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hi ron,
can you please tell me the difference of ammonium nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen as far as its relationship to plant growth ?
Nothing in my hydro books about ether.
secondly, my lettuce ... i place them under 75% shade cloth, temperature is also hot ... around 110F at mid-day .... result is gap between nodes are really abnormal.
i am using heat resistant and bolt resistant cultivar for my lettuce, do you suppose the shade cloth is the main problem ?
I can't imagine growing anything at 110 degrees especially lettuce with or without shade cloth.
regards,
sixto
hi ron
what is a pepper spray and how do you brew one ? is it effective on leafminers ?
btw, ever tried neem extract to fight insects ?
meck
1 teaspoon of hot pepper or Tabasco sauce, 4 cloves of garlic with a quart of water. Grind this mix up in the blender and strain through a nylon stocking or cheese cloth before using in the sprayer. Don't know never had leafminers before.
Hello Ron. I like your site and your philosophy. I have a question for you. I have been growing hydro with chem. for a while (GH) but I am now thinking of using hydro -organic (such as Earth juice as nute) Will I run into trouble with odors and pests? (my system is indoors). And if I stick with GH, do you have a "miracle recipe" as far as concentration (what I grow is not listed in the instruction). Last but not least, I water three times a day for 20min.and the air temp. is 85F. Is that too little to your opinion? Thank you to answer if you have the time. I appreciate. Keep on growing.
I used 10,000 year old bat shit years ago in an open greenhouse and the smell was to much. I think Earth juice don't smell to much so that might be better. Also PPM readings are wacky when I use organics. So I went back to chemicals.
I would water only as long as it took to fill your
garden. Then let it drain and when all the water is drained from the garden then
water again in another 30 minutes.
Running the pump longer than it takes to wets the roots serves the plants no benefit.
It is very important to under stand that when the garden water rises it not only
is watering the roots but also is pushing spent oxygen out the top of your
medium and when the water drains fresh air is sucked into the medium.
The more times this action happens the healthier your plants will
grow.
hi ron,
i bought some Habanero pepper seeds. do you think this will grow well in hydroponics ? got any tips in growing pepper ?
thanks
castro
Peppers grow very well in hydroponics because they are water loving plants. Start your seeds in vermiculite or dirt before you put them in the hydro system.
Hey Ron, what would be the minimum amount of space for a 250W MH Hydrofarm sunburst light with a self-contained ballast, so that I don't start a fire? Heh, what a horrible thought! I guess I'm looking for the space needed surrounding the light from one wall, the ceiling, and the closet door. The min/max distance from the plants would be helpful too. Thanx for all your advice and info. Mark
3 ft. x 3 ft. of area coverage
for 250 W
5 ft. x 5 ft. for 400 W
8 ft. x 8 ft. for 1000 W
I would keep the lights about 12 or 16 inches from the plants with a 250 W.
This is the best web page on hydroponics, the format and the picture illustration are great!!! I am a beginner in hydroponic in Thailand. I am growing lettuce with NFT ,after a few weeks of perfect growth, the roots become brown color and the plant growth is stunt. What is the problem and how to cure them?
Something isn't right with your nutrient solution if your roots aren't white. PPM or pH or both.
hey guys, i was wanting to know if you can use a mercury vapor light to grow with how does it compare to hps-mh lights
No they are useless for growing plants. Wrong type of light spectrum.
I have been surfing the net for about 5 years and this is the first site I have ever seen that was this informational without having to pay for something. If I ran a web site that allowed me to put up your banner I would. I am Building my own Hydroponic system just because I found this site. 20 minutes ago I had no Idea I would be gardening this summer but now I am. Plus if i build one good enough, my friends said they would by it off me for their controversial growing plants. I'm just growing regular plants. Keep up the good work!
Because big business has clogged up the internet with so much of their crap that I don't even bother to serf anymore.
Howdy Ron! I got a big question for ya! How do I go about changing my plants photoperiod from day to night without confusin the hell out of them? To simplify, I wanna go from 8AM-8PM lights on, to completely opposite, 8PM-8AM lights on. I wouldn't bother but it stays so much cooler at night ya know? As always, thanks a bunch!
Just do it. Doing it just once won't freak them out. And yes you should always run your lights at night because it's cooler and some electric companies charge less at night also.
Very nice site and various design setups. I wish I could have read this material about 10 years ago when I was experimenting in hydroponics. I have recently been reading about fish ponds and various types of filters, one type being a vegetative filter utilizing water plants. These seem quite effective in removing excess nutrients from the water. I recently found a site http://koi.ajiang.com/ where the pond owner has used a hydroponic filter stocked with land plants to remove excess nutrients from the water in a balanced ecosystem approach. I am intrigued by this strategy and would be interested in your comments on such a concept. I would also be interested in any design and suitable plants recommendations you could offer for an application of this type.
Ask Aquatic ECO-SYSTEMS, INC www.aquaticeco.com to send you their product catalog. They specialize in fish and hydroponics systems and supplies. You can get a ton of information from their catalog even if you don't buy anything.
I called a hydroponic expert, he said I didn't have a draining system, what does a draining system do?
The water drains back to the tank when the pump shuts off and about 30 minutes later the pump comes on and floods the garden, then the pump shuts off and it drains again. It's that simple.
hi ron,
is there a home remedy i can use to fight spider mites ?
how bad could they be vs. aphids ?
this is my first time to encounter these mites.
regards,
olong
malaysia
This is from my book Gardening Indoors by G. F. Van Patten
The spider mite thrives in a dry 70 to 80 degrees F (21 to 27 degrees). It can reproduce in five days if the temperature is above 80 degrees F (27 degrees).
In order to create a hostile environment for mites, lower the temperature to 60 degrees (15 degrees) and spray the plants with a jet of water, making sure to spray under leaves. his will blast them off the leaves as well as increase humidity. Their reproductive cycle will be slowed and you will have a chance to kill them before they do much damage.
Homemade sprays work very well when there is not yet an infestation of mites. If these sprays have not eradicated the mites after 4 or 5 applications, switch to another, stronger spray.
Hello! When my light comes on in the morning, it will start to come on, then...darkness! Then it will do it again and again! It does come on eventually (yesterday it took almost an hour!) Is it my bulb, ballast, errr..I have not a clue! The bulb is in nice and snug. Can it be too cold for the light to come on(60deg)? I appreciate your time!
You got a problem somewhere. If your ballast isn't cutting on and off then it has to be your light or socket. Unscrew the light and in the center of the socket bend the little metal tap that touches the center of the bulb. Sometimes it gets pushed down and doesn't make good contact. If your ballast is cutting on and off then I would open it up and check for loose wires.
Ron would you see a problem with using stainless steel faucet screens for a type of preventive method for keeping bits and pieces of lava rack out of my reservoir also, is it ok to use sch. 40 pvc pipe for the 11 plant garden Thank you for your time
No problem you couldn't use anything better than
stainless steel.
You can use sch. 40 except for the eleven 1
inch pieces of sch. 26 that the bottle caps fit into.
what is hydroponic?
Ron, We just built the 11 plant garden. We planted our vegetables in pea gavel in solo cups. we are using formula one a & b solution (from worms way) for our nutrient. How often do we need to change the water and the solution?
I don't change mine unless my plants show signs of a problem or the water gets to funky from algae.
ron, last september i purchased a 1000w sunagro light for my eb-flow system(s). since this purchase, many generations of healthy sprouts have dwindled and died by the time they should have been ready to pick and eat. It's been eight months, and now the life of the bulb will be questioned...but i don't believe it's the life of the bulb. I believe there is something genuinely wrong with the spectrum or the quality of the light being emitted. I have grown hydroponics for many years now with metal halides and this is the first time i made the switch to a high pressure sodium. I have questioned everything (pH, fertilizer, quality of clones, ventilation, insects, ........), and I have still no answer as to why my once buldging tomatoes now look like cherry tomatoes by the end of the flowering cycle. I honestly believe it is the light I purchased. With the price of the light close to 500 smackers and all the electricity and time wasted, my faith in my favorite hobby is soon to be lost. So, my question to you is...
Have you ever heard of a high-pressure sodium light (sunagro to be specific) having a faulty spectrum (maybe showing a visible light that is possibly too red?
I contacted the dealer and he insisted that out of 17 years he has never heard of this problem before. But, i think the dealers are full of shit and they often times try to remedy the most pressing problems by getting you to buy their other products which don't even have enough evidence of being any type of help. I can give you a list of all the shit i've bought to fix this problem (ionizers, box fans, co2, bug repelents, hormone boosters, shock resisters, ......)
I am fed up spending the money on such a rewardless hobby. Help, before it's too late!
Because HPS lights are at the red end of the light
spectrum and are more for flowering I can understand having a problem in your
early growth stages of your plants but not threw the flowering stage.
I would add a 400 MH on a sun circle to cover any missing light spectrum. But
that means spending more money.
Hi Ron do you know how to build psi for an aeroponic system? thanks Andrew
what is psi?
I've got small rockwool cubes in grorocks. This is my first time around the hydro block, but next time, its grorocks only. But for now, I know the alkaline ph of rockwool. What I dont know is how I should take my ph reading. Basically, when my ph is say 6.0, should I assume its 6.5-6.8, and bring it down to 5.5 to compensate, or is 6.0 actually 6.0. The cubes have been in the system for 2 months now. I've kept the ph around 5.5-6.0. Thankyamuch!
I would just keep it at that 5.5-6.0.
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