There are probably more than 5,500 gardens open to the public. Many in the National Garden Scheme are too small or localised to be included here. What follows is a taste of what can be found
1 Sizergh Castle
Cumbria
The paths crossing the 1,600-acre estate give superb views of Morecambe Bay and the Lakeland hills, but the real joy is the gardens. Laid out in the 18th century, there are 14 acres that include herbaceous borders, a wildflower garden, part of the national collection of ferns, lake, water garden, rose garden, pools and fruit orchards. Perhaps its most striking feature is the rock garden, the largest limestone one on a National Trust property. There are also trails through ancient woods and across meadows alive with butterflies.
2 Benvarden Garden and Grounds
Co Antrim
Within 300-year-old brick walls nearly 12ft high lie two acres of flowers, fruit, herbs, and vegetables. Through the centre is a walkway bordered by herbaceous planting and "roofed" with pergola arches over which old roses ramble. There is a beautiful box and lavender parterre, a weeping silver pear, a rose area, and, in the lower part, a superb kitchen garden. Here are vegetables all in a row, hot houses, melon house, vinery, and, throughout, fruit trees trained against the warm walls. And, outside the walls, is a wild garden and Victorian iron bridge over the river.
3 Benmore Botanic Gardens
Argyll
This is now a magnificent out-station of the glorious Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, but it was the creation of two generations of the Younger beer family. The younger Younger gave the garden to the public in 1925. Its 120 acres contain 300 species of rhododendrons (some of which are in flower until August), an avenue of giant redwoods, late-flowering trees and shrubs, pond, a Bhutanese glade, Chilean rainforest glade, a spectacular collection of dwarf conifers, and the Victorian fernery, built by James Duncan, a Greenock sugar refiner, after he bought the house in 1870.
4 Biddulph Grange
Staffordshire
A Victorian masterpiece, 15 acres of delights created by James Bateman, a plant enthusiast, neglected, nearly destroyed, but now restored by the National Trust. Below a rather forbidding house is a range of garden "rooms" that depict places around the world: a Chinese temple garden (plus its own Great Wall of China), Italian terraces, Egyptian court, Scottish glen, and more. There is also a pinetum, Wellingtonia walk, rock gardens, fernery, topiary, the bizarre upside-down tree, and a Dahlia Walk with 500 varieties.
5 Eggleston Hall
Durham
Four and a half acres set in Teesdale, not the most friendly horticultural country. But what is achieved here is magical, and has an ethereal quality lusher climes could not produce. Its owners describe it as a "Pandora's box of surprises: winding paths, a stream, organic vegetables, walls, and fell views". There are also fruit trees, iridescent blue geraniums, a shrubbery with some late- flowering specialities, and a superb ancient contorted hazel that twists and turns in all directions. The numbered paths lead you to the old churchyard, and, beyond, along the water to a vegetable patch and the 200-year-old stone troughs.
6 Bro Meigan Gardens
Pembrokeshire
The first private garden in Wales to be accorded the accolade of "partner garden" by the Royal Horticultural Society. Overlooking the Preseli Hills are nearly seven acres offering unusual features such as a wooded dingle and natural springs. There are more formal parts, with enchanting herbaceous borders, and also a Gothic garden, Dragon's Nest, cottage garden, orchard, wildflower meadow, turf maze and bee hives. Plenty of colour whatever the season, and often described as a special delight for photographers and bird-watchers. The shy water rail, and peregrine and red kite are often seen.
7 Old Thatch
Buckinghamshire
This was the house - a long, thatched one by the Thames at Bourne End - and garden of Enid Blyton, where she wrote many of her stories and gardening books. Found in a derelict state in 1990, it has been restored and rejuvenated by Jacky Hawthorne. There's a cottage garden, rose walk, water garden, lavender terrace, and formal garden - all in about two acres. It's the kind of garden many of us would like to have - English, restrained, and seriously classy without being prissy. The use of grasses and foliage is a wonder. And there's a pub next door.
8 Upwey Wishing Well
Dorset
This is small, but it is perfect, and very well hidden. Up a Dorset lane, besides Upwey's church with its wall paintings, is the wishing well, gardens, and tea rooms. The waters here were allegedly taken by George III, when staying at Weymouth to try and recover his missing senses. They are no longer deemed safe to drink, but are surrounded by a delightful gardens built around a pond, and through which run rivulets, streams and little falls of water. It is one of the most photographable places in Dorset, the colourful plants reflecting in the waters, and, as a background, an old mill.
9 West Dean Gardens
West Sussex
Acres and acres of varying delights, everything from formal borders, woodland walks beside a stream that twists and turns and bubbles over little falls, and a view across pasture to wooded hills beyond. In places it is a painting come to life. The three stars are the walled fruit garden with its wall-trained trees and arch of pear trees; the Edwardian pergola, 100 metres long, ending in a gazebo whose floor is made of knapped flint and horses' molars; and the Victorian glasshouses and frames. In troughs in the corner of this live many newts, a wonderful surprise for any passing child - of whatever age.
10 Ventnor Botanic Gardens
Isle of Wight
Chosen not only because of what it has to offer by day, but for what it holds at night. The gardens are built on the site of an old chest hospital and are said to be the most haunted in Britain. Every Monday at 8pm there is a ghost walk, offering a chance to see - and hear - former patients, nurses, and even a ghostly tennis match. By day, the gardens glow with exotic plants which can grow in the area's sub-tropical climate. There are 22 acres of unusual species, with colour especially good in late summer. On a warm day you may also see the wall lizards basking in the sun.
Bonsai Gardening Secrets. Discover Over 95 Pages Of Insider Secrets To Creating Stunning Bonsai Trees. Click Here!
Worlds Best Compost. Make The Worlds Ultimate Natural Fertilizer, Colloidal Humus, Without Bins, Turning Or Odor. Click Here!
The Complete Grape Growing System. A Complete System With E-book And Audio Book To Help You Grow Grapes The Correct Way. Click Here!
How To Start Beekeeping. Want To Start Beekeeping? This New EBook Reveals It All. Start Keeping Bees This Season! Click Here!
Orchid Care Expert - A Practical Guide. The Most Practical Guide To Orchid Care To Be Found On The Internet. Click Here!
Organic Food Gardening Beginners Manual. 87 Page Step-by-step Gardening Manual For Beginners To Learn How To Grow Their Own Healthy, Organic Food - Saving Money And Eating Chemical Free! Great Bonuses With This E-manual. Revised Edition Just Released.
Click Here!
Forceful Orchid Fertilizers: Homemade Recipes. Know How To Feed Your Orchids To Quickly Get Astonishing Results. Click Here!
The Hypertufa How-To Manual. 100 Page EBook On How To Make Garden Art Objects From Hypertufa. Easy To Follow Instructions & Expert Advice. Click Here!
Homemade Hydroponics. Hydroponics Secrets Shows You How To Grow The Plants, Fruits And Vegetables -even In Limited Space--without Using Soil. Pays 75% Commission With Excellent Conversion Rates. Click Here!
Bonsai Gardening Secrets. Discover Over 95 Pages Of Insider Secrets To Creating Stunning Bonsai Trees. Click Here!
Forceful Insecticides Home Made Formula. Discover Secret Informations That Big Multinationals Dont Want You To Know! Click Here!
Showing posts with label Get Landscaping Ideas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Get Landscaping Ideas. Show all posts
Sunday, 28 December 2008
Saturday, 27 December 2008
Garden Creep
One thing you either might have to watch out for or embrace is something I call Garden Creep.
This is the ability of certain gardens, let alone the plants in them, of slowly growing and spreading or even multiplying over time.
Any dedicated gardener can explain to you the visible symtomology of the disease. New garden growths appear almost randomly at times as new outbreaks of gardens pop up in sometimes rather unexpected corners and sections of the area.
This problem is also seen in certain plants as well. When they have managed to obtain a foot hold in an area, where the available space for them, is inadequate for their realistic size. You will find these plants spilling outwards or upwards into space they were never intended to occupy. This causes constant problems for entryways & walkways, as well as air space occupiers like power lines. These planbts then have to constantly attacked and kept back within their territory, often at great cost in time and money to their garden owner.
Lawn areas and sometimes even pathways in it's way are encompassed and/or swallowed up. It even can escape from your area onto and around footpaths and along road verges.
It appears I reckon to be a possibly viral disease that affects both the gardens and their gardeners alike.
It means that these garden areas extend over a period into every little space they can infect and take over, sometimes far outside the originally intended boundaries of the initial garden/s.
Bonsai Gardening Secrets. Discover Over 95 Pages Of Insider Secrets To Creating Stunning Bonsai Trees. Click Here!
Worlds Best Compost. Make The Worlds Ultimate Natural Fertilizer, Colloidal Humus, Without Bins, Turning Or Odor. Click Here!
The Complete Grape Growing System. A Complete System With E-book And Audio Book To Help You Grow Grapes The Correct Way. Click Here!
How To Start Beekeeping. Want To Start Beekeeping? This New EBook Reveals It All. Start Keeping Bees This Season! Click Here!
Orchid Care Expert - A Practical Guide. The Most Practical Guide To Orchid Care To Be Found On The Internet. Click Here!
Organic Food Gardening Beginners Manual. 87 Page Step-by-step Gardening Manual For Beginners To Learn How To Grow Their Own Healthy, Organic Food - Saving Money And Eating Chemical Free! Great Bonuses With This E-manual. Revised Edition Just Released.
Click Here!
Forceful Orchid Fertilizers: Homemade Recipes. Know How To Feed Your Orchids To Quickly Get Astonishing Results. Click Here!
The Hypertufa How-To Manual. 100 Page EBook On How To Make Garden Art Objects From Hypertufa. Easy To Follow Instructions & Expert Advice. Click Here!
Homemade Hydroponics. Hydroponics Secrets Shows You How To Grow The Plants, Fruits And Vegetables -even In Limited Space--without Using Soil. Pays 75% Commission With Excellent Conversion Rates. Click Here!
Bonsai Gardening Secrets. Discover Over 95 Pages Of Insider Secrets To Creating Stunning Bonsai Trees. Click Here!
Forceful Insecticides Home Made Formula. Discover Secret Informations That Big Multinationals Dont Want You To Know! Click Here!
This is the ability of certain gardens, let alone the plants in them, of slowly growing and spreading or even multiplying over time.
Any dedicated gardener can explain to you the visible symtomology of the disease. New garden growths appear almost randomly at times as new outbreaks of gardens pop up in sometimes rather unexpected corners and sections of the area.
This problem is also seen in certain plants as well. When they have managed to obtain a foot hold in an area, where the available space for them, is inadequate for their realistic size. You will find these plants spilling outwards or upwards into space they were never intended to occupy. This causes constant problems for entryways & walkways, as well as air space occupiers like power lines. These planbts then have to constantly attacked and kept back within their territory, often at great cost in time and money to their garden owner.
Lawn areas and sometimes even pathways in it's way are encompassed and/or swallowed up. It even can escape from your area onto and around footpaths and along road verges.
It appears I reckon to be a possibly viral disease that affects both the gardens and their gardeners alike.
It means that these garden areas extend over a period into every little space they can infect and take over, sometimes far outside the originally intended boundaries of the initial garden/s.
Bonsai Gardening Secrets. Discover Over 95 Pages Of Insider Secrets To Creating Stunning Bonsai Trees. Click Here!
Worlds Best Compost. Make The Worlds Ultimate Natural Fertilizer, Colloidal Humus, Without Bins, Turning Or Odor. Click Here!
The Complete Grape Growing System. A Complete System With E-book And Audio Book To Help You Grow Grapes The Correct Way. Click Here!
How To Start Beekeeping. Want To Start Beekeeping? This New EBook Reveals It All. Start Keeping Bees This Season! Click Here!
Orchid Care Expert - A Practical Guide. The Most Practical Guide To Orchid Care To Be Found On The Internet. Click Here!
Organic Food Gardening Beginners Manual. 87 Page Step-by-step Gardening Manual For Beginners To Learn How To Grow Their Own Healthy, Organic Food - Saving Money And Eating Chemical Free! Great Bonuses With This E-manual. Revised Edition Just Released.
Click Here!
Forceful Orchid Fertilizers: Homemade Recipes. Know How To Feed Your Orchids To Quickly Get Astonishing Results. Click Here!
The Hypertufa How-To Manual. 100 Page EBook On How To Make Garden Art Objects From Hypertufa. Easy To Follow Instructions & Expert Advice. Click Here!
Homemade Hydroponics. Hydroponics Secrets Shows You How To Grow The Plants, Fruits And Vegetables -even In Limited Space--without Using Soil. Pays 75% Commission With Excellent Conversion Rates. Click Here!
Bonsai Gardening Secrets. Discover Over 95 Pages Of Insider Secrets To Creating Stunning Bonsai Trees. Click Here!
Forceful Insecticides Home Made Formula. Discover Secret Informations That Big Multinationals Dont Want You To Know! Click Here!
Plant Presents From your Garden
If you are looking for ways for you or your children to provide cheap presents for the extended family, or just like to give gifts that have a personal element to them, then here is a suggestion or two for you.
If you are looking to make a present for the gardener in the family or someone who has recently moved into their own home, someone in a flat or unit, or a person who can't manage a full sized yard, or a family member who loves to cook with fresh ingredients, etc. Then why not consider giving them something from your own garden? Here I am talking about plants that you have divided off from your own garden plants.
There are many plants growing in the average garden that can be divided, or that have naturally self layered themselves. Where you could go along and take a rooted section, pot them up and with a bit of dressing up of the planting container, you could produce a really nice gift for someone you care about.
These plants include many herbs as well as perennials or shrubs and even some trees which manage to send out self-layering branches or suckers from the root system. Some perennials or bulbs will increase their size or number of bulbs over time. Chance seedlings coming up in the wrong place for you, can easily also be used. All of these provide you with an opportunity to cheaply create a wonderful present for someone else.
First things first you will need to obtain a number of pots either plastic ones left over from additions to the garden population, or from someone you know, or you can go out and purchase a pot plastic/ceramic/terracotta etc., to suit your needs. If the person you are giving the plant to is not a real gardener, then you might consider getting a pot with a waterwell in the base to increase the plants' chances of surviving.
Next, you need to begin looking for your plant material, so take a careful look around your garden at the soil level. Check out which plants are showing multiple stalks growing out of the ground. Or those sprawling plants where a branch has leaned over on to the ground and taken root along the branch, maybe one where a branch has become buried under the mulch.
Or one where there is a sucker growing from the soil a short distance from the parent plant. Another possibility is seedlings growing in the garden a distance from the parent plant material. Maybe there is a clump of plants or a big patch of bulbs where you can do some dividing.
Many of these plants benefit from being divided up or being allowed some more growing room in the particular area where you have taken away some material.
Different parts of Australia will have a differing range of plant species, which lend themselves to this form of self-propagation. If you can't find any plants that are doing this in your own garden, why not look at a friends or neighbours garden. Or you could maybe join forces and give a joint present using plants from another family member's garden. Or another possibility is to buy a plant in a pot that has several plants already established in it.
Divide that up before you use half in your own garden, and still have half to repot and give away. Even if you are not confident about your gardening skills you can still pick up cheap plants at the local market, school/church fair, garage sale etc. Repot them into a bigger or nicer pot for a fairly cheap present.
Another possibility is to multiplant a few different plants into a long or large round tub. This will create an instant garden on the move. Some themes you might consider here is herbs, indoor foliage, bulbs, annuals, alpine/rock, cacti/succulent or even patio gardens mixing annuals and perennials.
It is best to moisten the ground around the plant that you are going to work on well before you do the dividing, as this allows you to remove the maximum amount of root mass during the dividing process.
The first step is to divide the clump or cut away the joining branch to make the separate plant available. Then using a spade, fork or gardening trowel, dig as far out from the potential plant as practicable, because this will give you the biggest root mass possible.
Go down as far you believe you need to, (this will depend on such circumstances as size of new plant, species of original plant material, type of soil, other plant or landscaping material around the area, etc.). As gently as you can dig out the new plant. Shake off any excess soil and refill the resulting hole in the ground if necessary.
Prune back the foliage of the new plant to roughly equal size of the root mass, trying to protect some of the new foliage growth. Repot as soon as practicable, so that the roots do not dry out and die.
Another thing to consider is what sort of pot you are gong to plant into; if it is only a plastic pot then you do not need to prepare it beforehand. However if you are looking at painting it, then do this before you get digging.
When painting up pots, you will need to do some preparation work for the paint to stick properly. Plastic pots should have their surface roughened up with a bit of sandpaper. While some terracotta pots should have a primer applied to the outer surface before you paint them. Try not to get primer or paint onto the inside of the planter, because while most wont, there are still some paints which contain chemicals that may affect or contaminate the soil and plant over time.
Other possibilities for decorating up pots include simply gluing on bits and pieces including stones, tiles, buttons, sticks, shells, ornaments, ribbon, stickers and decals, etc. Other ways of decorating up a pot for the initial presentation is to wrap up just the pot (not the actual plant), using either wrapping paper, cellophane, material, a cheap teatowel or even hessian. Hold these wrappers in place with string, ribbon, bandana, scarf, etc.
Other possibilities for adding value to the potplant is to provide some growing information and name tags for the plant/s included. Other little quirks you might add include a personalised name tag, (Hi, my name is David the Diffenbachia . . . ), or a little watering indicator, miniature hand tools, small amounts of fertiliser, pot ornaments, watering can etc.
So as you can see, creating a very personal gift for just about anyone can easily be within the grasp of anyone. Why not go out into your garden and start thinking about what presents you can be preparing for Christmas this weekend.
Bonsai Gardening Secrets. Discover Over 95 Pages Of Insider Secrets To Creating Stunning Bonsai Trees. Click Here!
Worlds Best Compost. Make The Worlds Ultimate Natural Fertilizer, Colloidal Humus, Without Bins, Turning Or Odor. Click Here!
The Complete Grape Growing System. A Complete System With E-book And Audio Book To Help You Grow Grapes The Correct Way. Click Here!
How To Start Beekeeping. Want To Start Beekeeping? This New EBook Reveals It All. Start Keeping Bees This Season! Click Here!
Orchid Care Expert - A Practical Guide. The Most Practical Guide To Orchid Care To Be Found On The Internet. Click Here!
Organic Food Gardening Beginners Manual. 87 Page Step-by-step Gardening Manual For Beginners To Learn How To Grow Their Own Healthy, Organic Food - Saving Money And Eating Chemical Free! Great Bonuses With This E-manual. Revised Edition Just Released.
Click Here!
Forceful Orchid Fertilizers: Homemade Recipes. Know How To Feed Your Orchids To Quickly Get Astonishing Results. Click Here!
The Hypertufa How-To Manual. 100 Page EBook On How To Make Garden Art Objects From Hypertufa. Easy To Follow Instructions & Expert Advice. Click Here!
Homemade Hydroponics. Hydroponics Secrets Shows You How To Grow The Plants, Fruits And Vegetables -even In Limited Space--without Using Soil. Pays 75% Commission With Excellent Conversion Rates. Click Here!
Bonsai Gardening Secrets. Discover Over 95 Pages Of Insider Secrets To Creating Stunning Bonsai Trees. Click Here!
Forceful Insecticides Home Made Formula. Discover Secret Informations That Big Multinationals Dont Want You To Know! Click Here!
If you are looking to make a present for the gardener in the family or someone who has recently moved into their own home, someone in a flat or unit, or a person who can't manage a full sized yard, or a family member who loves to cook with fresh ingredients, etc. Then why not consider giving them something from your own garden? Here I am talking about plants that you have divided off from your own garden plants.
There are many plants growing in the average garden that can be divided, or that have naturally self layered themselves. Where you could go along and take a rooted section, pot them up and with a bit of dressing up of the planting container, you could produce a really nice gift for someone you care about.
These plants include many herbs as well as perennials or shrubs and even some trees which manage to send out self-layering branches or suckers from the root system. Some perennials or bulbs will increase their size or number of bulbs over time. Chance seedlings coming up in the wrong place for you, can easily also be used. All of these provide you with an opportunity to cheaply create a wonderful present for someone else.
First things first you will need to obtain a number of pots either plastic ones left over from additions to the garden population, or from someone you know, or you can go out and purchase a pot plastic/ceramic/terracotta etc., to suit your needs. If the person you are giving the plant to is not a real gardener, then you might consider getting a pot with a waterwell in the base to increase the plants' chances of surviving.
Next, you need to begin looking for your plant material, so take a careful look around your garden at the soil level. Check out which plants are showing multiple stalks growing out of the ground. Or those sprawling plants where a branch has leaned over on to the ground and taken root along the branch, maybe one where a branch has become buried under the mulch.
Or one where there is a sucker growing from the soil a short distance from the parent plant. Another possibility is seedlings growing in the garden a distance from the parent plant material. Maybe there is a clump of plants or a big patch of bulbs where you can do some dividing.
Many of these plants benefit from being divided up or being allowed some more growing room in the particular area where you have taken away some material.
Different parts of Australia will have a differing range of plant species, which lend themselves to this form of self-propagation. If you can't find any plants that are doing this in your own garden, why not look at a friends or neighbours garden. Or you could maybe join forces and give a joint present using plants from another family member's garden. Or another possibility is to buy a plant in a pot that has several plants already established in it.
Divide that up before you use half in your own garden, and still have half to repot and give away. Even if you are not confident about your gardening skills you can still pick up cheap plants at the local market, school/church fair, garage sale etc. Repot them into a bigger or nicer pot for a fairly cheap present.
Another possibility is to multiplant a few different plants into a long or large round tub. This will create an instant garden on the move. Some themes you might consider here is herbs, indoor foliage, bulbs, annuals, alpine/rock, cacti/succulent or even patio gardens mixing annuals and perennials.
It is best to moisten the ground around the plant that you are going to work on well before you do the dividing, as this allows you to remove the maximum amount of root mass during the dividing process.
The first step is to divide the clump or cut away the joining branch to make the separate plant available. Then using a spade, fork or gardening trowel, dig as far out from the potential plant as practicable, because this will give you the biggest root mass possible.
Go down as far you believe you need to, (this will depend on such circumstances as size of new plant, species of original plant material, type of soil, other plant or landscaping material around the area, etc.). As gently as you can dig out the new plant. Shake off any excess soil and refill the resulting hole in the ground if necessary.
Prune back the foliage of the new plant to roughly equal size of the root mass, trying to protect some of the new foliage growth. Repot as soon as practicable, so that the roots do not dry out and die.
Another thing to consider is what sort of pot you are gong to plant into; if it is only a plastic pot then you do not need to prepare it beforehand. However if you are looking at painting it, then do this before you get digging.
When painting up pots, you will need to do some preparation work for the paint to stick properly. Plastic pots should have their surface roughened up with a bit of sandpaper. While some terracotta pots should have a primer applied to the outer surface before you paint them. Try not to get primer or paint onto the inside of the planter, because while most wont, there are still some paints which contain chemicals that may affect or contaminate the soil and plant over time.
Other possibilities for decorating up pots include simply gluing on bits and pieces including stones, tiles, buttons, sticks, shells, ornaments, ribbon, stickers and decals, etc. Other ways of decorating up a pot for the initial presentation is to wrap up just the pot (not the actual plant), using either wrapping paper, cellophane, material, a cheap teatowel or even hessian. Hold these wrappers in place with string, ribbon, bandana, scarf, etc.
Other possibilities for adding value to the potplant is to provide some growing information and name tags for the plant/s included. Other little quirks you might add include a personalised name tag, (Hi, my name is David the Diffenbachia . . . ), or a little watering indicator, miniature hand tools, small amounts of fertiliser, pot ornaments, watering can etc.
So as you can see, creating a very personal gift for just about anyone can easily be within the grasp of anyone. Why not go out into your garden and start thinking about what presents you can be preparing for Christmas this weekend.
Bonsai Gardening Secrets. Discover Over 95 Pages Of Insider Secrets To Creating Stunning Bonsai Trees. Click Here!
Worlds Best Compost. Make The Worlds Ultimate Natural Fertilizer, Colloidal Humus, Without Bins, Turning Or Odor. Click Here!
The Complete Grape Growing System. A Complete System With E-book And Audio Book To Help You Grow Grapes The Correct Way. Click Here!
How To Start Beekeeping. Want To Start Beekeeping? This New EBook Reveals It All. Start Keeping Bees This Season! Click Here!
Orchid Care Expert - A Practical Guide. The Most Practical Guide To Orchid Care To Be Found On The Internet. Click Here!
Organic Food Gardening Beginners Manual. 87 Page Step-by-step Gardening Manual For Beginners To Learn How To Grow Their Own Healthy, Organic Food - Saving Money And Eating Chemical Free! Great Bonuses With This E-manual. Revised Edition Just Released.
Click Here!
Forceful Orchid Fertilizers: Homemade Recipes. Know How To Feed Your Orchids To Quickly Get Astonishing Results. Click Here!
The Hypertufa How-To Manual. 100 Page EBook On How To Make Garden Art Objects From Hypertufa. Easy To Follow Instructions & Expert Advice. Click Here!
Homemade Hydroponics. Hydroponics Secrets Shows You How To Grow The Plants, Fruits And Vegetables -even In Limited Space--without Using Soil. Pays 75% Commission With Excellent Conversion Rates. Click Here!
Bonsai Gardening Secrets. Discover Over 95 Pages Of Insider Secrets To Creating Stunning Bonsai Trees. Click Here!
Forceful Insecticides Home Made Formula. Discover Secret Informations That Big Multinationals Dont Want You To Know! Click Here!
Saturday, 20 December 2008
Sustainable Agriculture
“Americans today spend less on food, as a percentage of disposable income, than any other industrialized nation, and probably less than any people in the history of the world.”
-Michael Pollan “The Omnivores Dilema
I had some time to kill. Waiting for a friend. I went into the nearby CVS hoping to find a magazine that discusses our current “Green” revolution. If only it really were. I quickly found a popular science magazine with a cover featuring “The Future of the Environment.” It covers some wonderful futuristic ideas for sustainability. The current reality though is that companies are buying Carbon credits for trees that have not yet been planted so they can evade the taxes meant to preserve our ecosystem. The FDA has turned the once powerful idea of Organic Certification into a very profitable marketing tool that provides little to no protection for our ecosystem.
The calories we are consuming require more and more calories for their production and therefore a bigger and bigger negative impact on the environment. I had the opportunity recently to travel to Northern California with the Culinary Institute of America. Our trip was part of the California Food & Wine Seminar in the interim of the seventh and eighth semesters of the Bachelors program. Each student chose their own focus for a four page research paper to be part of a larger four person group project. My focus is on the differences between Organic and Sustainable. There is currently no Sustainable Certification recognized by the USDA. The "Organic" certification is designed to favor the commercial farm instead of the original virtues behind the organic movement.
Take for example somewhere like Earthbound Organics. “Organic lettuce.” Twenty thousand acres of machine fed, pruned and harvested lettuce. Their size alone forces them to spray with layers of “Organic” pesticides. Mono-cropping such as this removes specific nutrients faster from the earth. Oil by-products are then required to “fix” the soil. After using copious amounts of fossil fuel power instead of man power they can sell their product down a long chain and across long distances only to undersell the guy who grew his sustainably down the street from where it is being sold. The simple fact that a field can be injected with fertilizers to make products grow does not mean the land is being sustained.
Produce grown with synthetic fertilizers is less nutritious than if grown with composted soil. I almost wanted to say natural soil there, but the term natural has become dishonest as there is no regulation guiding the use of the term. Today you can buy all sorts of “All Natural” products but the term is only a marketing tool. Science has proven that these products are not nearly as healthy as they claim to be. The laws of false advertising do not seem to apply to the food we eat. Is not our health and survival the primary concern in life? With the frantic pace of the world economy, many age-old values are being lost. As Wendell Berry says in his essay “The Idea of A Local Economy:”
A total economy is one in which everything—“life forms,” for instance,—or the “right to pollute” is “private property” and has a price and is for sale. In a total economy significant and sometimes critical choices that once belonged to individuals or communities become the property of corporations. A total economy, operating internationally, necessarily shrinks the powers of state and national governments, not only because those governments have signed over significant powers to an international bureaucracy or because political leaders become the paid hacks of the corporations but also because political processes—and especially democratic processes—are too slow to react to unrestrained economic and technological development on a global scale. And when state and national governments begin to act in effect as agents of the global economy, selling their people for low wages and their people’s products for low prices, then the rights and liberties of citizenship must necessarily shrink. A total economy is an unrestrained taking of profits from the disintegration of nations: communities, households, landscapes, and ecosystems. It licenses symbolic or artificial wealth to “grow” by means of the destruction of the real wealth of all the world…
This may seem like a pessimistic view but it is all too true in the modern market. This battle has been fought for decades and will probably continue for many more.
The organic revolution began back in the nineteen forties with Organic Gardening and Farming magazine. Its goal was to move away from the idea that plants only require NPK (Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium) and instead require the full spectrum of life death and decay that is the composting process. On April 20, 1969 a group known as the Robin Hood Commission took over a plot of land belonging to the University of California. Their goal was to create a model organic agrarian system. They would be raising a truly sustainable system and distributing its produce to the poor. It was this type of awareness that empowered the organic revolution. Much more than just a standardized set of fertilizers it represented an attunement with the essential needs of society.
When the organic standards list was released in 1997, the list of acceptable products included genetically modified crops as well as irradiation and sewage sludge. Today the list has been revised to allow such synthetic additives as ascorbic acid and xanthan gum. Bleach and ethanol are both on the list or permissible products as well. Many regulations for the treatment of animals for food have been set in such a vague manner as to have no impact whatsoever. For example the USDA finally ruled that dairy cows must have “access to pasture” in order to be considered organic. Sounds nice, but it means simply that at some point in the cows life the owner must provide them access to somewhere outside of a building for a minute or so. The same is true for chickens. Organic free-range chickens means that they are not kept in individual cages but instead in massive layers with access to the outside. Michael Pollan visited Petaluma Poultry and gave this description upon visiting what he says look like military barracks:
“I donned what looked like a hooded white hazmat suit—since the birds receive no antibiotics yet live in close confinement, the company is ever worried about infection, which could doom a whole house overnight—and stepped inside. Twenty thousand birds moved away from me as one, like a ground hugging white cloud, clucking softly. The air was warm and humid and smelled powerfully of ammonia; the fumes caught in my throat. Twenty thousand is a lot of chickens…sipping from waterers suspended from the ceiling, [nibbling] organic food from elevated trays connected by tubes to a silo outside, and [doing] pretty much everything chickens do except step outside the little doors located at either end of the shed.”
The doors lead into a fifteen foot wide grassy yard outside the shed—which none of the chickens have ever been seen in. This is far from the picturesque farm depicted on most organic products and far from what most people would consider truly organic. At the 2000 inaugural speech, USDA Secretary Glickman went out of his way to point out that “The organic label is a marketing too, it is not a statement about food safety. Nor is ‘organic’ a value judgment about nutrition or quality.” So if the government is not going to provide us with a reasonable food system what can we do?
Education plays an essential role in the future of sustainability and agriculture. Billions of dollars are spent annually convincing civilization that they want to live on Big Mac’s and carbonated corn soda. The reality is by the time we are actually old enough to be in charge of our own food supply we have been fairly well saturated with these messages. Therefore, it seems to be more prudent to bring the youth to farms and involve them with their own food choices. They then can understand what they are eating as well how we can produce it in synchronization with nature. Once that stream of thought expands into enough people, we will return to understanding the earth and how we can live in symbiotic agricultural harmony. Places like the Center for Land Based Learning (CLBL) and the Farm Based Education Association provide such experience and are essential to the future of our food system and health. The CLBL focuses on High School students in order to shape the way people think about the earth its role in the production of our food system. Some of these people may not go into the industry. Some may become farmers themselves. Some could even become the politicians who design a future farm bill. With our current agri-business model, farming is becoming just like any corporation where the bottom line is the only thing in sight. The business people do not know what organic really means, much less do they care about their impact on the earth. It may be difficult to argue with the millions of dollars these businesses bring home but if these ideas are imparted at an early age we may have a better chance to realize the destruction that comes with that profit and therein a better chance to really save the earth and the people it supports.
Bonsai Gardening Secrets. Discover Over 95 Pages Of Insider Secrets To Creating Stunning Bonsai Trees. Click Here!
Worlds Best Compost. Make The Worlds Ultimate Natural Fertilizer, Colloidal Humus, Without Bins, Turning Or Odor. Click Here!
The Complete Grape Growing System. A Complete System With E-book And Audio Book To Help You Grow Grapes The Correct Way. Click Here!
How To Start Beekeeping. Want To Start Beekeeping? This New EBook Reveals It All. Start Keeping Bees This Season! Click Here!
Orchid Care Expert - A Practical Guide. The Most Practical Guide To Orchid Care To Be Found On The Internet. Click Here!
Organic Food Gardening Beginners Manual. 87 Page Step-by-step Gardening Manual For Beginners To Learn How To Grow Their Own Healthy, Organic Food - Saving Money And Eating Chemical Free! Great Bonuses With This E-manual. Revised Edition Just Released.
Click Here!
Forceful Orchid Fertilizers: Homemade Recipes. Know How To Feed Your Orchids To Quickly Get Astonishing Results. Click Here!
The Hypertufa How-To Manual. 100 Page EBook On How To Make Garden Art Objects From Hypertufa. Easy To Follow Instructions & Expert Advice. Click Here!
Homemade Hydroponics. Hydroponics Secrets Shows You How To Grow The Plants, Fruits And Vegetables -even In Limited Space--without Using Soil. Pays 75% Commission With Excellent Conversion Rates. Click Here!
Bonsai Gardening Secrets. Discover Over 95 Pages Of Insider Secrets To Creating Stunning Bonsai Trees. Click Here!
Forceful Insecticides Home Made Formula. Discover Secret Informations That Big Multinationals Dont Want You To Know! Click Here!
-Michael Pollan “The Omnivores Dilema
I had some time to kill. Waiting for a friend. I went into the nearby CVS hoping to find a magazine that discusses our current “Green” revolution. If only it really were. I quickly found a popular science magazine with a cover featuring “The Future of the Environment.” It covers some wonderful futuristic ideas for sustainability. The current reality though is that companies are buying Carbon credits for trees that have not yet been planted so they can evade the taxes meant to preserve our ecosystem. The FDA has turned the once powerful idea of Organic Certification into a very profitable marketing tool that provides little to no protection for our ecosystem.
The calories we are consuming require more and more calories for their production and therefore a bigger and bigger negative impact on the environment. I had the opportunity recently to travel to Northern California with the Culinary Institute of America. Our trip was part of the California Food & Wine Seminar in the interim of the seventh and eighth semesters of the Bachelors program. Each student chose their own focus for a four page research paper to be part of a larger four person group project. My focus is on the differences between Organic and Sustainable. There is currently no Sustainable Certification recognized by the USDA. The "Organic" certification is designed to favor the commercial farm instead of the original virtues behind the organic movement.
Take for example somewhere like Earthbound Organics. “Organic lettuce.” Twenty thousand acres of machine fed, pruned and harvested lettuce. Their size alone forces them to spray with layers of “Organic” pesticides. Mono-cropping such as this removes specific nutrients faster from the earth. Oil by-products are then required to “fix” the soil. After using copious amounts of fossil fuel power instead of man power they can sell their product down a long chain and across long distances only to undersell the guy who grew his sustainably down the street from where it is being sold. The simple fact that a field can be injected with fertilizers to make products grow does not mean the land is being sustained.
Produce grown with synthetic fertilizers is less nutritious than if grown with composted soil. I almost wanted to say natural soil there, but the term natural has become dishonest as there is no regulation guiding the use of the term. Today you can buy all sorts of “All Natural” products but the term is only a marketing tool. Science has proven that these products are not nearly as healthy as they claim to be. The laws of false advertising do not seem to apply to the food we eat. Is not our health and survival the primary concern in life? With the frantic pace of the world economy, many age-old values are being lost. As Wendell Berry says in his essay “The Idea of A Local Economy:”
A total economy is one in which everything—“life forms,” for instance,—or the “right to pollute” is “private property” and has a price and is for sale. In a total economy significant and sometimes critical choices that once belonged to individuals or communities become the property of corporations. A total economy, operating internationally, necessarily shrinks the powers of state and national governments, not only because those governments have signed over significant powers to an international bureaucracy or because political leaders become the paid hacks of the corporations but also because political processes—and especially democratic processes—are too slow to react to unrestrained economic and technological development on a global scale. And when state and national governments begin to act in effect as agents of the global economy, selling their people for low wages and their people’s products for low prices, then the rights and liberties of citizenship must necessarily shrink. A total economy is an unrestrained taking of profits from the disintegration of nations: communities, households, landscapes, and ecosystems. It licenses symbolic or artificial wealth to “grow” by means of the destruction of the real wealth of all the world…
This may seem like a pessimistic view but it is all too true in the modern market. This battle has been fought for decades and will probably continue for many more.
The organic revolution began back in the nineteen forties with Organic Gardening and Farming magazine. Its goal was to move away from the idea that plants only require NPK (Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium) and instead require the full spectrum of life death and decay that is the composting process. On April 20, 1969 a group known as the Robin Hood Commission took over a plot of land belonging to the University of California. Their goal was to create a model organic agrarian system. They would be raising a truly sustainable system and distributing its produce to the poor. It was this type of awareness that empowered the organic revolution. Much more than just a standardized set of fertilizers it represented an attunement with the essential needs of society.
When the organic standards list was released in 1997, the list of acceptable products included genetically modified crops as well as irradiation and sewage sludge. Today the list has been revised to allow such synthetic additives as ascorbic acid and xanthan gum. Bleach and ethanol are both on the list or permissible products as well. Many regulations for the treatment of animals for food have been set in such a vague manner as to have no impact whatsoever. For example the USDA finally ruled that dairy cows must have “access to pasture” in order to be considered organic. Sounds nice, but it means simply that at some point in the cows life the owner must provide them access to somewhere outside of a building for a minute or so. The same is true for chickens. Organic free-range chickens means that they are not kept in individual cages but instead in massive layers with access to the outside. Michael Pollan visited Petaluma Poultry and gave this description upon visiting what he says look like military barracks:
“I donned what looked like a hooded white hazmat suit—since the birds receive no antibiotics yet live in close confinement, the company is ever worried about infection, which could doom a whole house overnight—and stepped inside. Twenty thousand birds moved away from me as one, like a ground hugging white cloud, clucking softly. The air was warm and humid and smelled powerfully of ammonia; the fumes caught in my throat. Twenty thousand is a lot of chickens…sipping from waterers suspended from the ceiling, [nibbling] organic food from elevated trays connected by tubes to a silo outside, and [doing] pretty much everything chickens do except step outside the little doors located at either end of the shed.”
The doors lead into a fifteen foot wide grassy yard outside the shed—which none of the chickens have ever been seen in. This is far from the picturesque farm depicted on most organic products and far from what most people would consider truly organic. At the 2000 inaugural speech, USDA Secretary Glickman went out of his way to point out that “The organic label is a marketing too, it is not a statement about food safety. Nor is ‘organic’ a value judgment about nutrition or quality.” So if the government is not going to provide us with a reasonable food system what can we do?
Education plays an essential role in the future of sustainability and agriculture. Billions of dollars are spent annually convincing civilization that they want to live on Big Mac’s and carbonated corn soda. The reality is by the time we are actually old enough to be in charge of our own food supply we have been fairly well saturated with these messages. Therefore, it seems to be more prudent to bring the youth to farms and involve them with their own food choices. They then can understand what they are eating as well how we can produce it in synchronization with nature. Once that stream of thought expands into enough people, we will return to understanding the earth and how we can live in symbiotic agricultural harmony. Places like the Center for Land Based Learning (CLBL) and the Farm Based Education Association provide such experience and are essential to the future of our food system and health. The CLBL focuses on High School students in order to shape the way people think about the earth its role in the production of our food system. Some of these people may not go into the industry. Some may become farmers themselves. Some could even become the politicians who design a future farm bill. With our current agri-business model, farming is becoming just like any corporation where the bottom line is the only thing in sight. The business people do not know what organic really means, much less do they care about their impact on the earth. It may be difficult to argue with the millions of dollars these businesses bring home but if these ideas are imparted at an early age we may have a better chance to realize the destruction that comes with that profit and therein a better chance to really save the earth and the people it supports.
Bonsai Gardening Secrets. Discover Over 95 Pages Of Insider Secrets To Creating Stunning Bonsai Trees. Click Here!
Worlds Best Compost. Make The Worlds Ultimate Natural Fertilizer, Colloidal Humus, Without Bins, Turning Or Odor. Click Here!
The Complete Grape Growing System. A Complete System With E-book And Audio Book To Help You Grow Grapes The Correct Way. Click Here!
How To Start Beekeeping. Want To Start Beekeeping? This New EBook Reveals It All. Start Keeping Bees This Season! Click Here!
Orchid Care Expert - A Practical Guide. The Most Practical Guide To Orchid Care To Be Found On The Internet. Click Here!
Organic Food Gardening Beginners Manual. 87 Page Step-by-step Gardening Manual For Beginners To Learn How To Grow Their Own Healthy, Organic Food - Saving Money And Eating Chemical Free! Great Bonuses With This E-manual. Revised Edition Just Released.
Click Here!
Forceful Orchid Fertilizers: Homemade Recipes. Know How To Feed Your Orchids To Quickly Get Astonishing Results. Click Here!
The Hypertufa How-To Manual. 100 Page EBook On How To Make Garden Art Objects From Hypertufa. Easy To Follow Instructions & Expert Advice. Click Here!
Homemade Hydroponics. Hydroponics Secrets Shows You How To Grow The Plants, Fruits And Vegetables -even In Limited Space--without Using Soil. Pays 75% Commission With Excellent Conversion Rates. Click Here!
Bonsai Gardening Secrets. Discover Over 95 Pages Of Insider Secrets To Creating Stunning Bonsai Trees. Click Here!
Forceful Insecticides Home Made Formula. Discover Secret Informations That Big Multinationals Dont Want You To Know! Click Here!
Sunday, 30 November 2008
Hydroponics
Hydroponics (from the Greek words hydro water and ponos labour) is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions, without soil. Terrestrial plants may be grown with their roots in the mineral nutrient solution only or in an inert medium, such as perlite, gravel, or mineral wool.
Plant physiology researchers discovered in the 19th century that plants absorb essential mineral nutrients as inorganic ions in water. In natural conditions, soil acts as a mineral nutrient reservoir but the soil itself is not essential to plant growth. When the mineral nutrients in the soil dissolve in water, plant roots are able to absorb them. When the required mineral nutrients are introduced into a plant's water supply artificially, soil is no longer required for the plant to thrive. Almost any terrestrial plant will grow with hydroponics. Hydroponics is also a standard technique in biology research and teaching.
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History
The study of crop nutrition began thousands of years ago. Ancient history tells us that various experiments were undertaken by Theophrastus (372-287 B.C.), while several writings of Dioscorides on botany dating from the first century A.D., are still in existence.
The earliest published work on growing terrestrial plants without soil was the 1627 book, Sylva Sylvarum by Sir Francis Bacon, printed a year after his death. Water culture became a popular research technique after that. In 1699, John Woodward published his water culture experiments with spearmint. He found that plants in less pure water sources grew better than plants in distilled water. By 1842 a list of nine elements believed to be essential to plant growth had been made out, and the discoveries of the German botanists, Julius von Sachs and Wilhelm Knop, in the years 1859-65, resulted in a development of the technique of soilless cultivation[2]. Growth of terrestrial plants without soil in mineral nutrient solutions was called solution culture. It quickly became a standard research and teaching technique and is still widely used today. Solution culture is now considered a type of hydroponics where there is no inert medium.
In 1929, Professor William Frederick Gericke of the University of California at Berkeley began publicly promoting that solution culture be used for agricultural crop production. He first termed it aquaculture but later found that aquaculture was already applied to culture of aquatic organisms. Gericke created a sensation by growing tomato vines twenty-five feet high in his back yard in mineral nutrient solutions rather than soil. By analogy with the ancient Greek term for agriculture, geoponics, the science of cultivating the earth, Gericke introduced the term hydroponics in 1937 (although he asserts that the term was suggested by Dr. W. A. Setchell, of the University of California) for the culture of plants in water (from the Greek hydros, "water", and ponos, "labor").
Reports of Gericke's work and his claims that hydroponics would revolutionize plant agriculture prompted a huge number of requests for further information. Gericke refused to reveal his secrets claiming he had done the work at home on his own time. This refusal eventually resulted in his leaving the University of California. In 1940, he wrote the book, Complete Guide to Soilless Gardening.
Two other plant nutritionists at the University of California were asked to research Gericke's claims. Dennis R. Hoagland and Daniel I. Arnon wrote a classic 1938 agricultural bulletin, The Water Culture Method for Growing Plants Without Soil, debunking the exaggerated claims made about hydroponics. Hoagland and Arnon found that hydroponic crop yields were no better than crop yields with good quality soils. Crop yields were ultimately limited by factors other than mineral nutrients, especially light. This research, however, overlooked the fact that hydroponics has other advantages including the fact that the roots of the plant have constant access to oxygen and that the plants have access to as much or as little water as they need. This is important as one of the most common errors when growing is over- and under- watering; and hydroponics prevents this from occurring as large amounts of water can be made available to the plant and any water not used, drained away, recirculated, or actively aerated, eliminating anoxic conditions which drown root systems in soil. In soil, a grower needs to be very experienced to know exactly how much water to feed the plant. Too much and the plant will not be able to access oxygen; too little and the plant will lose the ability to transport nutrients, which are typically moved into the roots while in solution.
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These two researchers developed several formulas for mineral nutrient solutions, known as Hoagland solutions. Modified Hoagland solutions are still used today.
One of the early successes of hydroponics occurred on Wake Island, a rocky atoll in the Pacific Ocean used as a refueling stop for Pan American Airlines. Hydroponics was used there in the 1930s to grow vegetables for the passengers. Hydroponics was a necessity on Wake Island because there was no soil, and it was prohibitively expensive to airlift in fresh vegetables.
In the 1960s, Allen Cooper of England developed the Nutrient Film Technique. The Land Pavilion at Walt Disney World's EPCOT Center opened in 1982 and prominently features a variety of hydroponic techniques. In recent decades, NASA has done extensive hydroponic research for their Controlled Ecological Life Support System or CELSS. Hydroponics intended to take place on Mars are using LED lighting to grow in different color spectrum with much less heat.
Origin
Soilless culture
Gericke originally defined hydroponics as crop growth in mineral nutrient solutions, with no solid medium for the roots. He objected in print to people who applied the term hydroponics to other types of soilless culture such as sand culture and gravel culture. The distinction between hydroponics and soilless culture of plants has often been blurred. Soilless culture is a broader term than hydroponics; it only requires that no soils with clay or silt are used. Note that sand is a type of soil yet sand culture is considered a type of soilless culture. Hydroponics is a subset of soilless culture. Many types of soilless culture do not use the mineral nutrient solutions required for hydroponics.
Billions of container plants are produced annually, including fruit, shade and ornamental trees, shrubs, forest seedlings, vegetable seedlings, bedding plants, herbaceous perennials and vines. Most container plants are produced in soilless media, representing soilless culture. However, most are not hydroponics because the soilless medium often provides some of the mineral nutrients via slow release fertilizers, cation exchange and decomposition of the organic medium itself. Most soilless media for container plants also contain organic materials such as peat or composted bark, which provide some nitrogen to the plant. Greenhouse growth of plants in peat bags is often termed hydroponics, but technically it is not because the medium provides some of the mineral nutrients. Peat has a high cation exchange capacity and must be amended with limestone to raise the pH value.
Advantages
Today, hydroponics is an established branch of agronomical science. Progress has been rapid, and results obtained in various countries have proved it to be thoroughly practical and to have very definite advantages over conventional methods of horticulture. The two chief merits of the soilless cultivation of plants are, first, much higher crop yields, and secondly, the fact that hydroponics can be used in places where ordinary agriculture or gardening is impossible. Thus not only is it a profitable undertaking, but one which has proved of great benefit to humanity. People living in crowded city streets, without gardens, can grow fresh vegetables and fruits in window-boxes or on house tops. By means of hydroponics all such places can be made to yield a regular and abundant supply of clean, health-giving greenstuff. Not only town dwellers, but also country residents have cause to be thankful to soiless culture. Deserts, rocky and stony land in mountainous districs or barren and sterile areas can be made productive at relatively low cost. It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of hydroponics for it has given a new lease of life to the landless worker.
Other advantages include faster growth combined with relative freedom from soil diseases, and very consistent crops, the quality of produce being excellent. There is also a considerable reduction in growing area, weeds are practically non-existant, while standard methods and automatic operations mean less labor, less cost, and no hard manual work. Some plants can be raised, out of season, better control of crops naturally results in addition to no dirt and no smells. Waterlogging never occurs now. Chemically grown plants are not inferior to naturally reared ones in point of flavor, nor have analyses shown any deficiency in vitamin content. In fact, hydroponic fruits and vegetables are sweeter and more luscious than those grown in ordinary soil.
Techniques
The two main types of hydroponics are solution culture and medium culture. Solution culture does not use a solid medium for the roots, just the nutrient solution. The three main types of solution culture are static solution culture, continuous flow solution culture and aeroponics. The medium culture method has a solid medium for the roots and is named for the type of medium, e.g. sand culture, gravel culture or rockwool culture. There are two main variations for each medium, subirrigation and top irrigation. For all techniques, most hydroponic reservoirs are now built of plastic but other materials have been used including concrete, glass, metal, vegetable solids and wood. The containers should exclude light to prevent algae growth in the nutrient solution.
Static solution culture
In static solution culture, plants are grown in containers of nutrient solution, such as glass Mason jars (typically in-home applications), plastic buckets, tubs or tanks. The solution is usually gently aerated but may be unaerated. If unaerated, the solution level is kept low enough that enough roots are above the solution so they get adequate oxygen. A hole is cut in the lid of the reservoir for each plant. There can be one to many plants per reservoir. Reservoir size can be increased as plant size increases. A homemade system can be constructed from plastic food containers or glass canning jars with aeration provided by an aquarium pump, aquarium airline tubing and aquarium valves. Clear containers are covered with aluminium foil, butcher paper, black plastic or other material to exclude light, thus helping to eliminate the formation of algae. The nutrient solution is either changed on a schedule, such as once per week, or when the concentration drops below a certain level as determined with an electrical conductivity meter. Whenever the solution is depleted below a certain level, either water or fresh nutrient solution is added. A Mariotte's bottle can be used to automatically maintain the solution level. In raft solution culture, plants are placed in a sheet of buoyant plastic that is floated on the surface of the nutrient solution. That way, the solution level never drops below the roots.
Continuous flow solution culture
In continuous flow solution culture the nutrient solution constantly flows past the roots. It is much easier to automate than the static solution culture because sampling and adjustments to the temperature and nutrient concentrations can be made in a large storage tank that serves potentially thousands of plants. A popular variation is the nutrient film technique or NFT whereby a very shallow stream of water containing all the dissolved nutrients required for plant growth is recirculated past the bare roots of plants in a watertight gully, also known as channels. Ideally, the depth of the recirculating stream should be very shallow, little more than a film of water, hence the name 'nutrient film'. This ensures that the thick root mat, which develops in the bottom of the channel, has an upper surface which, although moist, is in the air. Subsequently, there is an abundant supply of oxygen to the roots of the plants. A properly designed NFT system is based on using the right channel slope, the right flow rate and the right channel length. The main advantage of the NFT system over other forms of hydroponics is that the plant roots are exposed to adequate supplies of water, oxygen and nutrients. In all other forms of production there is a conflict between the supply of these requirements, since excessive or deficient amounts of one results in an imbalance of one or both of the others. NFT, because of its design, provides a system where all three requirements for healthy plant growth can be met at the same time, providing the simple concept of NFT is always remembered and practised. The result of these advantages is that higher yields of high quality produce are obtained over an extended period of cropping. A downside of NFT is that it has very little buffering against interruptions in the flow e.g. power outages, but overall, it is probably one of the more productive techniques.
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The same design characteristics apply to all conventional NFT systems. While slopes along channels of 1:100 have been recommended, in practice it is difficult to build a base for channels that is sufficiently true to enable nutrient films to flow without ponding in locally depressed areas. Consequently, it is recommended that slopes of 1:30 to 1:40 are used. This allows for minor irregularities in the surface but, even with these slopes, ponding and waterlogging may occur. The slope may be provided by the floor, or benches or racks may hold the channels and provide the required slope. Both methods are used and depend on local requirements, often determined by the site and crop requirements.
As a general guide, flow rates for each gully should be 1 liter per minute. At planting, rates may be half this and the upper limit of 2L/min appears about the maximum. Flow rates beyond these extremes are often associated with nutritional problems. Depressed growth rates of many crops have been observed when channels exceed 12 metres in length. On rapidly growing crops, tests have indicated that, while oxygen levels remain adequate, nitrogen may be depleted over the length of the gully. Consequently, channel length should not exceed 10-15 metres. In situations where this is not possible, the reductions in growth can be eliminated by placing another nutrient feed half way along the gully and reducing flow rates to 1L/min through each outlet.
Aeroponics
Main article: Aeroponics
Aeroponics is a system where roots are continuously or discontinuously in an environment saturated with fine drops (a mist or aerosol) of nutrient solution. The method requires no substrate and entails growing plants with their roots suspended in a deep air or growth chamber with the roots periodically wetted with a fine mist of atomized nutrients. Excellent aeration is the main advantage of aeroponics.
Aeroponic techniques have proved very successful for propagation, but have yet to prove themselves on a commercial scale. Aeroponics is also widely used in laboratory studies of plant physiology. Aeroponic techniques have been given special attention from NASA since a mist is easier to handle than a liquid in a zero gravity environment.
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Passive subirrigation
Main article: Passive hydroponics
Passive subirrigation, also known as passive hydroponics or semi-hydroponics, is a method where plants are grown in an inert porous medium that transports water and fertilizer to the roots by capillary action from a separate reservoir as necessary, reducing labor and providing a constant supply of water to the roots. In the simplest method, the pot sits in a shallow solution of fertilizer and water or on a capillary mat saturated with nutrient solution. The various hydroponic media available, such as expanded clay and coconut husk, contain more air space than more traditional potting mixes, delivering increased oxygen to the roots, which is important in epiphytic plants such as orchids and bromeliads, whose roots are exposed to the air in nature. Additional advantages of passive hydroponics are the reduction of root rot and the additional ambient humidity provided through evaporation.
Ebb and flow / Flood and drain subirrigation
Main article: Ebb and flow
In its simplest form, there is a tray above a reservoir of nutrient solution. The tray is either filled with growing medium (clay granules being the most common) and planted directly, or pots of medium stand in the tray. At regular intervals, a simple timer causes a pump to fill the upper tray with nutrient solution, after which the solution drains back down into the reservoir. This keeps the medium regularly flushed with nutrients and air.
Top irrigation
In Top irrigation, nutrient solution is periodically applied to the medium surface. This may be done manually once per day in large containers of some media, such as sand. Usually, it is automated with a pump, timer and drip irrigation tubing to deliver nutrient solution as frequently as 5 to 10 minutes every hour.
Deep water culture
Main article: Deep water culture
The hydroponic method of plant production by means of suspending the plant roots in a solution of nutrient rich, oxygenated water. Traditional methods favor the use of plastic buckets and large containers with the plant contained in a net pot suspended from the centre of the lid and the roots suspended in the nutrient solution.
Media
One of the most obvious decisions hydroponic farmer's have to make is which medium they should use. Different media are appropriate for different growing techniques.
Diahydro
Diahydro is a natural sedimentary rock medium that consists of the fossilized remains of diatoms. Diahydro is extremely high in Silica (87-94%), an essential component for the growth of plants and strengthening of cell walls.
Expanded clay
Hydroton brand expanded clay pebbles.Baked clay pellets, also known under the trademarks 'Hydroton' or LECA (light expanded clay aggregate), are suitable for hydroponic systems in which all nutrients are carefully controlled in water solution. The clay pellets are inert, pH neutral and do not contain any nutrient value.
The clay is formed into round pellets and fired in rotary kilns at 1200°C. This causes the clay to expand, like popcorn, and become porous. It is light in weight, and does not compact over time. Shape of individual pellet can be irregular or uniform depending on brand and manufacturing process. The manufacturers consider expanded clay to be an ecologically sustainable and re-usable growing medium because of its ability to be cleaned and sterilized, typically by washing in solutions of white vinegar, chlorine bleach or hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and rinsing completely.
A less popular view is that clay pebbles are best not re-used even when they are cleaned, due to root growth which may enter the medium. Breaking open a clay pebble after a crop has been grown will reveal this growth.
Rock wool
Rock wool (mineral wool) is probably the most widely used medium in hydroponics. Rockwool is an inert substrate for both 'free drainage' and recirculating systems.
Coir
Coco Peat, also known as coir or coco, is the leftover material after the fibres have been removed from the outermost shell (bolster) of the coconut. Coir is a 100% natural grow and flowering medium.
Perlite
Perlite is a volcanic rock that has been superheated into very lightweight expanded glass pebbles. It is used loose or in plastic sleeves immersed in the water. It is also used in potting soil mixes to decrease soil density. Perlite has similar properties and uses to vermiculite but generally holds more air and less water. If not contained, it can float if flood and drain feeding is used.
Vermiculite
Like perlite, vermiculite is another mineral that has been superheated until it has expanded into light pebbles. Vermiculite holds more water than perlite and has a natural "wicking" property that can draw water and nutrients in a passive hydroponic system. If too much water and not enough air surrounds the plants roots, it's possible to gradually lower the medium's water-retention capability by mixing in increasing quantities of perlite.
Sand
Sand is cheap and easily available. However, it is heavy, it does not always drain well, and it must be sterilized between use.
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Gravel
The same type that is used in aquariums, though any small gravel can be used, provided it is washed first. Indeed, plants growing in a typical traditional gravel filter bed, with water circulated using electric powerhead pumps, are in effect being grown using gravel hydroponics. Gravel is inexpensive, easy to keep clean, drains well and won't become waterlogged. However, it is also heavy, and if the system doesn't provide continuous water, the plant roots may dry out.
Brick shards
Brick shards have similar properties to gravel. They have the added disadvantages of possibly altering the pH and requiring extra cleaning before reuse.
Polystyrene packing peanuts
Polystyrene packing peanuts are inexpensive, readily available, and have excellent drainage. However, they can be too lightweight for some uses. They are mainly used in closed tube systems. Note that polystyrene peanuts must be used; biodegradable packing peanuts will decompose into a sludge. Plants may absorb styrene and pass it to their consumers; this is a possible health risk.
Nutrient solutions
Plant nutrients are dissolved in the water used in hydroponics and are mostly in inorganic and ionic form. Primary among the dissolved cations (positively-charged ions) are Ca2+ (calcium), Mg2+ (magnesium), and K+ (potassium); the major nutrient anions in nutrient solutions are NO3− (nitrate), SO42− (sulfate), and H2PO4− (dihydrogen phosphate).
Numerous 'recipes' for hydroponic solutions are available. Many use different combinations of chemicals to reach similar total final compositions. Commonly-used chemicals for the macronutrients include potassium nitrate, calcium nitrate, potassium phosphate, and magnesium sulfate. Various micronutrients are typically added to hydroponic solutions to supply essential elements; among them are Fe (iron), Mn (manganese), Cu (copper), Zn (zinc), B (boron), Cl (chlorine), and Ni (nickel). Chelating agents are sometimes used to keep Fe soluble. Many variations of the nutrient solutions used by Arnon and Hoagland (see above) have been styled 'modified Hoagland solutions' and are widely used.
Plants will change the composition of the nutrient solutions upon contact by depleting specific nutrients more rapidly than others, removing water from the solution, and altering the pH by excretion of either acidity or alkalinity. Care is required not to allow salt concentrations to become too high, nutrients to become too depleted, or pH to wander far from the desired value.
Commercial
A miniature garden using hydroponics and aeroponics.Due to its arid climate, Israel has developed advanced hydroponic technology. They have marketed their system to Nicaragua, which uses it to produce more than one million pounds of peppers annually for sale abroad, including the United States.
The largest commercial hydroponics facility in the world is Eurofresh Farms in Willcox, Arizona, which sold 125 million pounds of tomatoes in 2005.[3] Eurofresh has 256 acres under glass and represents about a third of the commercial hydroponic greenhouse area in the U.S. [4] Eurofresh does not consider their tomatoes organic, but they are pesticide-free. They are grown in rockwool with top irrigation.
Some commercial installations use no pesticides or herbicides, preferring integrated pest management techniques. There is often a price premium willingly paid by consumers for produce which is labeled "organic". Some states in the USA require soil as an essential to obtain organic certification. There are also overlapping and somewhat contradictory rules established by the US Federal Government, so some food grown with hydroponics can be certified organic.
Hydroponics also saves an incredible amount of water; it uses as little as 1/20 the amount as a regular farm to produce the same amount of food. The water table can be impacted by the water use and run-off of chemicals from farms, but hydroponics may minimize impact as well as having the advantage that water use and water returns are easier to measure. This can save the farmer money by allowing reduced water use and the ability to measure consequences to the land around a farm.
To increase plant growth, lighting systems such as metal halide or high pressure sodium are used to lengthen the day or to supplement natural sunshine if it is scarce. Metal halide emits more light in the blue spectrum, making it ideal for plant growth. High pressure sodium emits more light in the red spectrum, meaning that it is best suited for supplementing natural sunshine. However, these lighting systems require large amounts of electricity (and hence high electrical expenses) to operate.
The environment in a hydroponics greenhouse is tightly controlled for maximum efficiency and this new mindset is called Soil-less/Controlled Environment Agriculture (S/CEA). With this growers can make ultra-premium foods anywhere in the world, regardless of temperature and growing seasons. Growers monitor the temperature, humidity, and pH level constantly.
Hydroponics have been used to enhance vegetables to provide more nutritional value. A hydroponic farmer in Virginia has developed a calcium and potassium enriched head of lettuce, scheduled to be widely available in April 2007. Grocers in test markets have said that the lettuce sells "very well", and the farmers claim that their hydroponic lettuce uses 90% less water than traditional soil farming.
Advancements
With pest problems reduced, and nutrients constantly fed to the roots, productivity in hydroponics is high, plant growth being limited by the low levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, or limited light. To increase yield further, some sealed greenhouses inject carbon dioxide into their environment to help growth (CO2 enrichment), or add lights to lengthen the day, control vegetative growth etc.
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Plant physiology researchers discovered in the 19th century that plants absorb essential mineral nutrients as inorganic ions in water. In natural conditions, soil acts as a mineral nutrient reservoir but the soil itself is not essential to plant growth. When the mineral nutrients in the soil dissolve in water, plant roots are able to absorb them. When the required mineral nutrients are introduced into a plant's water supply artificially, soil is no longer required for the plant to thrive. Almost any terrestrial plant will grow with hydroponics. Hydroponics is also a standard technique in biology research and teaching.
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History
The study of crop nutrition began thousands of years ago. Ancient history tells us that various experiments were undertaken by Theophrastus (372-287 B.C.), while several writings of Dioscorides on botany dating from the first century A.D., are still in existence.
The earliest published work on growing terrestrial plants without soil was the 1627 book, Sylva Sylvarum by Sir Francis Bacon, printed a year after his death. Water culture became a popular research technique after that. In 1699, John Woodward published his water culture experiments with spearmint. He found that plants in less pure water sources grew better than plants in distilled water. By 1842 a list of nine elements believed to be essential to plant growth had been made out, and the discoveries of the German botanists, Julius von Sachs and Wilhelm Knop, in the years 1859-65, resulted in a development of the technique of soilless cultivation[2]. Growth of terrestrial plants without soil in mineral nutrient solutions was called solution culture. It quickly became a standard research and teaching technique and is still widely used today. Solution culture is now considered a type of hydroponics where there is no inert medium.
In 1929, Professor William Frederick Gericke of the University of California at Berkeley began publicly promoting that solution culture be used for agricultural crop production. He first termed it aquaculture but later found that aquaculture was already applied to culture of aquatic organisms. Gericke created a sensation by growing tomato vines twenty-five feet high in his back yard in mineral nutrient solutions rather than soil. By analogy with the ancient Greek term for agriculture, geoponics, the science of cultivating the earth, Gericke introduced the term hydroponics in 1937 (although he asserts that the term was suggested by Dr. W. A. Setchell, of the University of California) for the culture of plants in water (from the Greek hydros, "water", and ponos, "labor").
Reports of Gericke's work and his claims that hydroponics would revolutionize plant agriculture prompted a huge number of requests for further information. Gericke refused to reveal his secrets claiming he had done the work at home on his own time. This refusal eventually resulted in his leaving the University of California. In 1940, he wrote the book, Complete Guide to Soilless Gardening.
Two other plant nutritionists at the University of California were asked to research Gericke's claims. Dennis R. Hoagland and Daniel I. Arnon wrote a classic 1938 agricultural bulletin, The Water Culture Method for Growing Plants Without Soil, debunking the exaggerated claims made about hydroponics. Hoagland and Arnon found that hydroponic crop yields were no better than crop yields with good quality soils. Crop yields were ultimately limited by factors other than mineral nutrients, especially light. This research, however, overlooked the fact that hydroponics has other advantages including the fact that the roots of the plant have constant access to oxygen and that the plants have access to as much or as little water as they need. This is important as one of the most common errors when growing is over- and under- watering; and hydroponics prevents this from occurring as large amounts of water can be made available to the plant and any water not used, drained away, recirculated, or actively aerated, eliminating anoxic conditions which drown root systems in soil. In soil, a grower needs to be very experienced to know exactly how much water to feed the plant. Too much and the plant will not be able to access oxygen; too little and the plant will lose the ability to transport nutrients, which are typically moved into the roots while in solution.
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These two researchers developed several formulas for mineral nutrient solutions, known as Hoagland solutions. Modified Hoagland solutions are still used today.
One of the early successes of hydroponics occurred on Wake Island, a rocky atoll in the Pacific Ocean used as a refueling stop for Pan American Airlines. Hydroponics was used there in the 1930s to grow vegetables for the passengers. Hydroponics was a necessity on Wake Island because there was no soil, and it was prohibitively expensive to airlift in fresh vegetables.
In the 1960s, Allen Cooper of England developed the Nutrient Film Technique. The Land Pavilion at Walt Disney World's EPCOT Center opened in 1982 and prominently features a variety of hydroponic techniques. In recent decades, NASA has done extensive hydroponic research for their Controlled Ecological Life Support System or CELSS. Hydroponics intended to take place on Mars are using LED lighting to grow in different color spectrum with much less heat.
Origin
Soilless culture
Gericke originally defined hydroponics as crop growth in mineral nutrient solutions, with no solid medium for the roots. He objected in print to people who applied the term hydroponics to other types of soilless culture such as sand culture and gravel culture. The distinction between hydroponics and soilless culture of plants has often been blurred. Soilless culture is a broader term than hydroponics; it only requires that no soils with clay or silt are used. Note that sand is a type of soil yet sand culture is considered a type of soilless culture. Hydroponics is a subset of soilless culture. Many types of soilless culture do not use the mineral nutrient solutions required for hydroponics.
Billions of container plants are produced annually, including fruit, shade and ornamental trees, shrubs, forest seedlings, vegetable seedlings, bedding plants, herbaceous perennials and vines. Most container plants are produced in soilless media, representing soilless culture. However, most are not hydroponics because the soilless medium often provides some of the mineral nutrients via slow release fertilizers, cation exchange and decomposition of the organic medium itself. Most soilless media for container plants also contain organic materials such as peat or composted bark, which provide some nitrogen to the plant. Greenhouse growth of plants in peat bags is often termed hydroponics, but technically it is not because the medium provides some of the mineral nutrients. Peat has a high cation exchange capacity and must be amended with limestone to raise the pH value.
Advantages
Today, hydroponics is an established branch of agronomical science. Progress has been rapid, and results obtained in various countries have proved it to be thoroughly practical and to have very definite advantages over conventional methods of horticulture. The two chief merits of the soilless cultivation of plants are, first, much higher crop yields, and secondly, the fact that hydroponics can be used in places where ordinary agriculture or gardening is impossible. Thus not only is it a profitable undertaking, but one which has proved of great benefit to humanity. People living in crowded city streets, without gardens, can grow fresh vegetables and fruits in window-boxes or on house tops. By means of hydroponics all such places can be made to yield a regular and abundant supply of clean, health-giving greenstuff. Not only town dwellers, but also country residents have cause to be thankful to soiless culture. Deserts, rocky and stony land in mountainous districs or barren and sterile areas can be made productive at relatively low cost. It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of hydroponics for it has given a new lease of life to the landless worker.
Other advantages include faster growth combined with relative freedom from soil diseases, and very consistent crops, the quality of produce being excellent. There is also a considerable reduction in growing area, weeds are practically non-existant, while standard methods and automatic operations mean less labor, less cost, and no hard manual work. Some plants can be raised, out of season, better control of crops naturally results in addition to no dirt and no smells. Waterlogging never occurs now. Chemically grown plants are not inferior to naturally reared ones in point of flavor, nor have analyses shown any deficiency in vitamin content. In fact, hydroponic fruits and vegetables are sweeter and more luscious than those grown in ordinary soil.
Techniques
The two main types of hydroponics are solution culture and medium culture. Solution culture does not use a solid medium for the roots, just the nutrient solution. The three main types of solution culture are static solution culture, continuous flow solution culture and aeroponics. The medium culture method has a solid medium for the roots and is named for the type of medium, e.g. sand culture, gravel culture or rockwool culture. There are two main variations for each medium, subirrigation and top irrigation. For all techniques, most hydroponic reservoirs are now built of plastic but other materials have been used including concrete, glass, metal, vegetable solids and wood. The containers should exclude light to prevent algae growth in the nutrient solution.
Static solution culture
In static solution culture, plants are grown in containers of nutrient solution, such as glass Mason jars (typically in-home applications), plastic buckets, tubs or tanks. The solution is usually gently aerated but may be unaerated. If unaerated, the solution level is kept low enough that enough roots are above the solution so they get adequate oxygen. A hole is cut in the lid of the reservoir for each plant. There can be one to many plants per reservoir. Reservoir size can be increased as plant size increases. A homemade system can be constructed from plastic food containers or glass canning jars with aeration provided by an aquarium pump, aquarium airline tubing and aquarium valves. Clear containers are covered with aluminium foil, butcher paper, black plastic or other material to exclude light, thus helping to eliminate the formation of algae. The nutrient solution is either changed on a schedule, such as once per week, or when the concentration drops below a certain level as determined with an electrical conductivity meter. Whenever the solution is depleted below a certain level, either water or fresh nutrient solution is added. A Mariotte's bottle can be used to automatically maintain the solution level. In raft solution culture, plants are placed in a sheet of buoyant plastic that is floated on the surface of the nutrient solution. That way, the solution level never drops below the roots.
Continuous flow solution culture
In continuous flow solution culture the nutrient solution constantly flows past the roots. It is much easier to automate than the static solution culture because sampling and adjustments to the temperature and nutrient concentrations can be made in a large storage tank that serves potentially thousands of plants. A popular variation is the nutrient film technique or NFT whereby a very shallow stream of water containing all the dissolved nutrients required for plant growth is recirculated past the bare roots of plants in a watertight gully, also known as channels. Ideally, the depth of the recirculating stream should be very shallow, little more than a film of water, hence the name 'nutrient film'. This ensures that the thick root mat, which develops in the bottom of the channel, has an upper surface which, although moist, is in the air. Subsequently, there is an abundant supply of oxygen to the roots of the plants. A properly designed NFT system is based on using the right channel slope, the right flow rate and the right channel length. The main advantage of the NFT system over other forms of hydroponics is that the plant roots are exposed to adequate supplies of water, oxygen and nutrients. In all other forms of production there is a conflict between the supply of these requirements, since excessive or deficient amounts of one results in an imbalance of one or both of the others. NFT, because of its design, provides a system where all three requirements for healthy plant growth can be met at the same time, providing the simple concept of NFT is always remembered and practised. The result of these advantages is that higher yields of high quality produce are obtained over an extended period of cropping. A downside of NFT is that it has very little buffering against interruptions in the flow e.g. power outages, but overall, it is probably one of the more productive techniques.
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The same design characteristics apply to all conventional NFT systems. While slopes along channels of 1:100 have been recommended, in practice it is difficult to build a base for channels that is sufficiently true to enable nutrient films to flow without ponding in locally depressed areas. Consequently, it is recommended that slopes of 1:30 to 1:40 are used. This allows for minor irregularities in the surface but, even with these slopes, ponding and waterlogging may occur. The slope may be provided by the floor, or benches or racks may hold the channels and provide the required slope. Both methods are used and depend on local requirements, often determined by the site and crop requirements.
As a general guide, flow rates for each gully should be 1 liter per minute. At planting, rates may be half this and the upper limit of 2L/min appears about the maximum. Flow rates beyond these extremes are often associated with nutritional problems. Depressed growth rates of many crops have been observed when channels exceed 12 metres in length. On rapidly growing crops, tests have indicated that, while oxygen levels remain adequate, nitrogen may be depleted over the length of the gully. Consequently, channel length should not exceed 10-15 metres. In situations where this is not possible, the reductions in growth can be eliminated by placing another nutrient feed half way along the gully and reducing flow rates to 1L/min through each outlet.
Aeroponics
Main article: Aeroponics
Aeroponics is a system where roots are continuously or discontinuously in an environment saturated with fine drops (a mist or aerosol) of nutrient solution. The method requires no substrate and entails growing plants with their roots suspended in a deep air or growth chamber with the roots periodically wetted with a fine mist of atomized nutrients. Excellent aeration is the main advantage of aeroponics.
Aeroponic techniques have proved very successful for propagation, but have yet to prove themselves on a commercial scale. Aeroponics is also widely used in laboratory studies of plant physiology. Aeroponic techniques have been given special attention from NASA since a mist is easier to handle than a liquid in a zero gravity environment.
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Passive subirrigation
Main article: Passive hydroponics
Passive subirrigation, also known as passive hydroponics or semi-hydroponics, is a method where plants are grown in an inert porous medium that transports water and fertilizer to the roots by capillary action from a separate reservoir as necessary, reducing labor and providing a constant supply of water to the roots. In the simplest method, the pot sits in a shallow solution of fertilizer and water or on a capillary mat saturated with nutrient solution. The various hydroponic media available, such as expanded clay and coconut husk, contain more air space than more traditional potting mixes, delivering increased oxygen to the roots, which is important in epiphytic plants such as orchids and bromeliads, whose roots are exposed to the air in nature. Additional advantages of passive hydroponics are the reduction of root rot and the additional ambient humidity provided through evaporation.
Ebb and flow / Flood and drain subirrigation
Main article: Ebb and flow
In its simplest form, there is a tray above a reservoir of nutrient solution. The tray is either filled with growing medium (clay granules being the most common) and planted directly, or pots of medium stand in the tray. At regular intervals, a simple timer causes a pump to fill the upper tray with nutrient solution, after which the solution drains back down into the reservoir. This keeps the medium regularly flushed with nutrients and air.
Top irrigation
In Top irrigation, nutrient solution is periodically applied to the medium surface. This may be done manually once per day in large containers of some media, such as sand. Usually, it is automated with a pump, timer and drip irrigation tubing to deliver nutrient solution as frequently as 5 to 10 minutes every hour.
Deep water culture
Main article: Deep water culture
The hydroponic method of plant production by means of suspending the plant roots in a solution of nutrient rich, oxygenated water. Traditional methods favor the use of plastic buckets and large containers with the plant contained in a net pot suspended from the centre of the lid and the roots suspended in the nutrient solution.
Media
One of the most obvious decisions hydroponic farmer's have to make is which medium they should use. Different media are appropriate for different growing techniques.
Diahydro
Diahydro is a natural sedimentary rock medium that consists of the fossilized remains of diatoms. Diahydro is extremely high in Silica (87-94%), an essential component for the growth of plants and strengthening of cell walls.
Expanded clay
Hydroton brand expanded clay pebbles.Baked clay pellets, also known under the trademarks 'Hydroton' or LECA (light expanded clay aggregate), are suitable for hydroponic systems in which all nutrients are carefully controlled in water solution. The clay pellets are inert, pH neutral and do not contain any nutrient value.
The clay is formed into round pellets and fired in rotary kilns at 1200°C. This causes the clay to expand, like popcorn, and become porous. It is light in weight, and does not compact over time. Shape of individual pellet can be irregular or uniform depending on brand and manufacturing process. The manufacturers consider expanded clay to be an ecologically sustainable and re-usable growing medium because of its ability to be cleaned and sterilized, typically by washing in solutions of white vinegar, chlorine bleach or hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and rinsing completely.
A less popular view is that clay pebbles are best not re-used even when they are cleaned, due to root growth which may enter the medium. Breaking open a clay pebble after a crop has been grown will reveal this growth.
Rock wool
Rock wool (mineral wool) is probably the most widely used medium in hydroponics. Rockwool is an inert substrate for both 'free drainage' and recirculating systems.
Coir
Coco Peat, also known as coir or coco, is the leftover material after the fibres have been removed from the outermost shell (bolster) of the coconut. Coir is a 100% natural grow and flowering medium.
Perlite
Perlite is a volcanic rock that has been superheated into very lightweight expanded glass pebbles. It is used loose or in plastic sleeves immersed in the water. It is also used in potting soil mixes to decrease soil density. Perlite has similar properties and uses to vermiculite but generally holds more air and less water. If not contained, it can float if flood and drain feeding is used.
Vermiculite
Like perlite, vermiculite is another mineral that has been superheated until it has expanded into light pebbles. Vermiculite holds more water than perlite and has a natural "wicking" property that can draw water and nutrients in a passive hydroponic system. If too much water and not enough air surrounds the plants roots, it's possible to gradually lower the medium's water-retention capability by mixing in increasing quantities of perlite.
Sand
Sand is cheap and easily available. However, it is heavy, it does not always drain well, and it must be sterilized between use.
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Gravel
The same type that is used in aquariums, though any small gravel can be used, provided it is washed first. Indeed, plants growing in a typical traditional gravel filter bed, with water circulated using electric powerhead pumps, are in effect being grown using gravel hydroponics. Gravel is inexpensive, easy to keep clean, drains well and won't become waterlogged. However, it is also heavy, and if the system doesn't provide continuous water, the plant roots may dry out.
Brick shards
Brick shards have similar properties to gravel. They have the added disadvantages of possibly altering the pH and requiring extra cleaning before reuse.
Polystyrene packing peanuts
Polystyrene packing peanuts are inexpensive, readily available, and have excellent drainage. However, they can be too lightweight for some uses. They are mainly used in closed tube systems. Note that polystyrene peanuts must be used; biodegradable packing peanuts will decompose into a sludge. Plants may absorb styrene and pass it to their consumers; this is a possible health risk.
Nutrient solutions
Plant nutrients are dissolved in the water used in hydroponics and are mostly in inorganic and ionic form. Primary among the dissolved cations (positively-charged ions) are Ca2+ (calcium), Mg2+ (magnesium), and K+ (potassium); the major nutrient anions in nutrient solutions are NO3− (nitrate), SO42− (sulfate), and H2PO4− (dihydrogen phosphate).
Numerous 'recipes' for hydroponic solutions are available. Many use different combinations of chemicals to reach similar total final compositions. Commonly-used chemicals for the macronutrients include potassium nitrate, calcium nitrate, potassium phosphate, and magnesium sulfate. Various micronutrients are typically added to hydroponic solutions to supply essential elements; among them are Fe (iron), Mn (manganese), Cu (copper), Zn (zinc), B (boron), Cl (chlorine), and Ni (nickel). Chelating agents are sometimes used to keep Fe soluble. Many variations of the nutrient solutions used by Arnon and Hoagland (see above) have been styled 'modified Hoagland solutions' and are widely used.
Plants will change the composition of the nutrient solutions upon contact by depleting specific nutrients more rapidly than others, removing water from the solution, and altering the pH by excretion of either acidity or alkalinity. Care is required not to allow salt concentrations to become too high, nutrients to become too depleted, or pH to wander far from the desired value.
Commercial
A miniature garden using hydroponics and aeroponics.Due to its arid climate, Israel has developed advanced hydroponic technology. They have marketed their system to Nicaragua, which uses it to produce more than one million pounds of peppers annually for sale abroad, including the United States.
The largest commercial hydroponics facility in the world is Eurofresh Farms in Willcox, Arizona, which sold 125 million pounds of tomatoes in 2005.[3] Eurofresh has 256 acres under glass and represents about a third of the commercial hydroponic greenhouse area in the U.S. [4] Eurofresh does not consider their tomatoes organic, but they are pesticide-free. They are grown in rockwool with top irrigation.
Some commercial installations use no pesticides or herbicides, preferring integrated pest management techniques. There is often a price premium willingly paid by consumers for produce which is labeled "organic". Some states in the USA require soil as an essential to obtain organic certification. There are also overlapping and somewhat contradictory rules established by the US Federal Government, so some food grown with hydroponics can be certified organic.
Hydroponics also saves an incredible amount of water; it uses as little as 1/20 the amount as a regular farm to produce the same amount of food. The water table can be impacted by the water use and run-off of chemicals from farms, but hydroponics may minimize impact as well as having the advantage that water use and water returns are easier to measure. This can save the farmer money by allowing reduced water use and the ability to measure consequences to the land around a farm.
To increase plant growth, lighting systems such as metal halide or high pressure sodium are used to lengthen the day or to supplement natural sunshine if it is scarce. Metal halide emits more light in the blue spectrum, making it ideal for plant growth. High pressure sodium emits more light in the red spectrum, meaning that it is best suited for supplementing natural sunshine. However, these lighting systems require large amounts of electricity (and hence high electrical expenses) to operate.
The environment in a hydroponics greenhouse is tightly controlled for maximum efficiency and this new mindset is called Soil-less/Controlled Environment Agriculture (S/CEA). With this growers can make ultra-premium foods anywhere in the world, regardless of temperature and growing seasons. Growers monitor the temperature, humidity, and pH level constantly.
Hydroponics have been used to enhance vegetables to provide more nutritional value. A hydroponic farmer in Virginia has developed a calcium and potassium enriched head of lettuce, scheduled to be widely available in April 2007. Grocers in test markets have said that the lettuce sells "very well", and the farmers claim that their hydroponic lettuce uses 90% less water than traditional soil farming.
Advancements
With pest problems reduced, and nutrients constantly fed to the roots, productivity in hydroponics is high, plant growth being limited by the low levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, or limited light. To increase yield further, some sealed greenhouses inject carbon dioxide into their environment to help growth (CO2 enrichment), or add lights to lengthen the day, control vegetative growth etc.
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Friday, 28 November 2008
Buy Gardening and Nature Products
Worlds Best Compost. Make The Worlds Ultimate Natural Fertilizer, Colloidal Humus, Without Bins, Turning Or Odor. Click Here!
The Complete Grape Growing System. A Complete System With E-book And Audio Book To Help You Grow Grapes. Click Here!
How To Start Beekeeping. Want To Start Beekeeping? This New EBook Reveals It All. Start Keeping Bees This Season! Click Here!
Orchid Care Expert - A Practical Guide. The Most Practical Guide To Orchid Care To Be Found On The Internet. Click Here!
Organic Food Gardening Beginners Manual. 87 Page Step-by-step Gardening Manual For Beginners To Learn How To Grow Their Own Healthy, Organic Food - Saving Money And Eating Chemical Free! Great Bonuses With This E-manual. Revised Edition Just Released.
Click Here!
Forceful Orchid Fertilizers: Homemade Recipes. Know How To Feed Your Orchids To Quickly Get Astonishing Results. Click Here!
The Hypertufa How-To Manual. 100 Page EBook On How To Make Garden Art Objects From Hypertufa. Easy To Follow Instructions & Expert Advice. Click Here!
Homemade Hydroponics. Hydroponics Secrets Shows You How To Grow The Plants, Fruits And Vegetables -even In Limited Space--without Using Soil. Click Here!
Bonsai Gardening Secrets. Discover Over 95 Pages Of Insider Secrets To Creating Stunning Bonsai Trees. Click Here!
Forceful Insecticides Home Made Formula. Discover Secret Informations That Big Multinationals Dont Want You To Know! Click Here!
How To Grow Juicy Tasty Tomatoes. Inside Secrets To Doubling, Even Trebling Tomato Yield. How To Grow Fabulous Tomatoes, A Comprehensive And Beautifully Illustrated Book, Written By World Renowned Authority Who Advises The Industry. Click Here!
Pergola & Sun Trellis Plans. Pergola & Sun Trellis Plans With Step By Step Guide And Material List 15 Different Sizes. Click Here!
101 Home Uses Of Hydrogen Peroxide. EBook(R) Detailed Instructions On Using Hydrogen Peroxide For Safe,non-toxic, Non-polluting, And Extremely Effective Mold Mildew, Stain, Odor And Algae Removal. Sources, References And More For Both Wet And Dry Hydrogen Peroxide Formulas At Rock Bottom Pr. Click Here!
Self-Sufficient-Life.com. Keeping And Raising Chickens And Poultry. Build A Chicken Coop. Growing Your Own Fruit And Vegetables. Beekeeping (Honey Bees). Herbal Remedies, Herbs, Remedy. Hydroponic Gardening, Hydroponics Garden. Building Your Own Greenhouse.
Click Here!
Help Us Feed Millions Of People! Produce 5-10 Times More Food While Using 1/2 The Water! World-renowned Mittleider Gardening Books, CDs Videos & Software Show You How! Click Here!
How To Build Auto Lawn Sprinklers. Build Your Own Automatic Lawn Sprinkler System. - Newly Increased Commissions! Click Here!
Diy Japanese Garden. Easy Step By Step Guide To Make You Own Japanese Garden, With Pictured Sample Garden Designs. Click Here!
Grow Roll Smoke. How To Grow Tobacco At Home And Save Thousands. Click Here!
Organic Vegetable Gardening. Organic Vegetable Gardening Ebook. Even A Novice Can Start An Organic Garden With This Simple Guide. Complete Step By Step Gardening Guide. Click Here!
Free Organic Vegetable Gardening At Home. Learn How To Start Up Or Enhance Your Own Organic Vegetable Garden At Home. Everyone Can Save Money On Food Bills And Produce Superior Fruit And Vegetables. Click Here!
Your Lawn Care Business Marketing Plan. How To Double Your Lawn Care Business In The Next 30 Days. Click Here!
Home Hydroponic Gardening Guide - Learn To Grow Hydroponics. The Hydroponic Garden Guide Provides You With Everything You Need To Know To Get Started With Hydroponics. It Covers All Of The Bases So That You Understand All Of The Essentials Along With Step-by-step Instructions And A Handy Checklist Of To Do Tasks. Click Here!
Floral Design Secrets. Get Started Learning To Design Floral Arrangements. Tap Into Another Indoor Gardening Niche! Click Here!
Worm Farms Diy. How To Build And Manage A Worm Farm To Suit The Average Family. Recycle Household Organic Waste Into Fertiliser For Your Garden And Help The Environment Too. Click Here!
How To Build Your Own Natural Waterfall. Updated! Earn $12 For Each Affiliate Sale. Great Conversions - Check Us Out! Click Here!
Help!! Someone Just Gave Me A Bonsai Tree!! Discover The 7 Simple Steps To Keeping Your Bonsai Tree Alive & Well. Excellent Beginners Resource Targeted To New Owners Of Bonsai Trees. Click Here!
The Barefoot Beekeeper. The Barefoot Beekeeper Is A Revolutionary Book About Sustainable, Chemical-free Beekeeping, Showing How It Can Be Simplified And Made Accessible To All, Including People With Disabilities. Free Hive Building Instructions And Forum On Authors Site.
Click Here!
Orchids To Brag About. Professional Advice On How To Grow And Maintain Beautiful, Healthy Orchids - Guaranteed! Click Here!
Ultimate Greenhouse Package. EBook(R)s. Click Here!
Square Watermelon Secrets Revealed! Instant Buzz Home Garden Ebook. Author Grew His Own Square Watermelon And Shows How To. Its Great Fun And Curiosity. Click Here!
The Hydroponic Garden Secrets Guide. Hydroponics Secrets Shows You How To Grow The Plants, Fruits And Vegetables -even In Limited Space--without Using Soil. An Amazi.
Click Here!
Lawn Care EBook(R) Click Here!
Bonsai Tree Care Secrets. Learn The Tips And Secrets On Caring For Your Bonsai. Over 50 Color Photos! Click Here!
Tune Wind Chimes. How To Make And Tune Wind Chimes, Tuning Formula Revealed, Details For Assembling Windchimes. Click Here!
The Real Gardener's Book. Get A Beautiful Garden - Easy, Inexpensive, And Rewarding - Simple Steps To Follow! Only Product With Book And Audio Mp3 Book ! Click Here!
Sunvillage Publications. Top Quality EBook(R)s And Ecourses. Click Here!
Rose Secrets Revealed. Comprehensive Guide To Roses. Click Here!
Home Vegetable Gardening Guide. A Complete Guide To The Planting And Care Of Vegetables, Fruit, And Berries. Click Here!
How To Plant & Care For Your Rose Garden. New Guide Reveals Tips, Tricks & Techniques You Can Use To Consistently Grow Gorgeous, Healthy Roses With Ease! Click Here!
Wild Bird Food Recipes. Easy To Make Wild Bird Food Recipes And Bird Feeding Tips.
Click Here!
GardenRack. No Bend, No Kneel Gardening At Its Best! Click Here!
Orchid Secrets Revealed. Discover How To Grow Breathtaking Orchids - Even If You Have Never Raised One Before! 100 Percent Guaranteed! Click Here!
Greenhouse Success. Greenhouse Success - How To Quickly And Easily Set Up Your Greenhouse! Click Here!
High Density Gardening. How To Design, Build, Set Up, Grow With And Maintain A High Density Garden To Provide You And Your Family With Fresh, Wholesome And Tasty Vegetables.
Click Here!
Home And Garden - Country And Rural Life. Gardening And Birds, Raising Chickens And Goats, Baking Bread...more Coming Soon! Click Here!
Wind Chime Design And Building Products. Book And Software To Design, Build And Tune Wind Chimes. Great Products For People Selling Arts And Crafts And Hobby Products. Click Here!
Zero To Fifty In 30 Days! Give Me 2 Minutes And Ill Show You My Brand New System That Will Make You At Least $50 A Day.. In Just 30 Days. Click Here!
The Home Of Indoor Plant Care Info. We Provide Indoor Plant Care Information For The Homeowner, Garden Center Personnel, And Plantscape Technicians. Click Here!
Cinder Block Gardens Ebook. Grow More Food In Less Space And In Less Time. Finally, Gardening Made Simple And Easy, The Way Gardening Should Be! Click Here!
Purebred Dog Registrations. Register A Purebred Or Hybrid (Popular Mix, Example: CockerPoo, MaltiPoo, ChiPoo, Etc) Dog Or Puppy Online Instantly. Most Breeds Accepted. Breeder Friendly. Click Here!
Picnic Table Plans. Discover How You Can Proudly Build An Octagonal Or Hexagonal Picnic Table And Save Money.. Learn The Secret Of How You Can Easily Build Your Own Spectacular Picnic Table In Just One Weekend. Click Here!
Organic Gardening Secrets. Discover The Secrets To Organic Gardening. Click Here!
The Magic Of Orchids. Discover The Secrets Of Growing The Magical Orchids. Click Here!
Bonsai Mastery Secrets. Bonsai Mastery Secrets With New Sales Letter That Converts At Over 8%! Plus 75% Commission. Click Here!
Fantastic Fish Ponds. Have The Fish Pond You Have Always Dreamed Of - Guaranteed!
Click Here!
How To Garden In A Dry Climate. The Private Home Gardener, Primarily In A Dry Climate, Hungry For Hands-on Information From A Seasoned Professional Of Nearly 25 Years Experience, Gardening In Israel A Hot And Thirsty Country. Click Here!
Get Landscaping Ideas & Plans. Discover Over 65 Beautiful Landscaping Ideas & Tips To Increase The Value Of Your Home Up To 20%. Get Started This Weekend! Click Here!
Build Your Own Deck, Or Cottage Dock Build A Deck For Your Home, Or A Cottage Dock For Your Family In Less Than A Week, Save Thousands Of Dollars Over The Cost Of Hiring A Contractor. Click Here!
Secrets To Buying A Fence. Secrets To Buying A Fence Report. Anyone Purchasing A Fence Can Learn The Secrets To Saving Hundreds When Choosing A Contractor To Build Your Fence.
Click Here!
The Complete Grape Growing System. A Complete System With E-book And Audio Book To Help You Grow Grapes. Click Here!
How To Start Beekeeping. Want To Start Beekeeping? This New EBook Reveals It All. Start Keeping Bees This Season! Click Here!
Orchid Care Expert - A Practical Guide. The Most Practical Guide To Orchid Care To Be Found On The Internet. Click Here!
Organic Food Gardening Beginners Manual. 87 Page Step-by-step Gardening Manual For Beginners To Learn How To Grow Their Own Healthy, Organic Food - Saving Money And Eating Chemical Free! Great Bonuses With This E-manual. Revised Edition Just Released.
Click Here!
Forceful Orchid Fertilizers: Homemade Recipes. Know How To Feed Your Orchids To Quickly Get Astonishing Results. Click Here!
The Hypertufa How-To Manual. 100 Page EBook On How To Make Garden Art Objects From Hypertufa. Easy To Follow Instructions & Expert Advice. Click Here!
Homemade Hydroponics. Hydroponics Secrets Shows You How To Grow The Plants, Fruits And Vegetables -even In Limited Space--without Using Soil. Click Here!
Bonsai Gardening Secrets. Discover Over 95 Pages Of Insider Secrets To Creating Stunning Bonsai Trees. Click Here!
Forceful Insecticides Home Made Formula. Discover Secret Informations That Big Multinationals Dont Want You To Know! Click Here!
How To Grow Juicy Tasty Tomatoes. Inside Secrets To Doubling, Even Trebling Tomato Yield. How To Grow Fabulous Tomatoes, A Comprehensive And Beautifully Illustrated Book, Written By World Renowned Authority Who Advises The Industry. Click Here!
Pergola & Sun Trellis Plans. Pergola & Sun Trellis Plans With Step By Step Guide And Material List 15 Different Sizes. Click Here!
101 Home Uses Of Hydrogen Peroxide. EBook(R) Detailed Instructions On Using Hydrogen Peroxide For Safe,non-toxic, Non-polluting, And Extremely Effective Mold Mildew, Stain, Odor And Algae Removal. Sources, References And More For Both Wet And Dry Hydrogen Peroxide Formulas At Rock Bottom Pr. Click Here!
Self-Sufficient-Life.com. Keeping And Raising Chickens And Poultry. Build A Chicken Coop. Growing Your Own Fruit And Vegetables. Beekeeping (Honey Bees). Herbal Remedies, Herbs, Remedy. Hydroponic Gardening, Hydroponics Garden. Building Your Own Greenhouse.
Click Here!
Help Us Feed Millions Of People! Produce 5-10 Times More Food While Using 1/2 The Water! World-renowned Mittleider Gardening Books, CDs Videos & Software Show You How! Click Here!
How To Build Auto Lawn Sprinklers. Build Your Own Automatic Lawn Sprinkler System. - Newly Increased Commissions! Click Here!
Diy Japanese Garden. Easy Step By Step Guide To Make You Own Japanese Garden, With Pictured Sample Garden Designs. Click Here!
Grow Roll Smoke. How To Grow Tobacco At Home And Save Thousands. Click Here!
Organic Vegetable Gardening. Organic Vegetable Gardening Ebook. Even A Novice Can Start An Organic Garden With This Simple Guide. Complete Step By Step Gardening Guide. Click Here!
Free Organic Vegetable Gardening At Home. Learn How To Start Up Or Enhance Your Own Organic Vegetable Garden At Home. Everyone Can Save Money On Food Bills And Produce Superior Fruit And Vegetables. Click Here!
Your Lawn Care Business Marketing Plan. How To Double Your Lawn Care Business In The Next 30 Days. Click Here!
Home Hydroponic Gardening Guide - Learn To Grow Hydroponics. The Hydroponic Garden Guide Provides You With Everything You Need To Know To Get Started With Hydroponics. It Covers All Of The Bases So That You Understand All Of The Essentials Along With Step-by-step Instructions And A Handy Checklist Of To Do Tasks. Click Here!
Floral Design Secrets. Get Started Learning To Design Floral Arrangements. Tap Into Another Indoor Gardening Niche! Click Here!
Worm Farms Diy. How To Build And Manage A Worm Farm To Suit The Average Family. Recycle Household Organic Waste Into Fertiliser For Your Garden And Help The Environment Too. Click Here!
How To Build Your Own Natural Waterfall. Updated! Earn $12 For Each Affiliate Sale. Great Conversions - Check Us Out! Click Here!
Help!! Someone Just Gave Me A Bonsai Tree!! Discover The 7 Simple Steps To Keeping Your Bonsai Tree Alive & Well. Excellent Beginners Resource Targeted To New Owners Of Bonsai Trees. Click Here!
The Barefoot Beekeeper. The Barefoot Beekeeper Is A Revolutionary Book About Sustainable, Chemical-free Beekeeping, Showing How It Can Be Simplified And Made Accessible To All, Including People With Disabilities. Free Hive Building Instructions And Forum On Authors Site.
Click Here!
Orchids To Brag About. Professional Advice On How To Grow And Maintain Beautiful, Healthy Orchids - Guaranteed! Click Here!
Ultimate Greenhouse Package. EBook(R)s. Click Here!
Square Watermelon Secrets Revealed! Instant Buzz Home Garden Ebook. Author Grew His Own Square Watermelon And Shows How To. Its Great Fun And Curiosity. Click Here!
The Hydroponic Garden Secrets Guide. Hydroponics Secrets Shows You How To Grow The Plants, Fruits And Vegetables -even In Limited Space--without Using Soil. An Amazi.
Click Here!
Lawn Care EBook(R) Click Here!
Bonsai Tree Care Secrets. Learn The Tips And Secrets On Caring For Your Bonsai. Over 50 Color Photos! Click Here!
Tune Wind Chimes. How To Make And Tune Wind Chimes, Tuning Formula Revealed, Details For Assembling Windchimes. Click Here!
The Real Gardener's Book. Get A Beautiful Garden - Easy, Inexpensive, And Rewarding - Simple Steps To Follow! Only Product With Book And Audio Mp3 Book ! Click Here!
Sunvillage Publications. Top Quality EBook(R)s And Ecourses. Click Here!
Rose Secrets Revealed. Comprehensive Guide To Roses. Click Here!
Home Vegetable Gardening Guide. A Complete Guide To The Planting And Care Of Vegetables, Fruit, And Berries. Click Here!
How To Plant & Care For Your Rose Garden. New Guide Reveals Tips, Tricks & Techniques You Can Use To Consistently Grow Gorgeous, Healthy Roses With Ease! Click Here!
Wild Bird Food Recipes. Easy To Make Wild Bird Food Recipes And Bird Feeding Tips.
Click Here!
GardenRack. No Bend, No Kneel Gardening At Its Best! Click Here!
Orchid Secrets Revealed. Discover How To Grow Breathtaking Orchids - Even If You Have Never Raised One Before! 100 Percent Guaranteed! Click Here!
Greenhouse Success. Greenhouse Success - How To Quickly And Easily Set Up Your Greenhouse! Click Here!
High Density Gardening. How To Design, Build, Set Up, Grow With And Maintain A High Density Garden To Provide You And Your Family With Fresh, Wholesome And Tasty Vegetables.
Click Here!
Home And Garden - Country And Rural Life. Gardening And Birds, Raising Chickens And Goats, Baking Bread...more Coming Soon! Click Here!
Wind Chime Design And Building Products. Book And Software To Design, Build And Tune Wind Chimes. Great Products For People Selling Arts And Crafts And Hobby Products. Click Here!
Zero To Fifty In 30 Days! Give Me 2 Minutes And Ill Show You My Brand New System That Will Make You At Least $50 A Day.. In Just 30 Days. Click Here!
The Home Of Indoor Plant Care Info. We Provide Indoor Plant Care Information For The Homeowner, Garden Center Personnel, And Plantscape Technicians. Click Here!
Cinder Block Gardens Ebook. Grow More Food In Less Space And In Less Time. Finally, Gardening Made Simple And Easy, The Way Gardening Should Be! Click Here!
Purebred Dog Registrations. Register A Purebred Or Hybrid (Popular Mix, Example: CockerPoo, MaltiPoo, ChiPoo, Etc) Dog Or Puppy Online Instantly. Most Breeds Accepted. Breeder Friendly. Click Here!
Picnic Table Plans. Discover How You Can Proudly Build An Octagonal Or Hexagonal Picnic Table And Save Money.. Learn The Secret Of How You Can Easily Build Your Own Spectacular Picnic Table In Just One Weekend. Click Here!
Organic Gardening Secrets. Discover The Secrets To Organic Gardening. Click Here!
The Magic Of Orchids. Discover The Secrets Of Growing The Magical Orchids. Click Here!
Bonsai Mastery Secrets. Bonsai Mastery Secrets With New Sales Letter That Converts At Over 8%! Plus 75% Commission. Click Here!
Fantastic Fish Ponds. Have The Fish Pond You Have Always Dreamed Of - Guaranteed!
Click Here!
How To Garden In A Dry Climate. The Private Home Gardener, Primarily In A Dry Climate, Hungry For Hands-on Information From A Seasoned Professional Of Nearly 25 Years Experience, Gardening In Israel A Hot And Thirsty Country. Click Here!
Get Landscaping Ideas & Plans. Discover Over 65 Beautiful Landscaping Ideas & Tips To Increase The Value Of Your Home Up To 20%. Get Started This Weekend! Click Here!
Build Your Own Deck, Or Cottage Dock Build A Deck For Your Home, Or A Cottage Dock For Your Family In Less Than A Week, Save Thousands Of Dollars Over The Cost Of Hiring A Contractor. Click Here!
Secrets To Buying A Fence. Secrets To Buying A Fence Report. Anyone Purchasing A Fence Can Learn The Secrets To Saving Hundreds When Choosing A Contractor To Build Your Fence.
Click Here!
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