MaxiBloom 1 part dry nutrient review

MaxiBloom is a Dry one part nutrient made by General Hydroponics. With nutrient levels of 5-15-14 it is made for flowering or fruiting stages of plants. I have been using Maxibloom with fair results on a few of my Tiny Tim tomatoes for a couple of weeks now. Things I like about MaxiBloom include the price (around $15 for 1.5lb or $70 for 16lb) and it is really easy to use in a run to waste system. For my tomato test I began by flushing the pots with about 10 gallons each to leach any pervious nutrients out of the coco. Then I waited 48 hours to begin my trial. At an application rate of 1 gram per liter (metric is so much easier) every other watering the plants seemed to be doing well and where producing 4-6 cherry tomatoes per plant/week.

I Am Opening an Online Nursery for Historical Exotic Plants, Historic Botanicals

Historic Botanicals will offer exotic plants with a rich history from around the world. Whether for food, beauty, or shelter plants have always been an important part of life since the dawn of man. Historic Botanicals will strive to celebrate to this partnership by offering exotic plants from around the world. All plants will cost $12 (includes shipping) be sold as rooted cuttings. While we understand some of these plants have caused controversy, they are sold for purely historical and scientific enjoyment. Things I will never sell include and illegal plant, concentrate, resin, foliage, powder, etc. Only live plants will ever be sold at Historic Botanicals. I feel anything beside live plants points to consumption which is dangerous, illegal, and just plan stupid (some of them could kill you).


You can see my section at http://historicbotanicals.blogspot.com/ . Plants will be offered in a rotation and in limited supply so check often of the latest offerings. Repeat customers might receive an extra plant or two with their order at my discretion.

Botranicare Pure Blend Pro Series Review

Botanicare Pure Blend Pro series is a 2 part or 3 part depending on how you use it. Grow (3-2-4) and Bloom(2-3-5) are all you really need in my opinion but you might have to add a bit of calcium somehow if you do not buy the "Soil(1-4-5)" part. I put the "soil" part in quotations because even though it is called soil it is used in every feeding chart, even the hydroponics one, and is used at the end of the bloom cycle. I did not chose to buy the simple reason that I vegetables and not "High Value Crops" so the extra nitrogen in my plants maintains vegetative growth while fruits are maturing.

Grow

The grow I liked a lot. It is organic which is a new field for me so this was a goog first experience. I felt It did a great job giving my young plants a good start. The application rate was excellent at 1 to 1.5 ml per liter. In my Ghost peppers I did not notice any mineral or nutrient deficiency at this point. The leaves where a but delicate but I feel this is due to the use of LED lighting and not the nutrient. The ratio of nutrients gave me relatively quick compact growth with few issues. I feel that a great addition to this one part program would be any silica agent and a healthy does of beneficial organisms.

Bloom

The Bloom I have mixed feelings about when it comes to peppers. I find that about 25-50 ppm of cal-mag is needed to avoid deficiency. I now This is partly due to using CoCo and my local water supply so you mileage my vary. I will say the Tiny Tim tomatoes I gave the extra nutrient solution loved the mix and excellent fruit set with no sign of bloom rot. Even though I am having issues with fruit set on the peppers I will give recommendations for improvement based on the tomatoes response. The addition on a sweetener product seems to help quite a bit.

Gorilla Garden Plans.

This is just a teaser.

I'm a Sample Slut

I was look at garden shops online and found a really cool one. http://www.growsmarthydroponics.com/free_samples.html. they will give you free samples of products you just pay shipping. Please don't grab them all, This is really nice of them and I would hate for them to stop due to abuse.

Big move, Little plants, Gorilla Gardening Ideas

First off let me say I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while.  I kinda of put the garden in hibernation mode while I searched for a new apartment. I have to say that I found a great one. I have approximately 90 square feet of south facing balcony, 90 more square feet of north facing balcony to play with now. Both areas have a unobstructed view to the west. Since the sun is the best light source of light that is free I decide to do an out door grow in coco coir for the summer season.
My ghost peppers are very small for their age because I did not have room to transplant them all. I do not think they will every fully catch up but they will still produce a great crop of inferno hot peppers for my kitchen.  Also before my move I took cutting of my tiny tim tomatoes to compare how the do out doors. Lastly I plan on growing some lettuce and strawberries. I know that something else will catch my eye while I am at the store so my verity might be added as the season progresses.
This will also be my first organic garden. I will will be using the Botanicare Pure Blend Pro series to start and expand from there. The reason for the organic grow was that I also felt bad  pouring nutrient salts down the drain during reservoir changes. Second that this new apartment complex has lots of small children playing out side and I feel organic fertilizer would be less toxic if they some how came in contact with the run off.
Behind my building is a large storm water run off area and I would love some input on what I could do with it. My land lord is super laid back so that's not a problem unless I destroy something. Also please also remember I live in Northern Missouri.

Smooth Leather texture. I have no idea what from.

Found it when I was transplanting. anything that trys to live that hard should be aloud to.

Hydroponics in Apartments.

So I'm moving to a new apartment today. sorry it has been so long since my last update.I took cutting from the tiny tims that are massive now. I also have several ghost peppers ready to go into a system asap. Happy planting,-Chris-

Update on seed giveaway.

So at this point I have harvested 20-30 tomatoes. I just tried the fermentation method of saving seeds and apparently my apartment is a bit to cold for the microbes to really take off and clean the seeds for me before they start to sprout. I am determined to  hold the give away on either this blog or www.urbanhydro.org.

First Fruit. Very excited.

The first one has arrived. Hopefully the other follow suit very quickly

Seed Give Away Soon!!!!

Look at those babies go. As promised I will be doing a seed give away when they are finished. And some might end up on Ebay.

More air = more growth in Deep Water Culture

So I upgraded to a larger air pump and I must say I am very pleased. It is a 600 gph or 35ish liter per minute diaphragm pump. I will include some photos of growth also. increase the ppm to 1000 and the PH is still about 6. 

 

Growth update nuber 4 is live.

Edema, I hate it.

Edema is caused mainly by high intake of water and low transpiration. That being said I have recently heard ( still looking for evidence) that a large amount of far red light can also make the condition worse. This is just a trimming to prevent further damage because it seemed to be worst with leaves that were closely over lapping and creating dead air pockets.

Growth Update 3

First Tomato, Ghost peppers seedlings started

So I noticed the first of hopfully many tomatoes to come. Still running with about 800 ppm Flora Nova Bloom with a Ph of about 6. Temps have been between 65 and 82 and lights have been 24/7. I decided how I'm going to do the seed give away. How it will work is I will collect seed from the Tiny Tims and split them amoung the followers of my blog and comment on the giveaway post when I have them ready.I also decided to do some Ghost Peppers next round. 1,000,000 scoville units of heat sounded to good to not to try. So without anymore rambling here are some pictures..

Picture update on Tiny Tim Tomateos

Well in my last post i promised an update and here it is.

 

the possible start of root rot. I will add some sub culture b, and sub culture m brewed into a earth worm casting tea to push some beneficial bacteria into the system

 

 and the new seedlings