Lighting systems for growing indoors and hydroponics have grown intensively more in tune with the needs of hydroponic growers and gone are the days of lighting your garden with standard bulbs.

Available now are a range of bulbs to use depending on your needs for intensity of output and spectrum of light.  Light intensity is measured in lumens — 1 lumen = 1 candlefoot of light (amount of light on one candle at one foot distance). Estimates show that the average amount of lumens per square foot should be within the 2000 range.  Spectrum is the range of colors that the light produces.  Plants need a variety of spectrum depending, from red/orange to blue/green — red for budding and blue for vegetative growth.

Right now on the market there are HID and Florescent bulbs to choose from.  Florescent will get the job done, but the intensity of the light is lacking and the light would have to remain a few inches away from the plant to get the best results.  Florescent bulbs are great for the home hydroponic garden as they are cheaper or the person new to hydroponics.  HID (High Intensity Discharge) bulbs are more expensive, both to purchase and to run, but the results are worth the cost for the serious grower.  HID works by shooting a current into the bulb and when a certain voltage is hit, gas sparks creating arc light.  HID gives off a mixed spectrum of light making them a great choice for hydroponics and indoor gardening.

There are also new developments using LED lights that Nasa has been experimenting with.  This could one of the best things to hit the hydroponics lighting market and could push both florescent and HID to the brink of extinction — but only time will tell.

A little more on bulbs…

You can put any bulb in any hood, but you need to make sure that your ballast wattage matches your bulb wattage. Depending on the wattage of your bulb, you want to make sure that the plant is positioned at the right distance from the bulb (1000 watt=2 feet, 600 watt=18 inches, 400 watt=12 inches, 250 watt=12 inches). You want to have at least 100 watts per plant. Grow bulbs last an average of 1 to 1.5 years. Grow bulbs are specifically engineered for growing and are tuned to the color spectrum for plants to grow.

The best bulb for white ballasts is Hortilux, while for digital ballasts the best bulb is Ushio. T5 modern fluorescents with smaller tubing come in cool white and warm white. Cool white is best for vegetation and the warm white is best for flowering. You can also mix cool/warm/cool/warm/cool/warm within your hood for full spectrum light. These bulbs are only sold at grow stores. Metal Halide bulbs are for vegetation growth and has a blue spectrum. HPS (High Pressure Sodium) bulbs provide for more flower production with its red spectrum making flowers grow faster. If you have any questions or are unsure of the right bulb for your growing purposes, contact us.

Check out our Artificial Lighting Guide for more information…

Some very useful information for all growers out there.  We at Hydroponics Unlimited put this together to help you determine proper plant conditions from beginning to end.

Download the jpg here…

Stumbled across a few time lapse videos of plants growing, thought I would share.

The holidays are quickly upon us and then the end of the year.  The holiday season always sneaks up on us and comes with a wrath of emotions and expressions.  Then it’s on to New Years resolutions and what we’ll do next year that we should’ve done this year.  The same cycle happens every year, but this years a bit different.  We’ve hit a down turn in the economy — it’s affected everybody.  We’ve also brought the idea of health care and how it should be handled to the forefront.  No matter which side of the aisle you sit, it is very obvious that changes need to be made in policy towards health care… or do they? 

 I was reading today an article in Urban Garden Magazine entitled “Food for Thought” and it brought up some interesting points, but also pointed the health problems in America–obesity, cancer, and so forth right back at us, the consumer.  “Nutrition as it is today, does not supply the strength necessary for manifesting the spirit in the physical life. A bridge can no longer be built from thinking to will and action.  Food plants can no longer contain the forces people need for this.” (Steiner, The Agriculture Course)  Food has become about quantity over quality.  “Take, for example, the tomato.  If we could only compare a tomato today versus a tomato 100 years ago on a scale of nutrient density, we would see a dramatic difference in the two pieces of fruit; the 100 year old fruit being much more healthy and nutrient dense.” (Urban Garden Magazine) Now there’s no way to test such a statement, but what it brought to my attention was the need to pay more attention to what we are fueling our bodies with. 

Science has advanced and has let us grow the most perfect fruits and vegetables year around no matter the climate, but we are still fueling our bodies with junk food. Now it’s nearly impossible for a busy household to grow and maintain enough food for them to live without buying outside resources, but if everyone took a deeper look at how they could fit producing fresh fruit and vegetables into their daily life we may solve health care.  I have no hard evidence or scientific studies, well not on hand at least, but as always said, to eat healthy avoid the black hole in the middle of supermarkets–shop the outside.  Better yet, why not grow the outside yourself.  Hydroponics has allowed for the rapid growth of food year round and with less space.  So how does this bring us back to the holidays and the new year?  Maybe it’s time to re-evaluate how we get our food and what we fuel our bodies with.  I’m not saying cut off from society and start a community farm, but every bit helps and with technology and innovation it’s easier and more available than ever before. 

If you haven’t hear of hydroponics, check it out.  Google it and read about it.  Beyond being more sustainable, the hydroponics practice is often more energy efficient and more environmentally aware.  There are a ton of great resources out there.  So when you’re thinking about the holidays this year, take a look at hydroponics, it’s something everyone can get behind and can bring communities together.

Advanced Nutrients Monkey Juice Bloom and Grow is no longer available and no longer produced by Advanced Nutrients, but we here at Hydroponics Unlimited have extra inventory and at killer prices.  4 Litre – $26.95 and 1 Litre – $15.50.  You can’t beat those prices and there’s only a few left.  Click below for available juice.

Monkey Juice Grow Part B 4L

Monkey Juice Grow Part A 4L

Monkey Juice Bloom Part B 1L

Monkey Juice Bloom Part A 1L

Monkey Juice Bloom Part B 4L

Monkey Juice Bloom Part A 4L

There are variety of hydroponics systems and choosing which is best comes down to personal choice, well at least to a certain regard. The four main systems are the drip/sprinkler system, the flood and drain or ebb and flow system, the nutrient film technique, and aeroponics. But there is yet another that is little discussed or promoted, but from our experience has the best results while saving money and being more conscious of the environment—Top Feed Systems.

First let me explain each of the other techniques and then I’ll tell you about Top Feed Systems—how they differ and why they are the best bang for your buck.

1. The Drip or Sprinkler System: This system “involves dripping or spraying nutrient water around plant roots that are held in place by clay pellets, gravel, rockwool, sawdust, or peat mixes. One of the advantages is that the dripping or spraying nutrient carries a constant supply of air between droplets. In addition, the drips or sprays are timed to allow air-breathing cycles” (How to Supercharge Your Garden, 114)

The overall key to this system is that the roots must remain moist and if any of the drip systems get blocked or malfunction the roots can dry out very fast and the plant can die out very quickly.

2. The Ebb and Flow System: This system involves flooding the roots at regular intervals. There is a floodable area, a tray, that raises and lowers the nutrient rich water around the plant roots. The plants are usually held with some sort of soilless medium. The question that arises with Ebb and Flow is how often to submerse the plant’s roots within the nutrient rich water. “The reason for the flooding is only to keep the nutrient and air constantly moving over the roots.”(How to Supercharge Your Garden, 115) A good rule of thumb is to not submerse the plant’s roots for more than 30 minutes at a time and depending on the medium the plant is held in, this should be done hourly or daily. Problems with this system include, water pooling, standing water, pest problems, algae and mold. You must keep a close eye on this system.

3. Nutrient Film Technique (NFT): “is basically running a constant thin film of nutrient water across the roots on a sloped gutter or pipe. The film of water must be thin enough to be able to carry a film of air along with it. The roots are not held but each plant is supported in a collar with roots hanging into the gutter or pipe.” (How to Supercharge Your Garden, 116)

NFT systems are inconsistent in providing the right amount of water and nutrients vs. oxygen and can vary from plant to plant within the system. You must keep a close eye on the roots to make sure they are receiving enough oxygen. “The browner the roots are, the more they need oxygen.” (How to Supercharge Your Garden, 116)

4. Aeroponic systems use no growing medium. Roots are suspended in a dark growth chamber where they are misted with oxygen-rich nutrient solution at regular intervals. Only air and nutrient solution fill the growth chamber. Aeroponic systems require greater attention to detail but offer extremely high performance.

So we’ve gone through the most common systems used when growing hydroponically, but as I mentioned before there is one more that we at Hydroponics Unlimited have found to out do the others—the Top Feed System. Very similar to a drip system, but with Top Feed Systems, water and nutrients are fed from the top producing 10% more yield using 30-40% less water and nutrients — the greenest way to grow and the way Hydroponics Unlimited recommends. There are no major distributors of top feed systems , but at Hydroponics Unlimited we have begun building customized systems using state of the art materials that can turn any set up into a Top Feed System.

So I was flipping through a magazine the other day, and came across a great article on the “Relative Efficiency of Light Bulbs.”  We love hydroponics, but we’re always looking for information and ways of making hydroponics “greener” than it already is.  We started manufacturing Top Feed Systems for this very reason.  It has really cut down on our energy costs, which in turn helps the environment.  Anyway, back to lighting.  So it all comes down to lumens — measure of light intensity hitting a surface.  Household bulbs are measured in Watts, but when growing we care about Lumens (and lumens give us the most bang for our buck).  So they compared 6 types of light bulbs; incandescent, mercury, fluorescent, fusion sulphur, metal halide and high pressure sodium (HPS).  The 100 watt incandescent bulb shining 1 foot away from an object will put roughly 175 lumens, but 100 watt mercury will produce 600 lumens.  Put a 100 watt HPS bulb in the same circumstances and we’re talking 1,400 lumens.  So in conclusion High Intensity Discharge bulbs may cost more, but you’re getting a lot more bang for your buck and your plants will appreciate you more.  Lastly, here is the relative efficiency for the 6 bulbs types I mentioned above.  Incandescent: 8% efficiency; Mercury: 29% efficiency; Fluorescent: 38% efficiency; Fusion Sulphur: 44% efficiency; Metal Halid: 45-57% efficiency; and the big winner, High Pressure Sodium: 64% efficiency.  

Original Soure: How to Supercharge Your Garden

I stumbled upon a section on Co2 in the “How to Supercharge Your Garden” book written by Graham Reinders and illustrated by Marseene Mainly. I thought I’d share a piece of the chapter as it kind of made me laugh inside, but also displays our innate relationship with nature and the plants that we grow. See below and enjoy;

“People laughed when it was claimed that playing music to plants made them grow better.  It really did because the sound vibrations actually strengthen the stem fibers, shorten the internode length, and cause stress growth reactions  from the plants.”

(Go figure.  I wonder which genres produce best results.  It might depend on the plant…)

“Then people laughed when it was claimed that singing to plants made them grow better.  However, it is true.  The CO2 from human breath actually makes plants grow faster.  If you and a few gardeners stay in the indoor garden area during the light period, the plants would do very well.”

(So I’m not that crazy after all.  I knew my tomatoes loved a morning serenade.)

“It is thought that the massive plants that developed millions of years ago had lived in an environment with much more carbon dioxide in it.  In their evolution, the plants will maintained the capacity to use much more carbon dioxide than the world has now.”

(So create more CO2? Not so sure on this one…)

“Luckily in smoggy cities, the CO2 level can be as high as 500 PPM, and by just having a good circulating fan, the plants should have enough CO2 for a medium-light indoor garden.”

(Yes luckily.  And we’re located just outside of LA, so we’re very lucky!  So smog is good?)

“A high-light garden with the carbon dioxide amount increased from an ambient level of 300 PPM to a high level of 2,000 PPM can nearly double plant growth.”

(Bring on the Co2)

This book is a great resource and walks you through a number of areas dealing with both growing in general and hydroponics.  A must read for anyone interested in growing.

Check it out…

A pretty cool video from Discovery on growing Lettuce using hydroponics.