Maximum Yeild CAN May/June 2012

CANADA May-June 2012

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Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

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Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

CONTENTS May/June 2012

FEATURES 28

28

Understanding and Using Trichoderma Fungi

by Donald Lester

34 36

Double or Nothing: A Grower’s Life

by Casey Jones Fraser

Old Fashioned Crops are Making a Comeback

by Dr. Lynette Morgan

48

42

56 48

Healing With Food: A Hydroponicist’s Perspective

by Evan Folds

46

Get Smart—Grow Hydro: 3, 2, 1

48

Understanding Heirloomology Healthy, Safe, Eco-friendly

by Chad Garbet

by Matt LeBannister

52

Soil Basics (Get Excited!)

59

The Short and Vicious Life of a Fungus Gnat

56

Vitamin P: Plasma Lamp Technology

by Lee McCall

DEPARTMENTS 6

From the Editor

61

Do You Know?

8

MaximumYield.com

62

You Tell Us

10

Letters to the Editor

64

Talking Shop

12

Simon Says

68

Distributors

14

MAX Facts

72

Max Mart

22

Product Spotlight

74

Coming up next issue

by Philip McIntosh

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

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FROM THE EDITOR | JESSICA RAYMOND

Being environmentally responsible is a primary goal of many modern Canadian gardeners, but so is staying on the cutting-edge and staying abreast of the latest technologies and techniques to grow your best garden and improve your yields. Articles and features in this special 14th Anniversary Issue will help you achieve both goals.

On the eco end of things, this issue we feature the article Vitamin P, which examines the new eco plasma indoor grow lights, and Healing With Food: A Hydroponicist’s Perspective. Read on to learn just how easy and smart it is to grow hydro and re-discover some of the old fashion crops that are making a comeback as the latest indoor horticulture trends.

Keeping you in the know on the latest tools, tips and technologies, this issue features 14 new products available on the market from grow media and lights, to instrumentation and nutrients.

For your chance to win some of the industry’s latest grow gear visit maximumyield.com and flip to page 55 to check out the new prizes up for grabs in our Win Big…Grow Big Contest.

Ready to learn more and see all the latest products first hand? Make plans now to attend the upcoming Great Lakes Indoor Gardening Expo in Novi, Michigan, June 3, 2012.

Check out indoorgardenexpo.com for show details including our interactive floor plan of Jessica Raymond, editor exhibitors that will be showcasing their products. This expo will be the industry’s bigeditor@maximumyield.com gest East Coast for 2012 and we welcome you all to attend.

Correction: The guys at Word of Mouth Hydroponics—featured in March/April Talking Shop—can be reached by e-mail at info@ wordofmouthhydroponics.com or by phone at 1-250-591-1180 or 1-855-591-1180.

contributors Donald Lester is the plant

products manager at JH Biotech, Inc., a California based agricultural technology company with 27 OMRI certified products. Donald has a master’s degree in agronomy with an emphasis in entomology. He is an agricultural scientist with over 10 years of research experience and 50 scientific publications to his credit.

Grove Organics, in Northern Kentucky/ Greater Cincinnati. He has a degree in communications and electronic media.

He believes that indoor gardeners can achieve the highest quality crops and maximum yields when proper science is applied. Since 1998, Casey has been testing various nutrients and supplements in search of outstanding harvests.

Evan Folds is president of Progressive Gardens, a natural approach land care company, and Progress Earth (www.progressearth. com). With a degree in biology and religion, Evan’s interests include making sense of food production and bringing awareness to such topics as empty food, municipal water fluoridation and spiritual intolerance.

Matt LeBannister developed a

Philip McIntosh is a science and

Dr. Lynette Morgan holds a B. Hort.

technology writer with a bachelor’s degree in botany and chemistry and a master’s degree in biological science.

During his graduate research he used hydroponic techniques to grow axenic plants. He lives in Colorado Springs, CO. where he teaches mathematics at Challenger Middle School.

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Casey Jones Fraser owns Garden

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

green thumb as a child, having been born into a family of experienced gardeners. During his career, he has managed a hydroponic retail store and represented leading companies at the Indoor Gardening Expos. Matt has been writing articles for Maximum Yield since 2007. His articles are published around the world.

Tech. degree and a PhD in hydroponic greenhouse production from Massey University, New Zealand. Lynette is a partner with SUNTEC International Hydroponic Consultants and has authored five hydroponic technical books. Visit www.suntec.co.nz/ consultants.htm and www.suntec. co.nz/books.htm for more information.

Lee McCall is an alumnus of Johnson &

Wales University. His extensive culinary background helped him gain experience in and knowledge of fine dining and food production, which developed into a career in the hydroponics and year-round gardening industry. Lee and his business partner use their Denver-based businesses to educate the public on sustainable gardening and high quality produce.

Become a Maximum Yield contributor and have your articles read by 250,000 readers throughout USA, Canada, UK, New Zealand and Australia. Maximum Yield is the largest free-to-consumer indoor gardening magazine in the world. Every issue is available on maximumyield.com, which has thousands of unique visitors monthly.

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

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on the web

VOLUME 15 – NUMBER 1 May/June 2012

Maximum Yield is published bi-monthly by Maximum Yield Publications Inc. 2339A Delinea Place, Nanaimo, BC V9T 5L9 Phone: 250.729.2677; Fax 250.729.2687 No part of this magazine may be reproduced without permission from the publisher.

Maximum Yield’s ‘Grow Like a Pro’ Indoor Gardening Expo Tour Hits Michigan Celebrate with us on the second stop of our ‘Grow Like a Pro’ Tour at our Great Lakes Expo in Novi, Michigan, June 3, 2012. The vibrant and rapidly growing East Coast indoor gardening industry will be in for a treat as exhibitors from around the globe showcase the newest and most innovative products at the Suburban Collection Showplace. Stay tuned to indoorgardenexpo.com for event details and updates.

Got Questions? Get Answers.

Maximum Yield’s resident experts are available and ready to answer your modern gardening questions. E-mail editor@maximumyield.com or fill out the Ask the Experts question form on maximumyield.com

Free Digital Subscription to Maximum Yield Now you can receive Maximum Yield Canada free to your inbox. Subscribe to the digital edition of Maximum Yield by simply filling out the form at maximumyield.com/subscribe-digital.php

Connect With Maximum Yield Connect to MaximumYield.com instantly from your Smartphone with our Quick Response (QR) Code, found on the cover of every issue of Maximum Yield. Now you can access the best products, the most in-depth articles and information, and the latest news at high speeds. Simply download the QR Code Reader software compatible with your Smartphone, scan the QR Code and your phone’s browser will automatically launch, redirecting you to maximumyield.com.

It’s that simple!

Connect with Maximum Yield

maximumyield.com facebook.com/MaximumYield indoorgardeningexpo.com Twitter.com/Max_Yield

Tell us what you think at editor@maximumyield.com. We’d love to hear from you.

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Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

If undeliverable please return to the address above.

The views expressed by columnists are a personal opinion and do not necessarily reflect those of Maximum Yield or the Editor.

Publication Agreement Number 40739092 Printed in Canada PRESIDENT/PUBLISHER - Jim Jesson GENERAL MANAGER - Don Moores BUSINESS MANAGER - Linda Jesson EDITOR - Jessica Raymond jessica@maximumyield.com ADVERTISING SALES 250.729.2677 Linda Jesson - linda@maximumyield.com Raymond Henderson - raymond@maximumyield.com Ilona Hawser - ilona@maximumyield.com Ashley Heppell - ashley@maximumyield.com Hayley Jesson - hayley@maximumyield.com PRODUCTION & DESIGN ads@ads.maximumyield.com Jennifer Duong - jennifer@maximumyield.com Alice Joe - alice@maximumyield.com Liz Johnston - liz@maximumyield.com Denise Higginson - denise@maximumyield.com ACCOUNTING Tracy Greeno - accounting@maximumyield.com Tara Campbell - tara@maximumyield.com

CANADIAN DISTRIBUTION Brite-Lite Group Biofloral Eddis Wholesale Greenstar Plant Products Inc. Hydrotek MegaWatt Quality Wholesale USA DISTRIBUTION Aurora Innovations BWGS General Hydroponics Humboldt Wholesale Hydrofarm Hydro International National Garden Wholesale / Sunlight Supply Nickel City Wholesale Garden Supply R&M Supply Tradewinds Maxigrow UK DISTRIBUTION Direct Garden Supplies Growth Technology Northern Hydroponic Wholesale Nutriculture UK Dutch Pro Maxigrow Hydrogarden AUSTRALIAN DISTRIBUTION House N Garden Futchatec Growth Technology Hydraspher

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Subscription Confliction

I just noticed that under the subscriptions tab on your website it says that Maximum Yield is a free magazine, but on the subscription form it says it’s $35 for the Canada edition. Just curious which one it is.

Jeff Jones Maximum Yield is available for free at indoor gardening shops across the country and the globe. Simply flip to the back of any issue for a list of retailers near you. Maximum Yield is also available for free on our website, maximumyield.com Personal subscriptions are just one more way we’re ensuring you don’t miss an issue of your favourite growing mag. Subscribing to Maximum Yield guarantees you get six copies a year; the $35 is for shipping.

We’re excited to announce we’re also now offering free digital subscriptions to all editions of Maximum Yield. Sign up today at maximumyield.com/subscribe-digital.php

Hopper’s Supporter

I hadn’t read anything by Eric Hopper before, but because of this one article (The Science Behind Light, Maximum Yield Canada March/April 2012), I’ve determined that Hopper has a gift.

Marc Sheevers

MY Favourite Website

I just want to tell you that your website is incredible. I love to read Maximum Yield online.

Mario P

More and Better

It’s just a suggestion but I’d like to see more technology-driven articles. It seems like you have some interesting stuff on plant DNA, propagation, tissue and things of that nature, but I would like to see more equipment reviews and progressive technology coverage—new ways of doing things rather than the same old stuff.

Regards, Victor Schroyer This issue of Maximum Yield contains some fresh tips and new tricks for growing indoors. Check out Vitamin P, Double or Nothing and Healing With Food.

And make sure to check out Product Spotlight, featuring some of the hottest new items available this month at hydroponic shops across the country.

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Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

Maximum Yield—A Must-Read

Hello Max Yield, I want to start by saying I love your publication and am always learning new things from your magazine. What I was wondering is why you guys have different issues that touch on different topics for different parts of the world. I feel like I might be missing out on some information that someone somewhere else is getting. Also, the issues that I get from the local hydro shop differ from the ones online, meaning the issues don’t match up to what I have in hand. It would be greatly appreciated if you could shed some light on this. I just want to make sure I have the best information possible and I’m not missing anything.

Thanks, Steven cooper

The major difference between the various editions of Maximum Yield USA, Canada, UK and Australia/New Zealand—is the products featured in the Product Spotlight department. We always ensure to only feature products available in the various countries. We also gear the Max Facts—hydroponic news, tips and trivia—and special features to local readers by printing information that is relevant to their geographic location and interests.

The most current issues of Maximum Yield Magazines are always available on our website. Most of the retail shops that carry Maximum Yield should have the most current issue as well. If they don’t, they should make sure to request new boxes of magazines from their distributors every time they order product for their store.

To ensure you get every issue of Maximum Yield, I encourage you to subscribe.Visit maximumyield.com/subscriptions.php to download the form. We also now offer free digital subscriptions to each edition. To subscribe, fill out the form at maximumyield.com/subscribe-digital.php

Subscribe to Win Every month we give away a special issue of Maximum Yield to one lucky Enews subscriber. If you aren’t subscribed, you can’t participate. Get involved, share your thoughts and participate in discussions monthly and you could win.

Sign up today at maximumyield.com/newsletter.php so you can start winning!

Maximum Yield Team

We want to hear from you!

Maximum Yield Publications Inc. Snail-mail: 2339 Delinea Place, Nanaimo, BC V9T 5L9 E-mail: editor@maximumyield.com Twitter: twitter.com/max_yield Facebook: facebook.com/MaximumYield

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

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SIMON SIMON

SIMON SAYS

Hey Simon, I was at a talk you gave late last year and I am a little confused.

In your Maximum Yield column and articles you discuss organics a lot, but during your talk you seemed to dismiss organics and biology for indoors gardens…what gives?

Hoping you can help with my confusion.

Mike

Sorry to be confusing Mike, but I am glad you picked up on this point. I am an organic enthusiast and always want gardeners to consider more natural options, including the use of microbes. We have horribly damaged our top soils around the world and these microscopic helpers could play a vital role in soil replenishment.

I believe I know the talk you are referring to in your question, and I just want to clear up my message a little. In essence what I was suggesting is that our understanding of soil biology is still very limited, even though our industry is the place to be for cutting edge microbial opportunities.

I made the point that it might be better to focus on specific types of biology in indoor gardens because achieving the full complexity of natural top soil is virtually impossible. The biodiversity of the soil ecosystem, or food web, starts with bacteria and fungi but moves through nematodes and protozoa all the way to arthropods, making indoor replication an exceptional and perhaps unrealistic goal.

Instead, choose specific microbes for their mode of action and benefits. It is possible that these organisms will be aggressive and take over the rhizosphere and it’s true that this imbalance is unnatural. However, trying to achieve balance as suggested is a pretty lofty idea, so it’s better to hand pick your helpers and treat them well.

I also talked about making sure you get the most from your biology for hire. This means understanding how to stimulate it with compounds such as humic acid but also realizing its preferred physical and chemical surroundings. A chemical example would be that mycorrhizal fungi can be inhibited by an oversupply of available phosphorous.

Now before you fungal fanatics out there get too upset, there is still good evidence that even though biology might not function at

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Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

its highest level, it can still provide tremendous benefit through concepts like biofilms and other unknown synergies.

As for physical surroundings, be cautious with over-stimulation of biology, which can result in an oxygen draw down and pockets of anaerobic conditions. Nearly all beneficial microbes require oxygen to function properly.

As I suggested, we really have a limited understanding of what is going on in the rhizosphere, but good gardening is always about observation so be sure to try a few different products this year to find the logical biologicals for your indoor garden spaces. MY

Do you have a question for one of our resident experts?

Send it to editor@maximumyield.com or fill out the form on maximumyield.com and your answer might be printed in an upcoming issue.

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

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MAX FACTS

HYDROPONIC NEWS, TIPS AND TRIVIA

Rainfall Culprit in Leaf Disease Transmission, Scientists Suspect Scientists have identified two ways in which plant disease pathogens are spread from leaf to leaf by raindrops—directly, where pathogens are splashed off infected leaf surfaces onto healthy plants; and indirectly, where an accumulation of water pushes drops carrying dissolved fungi, bacteria and viruses off the leaves and then onto healthy plants or into the soil.

With the cost of plant diseases presently estimated at three billion dollars a year in the United States alone, the researchers are optimistic their work will provide some guidance for farmers by providing suggestions for optimal spacing between plants.

(Source: sciencedaily.com)

MAXFACTS hydroponic news, tips and trivia

Climate Change Course Found to be Biased A course about climate change at Ottawa's Carleton University has been found to be biased and inaccurate by the Ottawa-based Committee for the Advancement of Scientific Skepticism. The committee found the course's curriculum "contradict[ed] accepted scientific opinion" on climate change and taught students to refute the widely accepted idea that carbon emissions are largely responsible for global warming.

Course instructor Tom Harris is the executive director of an Ottawa-based group called the International Climate Science Coalition, which wants to steer climate change away from "costly and ineffectual 'climate control' " initiatives and publicly decries the "dangerous impacts of attempts to replace conventional energy sources with wind turbines, solar power, biofuels and other ineffective and expensive energy sources."

(Source: cbc.ca)

Canadians Support Ukraine The Ukraine Horticulture Development Project—an initiative supported by funding from the Canadian International Development Agency and private donors like Mennonite Economic Development Associates—has helped low-income women in Ukraine grow strawberries with their gifts of greenhouses and market information.

The women have been able to produce about 30 tonnes of fruit to date and have managed to boost their average personal incomes by some $3,000 per year.

The UHDP is hoping to spark local horticulture in Ukraine by introducing new technology and giving small farmers incentives to grow enough produce to enter international markets.

(Source: freshplaza.com) 14

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

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MAX FACTS

HYDROPONIC NEWS, TIPS AND TRIVIA

Blue Light Good for Lettuce Japanese scientists have discovered that treating lettuce seedlings with blue and red-blue light promotes the yield and antioxidant content of lettuce plants after transplanting.

Researchers reported that at 45 days after sowing, higher leaf areas and shoot fresh weight were obtained in lettuce plants treated with blue-containing LED lights and that polyphenol contents and total antioxidant status were also greater in lettuce seedlings treated with blue-containing LED lights when compared to seedlings that had been treated with fluorescent lights.

(Source: sciencedaily.com)

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Mould Fungi Could Cure Plants

Old Wine Bottles Upcycled Into Hydrogardens

An ongoing study at the Vienna University of Technology has shown that certain fungi could be used as an eco-friendly alternative to conventional fertilizers and plant protecting agents.

One organism studied, Trichoderma, is able to attack other fungi or bacteria with powerful toxins.

“The fungi could be applied to fields and meadows—in much the same way as artificial plant protecting agents are being used now,” said a spokesperson from Vienna TU, adding that in the best case scenario, the fungi could even boost the growth of plants.

(Source: sciencedaily.com)

An article on EcoSalon.com reports that a United States company is marketing recycled wine bottles as hydroponic gardens for herbs like basil, mint, oregano, parsley and chives.

Priced at $35, each Growbottle includes "Hand-crafted recycled wine bottle, soil, USDA certified organic/heirloom seeds, clay pebbles, wool wick, plant nutrient, cork coaster [and] ribbon made from recycled plastic bottles."

The bottle gardens can be reused virtually endlessly and buyers need only “to remember to water them and let the wonders of hydroponics take over.”

(Source: treehugger.com)

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

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MAX FACTS

HYDROPONIC NEWS, TIPS AND TRIVIA

It All Adds Up…

USDA Scientists Develop New Rice Strains USDA scientists working in collaboration with researchers from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines have developed several new strains of rice in an attempt to supplement the traditional longgrain variety currently grown on up to 75 per cent of rice acreage in the United States.

Researchers helped develop JES, an aromatic, softcooking, long-grain rice suited for the market now predominantly filled by imports. Scientists are attempting to develop rice cultivars that possess the specific qualities required for certain value-added markets.

(Source: sciencedaily.com)

A 10 acre family-owned amusement park in Abbotsford, British Columbia has announced annual savings of $19,000 per year in electricity costs after upgrading to LED technology.

An article on the Small Business BC website reports that besides registering $19,000 per year in energy savings after replacing some 1,500 incandescent and halogen lamps with LEDs, the owners of Castle Fun Park were also able to collect over $48,000 in incentives through BC Hydro and LiveSmart BC. “We had known it was the right thing to do for some time, and with BC Hydro's generous rebate program, it became an impossibility to disregard changing lights any further,” said the park’s director of operations, Brandon Bahris.

(Source: smallbusinessbc.ca)

Maple Trees at Risk in Ontario Ontario is in danger of losing its maple trees, Ontario environmental commissioner Gord Miller said recently.

The Ontario provincial government needs to put together a new plan to deal with significant threats to biodiversity, Ontario's environmental watchdog said in a report, calling the province “ill prepared” to meet the challenges of the future.

The report stated that Ontario maple trees are facing two big threats: climate change and the Asian longhorned beetle, a destructive invasive species introduced from New York State.

(Source: cbc.ca)

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Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

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MAX FACTS

HYDROPONIC NEWS, TIPS AND TRIVIA

Ontario Growers Push for Buyer Licensing System Members of the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association want the federal government to introduce a licensing system for produce buyers similar to the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act that operates in the United States. The association’s newly elected chair, Mac James, says that action plans recently signed by Canada and the United States to assist cross-border trade and align regulations should encourage the drafting of the desired legislation. James, who was elected chair at the association’s annual meeting this week, grows potatoes, peppers and other horticultural crops on his Leamington-area farm and is currently a director on the Ontario Potato Board.

(Source: betterfarming.com)

Study Reveals Organic Tomato Juice Better for You A Spanish study has revealed that organic tomato juice contains more phenolic components than juice from conventionally grown crops.

Polyphenols are a family of natural compounds with important nutritional properties that can protect the body against cardiovascular and degenerative diseases and some forms of cancer.

Spanish researchers found significant differences between the levels of bioactive components in organic tomatoes and the levels found in those grown conventionally.

(Source: sciencedaily.com)

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Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

Punishment Ineffective with Picky Eaters A new study carried out at the University of Montréal has shown that forcing your kids to eat their vegetables could backfire.

The study showed that children with overbearing parents developed less healthy eating habits and were drawn to sweet foods. Children with mothers who were open to mealtime negotiation showed a stronger desire to consume fruits and vegetables.

Getting your kids to eat broccoli might take some persistence, though—the study also said that research indicates some children might need to be offered a certain food 15 times before they agree to taste it.

(Source: freshplaza.com)

Maximum Yield Canada | January / February 2012

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PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

YOUR GUIDE TO THIS ISSUE’S

HOTTEST ITEMS Ask for them at your local indoor gardening store.

Sunshine Advanced Plant Fuel Max Flowering Plant Fuel Max Flowering builds on the vegetative foundation of Plant Fuel Max Growth. For the time-challenged grower, simplicity and ease-of-use makes Plant Fuel’s two-formula system the perfect solution. The low nitrogen content of Max Flowering helps plants shift growth energy from foliage into bud and blossom formation with more generous phosphorous and potassium levels. Well established Mycorrhizae means there is no downside to higher phosphorous content. Plant Fuel’s chelated micronutrients are specially formulated to provide just the essentials and constant pH levels. Make Max Growth and Max Flowers the cornerstones of your nutritional program. Ask for it now at your local hydroponics shop.

VineLine Industrial Roll The VineLine you know and love is now available in a 6.5 by 3,300 foot Industrial Roll. Available exclusively from DL Wholesale, VineLine is durable polyethylene netting that works great for guiding and supporting all types of vining plants and flowers. This versatile product can be used in vertical or horizontal growing applications and will resist tangling. It’s reusable, which saves you time and money, and is also available in smaller quantity sizes. Ask for the Industrial VineLine Roll from an authorized DL Wholesale retailer today.

AgroLED® The Hangover™ Announcing the arrival of the new AgroLED® The Hangover™. It is a custom-made lamp holder created to accommodate the AgroLED 12 watt LED lamps with medium base.

With a Sun Grip™ suspension pulley (included), The Hangover is designed to be hung vertically.

Simply adjust the height of the fixture as your plants grow. The compact design of The Hangover allows supplemental lighting throughout your garden area without taking up valuable growing space. AgroLED 12 watt lamp sold separately. ETL Listed. Visit your favourite indoor gardening shop for more information.

Introducing the New HydroStar™ Premium Diamond Films Exclusive to Authorized Greenstar Plant Products Retailers Greenstar Plant Products is proud to introduce the new HydroStar™ Premium Diamond films. Fifty per cent more reflective than black and white poly, these films eliminate hot spots while the diamond pattern diffuses and spreads light evenly. These films contain no head-conducting metal and feature a high performance PET coating for easy cleaning and wear resistance. Available with either black or white backing, each 1.2 metre roll is wrapped with protective plastic and sold in an individual cardboard box. For more information or to purchase HydroStar Premium Diamond Films, visit an authorized Greenstar retailer near you.

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Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

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PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

Root Royale™ Hydro Clay Pebbles Root Royale™ Hydro Clay Pebbles are a reusable, environmentally-friendly grow medium, available exclusively from DL Wholesale. These clay pebbles have been fired in super-heated kilns causing them to expand and become extremely porous. The tiny holes and crevices inside each pebble hold and transmit extremely high amounts of air and water to your plants’ roots, helping them grow bigger and faster, and making them perfect for hydroponic systems. And since these clay pebbles are pH stabilized, they won’t release any additional minerals into your plants’ nutrient stream. Available in 50 litre bags. Visit a hydroponics shop near you for more information

Feliz Dual Spectrum Fluorescent Grow Lamps

Feliz Dual Spectrum Fluorescent Grow Lamps are ideal for use with Sunlight Supply’s Sun System® Garden Bright fixtures. The Feliz Grow Lamp has proven itself in high humidity and has been designed specifically for use in horticulture. This lamp takes your plants from start to finish. The mixed spectrum (2700k/6500k) promotes root growth, vegetative growth and flowering. Many types of plants respond well to the mixed spectrum. Available in 125, 200, 250 or 300 watts. All Feliz Grow Lamps come with a six month warranty. All lamps are ETL listed (excluding 300 watts). Visit your favourite indoor gardening shop for more information about Feliz.

New From Vermicrop Organics— VermiWorm The key to achieving extremely high amounts of well-rounded beneficial biology in VermiWorm is to control the organic matter that is provided to the worms as a food source. We provide a very specific proprietary diet to our worms. We have removed all manures from the worms’ diet, eliminating the risk of manure-borne pathogens. With the correct food sources and the removal of competing pathogens, the earthworms can digest and excrete higher levels of beneficial biology to create the premium castings of VermiWorm. Visit your favourite indoor/ outdoor gardening store for more information.

Can-Filters Adds New Can-Lite to Lineup Can-Filters® has designed and built the Can-Lite™ four inch (10 centimetre) model for convenience and long life. One hundred per cent Australian granulated carbon, aluminum top and bottom, integrated flange and well-made protective packaging are some of the features of the Can-Lite™ four inch filter.

The Can-Lite™ has six available sizes from four to 14 inches (10 to 36 centimetres) with a CFM range of 250 to 2,200. Can-Lite™ is manufactured in a dedicated carbon filter plant in North America.

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Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

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PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

Gro1 Zippered Dry Racks Gro1 Zippered Dry Racks in two and three feet are the newest additions to DL Wholesale’s Gro1 line of Dry Racks. These models feature zippered openings that allow you to completely close off each dry rack level. Like our other racks, these new Zippered Dry Racks feature hanging tabs on the top of each rack and they come with a black zippered carrying case for easy storage and transportation. Gro1 Dry Racks are also available with non-zippered openings and clips, allowing you to add or remove levels as needed. Visit your local gardening shop for more information.

Lightspeed Digi-Pak Special Edition by Lumz This special edition combo includes a premium digital SL ballast powered by Lumz and a high-quality digital HPS bulb. The digital SL ballast by Lumz provides true 1,000-watt output, dimmable to 600 or 750 watts. This lightweight ballast is compatible with high pressure sodium and metal halide bulbs. It is anodized for heat dissipation and lights bulbs up to 18 metres away.

The digital HPS bulb delivers 25 per cent more energy in the red and orange spectrums; as well as 25 per cent more energy in the blue, violet and green spectrums. Buy it today at your local hydroponics shop.

Titan Controls® Helios 13™, 14™, 16™ and 17™ The new Helios 13™, 14™, 16™ and 17™ 240 volt light controllers from Titan Controls® feature premium-quality Allen Bradley ballast-rated relays. The Helios 16 and 17 offer two trigger cord sets to activate the controllers via external timers. The Helios 13 and 14 offer premium quality timers with battery backup, keeping the lighting schedule the same in the event of a power failure. The Helios 13 and 16 will control up to 16 HID lights at 240 volts. The Helios 14 and 17 will control up to 24 HID lights at 240 volts. Visit a hydroponics shop near you for more information.

Nutradip pH Metre by Future Harvest Nutradip pH Metres are the reliable way to measure acidity in your nutrient solution. They offer continuous pH monitoring with automatic temperature compensation and dc power built-in for portability. Nutradip metres are engineered for accuracy and durability, and have been helping growers measure and monitor their success for over 15 years.

Main features: • Wall mount or hand-held • AC/DC • Lightweight and splash-resistant • Easy to read • Nine volt battery included • Plant-friendly display • Nutradip Calibration Solution included Contact your favourite hydroponics shop to learn more.

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Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

Introducing the Newest GrowLab Horticultural Room For those who want to grow indoors but don’t have a lot of room, Everest Garden Supply offers the GrowLab 100. The newest model in the GrowLab line is the most convenient for small spaces—measuring 3’3” wide by 3’3” long by 6”7” high. The GrowLab 100 utilizes thermal film on the interior, which is highly reflective, waterproof and extremely insulated (offering 97 per cent thermal protection). This film is non-toxic and won’t release any harmful gasses that can damage sensitive plants. All of the zippers are extremely durable. Small rooms can yield big results and the GrowLab 100 is up to the challenge. Visit your local indoor gardening shop to learn more.

Introducing the New HydroStar PRO E-Ballast From Greenstar Plant Products This dimming, 120/240 volt, CUL-approved ballast will run halide or sodium lamps and is programmed for a soft-start, avoiding an initial surge of power to start the lamp. This increases lamp life and allows the user to start multiple ballasts at the same time without tripping breakers. This ballast features silent, fan-less operation, the highest quality components, an automatic shut off, a lumen boost feature and a three year exchange warranty. For more information or to purchase the new HydroStar PRO E-Ballast, visit your favourite indoor gardening shop.

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

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Understanding and using

trichoderma fungi

by Donald Lester

There are many species of fungi, bacteria, viruses and protozoa commercially available for the biological control of insects, diseases and weeds. Some products offer mixtures of different organisms.

This article will cover one particularly easy-to-use type of fungi that occurs naturally in soil and helps control soil diseases and break down crop residues to make otherwise unavailable soil nutrients available to plants—Trichoderma.

Trichoderma fungi have many positive effects on plants: increased growth and yield, increased nutrient uptake, increased fertilizer utilization efficiency, increased percentage and rate of seed germination and induced systemic resistance to plant diseases (Harman et al., 2004). Moreover, their use as biological control agents is due to their modes of action: competition, parasitism, production of inhibitory compounds and enzymes or inactivation of the pathogen’s enzyme systems. Trichoderma actively takes over a root zone and makes it difficult for pathogens to compete for space on the roots and for nutrients. And in terms of parasitism, Trichoderma coils

around the hyphae of pathogenic fungi and then produces enzymes to dissolve the pathogen’s cell walls.

There is another kind of beneficial fungi that is commercially available to growers and also covers the roots to physically prevent disease infection and

walls. It is a strong material that is also a key component in insect exoskeletons.

The enzyme chitinase breaks down chitin though Trichoderma is not known to attack insects. Trichoderma switches back and forth on which enzymes to produce depending on the type of food source available. For example, when fresh bark is used in composts, Trichoderma fungi do not directly attack the plant pathogen Rhizoctonia solani. But, in decomposing bark the amount of readily available cellulose decreases, which activates the chitinase genes of Trichoderma, which in turn produce chitinase to parasitize Rhizoctonia solani (Benhamou and Chet 1997). What this means is that in the spring time when temperatures are low and pathogen activity is low Trichoderma will feed on the

“If using trichoderma as a disease control rather than preventative it is best to treat infections early.”

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make nutrients available to the roots— Mycorrhizae. People often confuse the two fungi but Mycorrhizal fungi are not parasitic like Trichoderma fungi.

Trichoderma fungi produce powerful enzymes to dissolve crop residues and attack soil pathogens like Pythium, Fusarium and Rhizoctonia. Trichoderma produces two main types of enzymes: cellulase and chitinase. Cellulose is a major component in plant fibres and crop residues. The enzyme cellulase breaks down cellulose. Similarly, chitin is a structural component in fungal cell

“Many people are unaware that their stonewashed blue jeans are made using Trichoderma.”

readily available cellulose from crop residues. Later in the season when the crop residues are exhausted and the pathogen load has increased Trichoderma will switch over to parasitizing the pathogens.

It should be emphasized that the enzymes produced

by Trichoderma are industrial strength compounds. Many people are unaware that their stonewashed blue jeans are made using Trichoderma.

There is no such thing as a true stonewashed blue jean because no stones are used in the manufacturing process. Rather, the manufacturer puts denim jeans into a vat of Trichoderma reesii until the cellulase enzymes break down the denim to give the desired, faded, worn appearance (University of Wisconsin).

Trichoderma does have a bad side.

It is not only a powerful biological control agent, but it is a major pest in commercial mushroom production.

There it is known as “green mould.”

The powerful enzyme chitinase produced

by Trichoderma creates big problems in commercial mushroom farms.

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

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uNDERSTANDING AND USING TRICHODERMA FUNGI

If Trichoderma exists naturally in the soil then why should you have to add more of what is already there? Trichoderma fungi in nature are lost due to soil disturbances such as mining, construction or erosion; strong acid or chemical treatments; pesticides, excessive heat, drought or flooding; and denial of oxygen or water by asphalt, concrete, soil compaction and roads. In indoor gardens Trichoderma should be added to potting soils to restore healthy population levels lost due to soil sterilization, the use of strong chemical sanitizers, waterlogged soils low in oxygen and excessive fertilization.

The optimum temperature range for Trichoderma harzianum is between 30 to 38oC, whereas Trichoderma koningii has an optimal range between 32 to 35oC (Danielson and Davey). Once soil temperatures exceed 15oC, this is the best timing for Trichoderma to be introduced into the soil.

Trichoderma has a lifecycle of about 28 days. It is self replicating but like any lifecycle it becomes weak. Therefore, it is necessary to re-apply the product to maintain strength. Trichoderma is nontoxic to plants so there is no danger of over application or phytotoxicity.

Trichoderma fungi work well as soil inoculants. If using trichoderma as a disease control rather than preventative it is best to treat infections early. If Trichoderma are applied too late then the results will be disappointing.

Trichoderma fungi are not a miracle cure, but with proper usage and realistic expectations you can have trichoderma working for you.

Listed are some general guidelines and expectations for using Trichoderma in various greenhouse and hydroponic environments. As with any product, strict adherence to the label instructions is necessary for optimum performance.

Mix with Growing Media Aeroponics and Hydroponics

Trichoderma use in aeroponic and hydroponic systems can eventually form a fibrous mat that can block pipes and nozzles used to irrigate the plants. Removal of this material is a time consuming process, which involves temporarily dismantling the irrigation system pipes and spaghetti tubing. In warmer weather this needs to be done frequently.

Transplanting into Containers

Apply granules or liquid formulation directly into the planting hole making sure that the root ball has good contact with the Trichoderma. As the plants grow maintenance applications can be applied as granules to the soil surface or soil drenches. A soil drenching solution can be prepared from bulk granules by soaking the granules in water for several hours to release the organisms and activate them.

This liquid can then be used as a soil drench.The activation process brings Trichoderma out of its dormant stage so it will be actively growing. Once activated Trichoderma should be applied within 24 hours.

Many commercial potting mixes already contain Trichoderma fungi. However, bulk granules of Trichoderma can be mixed in with the soil before transplanting. Or Trichoderma can be applied to the soil surface after transplanting, in the same manner as application of a granular fertilizer. Incorporation of Trichoderma fungi is especially important in sterilized soils to restore or establish a population of beneficial microorganisms to outcompete pathogens. Trichoderma are aerobic, meaning they require oxygen, so it is best not to waterlog the growing media for too long.

“Trichoderma actively takes over a root zone and makes it difficult for pathogens to compete for space on the roots and for nutrients.”

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uNDERSTANDING AND USING TRICHODERMA FUNGI

Seeding

Bare Root

Bare root plants can be dipped into solutions containing Trichoderma fungi that have been pre-activated.

Trichoderma fungi are compatible with most common commercial rooting powders and water-absorbent gels.

Granules can also be soaked in water for a few hours with the water being used as a base for a dipping solution.

Sawdust

Trichoderma will produce the enzyme cellulase and feed on the most available food source, in this case the sawdust itself. In fact, Trichoderma is often used as a compost addition in conventional gardening systems to break down straw, sawdust and other fibrous materials. So, Trichoderma is not recommended as an augmentation to sawdust bags or sawdust-based media.

Sand Culture

Trichoderma will not be self-sustaining in sand culture because of the limited food supply. Since there is relatively low amounts of organic matter in sand, Trichoderma will suffer because there is nothing for the cellulase enzymes to work on. The only other source of food for Trichoderma would be pathogens that the chitinase enzymes can break down. But when the pathogens are gone Trichoderma is once again left without a food supply.

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Seeds can be placed in direct contact with Trichoderma at planting time.

This ensures that the young roots are colonized early on for protection against water mould root rots like Pythium and Phytophthora. However, be sure that the Trichoderma are compatible with any fungicides that may be used as seed treatments or applied with the seed.

Shopping for Trichoderma Fungi

There are a lot of Trichoderma products on the market today.

Growers are often wary of new products that suddenly appear on the market and appear to be copy-cats of more well known products. Here are some features and specifications to look for when buying Trichoderma products.

• Look for stable formulations.

• Look for combinations of Trichoderma species in one product.

• Look for a guaranteed analysis on the label.

• Shelf life is important.

• Do your homework and see how long the product has been on the market.

• Look for products that operate over a wide range of temperatures.

• Make sure the Trichoderma product is organically certified.

Incorporating Trichoderma into your indoor garden or grow room is easy, safe and environmentally friendly.

Look for Trichoderma fungi products in your gardening catalogue, local nursery or garden centre. By using Trichoderma you will be promoting a more balanced population of naturally occurring soil microorganisms, and at the same time reducing your use of harsh, toxic chemicals. And you will save yourself costly and worrisome disposal problems associated with chemical alternatives. Now that you’ve learned a little about Trichoderma perhaps you will feel more confident in buying and using Trichoderma fungi in your garden, greenhouse or indoor garden. MY

“Incorporation of Trichoderma fungi is especially important in sterilized soils to restore or establish a population of beneficial microorganisms to out-compete pathogens.”

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

33

Double Nothing or

A Grower’s Life

by Casey Jones Fraser

In hydroponics—as in life— it always pays to have backup Are your grow lights on? Are you sure? Maybe your timer, ballast or lamp is failing right now and you’re sitting here reading this article! I’m not trying to make you paranoid, but experience has taught me that indoor grow gear fails—fans burn out and air stones quit bubbling. And to make things more complicated, we cannot predict which items are going to break down next or when it’s going to happen.

If you take your garden seriously, you won’t mind paying for insurance in the form of some spare gear.

Here are several items that occasionally fail and some suggestions for dealing with— or even preventing—catastrophes.

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Lights

thin brittle ones. Second, you will need Lights are the heart two air stones for every one that sits in of your garden your reservoir. and the key to your Each time you change the nutrients in plants’ growth—if your reservoir, remove the wet air stone your lights go out and replace it with a spare. Clean the used you’ve got to get them stone with a scrub brush and let it dry back up and running as soon as possible. out completely—drying reduces clogIf you are running HID or fluoresging from microbes and algae. The newly cent lights like most indoor gardeners, cleaned air stone will now become the the lamp or the ballast can fail. The best spare, ready for the next reservoir change. option is to keep spare grow bulbs and You will always have an air stone in the ballasts on hand, but that can be expenreservoir and a clean, dry air stone waitsive. A second, less ideal option is to keep ing in the wings. This process will keep some shop lights (four foot T12 fluoresyour solution bubbling steadily for years. cents) around—you can hang these inexpensive fixtures in place of your broken Circulation fans grow light while you go to the local Wall-mounted fans, oscillating fans, desk hydro store for some troubleshooting. fans—we all have them in our grow Shop lights will maintain your garden’s rooms. Unless your grow room is very, day/night cycle temporarily, although very small, you should have more than your plants will stretch and grow poorly one fan to gently ruffle the under these weak lamps, so make sure you get your real grow lights working If you again as soon as possible. are cooling

“

Pumps

your lights or garden space with a blower, what happens when it goes kaput?

In my hydro systems I always use two pumps: one large pump to run the system and a smaller pump that sits in the reservoir and stirs the solution. Since I incorporate some organic supplements in my nutrient solutions, dirty or clogged pumps are inevitable.

Pumps are one of the only products that have decreased in price at hydroponics stores. Fifteen years ago, I would pay $60 for a pump for an ebb and flow system, but these days it’s more like $25.

Admittedly, higher-quality pumps can be purchased for a higher price tag and they might offer a better warranty—for a spare pump, though, the lower-cost option is acceptable.

Air stones If you use air stones, you know that they eventually clog and stop bubbling. I have seen the same growers replace their air stones again and again over the years I’ve worked in hydro stores.

Let me save you a few bucks. There is an easy way to use the same air stones for years without replacement. First, you will need to buy the heavy air stones, not the

”

leaves. With multiple fans, a single failure is no big deal—just get a replacement fan within a day or so and your garden won’t skip a beat.

If you are just using a single fan to circulate the air around your garden, though, you should consider having a spare. If your only fan breaks you run the risk of hot spots and powdery mildew, as well as reduced growth.

Inline fans Spare gear is great, but blowers and inline fans are too expensive to have spares sitting around. But if you are cooling your lights or garden space with a blower, what happens when it goes kaput? Do temperatures rise to the point of wilting your prized flowers? This is another time to reach for the shop lights—turn off your hot HID lights and run shop lights in this emergency scenario. The heat will be

drastically reduced while you run (don’t walk) to the grow store for a new lamp or ballast.

pH metres Small pH pens can give you a digital readout on the acidity or alkalinity of your hydroponic solutions, but they usually only have a one-year warranty. If your pH metre stops working you might not be able to replace it right away—and most likely you’ll be standing over a fresh batch of nutrient solution when it goes out.

A great spare pH metre is the ‘drop test kit.’ These kits include a small beaker and a bottle of dye.You scoop up a sample of solution, add a few drops of the dye and shake it up. The solution will change colour and indicate the pH. The downside to these low-cost kits (usually less than $10) is that they aren’t very specific—they can only give you a ballpark reading. Also, if you use organics, your solution could be too dark for the dye to take effect. In that case, digital is your only option, so get a new metre soon as you can!

Hygrometers and thermometers Digital and analog thermometers and humidity gauges are available at garden stores and other retail shops. I recommend having at least two of these units operating in your grow room— ideally, you should get two different models from two different manufacturers.

After a few months of use, you might notice that one metre reads drastically differently from the other. This is an indication that one metre is failing— get a new metre and compare readings with the first two, then dispose of the faulty unit. Remember—an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

I hope my failures can lead to your successes. If you know what’s likely to go wrong, you can be prepared with a quick fix. And when its time to upgrade your garden, keep the old lights, pumps and so on for backups.

Be diligent, hope for the best and plan for the worst. If something goes wrong, don’t freak out—just fix it. MY Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

35

Old-Fashioned Crops are Making

by Dr. Lynette Morgan

a

Comeback

Everything old is new again. The latest indoor horticulture trends are straight out of the past.

Black currants are packed with vitamin C and antioxidants.

Over the years many old-fashioned fruits and vegetables have made a gourmet comeback in fine dining restaurants.

Some of the most modern and highly-prized fancy salad greens are actually ancient crops that were grown for centuries before modern agriculture introduced mass production. Arugula, chicory and romaine lettuce, for example, were grown by the Romans. More recently there have been a number of old-fashioned plants making a culinary comeback, many of which were popular backyard garden favourites only a generation or two ago. For one reason or another some fruits and vegetables fell out of favour as supermarkets focused on familiar mass-produced greens with long shelf lives. However, with renewed interest in the culinary arts and gardening in general, we are seeing a resurgence of some old favourites and finding many of these are well suited to indoor and hydroponic production.

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Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

Old-fashioned crops now turned a little trendier include rhubarb, currants, beets, Swiss chard and homemade pickles, as well as a huge selection of heirloom varieties of just about every fruit and vegetable imaginable. Many of these thrive when provided with the improved nutrition and protected environment of a well-maintained hydroponic system and also provide us with something a little unique to grow and taste.

Rhubarb

Once a popular pie filling, rhubarb is one old-fashioned crop that has seen a major comeback in recent years, largely due to its inclusion in a wide range of innovative recipes designed by celebrity chefs. In fact, rhubarb is an ancient crop grown for centuries in China although it was only introduced to North America in 1772. While rhubarb may be one of those ‘love it or hate it’ items, there has been a growing market for fresh stalks in recent years. Rhubarb is also somewhat confusing—largely considered a fruit or dessert crop, it is the thick, red-coloured stems of the leafy vegetable that are cooked and eaten, often after liberal sweetening. The distinctive flavour might be why it has made such a comeback; however, generations ago it was more of a backyard staple, providing large amounts of fruit pie fillings from a plant that required no real care or attention and that persisted unattended for years.

Luckily, rhubarb is a plant well suited to hydroponics. It prefers a high level of moisture and produces well with a nutrient formulation similar to those used on all leafy vegetables. Rhubarb is also very easy to propagate—crowns of dormant plants can be purchased Rhubarb plants are grown for their pinky-red stems, which are cooked, sweetened and eaten as a fruit.

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

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Old-Fashioned Crops are Making a Comeback

to give a kickstart to a crop, which will provide harvestable stems within a few weeks of starting regrowth, or rhubarb seeds can be sown to give large numbers of plantlets in a short time. Rhubarb is a hardy plant, and if kept well trimmed and frequently harvested can be confined to the same amount of space required by a tomato or capsicum plant. The only problem you might encounter would be if the stems were not removed often enough, in which case the plant could become quite large and crowd out others in the hydroponic system.

Raw, uncooked rhubarb stems and the foliage of the plant are also poisonous, as they contain oxalic acid, so this is one crop that should not be eaten raw or as a salad green. Interestingly, some growers make a pesticide spray from raw rhubarb leaves to control insects, but there is not a lot of evidence to suggest that this is effective. As with many crops, gourmet ‘baby’ rhubarb stems are also becoming popular, as these can be cooked whole and lack the stringiness that older, more mature stems can develop. In hydroponic systems, rhubarb can be grown as an annual, removed each season as the plants become a little too large and replaced with new seedlings, or left for a number of seasons if space allows. While rhubarb grown outdoors typically goes dormant in winter and stops growth, only to resume in spring, indoor gardens can allow year-round production of fresh stems.

Fresh gherkins ready to be made into old fashioned pickles.

flavour, but pack a powerful punch of vitamins and antioxidants.

Blackcurrants in particular have very While much attention has been focused on blueberries and high levels of healthcranberries, the less well known bush currant has been making giving phytochemicals and a slow but steady comeback. vitamin C, and for this reason Currants come in a range much of the commercial blackcurrant crop is processed into of colours—red, black drink syrups and other health drinks. Black and red currants and white—and are have made a culinary comeback due to the flavour they typically rather tart in impart to preserves, sauces, candies, drinks, meat dishes and desserts, but while the fruit can be eaten fresh, currants are Currant bushes are not only usually processed into other dishes because of their large easy to grow, they can be rapidly propagated from dormant number of seeds and tart flavour. cane cuttings.

Currant bushes, if kept well trimmed and pruned, grow to around one metre in height at maturity and are easily grown in a container of media and drip-fed hydroponic nutrients.

The bushes require winter chilling to initiate flowers and therefore need a few weeks outside in winter—or artificial “Red currants are produced on chilling—before a bushes which flower in spring.” good crop can be obtained.Yields can be as high as three to four pounds of fruit per currant plant if grown under good conditions, and although the season is short, fruit can be frozen for yearround use.

Currants

Homemade pickles

Pickles, which are specific cultivars of baby cucumbers bottled in jars of vinegar solution, have always been popular—now,

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Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

however, dedicated gourmets and gardeners have moved back to growing and bottling their own uniquely flavoured product. Pickle cucumbers, commonly referred to as gherkins, are highly suited to hydroponic production and in particular to a protected environment, where perfectly formed, clean fruit with prolific yields can be grown in just a few weeks. Many gherkin plants are smaller and more compact than the seedless European cucumbers commonly grown hydroponically, and the fruit—which is crisp, seedless and mild—can also be eaten fresh in salads and sandwiches.

Two to three hydroponically grown gherkin plants will give yields high enough to provide a year-round supply of pickles, provided some care is given to cultivar selection.

Gherkins—like many cucumbers—are susceptible to powdery mildew, a disease that can wreak havoc in an indoor grow room. To prevent this, only mildew-resistant gherkin cultivars should be selected, as this means a lot less spraying and a healthier crop with improved longevity.

There is a wide selection of gherkin or pickling cucumber seed to select from, including varieties of green- and whiteskinned types; however, the main characteristics to consider with hydroponic crops of this kind are compact plant size, wide disease resistance, parthenocarpic plants (fruit sets without the need for pollination and with no seeds inside),

size and shape. Reputable seed suppliers generally carry a good selection, and cultivars such as Harmonie F1 or Salt and Pepper (a white-skinned variety) are good choices for smallscale production.

Beets

Beets are another healthy old-fashioned crop, and red beets in particular are rich in antioxidants. There are two distinct types of beet commonly used for cooking: the large, rounded rootforming beet, which not only comes in red, but also yellow, white and striped, and Swiss chard—which is sometimes called silver beet—grown for its stems and leaves. Both vegetables are variations of the same plant, Beta vulgaris, but both have different uses and different growing requirements.

Being a root vegetable, the beet root needs a bed of substrate to develop in, while Swiss chard can be treated more like an upright lettuce and is well suited

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

39

Old-Fashioned Crops are Making a Comeback

to NFT and other solution-culture systems. Round red beets are the most common—although old-fashioned types such as specialty elongated and golden varieties are becoming more popular— and the leaves of the traditional bulls blood variety are also used for salad, due to the deep burgundy colour that can develop even under low light conditions.

For hydroponic systems, large beet roots may seem to take up a lot of space; however, the modern versions of this old-fashioned crop are ‘baby beets,’ which are sown at a high density and harvested when the root is formed but still immature, around 2.5 to five centimetres in diameter. Shallow trays of growing media such as coconut fibre or perlite/vermiculite mix are perfect for beet roots, and for baby beets a depth of only 10 centimetres is required, provided irrigation is frequent enough under warmer growing conditions to keep the media uniformly moist. Beets grown this way are tender and quick to cook and can even be used raw in some dishes. In a similar way Swiss chard is also grown for baby leaf and mesclun salads, which are higher-value options often chosen by hydroponic gardeners with limited space. Swiss chard now comes in colours as diverse as gold, pink, orange, purple, red and white, with bright and pastel variations, with one of the most popular varieties for hydroponics being Bright Lights, which contains a selection of all the colours.

Beets prefer cooler growing conditions latest culinary trend, and new flavour and do well alongside lettuce, with a combinations are eagerly sought after. moderate EC of around 1.5 to 2.0 and a Luckily, hydroponic growers can take vegetative nutrient formulation. All beets advantage of these comebacks and grow are easily raised from seed, and while perfect year-round specimens long root-forming beets are best direct-sown before local markets into fine media beds, Swiss chard can can begin be grown in cells, propagation blocks or to supply small trays and transplanted into your commercially hydroponic system when large enough. available No doubt there will soon be more crops. MY old-fashioned crops making a comeback in our kitchens—after all, Swiss Chard grows well in hydromany ancient vegetables ponics and is also a type of beet. have been reinvented as the

The key to perfect pickling cucumbers? Garden smart.

This step-by-step strategy will help you grow the best.

Pickling cucumbers are grown in much the same way as the larger slicers or telegraph seedless cucumbers—they should be strung upward for support and need warmth (15 to 28ºC) and moderate to high light levels, and they can be intercropped with tomatoes, capsicum and other heat-loving crops.

Since gherkin plants are smaller than other cucumbers they can be grown two to three plants per planting space and trained upward and along strings for support.

Moisture-retentive growing media such as coco fibre is well suited to growing pickling cucumbers and several successive crops can be grown in the same substrate.

Nutrient solutions should begin on a standard vegetative formulation at a moderate EC of 1.8 to 2.2 and a pH level of 5.8. This should then be switched for a fruiting formulation with higher potassium levels for maintenance of good fruit quality as soon as the first tiny fruitlets have formed, and maintained until the crop is finished.

Under hot growing conditions, the EC can be dropped back slightly, particularly if the plants are wilting under overhead lights.

Cucumber vines need to be carefully trimmed and trained to prevent them taking over the entire growing area, but growth can be directed upward to an overhead support and then downward again so the maximum number of fruit can be obtained from a minimum amount of vertical space.

The small fruits only take a few days to develop to a suitable pickle size once flowering has occurred, and they need to be harvested frequently. Fruit can then be stored in the refrigerator until enough have been gathered to make jars of pickles.

Red beets can be grown for both their large rounded root and the foliage, which makes a good salad green.

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Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

Some keen pickle makers also grow various hydroponic herbs and spices to add to their jars of pickles for additional flavour—the most common being dill, of course—although hot chilies, lime leaves, basil, tarragon and garlic can all be used to impart a unique flavour.

From the Roots Up

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Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

41

Healing with Food A Hydroponicist’s Perspective

by Evan Folds "On every level we have removed the magic and replaced it with materialism."

As humans, we tend to consider ourselves the most central entity in the universe. It’s called anthropocentrism and it is rampant in modern society. We think we have the world under our thumbs, and we have screwed it up in the process. Take artificial fertilizers, nuclear bombs, water fluoridation, table salt, clear cutting virgin forests for paper, pharmaceuticals and processed foods.

On every level we have removed the magic and replaced it with materialism.

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Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

We’re experiencing a general degeneration in modern society as a result of this self-centeredness. Many are fond of throwing around the increasing life expectancy as proof of the efficacy of a pharmaceutical society, but they are fooling themselves.

We may be living longer, but we aren’t living better. Weston Price proved this with his landmark work Nutrition & Physical Degeneration: A Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets and Their Effects (1939).

Price was a dentist and became interested in health through his observation of a progressive degeneration in dental health and jaw formation. Price compared people of the same genetic origin who maintained different eating habits. The native diets of the Inuit in Canada, Aboriginal Australians and African tribes altered as the Western world slowly encroached. The developing world was being infiltrated by NaCl table salt, white flour and sugar under the guise of “food.” The consequences of this seemingly simple diet change were staggering. Price noted a drastic increase in incidences of tooth decay and “A whopping 80 per deformation in cent of cancers are the people who began eating the attributable to diet and Western diet relaenvironmental toxins.” tive to the people who remained on the primitive diet.

In a very real sense, the entire profession of general dentistry and orthodontics was created by food lacking nutritional value.

We are creating the problems that we are trying to eliminate.

There are 76 million cases of food poisoning each year in the United States, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevent (CDC). A whopping 80 per cent of cancers are attributable to diet and environmental toxins. The companies that produce these empty and processed foods receive $90 to $100 billion plus each year in federal subsidies. Industrial Big Ag uses

almost 85 per cent of available fresh water. The result of this is that the US spends $2.5 trillion on health care each year with over $800 billion of it a direct result of the above.

Reading statistics like this is infuriating. We spend more energy trying to compensate for our misguided ways than trying to get to the root of our problems. We take for granted that the human body is an alchemist and is not meant to be sick. It’s easy to be cynical and point fingers at those who appear responsible, but the more effective antidote is to grow the food that you eat, or at the least, utilize your buying power to encourage the type of world you want to live in. If everyone purchased goods in a manner that reinforced their ideals the world would change tomorrow.

We in the indoor gardening community sit in a unique position of opportunity. We may come from humble roots, but we have the opportunity to wield great power in the not so distant future if we play our cards correctly.Very seriously, the technologies that we are working with have the capability to empower people to make sense of their own personal agriculture. We can save the world.

Groups such as the Progressive Gardening Trade Association (PGTA, ProgressiveGardening.org, PGTA.org) and the Institute for Simplified Hydroponics (Carbon.org) are planting seeds that can

Weston Price

Author of Nutrition & Physical Degeneration: A Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets and Their Effects

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

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Healing with food: a hydroponicist’s perspective

help change the collective perspective that there is nothing that can be done about the coming global crises we now face.

The answer to our troubles lies in proper perspective. If we continue to believe that we have it all figured out then we will never get to where we need to be.When a homeowner makes the connection that the budget fertilizers they have been feeding their lawn are nothing more than fast food, their actions change. Rather than try to kill what they don’t want, they begin to encourage what they do want.They understand that they cannot eliminate the weeds, pests and disease created by this bad diet with more of

“...the technologies that we are working with have the capability to empower people to make sense of their own personal agriculture.” the same bad diet.The change in perspective changes actions.

Don’t get me wrong, technology is not bad. It is what allows us to maintain our existence outside of natural evolutionary population limits. We’ve domesticated and technologized our way into a serious imbalance in the world via egolution and now we must use our ingenuity to extract ourselves.

The grow room is the quintessential representation of anthropocentrism. It is a perfect example of how humans take life into

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their own hands, as we are not bound by our biological limitations or primal instinct. We manipulate our environment, unlike plants and all non-domesticated animals that remain under the manipulation of the natural world.

It is this power over nature that defines our existence and it is this same power that can take it away. We begin to lose our grip when we imagine that plants only need a certain number of elements to thrive, or that we imagine we can understand what a plant truly needs. The result is us growing plants for what they require, rather than what we require from them. This is a fundamental disconnect in agricultural policy. Plants do not need what we need from them, so if we limit what they can eat, humans suffer. We’re only considering half the story. We are immersed in a supersensible arena without the senses to experience it. Rudolph Steiner offered a way into this world more effectively than most visionaries of the past. His worldview of anthroposophy and contributions to agriculture called “biodynamics” are sources of great wisdom, but are known by only a few. In his words: “We must realize that plants represent the direct antithesis of human being, and the animals represent the mean between the two. The external physical expression of this contrast is to be found in the breathing process. It is a familiar fact that human beings inhale oxygen, assimilate it and subsequently combine it with carbon which is finally exhaled as carbon dioxide, while in plants, which absorb carbon to sustain themselves, the reverse is true. In a sense, plants also breathe but their breathing process has a completely different significance for them. Hence, we can say that in a spiritual respect plants and human beings stand opposite each other.” (9-10, Nutrition).

We’re used to thinking about this idea, but rarely do we apply it in a spiritual context. What does it mean that plants are the yin to the human yang? Building on Steiner’s influence, Rudolph Hauschka offers a more direct assessment of the relationships between humans and plants. In his work “The Nature of Substance,” Hauschka offers the idea that the same formative forces are alive in the root system of plants as are active in the human head. He goes on to explain, “forces similar to those active in the blossom principle are found in man’s will and his metabolism. And the forces that build stalk and foliage work in human feeling, and in the rhythmic system centrally located between head and limbs.

It can be assumed that root substances taken as foods act upon the brain and nervous system; that products of the flowering and fruiting parts of plants affect the metabolism; and that leafy matter stimulates breathing and circulation” (31).

Plants and humans may be opposites, and thankfully so, but they also take advantage of similar forces and processes; they meet in the middle. Consider that the human gut is no different than the compost pile in the backyard. In fact, some of the same organisms are involved. The reason we turn a compost pile is to encourage aerobic organisms in the same way that blood oxygen generally

“...human beings inhale oxygen, assimilate it and subsequently combine it with carbon which is finally exhaled as carbon dioxide, while in plants, which absorb carbon to sustan themselves, the reverse is true.” defines human health. It has actually been proven that cancer cannot grow in the presence of proper blood oxygen; look into Otto Warburg and his 1931 Nobel Prize.

The seers of yore—such as Goethe, Rudolph Steiner,Viktor Schuaberger and Rudolph Hauschka—saw the world in its natural spiritual brilliance. They moved past mere materialism and relied more on their intuition than the crippling data points of the modern world. They were vilified by the powers that be of their age for working against the burgeoning industrial framework, but modern times are increasingly defined by information flow and the time has come to bring this light into the dark. The sooner we can begin to incorporate these ideas into our grow rooms the sooner we can begin growing plants that do us justice. MY

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

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Get Smart —Grow Hydro: 3, 2, 1

by Chad Garbet

Grow your own hydroponically. Hydroponic gardens are great for adults and kids alike, plus they are easy on the wallet and the environment. Canadian hydroponicist and grow store expert Chad Garbet tells you how to grow hydro in three easy steps.

Many beginners looking to try hydroponics have—after little success and much frustration— concluded that hydroponics is too much work and too complicated. I’m here to tell you that doesn’t have to be the case. A well maintained hydroponic system requires less hands-on work and less hassle compared to a typical outdoor garden. Even if you don’t want to grow one complete garden from start to harvest, you can start small, experiment and maybe gain some experience for your green thumb. Gardeners tend to have a sense of adventure and the curiosity of a cat, always watching, waiting and anticipating growth. Think of your garden—no matter the size—as a giant experiment.

With just $25 to $35 you can make a simple deep water culture system.You will need: • A bucket with a lid • An air pump with ¼ inch line • An airstone • A net pot filled with grow rocks (or whatever grow medium you wish to use) • All of these items can be found at your local indoor gardening shop.

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Directions: Cut or drill the bucket lid so your net pot can comfortably sit in it. A hole saw works great. If you don’t have a hole saw an X-Acto knife is a suitable alternative. Be very careful though to keep your fingers in and cut away from your body.

Next, drill a hole slightly smaller than ¼ inch so your air line will go through with an airtight seal.

After you feed you airline through the ¼ hole and attach the airstone, connect it to the pump and fill it with water. Make sure the airstone is letting off micro bubbles for proper aeration.

This is a basic deep water culture system. All you have to do is put your rocks (or grow medium of choice) in the net pot with your plant snuggly in the rocks and fill with water and your nutrient mix and adjust the pH to the plant’s preference.

Success is up to you The rest of the work is maintenance, but more importantly watching your plant grow. Compare it to some soil plants that you plant at the same time and watch the difference; see how well hydroponics works and watch the plant’s root mass grow.

Change your bucket out once a week and give it a quick cleaning to prevent any root mould or mildew problems.

Always make sure to maintain proper pH after you add your nutrient mix. Come back the next week and do the same thing, ensuring your roots are clean and white (any brown might indicate root rot). It’s also important to keep a diary of how much nutrient you use and anything that is off or interesting about you plant for later reference.

This little tip will save you time, water and nutrients too: buckets only need to be changed once weekly, although they might have to be topped up a few times a week once they get bigger. Hydroponics can save you time and effort,

and it can also save you money. Growing fruits and vegetables is fun and rewarding once you get the hang of it, and it can also save on gas and grocery bills.

The bucket system is versatile and can be placed almost anywhere as long as the air pump has a dry place above the bucket’s water level.You can even place them in ornamental pots and add them to your deck or patio. They are great for indoor gardens or greenhouses. Even a small bucket can be put in a kitchen window for herbs, or flowers as long as they get full light.

Experiments of this nature are great for children (adults should be present when children are using tools, sharp objects or measuring nutrients). Hydroponics can be an inexpensive hobby for kids and teaches them a great deal about plant growth, a bit of work ethic and a keen sense of responsibility. Let them grow some lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers and I’m sure no child would have a problem making a salad they grew themselves for their family. Let the kids keep their own garden journal and care for their own plants, and help them fix any problems that might arise. MY Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

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Understanding

Heirloomology Healthy, Safe, Eco-friendly

by Matt LeBannister

Get set up to grow only heirloom—warm up your plate and palate with these delicious and distinct peppers.

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The people have spoken and for the first time in ages the availability of heirloom fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers is on the rise. Seed-saving banks that distribute heirloom seeds to the home gardener have become more numerous and popular in recent years and many farmers are making the switch to growing heirloom strains, breaking into this new market in order to meet the demands of concerned consumers. By growing a variety of cultivars many farmers are able to reduce the use of expensive pesticides, creating healthier, safer food and cutting operating costs significantly.

Some grocers have started to specialize in different organic heirloom alternatives to the standard commercially grown hybrid varieties that have dominated produce sections for so many years. This groundswell of change is the result of a lot of hard work and education—growers and consumers alike have begun to seek a better way and the food industry is beginning to listen.

Heirloom or heritage strains are open-pollinated plants that are true, distinct breeding varieties. In modern agriculture, however, commercial farmers grow hybrid monocultures. They generally grow one type of hybrid vegetable that cannot reproduce, obliging farmers to buy seeds from large seed companies each year. Within a monoculture there is very little genetic diversity, which means that a certain pest or disease could take out the entire crop. This is why farmers must use so much pesticide to protect their crops. For example, the great potato famine was largely the result of a monoculture of potatoes becoming infected with potato blight, leading to the widespread

All you need to successfully overwinter your Grandpa’s Siberian Home Peppers indoors is a sunny windowsill.”

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

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Understanding Heirloomology

starvation of millions. Heirloom crops, on the other hand, not only provide more variety to the consumer who might be tired of the same pepper varieties season after season, but they also allow farming to be safer. If a pest or disease attacks a farm that grows heirloom crops it might wipe out one strain, but genetic diversity would probably allow the other strains to survive.

There are a huge variety of peppers—in every shape, colour, size and degree of heat. The first unique heirloom pepper strain we’ll discuss is called the Black Hungarian. This cultivar is a very hearty strain and can handle colder weather than most types, making it an excellent choice for those of us living in cooler climates. Black Hungarian peppers are quite productive and since they are an early type—maturing in about 70 days— they’re a great choice for short growing seasons.

Black Hungarian peppers produce fruit similar in shape to a jalapeno, except the fruit starts dark purple (almost black) then turns red as it ripens. The foliage is ornamental, with green leaves and purple veins.

In terms of taste and heat, Black Hungarian peppers are known for their great flavour, almost as spicy as a chili pepper but slightly milder in taste, which would put the heat somewhere around 1,000 to 5,000 Scoville heat units (SHUs). The Scoville scale indicates the level of capsaicin (the chemical that creates the spicy flavour) present in the pepper—as a reference, green peppers are rated at zero SHUs and jalapeno peppers are rated at around 3,000 to 5,000 SHUs. Black Hungarian peppers can be easily cultivated indoors in soil or soilless mixes or in hydroponics. During the vegetative stage you should provide the plant with 18 hours of uninterrupted light, followed by 12 hours of uninterrupted darkness.

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The world of heirloom peppers is one of endless possibilities, a world where every pepper has a unique flavour, colour and level of heat.”

They will grow to be 45 to 60 centimetres tall and will produce fruit ranging from 10 to 15 centimetres in length.

Black Hungarian peppers do best in full sun with a pH range from 6.1 to 6.5 and they can be forced into blooming by switching the photoperiod to 12 hours of uninterrupted light followed by 12 hours of uninterrupted darkness—although they will often begin to flower on their own.You must self-pollinate these peppers when gardening indoors. To best accomplish this, use a small paintbrush—once your peppers begin to flower, simply touch the end of the paintbrush inside each flower a couple of times a day, which should ensure the spread of pollen from flower to flower.

Another excellent heirloom pepper is the Matchbox pepper, a variety of the Super Chili pepper. Matchbox pepper plants grow 45 to 60 centimetres in height and produce small, five centimetre fruit that begins green and turns red as the fruit ripens. The peppers are often eaten when green, but have a little extra sweetness to them once they turn red. Matchbox peppers are quite fiery—they can be as hot as 30,000 SHUs—and while the thick skin found on these peppers allows them to retain their flavour, it does make drying them difficult.

Matchbox peppers can be easily cultivated indoors. Peppers germinate best in warm environments, so when starting seeds use a heating mat or place the seeds in a warm place such as the top of a fridge or a sunny windowsill. Just be careful not to overheat the seeds, as they will go dormant if temperatures get above 35°C. Matchbox peppers have pretty much the same requirements as Black Hungarian peppers, except that they are less tolerant of cooler temperatures and they are not recommended for short outdoor growing seasons as they can take 80 to 90 days to mature.

Another type of heirloom pepper—rare, and one of the most unique I have ever come across—is called Grandpa’s Siberian Home Pepper. This type of pepper plant is really small, growing just one to 45 centimetres in height. Grandpa’s Siberian Home Peppers produce small fruit that are just 1.2 centimetres to 2.5 centimetres in length and are red to purple in colour. The heat level of this particular pepper is around 1,500 to 4,000 SHUs, giving it a nice amount of heat while still maintaining good flavour.

What makes Grandpa’s Siberian Home Peppers so unique is that this variety was developed in Siberia and was bred to overwinter indoors. They are grown outdoors throughout a short summer season and at the end of the season they are just beginning to mature, which is when you bring the plants indoors—where they will continue to produce fruit all winter long. And the best part is that this variety can thrive on lower levels of light: all you need to successfully overwinter your Grandpa’s Siberian Home Peppers indoors is a sunny windowsill.

Another great type of heirloom pepper is the Chimayo pepper, which originates from the farming town of Chimayo, New Mexico, famous for its chili. Chimayo pepper plants grow to be 45 to 60 centimetres tall and will produce tapered fruit that is 10 to 15 centimetres long. These peppers begin green and will turn red as they ripen and are said to be one of the most magnificent-tasting peppers available. The heat levels are on the mild side—measuring only 1,000 to 5,000 SHUs—and they are ideal for drying because their flesh and skin is quite thin.

The Chimayo pepper, which can be easily cultivated indoors, has a few characteristics that set it apart from other peppers.

It’s an early variety, maturing in 60 to 70 days, and will actually begin to flower when it is still a seedling about 10 centimetres tall. This makes the Chimayo pepper a great choice if you are growing them outdoors in a short-season part of the world— and when growing them indoors, it simply means more peppers in less time.

The world of heirloom peppers is one of endless possibilities, a world where every pepper has a unique flavour, colour and level of heat. Whether you are using peppers for chili, pickling, drying or just adding spice to any of your favourite dishes, it is hard to imagine ever tiring of the never-ending variety of peppers that can be grown in your own home. MY Resources: heritageharvestseed.com ecoseeds.com seedlibrary.com davesgarden.com

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

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SOIL

BASICS (Get Excited!)

by Lee McCall

Growing in soil doesn’t need to be complicated— Lee McCall shares his favourite ways to set up a basic soil-based garden.

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Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

Soil gardening is one of my favourite methods for producing flavours, aromatics, essential oils, terpenes or resins from fruiting, flowering or blooming plants or trees. Growing in a healthy organic soil mix helps eliminate some of the hassles or problems that finicky or oversensitive plant varietals might run into in certain hydroculture systems. A quality organic potting soil provides ease of adaptation to plant-specific needs in terms of nutritional uptake, beneficial microbial colonization, moisture retention and available oxygen for the root system, with little room left for error. These important factors can be controlled and influenced according to individual style—and every gardener will re-invent the wheel, so to speak, in order to come up with a system that works to his or her satisfaction.

The first step I focus on is developing a mix that is just right for me. Everyone has different opinions about what the ideal soil mix is comprised of—for example, is a soil that holds more water or less water more effective and what are the pros and cons of each formulation? My personal preference is a denser soil mix that holds more water weight and tends to take longer to dry up. Coco and forest humus—I prefer Alaskan—possess exceptional water-retention properties and provide an ideal refuge for beneficial microbes. Along with a high-quality peat, these are the three primary ingredients that comprise the base foundation for what, in my opinion, is the ideal soil mix.

White sphagnum peat moss has decent capillary action and tends to hold less water than coconut coir, but increases the cation exchange capacity of nutrients. Currently, I favour an equal 50/50 ratio of Alaskan humus to high-quality coconut coir—the darker the better. Once this is thoroughly and evenly mixed, I take two parts of it and cut in one part peat and perlite at a 60/40 ratio. Perlite increases drainage properties and aeration in any soil or soilless mix. A chunkier grade is preferred nowadays, it seems—compared to the traditional BB-sized stuff that used to be found in many cheap potting mixes. Finally, 10 per cent high-quality worm castings should be added to the total volume of the mix. Castings are a readily available source of plant nutrients that will stimulate growth and enrich the overall body of your soil mix.

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Soil amendments are available by the boatload and more appear on the market every day.

Worm castings, bat and seabird guanos, kelp or seaweed meals, oyster shell, azomite, crab meal, poultry litter, pyrophyllite clay, bone and fishbone meals—these are just a few of the many popular natural and organic amendments that will enrich the soil and provide complete nutrition in a time-released formula that is fully customizable to the grower’s preference. The more dry amendments that are available in the soil mix, the fewer liquid concentrated nutrients you’ll need to add, so long as the necessary elements are available to the plant. However, before

Coco and forest humus…possess exceptional waterretention properties and provide an ideal refuge for beneficial microbes.

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

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Soil Basics

create due to the constant capillary you go and dump boxes of addiaction in the root system—these tives into your fresh new soil base, roots are ductile but thick and research what they will do for your usually fill up any available space in crop and in what increments. I use and around the growing medium. I two separate mixes—one designed assume that because the capillary acto stimulate lush, green, leafy struction initiates the uptake of the proper tural growth in plants that are in a amount of oxygen and water, the plant vegetative stage and the other containis able to produce the exact root system ing higher amounts of phosphorous and it needs for constant feeding and ideal potassium, designed to encourage healthy elemental absorption. fruit set and flowering development in Watering your soil is a topic that evblooming crops. Transplanting from eryone seems to have different opinthe vegetative mix into the flowering Is a soil that holds ions about. How much water should one allows the crop an easier transigo into each container? How often tion from one stage of growth into more water or should I water? Should I fertilize with the next with less overall stress and less water more every watering? This is an issue that provides the required nutrients in is often made to seem more complex effective? satisfactory ratios. Used in combinathan it really is—you should water the tion with certain liquid supplements soil based on the types of plants being or compost teas, peak growth potential grown. For example, fast-growing annuals is achievable at all stages with most plant that develop vigorous root and shoot growth varieties with these two formulations. in order to produce a fruit, flower or seed at the Once your ‘super soil mix’ is complete you end of their cycle might consume larger volumes can either let it sit so it can compost or pot it up of water than cacti, succulents or plants like orchids that and use it right away. Obviously space is a factor if a comabsorb water and nutrients through foliage and aerial roots. posting stage is in your plans, as the soil mix will need a place Water uptake and consumption will also depend on the size of to sit for somewhere between 45 to 90 days. Composting will the plant and pot, as well as on temperature and humidity. A break down many of the dry fertilizer elements into plant-available forms ready for absorption, but if this stage is skipped it isn’t simple rule of thumb is to ensure that the temperature remains around 24°C when the lights are on and that there is anythe end of the world—the addition of enzymes and microbial where from 30 to 50 per cent relative humidity in the garden. inoculants will help make the non-available nutrient elements This type of atmosphere will promote healthy water uptake by in the soil mix available to your plants.You may also reuse old the plants along with a dense and vigorous root system so long soil if you wish, from the previous harvest. This can be labourintensive but it also helps reduce overall waste from the garden. I as harmful pathogens are not introduced. Water every plant would avoid reusing soils that were exposed to root rot, mildews only when it needs it, judging by weight. This can be tedious or root parasites for obvious reasons. Also, a good soil mix should work for larger gardens, but it will ensure that every plant gets touched at least one time in the grow room. I feel a plant is maintain a spongy consistency throughout its growth cycle—a ready for water when I can pick it up easily, despite its overall healthy rhizosphere and soil mix when fed properly will have mass. Four litres of water weighs roughly eight pounds withimmense amounts of fungal activity, causing the soil to stay out any elements added into it, so once fertilizer is added to spongy and absorbent. the mixture and given to the plant there is a noticeable weight Before potting up any containers, try lining the bottom of gain. I feel that providing water to the plant approximately six your containers with LECA (light expanded clay aggregate) or to 12 hours before it can show any signs of wilt is ideal, if posdiatomite to cover up the drainage holes and prevent soil from sible. If you’re using liquid fertilizers or supplements, I recomfalling out. This will enhance oxygen supply to the roots and the drainage properties of the soil mix and increase feeder root mend consistent usage as opposed to alternating feedings with water—use lower nutrient concentrations more often and it production. Lately, air-pruning containers, both fabric and inshould provide the intended results. jection moulded, are my primary choice for both soil and soilThese guidelines are my recommended ‘basic building blocks’ less gardening—both root growth response and uptake of water any time I am gardening in soil.You’ll likely want to change a seem to benefit from the air-pruning technology the containfew things in your garden, but that’s okay—this guide is iners impose.You’ll also eliminate the hassle of root circling and tended to be for reference only, not a set of immutable rules that becoming root bound too quickly by implementing these will apply in the same manner to every soil-based garden. Every types of containers in the grow room. Wick systems are also grower faces a different situation and every garden reflects the advantageous as they require less watering maintenance. I defigrower’s individual style. MY nitely favour the kind of root development that wick systems

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Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

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2 WIN Smart Pots (25) The patented Smart Pot is a soft-sided, aeration fabric container that holds its shape and can even support large trees. It air-prunes roots to enhance a plant’s root structure.

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This prize pack includes a 1,000 watt UNO magnetic ballast and a matching UNO socket and hood. UNO magnetic ballasts are switchable to run either metal halide or high pressure sodium lamps, plus they are super quiet and run cool. The UNO hood is airtight with a sealed tempered glass lens. Visit ncwgs.com

Draw closes on June 15, 2012. For complete contest rules, go to maximumyield.com/winbig Prizes may not be exactly as shown.

Vitamin P:

Plasma Lamp Technology

by Philip McIntosh

As if you didn’t have enough choices for grow room lighting. Plasma lamps are getting positive reviews from the industry and independent researchers. Read on for a description of plasma, and the advantages of this popular technology. > >

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Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

Plasma Before asking the question ‘what is a plasma lamp?’ it seems useful to first ask—‘what is a plasma?’

According to WolframAlpha (the computational knowledge engine at wolframalpha.com) a plasma is “a fourth state of matter distinct from solid or liquid or gas and present in stars or fusion reactors; a gas becomes a plasma when it is heated until the atoms lose all their electrons, leaving a highly electrified collection of nuclei and free electrons.”That’s exotic stuff.

The temperature of a plasma found inside a star or fusion reactor can reach millions of degrees, and obviously that kind of temperature could not be maintained in any feasible grow light.The basic structure of the plasma is the same in both, though; it’s just at a lower pressure in the grow light, so the temperature is a lot more manageable.

Plasma lamps are available for use in a variety of applications—such as building, parking lot and street illumination, as well as specialty and horticultural lighting—and there are several companies currently active in the marketing of these products.

Principle of operation The modern plasma lamp is a descendant of the electrode-less lamps first demonstrated by Nikola Tesla in the late 1800s. Electrode-less lamps are excited by electrical energy introduced from outside the lamp enclosure, unlike more familiar lamps in which power is passed directly to an electrode mounted inside a bulb.

Although the exact construction of a plasma light varies from one manufacturer to another, the principle of operation is the same. There are three basic components: first, the emitter, which includes the bulb and its internal components; second, a radio frequency (RF) source; and third, a power supply and control circuitry. A functional grow light also includes a reflector, UV shielding, RF shielding (to prevent interference with computing and communication equipment) and a heat sink.

A plasma bulb contains either a proprietary gas mixture and a metal halide or an inert gas mixture and a dab of sulphur. In one popular bulb variety, an RF electric field is set up around and focused toward the bulb through a dielectric (non-conducting) waveguide. The energy of the electric field ionizes the gas, creating a plasma. The plasma in turn vapourizes the metal halide (or sulphur), which glows with a bright white light. Spectral analysis of the emitted light shows that it compares favourably to natural sunlight over the range of visible wavelengths, although the spectrum of the lamp will differ depending on manufacturer models and dimming.

Since plasmas have a reputation for existing at rather high temperatures, one might think that a plasma lamp would get very hot—maybe even hotter than a high intensity discharge (HID) lamp. This is not the case, however: an ample heat sink is provided to carry heat away from the back of the fixture so that the temperature in front of the light is actually quite low.

While the UV output of sulphur plasma fixtures is quite low, metal halide plasma lights do generate a certain amount of ultraviolet (UV) radiation. In one fixture, a transparent shield in front of the bulb absorbs the harmful short wavelength UV-C rays, blocks most of the UV-B rays and lets the UV-A ones pass through.

The modern plasma lamp is a descendant of the electrode-less lamps first demonstrated by Nikola Tesla in the late 1800s.

Advantages of plasma lights Plasma lights have characteristics that set them apart from other sources of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). When first examining a plasma lamp you might be surprised by how small the bulb is—a plasma bulb is tiny compared to a typical HID lamp or fluorescent tube. A plasma bulb is actually closer in size to a light emitting diode (LED) than any standard type of lamp, its small size providing excellent luminous efficiency.

Some important features of plasma lamps include: • Long bulb life—expected up to six years, with little change in output intensity or spectral characteristics.

• Plasma lights use up to 50 per cent less energy than other light sources, drawing only a few amps per unit.

• Low heat output means lamps can be placed close to plants.

• No orientation constraints. Lights can be mounted in any direction, with no reduction in bulb life expectancy. Plasma lamps should be mounted according to manufacturer’s specifications, however, since some drivers do mandate specific mounting limitations.

• Plasma lamps are dimmable and can be operated from 20 to 100 per cent of full output.

• Lamp power supplies can easily be controlled remotely.

• Fast turn on and restart time.

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

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Vitamin P: Plasma Lamp Technology

An ample heat sink is provided to carry heat away from the back of the fixture so that the temperature in front of the light is actually quite low.

What about cost? Plasma lights are significantly more expensive up front than comparable HID lights—a single unit runs about $1,400, compared to several hundred dollars for an HID system. However, considering the savings in bulb replacement and electricity consumption, the total cost of ownership over a period of years is competitive for plasma lighting.

Plant response to plasma lighting Published data on plant growth under plasma lamps has shown promising results so far. In a paper published in The Journal of Experimental Botany, researchers reported that cucumber plants grown for 13 days using a quality brand name of plasma AS-spectrum lamps achieved a dry weight 2.3 times greater than plants grown under fluorescent tubes (FT), and 1.6 times greater than plants grown under high-pressure sodium (HPS) lamps. The AS-spectrum plants were also four to five times taller than the FT and HPS-grown plants. This was a relatively short experiment, however, and it did not provide data for a full life cycle and fruiting of the cucumbers.

Additional research in 2010 showed that cucumber fruit of “standard size” were produced in 10 fewer days than is normally achieved in commercial cultivation. Research conducted by the TNO Horticulture Field Lab (an independent research organization in the Netherlands) tested several lamps in 2010— including plasma lamps—and obtained variable results, but did note excellent fruit quality of one of the plasma brand of lights.

In 2011, researchers grew basil, snapdragon, tomato and zinnia using either HPS or plasma lights. The lamp heights were adjusted so that all plants received similar levels of PAR, with a supplemental light period of 18 hours per day in addition to natural light in a greenhouse. Snapdragon and tomato showed slightly greater dry weights under plasma, while basil and zinnia showed slightly less. In general, though, there was little difference between treatments.

and he reports that light spread and penetration into the canopy has been good. In discussing one plasma model he says, “The lamp is compact, but the built-in hood is designed to spread the light across a 1.2 by 1.2 metre area quite evenly. In our store we have three units in operation for people to see. Two of the plasma units are used to produce high-quality basil that we sell to a local Italian restaurant for making pesto. The rate of growth under these lights is superb. Another light is used for a full 1.2 by 1.2 metre table of tomatoes. The plants grow fast, have copious flowers and set fruit in about three weeks.”

In talking to Sean it is clear that he is sold on plasma lights.

“We’re amazed at the performance of the lights. Everyone who comes in the store is amazed as well. Everyone who has bought a light has come back for more, and that’s the best marketing of all.”

Could the era of the red and blue bulb be ending? Probably not yet, since it takes time for a new technology to be proven and become established, although the cost of plasma lights will no doubt come down as the market grows and more manufacturers get in the game. Coker sums it up this way, “Plants have evolved under a full spectrum. It’s what they not only desire but need to reach their fullest potential.Yes, one can take an isolated portion of the spectrum, like blue or red, power up the lights and make them work, but a much lower-power full spectrum can work just as well.” MY Visit maximumyield.com for references

A grower’s perspective Sean Coker, an indoor gardening retail storeowner, has been conducting experiments comparing the results obtained with plasma, metal halide (MH) and HPS lamps. He has grown a variety of plants, including basil, tomatoes, squash, various spices and several varieties of flowers.

In his research, Coker positioned plasma lights as close as 20 centimetres from the plants with no detrimental heat effects, 58

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

Nikola Tesla

The Short & Vicious Life of a

Fungus Gnat

Be prepared. Cool spring weather is the perfect time for these infectious killers to invade your indoor garden.

Fungus gnats can invade any garden at any time. Although they are typically harmless to healthy plants, a healthy garden is not always immune. Even experienced gardeners can be puzzled by the symptoms of fungus gnats. The larvae of these pests can destroy a garden, working out of sight as they chew the plant roots and drain the sap. Even the adults—tiny flies that hang around the bottom of the plant and run across the surface of the grow medium—look harmless. Usually growers only see a few tiny flies, and sometimes the flies lay their eggs near the plant’s roots and escape unnoticed by the gardener.

This hidden activity by fungus gnat larvae separates gnats from top growth, attacking insects like thrips or spidermites. Even careful examination of the root zone may miss these tiny larvae; the grower would see only damaged and discoloured roots. Meanwhile, the baby bugs are:

1. Chewing and damaging root tissue, interfering with nutrient and water uptake.

2. Sucking sap from roots that was necessary for the needs of the plant.

3. Infecting the damaged roots with fungus disease.

This last activity is the reason these insects got their name. They carry disease spores on their bodies that can infect the damaged roots easily, creating more problems for the grower.

New fungus gnat problems in a garden usually occur in autumn (as cooler weather forces insects indoors) or spring (when over-wintering eggs outdoors hatch and the flies find their way into the grow room).

Fungus gnat problems can happen anytime of the year, indicating that an infected plant somewhere in the garden or nearby (houseplants or outdoors near

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

59

“Plants recovering from fungus gnat problems still face the risk of disease problems. Remember that these bugs can spread fungus spores to damaged roots.”

the indoor garden) is serving as a continual source of these pests. Often the problem is traced to stock plants, which are usually neglected, old and root bound—and good riddance because of the severe damage these pests can inflict on a garden, store staff and growers must be aware of how to identify and handle them. Bright yellow leaves, normally shaped, no wrinkles or spots and very slow growth are strong clues to their presence in the garden. Have growers search for tiny flies—like fruit flies—hovering near the base of the plant or on the grow medium. Once spotted, treatment of all plants must be immediate, not just the ones that look sick.

The larvae can already be present and start to damage plants that still look healthy, and untreated larvae turn into more flies to re-infect the garden.

Plants recovering from fungus gnat problems still face the risk of disease problems. Remember that these bugs can spread fungus spores to damaged roots. As a precaution, these plants should be given a treatment with a fungicide a day or two after pesticide application. A root drench is more effective than spraying the top growth. Follow a similar procedure to your use of pesticides, drenching the entire root zone with fungicide solution, with irrigation pumps off for at least several hours. Left over fungicide in the root zone will not interfere with nutrients, so it’s not necessary to drain and replace the fertilizer mix.

Yellow sticky cards are very useful as an early warning system for these flying pests, since the gnats are often attracted to the bright yellow surface. Soon, new gangs of these bugs will be pulling home invasions on our gardeners as the milder weather will allow gnat eggs to hatch outdoors.

Fortunately, treating this pest is very straightforward. Potting soil insecticide or fungus gnat powders will eliminate fungus gnats from the root zone, usually with a 60

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

single application of pesticide. These products are very gentle on the plant, making them useful for all grow mediums.

I do not recommend stronger, outdoor pesticides since these can cause major damage or death to an indoor garden. Stick with safe, effective products that allow plants to recover quickly.

Using these products with potting soil plants is very simple: just sprinkle the powder on to the soil and water tin. MY

DO YOU KNOW?

1.

3.

4.

Plasma lights all feature three basic components: the emitter, a radio frequency source and a power supply and control circuitry. A functional grow light also includes a reflector, UV shielding, RF shielding and a heat sink.

2.

Rhubarb is an ancient crop grown for centuries in China although it was only introduced to North America in 1772.

Mycorrhizal fungi and Trichoderma fungi often get confused, but mycorrhizal fungi are not parasitic like Trichoderma fungi.

The great potato famine was largely the result of a monoculture of potatoes becoming infected with potato blight, leading to the widespread starvation of millions.

5.

The temperature of a plasma found inside a star or fusion reactor can reach millions of degrees.

A whopping 80 per cent of cancers are said to be attributable to diet and environmental toxins.

7.

8.

6.

Two to three hydroponically grown gherkin plants will give yields high enough to provide a year-round supply of pickles.

In addition to being a powerful biological control agent, trichoderma is a major pest in commercial mushroom production where it is known as “green mould.”

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

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you tell us

A candid interview with Innovating Plant Products’ CEO Robert J Kaiser, who tells us about their product testing success rate, the importance of using only the finest raw materials and keeping the Mad Scientist and the Fat Man in line…

Maximum Yield (MY): How did your company get started? Who founded it and who are the major players in it now?

Robert J Kaiser: The company started in 2009 in my garage—it was two friends and I. We came up with a simpleto-use program for plants to thrive on that was inexpensive.

As for who’s running this out-of-control train? Well, first we have ‘the Mad Scientist’—he is the genius behind a lot of the tried-and-true products on the shelves today. Then there’s ‘the Fat Man’—he is the ultimate mixologist. What he does with the formulas is amazing! The blends always come out perfect.

And then there’s me, ‘the Dictator’—I do my best to keep these two geniuses grounded and on track. And that’s the Innovating Plant Products team.

our company is purchasing, which requires a lot of patience—we work constantly to find and secure top-quality natural products made in Canada. We do pay more by doing this, but the final outcome speaks for itself.

MY: What is the science behind your products? What makes them superior to others on the market?

Robert: We just give the plant what it needs, nothing more.

We make sure to use the best-quality ingredients we can find—we do not cheap out on raw materials! Our humic and fulvic product is the backbone to our line. We own the leonardite mine and we extract our own humic and fulvic.

To paraphrase the little old lady from Frank’s Red Hot: “We put that @$&* in everything!” We also add natural silica, simple carbs and a whole host of organics to our products— it’s the blend of natural materials and organics that makes our products shine. One of the most important divisions in

MY: Do you have plans to expand into other territories or markets? What are some of the things you have to consider before you think about expansion?

Robert: At this time we are pretty happy in Western Canada. We have a lot of end-users moving back east and requesting our products, so we are picking up stores back there. We are constantly expanding our plant to keep up with the demand. The bigger our company gets the more complicated our systems get. We will only expand as long as it doesn’t affect the product, though. Some companies only look at the quick dollar, but we are here for the long run— we want our customers for life.

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Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

MY: How big a company are you? What are your facilities like and how many people do you employ?

Robert: The size of our company is somewhere between that little girl selling Kool-Aid on the street corner and General Motors. Seriously—we are growing very rapidly. We employ several full-time and part-time staff and we have also helped our local economy, with some of our suppliers needing to hire extra workers because of our requirements. It’s a great feeling when you get to that stage.

MY: Can you explain how your Typhoon Cleanse product works?

Robert: Typhoon Cleanse is a proprietary formula designed to eliminate mineral residue from the root zone to the tip of the plant, which in return improves the quality of the product. Just ask the stores that sell this product—it works!

MY: What is your testing process like? Do you have a giant garden somewhere where you try out all your products? Do you ever experience monumental failure with a new product you’re testing?

Robert: Testing? Who needs testing? We stick our fingers in each batch and if it doesn’t burn them off then we release it! Seriously, though—we thoroughly test every product that comes off our lines. We have three independent test facilities in different parts of BC. We test on four varieties of plants.

And we have never felt the pain of failure to date—we have had batches that we didn’t release for a variety of reasons, but never because of all-out failure.

MY: What have you got in the R and D stages? What’s your next big product?

Robert: We are always in R and D mode. We are constantly improving our products, adding and subtracting raw materials all the time. If there is a way to improve our product with an organic substitute we are going to do it—and without a price increase in almost three years as well, I might add. There is no need to add any new products to our line, unless of course plants begin to mutate and require something new—but I feel that this will not happen in my lifetime.

MY: Where do you spend your marketing dollars?

What’s been most effective for you?

Robert: This is the first advertising we have done. We really didn’t have the need for it. I would have to say that store support and word of mouth have been extremely effective. Maximum Yield is the icing on the cake for us. We are now reaching people from all over the country. The response that we have received from our first ad has been exceptional. These are very exciting times for us here at Innovating Plant Products! MY

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talking shop

AT A GLANCE Company: Peterborough Hydroponic Centre Owner: Michael Kidd Manager: Kirk Berardi Location: C347 Pido Road, Unit 15 Peterborough, ON Phone: 1-705-745-6868 Web: hydroponics.com Motto: “One stop shopping.”

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If you’re in a rock and roll band like Kirk and Michael from Peterborough Hydroponic Centre, don’t quit your day job—just get into retail hydroponics like these guys did and help change the world one satisfied customer at a time.

When Kirk Berardi’s brother first introduced him to Michael Kidd, they realized they had a lot in common—a love of rock and roll and a burning desire to play in a band. Who knew then that all this would lead to a successful career in the retail hydroponics business?

“Yeah, that’s really how it all started,” laughs Peterborough Hydroponic Centre manager Kirk. “Mike and I are both musicians and we started playing together and he mentioned I should work for him.

My brother was the drummer in the band and he first introduced us.”

Mike asked Kirk to come and work for him in the hydroponics business, something he’d been involved in for about 13 years at the time. Kirk thought that it sounded like a lot more fun than managing a carpet store—his old day job—and a solid working relationship was born.

“Mike had been an electrician for about 10 years prior to starting up the store, but he realized that he was way more interested in gardening than in being an electrician. Mike had noticed there was a niche in Peterborough for a hydro store. I had absolutely no background in gardening when he took a chance and hired me to help out—he trained me from the ground up.”

Mike was right—there was a niche in Peterborough for a hydro shop, but it wasn’t easy getting it off the ground in those early days before today’s big hydro boom. It was all baby steps back then.

“It was really just Mike and his wife at the beginning,” Kirk explains. “He started the shop as a small family operation. It was pretty hard back then—Mike didn’t have a lot of stock. His sales were just barely enough to keep him going. Then he got hooked up with Homegrown Hydroponics early on and became a distributor for them.”

Marketing was a problem for Mike in the beginning, according to right-hand man Kirk. “Building a clientele, advertising the shop and educating people was tough at the start,” he tells us, “mostly because the shop is kind of out of the way.”

So they had a hydroponics shop in a remote location with few customers and a limited amount of stock on the shelves—what did these guys do to turn it all around? Kirk thinks it’s because they did their homework and passed that knowledge on to the customers, building trust and loyalty with each transaction.

“What people like is knowledgeable staff. We go out of our way to help people and we spend hours with customers—it’s

definitely worth it. We’re really friendly, you can just walk in and ask us questions; we will answer your questions and help you out to the best of our ability whether you are buying product or not. If we can teach someone to grow and have success then we’ve just added another loyal customer. We can solve any problem—if there’s something wrong and you want to fix it we can definitely help you. And if you’re a beginner, we won’t confuse you with equipment and terms you’re not ready for—we cater to the level of the gardener,” Kirk says.

Now that the store is on its feet, the location issue has actually become a plus—Kirk and Mike stock just about everything a gardener could need and the nearest competitor is a long drive away. “Yup,” confirms Kirk, “we just carry more stock than anyone else and the next closest store to us is 40 minutes away. We carry a lot of Canna products, as well as Grotek, Botanicare and Green Planet, plus our own line of nutrients called PHC and our own feed, grow and bloom formulas that we make onsite.”

Mike’s a handy guy and his clientele appreciates it. Besides starting a proprietary PHC hydroponic line, he started manufacturing grow tables, reservoirs and other grow system equipment onsite and now the store supplies a lot of Ontario’s gardening community with this specialty equipment.

The main thing that helped Mike grow his business, though, according to Kirk, was that he was just so interested in growing itself. Mike’s enthusiasm for hydroponics was infectious.

“We try to be cutting edge,” says Kirk.

“We’re definitely hydroponics lovers!

Mike taught me that you can get the best results from hydroponics—and we can teach anyone how to grow as well as any expert in the world, right in their own basement. We feel you can have better success than any outdoor grower and we can help our customers create the perfect environment inside. We do have a lot of outdoor customers, especially right now, since it’s a super-busy time for outdoor growing—and we always offer them new products and tips. We’re knowledgeable in

Charles Theriault, Kirk Berardi and Mike Kidd

outdoor growing too; we’re very outdoor-growing friendly, but our strength really lies in hydroponics.”

Mike and Kirk don’t plan to do anything to change their winning formula.

“We still read, research and ask questions every day,” says Kirk, “and we definitely get a lot of good information from Maximum Yield. We keep it in the store at all times—I have the one on

how to produce seedlings and cuttings and I don’t even bother telling people how to do it anymore—I just hand them the magazine! The secret to our success, though? We just like to help everyone— from beginners to professionals. We have the patience to work with anyone, with any problems. We’re actually pretty smalltown friendly—and I think that’s really why people keep coming back.” MY Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

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MAXIMUM YIELD distributors

ALBERTA Double AA Garden Supplies Ltd. Bay 9 2820 Centre Avenue Calgary, AB T2A 7P5 403-273-9188 ------------------------------------------------

Garden Centre

Your Plant’s Personal Trainer

IncrediGrow Garden Centre 103-7500 MacLeod Trail SE Calgary, AB T2H 0L9 403-255-0740

Canadian Garden Supply 1730 Highway 3 Castlegar, BC V1N 4W1 250-304-2911 Sun Beam Central 3444 River Road Chemainus, BC V0R 1K4 250-246-1379 Chilliwack Indoor Garden Centre Ltd. 311 - 44500 South Sumas Road Chilliwack, BC V9R 5M3 604-824-2944 ------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------Quick Grow 1-1204 Edmonton Trail Road NE Calgary, AB T2E 3K5 877-426-4769

Valley Indoor Geenhouse Supplies 103 - 44195 Yale Road West Chilliwack, BC V2R 4H2 877-702-1169 ------------------------------------------------

Twins Greenhouse 13 - 2235 30th Avenue, NE Calgary, AB T2C 7C7 403-273-2881

Art Knapp 2855 Wentworth Road Courtenay, BC V9N 6B7 250-334-3024

Hydro-Lite 12249 Fort Road Edmonton, AB T5B 4H7 780-477-7860

Just-N-Tyme Greenhouse and Hydroponics Supply 1094 McKenzie Avenue Courteney, BC V9N 3C5 250-703-0476

Box 82008 Yellowbird RPO Edmonton, AB T6J 7E6 780-885-4769 Fusion 5 Organic Gardens Inc.

Pacific NW Garden Supply 1139B Industrial Road 3 Cranbrook, BC V1C 5E3 250-489-4761

PO Box 5821, 120B 1 Street, SW High River, AB T1V 1P3 866-652-2594

Cowichan Hydroponic Supplies 4 - 2955 Jacob Road Duncan, BC V9L 6W4 250-746-0244

BRITISH COLUMBIA Interior Gardener’s Supply 221 - 1 McDermid Road, Box 1257 100 Mile House, BC V0K 2E0 250-395-3399 A.R.I. Research 120 - 4111 Hastings Street Burnaby, BC V5C 6Y7 604 433 6067 Jon’s Plant Factory 3925 East Hastings Burnaby, BC V5C 2H8 604-294-3000 Solar Greenhouse and Hydroponic Supply 4752 Imperial Street Burnaby, BC V5J 1C2 604-438-7244 Hygro Gardening Supplies Inc. 1791 Tamarac Street Campbell River, BC V9W 5Y7 250-286-0424

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------------------------------------------------

West Coast Gardens Equipment and Supplies 113 - 805 Notre Dame Kamloops, BC V2C 5N8 250-851-2992

Duncan Plants & Ponics 6512 Bell McKinnon Road Duncan, BC V9L 6C1 250-746-5591 Better Than Nature Enderby 1900 George Street Enderby, BC 250-838-5502 Growing Solutions Box 650, 1150 Bowlby Road Errington, BC V0R 1V0 250-248-1101 Kamloops Sunshine Gardens Greenhouse Superstore 5 - 1744 Kelly Douglas Road Kamloops, BC V2C 5S4 877-372-2270 Room 2 Grow 901 Laval Crescent Kamloops, BC V2C 5P4 250-372-3663

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

Long Lake Nursery Hydroponic Supply 4900 Island Highway, North Nanaimo, BC 250-758-5012 Progressive Growth 41 - 1925 Bowen Road Nanaimo, BC V9S 1H1 800-405-4769 ------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------Better Than Nature Kelowna 725B Evans Court Kelowna, BC V1X 6G4 250-868-8978 Oasis 12 - 1771 Cooper Road Kelowna, BC V1Y 7T1 250-763-4769

Smart Grow 2422 - 23 Avenue, NE Calgary, AB T2E 8J4 403-236-9999

Niloc Wholesale Inc.

Retail Stores listed alphabetically by city in each province.

Pacific NW Garden Supply Unit C1 - 1810 Kyle Court Kelowna, BC V1Z 3Z4 250-769-4791 ------------------------------------------------

Tridon Hydroponics 12 - 1708 Bowen Road Nanaimo, BC V9S 1G9 250-755-1900 -----------------------------------------------Vancouver Island Garden Supply Ltd. 4770 Wellington Rd Nanaimo, BC V9T 2H3 250-585-8881 Kootenay Grower’s Supply Nelson 721-G Front Street Nelson, BC V1L 4B8 250 353 1887

Sal’s Indoor Garden Supplies & Hydroponics 187 Asher Road Kelowna, BC V1X 3H5 778-753-5549 -----------------------------------------------BC Hydroponics 3 - 20092-93A Avenue Langley, BC V1M 3Y4 604-888-5716 Green Earth Garden Supplies Unit 5, 19300, Langley Bypass Langley, BC V3S 6K2 604-532-7106 GreenStar Plant Products Inc. 9430 198 Street, Langley, BC V1M 3C8 604-882-7699 Excel Air Systems 200 - 20170 Stewart Crescent Maple Ridge, BC V2X 0T4 604-728-0757 Pacific NW Garden Supply 109 - 20110 Lougheed Highway Maple Ridge, BC V2X 2P7 Planting Plus Greenhouse Supplies and Hardware 22394 Dewdney Truck Road Maple Ridge, BC V2X 3J2 604-466-5949 Triple Tree Nursery 20503 Lougheed Highway Maple Ridge, BC V2X 2P9 604-465-9313 Nutty Zone 5 & 6 - 33201 London Avenue Mission, BC V2V 4P9 604-814-2223

Pacific NW Garden Supply Unit 14- 104 Silica Street Nelson, BC V1L 4M1 250-354-4767 Buckerfields 587 Alberni Highway Parksville, BC V9P 1J9 250-248-3243 Sundogz Garden Supply & Hydroponics 30 - 1365 Old Alberni Highway Parksville, BC V9P 2B8 250-954-2046 Better Than Nature Penticton 101 - 78 Industrial Avenue, West Penticton, BC V2A 6M2 250-770-8978 Advanced Wholesale Superstore 406 - 1952 Kingsway Avenue Port Coquitlam, BC V3C 6C2 604-945-0174 ------------------------------------------------

PG2 1798 Nicholson Street Prince George, BC V2N 1V6 250-612-4769; 1-888-817-4769 Skytek Indoor Solutions 833 4th Avenue Prince George, BC V2L 3H5 800-975-9835 Spruce Capital Feeds 1694 Quinn Street Prince George, BC V2N 1X3 250-564-6010 Omega Garden Inc. 1695 Peligren Place Qualicum Beach, BC V9K 2S3 250-752-1301; 888 976 6342 Garden Effects 200-2288 #5 Road Richmond, BC V6X 2T1 604-214-6620 Pacific Rim Indoor Garden & Lighting 170- 12111 Bridgeport Road Richmond, BC V6V 1J4 604-232-4468 Natural Choice Garden Centre, The 5500 48th Avenue, SE Salmon Arm, BC V1E 1X2 250-832-7151 ------------------------------------------------

S.A. Ecoline Products Ltd. 5671 Auto Road, SE Salmon Arm, BC V1E 4S1 250-833-4769 -----------------------------------------------Nico’s Nurseryland 830 - 28th Street, NE Salmon Arm, BC V1E 2S7 250-804-2004 Mylo’s 3837 Squilax Anglemont Hwy Scotch Creek BC V0E 1M0 250-955-0525 Green & Clean Energy Co. Ltd. 2875 Cudlip Road Shawnigan Lake, BC V0R 2W0 250-732-7224 Happy Acres Greens & Backroad Hydroponics Equipment 2058 Cambie-Solsqua Road Sicamous, BC V0E 2V0 250-836-3878

Aurora Lighting 750 3rd Avenue Prince George, BC V2L 3C5 250-564-9888

------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------Backwoods Hydroponic & Garden 10590 Carlson Road Prince George, BC V2K 5E5 250-963-9541

Kootenay Bubble Refinery PO Box 81, Slocan Park, BC V0G 2E0 250-226-7753 ------------------------------------------------

Garibaldi Nurseryland & Florist 38917 Progress Way, Squamish Industrial Park Squamish, BC V0N 3G0 604-892-3892 Coastal Growers Supply 103 - 12824 Anvil Way Surrey, BC V3W 8E7 604-599-1778

Indoor Jungle 2624 Quadra Street Victoria, BC V8T 4E4 250-388-5611 Mr. Fertilizer 9 Burnside Road, West Victoria, BC V9A 1B2 250-381-4644

Fast Eddie’s Systems 108 - 18760 96th Avenue Surrey, BC V4N 3P9 604-888-2499

Progressive Growth 111 - 1790 Island Highway Victoria, BC V9B 1H5 250-391-9519

Garden King Supplies 7533 135 Street, Unit 109 Surrey, BC V3W OM8 604-598-1912

Sunwest Garden Supply 2035 Unit B Louie Drive Westbank, BC V4T 1Y2 250-768-1636

Pacific NW Garden Supply 15374-103A Avenue Surrey, BC V3R 9V8 604-588-4769; 800-443-4769

Good Guys Gardening Center 250 McKenzie Avenue, South Williams Lake, BC V2G 1C6 250-392-2069

Warehouse Garden Supplies & Hydroponic 109 - 8173 128 Street Surrey, BC V3W 4G1 604-543-3177 A+ Gardening Supplies 1450 Venables Street Vancouver, BC V5L 2G5 604-876-4769 BN Garden Supply 4493 Boundary Road Vancouver, BC V5R 2N3 604-431-2977 Double AA Garden Supplies Ltd. 2908 Commercial Drive Vancouver, BC V5N 4C9 604-876-8837 Pacific NW Garden Supply 2137 East Hastings Street Vancouver, BC V5L 1V2 604-254-4765 Vancouver Garden Supply 4894 Fraser Street Vancouver, BC V5V 4H5 604-879-8167 Advanced Garden Supplies 7979 Aspen Road Vernon, BC V1B 3M9 250-545-9545 AJs Pets & Things 3219 - 31st Avenue Vernon, BC V1T 2H2 250-549-3222 Better Than Nature Vernon 3506 25th Avenue Vernon, BC V1T 1P4 250-260-4466 Northern Lights Greenspace 3 - 2706 45th Avenue Vernon, BC V1T 3N4 250-558-4757

Trees Company Nursery & Garden Supplies G9 C17 RR1, 7030 Powell Road Winlaw, BC V0G 2J0 250-226-7334 MANITOBA All Grow Distributors 410 Madison Street Winnipeg, MB R3J 1J1 204-231-1694 Better Than Nature Winnipeg 2B - 2 Donald Street Winnipeg, MB R3L 0K5 204-453-3032 Gro Pro International Hydroponics 101-904 Porthee Avenue Winnipeg, MB R3G 0P4 204-956-1389 Kleen Gro Hydroponics 218 Osbourne Street South Winnipeg, MB R3L 1Z3 204-475-7096 My Two Sons 2 - 2055 McPhillips Street Winnipeg, MB R2Y 3C6 204-339-3489 Nature’s Nutrition 1819 Portage Avenue Winnipeg, MB R3J 0G4 204-889-2979 Northern Lights Hydroponics 129 Regent Avenue East Winnipeg, MB R2C 0C2 204-415-5106 Ready Set Grow!

375 Henderson Highway Winnipeg, MB R3C 2H2 204-668-GROW

NEW BRUNSWICK ------------------------------------------------

Dieppe Hydroponics 988 Champlain St. Door #3 Dieppe, NB E18 1P8 506-384-4769 -----------------------------------------------Craft N’ Grow 60 Micmac Road, Eel Ground, NB E1V 4B1 506-624-9317 Ultimate Hydroponics PO Box 1191, Hampton, NB E5N 8H2 506-639-5948 Scott’s Nursery Ltd. 2192 Route 102 Highway Lincoln, NB E3B 8N1 506-458-9208 Atlantic Hydroponics & Greenhouses Inc. 42 Brandon Street Moncton, NB E1C 7E8 506-858-0158 Jardins Notik Gardens 798 Gray Road St-Charles, NB E4W 4N9 506-876-9100 21st Century Gardening 20 Bayside Drive, St. John, NB E2J 1A2 506-657-9982 NOVA SCOTIA Den Haan’s Garden World 12688 Highway 1, Brickton Annapolis County, NS B0S 1M0 902-825-4722 Woodland Farm Nursery 3544 Highway 1, Annapolis Royal, NS B0S 1A0 902-532-7617 ------------------------------------------------

S&L Worx Hydroponics 135 Main Street, Unit 14 Dartmouth, NS B2X 1R6 902-434-GROW (4769) ------------------------------------------------

Sweetleaf Smoke Shop and Hydroponics 3132 Isleville Street Halifax, NS B3K 3Y2 902-454-6646 ------------------------------------------------

Plant Manager Gardening 12 Industrial Drive, Richmond County Industrial Park Lennox Passage, Cape Breton, NS B0E 1V0 902-345-2112 Steve’s Hydroponic Headquarters 131 Sackville Drive Lower Sackville, NS B4C 2R3 902-865-7764 Greenfield Grow & Brew 69 Wilson Mountain Road Murray Siding, NS B6L 4N7 902-897-6568 ------------------------------------------------

Woodin Nickel Hydroponics 3393 Central West, Highway 4 Pictou County, NS BOK 1H0 902-695-7640 -----------------------------------------------ONTARIO Canadian Hydrogardens Ltd. 1330 Sandhill Drive Ancaster, ON L9G 4V5 905 648 1801 Homegrown Hydroponics Inc. 521 Dunlop Street West Barrie, ON L4N 9W4 705-721-8715 Homegrown Hydroponics Inc. 5386 Greenlane Road Beamsville, ON L0R 1B3 905-563-6121 BMA Hydroponics 404A Maitland Drive, Unit 2 Belleville, ON K8N 4Z5 613-967-9888 D&M Gardens 2961 Main Street Blezard Valley, ON P0M 1E0 705-897-3727 Home Hydroponics 289 Rutherford Road, South 22 Brampton, ON L6W 3R9 905-874-GROW In-Home Gardens 279 Colborne Street Brantford, ON N3T 2H3 519-754-9090 Homegrown Hydroponics Inc. 79 Woolwich Street South Breslau, ON N0B 1M0 519-648-2374 AKA The Indoor Gardener 3014 Highway 29 Brockville, ON K6V 5T4 613-342-2700

Indoor Harvest 3040 New Street Burlington, ON L7R 1M5 289-337-9169 J & C Hydroponics 343 Elgin Street, Unit A Cambridge, ON M1R 7H9 519-622-9969 Pro Grow Indoor Garden Supplies 1710 Bishop St. Unit 2 Cambridge, ON N1T 1T2 519-624-7692 Hydrogarden 1122 Paul Street Cornwall, ON K6H 6H5 613-360-6996 Agrogreen Canada Inc. 1938 Hwy #20, RR#1 Fonthill, ON L0S 1E6 866-650-1136 Diatomite Canada 1938 Hwy #20, RR#1 Fonthill, ON L0S 1E6 866-650-1136 Northern Lights Green Supply 1938 Highway 20 (at 406), RR 1 Fonthill, ON L0S 1E6 905-892-3743 Brite-Lite Indoor Garden Centre 1677 Cyrville Road, Meadowbrooke Plaza Gloucester, ON K1B 3L7 613-842-8999 Happy Hydroponics 68 Princess Street Hamilton, ON L8L 3K9 905-545-8434 Garden Depot 605 Justus Drive Kingston,ON Canada K7M 4H5 613-384-8882 Brite-Lite Indoor Garden Centre 1659 Victoria Street, North, Unit 6 Kitchener, ON N2B 3E6 888-670-0611 AKA The Indoor Gardener 207 Exeter Road, Unit D London, ON N6L 1A4 519-652-4224 Best of Hydroponics 360 Richmond Street London, ON N6A 3C3 519-858-1533 Ontario Growers Supply 1540 Fanshawe Park Road West London, ON N6H 5L8 519-641-3992 Vantage Hydroponics 1 Adelaide Street North London, ON N6B 3P8 519-451-4769

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MAXIMUM YIELD distributors

Markham Hydroponics 95 Royal Crest Court 18 Markham, ON L3R 9X5 905-305-0698 Nature’s Garden Supplies 24-340 Don Park Road Markham, ON L3R 1C5 905-470-7887 All Seasons 1000 Dundas Street East Mississauga, ON L4Y 2B8 905-848-2619 Green Thumb Hydroponics 3075 Ridgeway Drive, 25 Mississauga, ON L5L 5M6 Hydro Culture Emporium Inc. 150 Robertson Rd Unit 22 Nepean, ON K2H 9S1 613-715-9472 ------------------------------------------------

Second Nature Hydroponics 4 - 2133 Royal Windsor Drive Mississauga, ON L5J 1K5 905-403-4769 -----------------------------------------------Nature’s Elements Box 119 500 Mill Street Neustadt, ON N0G 2M0 519-799-5323 ------------------------------------------------

Paradise Gardens Hydroponics 2158 Chiefswood Road Oshweken, ON N0A 1M0 519-445-2275 Ontario Hydroponics 103015 Grey Road 18 Owen Sound, ON N4K 5N6 519-372-1144 Envirotex P.O. Box 21069 Paris, ON N3L 4A5 519-442-1237 Peterborough Hydroponic Center 347 Pido Road, Unit 32 Peterborough, ON K9J 6X7 705-745-6868 Sweet Hydroponic Gardens 776 Bruce Street Renfrew, ON K7V 3Z8 613-433-9600 Bluewater Hydroponics 1173 Michener Road, Unit 12 Sarnia, ON N7S 5G5 519-337-7475 Planetary Pride 372 Queen Street East Sault Ste Marie, ON P6A 1Y7 1-888-215-8970 Indoor Gardens Canada 2952 Thompson Road Smithville, ON L0R 2A0 905-957-6969 Green And Clean 761 Barrydowne Road Sudbury, ON P3A 3T6 800-246-5503

Yield of Dreams Hydroponics 559 Steven Court 12 Newmarket, ON L3Y 6Z3 877-778-7960 ------------------------------------------------

Green Kingdom Hemp 1103 Cassells Street North Bay, ON P1B 4B3 705-494-7169 -----------------------------------------------Brite-Lite Indoor Garden Centre 4373 Steeles Avenue West North York, ON M3N 1V7 416-663-2999

Northern Hydroponics 236 Simpson Street Thunder Bay, ON P7C 3H4 807-623-3666 Greenthumbs Garden Supply 338 Kingston Road Toronto, ON M4L 1T7 647-345-GROW (4769) ------------------------------------------------

grow it all hydroponics for everyone

Grow It All Hydroponics Inc. 165 Geary Avenue, Unit 3B Toronto, ON M6H 2B8 416-588-9595 ------------------------------------------------

Supply For You 3615 Weston Road, Unit 6 North York, ON M9L 1V8 416-741-8062

Homegrown Hydroponics Inc. 26 Meteor Drive Toronto, ON M9W 1A4 416-242-4769

All Grow Hydroponic 391 Marwood Drive, Unit 14 Oshawa, ON 866-606-4723

Hydrotech 2436 Kingston Road Toronto, ON M1N 1V2 416-267-4769

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Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

Retail Stores listed alphabetically by city in each province.

Jungle Hydroponics 2215 Gerrard Street East Toronto, ON M4E 2C8 416-699-0861 Toronto Hemp Company 665 Yonge Street Toronto, ON M4Y 1Z9 416-920-1980 Grower’s Choice Hydroponics 1621 McEwen Drive 14 Whitby, ON L1N 9A5 905-725-GROW Northern Lights Hydroponics 2690 Oulette Ave Windsor, ON N8X 1L7 519-254-4015 Urban GreenHouse Hydroponics & Aguaculture 7635 Tecumseh Road E. Windsor, ON N8T 3H1 519-944-8444 urbangreenhousehydroponics.com ------------------------------------------------

Hydrosphere 2000 2400 rue Canadian, Suite 104 Drummondville, QC J2C 7W3 819-478-9791 Les Serres Binette Inc 2568 Boul. Mercurre Drummondville, QC J2A 1H2 819-478-7195 Pablo Jardinage Drummondville 2080 Joseph St-Cyr Drummondville, QC J2C 8V6 819-475-2525 Les Entreprises Fernand Pigeon Inc. 174 Beaudoin Nord Durham-Sud, QC J0H 2C0 819-858-2777 Hydromax Gatineau 3-1695 Atmec (porte 6) Gatineau, QC J8P 7G7 819-663-7470 Naturexpert Inc. 828 Chemin du Sixième Rang Gatineau QC J8R 3A4

Ozone Environmental Technologies 361 Rowntree Dairy Road Unit 4 Woodridge, ON L4L 8H1 905-264-6618 -----------------------------------------------QUEBEC Un Monde Sans Terre 565 Beausejour Alma, QC G8B 5V3 418-480-3274 Hydro-Tonyque 761 Avenue Gilles Villeneuve Berthierville, QC J0K 1AO 450-836-8088 ------------------------------------------------

Plant-O-Maxx 3169 Blais, Boisbriand, QC, J7H 1H2 514-968-7799

Jardinages Gilles Robert Inc. 574 St-Hubert Granby, QC J0H 1Y5 450-375-3441 Méristème Hydroponique 871 Dufferin Granby, QC J2G 9H8 450-991-1514 Jardinage d’intérieur Huntingdon 72 Dalhousie Huntingdon, PQ J0S 1H0, Canada 450-322-6079 Hydroponique Plus Inc. 405 - 18 Avenue Lachine, QC H8S 3R1 514-634-3677 Biofloral 675 Montee, St. Francois Laval, QC H7C 2S8 877-38-HYDRO

Fernand Corbeil Produits Horticoles - Horticultural Products 17 boul. Ste-Rose Est Laval, QC H7L 3K3 450-622-2710 Hydro Times 1533 Boulevard Cure Labelle Laval, QC H7V 2W4 450-688-4848 Hydromax Laval 295 Boulevard Curé Labelle Laval, QC H7L 2Z9 450-628-8380 ------------------------------------------------

Qué-Pousse - Laval 940 Bergar Laval, QC H7L 4Z8 450-667-3809 -----------------------------------------------Point De Vue 880 chemin St-Féréol Les Cèdres, QC J7T 1N3 450-452-2878 / 1-877-510-2991 Hydro Rive-sud 4721 Boulvard de la rive sud Levis, QC G6W 1H5 418-835-0082 Boutique Grunge 364 rue Sherbrooke Magog, QC J1X 2S1 819-847-4141 Hydromax Mont-Laurier 388 Rue Hebert Mont-Laurier, QC J9L 2X2 888-609-4476 Hydroculture Guy Dionne 8473 - 19th Avenue Montreal, QC H1Z 4J2 514-722-9496 Hydro Expert 12752 Industriel Montreal, QC H1A 3V2 514-624-3091

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B&S Electrique Inc. 2240 Pitt Street, Montreal, QC H4E 4H1 514-931-3817

Gerard Bourbeau & Fils Inc. 8285, 1 re Avenue Charlesbourg, QC G1G 5E6 418-623-5401

Distribution De la Plante 5498 Hochelaga Suite 910 Montreal, QC H1N 3L7 514-255-1111

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Brite Lite Hydroponics 940 Bergar, Laval, QC H7L 4Z8 450-669-3803

Les Grands Jardins Lavel 2900, Boul. Cure-Lavelle Chomedey, Laval, QC H7P 5S8 250-729-2687

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Hydromax Montreal 9300 Lajeunesse Montreal, QC H2M 1S4 514-381-0111

Simplement Vert 8B Georges-Gagne Delson, QC J5B 2E1 514-913-8378 (VERT)

Espace Culture Boutique 17 boul. Ste-Rose Est Laval, QC H7V 3K3 450-622-2710

Hydromax St-Henri 3522 Notre-Dame Montréal, QC H4C 1P4 514-481-3939

International Hydroponique 5478 Hochelaga St Montreal, QC H1N 3L7 514-255-2525

Qué-Pousse - Point-Claire 1860D Sources Blvd Pointe-Claire, QC H9R 5B1 514-426-5057

Comptoir Richelieu Inc. 350, du Collège Sorel-Tracy, QC J3P 6T7 800-363-9466

Pépinière Eco-Verdure 965 Boul. Sauvé St-Eustache, QC J7R 4K3 450-472-6474

Momentum 11289 London Avenue Montreal, QC H1H 4J3 888-327-4595

Boutique Echologik 829, cote d’Abraham Quebec, QC G1R 1A4 418-648-8288

Ferme Florale Inc. (Botanix) 2190 Blvd. Laurier (route 116) St. Bruno de Montarville, QC J3V 4P6 450-653-6383

Amazonia Hydroponique 394 Boulvard Arthur-sauve St. Eustache, QC J7R 2J5 450-623-2790

Pousse Magique Atwater 3522 Notre-Dame, ouest,

Boutique Echologik 790 St - Jean Quebec, QC G1R 1P9 418-648-2828

Hydrobec 2145 Lavoisier Suite 4 Ste-Foy, QC G1N 4B2 418-687-1119

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échologik 798 St Jean Québec, QC G1R 1P9 418-648-2828; 418-648-8288

Chanvre du Nord Inc. 38 DeMartigny est St-Jérome, QC J7Z 1V4 866-565-5305

Hydroculture Guy Dionne 1990 Cyrill-Duquet Local 150 Québec, QC G1N 4K8 418-681-4643

Hydro Sciences 4800 de la Cote-Vertu Blvd.

Saint-Laurent, QC H4S 1J9 514-331-9090

Hydrotek 12300 Rue de l’avenir St. Janvier, QC J7J 2K4

Pousse Magique 515 rue Lanaudiere Repentigny, QC J6A 7N1 450-582-6662

Pablo Jardinage Shawinigan 5023 Boulevard Royal Shawinigan QC J9N 6T8 819-731-9766

St-Jean Hydroponique 747 rue St-Jacques St-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, QC J3B 2M9 450-346-9633

Fred Lamontagne Inc. 356 Chemin du Sommet Est, Rimouski, QC G5L 7B5 418-723-5746

Sherbrooke Hydroponique 3545 King Est, Sherbrooke, QC J1G 5J4 819-829-9299

Hydromax Terrebonne 1674 Chemin Gascon Terrebonne, QC J6X 4H9 450-492-7447

Qué-Pousse - Sherbrooke 4394 Bourque Rt. 112 Rock Forest, QC J1N 1S3 819-563-0353

Plant-T-Plantes 3439 boulevard Fiset Sorel-Tracy, QC J3P 5J3 450-780-0008

Hydromax Trois-Rivières 6157 rue Corbeil Trois-Rivières Ouest, QC G8Z 4P8 819-372-0500

Hydro Plus 149 avenue Principale A Rouyn Noranda, QC J9X 4E3 819-762-4367

Qué-Pousse - St-Constant 6264 Route 132 Ste-Catherine, QC J0L 1E0 450-635-4881

Pablo Jardinage Intérieur 2 Des Ormeaux Suite 500 Trois-Rivières, QC G8W 1S6 819-693-6000

Rap Hydroponique 5700, rue Martineau Local 7 Saint-Hyacinthe, QC J2S 8B1 450-768-5188

Benoit Dupuis Extincteurs Inc. 2503 Victoria Street Ste-Julienne, QC J0K 2T0 450-831-4240

Rap Hydroponique 326 Rue Vachon Trois-Rivières QC G8T 8Y2 819-376-5959

Hydroponique 2000 84 Boul. Curé Labelle Ste-Therese, QC J7E 2X5 450-971-0726

Hydromax Val-David 895 route 117 nord Val-David, QC J0T 2N0 888-320-0129

Montreal, Qc H4C 1P4 514-481-3939 Qué-Pousse - Montreal 2215 Walkley Montreal, QC H4B 2J9 514-489-3803 Summum Bio Teck 2100 Ontario Est Montreal, QC H2K 1V5 866-460-2226 Univert 4 Saisons 2100 Ontario Est Montréal, QC H2K 1V5 514-527-2226 Vinexpert De L’Est 6384 Beaubien est Montreal, QC H1M 3G8 514-354-8020 XXXtractor Inc. 1228 St. Marc Montreal, QC H3H 2E5 514-931-4944 www.xxxtractor.com Qué-Pousse - Mont.

Tremblant 462 Montée Kavanagh Mont-Tremblant, QC J8E 2P2 819-429-6145 MegaWatt Hydroculture 636 Route 364 Morin Heights, QC J0R 1H0 450-226-2515 Fleuriste Savard Inc. 1833 boul. Louis-Frechette Nicolet, QC J3T 1M4 819-293-5933

Culture Uni Vert 36 rue de Martigny E Saint-Jérôme, QC J7Z 1V4 www.cultureunivert.com

P.P.M. Hydroponique 504 Rue du Parc St. Eustache, QC J7R 5B2 450-491-2444 ------------------------------------------------

Val d’Or Hydroculture 1261 3e Avenue Val d’Or, QC J9P 1V4 Horticulture Piégo 228 Pierre Bertrand Sud Vanier, QC G1M 2C4 418-527-2006 Qué-Pousse - VaudreuilDorion 3666-D, boul. Cité des Jeunes Vaudreuil-Dorion, QC J7V 8P2 450-424-0306 Centre Jardin Denis Brodeur 15 Nord C.P. 658 Waterloo, QC J0E 2N0 Sonador Horticulture Inc. 819-479-2941 SASKATCHEWAN Busy Bee Upholstery Box 811, 134 5th Avenue East Gravelbourg, SK S0H 1X0 306-648-3659 B&B Hydroponics and Indoor Gardening 1404 Cornwall Street Regina, SK S4R 2H7 306-522-4769 Waterboy Supply 401 Dewdney Avenue East Regina, SK S4N 4G3 306-757-6242 YUKON, NUNAVUT and NORTHWEST TERRITORIES Porter Creek Indoor Garden Centre 1307 Centennial Street Whitehorse, YT Y1A 3Z1 867-667-2123 WE THANK ALL OF OUR DEDICATED RETAILERS FOR OFFERING MAXIMUM YIELD TO Their cUSTOMERS.

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

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MAX-mART

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Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012

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COMING UP NEXT ISSUE

Hydroponic Starts Raising healthy, young hydroponic starts involves an optimal environment, ideal substrate and proper technique. In part one of this series, we cover materials and techniques for raising hydroponic starts.

Aloe Propagation for Profit Aloe plants are known for their healing properties. They also make great profit crops when sold as babies. Provide proper growing conditions and some tough love, and watch your aloe plants and profits grow.

The Root Whisperer Think you know how plant roots function? Think again. This seemingly simple topic is dissected to help growers truly understand the role of roots in the garden.

www.maximumyield.com Maximum Yield Canada (July/August) will be available in July for FREE at select indoor gardening retail stores across Canada, and on maximumyield.com Subscriptions are available at maximumyield.com/subscriptions.php and maximumyield.com/subscribe-digital.php

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Maximum Yield Canada | May / June 2012