Liquid Seaweed Fertilizer

One of the best fertilizers you can use on your hydroponics plants is liquid seaweed. Yet this is probably the last fertilizer people think of buying when they go to their local garden center or shop online. Liquid seaweed fertilizer is not only organic, but comes from a sustainable source and can be harvested without damaging the environment.

Most seaweed-based fertilizers are made from kelp, a variety of seaweed that can grow to lengths of over 50 meters. Trace elements found in organic seaweed fertilizers include magnesium, potassium, zinc, iron and nitrogen—all of which are beneficial to plants not just for hydroponics. Nitrogen, for instance, is essential to the production of nitrate, a key component needed by plants during photosynthesis.

Impressive results have been found when applied to hydroponics and also that this is a natural product harvested in a way that won't have any negative impact on the environment or the sustainability of the seaweed itself. This makes the hydroponics system semi organic for those who think hydroponics is all chemical.

Where to use Liquid Seaweed Fertilizer?

Seaweed has more than 70 minerals, vitamins and enzymes. Some of the benefits are mentioned below:

• Liquid seaweed solution promotes additional budding if applied as the plants are beginning to bud.
• It extends the shelf life of fruits and vegetables if applied 10 days before harvesting.
• The extract lengthens the life of cut flowers if they are sprayed with it a day or two before cutting.
• It can also be used as a rooting solution. Place cuttings in a solution of liquid seaweed and water until roots develop, then plant. When planting seeds or transplanting, water with the solution.
• If applied to pasture crops, the algae increases the nutrient uptake, the protein content and overall quality of the crop.
• Seaweed extract also boosts crop yields, improves resistance of plants to frost and disease, increases uptake of inorganic constituents from the soil, bolsters resistance to stress conditions and reduces storage losses of fruit.
• It promotes vigorous growth and helps deter pests and diseases on fruit, flowers, vegetables, lawns etc.
• Seaweed fertilizers are especially useful in organic gardening. They contain almost every micro-nutrient in a fully chelated (immediately available) form. The algae is also full of carbohydrates, which plants use as a building block. Numerous beneficial microorganisms also use carbohydrates as a food source.
• Liquid seaweed fertilizers (especially the alginates in the seaweed) act as soil conditioners. The alginates react with metals in the soil and form long, cross-linked polymers in the soil. These polymers improve the crumbling in the soil and swell up when they get wet. They also retain moisture for a long time.

Research on the Beneficial Effects of Liquid Seaweed

Numerous studies at major universities around the world have yielded various findings about the positive effects of liquid seaweed as a fertilizer, including:

• Seeds soaked in seaweed extract germinate more rapidly, have larger root mass, stronger plant growth and higher survival rates. Soaking plant roots in the extract also reduces transplant shock and speeds root growth.
• When plants were fertilized with seaweed researchers found that: geraniums produced more flowers per plant; grapes were sweeter; gladiolus corms grew larger; and cucumber yields increased 40 percent (and the fruits suffered less often from softening and rotting).
• Improved yields after seaweed treatments were measured in potatoes, sweet corn, peppers, tomatoes, apples, strawberries, okra and oranges.

Liquid seaweed fertilizer can also be added in a home hydroponics system for replenishing the micro nutrients.

Disposable cup hydroponics planters

If you have ever attempted to start plants indoors, you probably know what it is to get a root bound plant. No matter the size of your growing container, it does not take the roots too long to find its outer boundaries. This method uses the benefits of home hydroponics growing to keep those roots thriving, while preparing your plant to live.

Take 2 disposable cups. Used ones are better. Don't worry! Nobody will judge you on what was in the cup prior to this project.



Make holes with a hot pin in one of the cups.
Put cocopeat in the cup with the holes and plant seeds or live plants in it.
Put water and nutrients in the other cup.
Stack the cups and you are done.
Your simplest hydroponic planter is ready.

Greenhouses in India

Why are the greenhouses in India failing to reach optimal produce? Most of the green houses we see while travelling are scrapped or abandoned. Green houses are the invention of the west that we are copying as it is. They use green houses because most of the time there the weather is cold and frosty. In India we have a weather that is totally opposite to these thing.
If you ask any grower in India who uses greenhouses, two things come up.

1. They want to grow lettuce
2. They want to use grow lights.

This is because this is what every one of them seen or heard about what is been done in the west. India needs spinach, mustard, fenugreek, chilies, lentils, tomatoes and other such things. These things don't need green houses as the weather in India is concerned.

We in India don't consume lettuce in bulk. We need to look towards the local produce which can be used to grow hydroponically, but surely will not require greenhouses.

As the lights are concerned, India has surplus light source considering the 8 hour of direct sunlight that can be used to grow the above mentioned staples.

If we considering cutting down on these to costly resources, there is no reason we can not grow hydroponically and get a profit out of it.

Considering growing lettuce in case, you do have an assured market for the supply of lettuce that comes out of your farm, through B2B rate contracts or otherwise, please go ahead and set-up a lettuce factory. But if you are doing it just based on assumption that you will find the market later, better go small and test the hypothesis first.

Growing mediums

There are various preferred growing mediums for the hydroponics gardener. Hydroponics in latin itself means water work. That means we remove the use of soil as a growing medium. The nutrients are applied directly to the roots through application in water.

Various growing mediums have their advantages and disadvantages.

Clay balls: They have good retention of water and due to the porosity they also retain good aeration. They have to disinfected the first time and between subsequent uses.

Perlite: Their operation is same as the clay balls, but due to their small size they tend to clog the automated systems.

Coco Peat: Cocopeat are the cheapest option of all. They are acid neutral. They have to be processed before using as they tend to contain high amount of salts.

Rock wool: They are the costliest growing medium. They were used as insulating in refrigerators previously. They tend to be alkaline, processing in acidic water is required before application.

Sand: Sand is the easiest available and the cheapest growing medium. They need continuous supply of water as they have low water retention capability. Aeration is never a problem with sand.

Common features of growing mediums.

• They are not needed to throw away the old medium (as is sometimes needed with soil), so the long-term expense is reduced.
• It is lightweight, so no hassle in removing large pots.
• Its numerous tiny air pockets provide a good source of oxygen and help hold moisture.

Newspaper pots as seed starter

How to use old newspaper pots for seed starting.

When stating seeds like tomatoes. People look for something to sow them. That way when the seedlings are larger they pull them out and sow them in proper deep pots. But when it comes to starting the seeds, people remember that they did not collect sufficient curd containers to fulfill their needs. Now here is a project that can help you in these places. Just by using old newspapers you can make as many seed starters as you like.
For that you will need find a small glass to use for the project, this will depend on what size seedlings you’re transplanting, but generally a small juice glass will be sufficient. Get a glass of straight sides, rather than one that is tapered.

Step 1: Cut it. Start by cutting a fully unfolded newspaper sheet into four equal strips, lengthwise.	Step 2: Roll it. Layer the strips, one on top of the other, creating a single strip of newspaper that’s four layers thick. Wrap the newspaper around the open end of the juice glass, leaving enough slack in the paper so that you can slide it off the glass in step 3
Step 3: Tuck it. Stuff the end of the newspaper into the opening of the juice glass, then slide the glass out of the newly formed tube. If you haven’t noticed the taper in your glass, this is the point at which it will become frustratingly apparent.	Step 4: Tamp it. Flip the juice glass around, insert the bottom of it into the tube, and tamp down to secure the base of the pot.
Step 5: Fill it. Remove the glass and fill the tube with potting mix.	Step 6: That’s it! Now you’re ready to transplant. The pots will hold together until you’re ready to plant your seedlings in the garden, though you’ll want to avoid moving them around too much in the interim. The newspaper can be composted when you’re finished with it.

How to Grow food in Cans

Here’s a little garden idea, an idea for a small garden, an idea for someone who knows little about gardening.

You have various cans lying around the house. Simple!

1. Take a food can.
2. Punch holes at the bottom.
3. Fill with mix of soil manure and coco-peat.
4. Water it thoroughly.
5. Put some seeds available on your kitchen counter. (Coriander, fenugreek, cucumber, bittergourd or anything else)
6. Place the can in sunlight or near the window.
7. Water regularly.

Who says canned food is bad for you?

History of hydroponics 2

1860 & 1861 marked the end of a long search for the nutrient source essential for plants' growing when two German botanists, Julius von Sachs and Wilhelm Knop delivered the first standard formula for the nutrient solutions dissolved in water, in which plants could be grown. This is the origin of "nutriculture". Today, it is called the water culture. By this method, plants' roots were totally immersed in a water solution that contained minerals of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), magnesium (Mg), sulfur (S) and calcium (Ca). They are now seen as the macro elements or macronutrients (elements required in relatively large amounts).

However, surprisingly enough, the method of plants growing in water and nutrient solution was only seen as experiments and merely used in the laboratory for plant research. 

Only when the greenhouse industry appeared that interest in the application of the nutriculture practice was eyed on in 1925. Researchers were caring about the issues of soil cultural methods with soil structure, fertility, and pests. They worked extensively to implement the benefit of nutriculture to large-scale crop production. 

In the early 1930s, W.F. Gericke of the University of California at Berkeley experimented with nutriculture to produce agricultural crops. Initially, he called this process aquaculture but dropped it after learning that this term has been used to describe aquatic organism culturing.
W.A. Setchell recommended the term "hydroponics" to Gericke in 1937. So the name goes.
The word was derived from two Greek words. Hydro (“water”) and Ponos (“labor”)— literally “water working.”

Gericke began publicizing the practice of growing plants in a water solution while he was at the U.C. Berkley.
However, he met up with the skepticism from the public and the university. His colleagues even denied the use of the on-ground greenhouses for his study.
Gericke declared them wrong by successfully growing 25-foot tall tomato plants in nutrient-filled solutions. 

The university still doubted his account of successful cultivation and requested two other students investigate his claim. The two performed the research and reported their findings in an agriculture bulletin 1938, titled "The Water Culture Method for Growing Plants Without Soil"
They confirmed the application of Hydroponics but concluded their research that crops grown with Hydroponics are no better than those grown on quality soils. However, they missed many advantages of agricultural Hydroponics in comparison with the cultural practice. The benefits that nowadays any hydroponic growers know by heart. 

The earliest well-known application of Hydroponic plant cultivation was in the early 1940s when Hydroponic was used on the Wake Island, a soil-less island in the Pacific Ocean. This island was used as a refueling stop for Pan American Airlines. The lack of soil meant that it's impossible to grow with the cultural method and it was incredibly expensive to airlift fresh vegetables. Hydroponics solved the issues excitingly well and provided fresh vegetable for the whole troops on this distant island. 

After World War II, Hydroponic cultivation was still used widely by the military. The U.S. army planted a 22 ha at Chofu, Japan.
In the 1950s, the soil-less method of Hydroponics expanded to a variety of countries including England, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, the USSR, and Israel.