Organic, Hydroponic Gardening Blog for HydroVeggies

Growing Together- Share the Joy!

2011-10-01T10:13:00.000-07:00

Indoor gardening is a wonderful way to enjoy organic fruits and vegetables year round, but what if you could actually share the joy with others? AeroGrow are the makers of the AeroGarden indoor gardening kitchen appliance. This little wonder garden not only produces fresh organic, wonderful tasting fruits, herbs and vegetables, but can also grow beautiful flowers year round.

Petunias planted 8/14/11 this pic taken 8/22/11

Salad greens planted 6/7/11 this pic taken 8/18/11

You now have a wonderful opportunity to join a large and growing community of "urban" gardeners with this amazing little wonder garden. These gardens have an amazing 100% guarantee to grow a wide variety of vegetables, herbs and flowers.

This garden is a perfect gift for any season and can be enjoyed year-round. So SHARE THE JOY! Our first experience was last Christmas as we received our first AeroGarden 3 as a gift. We have been hooked ever since. No GREEN THUMB needed for this little gem. It is as easy as 1,2,3.

1. Drop in the seed pods
2. Add water and the pre-packaged nutrients
3. Watch them grow

The AeroGarden has been featured on many nationally televised shows and news casts. Check out the videos found here at http://www.hydroveggies.com/educational.

What a wonderful way to enjoy all the benefits of your own fresh herbs, fruits, vegetables and flowers. For additional information contact visit http://hydroveggies.com.

Live, Learn and Grow Organically!

AeroGarden's Cascading Petunias - Beautiful!

2011-10-01T09:28:00.000-07:00

Ok I have to admit that this is the first time I had planted petunias in the AeroGarden or have even been this close to petunias to truly enjoy them. I've purchased petunias and planted them outdoors a few times but after their season, they never came back. Maybe our 6 feline friends lying on them had something to do with that.

Today as I was tending to my AeroGardens I noticed hundreds of tiny poppy seed looking things on and around my petunias. After reading posts from one of my many gardening blogs I realized that this is a great opportunity to bring my inter-scientist out to play. I have gathered the seeds and will re-plant some in the AeroGarden and some in my outdoor planters in the spring. I'll let you know how it goes.

Hydroponically Propagated Butterfly Plants and Hot Lips Salvia

2011-06-09T11:54:00.000-07:00

These are pics of the many plants we have propagated using hydroponics. Both the butterfly plants and the hot lips salvia were started from a small 6 inch cutting in the winter of 2010. Look at them now! Too bad we can post the beautiful aroma of the butterfly plants.

Butterfly Plant started from 6" cutting
hydroponically in December of 2010

HotLips Salvia started hydroponically
from a 6" cutting in winter of 2010

Organic, Hydroponic Gardening Blog for HydroVeggies: Growing Together- More Ways Than One

2011-06-09T11:36:00.000-07:00

Organic, Hydroponic Gardening Blog for HydroVeggies: Growing Together- More Ways Than One: "Indoor gardening is a wonderful way to enjoy organic fruits and vegetables year round, but what if you could actually increase your income w..."

Growing Together- More Ways Than One

2011-06-09T11:26:00.001-07:00

Indoor gardening is a wonderful way to enjoy organic fruits and vegetables year round, but what if you could actually increase your income while enjoying your garden? AeroGrow Worldwide are the makers of the AeroGarden indoor gardening kitchen appliance. This little wonder garden not only produces fresh organic, wonderful tasting fruits, herbs and vegetables, but can also increase your income.

You now have a wonderful new opportunity to be apart of this amazingly fast growing organization as a distributor as well as the proud owner of this amazing 100% guaranteed to grow garden.

This is not a product you have to sell, you simply use it and it sells itself. The AeroGarden has been featured on many nationally televised shows and news casts. Check out the videos found here at http://aerogrow.myvoffice.com/hydroveggies/index.html.

What a wonderful work from home opportunity to supplement your income while providing healthier fruits, herbs and vegetables for your family. For additional information contact visit http://hydroveggies.com/aeroponics.

Live, Learn and Grow Organically!

Our Poor Zucchini Has Been Through Too Much

2011-04-27T07:37:00.000-07:00

Here we have our zucchini which was originally planted 10/26/10 and started off beautiful. It got so big that I had to prune off some leaves because it was taking over the entire deep water culture garden. I finally moved it to its own container had things have gone down hill since. We get blossoms that never produce fruit, blossoms that rot before opening and brown leaves that drop off. I have verified that it has the proper pH balance and the nutrients seem to be fine for the rest of the garden so time to post to the garden forums and see what's up.

I'll post the results when I find the answers to our suffering zucchini.

Anyone Love HummingBirds?

2011-04-18T23:29:00.001-07:00

HydroVeggies attends their first Earth Day Event!

2011-04-18T23:28:00.000-07:00

Organic, Hydroponic Gardening Blog for HydroVeggies: Cherry Tomatoes with a Twist!

2011-03-26T22:30:00.000-07:00

Organic, Hydroponic Gardening Blog for HydroVeggies: Cherry Tomatoes with a Twist!: "3/14/11 minutes after transplant Some of the most common vegetables grown using hydroponics is tomatoes. So of course we are growing our ..."

Cherry Tomatoes with a Twist!

2011-03-26T22:07:00.000-07:00

3/14/11 minutes after transplant

Some of the most common vegetables grown using hydroponics is tomatoes. So of course we are growing our tomatoes, but not without our share of drama. We’ve had our tomatoes growing for awhile and found that they were taking over our “garden world”.

3/18/11 Nutrient Overdose :-(

We decided it was time to transplant our tomatoes into their own container. After transplanting the tomatoes, we decided to create a trellis out of some twigs fromthe cherry orchard.
Soon after the drama of transplanting and putting up a trellis, we found that they immediately went into shock, or so I thought. It was actually a case of too much love. I gave my prize tomato a HUGE dose of nutrients which was meant for my 10 gallon DWC.
This means I super charged my tomatoes
with 10 times the amount of nutrients it should have had. Now it was time for emergency treatment. We gave the tomatoes a quick bath in distilled water, treated it with hormones to jump start the recovery process and put back into it’s container. Since I didn’t want to contaminate my tomatoes by using the same twigs, I replaced them with fresh twigs from the cherry orchards.

Guess what? We now have cherry trees growing with our tomatoes! That’s right the cherry tree twigs have bloomed and now leaves are growing. So we have cherries

3/26/11 Cherry leaves

growing with our tomatoes, giving a whole new twist to cherry tomatoes. Our tomatoes have a ways to go but I think they will recover.

3/26/11 Tomatoes and Cherries

Here's a Great Hydroponic Project for Kids

2011-03-26T14:40:00.000-07:00

Hydroponics Made Easy
There are a number of different systems you can purchase to do hydroponics, but what if you just want to check it out with just one or two small things before you pay money for a kit? You can start your hydroponic garden with regular household items then transplant them to a more permanent destination. Let me show you what I mean.
As you go to the grocery store and buy food in plastic containers, many of them can be used to start your own hydroponic garden. In this example I am using the plastic container that was used for a bunt cake from the store bakery.

STEP 1 After enjoying the treat, clean the container using mild dish soap.

STEP 2 Punch a few holes into the bottom of the tray. (Kids need to have an adult assist with this step)

STEP 3 The top of what used to be our cake container now becomes the bottom and should now be filled with the water and nutrient solution. The water solution should be high enough to cover the last ¼ inch of the black tray once it is place on the top. Parents should assist with measuring the nutrient solution. You can start with any organic plant food.

STEP 4 Place the black tray with the holes on top of the bowl with the nutrient solution and add some medium to cover the bottom. The medium can be tiny pebbles which have been cleaned very well or you can purchase a small bag of hydroton (clay like pebbles commonly used in hydroponics) You can even used broken pieces of clay flower pots you may already have around the house. (Kids be sure to have your parents help break the clay flower pots). In this example I am using hydroton.

STEP 5 This picture shows a sample of a 1x1 GroDan rockwool plug most often used in hydroponics. Since this is about using items common to most households, use a few cotton balls to lay on top of the medium you used in step 4. The only reason why we need this is to keep the seeds from dropping down through the medium and going into the water and nutrient solution.

STEP 6 Place your seeds on the cotton and put a tiny piece of cotton over the seeds to keep them in place.

STEP 7 Lastly, put plastic wrap very loosely over the top of the tray to hold in the moisture and humidity until the plant begins to sprout.
The seeds I have planted here are basil so I would expect to see sprouts in about 7 – 14 days. Be sure to place your garden in a well lit window sill or under a florescent desk light for about 7 hours per day.

Remember this little garden is a temporary home. You should change the water and nutrient solution weekly and cover the clear, bowl with something to keep the light out because light in the water and nutrient solution will cause algae to grow. In my case, I found an empty ceramic pot to set my garden into. Once your plant gets to be about 3 -4 inches, you will want to put it into a more permanent hydroponic pot or transplant it into some nice organic soil. Enjoy!

Once you see how much fun it can be to grow your own vegetables you will want to purchase supplies to expand your garden. We are here to help at http://www.hydroveggies.com.
Live, Learn and Grow, Organically!

Great video on aeroponics

2011-03-08T15:47:00.000-08:00

Thanks Cheryl for sharing this video.

Blogs from HydroVeggies.com: Week 8 of our Aerogarden presented by HydroVeggies...

2011-02-24T16:02:00.000-08:00

Blogs from HydroVeggies.com: Week 8 of our Aerogarden presented by HydroVeggies...
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Week 8 of our Aerogarden presented by HydroVeggies.com

2011-02-24T16:00:00.001-08:00

So What Is Up With Our Zucchini?

2011-02-21T22:57:00.000-08:00

So What Is Up With Our Zucchini?

Figure 1 Zucchini in bloom 2/7/11

Figure 2 Zucchini in trouble? 2/20/11
We have been working hard on trying to keep our zucchini happy and from the first pic (figure 1) you can see that it is well on its way to producing fruit. Yesterday I went out to check on the garden and found the zucchini seems to look great on the surface, at least until I started moving things around to attempt to put a trellis in place. Then I noticed the stem seems to be hollowing out. So where do I turn but to the gardening forums on the internet. This is what I found. I keep the leaves trimmed so the zucchini so it does not over take the entire garden. There are still several blossoms in the works. I’ll keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best. I may have given the zucchini too much love in the nutrients.
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Stem of container squash split and HELLO!! clip this post email this post what is this?
see most clipped and recent clippings

Posted by agngg 9 (My Page) on
Tue, May 19, 09 at 13:33
Hi!! My name is Grace and I just found this forum a couple weeks ago. I've been lurking and finding some wonderful information! I'm very new to gardening and starting with lots of containers. I've been doing a ton of research and learning a whole lot! So I just wanted to introduce myself.
Now I need help!! lol
I planted 2 Grey Squash plants in these pretty small containers. I started the seeds in little mini plastic pots and transpanted each one into a trough-like container that is 14in long, 7 inches wide and 6 inches deep. I know the size too small but I just wanted to see what would happen.
They did well and grew large, lots of leaves and now lots of buds. I planted them April 2nd, the seed package said Harvest in 45 days but I got male and female flower buds in about that time.
Yesterday I went out to water them and the stem of the bigger plant has split open and spread out. I immediately thought vine borers, since I had been reading on them. I was leaving so I didn't have time to investigate and it was too dark when I got home. So this morning, 3 of the flowers completely opened. There are about 4 little squash/female flowers and several more male flowers. It doesn't look hollowed out, but like it split and stretched out, if that makes sense. I can't find my camera to take a pic right now but at least wanted to put the question out there. I'll post one as soon as I can find it.
It looks like the smaller plant is about to do the same thing...should I cut that stem open to check for bugs?
Also, some of the lower leaves have yellowed and I've cut them off. All of the upper leaves looked fine.
I don't have any wilting either. The only time it has wilt was when the temps reached 92 this weekend but water perked them right up.
Another question I have is...can a stem split from the stress of being in too small of a container? Since it just flowered, should I leave it alone or transplant it now?
Thanks for any advice you can offer, I will upload pics asap!!

RE: Stem of container squash split and HELLO!! clip this post email this post what is this?
see most clipped and recent clippings

• Posted by justaguy2 5 (My Page) on
Tue, May 19, 09 at 14:41
It's not all that uncommon for the stems of curcurbits (squash, pumpkins etc.) to split.
I really am not sure all the causes for this. Some think it too fast of growth, too much water, too much fertilizer (which goes back to the too fast of growth thing), the weight of the vine putting pressure on the stem etc.
What I do know is that cucurbits are remarkable in their ability to suffer this and go on to produce like normal. As long as the stem isn't completely severed in half it will likely live.
Do keep a look out for vine borers, but other than that your plants are likley going to do fine.
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Nantucket Trellis - Classified Ad

2011-02-19T09:31:00.000-08:00

Nantucket Trellis - Classified Ad

Contemporary Planter and Bench Available at: http://www.hydroveggies.com/garden-decor - Classified Ad

2011-02-19T08:52:00.000-08:00

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biblical garden for kids - Classified Ad

2011-02-19T08:16:00.000-08:00

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Incredible Edibles Seed Kit (3 - Classified Ad

2011-02-19T07:41:00.000-08:00

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Aeropoinc 10 Gal. DWC - Classified Ad

2011-02-19T07:34:00.000-08:00

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Flowerhouse: Starter House - Classified Ad

2011-02-19T07:32:00.000-08:00

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Cherub Wall Fountain - Classified Ad

2011-02-19T07:24:00.000-08:00

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4 site DWC hydroponic plant herb garden - Classified Ad

2011-02-19T07:06:00.000-08:00

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Indoor Gardening Is Not Just For Houseplants - By Tamara Gerber of HydroVeggies.com

2011-02-19T06:08:00.000-08:00

Just because the temperatures have dropped for the wintertime and deciduous trees, roses, shrubs and plants are dormant, does not mean you cannot enjoy your favorite plants, fruits and vegetables. As a recent article in a local newspaper points out, there is a renewed interest for indoor houseplants in the winter. It points out the benefits of having house plants such as the calming effect as they add to the décor of your home. Not only do they create a warm beautiful ambiance to your decor, but they also purify the air in your home.

Many people use air purifiers in their homes to eliminate allergens in the air however, growing plants inside the home can eliminate the need for using energy for the air purifiers because indoor plants, like their outdoor counterparts change the carbon dioxide into oxygen and remove the many of the toxins in the air we breathe. So reminiscent of the benefits for the common houseplants; fruits, herbs and vegetables provide the same air purifying benefits with the added bonus of providing delectable edibles year-round.

In my previous article, "Gardening Options: Hydroponics vs. Soil" I talked about the specific benefits of hydroponic gardening as it relates to fruits, herbs and vegetables; however, hydroponics can be used for any plant. Some of the most common houseplants such as spider plants, wandering Jew, philodendrons, ivy, do extremely well using hydroponics. Simply snip off a few stems of the well established plants and put them in water to watch them grow. Yes, this is the most basic form of hydroponics.

By using soilless (hydroponic) indoor gardening there is the added benefit of eliminating the messy soil, soil borne molds, mildews and insects. So why not enjoy the edible beauty of indoor strawberry plants, cilantro, parsley, eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, or anything you choose to enjoy? Using hydroponics the possibilities are endless. Imagine the conversations as guests arrive at your home to find a magnificent tomato vine or gorgeous fruit bearing eggplant in your entry producing fruit in the middle of winter.

Hydroponic gardening is only limited by your imagination and can be incorporated very easily in any decor. As another EzineArticle.com author Ryan English writes in his article "Garden Decorations", "Gardens can be more fun to work with if we add a little creative idea in it. One of the most interesting habits for gardening is accessorizing." Ryan gives examples of accessorizing the gardens using fountains, bird baths, lighting and statues. These same pieces can be used to enhance and incorporate your indoor hydroponic gardens at no additional cost.

Hydroponic gardening is a thing of beauty with benefits and only limited by your imagination!

To learn more about organic, hydroponic gardening please follow us on our blogs by visiting our website at: http://www.hydroveggies.com/blogs. Here you can follow our blogs as well have access to a wide variety of organic hydroponic gardening supplies, tools and educational resources.

Live, Learn and Grow Organically!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tamara_Gerber
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Hydroponics vs. Soil

2011-02-03T10:08:00.000-08:00

Click here to read the article posted on EzineArticles
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