2012 Holiday Hours

Happy holidays from all of us at The Grow Room!  We hope you and your families have a great holiday season and a happy, healthy and SUCCESSFUL 2013!  Here are our hours for the upcoming weeks:

Zucchini Grown in a Gro Momma Bucket

We've been doing a lot of growing in the shops lately.  One of my favorite vegetables is zucchini, and it happens to grow very well in hydroponics.  We've always grown it in ebb and flow systems, but we decided to give some Striata d'Italia a try in the Gro Momma deep water culture buckets, under a 4 foot, 4 bulb T5 fluorescent fixture, using Canna's Aqua line of nutrients.  We knew that the DWC system would work great because of all the oxygen it delivers directly to the roots, but even we're impressed w/ the root system, speed of growth and overall production!  Here are our results so far:

2 Days Old (w/ some heirloom black tomatoes we germinated at the same time)

6 Days Old (healthy white roots thanks to some Azos!)

2.5 Weeks

5 Weeks

Roots at 6 Weeks (there's an air stone in there somewhere...)

At 6 Weeks - Multiple Flowers & 5 Zucchini

Thanksgiving Closing

We will be closed Thursday, November 22nd - Sunday, November 25h in celebration of Thanksgiving.  We will reopen Monday, November 26th.  

Wishing all of you and your families a happy and healthy Thanksgiving!

Post-Hurricane Sandy Update

UPDATE: As of 11:00am on Thursday, November 1st, both stores are open and back to their normal hours.

We hope this post-Hurricane Sandy update finds all of you and your families safe with minimal impact from the storm.  Luckily our homes and both stores were left undamaged.  The Queens store has power and as of Wednesday, Oct. 31st, we are back to our normal business hours.  Nyack, unfortunately, does not have power and O&R has said it may take 10-15 days to restore it to the town (we are HOPING that this is a gross over-estimation).  For now, all calls to Nyack will be forwarded to my cell phone so I am still available to answer any questions and for the drop-shipment of orders.  If you are a Nyack customer and need things in a hurry, the Queens store IS open and we will work with you to compensate for extra money spent on gas and tolls.  In case of an emergency situation, please call the store line (845) 348-8811.  We are very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you and will update you if the situation changes.

Hot Pepper Update

Just a quick update on the progress of our hot peppers in Nyack.  We started these from seed back in August and they're coming along nicely (we forgot how slow peppers grow, definitely not the best crop choice for impatient growers...but, like with all gardening, patience is key).  They're currently under a Sun Blaze 48 T5 fluorescent fixture in a 3'x3' Ebb and Flow tray and we're feeding them with Canna's Aqua Vega, Cannazym and some of Strata's SOS.  The ones in the front row (and some are scattered around the back rows) are Chinese 5 Color, the one with broad leaves behind them on the left is a Chocolate Habanero and the skinny, bushy plants are the Black Knight Chili peppers.  Notice the tight internodal spacing on the chilis?  That's because we're using a T5 light for the vegetative stage...tight internodes means more flowering sights, which means more peppers!  We just saw the first signs of budding on some of the Chinese 5 Color's last week so we'll be switching over to a High Pressure Sodium light and the Aqua Flores base nutrient soon.  We'll keep you posted!

Canna Aqua Pebbles - Replacement for Hydroton

Hydroton, the popular expanded clay growing medium, has been discontinued.  The company that manufactured it has closed their clay mine in Germany due to issues with the quality of the medium.  Many companies are quickly trying to fill the void with subpar products.  After trying out a few different brands in order to find the best substitute, we've decided that our replacement for Hydroton is Canna's AQUA PEBBLES.  This medium comes pre-washed with far less dust than the previous product and the current competitor's products, so the first step of rinsing is virtually eliminated.  The shape and size of the clay allows for the same great aeration that we're used to.  We've already done our own series of tests and we are very happy that the quality of Aqua Pebbles stands up to the same excellent quality of all Canna products and work great with their Aqua line of nutrients.

New product: Flo-N-Gro "Gro Momma" Bubble Bucket

Titan Controls has come out with an all-inclusive Bubble Bucket system.  This method of growing is not a new one, people have been making their own DIY deep water culture (DWC) buckets for years.  However, this is a nice, affordable, all-in-one kit that takes the time and effort out of piecemeal'ing it.  For $35.00, the same price as all of the individual components (dual air pump, air stone, tubing, grommets, fittings, net pot lid, expanded clay pellets, etc.), you can buy one single kit that comes conveniently inside the 5-gallon bucket, with all of the connections in place to add more buckets if you want to.

DWC is one of the easiest hydroponic systems for those who are just getting started with hydroponic gardening.  All of the water and nutrients for the plant are kept in the 5 gallon bucket reservoir, an air stone attached to an air pump is oxygenating the solution so you never have standing water (standing water breeds fungus and bacteria that can be very detrimental to your plants, especially their root systems).  Your plant is in the net pod lid, with its roots being held in place by expanded clay pellets.  Expanded clay holds a very minimal amount of water and your solution will be very aerated, so your plant's roots will have a lot of contact with oxygen.  The rate of growth in a system like this is VERY fast, which is the main reason why it is considered a favorite over growing in soil.

New/Old Product: EZ-Clone Hard Neoprene Collars

Awhile ago, EZ-Clone changed their replacement neoprene collars from their original firm neoprene to a softer, more flexible neoprene.  The change was made because the softer collars were found to be more gentle on the stems of cuttings, so that they didn't squeeze them during the cloning process.  We received very mixed reviews of the new product.  Some people were happy with the change because they noticed damage to their cuttings with the original collars.  Others were unhappy with the durability of the new collars, saying that the slits quickly became stretched and couldn't hold a plant up, and they needed to replace them much more often than before.  EZ-Clone listened to the mixed feedback and responded by reintroducing the firmer neoprene replacement collars.  All new EZ-Clone machines will continue to come with the soft neoprenes but the hard ones are available for purchase separately.  We currently have the soft collars in packs of 35 and the hard collars in packs of 65 (a more round number for those using the 60 and 120-site machines).

Hot Peppers

We're starting up a new project in our Nyack store, a hydroponic Ebb & Flow display of hot peppers.  We're starting our seeds today and we always start way more than we end up needing, so if you'd like some free seedlings from some great natural, non-GMO, heirloom seeds, stop by in about 2-3 weeks!  If you'd like some and you're a customer at our Queens store, just give us a call ahead of time and we'll bring some over.  What we'll be growing (all from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds):

- Purple Jalapeño - A large spicy jalapeño pepper that turns a deep purple before maturing to red.

- Black Night (sorry no link, these were from last year's batch) - A chili pepper that starts out black and ripens to bright red.  Produces very pretty purple flowers.

- Chocolate Habanero Pepper - A lantern-shaped habanero chili that starts out as green and ripens to chocolate-brown.  They're pretty hot, coming in at about 300,000 on the Scoville scale.

- Chinese 5 Color Pepper - Screaming hot little peppers turn a rainbow of vibrant colors; from purple, cream, yellow, orange to red as they ripen, so all 5 colors can be on the plant at once.

New Product: Phresh In-line Carbon Filters

The traditional carbon filters that we've all been using for years had one main limitation: you couldn't run them in-line.  This was especially a disadvantage when running air-cooled lights.  The proper way to air-cool your lights is to Blow air through them with an in-line fan and ducting, rather than Sucking air through them.  This is to protect the motors of your in-line fans and also to limit the amount of negative pressure in your ductwork so you're not drawing air out of the growing environment through your lights.  That way, you're not losing much Co2 if you are enriching your environment with it, and also so that the air leaving your lights is clean and free of odors/particulates from your growing environment.  Unfortunately, air-cooled lights are only sealed SO well.  Even if you are blowing, not sucking, and you tape the edges around the glass and where the ducting and flanges meet with duct/aluminum tape, you will still pick up some air from the room anyway.  In the past, your options were to exhaust your lights into another space/box and filter that air, or to use Ozone Generators which have their own risks and downsides (the biggest one being the main purpose of the unit: to transform oxygen into ozone, something that we and the plants shouldn't breathe).

We first saw Phresh Filters' In-Line Carbon Filter at the Colorado Maximum Yield trade show in April, 2011, so we've been waiting patiently (or not-so-patiently) for over a year for these to finally hit the market.  Now that they're available and we have them and have tried them ourselves, our two main questions have been answered:

- They can be run either way, by blowing or sucking the air through them.

- The flange on one side is slightly smaller than the other side to accomodate ducting (the larger side was designed for the fan) but you can use it however you want.

We received our first shipment of them last week and we're currently stocking the 6" and 8" sizes at both stores (the 10" and 12" are available for special order) but, depending on the demand, we might begin stocking all sizes.  

CLOSED: Saturday June 2nd

We will be closed this Saturday, June 2nd, for the Maximum Yield Indoor Gardening Expo in Michigan.  We will be back and open on Monday, June 4th, with info on new products and some other good stuff for you guys!

Memorial Day Weekend

We will be closed Saturday, May 26th - Monday, May 28th for the Memorial Day weekend. We will reopen Tuesday, May 29th.

On sale: Trimpro Automatik

We are currently having a sale on Trimpro Automatik's.  

Suggested retail price: $3495.00 / Our normal price: $3295.00 / Our sale price: $2470.00

That's almost 30% off of retail, 25% off our normal low price.  If you were thinking about getting one, now is the time!

Flushing

Flushing is something that a lot of people seem to be confused about.  Either they don't do it at all, or don't know if they have to do it, or THINK that they already do it when they don't.  There are two different types of flushing:

1. The periodic flushing of your medium, to leach the salts out to avoid salt and nutrient build-up (or the mad flush after realizing that you've already over-fertilized in an attempt at damage-control).

2. Flushing during the final week of the plants blooming cycle to remove synthetic nutrients and salt build-up from the plants themselves, to avoid a chemical taste in your fruits and vegetables.  

Let's start with the first one.  When using a porous medium, such as soil, rockwool, a soilless mix (Pro-Mix, Sunshine, etc.), a periodic flushing is always recommended.  The way plants use nutrients is like a conveyor belt - they use what they need and leave behind what they don't.  Over time, the excess nutrients build up in the medium and can lockout the useful nutrients that the plants want.  Also, most fertilizers contain salt.  When the salt builds up in your medium the plants begin to absorb it along with (or, if it's bad enough, instead of) the nutrients.  The best way to catch it before it's too late is to measure your run-off with a PPM/EC meter.  If you're feeding your plants 1000 PPM, and the solution coming out the bottom of the containers/cubes is measuring higher, you know there are other nutrients or salt building up in your medium.  Unfortunately most people only know after-the-fact, when their plants are starting to show signs of over-fertilization and salt buildup - the leaves of the plants begin to curl upwards, they begin to burn at the tips (or if it's gone even further, the whole leaves start to burn up and get crispy).  This will stunt the growth of the plants and if allowed to go on for too long, the plants can die.

Flushing is not the same thing as just watering your plants with plain water (a very common misconception).  In order to remove all buildup from your medium, you need to either use a salt leaching formula (such as Clearex from Botanicare) that will bind to the salt and help remove it faster, or use a massive amount of water.

If using plain water with a soil or soilless medium, you need to use close to 3x the amount water as the size of the container you're growing in (if you are growing in 5 gallon buckets, you would need to pour about 15 gallons of water over each plant).  If using Clearex, 2x the water is usually enough.  This requires something to catch the water you're flushing with, like a big reservoir or a bathtub, or the most ideal thing would be a floor drain.  Have your PPM/EC meter with you and measure the run-off.  At the end of your flushing your PPM/EC reading on your run-off should be almost identical to that of the water you're pouring in.

If flushing in a hydroponic system with rockwool as your medium, I'd recommend draining the reservoir of all nutrients, filling it with plain water and adding Clearex at its maximum dosage (the bottle says 1/4-1/2 oz. per gallon of water, use 1/2oz./gallon).  Measure your PPM before it comes in contact with the medium, then run your system for an hour or so.   After it's been run, take a fresh gallon of water and clearex and pour it over the top of your rockwool cube.  Measure the run-off and hopefully the PPM's are close.  If not, run the system for another 30 minutes to an hour and measure again.

This should be done about every 3-4 weeks.

Now for the final week flush.  When using synthetic or chemical fertilizers, the flavor of your fruits and vegetables can be affected.  Especially when using a three-part fertilizer (like General Hydroponics' Flora-series), the iron in the Micro can leave an unpleasant metallic taste.  The best way to combat this is to remove all fertilizer from your feeding regimen for the final week of flowering/fruiting before harvest.  Add a FINAL flushing agent (different from a salt-leaching formula) to your water like Final Phase from Advanced Nutrients.  Final Phase has chelates in it that bond to heavy metals and nutrient salts and remove them from the plants themselves, not just the mediums.  Some people like to add a flavor enhancer to their final flush (like Sugaree, Sweet or B. Candy) so they get the benefits of the fruit extracts in those formulas, but Final Phase is designed to retain essential oil production so your fruits' natural flavors won't be lost.  

BIG Advanced Nutrients Sale (literally)

Right now we're having a sale on all large sizes of Advanced Nutrients' products.  Most of our AN products are already offered below MSRP so stock up for even more savings.

All 23L's (6 gallons) and 2.5kg (2.2 lb) products are 15% off (except Jungle Juice).

Piranha and Tarantula 2.5kg's are 50% off (MSRP: $675.62, our normal price: $655, NOW $327.50)

This sale is only while supplies last so call or stop by for stock inquiries.

We Heart Astoria

The other day we had a visit from WT and Erich from Gardenfreude, who were guest blogging for WeHeartAstoria.com. They featured our Queens store in an article for the blog, check it out!: Guest Bloggers Gardenfreude Dig Up Great Garden Resources. Besides our store, there are a bunch of other awesome gardening resources for Queens locals.

Back Yourself Up.

When dealing with indoor gardening, we find ourselves at the mercy of our equipment. Full automation is a beautiful thing, but it can have its problems. We depend on our equipment to keep things running - the timers that control our lights, pumps and fans have to be functioning properly or else they won't turn on/off when they're supposed to. The ballasts that power our lights needs to be running or else the bulbs won't get power. The bulbs need to be functioning or else there will be no light. Pumps have to be in proper working order or our plants won't have water.

Luckily, most of the manufacturers we deal with and depend on have great warranty policies (and we stand behind the products we sell), so you are covered in case of equipment failures, but that's not to stop them from happening. Murphy's Law unfortunately tends to come into play a lot when these things happen. Ballasts typically fail in the middle of the night when you can't get to a store. pH meters stop calibrating when you're changing out your nutrient solution, 5 minutes before we close on a Saturday. We are here to help you with any problems you may encounter, but we always recommend backing yourself up. Here is a list of products we definitely recommend keeping on hand:

- At least one extra bulb for each different type of lighting system you have.

- Back-up pumps.

- A back-up ballast for each different type of lighting system you have.

- If you run magnetic ballasts and are handy, keep some capacitors and ignitors on hand. When your magnetic ballasts stop working, 80% of the time it's because you need to replace the capacitor.

- A few timers. These come in very handy in case a thermostat or CO2 controller stops working. It won't be as precise as having a back-up of those instruments (they can be pretty expensive so sometimes keeping a back-up isn't possible), but it will get you by in the meantime.

- pH test drops. If your digital pH meter isn't calibrating or reading properly, check it against the pH test drops. They won't measure to the point, but at least you can see if you're in the right range.

- If you have a large space with a multi-light controller, keep an extra controller. If that goes, so do all of your lights.

- If you're using a hydroponics systems with a pump controller (Ebb & Gro, Flo-N-Gro), keep an extra controller/brain.

These have nothing to do with electronics, but you should also have:

- Plant stakes and twist ties. You will need these at one point or another.

- A pesticide spray that is safe to use in the fruiting stage. Always have one, just in case.

- Hydrogen peroxide (preferably at least 29%). For cleaning and killing bacteria.

Seeds of Change

We just received our first order of seeds for 2012. We buy our seeds from Seeds of Change because they're a great, conscious company and all of their seeds are 100% USDA certified organic. We chose some great varieties this year:

- Genovese Basil*

- Thai Basil

- Slow Bolt Cilantro*

- San Marzano Tomato* - Love these...great for sauce and salsa

- Beefsteak Tomato

- Fox Cherry Tomato

- Black Beauty Eggplant

- Dark Star Zucchini* - Excellent flavor in both the zucchini and the blossoms.

- Cal Wonder Bell Pepper* - Classic heirloom sweet bell pepper

- Bendigo F-1 Bell Pepper

- Jalapeno Chile Pepper

- Habanero Chile Pepper

- Leonardo Radicchio* - Great in salads

- Red Russian Kale

- All Lettuce Mix

- Mesclun Mix

- Arugula

(* some of my personal favorites)

We also have their Tomato Garden Starter Kit and the Herb Garden Starter Kit...great for kids or to give as gifts.

It's still early in the year and this was just our first order of seeds. If there are any varieties you'd like us to carry or if you'd like to place a special order, let us know!

The Grow Room is Bluelab Certified.

A few weeks ago, Cindy from Bluelab spent the day at both of our stores and gave us our Bluelab Certification. We love Bluelab and stand behind their products so it's great to be able to be even more helpful to you guys. Basically, what this means for you is:

- If you purchase a Bluelab meter and have trouble using it, we are fully trained and can help you with any problem or question you might have (which we would do before anyway...but now we just know even more about the products).

- If, for some strange reason, your Bluelab product starts malfunctioning (which is admittedly rare because they make the best meters), we are trained the same way their factory technicians have been so we can trouble-shoot it for you. If we can't get it to work and it is within the warranty period, we give you a new one. That's it. No more waiting for us to send it back to the distributor and then waiting to get an answer on whether or not you will be receiving credit. If we can't fix it, you get a new one.

- We also have access to their serial # database so even if you don't have your original receipt, we can check to see when your Bluelab product was manufactured and if it is still within the warranty period.