Home Improvement

Starter cubes, used by hydroponic growers, as well as soil gardeners, are comfortable growing media for starting seeds. Made of inert material, starter cubes provide perfect support to the plant and its rhizomes. The cubes are capable of retaining water, but they do not supply a plant with any nutrients, unless the latter are dissolved in the water. Nowadays, there are 4 types of starter cubes: Organo-Cubes, Oasis cubes, Rockwool and “peat pots”. The most well loved among the gardeners are the first three kinds of cubes (Organo-Cubes, Oasis cubes and Rockwool), while “peat pots” lose their popularity due to their tendency to accumulate too much water, which can spoil the seeds and the seedlings. Oasis cubes, Rockwool, and Organo-Cubes, on the other hand, retain water along with enough air, which prevents the medium to be too moist.

Preparing hydroponics starter cubes for the use depends on the type of the cube you have. For example, Organo-Cubes are ready for use, while Oasis cubes and Peat pots should be soaked in water (with pH adjusted to 6 – 6.5) before use. As soon as the cubes are saturated with water, they should be left to drain a bit, and then they are ready to be used. Rockwool is different, since it has high pH. Therefore, it should be soaked in water with pH adjusted to 5.0 in order for this acid solution to be balanced to the pH level required for the plants normal growing. These cubes should be soaked in water approximately for 24 hours, followed by the drainage prior to the use. 

Having done these easy manipulations, the seeds can now be planted. Small holes about ¼ to ½ inch deep should be made in the cube with a tip of a pencil or a pen. Then seeds may be place into the holes and covered with some cube material from around those small openings.

It is best to keep the seed cubes moist, but not wet, always preventing them from staying in the water. The cubes do not need light until the seeds germinate. Similarly, no nutrients are necessary for the plants until they have their first right leaves developed. In this case a diluted nutrient solution

Generating between 65 to 115 lumens of light per each watt of consumed electricity, metal halide grow light lamps are considered to have high efficiency. MH lights produce light, which is very close to the natural sunlight with the rich blue spectrum. Due to this, MH lamps support vegetative growing in the most desired way – when plants have many leaves on the stem with small internodes.

Structurally, metal halide lamp is a vacuum glass tube. There is also an arc tube inside, filled with mercury and other metals in iodine form. Under the influence of electric current, those metals start to generate light and heat intensively. Though metal halide bulbs can be either transparent or coated with phosphorus, the first type is more preferred for the indoor gardening, since it produces very bright light.

There are different sizes of metal halide lamps, starting from 70watts and finishing with 1500 watts. But 250w, 400w and 1000w are modifications, most commonly used in hydroponics systems gardening. In order to make MH light to work, it is necessary to use a ballast, designed for a particular bulb size. Ballast is, in fact, a transformer, which decreases voltage to some predefined amount.

The lamps can work only in the positions they were designed for. Those marked with BU or BD should be used only in vertical position; while those lamps, which carry HOR sign, are for horizontal application. Besides, there are also universal (U) lamps, which can operate in either position. 

There are also many different styles of metal halide lamps available on the market today. Along with typical or regular MH bulbs, there are also Super Bulbs, which can produce up to 10-12% more light than ordinary bulbs.

Regular metal halide bulbs should be replaced after about 18 months or 9500-10000 hours of use. Super bulbs are less durable and should be replaced more frequently – approximately after 12 months or 6500 hours of use. These recommendations apply if grow lights will work 18 hours daily.

Plants use light to convert it into energy during the process, called photosynthesis. Growth of the plant is directly dependant on the amount of light received. By the way, the amount and type of light depend on the particular plant and its stage of development. So, a excellent grow lamp is the one, which is chosen in accordance with the light requirements of the particular plant.

Light is essential for health of your indoor plants, but choosing a proper grow light may be challenging and always requires thorough considerations. Grow light fluorescent offers the benefits of high effectiveness, no heat generation and full spectrum of light. For comparison, incandescent bulbs also produce a lot of light, but at the same time they generate a lot of heat, which is not always beneficial for indoor plants.

Each stage of plant development requires a particular light. When the plant is in its growing stage during which stem, branches and leaves develop, it is the best timing to use metal halide lamps for they produce blue spectrum light. But, when plant forms flowers and fruits, it is better to use high-pressure sodium or HPS lamps, which provide red light spectrum. 

The only downside of MH and LPS lights is the heat generated by them. Heat is not excellent for plants and soil. To prevent overheating, special cooling fans may be required.

 diodes or LEDs, introduced in early 1920s, have debuted in hydroponic gardening as grow lights only recently. In comparison to metal vapor lights, LED lights offer a lot of benefits with the initial cost being their only disadvantage. But, these grow lights are more cost-effective in the long run, having the average life time of about 100 000 hours vs. 15 000 hours of other lights. Besides, LED lights consume less energy, providing energy saving up to 80% in comparison to fluorescents and metal vapor lamps. Furthermore, LED lights do not generate heat, and, therefore, they need no additional cooling and ventilation.

 In order to increase plant growth and productivity it may be necessary to use certain additional accessories, such as reflectors, which help to increase light intensity and make it more balanced, eliminating any “hot spots”.

 Another key component of the grow light system is ballast, which provides energy. While fluorescent light fixtures have built-in ballasts, the other types of grow lights, namely metal vapor and LED lights require remote or external ballasts. Digital ballasts are vital components, so it’s better not to save money on them. It is recommended to choose domestically produced digital ballasts instead of ancient magnetic coil types or those imported from China. In addition to being more reliable, expensive digital ballasts are equipped with additional features, such as small circuit or defective bulb detection.

 Hydroponic gardening belongs to the most common techniques to grow plants and flowers with no land required. While building hydroponic system, sooner or later one faces the necessity to invest in high quality grow lights. A lot of people give their preferences to HID (high intensity discharge) lights equipped with digital ballast. These types of lamps provide the most natural light similar to sunlight, which is especially vital for successful indoor plants growing. But, there are certain differences between HID lamps worthy to know.

 In general, five types of HID lights exist. They are mercury vapor, xenon small-arc lamps, metal halide, low-pressure sodium and high-pressure sodium lights. Among these metal halide and high-pressure sodium lights are the most preferred types.

Key Facts on Hydroponics

Hydroponic plants do not require soil to grow in. They use different growing media instead. All the required nutrients are supplied through nutrient solution. Hydroponic system allows cultivation of plants, irrespectively to climate and environmental condition. Hydroponic system allows increasing the density of plants significantly (up to 3 times higher in comparison with traditional soil gardens). It may be surprising but hydroponic plants consume considerable less water than those, growing in soil. Since soil is not used in hydroponic systems, there is no need to worry about crops rotation. Hydroponic plants are healthier, because there are no or very small risks for them to get infected by parasites, living in soil. Hydroponic gardening does not depend on seasons of the year. You can grow plants and gather harvest all year round.

Hydroponics in the Present

Thanks to many technological achievements and innovations, hydroponic growing has already become much more effective, convenient and affordable. Plastic, used for manufacturing of hydroponic equipment, such as plumbing products, fittings, growing pots and containers, etc., made it possible to lower the cost of hydroponic systems significantly.

Multiple electronic devices, such as pumps, timers and monitors, have made hydroponic growing a fully automated process. Furthermore, the hydroponic plants themselves have evolved significantly, ensuring high yield results even if used under the most extreme environmental conditions, for example, at the submarines.

Hydroponics in the Future

The next goal of hydroponics developers is to make indoor gardening eco-friendly and more energy-saving. In this regard, current achievements in the development of solar heating systems look very promising. On the other hand, current innovations open new opportunities for designing new growing light systems with higher lumen output, better spectrum profile and lower electricity consumption. In the long run, hydroponic systems may allow increasing the amount of grown plants to completely satisfy the needs of people in food products, without using additional natural resources and soil.

Furthermore, maybe in the nearest future hydroponic systems, which have already been tested in space on the space stations, will even become another valuable step in the space exploration by the humans.

Soil less Mixtures

There is a fantastic amount of soil less mixtures available, which contain different ingredients. Sphagnum moss, perlite, and vermiculite are the most widely spread hydroponics components, used in such mixtures.

Being organic, soil less growing media are usually used for container gardening wick systems or on-recovery drip systems. It is also possible to use soil less mixtures in recovery systems, but, it is necessary to remember that because of very fine particles in such mixtures, they can clog tubes, pumps and drip emitters, when used without a excellent filtration system. By the way, according to the urban gardeners, one can use panty hose as a filter: just fit it to the return line and to the pump inlet, and all the tiny particles will be filtered out.

Most soil less mixes form a excellent growing medium for multiple hydroponic and organic gardens, because they can hold water well, have fantastic wicking action, and, at the same time, they provide a reasonable amount of air to the roots of growing plants.

Coconut Fiber

The popularity of coconut fiber as growing medium increases rapidly around the world. Being the first really organic growing medium, providing highest performance for hydroponic systems, coconut fiber may soon become the most well loved growing medium ever. It is fascinating to note that coconut fiber is, really, a waste product, which contains the powdered husks of coconuts.

In comparison to rockwool, coconut fiber is characterized with higher oxygen capacity and water retaining. These features are vital advantages for hydroponic systems with intermittent watering cycles.

Coconut fiber also contains a lot of root stimulating hormones, thus offering some protection against fungus infestation and other root diseases. The mixture of 50% coconut fiber and 50% expanded clay pellets is considered to be the perfect growing medium.

But, it is necessary to underline one precaution when buying coconut fiber. Avoid purchasing a low grade coconut fiber, which is very fine grained and contains a high level of sea-salts. Such coconut fiber will have negative and disappointing effect on hydroponic system.