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The correct way to prepare your nurtient.

The correct way to prepare your nutrient tank is to firstly add the finest water you can get your hands on ( reverse osmosis filters are the best and cheapest way to get pure water). Then add part A and stir very well (i use a pump to stir for me). Then part B and do the same stir very well. Adjust your EC level of the tank to the desired level. If you use additives then now is the time to add those into the tank. Finally then check and adjust the PH to betwee 5.5 and 6.5. 6 being the optimum level to reach if possible. Also if you add to much Up or Down solution you cannot correct it. You have to dump the tank and start again. Doh !!

Happy Gardening

Choose your system carefully.

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Common Mistakes Growers Make While Foliar Feeding

Michael Straumietis

Advanced Nutrients

Foliar feeding is a fantastic, inexpensive and fairly easy way to give your plants an extra boost of nutrients. Horticulturalists have successfully used it to heal damaged plants and increase yields for decades. But like with any tool, it is entirely possible to misuse it or fail to use it to optimum benefit. To make sure that foliar feeding lives up to its reputation as a boon to your crops, you need to remain educated about proper application. In order to get the most out your foliar spray, make certain not to make the following mistakes.

Thinking Foliar Feeding Can Replace a Poor Nutrient Solution – No matter how good a foliar spray is, it cannot help your plant if you do not optimize your nutrient solution. You should think of your nutrient solution as the main course for the plant and foliar feeding as the dessert. You should work very hard to make sure that your nutrient solution has the proper balance of nutrients, is delivered to your root zone at the proper rate and has the right pH balance and temperature. Only then should you consider using foliar feeding. You should consider a foliar spray as a supplement to your nutrient solution, not a replacement for it.

Keeping Your Grow Room Too Warm – Plants are accustomed to growing in fairly warm environments, but if grow room becomes too warm it will render you foliar spray much less effective. You should remember that a foliar spray should be applied as a fine mist to your leaves, and therefore will evaporate very easily if the temperatures climb too high. You should also remember that increased temperatures increase transpiration in plants, the process by which leaves release moisture into the air. Too great of transpiration will also render the foliar spray not quite as effective.

Not Using a Sticking Agent – While it is certainly possible to simply use the spray by itself, most who choose to foliar feed their plants add a sticking agent. This decreases runoff and allows more of the nutrients to soak into your foliage.

Ignoring pH Balance of the Foliar Spray – Strange as it might sound, many growers don’t measure the pH balance of their nutrient spray before they use it on their plants. Even seasoned growers who are fastidious about making sure that their nutrient solution is balanced for optimum uptake, often ignore the conditions of their foliar spray. For optimal absorption, your foliar spray should have a pH of about 5.8. If it is too acidic or alkaline, your leaves will not be able to absorb the nutrients properly.

Not Experimenting First – Foliar feeding has the fantastic potential to help your plants but you should make certain that you try it one just one or two plants before you try it on the rest of the crop. While it is very rare, it is entirely possible for your plants to suffer excess nutrients and develop symptoms that might be as bad a nutrient deficiency.

Vertical Agriculture On The Up

Vertical Agriculture On The Up
By Anna Waters

Over the next 40 years the UN predicts a global population boom, leading to agricultural land shortages. Great Stuff Hydroponics thinks we can overcome this problem and help to reduce the environmental impact of our cities by building vertical hydroponic agricultural buildings in urban centres.

Supplying food in the West is not an issue, where agricultural land is available and complex distribution systems are already set up. However, the UN predicts that by the year 2050, there will be an additional 3 billion people on this planet, approximately 80% of whom will live in urban centres. This poses a problem, particularly in developed societies where farmers are a dying breed and food often has to be transported over vast distances before it ends up on peoples’ dinner tables.

Currently, some cities are greener than others; Singapore, Hanoi and Havana have all been cited as food producing cities. Whilst they are not yet self sufficient, other cities still have very far to go. New York, for example, has to import nearly every morsel of food which is consumed there, and trucking all that food into the city every day takes its toll on the environment and is an incredibly inefficient use of resources in a sophisticated society.

The answer, according to environmentalists, scientists and hydroponics enthusiasts is to stop all these wasteful practices by building hydroponic farms, vertically, in the heart of our cities. This would let the land around our cities return to an unspoilt ecosystem of forests or grasslands, aiding the fight against global warming and climate change. After all, we have developed into an urban species with all of the methods to produce reliable crops every year hydroponically at our fingertips. We do not need to rely on taking up large tracts of land with agriculture, polluting our atmosphere with delivery truck exhaust fumes, and leaving our crops to the mercy of the elements the way our ancestors did. Farming to excess is a contributing factor to desertification, reduced soil quality and it is unnecessarily damaging to indigenous flora and fauna.

There is already considerable popular support for town planners and city councils which take environmentally friendly decisions, dedicating themselves to keeping our countryside green and focusing on making our cities cleaner and more pleasant places to inhabit instead.

Dr. Dickson Despommier, a professor of microbiology at Columbia University, originally came up with the idea of the Vertical Farm Project, as a solution to the future pressure on land and resources and as a way of reducing the carbon footprint of our cities. Since the beginning of the project, a number of environmentally friendly ‘vertical farms’ have been designed for New York, Toronto and Paris.

Toronto scientist, Gordon Graff designed a concept building known as the SkyFarm which would sit in the centre of the city’s theatre district. His 58 floor tower design could provide enough food at the centre of the city for an estimated 35,000 people, every day. It would comprise of different crops, vegetables and fruits, all being grown hydroponically, using water in place of soil. During hydroponic growth, plants are fed nutrients dissolved in water in a strictly controlled environment.

The benefits to the environment of producing food in vertical greenhouse-like farms in the centre of town would be multiple. Not only are distribution vehicle emissions cut by growing food in the place where it will be eaten, but there is also no need for ploughing, no digging, and no seasonal droughts. Crops are protected from the elements and run off or ‘dirty water’ is eliminated as water can be recycled within the hydroponic system of the building.

Also, because plants grown hydroponically are in a controlled environment, with no soil, there are also no soil borne diseases or pests to worry about; the city’s food could be produced without the need for chemical pesticides or fertilizers.

Hydroponic growth requires only one twentieth of the water used to irrigate a farm growing the same number of plants, yet yields are higher. Because there is a continuous flow of nutrients to the plant, the plant can concentrate its energy on producing fruit rather than roots. Hydroponic lights and a CO2 rich atmosphere within the building could also increase food production by stimulating photosynthesis and lengthening the daylight hours available to the plants.

Gordon’s SkyFarm idea would be a totally self sustainable building, powered by solar panels. He also says that non edible parts of plants could be composted, producing methane; this biofuel is a source of renewable energy which could be contributed to the local power grid. The SkyFarm could even develop into a scientific research facility or an eco-tourism attraction, creating jobs and drawing attention to the city as a whole.

The spirit and aims of the Vertical Farm Project have been enthusiastically received all over the world. An environmentally friendly Science Barge is run by New York Sun Works to prove the point to city inhabitants that food can be successfully grown hydroponically within the city. School groups and apartment communities have been particularly taken with the project, which illustrates how using the citys’ 14,000 acres of sunny rooftop space to grow plants hydroponically, could feed 20 million people across the city of New York and the surrounding area.

The most exciting aspect of these concept buildings is that they are feasible with the technology already available to us. Not only that, but city inhabitants who are tired of paying a premium to buy food which has been brought into the city from afar need not even have a rooftop or garden. Great Stuff Hydroponics can supply beginners hydroponic kits along with all of the materials and equipment required by established growers, for use inside peoples’ homes. Given the correct lighting and nutrients, any variety of plant can be grown in water, hydroponically, absolutely anywhere, regardless of the season or climate.

For more information about the vertical farm project, visit www.verticalfarm.com To start growing your own hydroponic fruits and vegetables at home, purchase hydroponic kits or equipment and benefit from special offers online, see Great Stuff Hydroponics’ website, www.hydroponics-hydroponics.com

About Great Stuff Hydroponics

Great Stuff Hydroponics is based in Middlesborough (UK) and supplies a vast array of hydroponic equipment for all your hydroponic plant cultivation needs. The Great Stuff Hydroponics showroom is open Monday to Friday 9am-5pm and Saturday10am-2pm. Sales can also be placed online at http://www.hydroponics-hydroponics.com

Please direct all media queries, requests for press information and editorial details, to Anna Waters. Tel: 0208 123 5178 or email: [email protected]

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Anna_Waters
http://EzineArticles.com/?Vertical-Agriculture-On-The-Up&id=647263

Hydroponic Technology Used in WWII to Feed Troops

This article is an excerpt from the complete set of Hydroponics Online lesson plans.

During the late 1940′s, a  hydroponic method was developed by Robert B. and Alice P. Withrow, working at Purdue University. Their system alternately flooded and drained a container holding gravel and the plant roots. This provided the plants with the optimum amount of both nutrient solution and air.

During World War II the shipping of fresh vegetables overseas was not practical and remote islands where troops were stationed were not a place where they could be grown in the soil. Hydroponic technology was tested as a viable source for fresh vegetables during this time.

In 1945, the US Air Force built one of the first large hydroponic farms on Ascension Island in the South Atlantic, followed by additional hydroponic farms on the islands of  Iwo Jima and Okinawa in the Pacific, using crushed volcanic rock as the growing medium and, on Wake Island west of Hawaii, using gravel as the growing medium. These hydroponic farms helped fill the need for a supply of fresh vegetables for troops stationed in these areas.

During this time, large hydroponic facilities were established in Habbaniya, Iraq and Bahrain in the Persian Gulf, to support troops stationed in those areas near large oil reserves.

The American Army and Royal Air Force built hydroponic units at various military bases to help feed troops. In 1952, the US Army’s special hydroponics branch grew over 8,000,000 lbs. of fresh produce for military demand. Also established at this time was one of the world’s largest hydroponic farms in Chofu, Japan, consisting of 22 hectares.

Following the success of hydroponics in WWII, several large commercial hydroponic farms were built in the US, most of which were in Florida. Due to poor construction and management, many of these farms were unsuccessful.

This article is an excerpt from the complete set of Hydroponics Online lesson plans.

The new wave of farming

A decade ago Jeff Meyer decided to give up his family’s century-old tradition of dairy farming.

“I was a fourth generation (dairy farmer), and it was all I knew,” he said recently. “It was extremely hard on the family.”

But the dairy industry and the economics behind it were changing, making it unprofitable for Meyer to continue without a major expansion.

“To expand in this part of the country with all the residential growth, it wouldn’t have been wise,” he said.

Today, Meyer has no regrets. At their Cal-Ann Farms in Basehor, he and his wife, Pam, along with their grown children — daughters Michelle and Rebecca and son Nicholas — operate a successful indoor fish farm raising Nile tilapia. They combine the fish operation with the growing of vegetables in a greenhouse by utilizing an aquaponics system. The nutrient-rich wastewater from the fish tanks is pumped into the vegetable plant beds. The water, minus the waste, is recirculated back into the tanks.

Basil operation

In another greenhouse, Pam Meyer oversees the growing of living basil. Instead of soil, the small plants grow in peat. Using hydroponics, the minerals that are found in soil are dissolved in water, which is carried to the plants. It takes four to five weeks for basil to grow from seed to maturity. The Meyers sell about 170 cases of basil a week to supermarkets.

They also produce 150 to 200 pounds of tilapia a week. On Fridays — harvest day — live fish are loaded onto a truck and hauled to two stores: the Asian 888 Market in Overland Park and Super Value Food in Kansas City, Mo.

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The Business of Hydroponic Gardening

Many people knew nothing about hydroponics yet for an agriculturist, and even a gardener, hydroponic spells produce at its best, higher yields, environment friendly technology, minimal labor and high return in investment, in short, MONEY!

Hydroponic technology has been proven to maximized food production in the modern agricultural procedure and food production plants. The technology has been labeled in its efficiency due to its reduction in variable costs of farming or cultivation with the pest control procedure and precise nutrient intake being introduce to the plants. Moreover, the technology requires less water that only 5% of water is required in comparison to the water requirement of the farm yet produces the same quantity of produce.

The new agricultural technology have been a breakthrough in the need for a less spacious venue for farming yet guarantees maximum yield to the producers; and safe and unblemished produced.

Hydroponics is means of plant cultivation without the use of soil in growing of plants. This uses solely water with administered minerals. Such procedure introduced nutrients to the plants by means of ionization. This was through the study made that plants deem the soil useless and only makes use of its mineral for its growth. With the hydroponics procedure, optimum results can be achieved in combination of controlled cultivation environment such as the greenhouses where the heat and level of carbon monoxide can be efficiently managed by the producer, and pest, bacteria and molds eliminated with proper monitoring of the greenhouse temperature.

Not only that hydroponics is being utilized in agriculture but also in gardening. This is due to the built-in feature of hydroponics that the usual household can assemble it in its garden. Books and manuals have also made it to the home’s archives on procedures in the plant watering system and nutrition feeding. Simple may it seem but proper administration is needed to exactly formulate the nutrition for the plant. Nowadays, there are hundreds of Hydroponic gardening centers throughout the United States that aims to take it as an alternative gardening method.

Though there are claims of its disadvantages, since plants share the same nutrients supplied thereby the risks of sharing bacteria and diseases, such condition can be controlled with proper administration and management of the technology.

Through the web, interested consumers can gain access on how to reach hydroponics distributors and the material itself. The consumer industry had followed the trend that the end-users have developed a liking to the said technology.

Summary***

Hydroponics has been a breakthrough in the agricultural technology. With its efficiency defined, the technology secures optimum results on food production and even the leisure of gardening. Maximum results can be achieved through proper administration of the technology in agriculture and gardening methods.

Growing your own lettuce is fun — and tasty

Press Food Editor

When the first warmth of spring came calling, soft delicate heads of curly, wavy and frilled lettuces in bright sunset colors and tender green were sprouting all around Kris and Steve Van Haitsma’s Mud Lake Farm.

The farm’s two biomass-heated hydroponic greenhouses sit on the Ottawa-Allegan county line on land that has been in Steve Van Haitsma’s family since 1904.

Year-round, they grow more than 30 varieties of hydroponic lettuce, available through their community-supported agriculture farm, West Michigan Cooperative and area stores, including Sister’s Natural Foods, Grand River Grocery and Bill’s Best Market in Delton.

Inside, the hydroponic greenhouses are neatly spaced rows of red-tinged New Red Fire, freckled German heirloom Forellenschluss, a green bibb lettuce called Deer Tongue, the deepest burgundy Red Express and Loma, an apple green curly Batavian lettuce. The roots are immersed in water and nutrients that contain all the minerals and trace elements needed for healthy plants.

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