The best way to keep those little pests at bay is to start with a clean room. Sterilise in between uses with chlorine or bleach or some other potent form of strong cleaning fluid.

Also when taking cuttings or seedlings from the nurseries or friends drench them in something like Dead Red or some other general purpose insecticide. Really drench them cause the last thing that you want is other people’s problems in the form of pests and diseases.  Pests can ruin even a experts garden.

Even when planting I give them a good squirt as a precautionary measure that has saved my Garden from being infested.

You can also use a natural pesticide called Neem that you can use all the way up to harvest. It has no residual and stops the pests from breeding and feeding.

Also if you have used no chemicals you can employ beneficial bugs to eliminate the problem. This is the best solution because they don’t stop until they have eaten all there prey.

Just drop us a line and we can give you advice or check out your local store for products and solutions that I have not mentioned here.

Happy Gardening

By Pepelapue

4/06/2009

Coco coir is fast becoming one of the most used growing media in the world today. It’s cheap, it does not get taken from the environment and best of all it does not go to landfill. I’ll explain in more detail in a minute. 

Firstly let’s see where coco coir comes from. When they have harvested the coconut milk and its edible fruit. They make brooms and all sorts of items from them. When they do this a dust is formed into piles on the floor. They collect this and most of the coco is done in Sri Lanka or India. But some is taken to the Netherlands where they sterilise it in fresh water ponds and buffer it. Then they ship it around the world. This is RHP certfied for quality assurance. Don’t buy anything else.

It has a natural friendly bacteria called Trichaderma which is great for nurturing the root system. I have covered where coco coir comes from but where does it go. Well what I do with mine I sprinkle on the garden or on the lawn. It adds humus to poor soil and is full of nutrients. It holds 1000% its weight in water so it assists in these harsh drought times.

Also use for seedlings through to all stages of plant life. Now that’s a versatile media for growing all your favourite crops. Pick up a bag today. If you use the blocks that come from Sri Lanka or India sterilise first by boiling.

Happy Gardening

By Pepelapue

4/06/2009

When you have selected your nutrient and additives if you are using them. Have a clean reservoir then add the water. A little tip if you are making up big batches is to use a pump to stir. Preferably a strong pump so you can add your nutrients and it get stirred up within seconds.

Measure equal amounts of nutrient  A & B solutions and then add them one at a time waiting for a few seconds or minutes (if you have a small pump). When these are mixed well add your additives. Then check the PH and adjust. A safe range for PH is between 5.5 and 6.5. A safe range for the nutrients is between 1.2 EC and 2.5 EC depending on the plant. Always use a weaker mix first if unsure then increase slowly so as not to burn the plant. An instrument for measuring nutrient is called a Truncheon and will save you money on Nutrients plus save plant burnings.

Thanks for reading and we’ll be back real soon.

Happy Gardening

By Pepelapue

4/06/2009

When using HID lights i.e. High Pressure Sodium lamps and Metal Halide lamps. Besides the risk of explosion if mistreated. They become noisy. This in fact is the wafers in the transformer coming apart and in the gaps created the electricity makes noise and emits less light and also uses heaps more electricity. The general lifespan is actually only two to three years of constant use. While the ballast and light still work they can become unsafe.

The bulb on the other hand should be replaced after two or three cycles of use. This will give you a great yield every time. If these warnings are not observed the risk of something going wrong and catching fire is greatly increased.

When you consider that after one use your equipment has usually paid for itself after continual use it is more than justified. Let’s go through the main points. It makes noise using more electricity, producing more heat, putting out less lumens and running the risk of fire greatly increased.

If you are having your lights turn off during the cycle. You are probably overloading your circuit. There are a few remedies the easiest is to get a Heavy duty power board with a timer. Or for smaller applications there are 30 amp contacting switch timer that will never weld itself in the on position. I have seen a cheap timer destroy a beautiful garden. For a few dollars more this could of been averted.

So I’ll let you decide a few bucks spent is like an insurance policy. Which protects your loved ones, your house and your lifestyle. It’s really worth it you can sleep peacefully knowing you have done your best and best of all your garden will reap great rewards.

Happy Gardening

By Pepelapue

4/06/2009

My poor, poor chili peppers, well that is another story. I started them at the same time as the sweet basil, and while I knew they would take longer than the basil, I just didn’t expect them to take this long. As of today there is no chilies on the plants. I’m not 100% sure as to why though, whether it is due to the amount of light it initially got in the winter months, or if it was due to the stock nutrients that were included with the powerplant. I don’t actually remember seeing that you could grow chilies in the instructions, but if it is supposed to handle strawberries, then it should handle chilies just as well.

For those who already have a full hydro system setup for vegetables, or another countertop garden, I would say to avoid this product, because it doesn’t offer you something that you don’t already have.
For everyone else, I would recommend the powerplant. It’s low cost makes it a great impulse buy, as well as a nice conversation piece with others. If you are wondering if you should get an aerogarden, I would recommend that you try this first. It’s less than one-third the cost of the aerogarden, and will let you know if the cost of the aerogarden, or upgraded powerplant pro, is worth the cost. Having fresh herbs on hand is a nice (and somewhat fancy) treat, especially if you have guests over for dinner. The looks of the powerplant are pleasing enough to suit most homes, and the novelty alone is worth the $40 cost of admission.
Matt

“From a hydroponics garden irrigated with recycled storm water to the use of solar energy and extremely energy-efficient appliances, there are so many environmentally friendly features to come out and see,” Tradition president Wes McCurry said. “Not to mention this is a very fashionable house with beautiful interior design.”

This home is one of a select few that have received Platinum certification by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program. The highest level of certification that can be attained.

The house is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., April 20 through June 6. Tickets are $15 and must be purchased at the Tradition Welcome Center west of Interstate 95 Exit 118 off Tradition Parkway.
The home is a short drive from the Welcome Center at 11786 S.W. Westcliffe Lane. Parking is free. All proceeds from ticket sales will benefit Big Brothers and Big Sisters of St. Lucie County.
Visitors can enter to win the home and grand prize package during the HGTV Green Home Giveaway from April 17 through June 5. Visit HGTV.com to enter.

For the most part, people choose to have their home furnace ducts cleaned do so because their children or other family members are suffering from allergies. Like all air ducts, furnace ducts, when they are left uncleaned, can act as breeding grounds for mold and mildew, and lead to poor air quality. Furnace duct cleaning can also improve the efficiency of your furnace.

Furnace duct cleaning requires cleaning not only of the ducts themselves, but of the entire furnace system: the blower, heat exchangers, cooling coils, and condensate pan. When all these parts are clean, air flows more efficiently through the entire furnace system.

Furnace Duct Cleaning in Fort McMurray 780-972-7272 http://www.furnacecleaning.info

At the rooftop hydroponic garden, hundreds of gourmet lettuce plants float on foam mats in a tank of nutrient-enriched water, intended to make the red oak leaf and tender bibb lettuces fat and happy.

Long vines of gourmet cucumbers hang like leafy draperies along transparent walls. Bushes of cherry tomatoes sprout from white plastic pillars. Columns of green and purple basil plants tower from floor to ceiling.

Not all in the garden is green. Thousands of small tilapia fry swim in tanks, where the water is filtered clean, in part, by the plants.

At 85, an age when most people would have long since retired, Roper has launched his latest venture — Green Sky Growers garden. A ground-floor market also is in the works.

“I’m retired from citrus, but that doesn’t mean I’m retired,” Roper said.

He has teamed with Tim Blank, 39, a former Epcot hydroponics expert, to make this project commercially viable.

“What’s the biggest challenge facing us in Florida?” Roper asked. “Water. Well, right here, we’re growing food with just 15 percent of the water it would take on a traditional farm. When we perfect it, we’ll be down to 5 percent of the water.”

Blank said that as communities continue to gobble up rural land, sustainable gardens could be built on rooftops, making better use of what he calls wasted space.

Faster, bigger

Green Sky plants are fed a perfectly balanced diet of phosphorous, nitrogen, oxygen and other elements. Roper and Blank say their vegetables grow bigger and faster than traditional crops.

Lettuce usually takes two to four months to grow but here takes 28 days from seedling to market. Chives and other herbs can grow 12 inches in a week. The fish should be ready for market in months instead of two years, as in the wild.

“We’re already selling gourmet produce to local restaurants,” Blank said. On Saturdays, fresh vegetables and herbs are sold at the farmers market.

The pair had originally anticipated having the garden up and running six months ago.

“One of the challenges of our journey was learning how to build a hurricane-resistant greenhouse on top of a roof,” Blank said.

The 3,000-square-foot research and demonstration garden is built to withstand winds up to 120 mph. If such a storm hit, Roper said they would roll up the clear curtains, and the wind would whip through the structure.

“We’d lose our crops, but that would set us back only a few weeks,” he said.

‘See what is possible’

Educating the public about new ways to conserve the environment is also part of their mission. The new building has rain catchers on the roof and a 15,000-gallon cistern buried underground. Most of the water they use comes from the cistern and is re-used after being cleaned.

Schoolchildren have already toured the garden, by special arrangement. Small groups will be allowed to tour this weekend for $10 a person during Winter Garden’s ninth annual Spring Fever in the Garden downtown, sponsored by the city and the Bloom & Grow Garden Society.

“We want people to see what is possible,” Blank said.

Roper, whose family has built a successful citrus and farming empire, said he is not too worried about making money just yet.

“I hope to make a profit by the time I’m 100,” he said.

Rich McKay can be reached at rmckay@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5470.

Well it has been a while since i last updated, and the plants have grown significantly. I harvested some of the basil to use in pasta and it made quite a pleasing difference. The basil leaves are huge, and ready to be harvested, while the chillies have grown significantly, there’s still no actual chillies.

Since its has gotten brighter and warmer lately, the little plants have grown significantly faster, even in the cold windowsill. When I start my next crop in a month or two, I should notice a massive improvement in growth, and my 1 little green vial of nutrients I have left may be too little. I’ll have to start using all my aftermarket nutrients.

Who knows, maybe that will make the largest difference.

Matt