Spring is officially here. At General Hydroponics headquarters that means rainbows and wildflowers.

This lovely yellow flower is a type of sorrel, commonly called Sour Grass. I can’t believe I got that shot of the bee in mid flight, with its little tongue sticking out!

The greenhouse right now is filled with flowers. Remember the fruit trees that are waiting for transplanting? Many of them are currently in full bloom. I took some really crazy closeup shots, and it just blows my mind how each flower is so different from the next, yet so the same.

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 [...]

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 [...]

Well, I’m back in NorCal, where the current temperature is 40 degrees. Not bad, but I’m longing for Hawaii. Here are some more flowers from my trip there.
The lovely hibiscus:

And the ever classic tropical flower, the bird of paradise:

I’m reporting live from beautiful Hawaii, where I can’t take a single step down the street without seeing the most amazing blooming trees. This is called an Orchid Tree. They bloom from September through November, so I consider myself lucky to have been here during the season.

For more information, click here to read a [...]

Ginger is one of my favorite things to eat. The flavor of its knobby root is like none other. It truly transforms any dish with its vivid taste. And the health and healing properties it imparts are also one of a kind.

Here is some insight on the chemistry of ginger from Wikipedia:
The characteristic odor and [...]

I’m on location in Hawaii, and there are the most amazing flowers all around me. I have never been so inspired to fill the GH greenhouses with my own personal TigerLilly collection of tropical plants! We already have blooming bananas, but now I need these amazing ground orchids too! They are terrestrial, as opposed to [...]

Does it seem to you like we run the same tests on the same plants over and over and over again? It’s because we DO run tests all the time, and we repeat them, tweak them and repeat them again. Here is the current batch of cukes!

Adam, head of sales, recently sent me some shots of plants growing in his garden. I love the honeysuckle, and the cucumbers look amazing too. I also love how the GH coco planters look on his deck. Nice.

I want to start off by apologizing for the scarcity of blog posts recently. Last week I was sick as a dog, and this week the cough is lingering, and taking it out of me. But to make it up to you, I’ll be posting double next week, promise!
Here’s an ancient looking Datura I spotted [...]

These lettuce plants are HUGE! They are placed in the systems with zinnias and are part of the biological tests that have been running. Each tray has a different biological agent, and the results of growth and yield are meticulously recorded. We are running the same products with the cucumbers that I’ve shared in the [...]

Remember the new setups we’ve been testing?
I took this shot on August 11:

They have exploded in the last month. Amazing.

This banana flower is so cool. Bananas are tropicals, obivously, and this one is thriving in the hot greenhouse.

The zinnias in the greenhouse are still blooming, and they are so beautiful. The longer they grow, the more the petals stack up on each blossom. Generally, flowers bloom full size, but the zinnia flower continues to grow larger and larger on the plant.