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There are so many different manufactures of hydroponic nutrients on the market, and you always here the question which nutrients work best. While the answer to that is really based on what plants your growing, simply because some nutrients are formulated for specific types of plants, and some nutrients are formulated for general use. But just about all commercially manufactured nutrients are formulated to provide a well balanced nutrient solution that will generally supply your plants with all the nutrients they need, and in the right ratios. But that doesn’t mean your plants wont ever become deficient of some essential nutrient/s (element/s), and will never show any signs or symptoms of a deficiency. Even if there in abundant supply in the nutrient solution. This can be a calcium problem.
It’s normal to think that if there’s a deficiency in the plant, it must be deficient in the nutrient solution. But that’s not always the case. Plant chemistry is a very complex process where each element affects others, as well as environmental conditions. Calcium is a major building block for plants, and like any other element, can become deficient in plants even when in plentiful supply in the nutrient solution. But a calcium deficiency is very difficult to diagnose because it has such a wide range of symptoms, and can simply look like other deficiencies and/or diseases.
Why Plants Need Calcium
Calcium is used in the plants cell walls during their formation, It’s basically required for the stability and function of the cell membrane, and it acts like a kind of glue or cement, binding the cell walls together. So if adequate calcium is not in the cell tissue during the formation of the cell walls, the plant tissues will simply be less stable and prone to breaking down. It then can look like a wide verity of symptoms of disease and/or deficiencies, that also makes the plant tissue more prone to getting disease and viruses from other environmental conditions and/or insects.
Once the cells are formed, the calcium is glued/cemented in place and becomes immobile. Because calcium has then become immobile within the plant, a constant supply of calcium is needed for healthy growth as the plant continues to grow. If there’s a lack of calcium supply within the plant, once the cells are already formed, they can’t be repaired by an increase of calcium supply to the cells that have already been formed. But the new plant growth can grow healthy and normal. When other elements are in excesses, calcium also helps act as a buffer for the root system. Calcium even plays a part in activating enzymes that regulate the flow of water movement within the plant cells, and is therefore vital for new cell growth and division.
Factors that Influence Calcium Availability
 Plants have two basic types of tissues to transport the minerals and sugars they need for growth though the plant, the xylem and phloem. These act as the circulation system for the plant, like vain’s and blood vessels in a human. The xylem vessels carry water along with the dissolved nutrients from the roots up stems to the leaves and fruit. Water is lost from the foliage by transpiration (like exhaling in humans), through small pours in the stems and leaves called stoma. This creates a suction which draws up water from the roots through the xylem vessels, and distributed all around the plant.
Any condition that affects plant transpiration will affect the water flow/uptake through the xylem. Since the calcium is transported primarily through the xylem, this will affect the calcium nutrition of the plant. Slow uptake of water into the plant can lead to calcium deficiencies, even if there’s plenty of calcium in the nutrient solution. Therefor encouraging transpiration is one of the best ways to ensure the plant is getting the calcium it needs all the time. Environmental conditions like high humidity and little or no air flow, slow down  transpiration of the plant. Adding ventilation is the simplest way to encourage plant transpiration. High temperatures and water stress also affect calcium intake. Keeping the plants stress free, with good ventilation, will go a long way to good calcium nutrition.
Also not all parts of the plant will transpire at the same rates. The tips and edges of new and/or fast growing foliage, as well as fruits tend to transpire at slower rates than the already established older foliage. Because of this, a calcium deficiency in the plant tissue can appear in the form of “Tip Burn” and/or “Blossom End Rot” (BER). But both Tip Burn, and Blossom End Rot can be caused by other things, making a calcium deficiency quite difficult to diagnose.
It’s also important to maintain a well balanced nutrient solution. Most all commercially made hydroponic nutrients are well balanced. Although as the plants take up nutrients from the nutrient solution, the balance tends to be thrown off. Another important factor to consider is the strength of the nutrient solution, nutrient solutions that are too strong can inhibit calcium uptake from the plants roots.
With any hydroponic nutrient solution, there can sometimes be unwanted pathogens, bacteria and/or fungi that can grow out of control in it. It’s not uncommon for these disease and viruses causing microbes to be in the nutrient solution. In fact, it’s very common for many different pathogens, bacteria, and fungi to be in the nutrient solution. it’s just when the unwanted microbes grow into numbers that largely out weigh the beneficial microbes, that they can cause a problem. Much like the human immune system, the nutrient solution is a living environment, the beneficial microbes in the nutrient solution act as the plants immune system, keeping the damaging microbes at bay.
Once the pathogenic microbes get a strong foothold, they are very difficult to get back under control without doing damage to the plants. Simply changing the nutrient solution is not usually good enough, by then they have already imbedded themselves on the plants roots causing diseases and viruses. Once that happens, aside from constant care of fungicides and/or H2O2 treatments (that can also do damage to the plants). The only other option is the direct addition of beneficial microbes into the new nutrient solution once it has been changed, in hopes of keeping the pathogenic microbes from out numbering the beneficial ones again. But that wont fix any disease problems that may already exist, just helps keep it from getting too much worse. After that, the plants need to be discarded and the whole system needs to be sanitized to prevent recurrence.
How Ultraviolet Light (UV) Works
 UV light has been used as a water purification system for well over 50 years, so it’s not new technology. Although for hydroponic systems, it can be safely used to kill microorganisms without adding harmful chemicals like chlorine to the nutrient solution. Because the UV light only penetrates the water so far down depending on how strong the light source is. The nutrient solution is run  through a tube where the water level is sufficient for the light to be able to penetrate all the way through the water. The water then runs through the tube at a flow rate that allows the light to have sufficient time for the UV radiation to kill the organisms. The UV radiation will kill most of the microorganisms directly, or it will sterilizes them. Once a microorganism is sterilized, it cant reproduce and simply dies.
The UV radiation treatment is safe for people and animals, so don’t worry about glowing nutrient solutions, or glowing plants from radiation. In fact, many people subject themselves to direct UV radiation every day to get a tan at the tanning salon. Once out of the direct UV light (that’s inside the tube) there is no more UV radiation, in which case new microorganism that haven’t been subjected to the light source yet will be able continue to multiply. That’s why the nutrient solution is generally run through the UV light (in the tube) on a continuously flowing basis, keeping new microorganism from being able to multiply.
How Ozone Treatments work
Ozone Treatment is similar to using an air pump to oxygenate the nutrient solution, although Ozone has an extra Oxygen molecule that is highly unstable. That doesn’t mean that it’s dangerous, just that the third molecule dissipates quite quickly (it has a very short half life). The added oxygen molecule makes Ozone a very powerful oxidizing agent, and can result in the elimination of the unwanted pathogens, bacteria and fungi that can cause the diseases and viruses to the plants. With Ozone Treatments, it’s not easy to achieve good reliability due to the short half life, and difficulty in getting good concentrations of Ozone into the nutrient solution. For this reason Ozone Treatments are generally just used in commercial operations.
Ozone treatment systems require an ozone generator, and some of the oxygen from the air that flowers through the generator is converted into Ozone. Then just like an air pump and air stones are used to help oxygenate the nutrient solution, the ozone enriched air (O3) is pumped into the nutrient solution as a stream of bubbles. Contact time between the solution and Ozone bubbles is critical to it’s efficiency, especially due to the very short half life of the (O3) molecules. The Ozone bubbles need to pass through a very deep solution tank usually called an “absorption tower,” this allows the Ozone bubbles to stay in contact with the solution as long as possible for maximum efficiency.
Downsides to using Ultraviolet and Ozone treatments
Both ultraviolet , and Ozone treatments can breakdown some of the iron chelate in the nutrient solution, and that may cause some precipitation of manganese compounds. They also may reduce the “beneficial” micro-flora, which can play a role in suppressing plant disease and viruses. Also if you use any insecticides and/or fungicides in your nutrient solution, UV and Ozone treatments can also breakdown many of the organic compounds in them, once these organic compounds are broken down, some can become toxic to plants. Lastly Ozone can sometimes be damaging to certain plastic parts, mostly for commercially made NFT systems.
Useful Links
Ultraviolet Light Disinfection
Clean Water Supplies for Hydroponics
Hydroponic H2O: Water Quality and Treatment
Ultraviolet Disinfection Technology
The main idea behind grafting is to simply take a variety of plant with a desirable above ground characteristics, and connect it to the roots of a variety with desirable under ground characteristics. Grafting is a propagation technique where the living tissue of two different plants are joined, and fused together into one plant. The top part of a contributing plant can be stems, leaves, flowers, and/or fruits, this part is called the scion. The bottom part of the plant contributes the roots and support, this part is called the rootstock (or understock).
Although grafting usually refers to joining only two plants together, you can join as many as needed. Multiple grafts are commonly done with fruit trees. For instance in order to get multiple varieties of apples from one tree, or to get multiple varieties of citrus like lemons, limes, oranges, tangerines and grapefruit from just one tree. Grafting is not limited to trees, grafting vegetables and/or any other plant follows the same principle as grafting fruit trees.
Why Graft Your Plants
Besides just for the obvious fun of it, there a other reasons that grafting your plants may be useful. Some of these benefits include;
- To Take advantage of a particular rootstocks, Some rootstocks varieties may have superior growth habits, disease and insect resistance, drought tolerance, or may even be better adapted to a particular climate than that produced naturally by an ungrafted plant. Where the scion (top) of another variety may have a desired fruit size, flavor, or even plant size etc..
- To Optimize cross-pollination, Not all plants are self pollinating, some require pollination from another variety for good fruit set, and some plants have either male or female flowers but not both. To ensure good fruit set on the female flowers, a male plant must be growing nearby. Grafting a section of a male plant to a female plant can increase good cross pollination.
- To Increase the growth rate of seedlings, Grafting seedling onto a more mature plant can increase the growth rate of the seedlings because the root system is already established.
- To Perpetuate clones, Clones of some species of plants can’t be reproduced from vegetative cuttings easily, because the percentage of cuttings that successfully root is quite low. But many of them can however be grafted onto seedling rootstocks.
- Creating new Varieties Some varieties of plants don’t actually come from seeds. Some are difficult and/or just about impossible to reproduce strictly from cuttings or other techniques.
Grafting limitations
All kinds of plants can be grafted including fruits, vegetables, trees, bushes, flowers, but not all plants can be grafted together. The only real way to tell if it can be grafted is simply to try. But generally speaking plants that are closely related graft together best, and form a good graft union. A poor graft union usually results in plants that either grow poorly, break off or just eventually die.
Types of Grafts
Although there are many different so called types of grafts (Cleft Graft, Bark Graft, Side-Veneer Graft, Splice Graft, Whip and Tongue Graft, Saddle Graft, Bridge Graft and Inarch Graft) they all basically really come down to two types of grafting techniques, top grafting and side grafting. With top grafting the scion is matched to the new stem (plant) by placing it directly on top of the rootstock stem. In most cases the scion and understock are of exact or nearly equal size. Another type of top grafting consists of splicing the scion to the side of the stem of the new rootstock (even of different sizes). In which case several scions may be attached to a single rootstock, or stem of a rootstock. The different names (types) are just given to explain the different types of cuts used to match the two stems together.
With side grafting, a partial cut is made into the stem of the scion plant (leaving the rootstock attached), then placing it onto the cut-off stem of the rootstock. At that point both the top (scion), and the bottom (rootstock) still have their root systems attached. Once the graft has successfully formed a good union, the root system of the scion (top) is severed from it’s original root system, leaving the scion to now live solely on the new rootstock.
Taking Care of the Graft
Both preparation, and post-graft care should be taken to insure success. It’s usually better to do the grafting in the morning or late afternoon when it’s cooler so they don’t wilt, and to avoid water stress. Also if you can, it’s best to do your grafting on cloudy days, in the shade, and/or in a cool greenhouse. You should keep the grafting area and cutting utensils as clean as you can (like cleaning off the cutting blade in-between cuts) to help prevent plant diseases from getting in the graft.
All graft cuts must be smooth and straight so they will fit and line up correctly. It’s a good idea to practice by cutting some extra twigs of the same size as the ones you intend to graft. Once you have made the matching cuts, it’s important not to let the cuts dry out. You shouldn’t try to cut more plants than you can graft together in a few minutes in order to keep the cuts from drying out, and the plants from wilting. Although, you can wrap the cut ends in a wet towel, or place them in a cup of cool water temporary if necessary. When attaching the graft, you want to make sure the stems are lined up correctly in order to form a good union, also you’ll want to wax over the cuts to help prevent diseases. Once complete you’ll need to secure the graft, this can be done a number of ways (like wrapping, tying, clamps etc.) depending on the size, and what type of graft your doing.
After grafting, it’s best to keep the plants in a warm but shaded place, about 80-85 degrees F. Also you should try to keep them in a place with high humidity (hopefully 95% relative humidity if possible) until the grafts heal. Regular misting is helpful as well to keep humidity high (just not real wet). It will likely take about a week for the graft to heal. Once the grafts heal, set them out in direct sunlight again a little longer each day in order to slowly acclimate them to the direct sunlight again. Continue to mist them if needed to prevent wilting. Once the grafts have healed and formed a good union, and shortly after growth starts (usually about 2 to 6 weeks depending on the plants), you’ll want to remove the binding material such as string, cord or even some types of nursery tape to prevent Girdling (basically choking the plant) because they wont easily expand with the plant growth.
Useful Links
Grafting Techniques For Greenhouse Tomatoes
Grafting and Budding Nursery Crop Plants
Grafting
Grafting, University of Missouri
GRAFTING GREENHOUSE TOMATOES
Grafting, University of Kentucky
Who says you cant grow hydroponic crops anywhere? How about in the Antarctic, the coldest harshest continent on the planet. The only continent that has such harsh conditions there are no permanent human residents on the entire continent. The only residents are 1,000 to 5,000 people that reside throughout the year at research stations scattered across Antarctica. Out of all the dozens of research stations, only three are permanently manned year round, and they rotate the personal during the summer season. Well if you can grow hydroponic crops in that type of environment, you can grow hydroponically anywhere.
The National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs (NSF/OPP) oversees all of the research stations in Antarctica. Many of the research stations have built greenhouses to grow fresh produce to feed the crews manning the stations. This is especially important for the few research stations that are in operation year round. Supply’s cant be flown in because like the north pole, most of Antarctica is in total darkness for about 4 months of the year. That combined with bad weather conditions like record lows of -117 F (without the wind chill), and unpredictable blizzard like winds, makes it extremely risky for planes to land and take off to bring in supply’s most of the year. So these stations simply can’t be re-supplied over winter months. All material and personnel must be flown in and stockpiled during the Summer season.
 Once the supply planes stop after the Summer season, the fresh produce quickly runs out. So if there going to have any fresh fruits and vegetables during these long cold months, they simply need to grow it all on site at the research station themselves. The availability of fresh fruits and vegetables for meals, as well as flowers in the dining and recreation areas, has a great effect and impact, to the overall morale of all the personnel during those long dark winter months.
Hydroponics in Antarctica is not exactly new, they have been using hydroponic systems in Antarctica scene the 1980’s. Although it was not intended as part of the research, but just to help provide fresh perishable fruits and vegetables to the researchers, in order to make life at the research stations more bearable. Though over the years, and through trial and error from the personnel at the research stations, as well as their persistence, they have been able to make hydroponics on Antarctica quite productive. Providing as much as 250 plus pounds of food monthly with less than 700 square feet of greenhouse space.
The Antarctic Greenhouses
 The Antarctic greenhouse at the McMurdo (US) research station is not your ordinary greenhouse though. With the help of the researchers in Antarctica, the University of Arizona’s “Controlled Environment Agriculture center” has developed the most sophisticated state-of-the-art growth chamber (greenhouse) on the planet. It’s also a prototype for space stations, including those future stations planed for the Moon, and Mars. It’s called the “South Pole Food Growth Chamber” (SPFGC) Project. The Growth Chamber was first completed and delivered to the South Pole McMurdo research station in February of 2004.
It’s a completely sealed, automated atmospheric, CO2 enriched, climate controlled greenhouse. This includes recalculating the waste heat given off by the water-jacketed HPS lamps to supplement the heat needed to heat the greenhouse. Also the hydroponic nutrient delivery system, and pH adjusting system, as well as all the environmental conditions are computer controlled by the ARGUS agricultural environmental control system and equipment. It records, controls and displays all key aspects of the environmental conditions for current, and later analysis. The Growth Chamber is fully operated by volunteer’s at the research station, and with each personnel change the new personnel needs to be trained to operate it all.
 Some of the typical hydroponics crops grown in the Antarctic include tomatoes, lettuces, spinach, various dark leafy greens, cucumbers, bell and hot peppers, beans, zucchini, snow peas, fennel, as well as all kinds of herbs. Growing hydroponically allows the grower to grow out of season crops as well as all year round, and with the fully climate controlled greenhouse it’s always the perfect season for the plants. By using this to their advantage, that allows the personnel in Antarctic to continually rotate the plants so they always have fresh ready to eat produce from there crops.
Also by germinating seedlings on a regular basis, they make sure they always have replacement plants ready to place in the hydroponic systems once they have harvested the older ones. This significantly reduces the time that’s needed to go from seeds to maturity (or before they begin to fruit), and helps to make sure they have a continuous supply of fresh produce all the time.
Conclusion
Well perhaps ordering your own “South Pole Food Growth Chamber (SPFGC)” is out of the question, but it just goes to show that just about anything can be done. Not many of us have such extreme conditions to deal with, but all it takes is some trial and error, persistence, patients, and ingenuity to find a way to solve any conditions and/or problems  that you may be facing with your hydroponic gardens.
Useful Links
Hydroponics at Mc Murdo Station Antarctica
South Pole Food Growth Chamber (SPFGC)
Science in Antarctica
Australian Antartica Division
Fresh Veggies at the South Pole
South Pole Greenhouse Feeds Winter Crew, Simulates Lunar Chamber
Green Antarctica: Station greenhouses produce fresh food
NFT System (Nutrient Film Technique)
The NFT systems is quite similar to the Ebb & Flow except for a few things. First, it doesn’t need a timer because it runs 24/7, so you don’t need a timer to control cycles. But like a Ebb & Flow system it also has a reservoir that’s below the level of the plants. This way gravity will be able to allow the nutrient solution to flow/drain directly back into the reservoir to pumped back up to the plants again. The main difference between the two is that a NFT system does not actually flood the system. It rely’s on a continues flowing stream (film) of nutrient solution at the bottom of the containers that hold the roots of the plants. The roots that reach down into the nutrient solution, are able to wick up moisture to the upper roots, and the upper roots can also still get the air/oxygen that the plants need as well.
 Although a NFT system could be made in many different ways, they are usually laid out as series of tubes in rows that hold the plants. The tubes allow the water to be directed easily from one end of the tube to the other end, that way all the roots get water (nutrient solution). An important aspect to an NFT system is that the containers (tubes) are tilted downward on one end. The water is pumped into one, then gravity allows it to flow downhill to the other end. From there it can be collected again in a return system (that can be constructed many different ways). From there it’s directed back to the reservoir to be pumped back up to the plants again. You can have just 1 row, or hundreds of rows in one system, and can be easily expandable.
Drip systems
Drip systems are quite simple. They are similar to a drip irrigation system you would have for your flower beds in dirt. Except instead of just plain water, with a hydroponic drip systems the water is the nutrient solution (just like any other hydroponic system). There are actually two ways to run a drip systems, a recovery system, or non recovery system. A recovery system just means that you collect the nutrient solution after it drips, and return it back to the reservoir where it can be pumped out to the plants again.
A non recovery (also called drip to waste) just means that you don’t recover/return the nutrient solution, and it’s just allowed to drip into the ground or somewhere else. Most drip systems are recovery systems (so the nutrient solution is reticulated). The nutrient solution is pumped through the lines out to the plants, then it drips down through the growing medium to the bottom of the container where it’s then directed back to the reservoir through return lines. With a drip system gravity is what allows it to flow back to the reservoir, unlike an Ebb & Flow system where it’s siphoned back to the reservoir through the pump and fill line.
Aeroponic System
 The aeroponic system is similar to the Ebb & Flow system also except the roots are completely suspended in the air. Naturally with the absence of a growing medium to hold in moisture, the roots will dry out much quicker. Because of that, the timer needs to be capable of many more cycles per day. The roots are directly sprayed by misters that spray the nutrient solution frequently. The nutrient solution drips down off the roots into a reservoir, or collection area to be collected and sprayed again. A true aeroponic system will have the roots completely suspended in air. Again, any type of hydroponic system can be constructed many different ways, with many different materials, but most aeroponic systems sold in stores are really a combination aeroponic/NFT, or aeroponic/water culture system. A true aeroponic system will completely suspend the roots in air.
Conclusion
You may have herd of Aquaponics and wonder why It’s not listed as one of the different types of hydroponic systems. Well Aquaponics is not really a hydroponic system, it’ actually a technique used to create the nutrient solution. Using fish waste, as well as living organisms to decompose the fish waste so it’s broken down into a form the plants can absorb. Also so that all the elements for healthy plant growth are in sufficient quantity’s in the solution. Once the living environment has produced a quality nutrient solution, it can be used in any of the different types of hydroponic systems as the nutrient solution. Although the aquaponic technique can be used in any type of system, it’s probably most commonly used in conjunction with a water culture system, NFT or Ebb & Flow systems.
Many hydroponic systems combine one or more aspects from the other types of systems. There is nothing wrong with that, but it is important to understand how each different type of system works and functions. Now that you know what makes each type of hydroponic system different, you can recognize what they are, and if they are actually a combination system or not. Also you will be able to build your own hydroponic systems, either by combining different aspects, or just a straight forward system.
With all the different hydroponic setups on the market it can be confusing to tell them apart, especially because they all seem to look so different. But in reality there are only six different types of hydroponic systems. Any of these hydroponic systems can have many different configurations, different sizes and even made from many different materials. That’s why they can all look so different. But weather they are home built systems, or commercially manufactured systems sold in hydroponic supply stores, they all come down to the six types of hydroponic systems, or a combination of 2 or more of the six types of systems in one system.
If you understand the six types of hydroponic systems, as well as what makes them work, you’ll easily be able to recognize how any hydroponic system functions. That includes any store bought or any home built system. Even if it’s a straight forward system, or a combination system, because the principals that make them work is always the same. Another benefit to knowing how each of the different hydroponic systems work, is that once you understand the different types of systems, you’ll be able to build any of them on your own from most any material you can get from many sources, and for less money than buying them from a hydroponic supply store.
Wick System
 The simplest type of hydroponic system is the wick system. This type of system has no moving parts at all. It works exactly the same way that a oil lamp or tiki torch works, by wicking up the liquid as it’s being used. Although it can be constructed many different ways and out of many different materials, the basic function still remains the same. The plant is placed in the growing medium, and the growing medium is kept moist from the wick. The wick is simply made from a strip of a highly absorbent material like felt or cotton. The wick runs through the growing medium and out the bottom of the container into the nutrient reservoir. As the plants drink up the moisture in the growing medium, the wick continually sucks up moisture, keeping the growing medium moist with the nutrient solution.
Water Culture System
 The water culture system is second in line as the simplest type of hydroponic system. It’s sometimes called bubbleponics also, but the real term is “Water Culture.” With a water culture system the plants roots are suspended/floating directly in the nutrient reservoir itself. Usually on Styrofoam rafts (because it floats on top of water) with holes cut in it that the plants to be placed into. Although like any other hydroponic system water culture systems can be constructed in many different ways, and with many different materials, but the key aspect is that the roots are submerged in the nutrient solution all the time. The other key, and very important aspect to a water culture system, is the use of an air pump (and air stones) in the nutrient reservoir/solution.
The air pomp provides a continuous flow of tiny air bubbles to the root systems. That way the roots can get the air/oxygen they need so they don’t suffocate being completely submerged all the time. The air supply is left on 24/7. The air pump and stones are not expensive and can be found in any pet supply, or aquarium store. You may also hear the term DWC, that stands for “Deep Water Culture” witch is the same thing as a water culture system, it’s just referring to a the depth of the nutrient solution in the reservoir (usually about one foot or so in a DWC). Although most so called DWC systems are a combination water culture/drip system, or water culture/aeroponic system.
Ebb & Flow (Flood & Drain) System
The Ebb & Flow system is not much more difficult, but does need a submersible water pump (like a fountain pump), and household light timer to run the cycles. There are so many various ways to build a Flood & Drain system it’s only limited by your imagination. But the basic principal is always the same. It has a reservoir that holds the nutrient solution. This reservoir is placed below the plants, so the siphoning action that happens when the pump is not  running will automatically drain the nutrient solution when the pump shuts off. The timer is used to periodically flood the system to keep the roots moist.
The second part of the Flood & Drain system is where the plants are contained. This is often constructed in any number of ways, but always has two main parts to it. First is the fill line, this is connected to the pump and fills (Floods) the system when it’s turned on. Second is the overflow tube, the overflow tube is set at a particular height, usually about 2 inches below the top of the growing medium. This keeps the water level in the system from overflowing out the containers the plants are in, and instead it flows directly back into the reservoir to be pumped back up to the plants again. But at the same time it is the height of the overflow tube allows the water to rise high enough to saturate the root system without causing stem root. That is why it’s usually about two inches below the top of the growing medium, instead of the top of the containers.
To Be Continued..
The Six Types of Hydroponic Systems, Part 2
After all, if growing Hydroponically was so great wouldn’t everyone be doing it? Well that’s a good question, but the truth is not really. There are many alternate forums of energy, but oil and coal are still the most common forms of energy that the world rely’s on. Even with the strong need to find other sources of energy, big business still focuses on oil and coal. It’s basically the same way with agriculture. Even though hydroponics has been around since WWW2, the agricultural industry tends to just focus on what they already know, and what they are already used to, just like in most industries.
But unlike large industry (not so easy to make your own gas), it’s much easier for the home gardener to pave the way for hydroponics. Mostly because of the home hydroponic gardener, there’s a need for the hydroponic supply’s and products. This need/demand of hydroponic products drives manufactures to create these products for the public, simply because there’s money in selling them (after all that’s what drives industry). These products are slowly making their way into the commercial agricultural industry, mostly for high value crops like tomatoes and peppers etc.. Bottom line is there are many benefits and some drawbacks to growing hydroponically, but until they learn how they can benefit from growing hydroponically, they will likely remain doing things just as they have always done in the past.
 Growing Hydroponically has many advantages over growing in soil, but the one big disadvantage is that it’s not as easy as just sticking a plant in the ground and watering it once in a while. Although growing hydroponically is not hard at all, it does take more of the gardeners time and attention. And simply paying attention to how the plants are doing from day to day is important. Unlike soil gardens, hydroponic plants respond to changes (both good and bad) much more rapidly. So that’s the reason why it’s important to take the time to pay attention to how they are doing.
But because hydroponic plants respond to changes much more rapidly than soil grown plants, this is one of the big advantages to growing hydroponically. This allows the gardener to provide the optimum growing conditions 24/7, and thus the plants grow much larger and faster than they ever could in soil. For commercial growers this increases there produce production, and ultimately their profits as well. For the home gardener this allows them to get more from their limited plant space.
 Another big advantage to hydroponics is the ability to have many more plants in the same amount of space. Not just closer together but also taking advantage of vertical space. Traditional soil grown plants are grown from the ground, and spacing is determined by how much ground space there is. With hydroponics you can stack plants above others plants, taking advantage of the vertical space also. Growing in this fashion is much more highly productive for both commercial growers, as well as home gardeners. For commercial growers this means much less land they need to buy, and much more production for that land, both of witch translates into profit for the growers.
Also with hydroponics there is no need for crop rotations, or time lost between crops conditioning the soil. Once a crop is harvested, the grower can simply plant new plants directly into the hydroponic system the same day. By starting hydroponic seeds in small propagation tables, and growing them there until there large enough to transplant into the hydroponic system beforehand, that cuts down on time lost waiting for the plants to get big enough to become productive. Growing in this way allows the grower to have two, three or even four year round crops in the same space, rather than just one crop in a particular season.
For commercial growers another downside for growing hydroponically is typically the start-up cost of the hydroponic system, and/or any greenhouse they build to house year round crops. This can be a substantial start-up cost depending on system design, crop, and location. But most of this can be offset by less land needed (acreage), as well as there is no need for costly large specialized farming equipment that can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, not to mention the maintenance, fuel and general upkeep of this expensive equipment. Home gardeners are just growing for themselves, so the start-up cost can be quite inexpensive depending on the system design, and how many plants  they want to grow. Usually a home grower will start with just a few plants, and as they begin to have success they will begin to expand their systems and setups.
Also hydroponically grown plants typically only use about one tenth the amount of water than soil/field grown crops. That’s because most of the water in soil grown plants is lost to evaporation, as well as the water draining down through the ground back into the water table before the plants ever get a chance to drink it. In some places like arid regions this can be a substantial operating savings, simply because water is scarce and water costs can be high. All in all, given a all the benefits for commercial crop production, as well as for the home grower, the question should be, what’s the big deal about soil grown crops?
This is part 3 of the Beneficial Insects series: see part 1 and part 2
Spiders, are one of the most feared Beneficial Insects there is, and some with good reason. Some spiders are poisonous and can have deadly results, but most aren’t dangerous to people at all. Some might inflect a painful bite but are not able to inject any poison. There are hundreds of thousands of species of spiders, but very few of them have bites that would require medical attention. Or even fangs strong enough to puncture human skin to be able to inject any venom in the first place. Although if your unsure weather they are poisonous or not, it’s simply always a good idea not to handle them in the first place.
 Spiders come in all sorts of colors, shapes and sizes. All spiders are predators, and both poisonous and non poisonous spiders will eat almost any insect they can catch. They wont eat or damage your plants, they just hang out there because that’s a great place to find all the insects that they do eat. Most spiders will make webs to catch prey, but some like wolf spiders, are hunters that just search the ground and plant foliage for their prey. Spiders are found in all types of habitats, as long as there is food, they will stick around. All you need to do is just leave them alone to do their job.
Ground beetles, There are around 2,500 species of ground beetles in North America, and more than 40,000 species worldwide. Even though there are variation in their body shape, they are usually elongated, and heavy bodied, as well as be slightly or distinctly tapered at the head and/or back end, with ridges running along their back. While generally dark in color (brown to black) most ground beetles are shiny black , although some beetles are multi-colored with a metallic look, like an attractive metallic purple or green. They can also range in size from 1/16 to 1-3/8 inches long for the adults.
 They are generally fast moving insects that have long legs. Most ground beetle species lay their eggs in soil. And like all beetles, ground beetles have complete metamorphosis with egg, larval, pupal, and adult stages. The larvae feed and grow for about 1-2 years, then they pupate in small chambers made of soil (usually during the winter months), and then the adults emerge during springtime. Ground beetles will generally hide under logs, rocks, or even in soil crevices during the day, and are much more active at night. Most ground beetles don’t climb very well, and thus tend to be found on or near the ground.
Both the larvae and adults are predators. The larvae usually have large pincher-like mandibles to devour their prey. Ground beetles feed on a wide variety of insects like wireworms, grasshoppers, crickets, cut worms, armyworms, well as prey on things as large as snails and slugs. They can be attracted to light sources because they know the insects they feed on are attracted to the light. Many ground beetles can emit an offensive smelling, hot or volatile liquid which is used for defense. When threatened, they raise the end of their body aim and fire the chemical gas with popping sound and smoke like puffs. Because of this they are often referred to as stink bugs, some large beetles will even pinch fingers with their strong mandibles for defense.
Parasitic wasps, are not the stinging social wasps like yellow jackets, hornets and paper wasps that are commonly found in/and around houses. Unlike social wasps who live in colonies that will siting to defend the colony when it’s threatened, parasitic wasps are loners and don’t live in colonies, there more like flies in that way. Although rare, parasitic wasps can sting if threatened or handled for defense, but don’t attack humans. There are many thousands of species of parasitic wasps in many different classifications, and they are extremely variable in both size (ranging in size from 1/100 to 3/4 inch long) as well as color. But most are small to medium sized, and black or brown in color. They also usually have a constriction where the abdomen and thorax meet, giving the appearance of a thin waist.
 Parasitic wasps use their stinger to lay eggs inside other insects. The wasps larvae usually develop by feeding on a single host, the eggs are of various shapes and sizes, depending upon the species. The parasitic wasps larvae usually live and feed inside the host’s body, but some species will feed outside the host’s body. Depending on species and host there can be anywhere from 1, to as many as 1000’s of parasitic wasps larvae feeding on the same host.
Many species of parasitic wasps are host specific, developing in one, or a limited number of related host species of insects. A number of parasitic wasp species are commercially available from insectaries, and these can be purchased to reduce your pest populations. It has been said that there is a parasitic wasp species to reduce the populations of just about any insect. Because many beneficial parasitic wasps are very small, you can plant small flowers in your garden to attract the adults wasps. Adult wasps usually drink flower nectar as a food source, and if there are insects for them to lay their eggs in, your wasp populations will be able to multiply, thus keeping your pest populations under control.
Conclusion,
Just like pests, many beneficial insects are very sensitive to pesticides. By using many of the pesticides on the market you will also be reducing your beneficial insect populations. By providing a variety of habitats and/or flowers you can attract a variety of beneficial insect to your gardens. There are many other beneficial insect you can consider too, like Big-Eyed Bugs, Ladybird Beetles, Mealybug Destroyer, Firefly’s, Millipedes, Damselfly’s, Dragonfly’s, Pirate Bugs, Predatory Mites, Rove Beetle, Giant Diving Beetle, Giant Stoneflies, Syrphid Flies and Tachnid Flies. So you may want to reconsider the next time you are thinking of squashing that bug that your unsure what it is.
Useful Links
Spiders
Texas master gardener, spiders
Common Garden Spiders
Ground beetles
Ohio State University Extension, Ground beetles
University of Kentucky entomology, Ground beetles
Washington State University, Ground beetles
Parasitic wasps
Ohio State University Extension, Parasitic wasps
Top Secret agents
Texas AgriLife Extension, Parasitic wasps
Parasitic wasps Protecting greenhouse tomatoes
Other Beneficial Insect info
Beneficial Bugs
Beneficial Insects and Spiders in Your Maine Backyard
Beneficial Insects
Types of Beneficials
This is part 2 of the following article: Beneficial Insects for Hydroponics, part 1
Lacewings, are green and/or brown with 2 pairs of wings, and a mouth similar to the praying mantis, with large eyes relative to the size their head. They also have long, thin bodies, and look similar to dragonflies, except lacewings will fold their wings along the length of their back when there not flying. Their wings have a shiny lacy look with prominent veins. Adult Lacewings are usually about 1/2 inch to 1 inch in length. They  lay pale green oblong shaped eggs on the tips of thread-like stalks attached to plants. Lacewings are attracted to the odor of aphid honeydew (a sugary liquid waste that aphids produce), they also like to lay their eggs near the aphid colonies.
There are two common families of lacewings, green lacewing (family Chrysopidae), and brown lacewings (family Hemerobiidae). They feed on feed on aphids, mites, thrips, soft scale insects, mealy bugs, whiteflies, psyllids, and many other soft bodied insects. As well as small caterpillars, leafhoppers and moth insect eggs. When Lacewing larvae hatch in just a few days they are reddish cream in color, and are a tapered in shape, like tiny 1/8 inch alligators. When the larvae mature, they form a yellow color silken cocoon to pupate and grow their wings.
Assassin Bugs, they are also called Bloodsucking Conenose, Masked Hunter, Black Corsair, Wheel Bug, Spined Assassin Bug, ambush bugs, thread-legged bugs or kissing bugs. They are closely related to plant sucking bugs, but assassin bugs are generalist predators that feed on a variety of insects. There are more than 160 species of assassin bugs. They generally have a elongated body with grasping fore-legs and a pronounced head. Many species are brownish or blackish, but many species are brightly colored. Even though assassin bugs are beneficial insects, if they are handled carelessly they can inflict a painful bite. Sometimes it can even cause a severe reaction or inflammation in some people.
 Depending on the species they can rang in size. Adults can range from about 1/2 inch, to as large as 6 inches. But most species are about 1/2 to 1 inch long. They wait for their pray to happen to pass by, then they attack them. They usually prey on small flying insects like flies, mosquitoes and other soft bodied insects, as well as insect eggs, and larvae. But they can even subdue and kill larger prey like caterpillars and beetles. They hunt for there pray in all sorts of vegetation including trees, bushes, flower beds and even weeds.
Assassin bugs are basically a slow moving insect, and even though the adults are able to fly they are generally poor flyers. The female assassin bugs lay their eggs in tight, upright, brownish clusters on leaves, and/or in soil regularly. The immature nymphs (larva) resemble adults but are wingless, and develop into the adults through molting. Depending on species they will molt from 4 to 7 times in about two months time. Despite the negative aspects, the assassin bugs beneficial qualities outweighs their negative potential by far, so getting used to these insects will be a benefit to your gardens.
Flower flies, also known as hover flies or syrphid flies, are considered beneficial insects. There are nearly 900 species of flower flies in North America, and the adults are about 1/2 inches long. Flower flies have yellow-and-black stripes or yellow and white stripes, and they look a lot like bees and/or wasps. Because of this, they are commonly mistaken for them, but flower flies can’t sting you. The wasp and bee like appearance is a defense against predators, because true wasps and bees will sting predators, but the flies can’t, so they just avoid them because of how they look. They can be distinguished in two different ways, when looking at the head of the flower flies, they will have the large bulging eyes like regular flies do. Also the flower flies only have two wings, and bees and wasps have four wings.
 Their larvae feed on aphids and other pests like scales, thrips and caterpillars. The adults feed on the nectar of flower blossoms, and they are attracted to pollen producing plants. They also pollinate plants like bees do, so they are important as pollinators to your plants as well, especially because they are more active during cold weather than bees are. Although like other flies, they have a relatively short life span that can range from about three to nine weeks. Providing flowers for adults is a good way to attract them, but ensuring there is appropriate egg-laying sites, as well as places where the larvae can live is also a good way to make sure they will stick around and breed year round. The role of the flower flies as an important beneficial insect is mostly under appreciated, but very useful never the less.
Continued: Beneficial Insects part 3
Useful Links
Lacewings
University of Kentucky, Lacewings
Green Lacewing
Cornell University, Lacewings
Beneficial Insects in the Low Desert, Green Lacewings
Assassin Bugs
University of California, Assassin Bugs
Ohio State University, Assassin Bugs
Assassin Bugs and Ambush Bugs
Texas master gardener, Assassin Bugs
Flower Flies
University of Kentucky, Flower Flies
NC Sate University, Hover flies
Texas master gardener, Hover flies
Flower fly
Usually when we think of insects on our plants we think of pests. Well that’s with good reason, a lot of them are. But that’s not always the case, not all insects are pests. There are a wide variety of beneficial insects. Most people know that bees pollinate their plants, but other insects help pollinate them as well. More importantly beneficial insects also help to reduce the populations of insects that are harmful to your plants, and without hurting your plants. The use of beneficial insects reduces the need for pesticides in your gardens, simply because they are the natural predators of the harmful insects (pests). That makes them a natural and organic alternative to pest control.
How effective beneficial insects are to your plants will have many factors. One of the biggest factors is how bad the infestation is. You can buy beneficial insects from a suppler, or you could just try to attract them to your garden. Either way you want them to stick around, the best way to do this is by providing the proper habitat to support the beneficial insects. They will then feed and reproduce more, that will have a greater impact on the health of your gardens. Unfortunately as the beneficial insects feed on and reduce the population of the pests, this reduces their food sources, so naturally unless alterative sources of food are provided, they will leave the area in search for food elsewhere.
Attracting beneficial insects
Just like animals and humans, insects are looking for a place to live comfortably, breed and prosper. They also need shelter, water and food to be happy. Weather you buy your beneficial insects or simply try to attract them to your yard, you will want to provide a suitable environment to keep them their. They will want protection from disturbances. Providing perennial flower beds add hedges around your plants can provide a good source of shelter. They will also need water just like any other living thing. Small Tupperware containers with some water placed around the shelter areas will be able to provide a water source. Place some rocks and twigs inside it so the beneficial insects have a place to rest while there drinking. Also you will want to change the water a couple of times a week to keep mosquito’s from breeding.
When the beneficial insects have reduced the populations of the pests they feed on, and their main food source is diminishing, they will naturally want to move on in order to find a more plentiful source of food. By providing an alternate food source you can help encourage them to stick around. Depending on the particular insect they can find food sources with pollen, plant juices and/or nectar to supplement their diet of insects.
Types of Beneficial Insects
 Ladybugs (also known as Lady Beetles), are one of the most popular and recognizable beneficial insects around. What isn’t commonly known is that there are over 500 species of Ladybugs, and they aren’t all red, nor do all of them have the well known spots. But all species of adult ladybugs have a oval dome shape, as well as have small legs. They also have wings that fold back as part of their dome body shape. The wings are usually a dark red, or reddish-orange, to a pale yellow. They also may or may not have black spots, or irregular shaped markings.
Both the adults and young feed on many different soft bodied insects. They mostly feed on aphids, but are also good for controlling whiteflies, leafhoppers, potato beetle, mites, mealy bugs and bollworms among others. There are a few ways to attract them to your garden. They are attracted to dill, fennel, geraniums, also weeds such as dandelions, wild carrot and yarrow will help attract ladybugs. You can also attract ladybugs using something called “Wheast“, witch is a combination of “Whey” and “Yeast,” this can be mixed and then sprayed in your garden to attract the ladybugs. You can either make it yourself, or buy it from a vendor.
 Praying Mantis (Mantodea), the Praying Mantis is one of the most efficient insect predictors as far as beneficial insects are concerned. They feed on a wide variety of insects, and will eat just about any insect they can, even as large as moths, crickets and grasshoppers. They will even eat there own kind. They will eat almost any insect smaller than itself. They lie in wait with the front legs in an upraised position, and intently watch and stalk their prey. They can get as large as 3 to 4 inches long and use camouflage to ambush their prey. There is an estimated 1800 species of Praying Mantis, each with their own type of camouflage, but they all have the same type of posture.
The Praying Mantis is a large alien-looking creature that most people find the intimidating to say the least, and much like spiders they are generally afraid of them simply because of the way they look. But the Praying Mantis is probably the best beneficial insect you can have in your gardens. They also will not bite humans, damage household furnishings, spread disease or damage your plants. Not sure what more you could ask for.
Useful Links
Lady Bugs
Lady Beetles
Lady Beetles Colorado state university
Lady Beetles university of Kentucky
Praying Mantis
Praying mantises Care
Praying Mantid caresheet
Beneficial Insects in the Garden, Praying Mantis
Praying Mantid, University of Kentucky
Continued: Beneficial Insects part 2
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Plants have two basic types of tissues to transport the minerals and sugars they need for growth though the plant, the xylem and phloem. These act as the circulation system for the plant, like vain’s and blood vessels in a human. The xylem vessels carry water along with the dissolved nutrients from the roots up stems to the leaves and fruit. Water is lost from the foliage by transpiration (like exhaling in humans), through small pours in the stems and leaves called stoma. This creates a suction which draws up water from the roots through the xylem vessels, and distributed all around the plant.
transpiration of the plant. Adding ventilation is the simplest way to encourage plant transpiration. High temperatures and water stress also affect calcium intake. Keeping the plants stress free, with good ventilation, will go a long way to good calcium nutrition.
