Grow Tips

1. Temperature should be in the high twenty’s to early thirties Celsius for grow stage and around 26 degrees Celsius or colder for the bloom cycle.
2. Heat the nutrient and root zone to early twenty’s Celsius. Do not heat the room it is not needed.
3. CO2 injection will accelerate growth and enhance overall weight.
4. Less is more with Hydroponics if it says put 20 mls in then only put in 19. Also another example is with the EC if it says run it at 2 EC then drop it down to 1.8 EC. You will see and taste the difference.
5. The bigger the root zone the bigger the plant and the greater the yield.
6. Give each plant a square meter if you can it will grow much bigger and get more yield than if you put four plants in the same amount of room. They will grow to the space that you give them.
7. When using Coco only irrigate once a day instead of several for the other methods of growing making easily affordable to run to waste giving you greater yields as well.
8. Clean truncheon and PH meters regularly and calibrate when doing so. To make sure your measuring is accurate.
9. Always sterilise all growing equipment and try not to use wood in construction as it is porous and can harbour germs and pests.
10. Always sterilise grow area and surrounding areas. This will reduce chance of pests or disease.
11. Plants need between 5 to 10 litres a day. You should be getting between 10% to 20% run off out of the pot etc….
12. Do not allow pets or children into growing area. In fact keep it under lock and key to avoid any injuries or unauthorised access.
13. The room needs clean air from outside and you need to expell the hot air via a roof outlet so as not to mix the good air with the bad.
14. When mixing your feed tank add water first then add the a stir then the b stir then any additives then stir then balance the PH finally. To aid stirring and keep it all fresh and mixed up add another pump to tank and put it on a timer to mix the tank when you are not there.
15. Only make enough feed water that will be used in seven to ten days to keep it fresh.
16. Wash tank before refilling to remove algae and rinse well to remove any impurities before making a new batch.
17. Your tap water EC should be zero if it reads then you may need a Reverse Osmosis water filter. Otherwise you are starting off with too much salt in the water and it is not good salt the plants do not like it. They will not grow to their full potential.
18. A split system Air Conditioner is a great asset to maintain your temperature which also keeps the moisture levels down. This also prevents mould from starting. It will also increase the quality and yield dramatically.
19. When getting advice stay with one source too many different styles may muck what good work you have done and give you a failure.
20. Do not use to many additives you should be using no more than four at any one time. Using to many different ones can lead to a toxic tank and poor quality harvest.

Firstly clean and sterilize  equipment. If you have purchased second hand equipment no biggie just sterilise with bleach, chlorine or some other product that will bring tables, pots etc… back to looking new. The list of necessary equipment goes as follows: Truncheon (measures nutrients), PH Meter, Nutrients, growing media plus container, Reservoir, Air pump plus stones, submersible water pump, Reverse Osmosis water filter, all the necessary plumbing , Good fans for exhaust and intake, seedlings or clones and a light if growing indoors. Also you will need some close reflective walls of some kind. Most people use Panda film but Special foil is becoming more popular. You can have multiple rooms this way having all different stages of growth. Just make sure no lights get through to other rooms or you will have problems with them getting light when they should be asleep.

 Then you are set to start. I will talk here about growing indoors but you can adapt the same techniques for outdoor growing as well. The only big difference in care is you only fertilize every 3 days and water every other day outdoors. Inside you can irrigate all the time, four or 5 times a day for clay rocks, Perlite, Vermiculite, Rockwool or with Coco once a day. Design your system so you can run to waste. This will give you far bigger yields and improved tastes plus give you the security that you will not pass on any nutrient born diseases from one plant to the next. I just run it to a reservoir then pump out every two or three days into a rain water tank where i dilute for the garden getting a second use out of the nutrients. What a benefit. But remember to dilute it by at least two thirds and also test with a plant that is not your favourite and see if it likes it or not then go from there. I have seen no problems when the solution is diluted heavily with good quality water. Test your tap water with a EC meter it should read zero for drinking water, if it reads anything then you need a Reverse Osmosis filter to get the best results plus provide you with safe drinking water at a minimal cost.  

We will continue this another time so stay tuned and live your passion plant as many trees and plants  as you can this spring. It all helps global warming. Just briefly on that subject . I only use coco now for my growing media. It does not get taken from the environment  and it will add volume to poor soil when you are finished with it. Again if using waste coco on the gardens water it in very well diluting the built up nutrients etc..

Pictured is the Bluelab Combo Meter which does EC/CF/PPM, PH and temperature. They are a good piece of equipment to have and they have a full five year warranty. No other brand comes close to the Bluelab range which include  the new Guardian monitoring system, Truncheon and PH Truncheon amongst other fine hydroponic tools. All have the full five year warranty. Which gives you peace of mind knowing that your money has been wisely spent. Sure there are a lot of cheap imitations but they do not last and are usually unreliable ending in burning of plants or under feeding. Both Situations are not good.

Also pictured is the latest release from the Bluelab Gaurdian and it monitors continously and alarms if out of range.

Happy gardening

Pepelapue

The most upsetting thing in gardening is to find your garden the victim of spider mites. They suck the very essence of survival the moisture that they hold in the leaves and fruits. But there is a natural solution to the problem. They are called predators or Persimilis Predatory Mite. Once released in your garden (best when either the sun goes down or the lights go off for indoor) they march off in search of food and good laying sites. It can take up to two weeks for them to gain control but you should notice a decline within a day or so. Once they have eaten all your pests they keep going until all the food is gone then they die leaving no trace that they were ever there. The perfect house guest if there ever was such a creature. The cost is a little more than spraying but the benefits far outweigh the cost. No pesticides means organic crops that will always taste better and sell for more at the end of the line. The trick to using them effectively is read the date they were shipped and allow three days all up of staying in the package at as cool as you can get them. This allows the predators to feed on the mites in the package and get really hungry. So when you release them they go marching off in search of food. This is the best method I have found using the predators.

Happy Gardening

Pepelapue

Photograph reproduced with permission by Bugs for Bugs http://www.bugsforbugs.com.au/index.php photos by Dennis Crawford

Growing Tomatoes in winter.

Hi all just got through a average winter and the tomatoes did fantastic.

I decided to grow Tiny Tim variety because it is small and bushy. It did not go that way for me however i gave it a quarter of a square meter and it soon tried to dominate the whole 1 meter. So i tried to tie it to a stake and train it. Well that was a joke it had a mind of its own as you will see in the pictures.

First signs of fruit an amazing feat seeing its freezing outside.

Well It’s been a few weeks and I have taken photos all the way. The amount of flowering sites is amazing I am using only RHP coco, good quality Canna nutrient plus some Canna PK 13-14 and Boost. With Reverse Osmosis water and dual spectrum lighting. Truly a winning combination to try and should taste great.

Well that’s it I hope you enjoyed the photo’s as much as I did growing the tomatoes and documenting the progress. Oh yeah good eating too if you need a healthy snack. I find myself raiding the plant once afternoon comes around to satisfy my hunger and sweet taste.

Happy Gardening

Pepelapue

Jason

Happy Gardening

All Natural Disease and Pest control

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