple, overwatering is the most common way to kill a plant.
HYDRO: Don’t over-fertilize, start with half strength of fertilizer, less is more! Gradually increase nutrients, better to start conservative than too much too soon.

Your favorite GH products? I LOVE the Subcultures B and M. I love the BioWeed as a foliar spray during all vegetative growth. Kelp as a foliar rocks! Simple recipe for ‘two thumbs up’ gardening- FloraNova Gro and Bloom with Floralicious Plus