Tag: indoor garden

Reminder – Keep the Grow Space Clean

No matter what plant you are growing or where it is, cleaner conditions can help you and your plants. Here is a list of some quick tips for a clean growing environment.

1. Wash your hands before and after each session with the plants. Wear gloves when handling the plants.

2. Keep special clothes and shoes to wear in your grow area. Keeping outside contaminates away from the grow space can save you the worry of pollen being on your clothes, it could keep out potential pests, and it will reduce the amount of germs brought into the space.

3. Sterilize your equipment including scissors when ever you can.

4. Wash out old containers or throw them away. If you let them sit they could grow mold or mildew and this could become a problem if it goes unnoticed.

5. Vacuum or sweep any medium or soil on the floor so pests can’t make nests in places you aren’t even growing plants.

Plants get enough stress the way it is. If you make sure to reduce as much stress as you can your plants will thrive. These simple cleaning tips will keep your grow space clean and your plants happy!

Preventative Pest Control is the Best Pest Control

Pest control is often a topic shrugged off by novice indoor gardeners.  You might think, oh its indoor, there are  no bugs in here.  WRONG.  You cannot assume things like this when it comes to indoor gardening.  It is better to plan for gnats, flies, aphids, spider mites, and other plant eating bugs before they wipe out your crop with out you noticing.  Don’t underestimate the damage a bad pest infestation can cause.  It may seem like they are only eating a few leaves or slightly discoloring leaves.  The point is all that degradation adds up and what do you have to show for it? Worse crops, bug infested food or flowers, and lower yield!  The point of indoor gardening is to control for a better grow.  Be preventative in your pest control and you may never have to worry about an infestation.

Try using an organic garlic spray to ward off bugs.  Post up yellow sticky paper to catch flying insects.  The yellow sticky paper is great almost anywhere you put it.  I have put them under the lips of containers to catch fresh gnats in the soil.  If you place them up higher you may catch bigger flies.  Try to use organic and natural pest control so you don’t affect the quality of your crops.  Hydro shops also sell predatory bugs that will eat your pest infestation and then eat themselves.  This is a method I have not had to use, but it is one of the most natural pest controls.  Buying live lady bugs or placing them in your garden when you find them around the house will help eliminate small bug populations.

Another method of preventative pest control for an indoor garden is an enclosed growing environment that pests cannot get into.  People may not realize the importance of closed chambers, but they can certainly help isolate a pest problem.  If you anticipate a possible aphid or spider mite problem try a very light solution of a spray like AzaMax to ward off any pest infestation attempts. I’ve wiped out whole aphid colonies with only off-brand Neem before as well, but I’m sure that won’t work for all.

Green Moral of the Story: Preventative pest control can save you many headaches from dealing with nasty bugs and sprays.  Preventative pest control can also ensure your crops will stay healthy and yield at their highest potential, and that’s what we’re after.

Get General Hydroponics AzaMax at Amazon today to protect your indoor garden investment. You can also read customer reviews here.

Another Reason Hydroponic Gardening is Important

One of the main reasons I chose to start an indoor gardening project was to produce my own fresh, good-tasting, safe food.  Some stores sell fresh produce, but my area lacks in availability for year round fresh fruit.  Strawberries were one of the first things I tried to grow in a hydroponic system.  Once you learn the basics of hydroponics you could set up a system to grow tropical fruit inside your house!  If you have a big back yard you could even create a tropical green house with the sun and the addition of high power grow lights.  Once you are familiar with all the equipment available you can create any environment for any plant.  You can tend to plants with very delicate environmental needs.

If you do not trust the source or are unsatisfied with the quality of your local produce then start a hydroponic or indoor gardening project to perfect the fruit of your dreams!  Anything is possible if you learn enough about the plant requirements.  I try to find books on Amazon.com about organic gardening and plant care.  The books on Amazon don’t cost very much and are usually pretty detailed.  Buying a book centralizes large amounts of information for you to consume.  Searching on the internet for the information you need is fast, but sometimes it is not detailed enough if you are just beginning.  If there is a topic you are confused about or don’t know where to start, try getting a book to get your feet wet.  On the other hand experience is the most valuable knowledge you can get.  Good luck green thumbs!

Product Review: AzaMax – Controlling Spider Mites


Lately I’ve had a pretty bad infestation of spider mites and aphids and I have been looking for the best solution for my plants without getting into nasty chemicals that will affect the taste of my food at harvest.  Gnats are another common indoor gardening pest I have had trouble with.  A simple solution for gnats is the yellow sticky paper that you can put along the walls and on posts in the containers of your plants.  Spider mites however don’t really fly around or get attracted to the bright yellow colors.   They seem to just be attracted to the pretty green leaves of my plants!  Flattering… except spider mites are gross and I would not like to eat them, regardless of how much they want to eat the leaves of my plants.

I tried spraying some solution of Neem PY onto my plants and it takes a few days to kick in but it slows down the infestation for sure.  Neem makes the bugs slow and frankly just plain stupid.  The bugs aren’t killed instantly, so don’t feel like you’ve been cheated because all your bug problems are still there.  The neem makes the bugs not hungry and unable to reproduce.  The bugs will eventually starve to death and the babies will hatch damaged or will eat the neem on the leaves right away and become affected.   The Neem PY wouldn’t stop the infestation completely but it certainly crippled them.  No matter how much neem I used the spider mites kept coming back.  One time I used too much neem too close to harvest and I could taste its tangy flavor on my food.  It wasn’t as horrible as a I thought and was better than eating mites, but I would rather have the best food possible not just “okay” food.  Thats why I grow my own!

To get the infestation in check I picked up some of General Hydroponics’ AzaMax because two other indoor gardeners recommended it to me.  I figured it would work like Neem PY but it was actually amazing how much stronger it was.  I foliar fed the AzaMax to my plants and than poured some solution into my hydro reservoirs to ensure the plants would be bug proof.  After about two days it seems like almost all the spider mites have died or stopped moving.  It definitely helped control the gnat problem too.  I have not harvested the food the AzaMax has been applied to since it is new but I will be sure to write about how it has affected the food flavor and aroma if at all.    If you decide to go and try AzaMax I would try foliar applications at first to see if you can rid the problem that way.  This is especially good if you are still in the grow phase and the fruits you will be eating or picking have not started to form yet.  AzaMax is a little pricey for how much it recommends to use but I promise it does work well.  I will most likely continue to use Neem PY and AzaMax as a preventative and reactionary pest control solution.

Another good feature of AzaMax is that it is OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute) approved.  Sometimes labels can be questionable since any company can label their products “organic.”  Look for the OMRI or other official organic labels.  Make sure to look up and research any product you think is suspicious or may be claiming to be organic.  You can take a look at the OMRI web site here.  Even though some forms of hydroponic systems use inorganic parts, I still think it is best to get the closest thing you can to organic every time.  I believe this can yield a more natural and usually sweeter tasting fruit or vegetable.

Get General Hydroponics AzaMax at Amazon today to protect your indoor garden investment. You can also read customer reviews here.

Over Fertilization : Too Many Nutrients

down turned fringes.

I have a few house plants I like to mess around with when I get new sets of nutrients.  In the picture I have my purple passion vine in a condition that is starting to show signs of over fertilization.  These house plants only need nutrients every 2-4 weeks at most but sometimes I’ll hit it every week for a few weeks at a time to see if the growth jumps.  The plant is mostly rooted in the container so it is at its max requirement for nutrition.  I water it every day pretty much.  During today’s daily watering I noticed there was water in the tray and the plant had leaf fringes that were down turned.  This plant naturally curls its leaves some, but i could tell the difference in structure right away.

The down turned leaves could be a sign of over fertilization or nutrient salt build up.  These can both be fixed by simply watering with plain water every day until symptoms disappear.  Good consistent soil waterings can wash the extra salt build up in the plants roots.  If you are running a hydroponics system then do a reservoir change and drop the PPM (parts per million) of your nutrient solution.  If you don’t have a ppm or EC meter there is no need to worry.  Just fill the reservoir up by a set amount of gallons or liters and pay attention to the amount of nutrients added per gallon/liter.  The packaging for the nutrients should say what they recommend to use for soil or soiless grow mediums.   I usually cut their recommended mixture in half to be on the safe side.  You’ll especially want to use a low end estimate if your plants are showing signs of over fertilization.  In a hydroponic reservoir the solution can also be dropped to one fourth the recommended solution to rinse out salt build ups.  Make sure to top off the tank with fresh water or 1/4 solution to keep the levels high before the next reservoir change.

Notice down turned fringe and leaf structure is curled inward.

A Quick HYDROduction to Hydroponics

For the people who are new to hydroponics or are just looking to learn about what it is, this video will explain some of the different hydroponic possibilities.  By NO means are these methods the ONLY hydroponic methods.  There are virtually limitless possibilities with home made hydroponic systems. The narrator of this video is a little lacking but the ideas are presented quickly and simply for people looking for an introduction to hydroponic setups.