Featured Article: Grow Boxes for Maximizing Plant Genetic Potential Sure, you've seen them advertised here and there. You may have often wondered what they can do for you. The real question is what do you want to do with your plant? Every serious grower knows that the more we can control the environmental factors effecting the plant, the more likely we are to maximize the potential of that plant. Temperature, light and nutrients are the three major concerns. Fact is, when we can control these three, there aren't many things that can get in the plants way. Of course there are the insects, pathogens, viruses and other microscopic organisms that can sometimes sneak their way into our systems and wreck havoc on our plants, but controlling the big three, temperature, light and nutrients is the place to start. Lighting requirements will vary from plant to plant. It's obvious. Some like shade, some like the sun. Some need long days others need short days to start flowering and fruiting. Depending on what you want to produce, you will want to modify your light accordingly. A grow light with a timer is easy to accomplish this feat. Twelve to fourteen hours a day is about right for most plants. How much light is always a question and that discussion will be saved for another time. In short, most plants need about 50 watts of light per square foot. There is a lot of modification up and down to this rule, and as I said, we'll talk about that later. Once you've got your light schedule set up, the next thing is to set up a feeding schedule for whatever growing container you choose to use. Growing containers vary greatly. For our purposes we will be talking about any number of the various hydroponic methods for growing plants. Ebb and flow, nutrient film, aeroponic, drip systems all have good application. Which one you choose depends mostly on your personal preferences as most plants can grow with any of the systems mentioned. Controlling the nutrients is easy with hydroponic systems. Whether done manually or by pumps and irrigation, all one needs to know is how to mix the nutrients and how often to feed. There are many commercially available nutrient mixes. My first inlay into hydroponic gardening involved the local library and farm coop. I had fertilizers commercially mixed. What I didn't know was that I had to buy a minimum of ten pounds to make it worth the trouble for the local coop. Ten pounds lasted for two years. And I grow a lot. The point is, just get started. The nutrient part is easy because of so many readily available sources. The final of the big three is temperature control. This is where I find grow boxes and plant tents most useful. To put it simply, think of a grow box as a miniature greenhouse where you can control the sun and the rain. Everything is contained in a small area and so the temperature can be easily controlled by fans and small heaters or heat mats. Many grow boxes come with built in chillers and heaters ready to keep a constant temperature within two degrees or even vary day and night temperatures by ten degrees. If you really want to see results and what a plant can do, you have to control all three of the environmental controls. There are many different size and types of grow boxes for sale. Manufacturers who sell grow boxes should be willing to talk about and explain their product. The best grow boxes might not be the most expensive. But whether you pay top dollar or build your own, for controlling the environment grow boxes are the way to go. Good luck and happy growing. |
growgreatplants.com
| Copyright, growgreatplants.com, 2009. Providing analysis and reviews of top rated products and techniques in the indoor gardening and horticultural industry. Evaluating sale products for "true" sell items related to growing plants. |
Custom Search
