Hey guys, its been a cold winter, and it looks like spring has come a little early. It feels so good too! It also feels great to let everyone know that our end of year inventory is over and we are again fully stocked with all the essentials you need for your grow room. We are also gearing up for what is anticipated as the biggest grow season ever. Viva 2010, with outdoor and indoor projects being taken on in extremely aggressive levels, its super exciting for us to be able to provide for all the Sonoma County growers and beyond who are getting involved. We have -

• Traditional soils, organic blends, soilless blends, rockwool, and coco pots ready to go.
• Grow lights, electronic ballasts, magnetic ballasts, reflectors, high output fluorescent systems, LED Grow lights, replacement bulbs.
• Hydro trays, containers, smart pots, complete hydro setups.
• Complete organic and hydroponic nutrient lines – General Hydroponics, General Organics, House and Garden, Cutting Edge, Technaflora and tons of grow and bloom enhancers and accelerators.
• Carbon filters of every size and shape
• Wall, pedestal and exhaust fans and blowers of every shape and size
• Ducting, clamps, foil tape, flanges, reducers, extenders, splitters, splicers
• Co2 generators, controllers and parts
• Organic and chemical pest control products
• Master light controllers, Environmental controllers, High temp. shut off devices
• Water purification systems, accessories and replacement filters
• Ready to grow, self contained Darkrooms
• Valves, elbows, tees, custom hydro fittings, replacement sprayers and misters
• Full service repair dept. complete with loaner ballasts
• Full time accredited botanist

We love to serve and provide the best advice and products available in the indoor/hydroponic/organic gardening industry, give our friendly grow experts a call today and let us know how we can help you. 1-866-PGS-GROW

Someone just came in and told us about EM1. It’s a beneficial micro-organism product that unfortunately, due to California’s bureaucratic system is not available to us locally. It can however be found online, and we are looking into the logistics of stocking it soon. What is exciting about this is its an anaerobic form of beneficial microorganisms that can be used in both your already brewed teas and soil or soil-less mediums. EM1 is what is used to create Bocashi.

Compost teas have often been confused with EM-1® Microbial Inoculant. Compost tea is a liquid extract made from aerobically bubbling air through compost in order to grow aerobic microbes. The tea’s quality is directly related to the quality of the compost and has a very short shelf life. The aerobic microbes require air to stay alive. Once the air is gone, they start to die off. Compost tea quality varies from batch to batch as the microbial populations vary with each new batch.

Commercial Tea Brewer using EM in San Francisco

Effective Microorganisms™ contains facultative microbes, is consistent in quality, and is very stable, with a shelf life of several years.

Our suggestions are to make your compost with EM-1® Microbial Inoculant to ensure a high quality compost (see our composting section to see that the use of EM-1® Microbial Inoculant increases the production of aerobic bacteria in compost and also speeds up the composting process). Once the compost is complete, you can make a high quality compost tea..

To make compost tea, follow the instructions of Dr. Elaine Ingham. She is the authority on compost teas. You can hear some of her lectures at the ACRES USA conferences. There is no need to reinvent the wheel here. The brewing process takes about 24 hours. Once the aeration cycle is completed, add Activated EM-1® Microbial Inoculant at a rate of 1:50 (1 gallon per 55-gallon drum works great!).

This is a commercial-sized tea brewer used at Harding Golf Course in San Francisco. They brew compost tea and inoculate with EM-1® Microbial Inoculant as part of their greens program.

Dr. Merle H. Jensen is Assistant Dean for Sponsored Research and Associate Director of the Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of Arizona and Professor of Plant Science. He is a graduate of California State Polytechnic, Cornell and Rutgers Universities. He has been involved with numerous programs for research and development of new methods of food production, including serving as team leader to develop the agricultural systems for “The Land” at EPCOT, Walt Disney World and helped researchers at NASA. Dr. Jensen is one of America’s leading agricultural scientists on the subject of controlled environment agriculture and future opportunitiesfor food production. He has published nearly 100 research and technical articles, and his research and development projects have been featured in many popular publications and television programs.

Boris,

Just a quick note to let you know we now have several clients using Hygrozyme on a regular basis. Hygrozyme (H/Z). When used for Hydroponic Lettuce Production, results in faster growth rates with reportedly improved shelf life. These are observations coming from our growers. Further more, Hygrozyme is a great additive for crops experiencing root disease problems – H/Z seems to arrest the development of the disease, and continued application has seen crops recover from root disease problems and prevented the re-occurrence of the disease on younger crops growing within the same system. Two most memorable example of success with H/Z include:

2. Another commercial hydroponic lettuce grower experienced some miss-hap – some how the roots on his recently planted (4 days) lettuce seedlings had ‘gone down’, the roots had all turned brown and things were looking grim. This concerned grower called me, and we decided to apply 4 liters of Hygrozyme to 4000 liters of nutrient solution, (servicing about 15,000 plants), followed by an additional 200ml Hygrozyme per day. Again, the results were very pleasing. New white roots had developed within two days after application of H/Z, and a lettuce crop which had appeared to have almost completely failed in the very early stages, had recovered and grown into a crop the grower was proud to call his own. “The Hygrozyme is good stuff. It may be a bit pricey, but when it saves your crop its very cheap!”.

A very important point to note with these success stories is Hygrozyme, being an organic product, presents itself as a safe and effective means of protecting the crop, and removed the risk of problems associated with chemical residues where alternative chemical remedies may be considered.

Other hydroponic lettuce growers have had great results with maintaining continuity of supply through the winter months. Most hydroponic lettuce production in Australia is performed outdoors and as a result, crops are exposed to temperatures as low as 0 to -2 degrees Celsius, even cooler in some areas, leading to a dramatic decrease in growth rates, and subsequently lower production. Hygrozyme, when used at 1 liter per 1000 liters of nutrient solution, has given winter crops a significant boost, and has shortened the harvest interval in the winter period by two weeks. Similar results have also been obtained with hydroponically grown bok choi.

More recently, we have observed a great result with a hydroponic strawberry grower. Hydroponically grown strawberry plants treated with Hygrozyme at 1.5ml per litre of nutrient solution showed superior root development compared with untreated plants. The Hygrozyme treated plants were larger with larger leaves and larger fruit – but furthermore, the larger fruit were also significantly of better quality with respect to taste and shelf-life when compared to untreated plants.

We have also observed, in our own nursery, the strawberry cuttings/runners treated with H/Z immediately after planting, developed roots much more rapidly, and were saleable 2 weeks before untreated plants.

There is obviously something very beneficial to plants in the Hygrozyme formula delivering increased growth rates, better shelf-life and disease-shielding benefits, and also has the added bonus of being an organic product.

Boris, we have some scientific data that we should be able to forward to you in the next month. By then we should also have results carried out with Hygrozyme trails on greenhouse capsicums, tomatoes and cucumbers.

Dr. John Vella

PHDAgrBSc Agr (Hons)
Leppington Speedy Seedlings & Supplies Pty Ltd
PO Box 167
35 Riley Road
Leppington NSW 2179

This stuff is fantastic guys, particularly for rooting cuttings, and vegetative plants. Flowering plants will benefit also. So many reputable sources have confirmed the science of Hygrozyme. I have seen it react negatively with guano’s so be aware of that potential conflict. The “proven success” part of Hygrozymes marketing is the best part. They have gone through extensive testing on their product, and it really does work AND it’s organic! 1-866-PGS-GROW

Thanks to Hygrozyme for the article – Original Page Here