As we all know, kids love to be outside and play in the dirt. They also glean valuable insight into the importance of caring for living things and cultivating healthy food. GH provided them with organic coconut pith fiber, Alaska Humus soil and General Organics fertilizer to help revive their old and depleted garden beds.

With the state of affairs these days and an ever decreasing budget for education, General Hydroponics is proud to support these types of projects that are grossly underfunded or simply not funded at all. It is our philosophy that the success of future generations relies on the education of our children. They are eager to learn and explore the world around them. Happy gardening kids!

I’d like to try growing a giant pumpkin next year, using General Organics humus and fertilizers. I think it would be easy to challenge some past pumpkin champions with a prize-winning GO pumpkin! Has anyone tried growing pumpkins hydroponically? It’s easy enough to do. You just need to have enough space for the long, trailing vines and the large, heavy fruit. Three years ago, Jesse grew this 485lb guy here at GH and entered into the Half Moon Bay Giant Pumpkin contest. It was grown with Flora Nova, Alice’s Garden, Floralicious Plus and SubCulture B. Check out the size of that baby!

 Some people are growing them vertically, with the pumpkins hanging in mid-air, as they grow. Check out these awesome photos!

 Photo from Discover Hydroponics

 Photo from Linneyville

If growing pumpkins isn’t your thing, you can still carve them every year! With the proper tools and motivation, you can get really creative with your designs. Many people use stencils to make it easier but you can free-hand some interesting shapes and faces as well. If you want something to aspire to, check out these amazing sculpted pumpkins! The artist, Ray Villafane, has truly perfected the art of pumpkin carving.

I hope that served as some inspiration for your Halloween weekend! Enjoy, dress up and be safe out there everyone! Happy Halloween from General Hydroponics!

We decided to support them in the best way we can (from the other coast): by donating some of the best of our GH & GO products to help improve their gardening success! We sent them coco fiber, to add to seedling mixtures, potting soils and all types of growing media. We sent them several General Organics fertilizers, to enrich and enliven the soil. We also donated Alaska Humus, which increases biological soil diversity, nutrient availability and overall stability.

We can’t wait to see how this awesome organization continues to flourish in the future!

Edible Schoolyard is a wonderful project that first began in our neighborhood (in Berkeley, CA) teaching kids how to grow their own food. It has since grown enormously and many school gardens (and garden-based curriculum) can be found all over the country! Kids are learning to garden at a younger age; they are learning what it means to eat healthy and how to grow their own food!

We love to support innovative programs like this because it helps our awesome community to grow and strengthen. We feel we have a responsibility to educate and prepare the coming generation. As we all know so well, being able to grow your own food is not only a fun hobby. It can be a vital life skill!

So, we decided to offer our support to one particular Edible Schoolyard that is teaching kids how to grow food right in the middle of the in the biggest city in the country: New York City. We donated Coco fiber, Alaska Humus and General Organics fertilizers to Edible Schoolyard NYC.  With those GH ingredients added to their soil, those kids will be able to grow bigger, healthier, more nutritious crops! Gardening success is at their fingertips, with a little extra help from their friends at General Hydroponics. Keep up the good work, little gardeners!

Stay tuned to the GH blog for an update from Edible Schoolyard. We’ll see how our products helped their garden!

Written by GH’s South Western Sales Rep, Nels Hansen:

After the sun began to set on this record-breaking hot day, I figured it was the perfect time to start teaching my boy about the growing and feeding of plants. What better way than to introduce him to General Organics™?

Living in a city with nothing more than a large concrete patio makes growing vegetables a little tricky. But, with some imagination and creativity, I figure anyone can have their own little farm! I used some cinder blocks that I found laying around the house to make walls for my garden bed, which gave me roughly about eleven inches to fill. Man, it took lot of soil to fill this thing! But after all was said and done, with a few inches of Ancient Forest® spread across the top, I had completed my very own raised garden bed!

My son is really excited about helping, maybe almost as much as I am to have him help! We started with the nutes at the full strength veg dosing. We began by mixing BioThrive®Grow at 10 mls per gallon of water with our twenty-five gallon res.  Then we added the CaMg+™ at 5 mls, BioRoot® at 10, BioWeed® at 2.5 milliliters per gallon. To finish it off, we added DiamondBlack™ at 1 tablespoon and BioMarine® at two tablespoons per gallon.

Once we had all our GO nutrients mixed together, in the proper amounts, we sprayed 25 gallons of solution (using a 400 g.p.h. pump) and top fed the entire 6’X12’ garden plot. No need to adjust the pH with the GO line so we were ready to go!
     
In our garden, we are growing many different herbs and spices, like cilantro, basil, and thyme. We also have a handful of onions, artichokes, tomatoes, kale, a blueberry bush and more! We expect a bountiful, delicious harvest, thanks to the GO. My son is so excited to watch the plants grow and taste everything that comes out of our garden.

Stay tuned for updates from our garden periodically (sooner if something pops up!) With the help of my son, and General Organics, before you know it, I will be enjoying the fruits of my labor!

Next weekend is the 8^th Annual Maximum Yield San Francisco Indoor Garden Expo at the Fort Mason Center and we will be there! Will you? There is quite the line-up, with over 200 exhibitors showing a huge range of indoor gardening products, techniques and technologies from plants to pots, soil and hydroponics.

The Max Yield Expo is especially focused on moving toward a greener and healthier planet so many exhibitors (including yours truly) will be there to help you learn more about growing healthier plants and produce using water wise techniques, specialized growing containers and organic methods. We feel good about participating in an event that promotes and encourages sustainable living and helping to further education and awareness. Stop by and look for our General Organics line, organic nutrients especially formatted to offer complete, balanced nutrition for hydroponic plants. We’ll show you how it works and help you get ideas for your own systems. Our staff is ready to advise and inspire so come equipped with your questions! We will be providing chances to win great prizes if you stop by the booth and have a chat with us.

We have several booths that we will be filling up with all your favorite products, including our General Organic series, and will have lots of plants and systems up and running so you can come check it all out. Look for us in booths 100, 102, 201, 203 and the GO line will be in Booths M and O.

Check out the Max Yield Indoor Gardening Expo website for more information on this awesome event! We’ll see you there!

My good friend Mark sent me this excellent video of his sister-in-law Gail brewing up a nice batch of compost tea. Instead of keeping a giant pile of rotting compost, she uses our Ancient Forest and Floralicious Plus and a few other select ingredients. Her instructions are simple, and her results are amazing- tomato plants to die for.

Related Content:
Actively Aerated Compost Tea Q&A
What does it do? Floralicious Plus

VGANIC is the latest addition to General Hydroponics’ portfolio of trademarks. It’s our unique way of letting every consumer know which of our products are made without any animal ingredients.

We are proud to provide fertilizer to growers with the highest of standards, and that means producing plant-based plant food. All but one product in the General Organics line is VGANIC, and so is our popular supplement, FloraBlend. Everything else in our diverse product line where you see VGANIC carries our pledge that it is free from animal products.

The tiny honeybee can often be overlooked as an essential part of gardening. This was highlighted to me recently when my friend was discussing the giant avocado tree that has grown in her neighbor’s yard for decades. It never produced even one avocado until another neighbor on their block started keeping bees. The humble bees were able to finally properly pollinate the flowers and now the 4 story tree is finally covered in avocados. I’d love to know if you incorporate beekeeping into your garden, let us know in the comments!

Related Content:
Bees in the GH Greenhouse
Clue to the Vanishing Honeybee

I’ve got a Japanese Maple outside my bedroom window. This time of year the leaves are usually changing from lush, bright green to dark, fall reds. But I noticed yesterday that the leaves were more brown and yellow than red, and in fact, my beautiful tree is infested with some seriously nasty bugs. Click the photo to see them closeup. So gross. Ugh.

The good news is that not all of my maples are infested. So, to stop them before they spread, today I applied Azamax, the General Hydroponics OMRI listed insecticide. It’s organic and way easy to use. It’s also totally safe for the many beneficial creatures in my woodland forest garden. Before GH released Azamax, I used to create a hippie concoction of garlic, cayenne and neem oil- it was a total pain in the ass and honestly, some bugs didn’t like it, but it never really worked. Azamax absolutely works, and it works in three unique ways. It repels them from the leaves, it prevents them from eating, and it disrupts the molting hormones in juvenile insects.

The rates of application are listed in the information booklet that comes with Azamax, including very specific information on each crop and each pest. Because a little goes a long way, I mixed up the low-end, mid-range rate: 1 fluid oz. per gallon. I did some simple calculations and poured 1 tablespoon into my 32 oz. bottle. It’s enough Azamax to cover 1000 square feet.

When the amber colored Azamax concentrate meets water, it becomes a milky white emulsion. After you mix it, keep it well mixed by shaking up the bottle as you work. And be sure to use your prepared mixture within 24 hours. Spray it on both sides of the leaf, and try to cover the plant as completely as possible. It’s recommended that you spray every 7 to 10 days, but because my situation is particularly dire, I’m going to spray every 5 days until I see an improvement.

Related Content:
Azamax, What Does It Do?
Azamax in the Detroit News

I’ve been pretty obsessed with watching the San Francisco Giants this year. Lincecum is a total freak, and watching Wilson pitch is beyond suspenseful. The word torture describes things perfectly. Since I don’t have a television, and it’s impossible to watch the games for free online, I’ve be checking out the games at all my local bars, and I’ve logged a ton of hours at Stumptown Brewery. I was totally stoked to find someone threw up a General Organics sticker right in the dead center of the building.

Bonus- Loving this video from Ashkon- GO GIANTS!

Red Myst writes:

I am growing in a home-mixed organic soil that’s based on 50/50 mix of cocotek/sunshine peat moss. Added to this base was earthworm castings, Ancient Forest, perlite, pumice, Fox Farms Ocean Forest, Organicare Indoor Aeration Mix, Royal Gold Basement Mix, and a blend of dry organic fertilizers including a 4-3-6 ‘Tomato Tone’ fertilizer, Peruvian seabird guano, Jamaican and Indonesian Bat Guanos, Kelp Meal, Dolomitic Lime, Green Sand, and MgO. It is a rich soil that will usually get me into early flowering without need for extra feeding, but I still like to add Bio Root and Superthrive(drop a gallon) to at least every other watering and administer foliars using Nitrozyme marine algae product every 7-10 days.

I am now 1/3 to 1/2 way into fruit production I am alternating watering with a G.O. BT Bloom, CaMg+, Bio Bud combination and a Jamaican or Indonesian bat guano tea. I alternate between these two cocktails. I just recently decided to brew up the humus tea, figuring it could only help break down and make available whatever still remains in the soil, and I really wanted to introduce Floralicious Plus to see what kind of a difference it makes in flavor.

This brings up a question I’ve been contemplating. The Ancient Forest humus tea instructions say to brew at least two or three days. If I want to go longer, can I(or should I) add a little black strap molasses to the brew to ‘feed’ the microbes, or will they be okay without it. If so, how often and how much? Also, how long can the tea be brewed (and maybe topped off with fresh H2O, humus and/or Floralicious Plus) before you would recommend starting a fresh batch? Okay, so maybe I have a few questions;-)

Lastly, I just took some of the 2-day humus tea brew today (1 gallon) and added it to 2 gallons of straight R.O. water. I then added BT Bloom, CaMg+ and Bio Bud at moderate label rates. The pH of this mix was pretty low (around 4+/-), so I raised it back to 6-6.2 using Potassium hydroxide. So, the question is: Did I kill off or injure my microbial population with this move?

Okay, that’s it for now. Thanks for your magnificent support!

And the answer from our own Randall:

Wow, that soil mix your’re putting together is RIDIC! Now that is some diversity. As you state, this is a RICH mix which does not require much ‘feeding’, although adding BioRoot early on is a great idea, and you can add a little more than 1 drop per Gallon. Try 1-3 tsp per Gallon. I would even suggest a VERY LIGHT application of BioThrive Grow during your short vegetative stage.

The Kelp foliar spray you apply every 7-10 days is also great. I love Kelp (BioWeed) as a foliar spray @ ½ tsp per 1 Liter of good water. I would ONLY do this during vegetative growth and I stop foliar feeding during flowering. AACT as a foliar spray during vegetative growth is a great plan.

You are halfway into your flowering stage, using the GO line along with 2 kinds of Guano AACTs, and you are now brewing up AACT with the Ancient Forest. You are correct that the AACT will help breakdown and make available nutrients and supplements to the plant, along with increasing the plants root growth and biological diversity in the soil mix, helping to increase the overall potential and vitality of the plant.

When you are growing a plant in soil, it is almost like the plant itself is secondary to the soil and the biology in the soil. Provide a nice, diverse range of microbes in the soil, add, enliven, and feed the microbes with AACT, and thus: FEED THE SOIL. Feed the soil, feed the microbes in the soil, and they in turn feed the plant. The symbiotic relationship of soil microbiology to plants roots is paramount! Plants roots give off sugars, called ‘exudates’, which soil microbes eat. The soil microbes eat the plant exudates, and the waste product provided by the soil microbes is the food and fuel for the plant. There is an element of communication at the root zone were plants give off specific exudates for specific microbes. You are enhancing and encouraging this with high quality organic soil mix, Ancient Forest, and AACT.

The microbes cultured in the Jamaican and Peruvian Guanos will be different from the microbes in the Ancient Forest. AF will potentially have more biological diversity in a AACT brew, however, each base food source for AACT, whether guano, manure, castings, or humus, will provide specific benefits for soil and plant growth. Basically, it’s hard to say one is ‘better’ than another due to the infinite amount of variance in specific gardens and plants. Generally, the more biological diversity, the better. AF contains a wide variety of different kinds of beneficial bacteria and fungi.

A big factor is the food (energy) source you use to ‘feed’ the microbes of the AACT. You add dormant microbes (from the AF, Guano, compost, etc.) to good water and add O2 with an air pump, which ‘wakes up’ the microbes from dormancy. What you provide as a food source for the awoken microbes will determine the diversity of microbes that will be cultured in the AACT, along with the amount of TIME you brew your AACT.

Floralicious Plus may be the best food source for AACT. It is comprised of extremely high quality complex sugars, vitamins, polysaccharides, fructans, humic/fulvic acids, plant/marine extracts (and much more) to feed and sustain beneficial microorganisms. Another suggestion for the food source for your AACT is FloraNectar, our sugar and carbohydrate supplement. FloraNectar contains high quality cane sugar, molasses, malt syrup, vitamins, minerals, and more. Both of these GH products will make an EXCELLENT food (energy) source for the microbes of AF or any other AACT base. (1-3) oz of either FP or FN per (5) Gallons of good water as an AACT food source.

OK, answers to your questions. #1, you ask about the amount of TIME necessary to brew AACT. Basically, you need to brew your AACT at least 6 hours, and you can brew AACT for up to three days. I would not suggest going longer than 3 days. Keep in mind that the longer you brew your AACT, the less microbial diversity your brew achieves. The brew evolves toward a monoculture with more TIME. This is because with time, different microbes will eat and replicate and outcompete different microbes, so over time, certain microbes can dominate the brew, making it a monoculture. This can be a bad thing. Not to fear, just don’t brew longer than 2 or 3 days at the most. Personally, I prefer to brew my AACT for 12-24 hours, no longer than 1.5 days. If you wanted to go longer, you can certainly add molasses and other food sources to the brew, but I would not go longer than 2 or 3 days. If you add molasses, 1-3 oz per 5 Gallons of water is good, just make sure the molasses is organic. When you are adding food sources to the AACT, be conservative with feeding.

#2, I would brew a batch of AACT for 12-36 hours and then start a new batch. Remember that the TEMPERATURE of your water plays a HUGE roll in so many aspects of AACT brewing and root zone ecology. Keep the water consistent at the 65-72 degree F range.

#3, Yes, you killed/injured/lessened the efficiency of your AACT by adding Potassium Hydroxide to your Tea. OK, so keep in mind that we are dealing with soil and root zone ecology here. We are dealing with millions of microbes and a ton of LIFE all up in your soil. Allow the life in your soil to balance itself out! In Hydroponics, the pH of your water is a fundamental factor as it allows access of nutrients to your plants in a water based growing environment, void of beneficial microbes. Without a balanced pH in hydroponics, plants will not be able to uptake nutrients as efficiently. pH in soil gardening is NOT as fundamental to successful gardening as pH is in hydroponic gardening. Soil microbiology has a lot to do with this. This is not to say pH is not vital and extremely important in soil, I am suggesting that it is not as fundamental to soil agriculture as it is in hydroponic agriculture. I am suggesting to not add pH up and pH down to AACT. The soil and the microbes can act as a pH buffer. Fluctuation in pH level may even be beneficial as it allows different nutrients more availability at different pH levels. Not to say you should allow your pH to get to 4 or 8 without concern, or that you should not monitor your pH. The point is that you should monitor your pH but NOT react like you would in a hydroponic scenario.

In soil, I find that pH range can be as great as into your mid to high 4’s upwards to your high 7’s. I have grown healthy and vibrant plants in soil with pH levels of my water source, that in hydroponics, would not fly. This is the beauty of the microbes in your soil. Let the microbes in your soil and your AACT balance your pH, rather than adding chemicals to artificially raise or lower your pH. That said, I also have clients who will have a very low pH in their feed water in soil and they will add a small amount of pH UP with success, so it is not like you eliminated your usage opportunity by adding pH UP, I just would not recommend it. I would follow the plant in this situation (and most situations). Plants never lie, they will tell you when they are happy, and they will tell you when they are sad. React to plants more than act. If you are in mid flower, using the same RO water and AACT, etc, and your garden is thriving, I would roll with the AACT with a low pH, rather than adding pH UP.

Good luck with your garden, Red Myst! Keep us updated on your progress!

Randall’s Recipe for Actively Aerated Compost Tea

Hydrogen peroxide is my favorite tool for sterilizing my ebb and flow trays. I’ve also heard that it can be used to add oxygen to over watered roots. But I didn’t know that I was using the wrong kind of peroxide! This article from Jason’s Indoor Guide to Organic and Hydroponics Gardening is filled with information on H2O2 and it’s applications in hydroponics.

Sebastopol Hardware is currently selling predatory nemotodes AND fishing licenses.