LED Grow Lights For Sale in New Zealand Blog.

Plant Nutrients for Hydroponics

Mon, 15 Jan 2018 13:08:07 +0000

Hydroponics is a method of indoor gardening that does not use soil as a growing medium for the plants. Plants can be grown in a water solution, or in other growing mediums such as rockwool or coir. Hydroponics is an ideal method of growing plants where soil may be less than ideal for gardening, as well as places where there is no land available to garden, such as in urban areas in cities.

All plants need three components in order to grow and thrive: water, light and food. Without any one of these, the plants will die. Food is vitally important to the plant, in order for it to grow and eventually reach maturity, where it will reproduce by flowering or fruiting. In terms of indoor gardening with hydroponics, food is a specialized component because of the soil-less growing factor.

How do hydroponic plants eat?

Plants grown hydroponically are fed using a hydroponic nutrient solution. In many hydroponic indoor gardening systems, the plant's roots are grown in water. The crown of the plant is suspended by many and various means above the water, allowing the roots to float in the fluid.

In some systems, the water in which the plant roots rest is aerated using a small pump, and this allows the nutrient to be pushed all around the plant roots, where the roots can then make contact with the plant nutrients and take them in. Plant nutrients for hydroponics can also be taken up by the plant through the use of a wick. This wick-based system requires no pump.

Not all hydroponic systems are water based, however. You can also grow your plants in some form of media, which could include peat moss, vermiculite, perlite, coir, rockwool, and others. The medium helps to keep the crown of the plant out of the water, yet it keeps the plant roots in contact with the hydroponic nutrients.

All plants, whether growing indoors or not, need several types of nutrients. The main plant nutrients for hydroponics are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Plants also need macronutrients in greater amounts than micronutrients, but nevertheless all are needed in order for any plant to thrive.

In a traditional garden setting, your plants would be receiving nutrients from the soil, but without soil, plants are helpless without the gardener providing them with plant nutrients for hydroponics.

If you are growing food crops and wish to garden organically, not to worry: plant nutrients for hydroponics come in the form of organic gardening supplies suitable for fruits, leafy vegetables, melons, berries, grapes and many other types of food plants suited to hydroponic gardening.

Growing Plants With Artificial Light

Sun, 20 Sep 2015 08:59:36 +0000

Growing plants with artificial lights offers a great range of opportunity when it comes to growing plants indoors. Plants in different stages of growth have special lighting requirements in order to flourish indoors, and it pays to understand their lighting needs in order to meet them and get the best from your plants.

Vegetable gardening provides a good example of how grow lights and grow lamps work. Vegetable gardeners who live in cold regions of the country know that in order to get a head start on the growing season they will want to start seeds indoors approximately six to eight weeks before their last average frost date. You can find out your last average frost date from your local county extension agent's office. Some seeds require light for germination, while others need it to be dark. This information will be given sometimes on the back of the seed packets, or you can research it in gardening reference books. Once the seeds germinate, the indoor lighting that is used will make or break your starts. Grow lamps need to be kept no more than two to four inches above the growing plant starts, so you will need a way to raise the lights as needed as the plant starts grow taller. Attaching the grow lights to chains, with a hook above, works easily and well for this purpose.

You will need to use different light spectrums depending on where you plants are in the growth stage. If it is early on in your new plant's life, then it will need light in the blue spectrum. When the plant is at the flowering stage, it will need light in the red and orange spectrums.

You can find a grow lamp for a specific color spectrum, or you can find lights that come in a full color spectrum, which is suitable for plants at any stage of development. In addition to the lamp, you will likely also want to use a reflector, which helps intensify and control the light that the lamp puts out, as well as electronic ballasts. The ballasts control the electrical current that flows to the lamp. A lamp ballast is used with high-intensity discharge lights, also known as HID lights, because they put out a very strong intense light similar to sunlight, and this makes them a very good choice for growing plants indoors. Fluorescent lights are also used in indoor gardening. They emit light in the blue and green, as well as the red spectrums, making them another great choice for growing plants indoors. Other popular lights include led grow lights.

The larger the plant is, the more light it will need to produce food and grow, so lighting is all important to the health and vitality of your indoor plants.