Posts Tagged "Indoor"

Basic Indoor hydroponics Gardening Guide – Grow Light Reflectors

Posted by admin on Sep 3, 2010 in Gardening | 3 comments

by Duncan Creamer

Basic Indoor hydroponics Gardening Guide – Grow Light Reflectors

Grow Light Reflectors

Often neglected as to their importance, grow light reflectors play a major role in a good indoor hydroponic garden system. Light plays a great role or the most important role in photosynthesis. The use of grow light reflectors in your garden enhances light distribution and ensures uniform distribution. Discounts on quality grow light reflectors are easily available and a super cost effective way of improving your personal garden productivity and efficiency. With effective planning, the use of the right lighting system together with grow light reflectors greatly expands your garden area.

Size and shape are important factors when considering the right grow light reflector. Grow lights and their configuration and personal preference for the amount of light needed to grow your plants are taken into consideration. Horizontal placement of the lights and reflectors are effective ways of mounting this system. Garden size also determines what shape and size of grow light reflector to be used. Smaller grow light reflectors produce higher intensity light beams because of their shorter travel distance.

 Air-Cooled Reflectors

 For additional ventilation and heat control, air-cooled reflectors are used. Indispensable for those gardens cramped in small spaces because of the amount of heat generated by grow lights. It maybe difficult or close to impossible to maintain proper ventilation in such enclosed garden by the use of external fans. Usual setup for indoor hydroponic gardens includes grow lights with air-cooled reflective hoods covered by glass heat shields. This allows the light source to be placed closer to the plant canopy ensuring better light penetration. Gardens with no special cooling requirements also gains to benefit from its installation. This is the ideal setup of an indoor hydroponic garden system; investing a little more provides maximum garden performance and enjoyment for gardeners and hobbyists.

Find More How Gardening Articles

Indoor Hydroponic Garden : Use Clones for a Quick Start

Posted by admin on Sep 3, 2010 in Gardening | 0 comments

by Topsy at Waygood

Indoor Hydroponic Garden : Use Clones for a Quick Start

Cloning, or taking cuttings of, your favourite plants is the very best way to perpetuate their existence. It’s also the best way to get them started for an indoor hydroponic garden.  For instance, I had a very successful Rosemary plant growing on my kitchen window-sill. However, it was in dirt and I really don’t like dirt in the house. I took cuttings from it and ended up with three new healthy clones that I planted in a LECA (small, clay pellets) medium in my indoor hydroponic garden.

With  an indoor hydroponic garden, you can keep it constantly fresh with new clones. You never need to be without a special herb, flower or vegetable you really like ever again. Here are a few lighting tips to get perfect clones for your indoor hydroponic garden.

Unlike when you start seedlings, clones need light from day one after rooting. It’s a good idea to start with lower and diffused light intensities from sources such as T-5 or T-8 fluorescent lighting. During the first few days, the cuttings will do best with just one or two 24 watt strips over the top of a standard 10″ x 20″ propagation tray in your indoor hydroponic garden. You can gradually increase the light intensity after a few days by lowering the light fixtures closer to the propagation dome. However, make certain the temperature doesn’t rise in your indoor hydroponic garden  above 85o F/29o C inside the dome after making this adjustment.

Once the roots develop, you can switch to HID lights that provide mostly red and blue growth stimulating spectrums. Metal halide grow lights should be used for the vegetative stage of plant growth in your indoor hydroponic garden. Metal halide grow lights will produce strong light in the blue and white spectrum which effectively mimics a typical summer day. High pressure sodium grow lights will produce strong light in the red spectrum which mimics the angle of the sun during fall. When your plants are ready to start flowering you should switch from your metal halide grow lights to your high pressure sodium grow lights in your indoor hydroponic garden.

Condition your plants to this more intense light in your indoor hydroponic garden by gradually decreasing the distance between the plants and light fixtures. After a couple of weeks, your plants should be able to handle very bright levels of light which will encourage healthy, robust and fast-growing plants in your indoor hydroponic garden.

An indoor hydroponic garden will be a source of great joy and wonderment once you’ve got it started and the fastest way is with clones or cuttings. As the summer comes to an end, take cuttings from the garden and start new plants for your indoor hydroponic garden. Show the children what you’re doing and they can share in the magic of starting new plants for your indoor hydroponic garden.

Find More How Gardening Articles

Natural Light for Indoor Gardening

Posted by admin on Aug 31, 2010 in Gardening | 0 comments

by Marilyn M

Natural Light for Indoor Gardening

Those of us in the gardening business are all too aware of just how sensitive many plant species can be. In the pickier varieties, soil conditions such as moisture levels and pH have to be perfect, or the temperature and light exposure may have to be controlled with precision. In order to get the most beautiful, vibrant specimens in species like this, these environmental factors cannot be left to Mother Nature. This is where indoor gardening and artificial lighting systems can become invaluable in your efforts.

Many people believe that indoor gardening must involve complicated systems of expensive light systems on pulleys, hydroponic watering set-ups, and other high-tech equipment to get the best results. While these things can certainly get you the results you want, they are not necessarily the best tools for the work at hand, and most definitely are not required. If you are working with minimal space and are concerned about your electric bill, they may not suit your needs at all.

Enter the new generation of indoor grow lights. Compact and affordable, these lights are designed with plant growth in mind and should ideally mimic the spectrum of sunlight as closely as possible. However, there are things that a prospective consumer should be looking for in any lighting system intended for indoor gardening. In species where precise temperature control is a must, the heat generated by bulbs can often turn a promising seedling into a brown, wilted stalk overnight. High-heat lamps and bulbs can also dry the soil, leading to potential deadly problems in species with delicate root systems or precise moisture requirements.

Some of these lamps also use a great deal of energy, which is a serious problem when light requirements dictate that your plants receive a specific amount of “sunlight” each day. Beyond the satisfaction of producing your own food, there is little economic advantage to home food production if the spike in your monthly electric bills eats up your savings on the grocery budget.

Unfortunately, many of the indoor grow lights available in department stores simply do not fit the bill in many of these regards. They may be inexpensive, but they seem to be “grow” lights in name only. Their high heat kills plants, and their energy sapping drains your electric bill and reduces the life of the bulb, causing it to burn out faster and warrant frequent replacements. It’s important to do your research before choosing a lighting system for your plants.

Look for endorsements from local and national garden clubs, which will give you a more honest appraisal than the advertising blurb on the side of the product’s packaging. For instance, one light that has received high marks from the Garden Club of America is the OttLite Orchid Growth Lamp. The lamp has earned high praise for its energy efficiency–using only 13 watts, it is rated to last at least 10,000 hours–and low heat output. It also produces a very natural light, which allows plants to thrive indoors. And using a clip-on, stand-alone, or mountable design makes it extremely versatile in the home garden. Such lights will help you make the most of your garden regardless of the outdoor conditions Mother Nature has given you.

Video Rating: 0 / 5

Find More Home Garden Articles

Indoor Gardening Supplies In Winter – Celebrate Christmas With Your Plants!

Posted by admin on Aug 19, 2010 in Gardening | 0 comments

by Paulo Brandão

Indoor Gardening Supplies In Winter – Celebrate Christmas With Your Plants!

Which gardener would not sit inside in winter with some plant catalogues on their lap as they sip their tea and dream of the next year’s garden? This is simply a good fun especially to get indoor gardening supply and have a little winter gardening fun. You may use it for starting seedlings or simply raise indoor plants; however either way with right indoor gardening supply, one need not wait for the summer to get his fingers dirty again.

Light- let that remain

Perhaps, the most vital thing to address about indoor gardening is regarding the level of light. During the winters, days are shorter which means less light. When the house does not have suitable windows facing south to capture good light, you would continually have to append the light quotient by adjusting the plants around for capturing better sun. It is not optimal solution though. For the winter indoor gardening, apt light sources are among the essential indoor gardening supply stuff. Few people rely upon fluorescent lights, and some others use halogen lights and high intensity discharge lamps. Few even try growing them with the incandescent light, but it doesn’t work very well for every plant.

Any way for that matter, one must be aware about the light requirements of indoor plants which is being grown and should pick the lighting suitable for them.

Earth or Water

There is varied number of ways you could grow plants inside, few are based on the nutrients rich water-based system, and some others rely upon the good Mother Earth. Type of garden chosen would determine indoor gardening supplies one needs. The soil-less systems, generally called the hydroponics are considered as optimal indoor growing system. It reduces damage to the crops from pests and weeds. It is a little more complex to comprehend, but could be learned quite quickly. The indoor gardening supplies often have assortments of hydroponics kits which are available to average consumer.

When you are rooting the cuttings or growing the seeds for transplanting outdoor, then the jiffy peat cups and seedling starter kits become available in the indoor gardening supplies. It would allow you to plant the seeds indoors with minimum mess via soil. They are compact, very easily transported, and peat pots could be planted outside pot!

Indoor gardening is indeed a rewarding hobby. Most people focus on specific plant types. Few like cactuses, while others like tropical. Some other people grow the herbs indoors. Whichever plant you choose, it would have its very own unique growing needs and other optimal environments. Cactuses, apparently, would need a very dry and hot environment whereas the herbs love the hydroponic setups. Hence when you choose the indoor gardening supplies, always ensure about the plants you would grow and try mimicking the environment in which they essentially grow naturally for best results.

Novice Gardening And Hydroponic Indoor Growing Supplies – Read On To Know More

Posted by admin on Aug 19, 2010 in Gardening | 0 comments

by h.koppdelaney

Novice Gardening And Hydroponic Indoor Growing Supplies – Read On To Know More

It is common knowledge that the uninitiated normally consider gardening as easy as picking up a spot of land, digging it up, adding some plants or seeds, watering it regularly and with good sunshine and a few fertilizers you have a magnificent garden at hand! How about Hydroponics now? Novice Gardening And Hydroponic Indoor Growing Supplies demand good research before one goes ahead to start working on creating an indoor hydroponics garden.

Hydroponics Gardening – Meaning

Hydroponics gardening basically means the method of gardening without using soil. It is mostly practiced by people who either have outdoor space limitations, are fond of indoor gardening or stay at a place with climatic conditions that are not conducive for normal type of gardening. In the absence of soil, the plants get their nutrient supply from external nutrients like pea gravel, gravel, enriched sand or some simple nutrient rich solutions.

One can access several online resources or specialty catalogs that list gardening as well as hydroponic indoor gardening supplies. Such supplies constitute containers, nutrient solutions, enriched sand types, medium and circulating pumps. All that one requires is to follow the instructions diligently and pick out a good hydroponic plant.

It is advisable that one spends good amount of time on internet to do extensive research on hyroponics gardening. It’s no novice game and unless one is thoroughly informed, disasters are regular in this domain of gardening. One might need to make choices like the type of artificial indoor lighting, their spacing and timing etc. while going about the tasks of hydroponics gardening. Thus, good research work can save one a lot of time, effort, headache and money as well.

More Gardening Articles