As some of you may have noticed, something unique happened last week.  I missed my first post in the history of the site.  I've always been very reliable about posting updates, and I've always taken pride in never missing a post.  Last week was a first for me.

Sadly, I'm starting to realize that I no longer have the time that I once did.  My time has become consumed with more pressing pursuits lately, and I simply don't have time to write the quality and quantity that I would prefer.  I've put a lot of time into Hydroponics Tuesday.  I regret that I no longer have the luxury of copious free time. 

However, there is a bit more to the story...

That's an ultrasound image... After several years of attempts, it looks like we're going to have a child. Our best guess for the due-date will be in March, 2009.  We plan on moving to a larger home before too much longer, so that we have plenty of space when our new family member arrives.  We have a lot to do in the coming months.

We're looking at a lot of changes in the new future, and I realize in advance that I won't be able to maintain Hydroponics Tuesday at the same level that I've done in the past.  I have no intention of shutting down the site, but I also know that I won't be able to post at the same frequency that I have in the past.

This is an invitation to the regulars here at the site... If you've ever wanted to contribute to the community, it's an opportune time to start.  I'll try to continue posting, but guest editors are more than welcome to join the party.  I'll be posting higher resolution scans of the ultrasound on our personal site, www.barnyardbbs.com.  Best wishes to all.

I realize that my posts are usually better when I have more time to research and write.  However, this week it's just not going to be that way...  The real world has imposed upon my time, and this week's column is going to be rather brief.  Regardless, we've got some updates from the growing room.

A few weeks ago, we moved all our strawberries outside into an aeroponic unit.  I don't know how long we'll be able to keep them out there, but at this point, I'm hoping for Halloween.  The unit that we have isn't heated, but the reservoir is buried in order to give some stability of temperature.

The largest plant is producing lots of runners.  We're taken two runner cuttings, and are trying to start new plants from them.  Although they don't look all that happy, they are six days from cutting (and still alive).  In fairness, I was pretty dumb.  I've got cloning gel sitting on the shelf, and I didn't use it.  We'll wait and see what happens:

Ok... Time for the orchid.  As some of you saw in last week's post, our pet orchid is starting to bloom once again.  Normally this takes longer, but in this instance, it's bloomed again after only four months.  We're surprised.  Although we really like the orchid, none of us are experts on orchid biology.

Our orchid is from a very rare and special orchid nursery.  It's a Phalaenopsis, and it comes from the genus Homus Depotus.  Yes.  That's right.  Home Depot.  We get questions all the time about where we get our plants.  In all truth, this fellow was just picked up at Home Depot.  It didn't do very well, and was about to die.  Since we didn't have anything to lose, we tossed it in the Ebb & Flow system, just to see what happened.  It's been a few years now, and hydroponics is the best thing to ever happen to it.

Here's the latest bloom photo:

Lastly, we need to discuss the cantaloupe...

It's pretty big these days.  Since we don't have a "proper" support system for such a viney plant, we've just trained it around the light stand.  It's cohabitating with a tomato plant under a 400W HPS light.

It's really turning into quite the wall of biomass.  We've got lots of flowers, many of which we've already fertilized.  Here's a closeup of the future... Future cantaloupe.

We have some interesting news to report this week regarding our Phalaenopsis orchid. It's getting ready to bloom once more...

This is both interesting and mildly amazing.  It bloomed for almost six weeks back in March. Normally, we wouldn't expect it to bloom again quite so soon.  However, we've had great success with this little orchid.  I guess we shouldn't be so surprised.

For those of you that haven't heard the story... This orchid was nearly dead when we first got it.  We decided to "toss it" in the hydroponic tank as a last chance.  We didn't know if orchids would tolerate growing in a hydroponic system.  We gave it a shot, simply because the plant was already considered lost.  The little orchid really took to growing in our MegaGarden.  In fact, it's grown to be quite happy and healthy.  We've fed it a combination of Technaflora and House & Garden throughout it's life.  Both have been very favorable.  I can't site any scientific reason for the nutrient switch... I'm simply all out of Technaflora, but still have plenty of House & Garden in stock.

Here's a fresh photo of our little fellow:

Also, I've got a followup to previous posts... We've mentioned STG (Sure To Grow) in earlier articles.  STG is a relatively new lightweight growing medium.  They sent us some samples for evaluation, and we've been playing with it in the growing lab.

It's been long enough now that I feel comfortable commenting on it.  We've been trying it as an aeroponic medium using both cantaloupe and tomato as sample plants.  It's worked really well.  We didn't know how it would react in an aeroponic environment; so we tested it the old fashioned way.

I'm really pleased with the results.  It's stable, strong, and working very well.  Here's a photo from the base of our tomato plant:

The STG has kept the water contained nicely.  The top always stays very dry, and there isn't any sign whatsover of algae.  It's really working well.  The tomato was started in a "small block" (roughly rockwool sized).  Once it took root, the "small block" was placed into the center of a "larger block".  The plant expanded into the larger block.  Finally, we placed the entire larger block into a 6" net pot for the aeroponic unit.  We simply filled the remainder with their "loose fill" version of STG.  It plugged the gaps really well.  We're pleased with the results. 

Since most of our growing systems are currently down for maintenance, this week's post will be a bit shorter than usual...

As I'm the first to admit; cantaloupe is a new experience for me.  Thus far, it appears to be very low maintenance, and is growing at a very rapid rate.  As of this week, it's crossed the light stand completely, and is working it's way back again.  I'm pretty impressed with the progress.  Here's a photo to put it all in perspective:

Additionally, the cantaloupe has a ton of flowers.  We're fertilized a good bit of them, but haven't gotten them all yet.  At this point, it looks like we'll be having lots of fruit in the coming weeks and months.  Also, although I don't have the science to back it up, the cantaloupe's reservoir has been very pH stable.  Admittedly, I used House and Garden Nutrients (in my opinion, they are the most pH stable).  However, I literally haven't made an adjustment in weeks.  I'm impressed.

Also, I'd like to revisit the topic of outdoor aeroponics.  We ended up moving all of our strawberry crop outside.  I've got mixed feelings on the experiment.  The plants are doing much better than I expected.  It looks like root-zone temperature isn't as critical as I once believed.  However, some of them do have problems; and the insects are always a trouble.  I'm not sure if I recommend it, but here's how it looks today:

Please note... I don't know how long we'll "get away" with outdoor aeroponics in the fall.  At some point, we'll be forced to bring the plants back inside.  Hydroponics Tuesday originates in Delaware.  Our winters are fairly long and cold. 

This week, we've got a trip report from our own Max Parker.  He's recently returned from the MaximumYield expo, and he's got a lot to tell us.  For those of you unfamilar with Maximum Yield, it's a magazine which happens to host some of the largest industry events.  I visited the convention in Orlando, FL last year, and met with great success.

Ok.  On to the report. 

"I've had a really busy weekend. I've seen so much new technology and met a variety of people. I'm confident I've made some very good friends.

The 5th annual San Francisco Indoor Gardening Expo featured many new companies and technology.

I visited every booth I could for two days and I came out with a load of new information and contacts.

General Hydroponics 

The FloraNova line is a highly concentrated line of nutrients, including both FloraNova Grow and FloraNova Bloom. Both grow and bloom are easy to use one-part nutrients which are [Paraphrased] "Given the strength and concentration of dry nutrients but the ease of liquid form."

KoolBloom Combo consists of Liquid KoolBloom and Dry KoolBloom. Liquid Koolbloom promotes good flowering, fruiting, and production of many other blossom boosters. Dry Koolbloom is used in the final stages of flowering and fruiting to promote healthy, aromatic and fat fruit. It promotes flowering late in the stage, as well.

Subculture B is a bacillus root-inoculant. It's a wonderfully rich blend teeming with beneficial bacteria and microorganisms. The bacteria, fungi, and microorganisms colonize root-zone and media to promote healthy root-growth which helps with the uptake of nutrients to the plant.

Botanicare 

Liquid Karma is a "Bio-catalyst Plant Stimulant" which means it activates steady and accelerated growth because of it's high metabolic activity.

Pure Blend Pro Grow/Bloom is a one-part grow and bloom nutrient containing a large number of main, minor, and trace minerals and other essentials for good growth.

HydroGuard is a biological water treatment used for the purpose of deterring and resisting Damping-off.

Clearex is a salt leaching solution which binds with excess salts, leaching them from the growing medium.

Cal-Mag Plus is a concotion of Calcium, Magnesium, and Iron. These three elements are some of the most important factors in a plant's health and vitality. From Botanicare

Sweet is a supplement containing carbohydrates and other elements to sweeten the flavor and aroma of fruit.

Humboldt Nutrients 

Humboldt Grow, Bloom, and Micro are a line of standard nutrients for all stages of a plant's life. It's designed for use in all growing mediums from hydroton to soil to coco.

Humboldt Roots is used for the expansion, health, and vitality of a plant's roots during critical growth stages.

Big Up Powder is designed to give your plants one last boost in the flowering stage for extra energy.

Prozyme is a concentrated mixture of 80 beneficial enzymes. Enzymes break down organic matter for later absorption.

Grotek 

VitaMax is a B vitamin supplement for healthy root system, big blooming, flowering, and fruiting. It can be used for rooting, cloning, and transplanting, similar to regular B1.

Solotek is an organic-based, one-part, any media nutrient. It comes in both Grow and Bloom, both containing high NPK content.

Bloom Fuel gives plants a push in the right direction by signaling them when it's time to flower.

Heavy bloom contains Amino Acids, Carbs, and other goodies to increase the weight, density, and lusciousness of your flower and fruit.

Monster bloom lengthens the period in which a plant can flower and helps a plant to bud, flower, and set fruit. It has a number of uses which aid plants during the flowering cycle.

Blossom Blaster aids bud development. By adding it before flowers bloom, it provides them with essential nutrients, resulting in large, healthy blossoms.

Cutting Edge Solutions 

Grow, Bloom, and Micro are all part of a nutrient line developed and tested to function flawlessly in Northern California despite "A wide range of water-quality issues and diverse microclimates." These conditions make it very difficult to grow hydroponically and these nutrients have been acclimated to work under a number of different difficulties and problems.

Uncle John's Blend. This definitely came from the Grateful Dead! It's used as a stress reducer, to boost flower and fruit production, and alleviate nutrient deficiencies.

Plant Amp is a pure Calcium chelate, chelated to improve a plant's ability to abosrb the Calcium itsself. Calcium helps the development of the cell wall and cellulose, and to amplify hormone signals, resulting in better growth response.

Mag-Amped is pure Magnesium chelate, which, like Plant Amp, is chelated for better absorption. Magnesium is used mainly in the production of chlorophyll, but far too often Magnesium causes lockout of other elements. Magnesium should be used when a plant isn't receiving enough light.

House & Garden (Van De Zwaan) 

Aqua Flakes A&B help keep the nutrient water of your system clean and pure while the balanced nutrient levels ensure maximum nutrient uptake. The purity of these nutrients help keep PH balanced and nutrient fallout at an incredible low.

Drip Clean bonds with excess nutrient salts to keep them from clogging your system and harming your plants.

Top Booster is used for the flowering stage. It tricks the plant, making it think it's close to the last stage of it's life cycle. What then happens to the plant is it flowers and fruits quickly and efficiently, thinking it has to produce seeds to ensure survival by reproducing.

Shooting powder starts a new flowering cycle after the regular one which can increase output by up to 20%. It can create a whole new layer on top of the existing fruit.

Magic Green is a foliar spray which, when used, creates a waxy film coating on the leaves which can prevent damage from many different pests and mold.

Bud XL uses a plant's own sugar to sweeten the blossom and fruit. Bud XL uses enzymatic process to extract sugar from the bract which is late stored in the fruit.

Multizyme strengthens a plant's immunity and makes the growing process simpler for a plant.

Roots Excelurator promotes explosive root growth, fixes a number of root problems and diseases, and will help a root system with nutrient uptake.

DNF 

Grow A&B/Bloom A&B are base nutrients developed for symbiotic use with additives and enrichment. Naturally, the first part of each is weaker than the second. Successive nutrition is the key to these nutrients.

Technaflora 

PuraVida Organic Nutrient Grow/Bloom are an organic nutrient for use in any media. It's supposedly fixed many of the problems with organic nutrients, such as Fallout, clogging, and "organic" smells. I hope that these claims are more than just claims.

Editor's Note: This is especially interesting to me, as there are very few totally organic nutrients in the marketplace.  I discussed organics back in February, and the selection was tiny.  I've always been a big supporter of Technaflora, and I'm really excited to see this addition to the line.

MagiCal is a Magnesium, Calcium, and Iron solution. Used with a regular growing schedule, these elements can help fix numerous nutrient deficiencies.

Dyna-Gro 

As stated here, Dyna-Gro is apparently the only "complete" nutrient on the market. What this means is that it contains all trace elements beneficial to plants, without any lockout in the bottle.

Grow/Bloom are formulated in a very special way. A plant can only absorb a certain amount of nutrients, and there can only be a certain amount of nutrient before there's nutrient lockout. These nutrients are made with the perfect amount for a plant to absorb and just enough before there's any lockout.

K-L-N is a rooting concentrate that can be used for a variety of different root purposes.

Protekt is a silicon solution used for thicker cell walls and better cellulose production. If used regularly, it will protect your plant against pests and disease quite well.

3D 

Rx Grow/Bloom are relatively new organic nutrients. They come in dry form, and are designed to eliminate problems associated with organic nutrients, such as fallout and clogging.

FoxFarm 

Open Sesame, Beastie Bloomz, and Cha-Ching are organic based soluble granular bloom-nutrients. They are all used for the flowering stage of a plant, and they all have different but important purposes. Open Sesame is for the early blossoming stage, Beastie Bloomz for heavy flowering and juicy fruit, and Cha-ching is the late flowering stage nutrient to get the most out of your blossoms and fruit.

Peace of mind is a tomato and vegetable slow-release fertilizer. It contains a lot of goodies and can do veggies a lot of good.

PlantLife Products 

Suck it up is a penetrating agent with a color pH indicator. While some products force open the Stoma of a leaf allowing pathogens in, Suck it up allows absorption through the space in epithelial cells.

Prop-o-Gator is used to increase the success rate of newly-rooted clones. Apply as soon as a root appears and you will see explosive root growth.

BioBizz 

Bio Grow and Bio Bloom are standard grow and bloom nutrients containing amino acids, micronutrients, and soil bioactivators.

Sure To Grow 

We've discussed Sure To Grow several times in the past.  It's a sterile, inert, pH neutral seed-starting media. It has uses for seed starting, sprouting, and as a growing media.

Grodan 

Coco-Dan Coco Mix is a high quality coco coir enhanced with worm castings. It is young, has small fibers, and is rinsed with fresh water to remove salt.

Coco-Dan Coco Croutons are a coconut-husk alternative to hydroton or rocks. They provide excellent organic aeration, drainage, and mulching properties. They are low in salt and their porous structure will allow roots to grow into them.

Super Starts 

Plant Tissue Culture is incredibly underrated, and I'm extremely interested in it's practice. I received a common pitcher plant growing in tissue culture substrate. Tissue culture allows a plant to be cloned from a small segment of plant tissue.

Summary 

This expo displayed an abundance of new technology and nutrients. After speaking to several people stationed at different booths, all I can say is that there's a lot to come in the world of indoor gardening.

Unrelated followup...

Back in the grow room, our cantaloupe is doing just fine.  We've gotten our first flowers this week.  Since it's just not Hydroponics Tuesday without a picture, here's one of the new flowers:

Sadly, it's going to be a short post this week.  We've got a good portion of the growing units out-of-commission, so we don't have all that much to report.  However, we do have some good news to report... Our own Max Parker has returned from the recent Maximum Yield expo.  We'll be posting a full write-up in next week's post.  We're still gathering our material.

However, we do have some news from the garden this week... I'm the first one to admit that I have no experience with growing melon; so this is all new to me.  We're growing a cantaloupe at the moment, and it's really growing. It's growing about 9" each and every day.  I never knew that cantaloupe was a climbing vine...  Shows what I know.  Take a look at this fellow climbing the light stand:

I'm not sure how far it's going to go... We're training it along the light stand, and then across some support twine.  Here's a shot from a different angle:

As you can see from last week, it's gotten to be a very big plant in a hurry.  Updates to follow.  I expect that next week should be pretty busy. 

We don't have anything earth shattering to report this week... Rather, we simply have stable progress to show.  If you're read our previous posts, you may have seen our recent experiments with STG (Sure To Grow) media.  At the moment, we have a tomato and a cantaloupe growing in the media as an experiment.  Both plants are growing aeroponically, in our own home-built units.

When compared to last week, you can see that our cantaloupe has grown quite a bit:

Also, the tomato is progressing as well...

We're growing both plants in independent reservoirs.  Both plants are using House and Garden nutrients.  I've always been pleased with House and Garden.  It has very little "fall out" when compared to everything else (except possibly Technaflora).  House and Garden and Technaflora are the best on the market, when it comes to "staying in solution".

The photo above gives a good detail of the Sure to Grow media... We've packed the fluffy "loose fill" media around one of their standard cubes.  Thus far, it's been very good as an aeroponic medium.  The top stays dry, and the plant seems happy with it.

I took a quick look under the hood, just to show the root growth thus far... Take a look:

The small white roots are growing down into the chamber.  Despite appearances, the "loose fill" has done a really good job at staying in position.  We can't offer a full report yet, but thus far, we've been pretty happy with the results. 

I've recently become intrigued with STG (Sure To Grow) media.  It's been featured in the last few posts.  Interestingly enough, it's the primary focus of this post as well.  Thus far, our results have been good.  We're trying something totally new this week.  As far as I know, we may be the first people using Sure To Grow as an aeroponic growing medium.  We've set up two single-site aeroponic units, both loaded with Sure To Grow media.  Here's a photo of a little tomato, nested in Sure To Grow:

The tomato plant started in a very small cube, which in turn was placed into a larger (roughly 3"x3" cube).  We've placed the larger cube into the aeroponic pot, then filled the surrounding space with Sure To Grow's loose-fill media.  The loose media works well as a filler in the pot, and has worked well thus far.  It's lighter weight than hydroton by a good margin.  Additionally, it doesn't put off any of the "sand" associated with hydroton.  Hydroton is a clay media.  When hydroton is disturbed, it sheds a sandy clay from rubbing.

Here's a closer view:

Here's the really interesting part... The top layer of the Sure To Grow has stayed completely dry... Although the lower part is continuously sprayed, the top is dry.  The tomato seems happy.  So far, so good.

Our second plant is a baby cantaloupe. I'll admit that I have absolutely zero experience with cantaloupes, but we're giving it a try anyway.  Our second unit is a DIY aeroponic system, prepped for a single site.  We've followed a very similar process...  The cantaloupe is planted in a large cube.  The large cube is placed in the net pot, surrounded with the loose fill material.  The loose fill has contained the water nicely.

No signs of algae yet... We'll see what happens as the plants grow up.  Both plants are under an 400W HPS light at the moment.  They should probably be under a Metal Halide, but since I don't have any available at the moment, HPS will have to do...

The growing room is up to full power again... We're pulling a LOT of amps. 

I've been working with STG (Sure To Grow) media lately, and I have a few new thoughts to relay on the subject.  For those of you not yet familiar with Sure To Grow, here is a brief introduction:

Sure To Grow is a growing medium for hydroponics that somewhat resembles a cross between cotton and fiberglass insulation.  It comes in a variety of shapes and sizes, but all of them are fundamentally the same material.  It is somewhat unique in construction.  Although it is dense enough to retain water, it still has a large amount of air-space in the medium.  It's interesting stuff.

A few weeks ago, I started some seeds in the small (roughly one inch) cubes.  They work similarly to rockwool.  In fact, I'd suspect that rockwool is the biggest competitor for Sure To Grow.  Just recently, we've transferred the small cubes into larger cubes.  Sure To Grow offers a unique "stepping" size.  Take a look below for an example.  The small cube in the center is where each plant was started initially.  These days, the roots are speading into the larger blocks.

The larger blocks behave a bit differently than their smaller counterparts.  The larger cubes manage to retain water in their lower half, but the top remains dry.  For reference, my samples are sitting in an ebb & flow system with a one inch flood.  I like that the top stays dry.  This should cut down on any algae growth.

The larger cubes have a "hole" in the center.  This makes it very easy to move a small cube into a larger home.  Although it's not as obvious as I would like, you can see the small cubes in the center.  The new generation Sure To Grow has a denser construction, and is much improved from the first version.

In other news...

I've recently finished a minor modification to the DIY aeroponic system. This isn't a replacement as much as a new variant.  The sprayer system is simpler to construct than the previous version; and the overall cost should be roughly equal.  This one is intended to grow four relatively small plants in a compact unit.  

You may notice that the color of the unit is "whiter" that in many previous pictures.  There's a very good reason for this look... I've done some painting.  In an attempt to keep out more light (and in turn prevent algae growth), the exterior of the reservoir (and lid) has been sprayed with a plastic-bonding paint.  I'm pretty happy with the results.

We used some Krylon Fusion paint that we purchased at Home Depot.  It lives up to it's name.  We're very pleased with the way it bonded to the plastic of the Sortera container.

Upcoming Event:  The Maximum Yield expo will be in San Francisco on July 26th and 27th.  It's a very educational and useful show, if you happen to be in the area.  We'll be sending a correspondent, and details will follow after the expo.