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Keep Your Food Safe From Deadly Pesticides and Herbicides By Growing Hydroponic Vegetables At Home

Hydroponics is a great, fun and clean way to grow plants indoors by supplying water, nutrients, and oxygen to their roots. Hydroponic growing is perfect for fruit bearing crops such as tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, lettuce and herbs. By synthetically controlling every aspect of the garden, almost any kind of plant imaginable can be grown using hydroponics! The majority of hydroponic gardeners plant crops similar to what they would grow in a soil garden. If it can be grown in a pot with soil it can also be grown by using hydroponics with a soilless medium. In your indoor Hydroponic garden you must be the sole creator of all aspects of the plants environment

A plant doesnt require soil to grow. There is no soil in a hydroponics garden, so the plants need to be anchored some how. There are many items which can be used to support plants, these are called soilless mediums. Clay pebbles and Rockwool are the most popular medium. These soilless mediums work best because they are pH neutral and provide plenty of support for plants. They retain moisture, and allow for good air circulation.

pH is one of the most disregarded aspects of gardening, pH is very important in hydroponics gardening. pH is measured on a scale of 1-14 with 7 being “neutral”. Anything lower than 7 is acidic and anything above 7 is alkaline (bases). All plants require a certain pH level in order to produce optimum results. The pH level will vary from plant to plant, but in general the majority prefer a slightly acidic level (between 6.0 – 6.5), though most plants can still tolerate an environment with a pH of between 5.0 and 7.5. The preferred method of checking and adjusting pH levels is to use a pH meter. pH adjustments can be made by simply adding a small amount of pH up or pH down solution to your reservoir.

Starting your garden out by planting seeds can be one of the most enjoyable parts of gardening. Seedlings dont require as an intense amount of light as does a more mature plant. You will want to use a florescent light about 2 above the top of your seedlings. Too much intense light and heat will burn them up and kill them. You will need a propagation tray and humidity dome. Use these to keep your medium and seeds in the perfect environment.

The preferred method for growing vegetables, flowers and herbs year round is with HID lighting, it stands for High Intensity Discharge Lighting, which is a special type of lighting that is much more intense than any other grow lights. Decide what size of light to use. First you need to figure out the square footage of your indoor garden. To do this you will need to measure the space. This is how to find the square footage of your grow space. (Width x Length= Square Feet) Example: if you want your indoor garden to be in your closet which is 3×4, you will find this room to be 12sq.ft. (You will also want the height of your room to be at least 4 above the canopy of your plants.) For most grow operations an 8-10 foot ceiling will work fine. This will allow you to keep your lamp at least a minimum of 18 above the top of your plants. (HID lights get hot and can burn the tops of your plants.) Next you will need to know how many watts/square foot of light your plants will require. For Example, tomatoes need to attain around 40-50 watts per square foot for optimal growth. You then would take 50 watts x 12sq. ft. = 600 watts. This means that you will need a 600watt light to maintain your plants optimal growth in this particular garden. (Plants wattage needs x Square Feet = HID light requirement.)

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Stealth Grow – Led Grow Lights Make Stealth Growing Easy!

Stealth Growing
A “Stealth Grow” often refers to a garden one is trying to keep secretive. Stealth Grows have become very popular in recent decades due to the criminalization of marijuana, and the hoards of people who continue to grow it. Stealth Growing is the method many growers use to remain under the radar of the police. In order to be considered a Stealth Grow, a garden must be completely un-noticeable to the passer by. It must produce little to no sound, no smell, no light trails, and most of all little heat.

HID Grow Lights
Although it is illegal, many drug agency and task force officials have resorted to heat-signature scanning as a way of finding grow rooms. Even if someone thinks their setup is a Stealth Grow, HID Grow Lights create a bright hot-spot that allows the police to see your grow room. If they spot enough lights during their scan, they may even put you on their list for a raid. It is for this reason that HID Grow Lights such as High Pressure Sodium (HPS) and Metal Halide (MH), are not good for stealth growing.

T5 Fluorescent Lighting
T5 Fluorescent lighting has been the preferred option for Stealth Grows for many years, as the bulbs produce little heat compared to a HID, and therefore do not require the bulky (and noisy) ventilation systems. T5’s also have a relatively low start-up cost, however their bulbs must be changed frequently as the light decay is very rapid. As a result T5 is an expensive option over the long run, requiring at least 2 bulb changes per year for optimal results. T5’s are also not as strong as HID for flowering plants, as they do not produce anywhere near the light intensity. As a result T5 grow lights are best used for shorter plants in confined spaces, rather than large-scale Stealth Grows.

LED Grow Lights
LED Grow Lights are the new favorite for Stealth Growing, as they provide many advantages over other grow lighting. LEDs are unlike light bulbs, as they do not contain a filament that burns out. Instead LEDs use a diode, which is a semiconductor that converts electrical current into light. As a result LED Grow Lights can be used for 50,000 – 100,000 hours before it’s time for a replacement. LED Grow Lights also emit less heat than T5 Fluorescents, making them a better alternative for Stealth Grows. Flowering response is also much stronger under LED Grow Lights than HID or T5, making them a much more viable option for large-scale and commercial stealth grows.

Grow Stealth – LED Grow Lights
Quantum LED Grow Lights from Grow Stealth LED, achieve equal flowering to a 1000W HPS by combining the power of 3W LEDs with the focused intensity of 90 degree lenses. Their Quantum Spectrum is based on testing and research published by NASA studying the effect of Quantum Efficiency on growth rates and yield. As a result, Grow Stealth LED Grow Lights speed up the entire growth cycle up to 25%, while simultaneously increasing yields up to 30% compared to other Grow Lights. Their Pro-Bloom option adds an additional wavelength to increase resin production, and enhance photosynthesis up to 30% during flowering. So if you’re looking to improve your Stealth Grow – LED Grow Lights from Grow Stealth LED will speed up growth cycles, increase yields, and increase the quality of your crops. LED Grow Lights also lower power bills up to 70%, reduce heat, and eliminate costly bulb replacements! With so many advantages, it’ easy to see why many have made the switch to Grow Stealth LED Grow Lights.

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Led Grow Lights – The Importance Of Spectrum

LED Grow Lights – Confused Anyone?

In the world of LED Grow Lights the products vary dramatically from one company to the next, as does the information behind those products. I’ve often found myself confused at times by the contradicting information I find on many sites, which has lead me to do my own research as many often do. After all, with all the tri-band, quad-band, 6-band, 11-band, 12-band, and 15-band lights on that market, how do you know which one to choose?

HID Grow Lights – Why they’re being Replaced

Most of us switching to LED Grow Lights have used an alternative form of indoor lighting in the past such as High Pressure Sodium (HPS), Metal Halide (MH), or High output Fluorescent (T5). Any of us who have used these lights know one important thing about them: they are limited by their spectrum. The majority of the light a HPS or MH bulb emits is in the 500-600nm range, much of which is inefficiently absorbed by plants. In fact up to 70% of the light a HID bulb creates can be completely wasted in a grow room. Why is this you might ask? It’s because plants absorb primarily red and blue light, and need a special balancing of the light in those regions in order to grow optimally. HID lights are weak on both red and blue output, even though HPS is stronger in red while MH is strong in blue.
In the past when using HID you would want to utilize the spectral differences of the MH and HPS bulbs to your advantage, relying on the heavier blue output of the metal halide bulb in vegetative stage to keep plants short, and the HPS in bloom to allow them to stretch. The reality however, is that plants need a balanced amount of both red and blue in both stages of growth in order to grow optimally. Limiting either of these wavelengths creates a stress response in the plant to either grow shorter, or stretch, but when they are balanced properly you get super tight internodal spacing in veg with monstrous flowers during bloom. That’s what’s so great about LED Grow Lights, in that you can use one single light source throughout the entire growth cycle. Many people are still under the impression however, that you need separate vegetative and bloom stage LED Grow Lights when this is simply not the case.

The Science that drives Plant Growth

The main ingredients for photosynthesis are light, carbon dioxide and water. Just as our bodies require certain amounts of nutrients for proper cell division, plants require specific ratios of light for photosynthesis. Plants convert light energy into plant energy in their chloroplasts (much like the mitochondria in human cells). The chloroplasts produce Chlorophyll A and B, the two primary compounds that drive photosynthesis. These compounds absorb primarily blue and red light, more specifically, 439nm and 469nm blue, and 642nm and 667nm red. LED’s give us the ability to target narrow wavelengths of light so they can be specificaly tailored to provide the proper”light” recipe for photosynthesis. So based on this information on Photosynthesis, a LED Grow Light needs 4 wavelengths to target each of the chlorophyll absorption peaks.

In my reading I learned that Photosynthesis is not the only process that affects growth rate and yield. In fact there are two other important sciences that can enhance yield dramtically if they are applied to a grow light. One is called the Emerson Enhancement effect which dictates that when 740nm far-red light is shone simultaneously 660nm, photosynthetic rates increase as much as 30%. The other is called quantum efficiency which focuses on the importance of balancing each of the 3 regions of PAR, specifically focusing on green. It’s been learned in recent years that green actually plays a vital role on plant development, fruit ripening, and overall growth times, and that green penetrates deeper into plant tissues acting as a delivery agent for other wavelengths, as well as stimulating the lower chloroplasts. Studies by Nasa confirm that when green us balanced in with the green and blue wavelengths in the proper ratios, that growth times can be reduced up to 30% with a 30% enhancement in yield! The most familiar green for LED’s is 525nm, which means in total I count 6 wavelengths that are essential for optimal growth. 4 stimulate photosynthesis, 1 stimulates the Emerson Enhancement Effect, and the last fulfills the quantum efficiency requirements for faster growth rates and bigger yields.

LED Grow Lights – What have we Learned?

What we learned from HID lights is their weakness is producing a bunch of unused or wasted light. The strength of LED Grow Lights is being able to focus on the 6 wavelengths we discussed above, so that no light is wasted during the growth process. So what does that mean for all of these 11-band and 12-band or 15-band LED Grow lights? Quite simply it means that just like HID grow lights, they’re producing a spectrum where much of the light is being wasted instead of absorbed by plants. Likewise what does it mean for the tri-band or quad-band lights? It means they’re not developed enough yet to provide the types of results you need to outperform HID. Too little spectrum is just as bad as too much, and with the cost of LED Grow Lights you certainly don’t want to choose wrong or you’ll wind up paying a lot for it in the end. The Goldilocks zone are those 6-wavelengths you really want to look for: 439nm, 469nm, 525nm, 642nm, 667nm, and 740nm.

Penetrator LED Grow Lights – The Goldilocks Zone

The closest LED Grow Light I have found that fulfills all of the scientific requirements I’ve researched, are the Penetrator LED Grow Lights from Hydro Grow LED. These lights use a 6-band spectrum with 440nm, 470nm, 525nm, 640nm, 660nm, and 740nm. They really seem to have a grasp on LED Technology, and provide a lot of great information on their site. In fact they had a few extra articles on green and quantum efficiency that I’d never seen before, which taught me even more than I know now. They truly appear to be a pioneer in their field, and that’s why of any LED Grow Light on the market I would recommend theirs. Their 6-band spectrum is the real deal.

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