Plant Gardens 101

Americans are constantly searching for new ways to illuminate their environment, and commercial HID lighting fixtures are leading the way in the business sector. This innovative development in the illumination industry is gaining high status among business owners. A commercial HID lighting fixture, better known as high intensity discharge, offers many benefits. Residential Landscape Lighting and Design has a large selection of commercial HID lighting fixtures for your business, and a professional staff, who can assist you in your selection.

Commercial HID lighting fixtures provide some of the most intense illumination to the naked eye. Take for example a 35 watt HID lamp, and compare it to the standard incandescent bulb. The HID fixture can produce up to 6 times the amount of light as its forerunner. Many commercial HID devices are similar to that produced by natural sunlight. Although not natural in its purest form, the white light produced from these fixtures can improve overall peripheral vision, as well as, enhance visibility. In aviation, a commercial HID lighting fixture plays a critical role in bad weather situations. The combination of a more natural light and the snow white coloring of this illumination results in greater lumens output, which allows planes to land safely.

How does a commercial HID lighting device work you ask? In simple terms, funneling a current through a metal vapor can disperse illumination. These devices basically take a standard light bulb and replace the existing filament with a gas capsule. Illumination is then dispelled from an arc with surrounding electrons all of which are encased in a tiny quartz glass piece that is shaped like a tube. In order for these lighting fixtures to operate efficiently, ballasts are required. These ballasts supply the right amount of voltage to the light fixture, while controlling the current at the same time. Most of these lighting devices have a delay time of about 15-20 seconds before its illumination is at full power. If you lose power by some chance or turn the power off, then you have to give the arc tube enough time to cool off before reusing it. A good example of this is the halcyon light bulb. These light bulbs usually require 15-30 seconds before full power is established. Although this may appear to be a deterrent from using commercial HID lighting, this form of illumination has plenty of advantages.

Some of the advantages that this commercial fixture has to offer are greater illumination output, whiter light, and a much higher service life (normally around 3-5 times as long) than standard incandescent bulbs. These bulbs are also extremely energy efficient. Like any light bulb though, you have to be cautious around commercial HID fixtures. Regular safety procedures should be followed, in order to ascertain the highest quality from your lamp. Some special precautions should be taken with these lights, since they produce mercury, which can be an environmental hazard, if used improperly. Be sure to keep the quartz glass clean, in order to allow for proper illumination to be dispersed. Moreover, these lighting devices produce UV rays so prolonged exposure to this light source should be avoided. Do not stare at your lamp for any length of time since ultra-violet radiation can be harmful to the eyes. Furthermore, never handle the bulb, if it is operating, and always allow the bulb to cool off before removing it. In addition, commercial owners should be sure to check to see, if the bulb is maintaining its luminous properties. Signs of a failing bulb include reduced illumination output, random starting times, and dark spots at the tip of the arc tube. Following these simple procedures will not only keep you safe, but also ensure the life of your wonderful commercial HID lighting fixture.

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About Kimberly Quang

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Hydroponic gardening might seem very scientific and difficult but, in fact, it is as simple - and maybe even easier - as regular gardening. They both have many elements in common that being the need for light, humidity, water and nutrients.

Hydroponic gardening, however, uses no soil. A soil substitute is used to hold the roots and the nutrients are carried by the water. You can do hydroponic gardening indoors and plants do respond well and thrive with this type of system.

One vital consideration in hydroponic gardening is the nutrient solution. The solution must maintain a pH level of 5 to 6 after it is diluted. In hydroponics gardening, the plants need to be watered more than three times a day which is typically done automatically using a pump and timer. (more…)

Indoor gardening is very popular, and especially so for growing food in inhospitable climates or where soil is poor or not available. If you are trying to grow food indoors using hydroponics, many growers favor growing organically. Organically grown food requires that all fertilizers be of organic quality, and this is the case for hydroponic gardening as well. Organic hydroponic nutrients can help you to grow wonderful organic vegetables and fruits in indoor gardening environments.

If you are growing plants in containers using soil as a medium, by the time you water the plant ten times, all of the nutrients from the soil have washed out of the container. This is why it is vital to fertilize container-grown plants.

It is even more crucial with hydroponically grown plants, because they are grown in a soilless medium and receive no nutrition at all from the medium. The plants rely on the gardener to supply them with plant food, which in hydroponics is called nutrient.

Plant food can be synthetic, or man-made, or organic, and derived from plant or animal materials. Chemical-based gardening tends to focus on immediate results that can be achieved through the use of synthetic chemicals. However, evidence suggests that toxins in the chemicals can be harmful to humans, and thus as a result there is a movement toward eating organically grown foods.

Hydroponics nutrients are used to help you feed your hydroponically grown plants without relying on chemicals. Organic plant nutrients, such as Botanicare Nutrients, tend to be released more slowly than chemical fertilizers, and offer plants a steady supply of organic nutrients.

Organic plant nutrients contain macronutrients of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, sulfur, calcium and magnesium, along with micronutrients of iron, molybdenum, boron, copper, manganese, zinc and chlorine. Because hydroponic plants are often grown in water, the hydroponic nutrients are dissolved in the water in which the roots of the plants lie.

There are many different types of organic nutrients for hydroponics, including Botanicare nutrients, and they each offer a slightly different recipe of nutrients for specific purposes. Botanicare nutrients offer formulas of organic plant nutrients that help your plants achieve healthy vegetation, more and larger fruits and vegetables, and can even increase the oil, sugar, vitamin and mineral contents of the fruits and vegetables grown using Botanicare nutrients.

Organic nutrients can be aided by media conditioners. These help the roots more easily access the nutrients in the medium, as well as allow moisture to penetrate the medium more efficiently.

Growing your own food organically, with organic fertilizers, will help you to consume healthier foods, and they are fun to grow as well.

About the Author: Susan Slobac uses organic hydroponics nutrients for her indoor garden. Her yields are large and she loves that her plants are all organic.

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B’Cuzz Company offers a full line of exceptional hydroponic nutrients for you to use with your indoor gardening plants. This includes the popular Bloombastic plant nutrient and stimulant for exceptional growth. b’ cuzz also offers a host of other hydroponic nutrient solutions for you to try.

Bloombastic was formulated to provide the time-released nutrients your plants need for every stage of growth, from seedling through to maturity. If you wish to achieve the quickest growth that produces the nicest flowers and best-tasting fruit, then Bloombastic is a great choice in hydroponic nutrient for your indoor plants.

The company also offers Bloom Stimulant. This is a type of nutrient that will enhance your plants’ flower cell production and also allows for more efficient transport of sugar molecules to the flower itself, leading to beautiful flowers and superb-tasting, sweet fruit produced by the flowers on your plants. (more…)

Soil-less

You see fish nibbling on plants in an aquarium, and seaweeds in the ocean, and you observe—these plants can grow without soil. You call this technology, hydroponics. Hydroponics is also called soil-less gardening, soil-less culture, chemiculture, and water gardening.

Taken from two Greek words—“water” and “work”, hydroponics simply means growing plants without soil. Hydroponics system is used to grow plants without soil in water to which nutrients have been added. Thanks to the people who conducted experiments on the feasibility for growing commercial crops using the hydroponic system in the early 1900s—a century before that, hydroponics was just used as a research technique. (more…)

Hydroponic gardening is not just for professional cultivators anymore, although these professionals depend on hydroponic kits for indoor setups it is also a great way for beginners in indoor gardening. The hydroponic kits these days are build with plug and play features which makes them also suited for the beginners. Most manufacturers build there systems with specific features and we will take a closer look at them in this article.

Oxygen and Nutrients

Without Oxygen and the proper nutrients plants will not grow healthy, and that is why most manufacturers have accommodated their hydroponic kits with highly oxygenated nutrient solutions. They even use, in some cases, large sized aerator stones. These highly oxygenated solutions helps the roots and the plants to grow healthily and vigorously. The healthy growth is specifically influenced by the high content of oxygen in the nutrients. (more…)

Cinnamon is actually more than a delicious addition to food. One of the oldest spices known and long used in traditional medicine, cinnamon is currently being studied for its beneficial effects on a variety of ailments. Indeed, recent findings on the power of cinnamon to promote health, in particular its benefits for people with type II diabetes, have elevated it to the status of a Super Spice.

Perhaps the most exciting discovery concerning cinnamon is its effect on blood glucose levels as well as on triglyceride and cholesterol levels, all of which could benefit people suffering from type II diabetes. In one study of 60 patients with type II diabetes, it was found that after only forty days of taking about half a teaspoon of cinnamon daily, fasting serum glucose levels were lowered by 18 to 29 percent, triglycerides by 23 to 30 percent, low-density lipoproteins (LDL) by 7 to 27 percent, and total cholesterol by 12 to 26 percent. (more…)

As in any business there are good hydroponic stores as well as bad ones. And what constitutes ‘good’ or ‘bad’? It’s mostly a personal matter - are your needs being met?

Over the years I have ordered from several online stores and have mostly had a good experience although there are one or two I will never deal with again.

Consider this: you personally call a store to request a catalog. The store employee is curt and gives forth an attitude that you are a bother. During the short conversation you mention you know nothing about hydroponics but find it interesting and you hear a sarcastic laugh over the phone…

Is this a store you wish to deal with? It’s not for me - and this situation really happened to me.

Another store sent me a pre-made ebb and flow system. It contained a semi-submersible pump that sits in nutrient solution except the top of the pump was not submersed and could not get wet. Dangerous situation? It did not matter because the pump did not work anyway. Returning it was a chore and it was finally replaced with the same kind of pump that immediately fell over into the nutrient solution and almost electrocuted me. What this means is that this store sent me a pre-made system that was not constructed to work! I’m not dealing with them anymore, either (as a side benefit, I learned to stay away from semi-submersible pumps).

Since then I have developed my own ’screening process’ and in deciding whether a hydroponics store is good, I look for the following:

• good attitude
• good reputation
• prompt service
• fair prices (includes checking shipping and handling costs)
• how they respond to simple questions
• whether or not you get any response at all from email questions
• a good explanation and description of their product
• helpful articles on tips and techniques
• a good return policy
• a web site that does not confuse or frustrate me
• do you detect a bad attitude if you phone them (always phone them)
• are purchased items as advertised
• is delivery slow and is merchandise defective

After all, online hydroponics stores are businesses whose life-blood is the customer. Happy customers come back…and it’s too bad there are actually people in business that do not realize this.

My final piece of advice is to not let a bad experience or two make you hesitant to order hydroponics products online. The majority of online stores out there are interested in providing a quality product and keeping you happy. Just do some initial product comparisons between different stores and check out their reputation by searching their name.

Larry@hydroponics-at-home.com
www.hydroponics-at-home.com

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B’Cuzz is the plant nutrient company that brings you useful plant nutrients and biological stimulants like Bloombastic, a variety of hydroponic nutrients that cause plants to grow quickly to achieve maximum bloom and fruit production. Now you do not have to wait as long to enjoy your flowers or fruits, because your indoor plants can achieve maturity much more quickly with help from bloombastic. (more…)

Recent findings on the power of garlic to fight cancer and cardiovascular disease, as well as its anti-inflammatory and antiviral properties, give garlic the bona fide characteristics to elevate it to Superfood status.

Throughout the history of civilization, the medicinal properties of garlic have been prized, and it’s been used to treat an array of ailments, including atherosclerosis, stroke, cancer, immune disorders, cerebral aging, arthritis, and cataract formation. Garlic’s power as a heath promoter comes from its rich variety of sulfur containing compounds. Of the nearly one hundred nutrients in garlic, the most important in terms of health benefits seems to be the sulfur compound allicin-an amino acid. Allicin is not present in fresh garlic. It’s formed instantly when cloves are crushed, chewed, or cut. Allicin seems to be responsible for the super-biological activity of garlic as well as its odor. (more…)

Xeriscape (pronounced “zera-scape”) gardening is a water efficient method of gardening. While the term Xeriscape gardening can sound intimidating to some, it is actually a simple method of gardening that can be used for many different types of gardening. Rather than replacing the way you currently do your gardening, think of Xeriscape gardening as an additional technique that will make your water usage more “green” by using less to grow more.

Using the principles of Xeriscape gardening will allow you to plant and maintain your annuals, perennials, vegetables and trees in the most water-wise manner possible. Now, you will not have to use as much water for the same numbers of plants that you would like to grow in you garden or lawn area.
With as much as 25% of our water supply being used to maintain lawns and gardens, it is becoming increasingly important to learn to plant wisely, taking into account the type of soil you have, the sun exposure needs of your plants and the water needs of your plants.

There is no need to simply go without a plant that uses water heavily however, planting heavy water users all together will help save water and will also make the low water users in your garden happier. This method is one of the key elements to Xeriscape gardening.

You should also become familiar with the hydroponic method of gardening, which uses no soil.
With hydroponic gardening, nutrients are introduced directly to the root systems of the plants without having to be fed through the soil. This allows the plants to put less growth energy into the root system and more energy into producing foliage and fruit. Foliage plants will be bigger and fuller, and vegetable plants will produce more and larger vegetables.

Hydroponic gardens do not require large amounts of land or yard space. A balcony, deck or even an inside room can be used to grow large amounts of foliage and vegetable plants.

While the cost of setting up a hydroponic garden may be higher than planting a traditional garden, the results will more than make up for the initial investment. Tom Straub is a successful author and webmaster of the Best Gardening Tips website featuring online guides on over a dozen gardening topics.

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Honey is much more than just a liquid sweetener. One of the oldest medicines known to man, honey has been used in the treatment of respiratory diseases, skin ulcers, wounds, urinary diseases, gastrointestinal diseases, eczema, psoriasis, and dandruff. Today, we know the validity of these timeless treatments, as research has demonstrated that honey can inhibit the growth of bacteria, yeast, fungi, and viruses.

The power of honey comes from the wide range of compounds present in the rich amber liquid. Honey contains at least 181 known substances, and its antioxidant activity stems from the phenolics, peptides, organic acids, and enzymes. Honey also contains salicylic acid, minerals, alpha-tocopherol, and oligosaccharides. Oligosaccharides increase the number of “good” bacteria in the colon, reduce levels of toxic metabolites in the intestine, help prevent constipation, and help lower cholesterol and blood pressure.

The key point to remember with honey is that its antioxidant ability can vary widely depending on the floral source of the honey and its processing. The phenolic content of the honey depends on the pollen that the bees have used as raw material. There’s a very simple way to determine the health benefits of any honey: its colour. In general, the darker the colour of the honey the higher the level of antioxidants. (more…)

The use of grow lights to maximize plants growth stages, maximizing size and quality, is a science. To get it right requires following each plant’s delicate needs from proper lighting to nutrients and air quality.

If growing plants indoors is something that interests you, then you’ll most likely need grow lights to help accomplish the job. A grow light provides the special lighting and light spectrum that plants need to grow and thrive, and there are two types of lights that accomplish this: high intensity discharge lights, and fluorescent lights. High intensity discharge grow lights come in two varieties — the metal halide grow light (often referred to as MH), and the high pressure sodium grow light (often referred to as HPS). The metal halide light is designed to nurture plants during their growing cycle. The growing cycle applies to pants that are non-fruiting and/or non-blooming. (more…)

While onion’s health promoting abilities have long been recognized, it’s only recently that their considerable curative abilities have been conclusively demonstrated and thus their elevation to Superfood status.

Onions are a major source of two phytonutrients that play a significant role in health promotion: flavonoids and the mixture of over fifty sulfur-containing compounds. The two flavonoid subgroups found in onions are the anthocyanins that impart a red/purple colour to some varieties, and the flavanols such as quercetin and its derivatives that are responsible for the yellow flesh and brown skins of many varieties of onions. The flavonols are concentrated in the skin of most onions where they contribute to the colour of the vegetable.

We now know that the health promoting compounds in onion, like those in garlic, are separated by cell walls. Slicing an onion ruptures these walls and releases the compounds which then combine to form a powerful new compound: thiopropanal sulfoxide. In addition to mitigating various diseases, this substance also gives cut onions their pungent aroma and their ability to make us cry. (more…)

If you have heard of hydroponics or other methods of growing plants without soil and want to try it out at home, you can. Hydroponics is easy to care for and set-up at home. There are materials you can buy or some you may be able to find around the house.

The dirt or soil that you use to grow plants in a traditional method is substituted for a growing medium (full of nutrients the plant needs to grow) in hydroponics gardening. The growing medium is fed directly to the roots by method of a drip-feeder. The system can be automated and the gardener can control how many drips the roots receive in a specified time frame. The more of the growing medium the faster the plants grow.

Since the system can be automated, the amount of time and energy that is required to maintain a hydroponics garden is less than with a traditional garden. As long as enough water is present and growing medium the plants can be left unattended for a longer period of time. (more…)