Hydroponics Garden Blog

One of the benefits of growing indoors is having the ability to control the amount of lighting that your plants receive using hydroponic grow lights. Unfortunately, the lighting and it’s schedule is often one of the things that most newbie hydroponic growers don’t pay much attention to.

Here are a couple of tips that will hopefully get you on the right track.

Create Seasons With Your Lighting

After you plant your seedlings, you should give them the same amount of lighting that they would normally get naturally from the sun at the beginning of the grow season. Since the days are much shorter during the beginning of the grow season, you should keep your hydroponic grow lights turned on for about 12 hours per day. This will allow your plants to receive 12 hours of darkness too.

How Long Should The Lights Stay On The Plants During The Peak Season?

Think about it like this: During the peak outdoor grow season, there are about 15-16 hours of natural daylight. If you want your plants to grow at their peak ability, you should mimic these lighting conditions. Give your plants 15-16 hours of daylight and 7-8 hours of darkness.

How To Automatically Turn The Lights Off And On

You can buy a timer to schedule your lights so that they automatically turn off and on. This makes using the right amount of light as simple setting a timer! No more excuses!

How Far Should The Lights Be Away From The Plants

One of the biggest mistakes a lot of people make is not keeping the right distance between the light and the plant. If it’s too close, you will burn the plant. If it’s too far, it won’t be getting the full spectrum of light.

A good way to test weather or not the plant is too close is to put your hand directly above the top of the plant. If it’s too hot for your hand to site under all day, how do you think your plant will feel?

If it’s too far away, you should be able to tell just by looking. If the whole pot is not being hit with the light, it needs to be moved closer to the plant. You could also buy a light fixture that has a reflector that will spread the light out more evenly.

What Kind Of Hydroponic Grow Lights Produce The Most Beautiful Plants?

This is strictly my opinion, but I feel that HPS (High Pressure Sodium) lights are by far the best grow lights available. They may more expensive, but if you are serious about starting your own productive hydroponic garden, this is an investment worth making.

I hope you have taken something out of this post today. Hydroponic grow lights play a huge role in the success of your plants. Learning how to give them right amount of light at the right amount of times will prove crucial to growing beautiful plants worth bragging about and showing off!

If you worked hard for a degree in Mechanical Engineering, would you waste that degree on starting a hydroponic lettuce growing business? If you answered no, after reading this post, you may reconsider your answer!

Josh Scott, A Student at the University of Arizona hopes to engineer a career by growing lettuce hydroponically, and plans to make a large chunk of change by doing so. He has done the research and found that 35 pounds of lettuce are consumed by the average American each year. By growing lettuce hydroponically, using only one acre of land, he will be able to produce 2.5 million heads of lettuce per year. Each head of lettuce can sell for $2-$3 a piece! I’m no mathematician, but that comes out to about $5 Million smack-a-roo’s!

Do you still think you wouldnt be interested growing lettuce for a living?

Read more about how Josh Scott plans to pull this off in an article published by the Arizona Daily Star. It is a very interesting read!

image by ideonexus

Do you dream of having your own hydroponics home garden, where you can grow the most beautiful plants around, but have problems affording one of those high tech hydroponic systems? If you have done any research on the Internet, you probably noticed that a complete system can be quite expensive! The truth is, those expensive hydroponic systems are for the professional. You are most likely not a professional yet, so why do you need a professional system?

Hydroponics is a learning process. When your parents got you your first car, did they get you the expensive sports car to learn in? Or, did they get you a car that was so crappy, you would rather not mention that you even drove it? I’m willing to bet that most of us got the crappy car to learn in! The same theory applies to a hydroponics home garden! You should get a cheap system, which in no way means a crappy system – just to clear that up – so you can practice before you go out and spend the bucks on the Ferrari of hydroponics systems!

Below, I will point you in the direction of some pretty cheap hydroponic systems, as well as tell you how you can create your own hydroponics system. Obviously, creating your own would be the cheapest way to go, but you will have to trade your time for the cash that you would spend if you bought an already assembled system. I personally recommend buying an already assembled system because you will know for sure that it works, but its 100% your choice!

Already Assembled Systems

• Black Bucket Drip Hydroponics System – $39.99+ shipping
  

  

  This was the very first type of hydroponic systems that I purchased. The one I bought was a little bit more expensive because it included nutrients (I will direct you to cheap nutrients later in this post).

  The Black Bucket Drip System is a very effective way to grow really nice sized plants. It uses drip irrigation to provide the plants with the nutrient/water mix. It doesn’t require an outrageous amount of electricity, because the only thing you will need to plug in is the water pump (included with the system).

  This system includes everything that you need to get started except for a grow light and nutrients. It includes the drip ring with the pumping column, the air pump, the air tubing, and a growing medium (hydroton).

  Learn More Here

• Hydrofarm Emily’s Garden System – $104.50 + shipping
  

  This system is a little more expensive than the drip bucket system, but you will be able to grow more plants at once. It uses a pump irrigation system, and includes everything you need to get started, including a PH test kit and a water level indicator. Again, this is perfect for the beginner who doesn’t want to spend tons of cash on an expensive hydroponics system

  Learn More Here

Hydroponic Nutrients

As I mentioned in the post titled: Great Hydroponic Nutrients = Great Hydroponic Plants, the nutrients you use will play a major role in the health of your plants. It is your plants food! In organic gardens, the nutrients are absorbed by the roots from the soil, but in hydroponics, it is absorbed directly by the roots.

Here is my suggestion: Buy a hydroponics nutrient starter kit! There will be no guessing as to what you need to buy, and since the different elements of the kit are designed to work together, you will have greater success. Once you begin to understand nutrients, you can buy the stuff separately, but it would be smart to start out with a kit!

• BC Recipe For Success Starter Kit – $29.99 + shipping

  Without a doubt, this is a very VERY good kit. It includes every single nutrient that your plant will ever need. They call it the Recipe For Success because it will truly bring you a successful hydroponics home garden experience!

  If you have no idea how to use hydroponics nutrient solutions, do not worry! This kit comes with directions as well as a mixing chart, so you can not fail! Just follow the directions, and before you know it, you will have beautiful plants to show off to all of your friends and family!

  Learn More Here

Grow Lights

Grow lights are a very necessary piece of your hydroponics home garden. Since you will be most likely growing your plants inside, you will need to simulate sunlight to give to your plants. The main problem with this is that most grow lights are A) Expensive to buy – and – B) Not very environmental. Your electricity bill will definitely take a hit if you aren’t smart about it. I have a great solution for you though!

• The Environmental 12 Volt DC LED Grow Light Panel – $40.00 + Shipping

  Running off of a 12 Volt DC power source, you will not notice a big change in your electricity bill at all, and using LED lights requires less energy, therefore, putting less of a hurt on the environment. When you hang it over your plants, you wont have to worry about burning any of the leaves, and the light will be evenly spread out over all of your plants!

  Learn More Here

Build Your Own Hydroponics System

If you would rather build your own hydroponics system, I have assembled a few resources for you to check out!

• Build An Expandable Hydroponics System From Junk

Videos

Build a Hydroponics System Cheaply & Easily

Building A Simple Hydroponic System

How to build a hydroponic 5gal Bucket /w aeroponic fogger

That’s it for now!

I really hope that you got some value out of this post. If you enjoyed it, be sure to subscribe to the rss feed so you can stay on top of the blog updates.

As always, feel free to leave a comment, ask me a question, or email me any time! I love feedback! It motivates me to keep delivering quality.

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• The Important Role of Nutrients in Hydroponic Gardening

It’s winter time in the United States, Christmas is around the corner, and our economy is in the worst condition it has been in since the Great Depression. With winter comes slightly higher priced vegetables, and today, every penny counts!

If you would like to save money, and still eat high quality vegetables, maybe you should think about growing your own in an indoor hydroponics garden! It’s fun for the whole family, and you will grow some of the best vegetables that you have ever eaten for a fraction of the price!

Here is a great article with information about growing hydroponic vegetables. If this article doesn’t help you get started, feel free to contact me, and I will work on a step-by-step blog post describing how to gets started.

• Why not grow your own hydroponic vegetables? – Have you ever thought of growing your vegetables hydroponically? If you live in a cold climate this might just be the best way to have fresh vegetables for your family year round.

Do you have a hydroponics garden? If so, you’ve probably shopped at a hydroponics supply store a couple times. I know that I visit my local hydroponics store regularly, and I usually use my credit card to buy things like nutrients and rockwool. However, from now on, I will only use cash, so I can avoid dealing with the FBI!

Professor Fujimoto, of California State Polytechnic University, has his students working on a project that will hopefully one day bring hydroponic gardening to the average inner city home, where most of the fruits and vegetables sold are consumed. One of his research assistance recently went to a hydroponics store to purchase nutrients for the project. He used his credit card to pay for the supplies, and was later contacted by the FBI!

This is wrong in so many ways in my opinion. First of all, why does the FBI have access to our credit card information every time we purchase something? Second of all, since when was growing hydroponically against the law? Sure, there is a huge group of people who use hydroponics to grow illegal crops(you know what I’m talking about), but is it fare to profile every single person who maintains a hydroponics farm as one who takes part in illegal activities?

Feel free to leave a comment about this post. I would love to hear what you think about this issue! Also, you can read a full article that was published by the Associated Press about Professor Fujimoto’s University project here.

Through my years of maintaining multiple hydroponic gardens, I’ve seen many benefits of growing hydroponically, but I never would have thought that a hydroponics garden could be used to insulate a house or building!

Alyssa Danigelis, from Sustainable, a Discovery Channel blog focused on a clean and green world, published an article called “Hydroponics Comes Out of the Closet” that talks about how architects are working on plans to build the entire external wall of a building out of a massive hydroponics system.

Here is what she says about using the wall of hydroponics as insulation for a building:

“Not only does the system look nifty, but the plants would act as a unique insulation barrier, absorbing light and heat to keep the building cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Linsley says international engineering firm Arup was able to show that the system would indeed improve a building’s energy efficiency. Currently the team is constructing a small stand-alone prototype that I hope catches a developer’s eye. Eating strawberries grown on-premises at the end of a long work day? Sign me up!”

Read The Full Article

It’s amazing how human beings have the ability to come up with such wild ideas! Why can’t I be this creative? Oh well… I will just stick to what I’m good at… Growing plants!

Are you tired of searching the Internet endlessly to find the best information on growing hydroponics? The Internet is a gigantic world filled with billions of web pages throwing both useful and useless information at you!

That’s where this feature of our blog comes in! We will scurry the world wide web for you, and bring you only high quality hydroponics information!

Without further delay, lets get this party started!

• Why not grow your own hydroponic vegetables? – Have you ever thought of growing your vegetables hydroponically? If you live in a cold climate this might just be the best way to have fresh vegetables for your family year round. Basic Hydroponic Garden. Image by J Wynia via Flickr …

• Popular Backyard Activities for the Whole Family | Gardening Ideas … – … Houseplants Guide · How To Become a Writer · How To Hoe · How To Start an Herb Garden · Hydropinc Gardening · Hydroponic Garden · Hydroponic Gardening · Hydroponic Growing Systems · Hydroponic Kits · Hydroponics Gardening …

• Hydroponics – Preparing Your Hydroponic Garden – Hydroponic Gardening – Once you have your plants and the materials to support and care for them, hydroponic gardening is just a little bit of research away. Related Articles. What Is Hydroponic Gardening? Soil-less Plant Culture in a Hydroponic Garden …

• My Garden House n Style Blog Archive Hydroponics Gardening – Hydroponics gardening involves growing plants with their roots in other nutrient solutions and without soil. Hydroponics gardening is as simple as ordinary gardening. Both of them necessitate sufficient light, water, temperature, light, and humidity.

I’ve seen this way too many times… People go out and purchase the best hydroponic systems along with the best grow lights, but buy whatever nutrients they can find. Think about it: Could you live long, prosperous life if your body didn’t get the proper nutrients? Even if you live in the most expensive home, or drive the fastest car, your life would still suck because your body lacks the nutrients it needs!

Nutrients act as food for our plants. In organic gardens, the nutrients are absorbed from the soil, however, since hydroponics gardens don’t have soil, the nutrients are given straight to the plant. This is the main reason why hydroponically grown plants are so much better than organically grown plants!

The most common types of hydroponic nutrient mixtures are nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous. Usually, you can buy a kit that contains all three of the before mentioned. You also have the choice of feeding your plants nutrients that contain hormones and vitamins.

My favorite brand of nutrients is made by Earth Juice. It is approved by the Organic Materials Review Institute, which makes me feel even more comfortable with using their product on my plants. They make nutrients for the different phases of growth, including: Earth Juice Grow and Earth Juice Bloom. This nutrient may not be the one for you, so make sure you ask questions before buying it. Think of it as food for your children. You should want to know everything that you can possibly know about the stuff you feed your kids, right?

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment. You can also use the contact us link to send a question via email.

Do you want a more in depth look at hydroponic nutrients? Check out this great blog from the Gardeners Handbook

• The Important Role of Nutrients in Hydroponic Gardening … – Hydroponics literally means the process of growing plants in water using no soil. The idea behind this is for various media, which carry all of the nutrients in.

While a hydroponics garden is a way to grow plants without soil, there is still a need to support the roots- especially in the beginning phases of growth. In comes rockwool to save the day!

Rockwool is my preferred hydroponics garden growing medium, and this preference is widely shared amongst most hydroponic growers. The fact that rockwool is composed of 97% air greatly encourages strong root growth, making for bigger, more beautiful plants. Do you grow plants in hopes that they ARE NOT the best possible plants that you can grow? Probably not! We all want the best plants, so we should all use the best growing medium!

Rockwool comes in many shapes and sizes depending on the stages of growth. First, there are the starter cubes. Starter cubes are used to start the seedlings of whatever you are growing. Once you see some sprouting, you can easily transplant them into either grow blocks or growing slabs, depending on how large your plants will grow.

Now, I know I will probably get a few arguments from people that rockwool is not the best growing medium, and that is perfectly fine! Do what works for you! If you disagree with me, feel free to speak your mind! Comments and Emails are always welcomed!