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The Prepara Powerplant Mini; Week 5

Hope everyone had a good holiday break, and decided what New Years resolution to break this year. After a four day trip to my mother’s and a blizzard that buried our car in 4 feet of snow, and I’m back to let you know how the plants are doing.

The basil is starting to look like basil now, the leaves have started to get that ruffled shape around the edges, instead of just the perfectly round leaves they were last week.
One of the pepper plants have begun to sprout a few new leaves and is well on its way, while the other 3 seem to be doing just fine.
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The Prepara Powerplant mini; Week4

So the biggest plant died the other day, but I’m not too worried. Two or three of the basil have died as well but new basil and new peppers have sprung up in their place. They probably aren’t getting enough light in the windowsill, with these cold Canadian winter days not offering more than a couple hours of decent sunlight.

If I had started this in June then I feel the plants would be doing much, much better but I like hot peppers year-round and couldn’t be bothered to keep the Powerplant sitting around doing nothing for months.

I removed the humidity domes the other day, some plants looked like they were kept too soggy and two started to turn black. Now that I have taken them off the peppers are starting to get going pretty well. I would like to see what this little beast could do when I set it up with a proper grow light. It would be really cool if I could find an LED strip just the right size to cover the system with red and blue light.

Well I will be back mid-week with an update while I have some cider.

Happy Holidays All!
Matt

Prepara Powerplant Mini; Week 3

New week, New Powerplant Update.

UPDATE: The tallest plant seems to have died It was stuck to the top of one of the humidity domes

So I was kind of disappointed last week when I saw that only one of the two types of peppers had sprouted, but luckily that’s changed. 3 of the other peppers have sprouted and look like they’re coming along nicely, two have pushed out a pair of leaves, while the third hasn’t stood upright just yet.

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The PowerPlant - Part 2

So it has been about a week since I first planted my seeds in the powerplant and the other day I noticed some seeds had sprouted. Most of the basil has sprouted, and one plant that I’m not sure if it’s basil, chili peppers, or green peppers, but it’s taller than the others and has already popped out two leaves. I’m hoping it’s chili peppers.

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Powerplant Mini: First impressions

Recently I wrote about a new countertop hydroponics system called the “Powerplant Mini” from Prepara. They were nice enough to send an evaluation unit so I could let you all know how it all works.

After getting home from FedEx, I tore into the package and opened up the box. Here is what waited for me inside;

• The Powerplant Mini
• AC adapter
• 2 x Nutrient Vials
• 2x grow sponges
• 3x Humidity Domes
• Seed Cover
• sweet basil seeds

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Watchout AeroGarden, theres a new countertop garden out.

UPDATE: Prepara has agreed to send us an evaluation unit, so We’ll be sure to keep you up to date on how our configuration and how well it works for us
I’ve had a personal fascination with the Aerogarden for quite some time now, but its price, and lack of options had me hesitant about buying one. The computer in it that controls nutrient distribution seems to me a bit too easy. I like to play with settings and see what the effects are (with all my toys).

Couple that with the “seed pods” they sell which are nice, but couldn’t they sell blanks and let me put in my own seeds? the lighting always bothered me too. A high output CFL will get the job done, but I would prefer something more robust and energy efficient such as an LED light. To me the aerogarden just seemed too limited and expensive.

Then today I came across the “Power Plant mini” Read more

Snoopy & Charlie Brown Find the Great Pumpkin for a Hydroponics Halloween

Giant Vegetable grower James Dodson teams with Advanced Nutrients to grow world record giant pumpkin and win 1st Prize in Vermont Fair.

As Snoopy and Charlie Brown and the other Peanuts kids scan the skies for the arrival of the Great Pumpkin, the real Great Pumpkin is growing in Vermont just in time for Halloween.

According to hydroponics industry leaders Evegeniy Stefanov Yordanov, Michael Straumietis, and Robert Charles Higgins, great big pumpkins and other humongous, tasty vegetables, fruits and flowers are being grown with hydroponics fertilizers and techniques.

Straumietis, Higgins and Yordanov are known as worldwide #1 authorities on hydroponics and bigger yields. They are the founders of the Seattle-based hydroponics nutrients company Advanced Nutrients, which manufactures and distributes highly-respected professional hydroponics products internationally.
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Pumpkin Patches and Hay Rides Kick off the Airlie Harvest Festival.

Aaron Kennel negotiated a bale squeezer around his Airlie Hills Family Farm like an artist, which in a way he is.

It was nearly Harvest Festival time at the farm, and Kennel was finishing a three-day effort of sculpting a hay pyramid, a hay maze and a hay fort using about 100 of the 1,000-pound bales he stores on the property behind a big old red barn.

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Urban Garden Magazine. Written by growers, read by growers.

British hydroponics enthusiast, Dan Fox, had long enjoyed sharing his passion for indoor gardening through his blog and Internet forums. But last year he decided that to take things a step further and launch a new magazine dedicated to a new emerging generation of gardening enthusiasts in Britain. His vision was simple: to produce a magazine written by growers, for growers.

It wasn’t difficult to find some like-minded fellows within the hydroponics industry and together with an ace design team they launched the UK edition of “Urban Garden Magazine” back in April 2007. The publication was an instant success. All 30,000 copies were snapped up at hydroponics retailers across the United Kingdom and his email inbox was jammed full of messages of support and congratulations. Dan and his colleagues quickly realised they’d tapped into something really, really big!

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Bently Mills Hydroponics business’ are growing

Bently Mills would not be where he is today were it not for the help and support of his parents and wife, Kelly. “I would have failed a long time ago without each one of their support,” he said.

Bently runs several hydroponics operations. “At BJ’s, we produce food safely without the use of harmful pesticides and herbicides; we conserve water and have a very low impact on the environment,” he said. “We can produce on 1 acre what would take a conventional farm 20 acres.”

Mills started out growing tomatoes after his father’s teaching as a professor at University of Georgia sparked his interest. He currently has switched one shop, BJ’s produce to growing lettuce, basil and cilantro. The other, Flora Hydroponics is currently assisting UGA researchers in studying how algae can produce fuel.

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