Fifth Season Gardening Co. operates beautiful garden centers throughout North Carolina and Virginia.  Since 2000, the Fifth Season family has been providing quality indoor and outdoor gardening products.  Each store has its own unique flair – if you are in the area, check them out! We sent them some samples of the General Organics line and FloraDuo, to try out on some crops in the store. They decided to grow green leaf lettuce under 360W LED lights, in Rockwool.

The FloraDuo® gave this lettuce all the essential macro and micro nutrients that it needed, including specific ingredients to help resist pathogens and insects. It is a 2-part formula, FloraDuo A and FloraDuo B, designed for all growing methods: including hydroponics, soil, and coco blends.

Diamond Black™ is derived from 100% pure Leonardite, a naturally occurring form of carbon drawn from prehistoric peat bogs. These organic compounds improve nutrient absorption, stimulate microbial activity, promote soil structure and increase nutrient retention. Together, these two products got this lettuce really going! Check out all the photos to see all the stages of growth!

NOTE: Please use caution when using GO DiamondBlack™ (and any other organic-based nutrient) in irrigated systems.

   Seedlings during the first week of growth, in the Rockwool (LED lights off)

     One week of growth, with the LED Lights on.

    After 2 weeks of growth, they are really taking off!

               4 weeks of growth: Look at that! It’s ready to begin harvesting.

Looks like the GH FloraDuo® and the GO DiamondBlack™ did the job! By providing the foundation of quality nutrition with the Duo and adding the enhancement of the DiamondBlack, that lettuce is packed with vital nutrition. Let us know how those salads taste!

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.

We love to share success stories from our customers and other fans of hydroponic growing. Stephen, at Garden Connections in Columbus Ohio, is having great success with a wide variety of vegetables, using our General Organics line. Stephen tells us that the GO products work really well for his flourishing lettuces and booming tomato plants (both pictured here). Four of the tomato plants pictured are in a Waterfarm 8-pack that they reduced to a 4-pack. They adapted the Waterfarm system, to suit their needs. Garden Connections is also growing coffee (Coffea Arabica) plants- in Ohio!! What other way could you grow fantastic coffee in the Midwest? Only hydroponically! They are also seeing good growth in their avocados, another tropical plant that flourishes under the precise care and feeding of a great hydroponic system. Our General Organics line produces amazing, abundant organic produce, even crops that wouldn’t normally grow in that region!

Garden Connections provides the latest hydroponic systems, supplies, indoor gardening equipment, organic nutrients and growing supplies. If you are in the Columbus area, stop on by Garden Connections to see all those plants thriving and tell Stephen we said hello! If you have a hydroponic success story that you would like to share, visit our Facebook page, hit the “Like” button and leave a comment! Don’t forget to share your photos! We love to see what everyone is growing!

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 know that urban gardening is a massive trend. And that LED grown plants are a massive trend. But, comon! We all know that if you want plants to grow you can’t use GREEN lights!

This street installation is clearly some sort of artistic message about vertical gardens, urban landscape, and some other very esoteric themes. The type of esoteric themes that can be expressed by sticking leaves and LED lights in plastic to-go containers. I have to say, I’d rather see this guy spend his time, say, actually planting real plants? I’d love to know what you think…. Hot or Not?

[via makezine]

Here is some insight on the chemistry of ginger from Wikipedia:

The characteristic odor and flavor of ginger is caused by a mixture of zingerone, shogaols and gingerols, volatile oils that compose one to three percent of the weight of fresh ginger. In laboratory animals, the gingerols increase the motility of the gastrointestinal tract and have analgesic, sedative, antipyretic and antibacterial properties.Ginger oil has been shown to prevent skin cancer in mice and a study at the University of Michigan demonstrated that gingerols can kill ovarian cancer cells.
Ginger contains up to three percent of a fragrant essential oil whose main constituents are sesquiterpenoids, with (-)-zingiberene as the main component. Smaller amounts of other sesquiterpenoids (β-sesquiphellandrene, bisabolene and farnesene) and a small monoterpenoid fraction (β-phelladrene, cineol, and citral) have also been identified.
The pungent taste of ginger is due to nonvolatile phenylpropanoid-derived compounds, particularly gingerols and shogaols, which form from gingerols when ginger is dried or cooked. Zingerone is also produced from gingerols during this process; this compound is less pungent and has a spicy-sweet aroma. Ginger is also a minor chemical irritant, and because of this was used as a horse suppository by pre-World War I mounted regiments for feaguing.
Ginger has a sialagogue action, stimulating the production of saliva, which makes swallowing easier.

Here in Hawaii, the ginger plant is used as common landscaping! I’ve been seeing it everywhere, and as of yet, resisted the urge to dig it up and check out its roots… Wonder how this would grow in Hydro? I’ve had some sprout in the fridge, and then planted it, but overwatering did it in before it ever really thrived. Have you got some in your garden, or ever grown it before? I’d love to hear about it in the comments! (I’m talking to you Ragnar! I know you are far from the tropics, but you seem to have at least grow everything once!!!)

PS. Massive bonus points for anyone who can name the song that the title of this post was taken from…..BTW- Google counts as cheating

P.S.1 is a really cool modern art museum in New York City. Named after the original purpose of its building Public School No. One, the museum is an extention of the MoMa. Their exhibits are edgy and very unique. And their current show Public Farm One is no exception. The exhibit is based on an annual challenge held for emerging young architectural designers. This year the designs focused on the $70,000 landscape installation to be built at the museum. This isn’t your ordinary landscape though, it requires special attention to the needs of the P.S.1 including shade and water and even bar areas. The final design is very very innovative with the plants grown in cardboard tubes. The entire farm is socially interactive as well, with chairs formed from the same tubes that grow the plants, and parts of the farm acting as the roof of the shelter. It sounds soooo cool!

The exhibition is open until October 19th. Plenty of time to check it out in person.

When you pull into the parking lot at the General Hydroponics manufacturing facility in Sebastopol, CA, the first thing you notice are the roses. They are set up in bato buckets as a sort of European growing style,  like the EuroGrower. The roses are planted in Hydroton and fed all sorts of interesting new fertilizers. I think they are amazing, and every year they bloom more and more.

These trays are packed with Zinnias, Marigolds and bedding Sunflowers. Aren’t they awesome?!