We are saying happy Holidays with a huge blowout sale! Come by the shop and save 25% off selected products. Quantities are limited so hurry by to save! For a complete list of sale products, click here!

Buy this Emily's Garden for just $75 or the Great White 6" Reflector for $150!

The sale items...just waiting to be bought!

 

With Christmas just around the corner, it’s never too early to start crossing items off your gift to-do list. To make your life easier, we have put together a list of Hydroponics gifts for under $20. Make your friends’ and family’s Christmas a little merrier with the gift of hydroponics!

Smart Pots

These soft growing containers allow more air to reach the growing medium and roots, improving drainage and keeping the root system from overheating on hot days. Smart Pots start at only $4! Buy Now!

Hydroponics and Microforms CD Rom

This informational CD allows you to view over 1000 pages of practical, easy to follow information on hydroponics, aquaculture, urban forestry. Only $18.95. Buy Now!

“The Best of Growing”

Are your friends interested in hydroponics? Check out our 3 different volumes of “The Growing Edge” Magazine-a compilation of various growing articles. Volumes start at only $18.95! Buy Now!

The Hydroponics “Gift Basket”

Buy a variety of these small gifts and put together your very own “Hydroponics Gift Basket”

Mini Clipper: Ideal for cutting & trimming flowers. Only $2.95. Buy Now!

Bonsai Shears: Larger than the clippers, these also work great for trimming and cutting flowers. Only $9.95. Buy now!

Trellis Netting: Get your friends or family started with growing tomatoes, beans, grapes, clematis, sweet peas, or other vining plants. This netting comes in 2 sizes and starts at only $5.95! Buy now!

International Measure Mug: Make measuring easy! This great mug cross references all values and is large and sturdy. Only $12.95. Buy Now!

Temperature Gauge: This floating gage delivers easy and accurate readings of your water temperature. Reads in both Celsius and Fahrenheit. Only $1.95. Buy now!

For other gift ideas, go to  Hydroponics Unlimited Growing Gifts. Happy Holidays!

Halloween is just days away and by now the patches have been visited, the perfect pumpkin has been chosen, and those orange gourds have been carved. For many the sight of those pumpkin patches popping up in local parking lots create a festive excitement for what’s to come on the 31^st of October. For others, they create nostalgia, as we are taken back to the childhood routine of visiting a real pumpkin patch and picking out the perfect pumpkin. But, either way, the pumpkin patch has always been a cornerstone of the American Halloween.

What many don’t know is that the traditional pumpkin patch is now accompanied by a modern and environmentally friendly counterpart: “The Hydroponics Pumpkin Patch”. Across the country hydroponic growers have transformed the way we pick out pumpkins and have begun to grow pumpkins in their very own indoor gardens. Using the basics of any standard hydroponics system, pumpkins are on the long list of vegetables that have been hydroponically grown. It may be too late for this year, but it’s never to late to start the garden plans for Halloween 2012.

Learn how to grow a pumpkin at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvYA9X8SMCU

The popularity of using a hydroponics system for growing is spreading rapidly throughout the United States. In fact, Plant Yampa in Moffat County, Colorado just received a grant of $50,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to use for the expansion of their hydroponic greenhouse complex. However, the success and increased popularity of Hydroponics is prevalant beyond the U.S. Borders. Hydroponics is traveling the globe and showing its producers just how successful it can be!

Pater Broerson, a Dutch grower, was the first person to grow lettuce in water in the outdoors. Broerson’s new methods are saving the environment, but also helping him. Since using the new system, his production has multiplied by 8 times!

This summer in Bahrain, work started for the creation of a major training center for hydroponics gardens. The new center, which will offer regular free workshops on growing with hydroponics systems, is being created to help encourage more green areas in the largely concrete kingdom.

Italy is also able to claim a “hydroponics first”. Just this summer, Giannengelo Boccuzzi from Bari, Italy grew the 1st ever Black Magic Grape using a hydroponics system. Not only did the grape look good, but it tasted sweeter than ever!

Tokyo, Japan’s financial district is known for its fast-paced business and towering skyscrapers. However, amongst all that hustle and bustle there is actually a 1,000 sq. meter farm. Surprising? Yes it is!  Located in a basement of a former bank vault, this hydroponics garden grows over 100 different types of crops. Talk about an underground surprise!

Toronto has so many people with homegrown hydroponics gardens, that they are able to have their own expo. The “Homegrown Hydroponics Expo” on October 30 in Toronto offers people a chance to learn from experts at informational seminars, try an abundance of free samples, eat great, homegrown food, and preview exciting new hydroponics products.

“Our goal is our name,” owner and founder Paul Antriasian said. The number of hydroponics stores that have opened over the last five years has almost doubled. With an increase in competition, the spotlight has been put on “store survival.”

As Sir Francis Bacon said, “knowledge is power” and nothing is truer for survival in an industry that is vastly and quickly expanding. America’s Best constantly strives to be ahead of the curve with product knowledge and trends and also in educating their customers.

“Knowing hydroponics systems and products and how to set up a grow room is the key to growing successfully—we help you through the entire process,” Paul said. “We constantly

test new products and give customers samples to try and request their feedback. It’s a network.”

America’s Best Hydroponics and Garden Center and its employees are continually educating themselves.

“Always reading, trying new products, talking to manufacturers, attending grow shows,” Paul said. “…myself and all my employees.”

“I have personally used all the products I carry and I know they work,” he said. “We want to make sure the customers are educated and comfortable using the product before they leave the store.”

“We pre-program and calibrate all of the pH and PPM meters before we sell them,” Paul said. “We have custom nutrient/grow room charts that show all the nutrient and grow room high/low parameters to help keep the PPM, pH, air temperature, water temperature, CO2 levels and humidity at the correct levels for optimum growth. We always have up-to-date catalogs, magazines, feeding charts and various literature for the customer to take home with them, for free, to help further their education.”

America’s Best is known for their helpful and experienced staff. “Word around Antelope Valley is we love to help,” he said. “If you educate the customers and help them reach a successful crop, they will come back and bring their friends!”

In 2005, with the encouragement of friends—many of whom Paul introduced and educated about indoor gardening—Paul opened the first hydroponics store in the Antelope Valley, Palmdale Hydroponics. “They told me I was a true pioneer of hydroponics,” Paul said.

Paul’s experience with growing started long before he opened Palmdale Hydroponics. With a father who was an engineer as well as a landscaper and mother that was a “plant fanatic” it was only natural that Paul became interested in growing. In high school he took horticulture and continued growing outdoors for seven years before starting with indoor gardening.

“In 1988, I started growing indoors,” Paul said. “The first hydroponics store to open in the entire country wasn’t far from my home. It was there I received my first lessons in hydroponics and bought everything I needed to start my own hydroponics system.”

For the next 18 years Paul developed his expertise of indoor gardening. His passion for horticulture and expertise in hydroponics leads him to believe that hydroponics is the way of the future.

“When hyperinflation hits the U.S., this is when you will start to see hydroponics systems in every home,” he said. “Like the computer, this will be a modern tool for everyday living.” Hyperinflation increases the prices of all food products forcing people to purchase inexpensive low quality processed foods, which in turn leads to an unhealthy population. Hydroponics can help combat this.

“Many of the fruits and vegetables we consume are being waxed, died, sprayed with pesticides and exposed to radiation, which is extremely harmful to humans and the environment,” Paul said. “This is just another reason why everyone should learn hydroponics.”

When Paul opened Palmdale Hydroponics, he was the sole employee for the first year.

In 2007, Paul’s fiancée, Victoria Wouk came on board. “Her master’s degree in business administration and marketing has really helped the business expand to other avenues,” he said. “In 2009 we launched our online store HydroponicsUnlimited.com, which she runs.”

At the beginning of 2010, Paul moved to a new location that could better serve their clientele and customers.

“We moved to a 3,000 square foot location with a roll-up door for easy loading,” he said. “We felt that this new fullystocked location (one-stop-shop) deserved a new name and decided on ‘America’s Best Hydroponics and Garden Center’.”

With the launch of the website America’s Best Hydroponics and Garden Center created an additional avenue to offer their products and expertise to their customers. The online store allows them to reach customers throughout the United States and give them the same benefits that Antelope Valley locals have been receiving since 2005. The online market has become saturated with new stores opening all the time, but America’s Best Hydroponics and Garden Center remains optimistic that quality will beat quantity.

“Online is the future,” Victoria said. “It’s a marketplace that you need to be in these days.”

America’s Best Hydroponics and Garden Center has over 2,800 products, many demos and interactive displays, a convenient location, an online store and new and innovative products.

As written on their website, “…whether you are a beginner or experienced, growing hydroponics herbs on the windowsill of your apartment or operating a full-service hydroponic greenhouse we have what you need from organic nutrients, additives, supplements, grow mediums, to a full range of bulbs, meters, controllers and complete grow systems.”

It comes down to integrity, honesty and hard work that have contributed and will continue to contribute to America’s Best Hydroponics and Garden Center’s success and growth.

“This is an extremely difficult business,” Paul said. “You really need to do your research and know what you are getting into. You just have to take it one day at a time, always moving forward and making progress. One thing for sure is you have to love a challenge.”

America’s Best Hydroponics and Garden Center is located just off Highway 14 on Palmdale Blvd. tucked behind a main shopping center. The new location attracts to new customers, makes it easier for customers to load and receive their products, and since it is not on the main boulevard, this decreases traffic and allows for plenty of parking space.

Download the PDF Maximum Yield Talking Shop – June 2011

We just added two new items to the online inventory, Feliz Blue and Red Fluorescent Lamps.

Feliz Blue Fluorescent Grow Lamps:

• Ideal for use with our Sun System 8 and Bright Wing® fixtures. (300Watt does not fit Bright Wing and is not ETL listed)
• Proven success in high humidity.
• Designed for horticulture.
• Full Spectrum.
• Fits standard mogul base socket.
• Cool spectrum for vegetative growing.
• 6 month warranty.

Feliz Red Fluorescent Grow Lamps:

• Ideal for use with our Garden Bright and Bright Wing fixtures. (300Watt does not fit Bright Wing and is not ETL listed)Proven success in high humidity.
• Designed for horticulture.
• Compatible with digital timers.
• Warm spectrum for flower production.
• Fits standard mogul base socket.
• 6 month warranty.

We’ve just added four new products from Bio Bizz!  Bio Bizz TopMax, Bio Bizz Alg-A-Mic, Bio Bizz Bio-Grow and Bio Bizz Bio-Bloom.

Bio Bizz TopMaxx - BioBizz TopMax fuels prolific blooming while enhancing the flavor of herbs and vegetables in any garden. TopMax is perfectly suited for soil but can be used in other growing media as well. All BioBizz products are certified organic by the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI).

Bio Bizz Alg-A-Mic – Listed by the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI), this all-natural energy booster contains concentrated seaweed, trace elements and hormones of vegetable origin, amino acids, and vitamins. Alg-A-Mic can be used as a soil drench or as a foliar feed.

Bio Bizz Bio-Grow - BioBizz Bio-Grow (8-2-6) liquid fertilizer is ideal for promoting lush growth during the vegetative cycle, particularly in soil gardens. Bio-Grow can also be used as a plant tonic during the flowering stage. The natural sugars in Bio-Grow benefit bacteria in the soil while the additional micronutrients and vitamins boost overall plant health. Certified organic by the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI).

Bio Bizz Bio-Bloom – BioBizz Bio-Bloom (2-6-3.5) encourages abundant flowering and fruit production by supplying much needed macro- and micronutrients as well as enzymes and amino acids.

We’ve just added JD Lightings Electronic Ballasts to our inventory — 400 Watt, 600 Watt and 1000 Watt.  Check them out below and to purchase and for more information head over to Hydroponics Unlimited.

JD Lightings high performing Electronic Ballasts are a technological revolution that creates energy efficiency and produces more Lumen output than magnetic ballasts. This grow light system works with both Metal Halide (MH) and High Pressure Sodium (HPS) Lamps . They are silent, lightweight, extremely efficient – 99.9% power factor, soft starting, increases lamp life and reduces lumen depreciation. They eliminate the need for conversion lamps or multiple light systems. MH lamps are better suited for seedlings and vegetation stages, while HPS lamps promotes fruiting and flowering.

Dimmable Features

50% 75% 100% and 110%

E-Ballast Features

• Extruded aluminum housing is engineered to dissipate heat and keep the components cool.
• Resin-sealed case for completely silent operation
• Resettable circuit breaker for short circuit protection.
• Wire core 120/240V compatible
• Completely silent and lightweight
• Operates both HPS & MH lamps
• Extremely efficient – 99% power factor
• Detachable power cord that allows easy change over
• Available in 250, 400, 600, and 1000 Watts
• 5-YEAR WARRANTY — 3 year full + 2 year prorated

There are some pretty cool resources available on the internet for helping out with all those nutrient questions and calculations. Below are a few that we use and we thought we’d bring them together in one post — the first few are strictly nutrient charts and lastly is a tool that helps with common hydroponics calculations.  Enjoy!

1. Botanicare Nutrient Charts: We have taken the pdf of the nutrient chart provided by Botanicare and uploaded it to Hydroponics Unlimited so that it is easily accessible: Check it out at http://hydroponicsunlimited.com/mm5/nutrientfeedsched_PALM.html

2. General Hydroponics Nutrient Chart: Not only does General Hydroponics provide a basic display of their nutrients, but they also have a fully functional application with Nutrient System, System Type, Water Type, Program Level and Feeding Schedule.  Check it out at http://www.generalhydroponics.com/calculator/index.html

3. Advanced Nutrients Calculator: Advanced Nutrients has a nice nutrient calculator: Check it out at http://www.advancednutrients.com/hydroponics/calc/

4. Canna Nutrients: Canna has some great resources that help you use their products: Check it out at http://www.canna-uk.com/grow_info

5. Hydroponics Dictionary: Hydroponics Dictionary has a handy application that does common hydroponics calculations: Check it out at http://hydroponicsdictionary.com/hydroponics-tools/

Check it out, Proper Plant Conditions from Beginning to End all in one page.  What we have been using for years now is available to all and you can print out as many copies as you like and plaster them all over your indoor garden.  Download the PDF below and also below is a image sample of the PDF.  You can always access the pdf via http://hydroponicsunlimited.com as well.

Download Proper Plant Conditions (pdf)