The EcoGrower® is one of our larger systems, capable of growing gorgeous crops like bell peppers and tomatoes. It stands at a stout 2ft X 2ft, with a 17 gallon reservoir, making it only slightly smaller than the MegaFarm®. However, the difference between the two is that the MegaFarm is one big unit, while the EcoGrower contains six smaller units. The unique quality to the EcoGrower® is its air-driven “spider” drip system with a revolutionary hexagonal reservoir. Air goes down the pumping column and forces water back up and out of the six drip lines on the “spider hub”. This set up increases nutrient circulation and air flow, making it possible to grow multiple crops in the same unit. You can grow different crops in the same system, just as long as they have similar nutrient requirements.

Each lid insert will accommodate one 6” net pot so that one EcoGrower can easily grow several plants together. The compact design (2′x2′x2′ hexagonal) can grow small and medium size plants from seedling to maturity.  One unit will give you, as you can see in the photo below, enough tomatoes to satisfy a large, Italian family.

The EcoGrower®, like most of our systems, is a great unit that works really well. It’s ease of use makes it accessible to all types of hydroponic gardeners! 

One company in Atlanta, Georgia is taking the concept of locally grown hydroponic vegetables and running with it a really cool way. PodPonics is a new ag business that restores old shipping containers and turns them into hydroponic “grow pods”. These self-contained growing units are equipped with computer-controlled systems to regulate temperature, humidity, pH levels, CO2 and lights. The system is so precise that it wastes very little energy. In a 320 square foot area, PodPonics can produce an acre’s worth of produce. The pods can be stacked on top of each other for more efficient use of space. It’s a great way to reuse old materials and turn them into something incredibly useful. By putting these portable units to work, people could, theoretically, use them to grow food everywhere in the world.

Hydroponic systems can be set up virtually anywhere with access to electricity, creating instant local hydro farms for any community. General Hydroponics’ precise nutrient solutions and high-yield systems are perfect for these climate-controlled pods. The AeroFlo2® series would be a great fit for portable systems that are growing for high output. It’s a turbo system that cranks out amazing plants at high rates, perfect for starting a small business. If you add in the Rainforest® series, you’ve got your means of propagation right there as well. With Gen Hydro’s high-yield systems and a portable, inclusive container like this, we could grow food anywhere to sustain any community! The possibilities are exciting!

What other types of containers would work to house a hydroponic growing operation like this? Have any of you seen similar systems anywhere else? Leave a comment and let us know!

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!

We eat all sorts of plant parts so not every vegetable needs pollinating. Leaf and root crops (lettuce, kale, beets, etc) do not need to be pollinated because we eat them before they get to the flower stage of their life cycle. However, there are plants that we eat (like tomatoes, lemons and almonds) that need to be pollinated in order to produce the fruit or seed that we want to eat.

Quick botany lesson:

Male squash flower

Bees (and other pollinators) travel from flower to flower, drinking nectar and spreading pollen. Pollen is the male component of a flower (flower sperm, if you will). When it’s transferred to another flower, it goes into the pistil (female flower part) and fertilizes to make fruit. This process can’t be done without the aid of a pollinator. There are some plants, however, that have both male and female parts and can self-pollinate but you can still give them a little help.

Since there (presumably) aren’t swarms of bees flying around your hydroponic system, you might want to lend a hand to a few of your edible crops. It’s pretty simple. Here’s how to do it:

• Leaf and root crops (like spinach, carrots, onions and garlic): don’t worry about it! They don’t need to be pollinated. Just crunch them and enjoy.

• Self-pollinators (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, beans and peas): They can generally take care of things themselves but you can help: jog the pollen loose by gently (very gently) shaking the plants, tapping the flowers or try this method:

• Cross-pollinators (squash, cucumbers, melons and most fruit): These plants need to trade pollen in order to produce fruit. The squash, cukes and melons have separate male and female flowers. The male flower will have pollen-laden stamens and the female flower will usually have what looks like a tiny fruit bulging at the base. These guys need the most help and must be pollinated to produce fruit. The how-to:

1. Wait until both male and female flowers are in full bloom, petals open.

2. Get a watercolor paintbrush or a Q-tip. Brush it against the male flower (you should see yellow or orange pollen on the brush or Q-tip).

3. Brush it against the pistil on the female flower (the pistil is tall and gooey and right in the middle. You can’t miss it.)

Female squash flower

That’s it! You’ve done it! You should see fruit begin to form in the next few days. Keep repeating the process with subsequent flowers and you should have lots of fruit in no time.

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

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.

To learn more, or get involved, visit the Windowfarm website. The project takes full advantage of social networking as well, with a Flickr page, a kickstarter page for funding, and twitter.

Photos by Nicholas R. Clark

I recently had the opportunity to talk about food with a food and lifestyle editor here in Honolulu, and when I asked about local agriculture as it relates to fine dining, I was very surprised with what I learned. Hawaii has to import 80% of its food, and reportedly only has enough food to last a few days if shipping were halted. With all this sunshine and rain, I couldn’t believe that local farms were not a bigger part of the food supply. Everywhere else in the United States, local and sustainable agriculture is a growing trend and is supplying more and more of what we eat. I was curious about what was so different here, so I had to learn more.

Apparently since Hawaii is a desirable location, land is quite expensive here. In addition to having a very finite landmass surrounded by ocean, much of the land is steep, arid or volcanic, making this extremely expensive land mostly unsuitable for farming. It’s not economically sustainable to grow basic food crops on land which approaches $100,000 per acre. This got me thinking about hydroponics, and the vertical farm model. With the exceptional climate here, and the high cost of imported food, it seems that this could be one of those places where all the factors would combine to make this new strategy actually economical.

Most of the local farms in Hawaii are supplying the fanciest of restaurants, so local agriculture is still considered something of a luxury concern. However, there are many small farms and institutes which are attempting to change the paradigm by achieving a model for sustainable local food production. Check out this sweet blog from Evening Rain Farm on the island of Hawaii to read more about the experience of tropical permaculture. The University of Hawaii also has an extensive agriculture program dedicated to organic and sustainable methods, which points towards a future of sustainability.

These pole beans are so lovely. They look like they are right out of Martha Stewart Magazine!

His TesteCalabasa is a beautiful thriving mound of blossoms!

Pumpkin Row…

And instead of a scarecrow, he has a scare shark, watch out!!!!!

Here is a list of what will be planted here and at the certified organic Vine Hill Farm:

Arugula, Beets, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Carrots, Cauliflower, Celery, Chinese Cabbage, Chinese Peas, Kale, Kohlrabi, Lettuce, Mizuna, Mustard Greens, Parsnips, Radishes, Rutabaga, Snap Peas, Spinach, Sugar Snap Peas, Swiss Chard and Turnips

Gleaning is actually a very old practice, but recently is being looked at in a new light. To glean is to collect leftover crops, or crops that go unharvested for various reasons. Simply put, if you have a neighbor with a pear tree, and you ask to gather the pears that have fallen from the tree that would otherwise go unused, you are gleaning. It’s very natural to want to share, in fact, at GH, the unharvested apples  in the photo below will be collected and donated to the local food bank, and that is a form of gleaning.

This is not just a modern concept. According to the Wikipedia entry on gleaning, “Some ancient cultures promoted gleaning as an early form of a welfare system. For example, ancient Jewish communities required that farmers not reap all the way to the edges of a field so as to leave some for the poor and for strangers.” But it is being looked at in new ways. There are networks being built to help connect people with overproducing pear trees with people who would like to eat some pears, including this Hawaiian site, Goglean.org. Goglean is a site that allows users to see on maps places in their neighborhood where there are crops to be gleaned. 

These are simple methods, but they are effective. Who wouldn’t want to reduce their farm waste and at the same time feed people who need to be fed? Here is a great link with information on how to create your own Feral Fruit Map for your neighborhood. Check it out by clicking here. It doesn’t matter if you are a gleaner, or if you are in a position to let people glean, if you can, get involved and create change!

These types of veggies are known to be prolific yielders. If you have some planted, you know what I mean. I’m going to make a massive batch of soup, some for now, some to freeze. The following steps should lead you towards a delicous dinner…

Slice a large butternut squash in half lengthwise and set it in a baking dish with the flesh facing up. Add 1 inch of water to the pan, and throw it in the oven at 350 degrees. Let it roast in the pan until the top of the flesh begins to brown, about 30-40 mins. Then, at the bottom of a large soup pot, sautee a chopped up yellow onion and 4 or 5 peeled garlic cloves in a 1/2 stick of butter. Add salt and pepper to the onion, and cook it until it is clear. When the squash is ready, let it cool down enough to handle, then scrape the flesh into the soup pot. Add enough chicken or vegtable broth to cover the squash and then mash it all together with a potato masher. Season it with two dried bay leaves, some nutmeg, a dash of cayenne, and a tiny little bit of cinnamon. Simmer it on low until all the flavors have combined and then pull out the bay leaves and enjoy the fruit, I mean squash, of your labors.

He is a great example of an inspired hydro gardener. And totally Do-It-Yourself. He not only posts photos of his sweet herb garden, but he also shares tips and techniques for creating the same results yourself. His seed starter is easy and uses recycled containers. And check out the parsley! Parsley loves being planted in perlite, its so well draining and provides tons of oxygen for the roots. Here are his photos as it grows from seed in a starter to transplanted food:

Such hearty and vigorous results in such a short amount of time. And so simple and so cheap! Love it. I plan to post many more photos as his new glass porch is filled with winter crops. Check out the rest of his photos and make sure to see the Dendrobium Orchid, it’s really doing well. Click to check out Green Horizon’s photo stream, and click to sign up for flickr yourself.

It was a true enormous veggie, and it weighed in at 483 pounds!!! Now, how far did that take him at the event? He placed 18th out of 65. That is fantastic for a first timer!!! We are all thrilled. I love how it looks like it’s big enough to eat the Audi in the photo!

Who won first place? Thad Starr from Oregon brought the biggest. It was a 1,528 pounder. Gianormous! Be sure to check out the rest of the Half Moon Bay contest stats.

So, in celebration of giant veggies, please post photos of your garden prizes. Post your comments here, and see if you can beat Jeff’s huge tomato! The winner will receive a General Hydroponics prize package! Good Luck!

San Francisco is teeming with eco activists, and General Hydroponics has joined with some of the best and brightest in the city. The results: a rooftop hydro-garden setup at one of the most progressive charities in SF.

Glide Church and Community are located in the Tenderloin, and their goal is to offer people services, such as a free health clinic and free meals from their restaraunts. By any standards they are more than successful in that mission. So, a group called Bay Localize joined them to bring sustainable ecological value to their work. Together their mission objectives included creating a rooftop garden that would create integration between farm and city and build an educational tool for urban schoolchildren. 

That’s where we come in. General Hydroponics was drawn to the project because Glide is local with a big window into the San Francisco community, and because Glide is renowned for it’s positive impact. We provided materials, including a PowerGrower 8-Pack, consulting, and expertise. Many other valuable local companies and non-profits were able to contribute as well. Together the efforts produced a fully functional, sustainable and very productive vegetable garden. It is our hopes that children, farmers, and urbanites alike will be inspired for years and years to come.