Phresh Filters and Phresh Pre Filters just added to Hydroponics Unlimited.  All sizes, and as always discounted from the msrp price.  Presh Filters are the best around and there are sizes to fit all needs and keep you growing:

1) Aluminum tops and bases for reduced weight. Half the weight of competitive filters.
2) 6mm (1.8″) RC-48 activated, certified virgin carbon bed.
3) Machine packed carbon means more carbon and less movement.
4) Cone shaped internal base for optimum air flow.
5) Sealed, bagged, boxed and labeled directly after being manufactured for optimum life span, handling and presentation.
6) 51% open air custom mesh.
7) Unique Anti Air Bypass System.
Large selection of sizes available to fit any application.
9) Flange & prefilter included.
Get ‘em now at hydroponicsunlimited.com

One of the major benefits of hydroponics is that you can grow anywhere and anytime of the year. I recently stumbled across a project called Window Farms from www.windowfarms.org.  Basically the concept behind them is that you can grow indoors in any space, but specifically in spaces without a lot of room.  See below:

“Researchers have argued that to grow some of his own food is the most effective action an individual can take for environment, not only because of the food industry’s heavy carbon footprint but also because participating in agricultural production cultivates a valuable skill set around sustainability issues.

Many neighborhoods (particularly low income ones) in cities aroun the world are considered food deserts, meaning little fresh food is easily accessible. Residents tend to consume processed, packaged, and canned food having depleated nutrients.

Few other projects provide opportunities for such direct personal involvement, make this productive use of existing construction, or so directly target urban dwellers estranged from agricultural issues.

Inner city dwellers can grow their own food in their apartment or office windows throughout the year by means of these elegant, inexpensive, vertical, hydroponic vegetable gardens made from recycled materials or items available at the local hardware store. The first system produced 25 plants and a salad a week in mid winter in a dimly lit 4’ x 6’ NYC window.”

If you go to www.windowfarms.org you can download instructions for creating a kit.  It’s just a great thing to see hydroponics growing to all areas and new ideas for growing spreading.

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.

At Hydroponics Unlimited we have some very cool promotions going on right now;

15% Off Gravity

15% Off Purple Maxx

15% Off Botanicare Power Clone

15% Off Floraliscious Grow

Beyond that we have great prices for all your hydroponics needs and an extensive range of products to help you grow successfully.

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…

Hydroponics Unlimited is now stocking .25L size in Rhizotonic, Cannazym and PK 13/14, so you can give each a try without diving in. Canna offers great nutrients and has a awesome reputation. With these new sizes it is worth checking out!

Hydroponics Nutrients from Humboldt County’s Own now recently added to Hydroponics Unlimited’s inventory!  Humboldt County Bush Master, Humboldt County Purple Maxx and Humboldt County Gravity.

Bush Master: BushMaster speed shifts plants into bloom by eliminating the stretch phase of the growth cycle.  Advanced growers are using BushMaster as a shape shifter.  By applying early in the grow cycle plants can develop tight baseball shaped or popsicle shaped clusters of flowers so more plants can be grown in a smaller area.  Contains no carcinogens or toxic chemicals. PLANTS FINISH 7-10 DAYS SOONER!

Purple Maxx (Snow Storm): NO DYES, NO TRICKS, 100% ORGANIC! From Stacker to Trichomax to Purple Maxx Snow Storm, this name has evolved to describe a product so incredible that it couldn’t be developed intentionally but had to be discovered accidentally.  Works well in soil or hydro, indoors or out.  Channels your favorite nutrients to maximize flower and color development.

Gravity (Flower Hardener): Takes your flowers beyond anything achievable through fertilizer alone.  Substantial weight gains are routine.  Outrageous gains are not unusual.  You can feel the difference.  No more slow finishes.  Forces flowers toward complete development.  Just 1 or 2 treatments in late bloom.  Works with all popular nutrients.