Building Greenhouses Today » Greenhouse supplies

Hydroponic Lettuce – 9 Reasons You Should Grow Your Own!

admin — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 00:38:46 +0000

by Charlie Jackson

If you’re thinking of growing hydroponic lettuce then you’ve chosen probably the easiest vegetable to grow hydroponically! Hydroponic lettuce is scrumptious too and you might have a serious side line for additional income.

Hydrofarm EMSYST Emily’s Electric Garden System

Beneath are some reasons why you should grow hydroponic lettuce at home.

1. As you’re not growing them in the soil, you’re not going to have that soil flavor that is just so darn hard to wash off lettuce. You know what I’m talking about don’t you!

2. No soil borne disease will be passed on to your lettuce. This is a large dilemma for many gardeners.

3. Have you observed that slugs forever tend to go for the lettuce before anything else? Well as there’s no soil, they won’t have a chance to get anywhere close to your hydroponic lettuce. So you will not have to obtain any costly pesticides either.

4. Your management expenses will be around 20% lower after everything is set up.

5. Upkeep time is reduced. There is no need to water them as they already have access to all the vitamins they need and weeding does not exist with hydroponic gardening. In fact all you will really have to do is pick the lettuce once it’s ready.

6. For hydroponic lettuce, the growth time is usually 4 weeks! So if you plant your initial seeds once a week for four weeks, you’ll have everlasting lettuce yields.

7. Anywhere you can think of, you can grow hydroponic lettuce; on your roof, garden, living room, corridor, cellar, loft or greenhouse.

8. Your hydroponic lettuce will be approximately 40% bigger than there soil born brothers! This is because you’ll have manipulated the growing conditions to be their optimum for lettuce and they will have access to all the vitamins they require.

9. Since water is swiftly obtainable constantly, the roots do not need to spread out. This means you will be able to grow more lettuce in a smaller space despite the lettuce actually being bigger.

About the Author:

Hydroponic Lettuce is tasty and simple to grow! You can as well earn a lot of money from growing it. You ought to find out more about planting Hydroponic Lettuce At Home!

The Problem with Traditional Vegetable Gardening?

admin — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 07:11:48 +0000

By Jonathan White, environmental scientist. Traditional vegetable gardens require an enormous amount of hard work and attention – weeding, feeding and strict planting schedules. There is also the problem of seasonality, allowing beds to rest during the cooler months producing nothing at all. Then we are told to plant green manure crops, add inorganic fertilizers and chemicals to adjust imbalanced soils. It takes a lot of time, dedication and a year-round commitment to grow your own food the traditional way. But does it really need to be that difficult? Let me ask you this question. Does a forest need to think how to grow? Does its soil need to be turned every season? Does someone come along every so often and plant seeds or take pH tests? Does it get weeded or sprayed with toxic chemicals? Of course not! Traditional vegetable gardening techniques are focused on problems. Have you noticed that gardening books are full of ways to fix problems? I was a traditional gardener for many years and I found that the solution to most problems simply caused a new set of problems. In other words, the problem with problems is that problems create more problems. Let’s take a look at a common traditional gardening practice and I will show you how a single problem can escalate into a whole host of problems. Imagine a traditional vegetable garden, planted with rows of various vegetables. There are fairly large bare patches between the vegetables. To a traditional gardener, a bare patch is just a bare patch. But to an ecologist, a bare patch is an empty niche space. An empty niche space is simply an invitation for new life forms to take up residency. Nature does not tolerate empty niche spaces and the most successful niche space fillers are weeds. That’s what a weed is in ecological terms – a niche space filler. Weeds are very good colonizing plants. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t be called weeds. Now back to our story. Weeds will grow in the empty niche spaces. Quite often there are too many weeds to pick out individually, so the traditional gardener uses a hoe to turn them into the soil. I have read in many gardening books, even organic gardening books, that your hoe is your best friend. So the message we are getting is that using a hoe is the solution to a problem. However, I would like to show you how using a hoe actually creates a new set of problems. Firstly, turning soil excites weed seeds, creating a new explosion of weeds. And secondly, turning soil upsets the soil ecology. The top layer of soil is generally dry and structureless. By turning it, you are placing deeper structured soil on the surface and putting the structureless soil underneath. Over time, the band of structureless soil widens. Structureless soil has far less moisture holding capacity, so the garden now needs more water to keep the plants alive. In addition to this problem, structureless soil cannot pass its nutrients onto the plants as effectively. The garden now also needs the addition of fertilisers. Many fertilisers kill the soil biology which is very important in building soil structure and plant nutrient availability. The soil will eventually turn into a dead substance that doesn’t have the correct balance of nutrients to grow fully developed foods. The foods will actually lack vitamins and minerals. This problem has already occurred in modern-day agriculture. Dr Tim Lobstein, Director of the Food Commission said. “… today’s agriculture does not allow the soil to enrich itself, but depends on chemical fertilisers that don’t replace the wide variety of nutrients plants and humans need.” Over the past 60 years commercially grown foods have experienced a significant reduction in nutrient and mineral content. Can you see how we started with the problem of weeds, but ended up with the new problems of lower water-holding capacity and infertile soils. And eventually, we have the potentially serious problem of growing food with low nutrient content. Traditional gardening techniques only ever strive to fix the symptom and not the cause. However, there is a solution! We must use a technique that combines pest ecology, plant ecology, soil ecology and crop management into a method that addresses the causes of these problems. This technique must be efficient enough to be economically viable. It also needs to be able to produce enough food, per given area, to compete against traditional techniques. I have been testing an ecologically-based method of growing food for several years. This method uses zero tillage, zero chemicals, has minimal weeds and requires a fraction of the physical attention (when compared to traditional vegetable gardening). It also produces several times more, per given area, and provides food every single day of the year. My ecologically-based garden mimics nature in such a way that the garden looks and acts like a natural ecosystem. Succession layering of plants (just as we see in natural ecosystems) offers natural pest management. It also naturally eliminates the need for crop rotation, resting beds or green manure crops. Soil management is addressed in a natural way, and the result is that the soil’s structure and fertility get richer and richer, year after year. Another benefit of this method is automatic regeneration through self-seeding. This occurs naturally as dormant seeds germinate; filling empty niche spaces with desirable plants, and not weeds. Unfortunately, the biggest challenge this method faces is convincing traditional gardeners of its benefits. Like many industries, the gardening industry gets stuck in doing things a certain way. The ecologically-based method requires such little human intervention that, in my opinion, many people will get frustrated with the lack of needing to control what’s happening. Naturally people love to take control of their lives, but with this method you are allowing nature to take the reins. It’s a test of faith in very simple natural laws. However, in my experience these natural laws are 100% reliable. Another reason that traditional gardeners may not like this method is that it takes away all the mysticism of being an expert. You see, this method is so simple that any person, anywhere in the world, under any conditions, can do it. And for a veteran gardener it can actually be quite threatening when an embarrassingly simple solution comes along. I have no doubt that this is the way we will be growing food in the future. It’s just commonsense. Why wouldn’t we use a method that produces many times more food with a fraction of the effort? I know it will take a little while to convince people that growing food is actually very instinctual and straightforward, but with persistence and proper explanation, people will embrace this method. Why? Because sanity always prevails… …eventually! Jonathan White is an Environmental Scientist and the founder of the Food4Wealth Method. For more information see www.Food4Wealth.com

Algreen 81112 50-Gallon Agua Rain Water Collection and Storage System, Dark Brown

admin — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 21:42:22 +0000

Another Algreen rain water collection system with 5 Star reviews. This one is a dark brown if that matches your needs better. It has 50 gallons of storage for those areas that get enough rain to capture and use for their greenhouse watering needs. This one has a great value price too.

Fiskars 5998 Salsa 58-Gallon Rain Harvesting System, Spice Granite

admin — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 21:18:48 +0000

Save 30% today on this great Rain Harvesting System.

Listen to what just one customer had to say, “Fantastic. I love this product I purchased 2 and am seriously thinking of getting another 1 or 2. I have 6 down spouts and could harvest a great deal of water for my gardens. I have several gardens and am a Master Gardener.”

Dramm ULVA+ Sprayer with Battery and Recharger

admin — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 21:01:18 +0000

This is a portable and lightweight sprayer for use in outdoor row crops or flowers. It has a low volume and ultra low volume to apply most chemical formulations. It comes complete with battery and recharger.

Algreen 82001 Terra Composter, 45 Gallons, Terra Cotta

admin — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:29:13 +0000

If you purchased or are thinking about the Algreen Rain Collector, this is a beautiful companion piece for your garden composting. The environmentally friendly composter comes with a locking lid to secure and protect your compost. And it matches the rain water collection system.

Toro 29210 43-Gallon Gardening Spring Bucket

admin — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 08:07:48 +0000

Check out this great spring bucket ideal for garden debris. It is mildew resistant, has 4 cushioned handles and collapses to 3 inches for easy storage. It has 5 stars so previous customers have loved it.

Algreen 81111 65-Gallon Cascata Rain Water Collection and Storage System, Dark Brown

admin — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 23:18:58 +0000

The Gardener’s Pouch

admin — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 00:01:17 +0000

This great garden pouch will hold your garden tools, minimize your clean up, and open for easy emptying.

Northern Industrial Structural Foam Service Cart – 30in.L x 17in.W

admin — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:36:30 +0000

Great 5 star reviews on this heavy duty service cart. Maintenance is nil with no painting ever required. It won’t dent, rust or chip and has a convenient push handle. It is ON SALE right now.