Sanitary Procedures in Your Home Hydroponic Garden

One of the most important things you can do to help maintain a healthy environment for your home hydroponic garden is to keep the growing area clean. There are some basic sanitary guidelines you can follow to help maintain a clean and healthy growing area.

The first thing to do in order to maintain a sanitary is to completely clean your entire system between crops. Break down your home hydroponic system and thoroughly clean and rinse all components. You can use a product made specifically for cleaning hydroponic systems, a bleach

Aphids are very common
pests in grow rooms

solution (which will need to be thoroughly rinsed) or a solution of baking soda and vinegar.

Don’t forget to wipe down the walls and tables, as well. Advanced Nutrients makes a product called Wipe Out, which is excellent in disinfecting your grow room. It could save you a lot of headaches and prevent sick crops in the future.

On a daily basis, you should clean any utensils you use with alcohol, or a vinegar and baking soda solution, in order to keep them as germ-free as possible. Keep floors free of debris, including clippings from plants. Plant clippings left along the edges of the walls or in cracks will attract bacteria.

Take measures that soil does not find its way into your growing area. Dirt can be brought in on shoes, so it is always a good idea to have foot coverings that are worn only while you are in your growing area. These can be left just inside the entrance of the area. As with anything, the most basic sanitary procedure is to make sure your hands are thoroughly washed before touching anything in your growing area.

Don’t just restrict washing to your hands. Your hair should also be shampooed regularly, since pathogens can easily attach themselves to human hair, especially longer hairstyles. You clothing should also be laundered, especially after you visit other growers. It is a proven fact that 20% of nurses carry germs from one patient to another on their uniforms. If you hang out in other grow rooms or greenhouses, make sure you change your clothes before going back into your own grow space.

Pests and pathogens go together. Many insects vector viral and bacterial diseases. So it’s in your best interest to keep unwanted insects out of your grow space. Use fine mesh screens on air vents and make sure that there are no weeds or bushes near the door to your greenhouse or grow room. These can harbor white flies which will swarm through any opening and are very hard to get rid of. The only insects in your grow room should be beneficial predators that eat and get rid of pests, such as spider mites and aphids.

Home hydroponic gardening is increasing in popularity, especially with the rising costs of gas and food. Making sure your plants are as healthy as possible will help save you money in the long run. For more information on creating the best possible home hydroponic garden you can, visit http://www.advancednutrients.com/ and take a look around.

Home Hydroponic Gardening – Pests and Pathogens

The home hydroponics gardener may not spend much time thinking about pests and diseases. After all, most of these come from soil. Correct? Eliminate the soil and you rid yourself of having to deal with such nuisances. That seems to be the thinking of those new to hydroponic gardening. The truth of the matter is that pests and diseases will always be something gardeners have to deal with, even in the home hydroponics garden.

The indoor home hydroponic garden often finds itself a victim of such pests as the spider mite or white fly, among others. In addition, diseases in the form of fungi or mold can be a problem. In order to have healthy plants, the home hydroponic gardener has a few choices available to control these infestations. The most common treatments are using a commercial pesticide, biological control (which involves introducing predator insects and such to your growing area) or use of a specially formulated pest control product found at the local hydroponic shop.

Most hydroponic gardeners do not want to add chemicals to their growing environment. These chemicals can harm both human and plant. In addition, plant pests have often developed immunities to these products. You end up harming the plants and the pests continue multiplying. Specially formulated hydroponic products are safer, but there is still the risk of damage to plants if used incorrectly or too often. Adding live predators to the growing area is often not practical. You don’t want to bring more insects into play, especially in home hydroponic gardens growing within the living environment. There is a solution that can be better than all these—prevention.

Just as the preferred method of disease control in humans is to prevent the disease in the first place, this is also practical for plants. Take, for example, Barricade. This product works from inside your plants, making them stronger and more resistant to bugs, fungi, molds, and even stress. By not allowing the pests and pathogens to get a foothold in your home hydroponic garden, you have greater control.

Another advantage of using preventive products is that a stronger plant will grow better and produce more. You are not adding harmful chemicals to either your home hydroponic garden or the environment in general. Your plants are healthier; pests and disease are stopped in their tracks and your time and investment are protected. Just as with humans, it is often a lot less expensive to prevent a problem than it is to cure one.

Yet one more product is very useful in preventing pests and pathogens from attaching your plants. Most often used as a foliar spray, Advanced Nutrients Scorpion Juice imparts a certain kind of systemic immunity to your hydroponics garden. It's very much like a shot in the arm, or should I say branch?

Home hydroponic gardening is increasing in popularity, especially with the rising costs of gas and food. Making sure your plants are as healthy as possible will help save you money in the long run. For more information on creating the best possible home hydroponic garden you can, visit the Advanced Nutrients website and take a look around

Home Hydroponics Gardening

Hey, my name's Brock. I call myself Avocado99! Started out in Silicon Valley, got transferred to Maine, of all places...

What I missed most about California, is being able to go into my backyard and pick a fresh avocado off the tree growing there.

How am I going to grow avocados in the biting Atlantic-coast winters?

The answer came by way of a YouTube video. "Build your own hydroponics system."

Would I be able to grow avocados in a grow-space in my home?

I did the research, and voila--dwarf avocado trees were established in a hydroponic system. you can read all about my beginnings in the archives of my other blog.

It took a few years, but now I have avocado trees producing fruit on a regular basis.

It wasn't as easy as I thought, but with a bit of focused energy, it was possible.

And I started growing tomatoes and sweet red peppers, as well.

Why not? When you pick them, they're the tastiest of snacks you can ever imagine.

My friend told me today that Edgar Cayce said that a tomato is only worth eating within 20 minutes of it being picked off its vine.

I don't know if I would totally agree, but certainly, you haven't lived until you picked a cherry tomato off the plant and popped it directly into your mouth.

The flavors explode on your tongue and heaven is close by!!!!

In this age of high gas prices and economic crisis, growing your own food is a solution to a myriad of problems. You don't have to transport it from hundreds of miles away, you reduce carbon emissions, you are helping to save the planet...

So I became a shameless promoter of home hydroponics.

And the world's best hydroponic nutrients available in the marketplace.