Maximum Yield USA March 2012 by Maximum Yield

USA

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Plant’s a

Life It Starts with a Seed www.maximumyield.com

2012

Indoor gardenING expo DENVER

GREAT LAKES

SAN FRANCISCO

LONG BEACH

March 10 - 11

June 2 - 3

July 21-22

NOVEMBER 3-4

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MICHIGAN

CALIFORNIA

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Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

CONTENTS March 2012

FEATURES 88

160

120

110 A Plant’s Life - From Seed to Seed Producer

Double or Nothing: A Grower’s Life

Building an Effective Fertilizer Regimen

by Casey Jones Fraser

by Eric Hopper

Photosynthesis, Maximized.

It Starts With a Seed

110

Senescence Simplified

by Dr. Lynette Morgan by Grubbycup

by Frank Rauscher

126

130

Six Ways Plants Move

DEPARTMENTS

142

Maintain Your Grain

From the Editor

140

Growing for Health

152

Is Root Zone Heating Really Necessary? Part One— the Basics

Letters to the Editor

150

Beginner’s Corner

MaximumYield.com

194

You Tell Us

Ask the Experts

196

Talking Shop

MAX Facts

198

Max Mart

Product Spotlight

201

Distributors

Green Thumb Gardening

214

Do You Know?

214

Coming up in April

by Matt LeBannister by Philip McIntosh by Shane Hutto

by Chris Pianta

160

Biodynamic Compost

168

Plants Know Best: Life Force and the Garden

by David Perkins

by Evan Folds

108

Avant-Gardening

178

Immunity

118

Tips and Tricks

186

In Control: A Guide to Achieving the Perfect Indoor Climate

by Frank Rauscher

by Stephen Keen

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

FROM THE EDITOR | Jessica Raymond A plant’s life is fascinating; if you pay close enough attention you might just witness extraordinary actions in motion. Plants eat, move and respirate but did you also know they excrete, sleep and communicate? The more we know about how plants exist in the world, the better able we are to maximize the myriad factors that keep them happy and growing—and keep our yields growing too! One such factor is photosynthesis—by learning how to maximize this necessary plant action we can substantially encourage growth rates and improve plant development. Another important but rarely discussed factor is how (and why) plants move and react (aka tropisms).You might be surprised to learn that plants move in six different ways according to light, gravity, water, force contact, chemical stimulus and temperature. This issue of Maximum Yield offers the grand tour of a plant’s life. In addition to photosynthesis and tropisms, we’ve also covered seedlings, soil basics and stress; food, flowering and fertilizer; and much, much more. This issue is about more than just a plant’s life; it’s also about the life of food—from seed or clone to harvest and beyond—and also the life of a

grower. Our experts covered every possible angle. Dive into this fascinating life story…of a plant! Celebrate the launch of the 2012 ‘Grow Like A Pro’Tour with MaximumYield in the Mile High City—Denver, Colorado—for free.You read right! Simply head to indoorgardenexpo.com, follow the Denver, CO link, click on the Free VIP Ticket and join us and hundreds of growers from around the world March 11 for this exciting event. Jessica Raymond, editor editor@maximumyield.com

Giveaway

Winter months can be productive gardening months, even when the weather outside is dreary. A small indoor hydroponic garden can help chase away wintertime blues. Grubbycup’s Simple Hydroponics is written for the complete hydroponic novice to gently introduce the concepts of hydroponics. For your chance to win a copy of Grubbycup’s Simple Hydroponics, simply like Maximum Yield on Facebook, or follow us or mention us on Twitter and you’ll be entered into the draw. One lucky reader will be chosen from the bunch.Visit Facebook.com/MaximumYield and @Max_Yield and enter today.

contributors Casey Jones Fraser owns Garden

Eric Hopper has over 10 years of

Lee McCall is an alumnus of Johnson &

Chris Pianta AgroSci CEO, has over

Evan Folds is president of

25 years of experience in the lawn and garden market. He managed two successful startups and developed programs for Franks Nursery, FTD, Profile Soil Products, Martha Stewart, Agway and GROWELL. Chris is a holder of two United States patents. He earned his B.S. in Environmental and Professional Horticulture from UConn.

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 Geschke has a B.S. in biology

Stephen Keen has been an indoor gardening hobbyist for nearly 10 years. His personal successes with his garden led him to want to bring new ideas, mainly water-cooling, to the mainstream, which led to the founding of Hydro Innovations.

Frank Rauscher is a certified horticulturist and consultant for the garden industry. He’s a contributing author to several publications and was writer and editor of the Green Pages. Frank finds that analyzing plant stress and finding solutions is exciting. He is very much at home bringing new ideas to the field of horticulture and indoor gardening.

Philip McIntosh is a science and

Dr. Lynette Morgan holds a B. Hort.

Grubbycup has been an avid

Shane Hutto is a technical advisor

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.

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.

experience in the hydroponic industry as both a retail store manager and owner. He continuously seeks new methods and products that could help maximize garden performance. Eric resides in Michigan where he and his family strive for a self-sufficient and sustainable lifestyle.

indoor gardener for over 20 years. His articles were first published in the United Kingdom, and since then his gardening advice has been published in French, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Czechoslovakian and German. He is also considered one of the world’s leading authorities on crochet hydroponics.

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. from Baldwin Wallace College. He also completed an environmental geology degree from the University of Akron and received his M.S. in 2002. Matt is an adjunct professor at Kent State University.

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.

at Grodan Inc. He earned a bachelor’s degree in horticulture at Oklahoma State University and received a research assistantship for his master’s degree. During his graduate studies he researched production and extraction of surface waxes on horticultural commodities. His passion for growing is complimented by his experience in many types of controlled environment operations and design.

Matt LeBannister developed a

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.

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

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 USA | March 2012

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 $70 for the USA 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 favorite growing mag. Subscribing to Maximum Yield guarantees you get 12 copies a year; the $70 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

Growers Love Lynette

Dr. Lynette Morgan’s article Instrumentation + Troubleshooting (Maximum Yield USA January) really hit home for me. I was dealing with yellow and stunted plants and, after Googling the issue and trying all the tricks recommended on forums, I was fed up. Until now. Not only was I overwatering but I discovered a Pythium problem had built up. My plants are much happier now. Thanks Kevin Ryan

MY Favorite Website

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

Hopper’s Supporter

I hadn’t read anything by Eric Hopper before, but because of this one article (The Science Behind Light, Maximum Yield USA February), I’ve determined that Hopper has a gift. Marc Sheevers

Subscribe to Win

Every month we give away a special issue of Maximum Yield to one lucky E-News 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

Our Biggest Fan

Lil Vic (Victor Trevino) is a 7-yearold gardening enthusiast from Stockton, California. He has been first in line at the Maximum Yield’s Indoor Gardening Expos for the last three years. Lil Vic enjoys growing flowers, cucumbers and corn.

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 USA | March 2012

COMING UP ON THE WEB Upcoming Events

‘Grow Like A Pro’ in Denver, Colorado, March 11, 2012 Maximum Yield will be returning to Denver, Colorado March 11 to kick off the 2012 Indoor Gardening Expo ‘Grow Like a Pro’ Tour. Maximum Yield and the Colorado Convention Center welcome growers from around the world to participate in a full day of networking, education and entertainment. Visit indoorgardenexpo.com for complete event details.

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 Magazine free to your inbox every month. Subscribe to the digital edition of Maximum Yield by simply filling out the form at maximumyield.com/subscribe-digital.php

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. 14

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

VOLUME 12 – NUMBER 12 March 2012 Maximum Yield is published 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. 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 Lisa Lambersek - lisa@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 USA DISTRIBUTION Aurora Innovations BWGS General Hydroponics Humbolt Wholesale Hydrofarm Hydro International National Garden Wholesale / Sunlight Supply Nickel City Wholesale Garden Supply R&M Supply Tradewinds CANADIAN DISTRIBUTION Brite-Lite Group Biofloral Eddis Wholesale Greenstar Plant Products Inc. MegaWatt Quality Wholesale UK DISTRIBUTION Direct Garden Supplies Growth Technology Future Harvest Development Europe Nutriculture UK Dutch Pro Maxigrow AUSTRALIAN DISTRIBUTION Dome Garden Supply House N Garden Futchatec Growth Technology Hydraspher

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

article title ASK THE EXPERTS

Can LED lights work for all stages of growth? Thomas Johnson Yes, LED lights can work for all stages of growth. There are many LED lighting systems available with spectrums tailored for specific stages of growth (e.g., more blue wavelengths for vegetative growth and more red wavelengths for blooming). It should be noted, however, that LEDs used for horticulture are a relatively new technology and there are some drawbacks. My tests with LEDs have shown that the current LED lighting systems available are more suitable for vegetative growth or plants that are short in stature.

Eric Hopper

Keep on growing, Eric Hopper

What nutrients would be suitable for growing saffron? I am going to have a go at it this year for the first time and want to grow it in hydroponics. Cheers Bill Saffron requires just a general purpose, complete hydroponic nutrient. For the first few weeks after the dormant bulbs are planted the flowers and first leaves use the reserves provided in the bulb for growth, so minimal nutrients are required. However, after flowering, the plant must then produce a lot of foliage for a period of eight to 10 months, which feeds the developing bulblets from which the crop is propagated and during this stage the plants need a vegetative growth hydroponic formulation or product. I suggest you contact a hydroponic retailer and obtain a general purpose vegetative hydroponic nutrient product—this has to be a hydroponic product as many of the general purpose liquid plant foods you can buy from garden suppliers are not suitable for soilless production. The hydroponic nutrient product should contain all of the following elements: N, P, K, Ca, S, Mg, Fe, Mn, Zn, B, Cu, Mo and you will need to dilute this according to the instructions on the product (typically hydroponic nutrients come as two or three part stock solutions that are diluted with water). Also you will need an EC meter to check the concentration of the nutrient solution—EC meters can be purchased from your local hydroponic retail shop. Saffron should start off at a low EC of around EC 1.0, increasing to EC 2.2 when foliage has grown. Also, it needs reasonably high quality water (rainwater should be fine, but avoid city water supplies due to the water treatment chemicals they contain). Good luck with the saffron, Dr. Lynette Morgan 20

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

Dr. Ly nett

e Morg an

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

MAX FACTS

hydroponic news, tips and trivia

Scientists Make Fuel from Algae German scientists have developed a new catalytic process that permits the effective conversion of biopetroleum from microalgae into diesel fuels. A team from the Technische Universitaet Muenchen has been testing fuels made from microalgae as an alternative to biofuels processed from conventional oilcontaining crops. Using a new nickel-based catalyst has allowed the scientists to produce useful fuel products from algae for the first time. Team leader Johannes A. Lercher said the new algae-based products had a number of advantages over currently available biofuels, particularly because “their use for fuel production does not compete with food production." (Source: sciencedaily.com)

MAXFACTS hydroponic news, tips and trivia Ancient Peruvian Popcorn Discovered Ancient corncobs found at two mound sites on Peru's arid northern coast indicate that ancient Peruvians were eating popcorn much earlier than previously reported—even before they began using pottery. The corncobs were between 3,000- and 6,700-years-old, according to a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and indicate that although corn was still not an important part of their diet, the ancient inhabitants of Peru did consume it in several ways, including popcorn and flour corn. Dolores Piperno, curator of New World archaeology at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and a co-author of the study, called the find “very important for understanding how corn became the crop we know today." (Source: sciencedaily.com)

More Bad News for Bees Honeybee deaths have been linked to contaminated talc exhausted from farm machines by scientists from Purdue University. Corn and soybean seeds are routinely treated with sticky insecticides and talc is added to help them process through planting machinery. The contaminated talc showed extremely high levels of the insecticides—up to 700,000 times the lethal contact dose for a bee. Christian Krupke, associate professor of entomology and a co-author of the findings, suggested that the talc emissions be limited or eliminated, saying that the contaminated material “stands out as being an enormous source of potential environmental contamination, not just for honeybees, but for any insects living in or near these fields.” (Source: sciencedaily.com) 22

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

MAX FACTS

hydroponic news, tips and trivia

California Strawberries Threatened by Cold Snap California Central Coast strawberry growers have been sprinkling their crops at night to try to prevent the flowers and fruit from being frozen and destroyed during a cold snap. Crop damage is expected and farmers fear competition from growers further south in the state where the weather is much milder and stocks remain undamaged. Approximately 9,630 of California’s 37,336 acres of strawberry fields have been affected by this year’s unusually cold weather. (Source: ksby.com)

Edible Schoolyard NYC ‘Cookie Wheat’ Tests Confirmed USDA Scientists with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Soft Wheat Quality Research Unit have confirmed that two inexpensive, readily available and relatively simple tests are reliable tools for indicating how good promising new wheat varieties might prove to be as future sources of whole-grain cookie flour. Americans eat a lot of cookies—and not nearly enough whole grains, which is the impetus behind the ongoing study. The scientists used 14 different commercial varieties of soft wheat for this research in a thorough examination of the tests' reliability as an early screen for a new soft-wheat flour's performance in whole-grain cookie doughs. (Source: sciencedaily.com)

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

The Edible Schoolyard New York City movement—an initiative that helps teach elementary school children about healthy eating through the establishment of schoolyard organic gardens—has only been operating since October 2010 and their pilot garden in Brooklyn is already producing tomatoes, eggplant, Asian pears, summer squash, cucumbers, pumpkins, kale, sweet potatoes, onions, broccoli, corn, figs, grapes, watermelon, lemon sorrel, red okra, collards, chard, sweet and hot peppers, radishes, asparagus and blueberries. Edible Schoolyard NYC worked with Columbia Teacher’s College to create a curriculum that meets New York City and New York State education standards. Classes often end with tastings and for many students it’s the first time they’ve ever eaten a salad or an organic vegetable. The initiative’s long-term goal is to have 25 school gardens in the city, at least one in each borough, to bring healthy change to the school food systems and integrate gardening and nutritious eating into children’s education. (Source: reneesgarden.com)

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

MAX FACTS

hydroponic news, tips and trivia

New York Rooftop Garden A New York hydroponics company is producing 100 tons of organic herbs and vegetables each year in a 15,000 square foot rooftop facility, using up to 20 times less water than a conventional soil-based garden producing the equivalent amount of produce would require. The entire facility, which operates year-round, is powered by solar panels and employs an intricate system of environmental controls that monitors light, temperature and humidity. The produce is sold to local restaurants and cafes. (Source: hydroponicshabitat.com)

Beet Farmers Receive Scientific Support USDA scientists are helping sugar beet producers increase harvests, protect their produce from disease and increase revenues. Research conducted by the Agricultural Research Service—USDA's chief intramural scientific research agency—supports the USDA priority of promoting international food security. ARS scientists spent two years studying 30 commercial sugar beet varieties from the field to the processing factory, looking at root diseases and identifying genetic markers linked to disease-resistant traits. (Source: ars.usda.gov)

Pecan Theft on the Rise Thieves in Georgia and California are targeting pecan trees as global demand makes the nuts a hot commodity. Farmers are losing thousands of pounds of nuts to thieves who are “coming literally in the middle of the night, shaking nuts out of trees, collecting them up and then taking them out on their vehicles,” according to one source in the industry. Some growers are carrying guns to protect their crops; sheriff's departments are on high alert and stealing more than $500 worth of pecans is now considered a felony. (Source: thedailymeal.com)

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

MAX FACTS

hydroponic news, tips and trivia

Rotary First Harvest of Oregon After discovering that Oregon was the most food-insecure state in the nation, Rotarians in Klamath County, Oregon established Rotary First Harvest of Oregon, a cooperative initiative to stock the local food bank that has attracted help and contributions from the public and private business sectors, the community-at-large and even work crews from the Klamath County jail.

So far the Rotarians and their allies have purchased a refrigerated container to store donated produce, established a trucking network to bring produce from remote locations and coordinated with the Oregon State University Extension Office to spray their apple and plum orchard for a viable harvest and to quadruple the size of their demonstration garden to benefit the food bank. (Source: firstharvest.org)

Boulder County Jail Project Continues Since 1995, master gardeners from Colorado State University have been mentoring inmates from the Boulder County Jail on a one-acre food production garden that provides fresh vegetables and fruit for the jail kitchen as well as for the community food share program. Drip systems, composting and water-wise techniques ensure that this big garden has the lowest possible impact on the environment. The program aims to teach inmates life skills by letting them grow their own food and build self-esteem through their efforts. (Source: bcmg.colostate.edu)

Maximum Yield USAâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;|â&#x20AC;&#x201A;March 2012

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

MAX FACTS

hydroponic news, tips and trivia

‘Green Truck’ Movement Gains Momentum

Tomatoes Branch Out

Food trucks are all the rage in cities across North America right now, but there’s a new kind of truck out there—and it’s green. The ‘Green Truck’ phenomenon started in Los Angeles with one truck selling food made with nothing but organic, locally-grown produce harvested within 160 kilometers. The idea proved very popular and today the company operates five trucks: three in Los Angeles, one in San Diego and one in New York. Green Trucks run on bio-diesel fuel and leftover vegetable oil from their own cookers. All utensils, plates and packaging are either recyclable or biodegradable and the food is prepared in a solar-powered commissary. (Source: voanews.com)

Scientists working at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have discovered that tomato plant yields can be increased by manipulating a molecular timer or so-called ‘maturation clock’ that signals plants to create more branches—and ultimately more fruit. The trick is to learn how to manipulate the clock just enough to cause a modest increase in branching, said team leader CSHL assistant professor Zach Lippman, who added that uncontrolled branching would result in plants “not having the resources to set…flowers into fruits.” (Source: sciencedaily.com)

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

YOUR GUIDE TO THIS MONTH’S

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

Nuke Em’s Breakthrough Formula Controls Plant Pests Naturally Nuke Em multi-purpose insecticide and fungicide from Flying Skull Plant Products kills the eggs, larvae, and juvenile and adult insects that feed on and kill plants. Nuke Em targets all species of spider mites, thrips, whiteflies, mealy bugs and other plant insect parasites. Insects, mildew and mold cannot become immune to Nuke Em’s effects. Nuke Em is comprised of 100 per cent food grade ingredients that are commonly found in an oatmeal cookie with no oils, soaps or chemical surfactants. It can be used up to and on the day of harvest. Visit your local hydroponic shop for complete details.

EP Ezi Air FM2 Centrifugal Fan The EP Ezi Air FM2 Centrifugal Fan is a high-powered extraction fan that provides clean air for indoor gardens. It includes duct fan clamps and comes with a five-year warranty. Available in 100, 125, 150, 200 and 300 millimeters. Exclusively distributed through Dome Garden Supplies to hydroponic shops in the USA. Visit your nearest authorized retailer for more details on the EP Ezi Air FM2 Centrifugal Fan.

AutoPot Introduces the AirDome The AirDome increases the amount of air around the root zone in potted plants. The AirDome can increase yields by up to 130 per cent. Assembly takes less than 30 seconds. The AirDome is placed at the bottom of the pot, covered with medium and then connected to an air pump. Oxygen is then supplied directly to the plant’s root zone. To maximize the effectiveness of the AirDome use a fluffy mix, such as 50 per cent good quality compost or coco and 50 per cent perlite. The AirDome is ideal for use with AutoPot Watering Systems. Visit an indoor gardening shop near you for more information.

Officially Upgraded - Botanicare’s ReadyGro™ and Cocogro® ReadyGro and Cocogro now include premium high pith coir fiber in a larger 1.75 cubic foot bag. Tests found that smaller particles of coco coir provide plants’ roots with more oxygen and increased growth rates. Botanicare decided to incorporate the blend into all of their soilless mediums. The improved, high pith, coco-based ReadyGro and Cocogro formulas now contain 13 gallons (previously 11 gallons), have higher CEC levels to retain more nutrients and improve plants, health and growth rates. For more information visit your favorite indoor gardening shop.

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

Maximum Yield USA | October 2011

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT Sunleaves Announces New Plant Support Device Reusable Sunleaves Createa-Cage Connectors combine with Sunleaves Steel Stakes to create multiple configurations for plant support. As plants grow and bloom, more connectors can be added or adjusted to support heavy-fruiting branches. Made from durable PVC plastic, these connectors are great for any indoor or outdoor garden. Contact your favorite indoor or outdoor gardening shop for more information.

Gro1 Sulfur Burner The Gro1 Sulfur Burner is the best tool for preventing and ridding your greenhouse of pests and fungus, and works especially well on powdery mildew and thrips. This burner heats the sulfur to the necessary temperature for vaporization (284°F) and will cover approximately 1,000 square feet. Once the sulfur is heated the vapors are released into the air and gently coat the plants. This sulfur coating changes the natural pH on the surface of the leaves, creating an atmosphere that is not suitable for fungus and pest reproduction. Sulfur cup and instructional guide are included. Ask for the Gro1 Sulfur Burner at your local hydroponics store today.

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

Introducing FloraNectar BlueBerry Dream General Hydroponics’s FloraNectar Blueberry Dream is now exclusive to BWGS retailers. This unique blend ensures optimal metabolic rates during the flowering and fruiting phase when nitrogen levels are reduced. It also helps plants regulate enzymes that trigger specific reactions involved in maintaining optimal metabolism. This allows them to achieve a balance between respiration and photosynthesis in high intensity growing environments where the rate of respiration can sometimes exceed the rate of photosynthesis. Visit your local hydroponic shop for more information.

EP Ezi Air Wall Fan The EP Ezi Air Wall Fan is a 16 inch high power oscillating wall fan. It’s 50 watts, 240 volts and 50 hertz. It features threespeed pull cord control and is SAA approved #A/11670EA. The EP Ezi Air Wall Fan comes with a one year warranty. Exclusively distributed through Dome Garden Supplies to hydroponic shops in the USA. Visit an authorized retail shop for more details on the EP Ezi Air Wall Fan.

Pipeline Eight Inch Reflector With Internal Cool Tube This eight inch reflector features highly reflective material on all four side walls and has a built-in 100 per cent airtight Pyrex cool tube that provides less drag to achieve maximum airflow and CFM. It works with all wattage MH and HPS lamps and is completely assembled and ready-to-use. Includes a pre-installed lamp socket with 15 foot power cord and two hanging clips. Dimensions are 22 inches long, 20 inches wide and nine inches high. Ask for Pipeline Reflectors at your local hydroponics store.

Titan Controls® Flo-N-Brew™ Titan Controls® brings you the perfect solution for your compost tea brewing requirements—the Flo-N-Brew™. This tea brewer features Xtreme Gardening Xtreme Tea Brew. This compact and easy-to-use compost tea brewer comes with everything you need to brew two three-gallon batches of premium compost tea for your garden—all you have to add is water. It comes with a three-gallon tea brewer, air pump with hose, Eco 185 submersible pump, fountain kit and two air stones. Titan Controls® - bringing you quality environmental controls and garden systems. Gardening with the gods—what could be better? Visit an indoor gardening shop near you for more information

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

Presenting Dr. Earth’s Metabolic Transformer® After revolutionizing an entire industry with one breakthrough innovation after another, Dr. Earth’s founder and formulator Milo Shammas now offers you his very best Metabolic Transformer®. Milo Shammas invented ProBiotic® based on nature’s intelligence and his understanding of the complex relationship between soil and the root systems of plants. Twelve years later came his next innovation, ProMoisture Hydrate® with Aloe Vera to keep the intelligence alive. Now, with Metabolic Transformer®, he combines ProMoisture Hydrate® with super concentrated ProBiotic® to create a catalyst for amazing results in any soil type. For more information and to purchase Dr. Earth products visit your favorite indoor gardening retail store.

ProTerra Professional High Drainage Mix ProTerra professional high drainage mix (HDM) is made with Hydrotek’s exclusive formula. This porous growing media was created with long-fibered Canadian sphagnum peat moss including large peat chunks and coarse perlite. ProTerra HDM is designed for crops that require higher air capacity and drainage. Fortified with a well-balanced charge of macroand micronutrients, it includes a wetting agent and is pH balanced with dolomitic and calcitic limestone. It is specially designed and developed for high aeration with less weight. Because of its porosity, ProTerra HDM is highly resistant to the formation of algae. Purchase ProTerra HDM from your favorite hydroponic shop today.

New Sunleaves Labels Help Gardeners Stay Organized Sunleaves Super Starter Plant Labels are great for keeping gardeners’ growing spaces organized. Their textured surface holds pencil, ink or marker without smudging. Pencil marks can be erased, so they’re also reusable. Stake Sunleaves Super Starter Plant Labels into growing media or tie directly to plants. Labels are six inches long and come in packs of 20. Sunleaves Labels are now available at indoor and outdoor gardening shop across the country.

The Biggest Yields. Boxed. Europe’s best-selling hydroponic systems from Nutriculture are now available throughout North America. Since 1976, our expertly-engineered hydroponic systems have helped growers achieve optimum growth and yields. Our knowledge, expertise and years of experience have set us apart, resulting in the finest grow products with some fantastic features: low lying tables that offer maximum headroom for plants to grow big; quality, high output and low wattage pumps that don’t overheat nutrient solution; and integrated reservoirs. Our gardens come with easy set-up instructions and a reservoir, tray, pump and delivery system. Ask your local retailer to carry Nutriculture hydroponic systems today.

Continued on page 42 38

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT Continued from page 38

Cutting Edge Solutions Nutrients and Additives Now Available Cutting Edge Solutions’s three part hydroponic nutrients were developed in Northern California where a wide range of water quality issues and diverse microclimates can make hydroponic growing difficult. As well as doing their own trials, the development of Cutting Edge Solutions’s products have been influenced in part by large-scale growers, hobbyists and hydroponic store staff. Through the feedback received by these sources, they have been able to adjust to the needs of their clients and produce outstanding results. Cutting Edge Solutions’s nutrients are designed to be easy-to-use and effective for a variety of plants. For more information visit an authorized Hydrofarm retailer near you.

Introducing Compost Tea in a Bucket Compost Tea in a Bucket is a complete compost tea system for the home and hobby gardener. It comes with everything you need to get started, including the core components of the Vortex Brewer™ system—Earth Compound, Earth Tonic, Earth Syrup, Earth Kelp—and the bucket, air diffuser, pump and tubing. Compost tea cannot be purchased from a shelf. It’s alive, and must be brewed and used immediately for maximum benefit. Compost Tea in a Bucket is easy to use, and contains complete instructions to make brewing compost tea. Ask for Compost Tea in a Bucket at your favorite garden center

HESI - The Science of Growth and Bloom

HESI offers world-class nutrients for plant growth in soil, hydro and coco. HESI is designed to stimulate plant growth and increase yields by integrating optimal vitamin compounds geared toward each phase of the plant’s life cycle. The secret of HESI’s potency is not really a secret at all. It comes from years of experience and scientific know-how combined with a passion for quality. HESI nutrients are imported from Holland and approved for use in California, Colorado, New York and Michigan. Purchase HESI today from your local indoor gardening shop.

Introducing Compost Tea in a Box Containing the core ingredients to our Vortex Brewer™ system, Compost Tea in a Box brings the benefits of compost tea to the home/hobby gardener. Compost tea is alive with trillions of beneficial microbes, and microbes make plant food. You can’t buy a living solution from a shelf. Now you can brew your own. Compost Tea in a Box comes in 20, 40 and 80 gallon kits plus complete instructions on how to brew. If you don’t already have a compost tea set-up, consider Compost Tea in a Bucket. Contact your favorite retailer to get started today.

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

Mykos30 + 8-4-4 Clonex Gel Pints and Quarts Clonex®, a high performance, water-based, rooting compound developed by Growth Technology™ Ltd. is now available in two larger sizes suited perfectly for commercial scale growers. Clonex® is now sold in pints and quarts with the same quality and consistency users have come to trust. Request these new Clonex sizes at a local retail dealer near you.

Mykos 30 is a top-quality blend consisting of a 30/70 mycorrhizae and organic fertilizer mix. Without a proper population of microbes, the nutrients present in your soil will not be fully broken down and utilized by your plant. This is why our organic fertilizer blend contains the most mycorrhizae out of any blend on the market without compromising quality. Our premium mycorrhizae will help establish a healthy biological environment in your soil, allowing your plant to function at its greatest capacity. See the technology for yourself at your local hydroponics shop.

Dr. Earth® Seaweed Concentrate Dr. Earth® Seaweed Concentrate is a powerful liquid fertilizer formulated to work fast anytime of the year, regardless of temperature. Nutrients are released quickly, yet continue to feed for several weeks. Our ultra-premium concentrated formula provides optimum levels of potassium and naturally-occurring multiminerals (synergistically boosted with micronized humic acids for maximum bioavailability and superior bud production). Micronization ensures that organic nutrients are thoroughly available for root absorption on the microscopic level. It’s very easy to use; just mix with water and apply to the soil or foliage. For more information and to purchase Dr. Earth products visit your nearest indoor gardening shop.

Introducing the Hydrofarm Heat Stopper The Heat Stopper blocks radiant (infrared) heat away from your plants with minimal impact on light efficiency. It allows you to move your reflector closer to the plants and will not obstruct airflow. The Heat Stopper facilitates cooling in A/C units by redirecting radiant heat into the airstream, and it installs easily on all popular Hydrofarm reflectors. For more information visit an authorized Hydrofarm retailer near you.

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

Hortilux 1,000 Watt E-Ballast and Lamp Combo The Hortilux Platinum Series Digital Ballast combo was made in Japan and developed for Eye Hortilux. The 1,000 watt e-ballast is 120/240 volt compatible and utilizes a low frequency, square wave form. The Clean Tool™ technology channels airflow within the ballast to reduce accumulation of dirt and debris on critical electronic components. The Hortilux e-ballast is backed by a full five year warranty and is fully compatible with all Eye Hortilux 1,000 watt lamps. Combo includes 1,000 watt Hortilux e-ballast, 120 volt power cord and 1,000 watt Hortilux LU1000B/HTL/EN HPS lamp. For more information visit an authorized Hydrofarm retailer near you.

Introducing Azos (Two Ounce) If you are looking for a way to facilitate your plants’ growth rates, increase fruit and flower yield, and reduce your garden’s need for chemical fertilizers, look no further than Xtreme Gardening’s Azos. Azos fixates nitrogen from the atmosphere and passes it along to the plant, and in return the plant gives Azos tasty carbs. Supplementation of nitrogen-fixing microbes leads to increased water efficiency in the growing area, leading to quicker growth rates and larger yields, as well as the reduced need for chemical fertilizers. Azos also induces secondary metabolite production; this means you will experience tastier and more flavorful yields. Don’t forget to use Azos in place of your normal cloning solution—clone the all-natural way with beneficial biology. Visit an indoor gardening shop near you for more information.

Introducing Blackstar Reflectors This large air-cooled reflector, for six or eight inch ducts, is perfect for those requiring maximum air-cooling and circulation. Its highly reflective surfaces evenly distribute and diffuse light. It also has a tempered hinged glass swing panel with rubber gasket design for easy cleaning and maintenance. It will accommodate all bulb sizes. The pebbled reflective surface allows for even light diffusion. Made with sturdy steel and aluminum construction. Includes 600 volt, 15 foot socket cord with universal connector and measures 44 by 30 inches. The swing glass with spring loaded steel safety wire ensures easy and safe operation. Order it today from your favorite retailer.

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

Introducing Storch Oil From Progress Earth Storch Oil is a jack-of-all-trades. Originally formulated to decrease foam in the Vortex Brewer™ compost tea system, Storch Oil can be used as a pest control or a general plant tonic. Storch Oil contains neem, karanja and menhaden oils, along with living minerals from the sea and ancient oceans. Based on the Viktor Schauberger maxim: “Comprehend and Copy Nature,” Storch Oil is an extremely versatile product that can be used creatively in the garden. Ask for it at your favorite gardening store.

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT Mykos WP 40 Pound Farmer Sak In a single tablespoon of soil, you mighty be surprised to learn that there can be several billion bacteria present. These bacteria are constantly eating away at nutrients and breaking them down into simpler forms that make uptake by plants possible. However, plant roots might not extend into all areas that contain these available nutrients. The addition of Mykos bridges the gap between unavailable nutrients and plant roots. The plant is able to grow to its full potential and in return supplies the Mykos and other bacteria with a constant food source, thus turning your soil into a microbial powerhouse. Visit your local hydroponics shop for more information.

Europonic Rockwool Conditioning Solution Europonic® Rockwool Conditioning Solution™ is an advanced formulation of ingredients that stabilizes and adjusts the pH of rockwool for maximum nutrient utilization by the plants. A premium blend of pH controls and pure mineral salts, Europonic® Rockwool Conditioning Solution™ is ideal for pre-conditioning rockwool and stonewool growing media products before starting seeds, clones and transplants. Most rockwool is naturally alkaline, and manufacturers recommend pre-conditioning in a mild acid solution prior to use for proper pH levels at the root zone. Europonic® Rockwool Conditioning Solution™ has been formulated specifically for this purpose. Visit a hydroponics shop near you for more details.

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

No Spider Mites™

Maximizer Reflector®

Announcing the arrival of No Spider Mites™, available in a concentrated formula or ready-to-use (RTU) spray bottles. No Spider Mites™ quickly and safely kills spider mites on plants. It is ideal for the hobbyists or commercial grower. The 16 ounce No Spider Mites™ size is perfect coverage to kill spider mites on up to six 24-inch plants. The concentrated formula is ideal for cultivators with a large commercial spider mite infestation. It is also great to keep on hand in case spider mites migrate back or to use for future preventive measures. Plus it is 100 per cent organic. Visit your favorite hydroponics shop for more information.

Announcing the return of the Maximizer Reflector®, the newest reflector in the Sun System Reflector lineup. This economical reflector is made with the same 95 per cent reflective German aluminum that we use in all of our Sun System® reflectors. The adjustable beam spread design allows for specific light distribution depending on your garden size and shape. It is lightweight and simple to use. It is pre-wired with a cord and mogul socket. American made in Woodland, WA. Visit an indoor gardening shop near you for more information.

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

article title SPOTLIGHT PRODUCT

Measure Me Digital Measuring Cup Quickly and easily measure both solids and liquids with just one cup. The Measure Me 20 ounce digital measuring cup features a scale built into the bottom of the handle to measure weight and volume. Choose from pounds, carats, cups, ounces, milliliters or grams. Measure Me features a detachable handle for easy cleaning and measures the ambient temperature in Fahrenheit or Celsius. This cup can measure multiple ingredients at one time using the TARE feature, has a pre-set weight function and a 30 minute timer, and a blue backlit display screen. Ask for it today at your local hydroponics store.

Bottomless Bags True Liberty® offers yet another innovation to the marketplace: a bag with no end in sight. These rolls of tube come in lengths of 100 feet and are made in three widths: 12 inches, 18 inches and 24 inches. The Bottomless Bags can be tied off at the top of all our current products. We've also introduced accessories that will make using the rolls a real pleasure. The first is a tube dispenser with a serrated edge for cutting the bag to an appropriate length. Another more exciting option is being able to create your own heat seals anywhere along the length or width of any of our products. For more information visit your favorite hydroponic shop.

The Goose Bag True Liberty® is proud to introduce our new Goose. For anyone having trouble tying off our Turkey Bag, here's our solution: a bird with a longer neck.. If you're growing outside or in a greenhouse your produce will likely be larger than the indoor farmer. So we're giving you a full four more inches = 20 per cent more capacity. Size does matter! Just as thick as our Turkey Bag, the Goose is suitable for all of your heavy-duty applications. Goose Bags are available now in boxes of 10, 25 and 100. For more information visit your favorite hydroponic shop.

Bring Life to Your Soil With California Humus An unparalleled natural soil inoculant, California Humus is the ultimate microbial input material. Rich with a wide variety of beneficial soil organisms and nutrients, you can utilize California Humus to create truly optimal soil conditions that set the stage for maximum crop yield and quality. Humus is Mother Nature’s compost. It is estimated to take anywhere from 100 to 1,000 years for one inch of humus to form naturally. By scientific observation of humification in nature, we are able to amplify the natural decomposition process to produce California Humus, striking a balance between production time and product quality. California Humus is now available at authorized retail shops.

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

article title SPOTLIGHT PRODUCT

Get Brewing

VermiFire Nutrient Rich Potting Soil

The cutting edge True Brewer Compost Tea Brewing System is the only brewer on the market that incorporates both aeration and extraction. We use energy-efficient, ultra quiet pumps to deliver a minimum of one quart per gallon per minute of fresh air to the tea. This ensures that your tea never goes anaerobic. Our easy-to-clean, custom-designed “brew sock” is the ideal mesh for extracting the maximum amount of beneficial microorganisms while keeping your tea free from large clogging particles. True Brewers work great with both hydroponicor soil-based growing systems. True Brewers - heavy artillery for the soil revolution. The True Brewer Compost Tea Brewing System is now available from authorized retail shops.

“It's easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to get permission,” said Grace Murray Hopper, an American computer scientist and United States Navy officer who had the United States Navy destroyer USS Hopper (DDG-70) named after her. Following in Grace’s tradition of performing above and beyond the call of duty we created VermiFire, a potting soil that overachieves at every opportunity. VermiFire was born from the stellar reputation of VermiSoil and bred to be an all-star. We took our proven formula of VermiSoil and added extremely high levels of specific nutrients tested for. Visit an indoor gardening shop near you for more information.

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

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. 58

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Double or Nothing: A Grower’s Life

Lights

Lights are the heart of your garden and the key to your plants’ growth—if your lights go out you’ve got to get them back up and running as soon as possible. If you are running HID or fluorescent lights like most indoor gardeners, the lamp or the ballast can fail. The best option is to keep spare grow bulbs and ballasts on hand, but that can be expensive. A second, less ideal option is to keep some shop lights (four foot T12 fluorescents) around—you can hang these inexpensive fixtures in place of your broken grow light while you go to the local hydro store for some troubleshooting. Shop lights will maintain your garden’s day/night cycle temporarily, although your plants will stretch and grow poorly under these weak lamps, so make sure you get your real grow lights working again as soon as possible.

Pumps

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 thin brittle ones. Second, you will need two air stones for every one that sits in your reservoir. Each time you change the nutrients in your reservoir, remove the wet air stone and replace it with a spare. Clean the used stone with a scrub brush and let it dry out completely—drying reduces clogging from microbes and algae. The newly cleaned 60

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

Double or Nothing: A Grower’s Life

air stone will now become the spare, ready for the next reservoir change.You will always have an air stone in the reservoir and a clean, dry air stone waiting in the wings. This process will keep your solution bubbling steadily for years.

Circulation fans

Wall-mounted fans, oscillating fans, desk fans—we all have them in our grow rooms. Unless your grow room is very, very small, you should have more than one fan to gently ruffle 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 meters

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 meter 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 meter 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

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

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

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few drops of the dye and shake it up. The solution will change color 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 meter 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 meter reads drastically differently from the other. This is an indication that one meter is failing—get a new meter 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

article title

Building an

Effective Fertilizer Regimen by Eric Hopper

What should you be feeding your plants? Figuring out their perfect diet is a matter of trial and error and careful observation.

Maximum Yield USAâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;|â&#x20AC;&#x201A;March 2012

There is an almost overwhelming array of nutrients and additives available on today’s hydroponic market. Many gardeners choose a particular brand of nutrients and stay loyal to that brand, while some people mix and match, making a fertilizer cocktail. Determining the best combination of nutrients can be a long process involving countless experiments. Plants, like people, don’t all thrive on exactly the same diet so it’s important to find your particular crop’s preferred mix. Although each crop is unique there are certain steps every gardener can take when trying to build the ultimate fertilizer regimen. Base Formulas Start with a quality base fertilizer. A good base formula is exactly what its name implies—a foundation for your entire fertilizer regimen. Base formulas consist of the nutrients plants need for basic survival and general health. Most base nutrients are split into grow and bloom formulations, with their nutrient ratios specific to that particular stage of growth. There are a wide variety of base nutrients available in one-, two- or three-part formulas, all of which contain the essential building blocks for plant nutrition. Quality base fertilizers will contain a substantial amount of NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) along with a variety of micronutrients. A base fertilizer with multiple sources of each particular element is a good choice—this diversity allows the plant to choose the source from which the nutrients are taken. In other words, a base formula containing both calcium nitrate and potassium nitrate is a better choice than one that contains only potassium nitrate. Along the same lines, an organic base fertilizer containing bat guano, worm castings and kelp would be a better choice than one that contains only bat guano. Calcium is a vital nutrient for plant health and a tricky aspect of the base formula. Most base fertilizers contain only a small amount of calcium

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Plants, like people, don’t all thrive on exactly the same diet so it’s important to find your particular crop’s preferred mix.

” Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

Building an effective fertilizer regimen

because it is assumed that the gardener’s water supply will contain it. If your water supply has little calcium, though—or if you are using reverse osmosis water—then adding a calcium supplement might be necessary. Although calcium supplements at hydroponic stores are sold separately from the actual base fertilizers, calcium is so integral to basic plant functions that it should be considered part of your base formula.

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

Vegetative Additives Once you are satisfied with your base formula you can start to add amendments specific to the stage of growth or a particular purpose. Some crops like lettuce only have a vegetative stage and therefore the focus on amendments should be for this stage only. Additives containing growth hormones like kelp can accelerate growth throughout the vegetative period and enhance the plant’s overall health. Other additives for the vegetative period—and my personal favorites—are root enhancers. There are a variety of enzyme formulas and beneficial microorganisms that promote root growth. Root enhancers will help build root mass, thus increasing nutrient uptake and overall performance. If you are growing a crop that has a fruiting/ flowering stage you can also increase your yields by increasing the root mass in the vegetative stage. Plants with large, healthy roots perform better and are more resistant to potential problems as well. A recent advancement in plant stimulators is the use of protein hydrolysate. Protein hydrolysate is a mixture of amino acids prepared by splitting a protein with an enzyme. In the case of plant additives we use the hydrolysis process to produce L-amino acids, the type of amino acids used by plants. Amino acids are the basic building blocks for the proteins and enzymes required for the structural integrity and metabolic functions of plants. By supplementing L-amino acids directly to our plants we can boost their metabolisms, resulting in faster growth and stronger resistance to pathogens. Protein hydrolysate can be used throughout the plant’s entire life, making it a great vegetative and blooming additive.

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Although calcium supplements at hydroponic stores are sold separately from the actual base fertilizers, calcium is so integral to basic plant functions that it should be considered part of your base formula.

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Blooming Additives There is a multitude of fertilizer amendments for crops that have a fruiting/flowering stage. Most blooming additives can be divided into three categories: initiators, mid-blooming and ripening formulas. Blooming initiators are products specifically designed to help the onset of fruit or flower sets—as a plant transitions into a blooming period it produces specific hormones for fruit or flower production and most blooming initiators target these particular hormones. Mid-blooming additives are products designed to be used through the stage of actual fruit and flower production. These products are meant to either boost or enhance hormonal production or to supply a higher amount of the nutrients commonly used during that particular stage. For most fruiting or flowering plants an increase of phosphorus and potassium will heighten hormonal response, creating larger yields. In my opinion, the best mid-blooming enhancers contain slightly more potassium than phosphorus and are best used from the time when fruit or flowers first appear until two or three weeks before harvest. Ripening additives are specific to

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

Building an effective fertilizer regimen

the last two or three weeks before harvest. Like the mid-bloom enhancers, many of these products contain significant amounts of phosphorus and potassium. Some ripening additives target specific hormones created during the plant’s final weeks of life. The ripening stage is one of the easiest stages to identify because most plants exhibit significant visual changes during ripening. Many fruits and vegetables physically change color during ripening, a result of hormonal responses in the plant triggered by nutrient composition or environmental factors. If you choose to add a ripening additive to your nutrient regimen, make sure to add it at the first sign of color change. If a highly concentrated ripening additive is used too late it could build up in the medium and make pre-harvest flushing very difficult.

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Almost all the fertilizers and amendments found at your local hydroponic store are compatible with one another. Experiment with different ratios until you achieve the results you desire.

Specialty Additives There are a plethora of specialty additives that can be used in conjunction with base nutrients, vegetative additives and blooming additives. Carbohydrates, enzyme formulas, amino acids, humic/fulvic acid, microbes and vitamins are sometimes found in base formulas but can also be added individually to maximize performance. Almost all the fertilizers and amendments found at your local hydroponic store are compatible with one another. Experiment with different ratios until you achieve the results you desire. And don’t be afraid to mix and match different fertilizer manufacturers—the best results in my garden have rarely come from using a single brand of nutrients.

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Experimentation and observation are crucial in determining your garden’s ultimate fertilizer regimen. Don’t make a lot of big changes all at once—make small changes on every crop rotation so you can effectively monitor the results. Record the amount of every fertilizer and additive you use and also any changes you notice in the garden’s overall performance—there is nothing worse than harvesting an epic crop only to realize you have no idea what you were feeding your plants. MY

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

by Dr. Lynette Morgan

Photosynthesis,

Maximized. Dr. Morgan explains just how much light your indoor garden needs—and what colors it should be.

hotosynthesis is the process that drives plant growth and development, and while most of us have some idea of its importance, there is a lot to understand if we are to fully optimize the potential of our plants. We all know plants need light and this radiation energy—as light is technically known—can either be supplied by the sun or artificially, by the highly efficient grow lamps used by indoor gardeners and the plant scientists who study photosynthesis. However, it is not just the light source that affects the rate of photosynthesis—there are a number of external and internal plant factors 70

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Photosynthesis, Maximized

that influence the production of sugars for plant growth as well. Maximizing all the variables that play a role in photosynthesis at the same time can lead to some fantastic growth rates, but it takes a little understanding of plant physiology to get things just right.

What is photosynthesis?

Indoor lighting can be used to grow a wide range of plants.

6CO2 (carbon dioxide) + 6H2O (water) in the presence of light turns to C6H12O6 (glucose) + 6O2 (oxygen

In the equation above we can see that plants need not only a light source of sufficient intensity and the correct wavelengths for photosynthesis, but also a supply of carbon dioxide and water. What the equation doesn’t tell us is that other factors play a role in the rate of this process as well—temperature, for example, determines the rate of photosynthesis; the nutritional status of the

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plant affects light harvesting; leaf area and plant pigments such as chlorophyll determine how much light can be intercepted; and stomata apertures influence the flow of CO2 into the leaf. Just to complicate matters even more, the internal flow of water required for photosynthesis into the leaf can be affected by drought, high EC, root damage and other factors, while CO2 levels directly around the leaf surface are affected by airflow and the use of CO2 enrichment.

How much light is needed for photosynthesis? Most indoor growers sooner or later have to grapple with the concept of how much light needs to be provided for maximum plant photosynthesis. There is no hard and fast rule for this, as different plant species have various optimal lightlevel requirements. A densely planted growing area will need a higher light

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The basic principle behind photosynthesis is fairly well understood—light energy is used to synthesize sugars (also called assimilate) from carbon dioxide and water. Light is absorbed by pigments in plants—the most common being chlorophyll—and energy provided by light is used to combine hydrogen (H) from water with carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air to form sugars, such as glucose. The energy from light is stored within the sugar molecules, which are then also used as a raw material for the synthesis of many other compounds required by the plant for growth and development. Photosynthesis is actually a very complex biochemical process involving many different enzymes; however, the simplified equation looks like this:

Ideally, all the plants in the growing area should receive sufficient light to allow them to reach a point termed ‘light saturation’— that is, the point when further amounts of light don’t provide any additional increase in photosynthesis.

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

Photosynthesis, Maximized

input than a sparsely planted one and plants’ requirements for light tend to change from seedling through to maturity. Ideally, all the plants in the growing area should receive sufficient light to allow them to reach a point termed ‘light saturation’—that is, the point when further amounts of light don’t provide any additional increase in photosynthesis. However, what usually occurs is that most of the plants will remain at a point below the light saturation level, as leaves and plants end up shading each other as they grow and develop.

Not enough and too much light for photosynthesis

High density and over crowding of plants lowers light penetration and overall plant photosynthesis.

A common situation in indoor gardens is insufficient light for photosynthesis. This is often because too many plants end up crammed into a small space—plant hoarding is, after all, pretty common with gardening enthusiasts—or because small plants have rapidly become large mature ones, filling the available area with dense foliage. In this type of situation photosynthesis is limited by light availability and if the situation is severe the crop might even fall so far below the light saturation point that it reaches what is termed the ‘light compensation point.’ This is where the energy gained from photosynthesis equals that lost in

the process of respiration so that no net growth can occur. Between the light compensation point and light saturation point any increase in light will increase the rate of growth; however, the ideal situation is to remain closer to light saturation than light compensation. Having too much light for photosynthesis can occur in indoor gardens as well—more commonly with younger plants or with those that have been grown under lower light and then planted out under a greater light intensity.Very high light intensities will break down chlorophyll, imparting a white, bleached appearance to the leaves and resulting in a decreased ability to carry out photosynthesis.

Limiting factors In an indoor garden the most likely limiting factors for photosynthesis—apart from a lack of light intensity or light of unsuitable wavelengths—are the availability of carbon dioxide and temperature control. If temperatures become too high, plants will effectively shut down photosynthesis as the stomata (pores in the leaf that allow gas exchange) close to conserve moisture and prevent desiccation. Closed stomata prevent CO2 from the air diffusing into the leaf and so photosynthesis will stop. Low

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Very high light intensities will break down chlorophyll, imparting a white, bleached appearance to the leaves and resulting in a decreased ability to carry out photosynthesis.

temperatures have a similar effect—since the rate of enzyme reactions within a plant is temperature dependent, photosynthesis will slow when conditions are cooler than optimal and will be most rapid when temperatures are ideal for the particular plant species being grown. Carbon dioxide is also a limiting factor—particularly in enclosed indoor growing spaces—and CO2 depletion in densely planted indoor gardens or even in closed greenhouses is common. Plants can rapidly strip CO2 from the air surrounding their leaves under good light conditions when high rates of

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

Photosynthesis, Maximized

the gas are being utilized for photosynthesis. Since CO2 is only naturally present in the air at rates of 390 ppm, fresh supplies will need to be vented into the area or CO2 enrichment supplied. Many growers opt to enrich the air with CO2 up to levels of 1,400 ppm as this is proven to boost photosynthesis and growth in most plant species; however, very high levels of CO2 can cause plant damage and should be avoided—enriching with CO2 above 1,400 ppm for most crops does not tend to give any increase in photosynthesis in the long term anyway. For growers without CO2 enrichment, ensuring there is sufficient ventilation to remove stale air and pull in fresh air to replenish CO2 levels in the indoor garden is vital for photosynthesis and the rate of this air exchange is often much higher than many growers realize.

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Absorption Spectra of Chlorophylls a and b

Chlorophyll b

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Photosynthesis with artificial lighting

the environment and some is transmitted through the leaf, but most is absorbed or harvested by the pigments in the leaf cells. The best-known light-absorbing pigments are green chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b. However, these are not the only light-harvesting pigments in plants—there are also a number of accessory pigments, which allow photosynthesis to use quite a large proportion of the visible light spectrum. Some of these light-absorbing pigments are the xanthophylls, the carotenoids,

Chlorophyll a

When light hits the surface of a plant, some is reflected back to

In a test tube it is true that chlorophyll a and b strongly absorb red and blue light and reflect yellow and green, but inside plant tissues things are different.

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

380

430

480

530

580

Wavelength (nm)

Figure 1: Absorption spectrum for chlorophyll a and b in vitro

630

680

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

Photosynthesis, Maximized Photosynthetic Action Spectrum 100 90

Relative Net Photosynthesis (%)

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Figure 2: The effect of different wavelengths on photosynthesis

lutein and lycopene and the number and ratios of these within the plant cells vary between different plant species. If we look back at the history of plant lighting for indoor gardening, in the early days the light-absorption spectrum was commonly displayed as peaks for chlorophyll a and b (see figure one). These two peaks are in the red and blue wavelength ranges. Because of this sort of graph an assumption was often made that since there are narrow bands in the red and blue wavelengths doing all the work as far as photosynthesis goes,

providing full-spectrum light with wavelengths in the green and yellow bands would just be a waste of energy. However, there is a major problem with using this sort of information—as this graph actually shows what happens when these two pigments, chlorophyll a and b, are isolated in a test tube and not how they act within a complete plant system. In a test tube it is true that chlorophyll a and b strongly absorb red and blue light and reflect yellow and green, but inside plant tissues things are different. Figure two is a graph we should be

Chlorophyll, which gives many plants a green color, is not the only pigment that can absorb light; red plants use a range of different pigments to harvest light.

Measurement of light is an important factor when aiming to optimise photosynthesis in an indoor garden.

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

Photosynthesis, Maximized

more familiar with these days as it reflects actual photosynthesis inside plant tissue—not what happens in a test tube, as was shown in figure one. There is still a peak in the blue and red wavelengths, but there is much more photosynthesis going on in the 500 to 600 wavelength band—the green and yellow area—than we generally recognize. Obviously plants do reflect more green light, which is why foliage looks green to us; however, there are pigments present in the plant trapping this green light and passing the energy on to chlorophyll for photosynthesis, so green light still drives the process. This graph is an average response taken from a large number of common plant species, so it reflects accurately what occurs in most crops. It shows that inside plant tissue the role of green and yellow light in triggering photosynthesis is actually surprisingly important. The reason behind this is that chlorophyll is not the only pigment that can absorb light—there is a range of other accessory or antenna pigments that use green and

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

Measurement of light is an important factor when aiming to optimize photosynthesis in an indoor garden.

yellow light as well. For example, much of the photosynthesis occurring in the green waveband (540 nm) results from absorption by active carotenoids. Many of the light-harvesting pigments also make use of a wide range of light wavelengths and pass the energy on to chlorophyll for photosynthesis. So while chlorophyll itself might not absorb much in the way of green or yellow light, other pigments can—and the entire spectrum can then be used by the plant.The use of accessory pigments allows photosynthesis to use a large proportion of

the spectrum—not just red and blue wavelengths—and for indoor growers that’s an exciting opportunity to take advantage of.

The Emerson enhancement effect and photosynthetic lighting While it’s commonly known that there are a wide range of wavelengths absorbed

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

Photosynthesis, Maximized Photosystems 1 and 2, and the Emerson Enhancement Effect Net Effect Photosystem II

Photosystem I

Absorption / Activity

and used by plants for photosynthesis, the enhancement effects of certain bands of the spectrum are more complex but still important to consider for indoor growers wanting to maximize photosynthetic growth effects from their lighting. Some of the shorter light wavelengths—when combined with longer wavelengths—act to boost photosynthesis more effectively than if either of the wavelengths was present alone. This is termed the ‘Emerson enhancement effect’ and it is an important aspect to take into consideration when deciding between different types and outputs of lamps and bulbs. This enhancement effect means there is a synergy between red and far red wavelengths and therefore a benefit to providing plants with both—even if the plants are not flowering. Figure three shows how the Emerson enhancement effect works—up at the 700 nm range, it appears as if photosynthesis drops off (this is called the ‘red drop off ’), so it might appear that there is no point in providing plants with light in this waveband. However, when wavelengths in this far red range are combined with the shorter wavelengths of red light (680 nm), a photosynthetic enhancement effect occurs. This is why we have begun to see more lighting bulbs developed featuring output

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Figure 3: The Emerson enhancement effect

in this far red range, allowing indoor plants to take advantage of a fuller spectrum in the same way that outdoor plants have always been able to do.

Maximizing the photosynthetic potential indoors Maximizing photosynthesis in an indoor garden is dependent on a number of factors: the correct wavelength spec-

trum (as explained earlier, these days that means full-spectrum lamp outputs), sufficient intensity of light for the stage of plant development, CO2 replacement or enrichment to levels over 1,000 ppm, sufficient warmth to maximize the rate of photosynthesis, good rates of water uptake and cell turgor, overall plant health and sufficient nutrition. Providing all these factors will allow plants to take full advantage of those cellular reactions, which provide both energy and assimilate for maximum growth and development. MY

References Hashimoto, T., 1994, “Requirements of Blue, UV-A, and UV-B Light for Normal Growth of Higher Plants, as Assessed by Action Spectra for Growth and Related Phenomena”, International Lighting in Controlled Environments Workshop, T.W. Tibbits, Editor. Kim, H. H., Goins, G. D., Wheeler, R. M. and Sager, J.C., 2004, “Green Light Supplementation Enhances Lettuce Growth under Red and Blue Light Emitting Diodes”, HortScience, Volume 39, pages 1617 through 1622. Kim H. H., Goins, G. G., Kagie, H. R, Wheeler, R. M. and Sager, J. C., 2001, “Improving Spinach, Radish and Lettuce Growth under Red Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) with Blue Light Supplementation”, HortScience, Volume 38, pages 380 through 383. 82

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

GREEN THUMB GARDENING

by Michael Bloch

Dirt, or more accurately, soil, is amazing stuff and something that we very much take for granted. But not all soil is created equal. I’ve been fascinated with soil since I discovered how long and how much material it takes to make it. For the sake of clarification, let’s make a couple of distinctions: • Dirt - mainly mineral-based—pebbles and finely ground rock • Soil – mineral-, plant-, fungi- and animal-based It’s easy to tell dirt and soil apart. Soil will usually be dark in color and have a rich earthy smell. Dirt just tends to smell like dust. There’s a lot of dirt around the world; it’s in plentiful supply. The problem with dirt is that it’s a filler and has very little nutrient content as it’s primarily composed of basic minerals like calcium and iron. While these are required to some degree by plants, the real life-giving properties are in soil. Soil is a smorgasbord of nutrients; animal droppings, decaying plants and creatures add

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

to its fertility. It contains a multitude of life forms including insects, fungi and bacteria— it’s an ecosystem unto itself.

The soil/worm connection

“B” horizon is almost entirely rock material, plus some nutrients that have washed out of the “A” horizon. The “C” horizon is mainly bedrock in various states of weathering and extends to a depth of thousands of feet.

I began to understand how much matter it takes to make soil when starting a worm farm. In that scenario, the worms break down the organic material leaving what is basically a very rich soil. Worms are a crucial part of the soil ecosystem. I put hundreds of pounds of waste into my worm farm during the first year and at the end of it I still wasn’t able to fill the worm bin up with castings. All that organic waste breaks down as it primarily consists of water.

Soil horizons

Soil layers are called horizons. The very top layer is called the “O” horizon. It’s made of new and decomposing organic materials and basically acts as mulch. The “A” horizon below it is a mixture of rock particles and decomposed organic materials—the fertile soil. This can be a few inches to a foot thick. The

The fragile nature of soil

Only a small percentage of our planet has soil suitable for sustaining high levels of plant life and the silly thing is we tend to build our houses in areas where this rich soil

is. When my house was being built, I remember all the topsoil being scraped off the subdivision and dumped in big piles—which the wind then went to work on, causing localized dust storms so thick that at times I could hardly see across the road. We lose millions, perhaps billions, of tons of topsoil across the world each year that winds up in our oceans. Good quality soil tends to extend downward just inches rather than feet and that’s what sustains us; so it’s crucial that we preserve what we have.

Threats to soil

1. Acidification - usually happens through intensive watering and harvesting when certain nutrients and minerals are removed that alter the acid/alkali balance, or by using too much nitrogen-rich fertilizer. 2. Soil contamination - often contaminated by industrial chemicals. It can sometimes take many years for oils, etc. to wash out of soil to the degree that plant life can grow again. 3. Desertification - this can sometimes be caused by drought, but also by general abuse where too much is taken out of the land without anything being put back into it. The land becomes infertile. 4. Soil erosion - once plant cover is removed, such as in the case of deforestation, the soil is no longer replenished with nutrients and is easily blown away or carried by rainwater runoff. 5. Salinity - where saline ground water comes to the surface, evaporates and leaves salts behind. This commonly occurs where deep rooted trees are cleared.

We can all do our bit to conserve our precious soil:

∙ Start a worm farm and return the castings to the earth ∙ Start a compost pile ∙ Mulch. This not only saves water in your garden but it protects the soil and adds to it ∙ Use natural fertilizers ∙ Plant more trees and deep-rooted vegetation ∙ If you’re moving soil from one area to another, try to do it on a calm day or cover up the pile ∙ Don’t pour hazardous waste and toxic substances onto the ground (e.g., gas and oil)

While peak oil has been getting increased media attention lately, a matter just as urgent is peak soil. While a life without oil is a disturbing concept, life without adequate fertile soil is downright frightening. MY

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

It Starts With a

Seed Lots of gardeners take seeds for granted— but there’s a lot going on in these little packages of life…

by Grubbycup

Many garden plants start out as seeds. You could look at these tiny plants wrapped in hard shells as presents waiting for spring to unwrap themselves.

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

IT starts with a Seed

Primitive plants like mosses and ferns don’t make seeds; they reproduce by releasing small parts of themselves called spores. When one of these spores is introduced into an environment that is conducive to growth, it develops into a thallus and then grows reproductive organs—the reproductive organs fertilize and a new plant develops. In more advanced plants with seeds, though, the male and female flowers develop on the plant (or on nearby plants) and fertilization takes place in the female flowers when they are exposed to male pollen. The pollinated egg is a zygote, which grows into a tiny plant (embryo) encased in a shell. The shell helps to protect the small plant and allows it to stay in stasis until it finds itself in conditions that allow it to continue to grow. When separated from the parent plant and put in a suitable environment, the shell will break open and the tiny plant will resume growth. These shell-encased small plants are known as seeds. Each seed has three elements: the plant, a supply of nutrients and a seed coat. The encased plant will already have seed leaves (cotyledons), stems (hypoctyl) and a root (radicle). The seed nutrient stores of some plants develop outside of the seed coat and are known as fruit. The seed coat is the protective outer layer of the seed and can be soft or rigid. Some seeds—like tomatoes—require special handling before they can be planted. Tomato seeds must be ‘fermented’ in a jar with some water. To prepare tomato seeds, scoop the inside of the tomato into a jar with a little water. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and keep in a warm location for two to three days, stirring daily. On the last day, scoop off the floating material, then rinse with plain water and dry. Other seeds, such as some kinds of fruit and certain forest plants, might require a cold period or have other special requirements to sprout.

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

IT starts with a Seed

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Gemination starts with the reintroduction of moisture to the seed and finishes when the plant ends its reliance on its food stores and can begin to draw nutrition from the environment.

To help the tiny plants inside seeds stay in a state of suspended animation, excess moisture should be allowed to evaporate as the seeds dry out. Depending on the type of plant and the conditions, the seeds might last through the winter months to sprout in the spring, or they might last for several years, awaiting conditions that will allow them to sprout. Seeds kept too wet might sprout prematurely and then die, so seeds should be stored in a dry container at cool tem-

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peratures for best results. Germination starts with the reintroduction of moisture to the seed and finishes when the plant ends its reliance on its food stores and can begin to draw nutrition from the environment. In nature this is one of the most vulnerable times for a plant— which is why so many seeds are generated by parent plants in order to ensure at least a small number of surviving plants in the next generation. The requirements for germination are moisture, oxygen, an appropriate temperature and—for some plants—light. The seeds of most plants have a low moisture content, which helps give them a long ‘shelf life.’ Before a seed will sprout, it must first be rehydrated. When

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the seed comes into contact with moisture, it draws in the water through a small hole, or micropyle. This moisture will cause the plant to swell and will soften the seed coat, allowing the radicle to break through and seek more moisture. The seed leaves will also begin to swell and will open to seek out light. To help with getting moisture through the micropyle, some gardeners will soak seeds in water for 24 hours. Scarification practices such as nicking the seed coats with a sharp object or rubbing the seeds on sandpaper or an emery board are also sometimes used to help weaken the seed coat and allow the plant easier access to moisture. Moistening a paper towel, wringing it out and putting it with seeds in a plastic bag in a warm location to sprout is another way of getting moisture to saturate your seeds. If you’re using this method you should change the paper towel every few days to

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

IT starts with a Seed

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Moistening a paper towel, wringing it out and putting it with seeds in a plastic bag in a warm location to sprout is another way of getting moisture to saturate your seeds.

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keep it fresh, as an environment conducive to germinating plant seeds is congenial to mold spores as well—if a seed becomes waterlogged, fungus can set in and ruin it. The amount of oxygen needed by a particular type of plant varies. Some plants will not germinate even in the presence of moisture unless air is also present. For this reason, most seeds should not be soaked directly in water for days on end, but transferred to a better-aerated environment after a day or so. Moist seeds will germinate at temperatures between 68 and 86°F, with 75°F being ideal for many plants. In cold settings a heating pad might be used to raise the temperature of seed trays. Some seeds germinate better in light, while others prefer dark conditions—research the type of seed to learn which it prefers.

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

IT starts with a Seed

Seeds can be started directly in the pots that they will be grown in, but care must be taken to ensure proper moisture

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hole in your medium for a seed or cutting. With care it can even be used to seat sprouts in starter plugs.

If consistency isn’t that important to you, seeds from hybrid plants can be used, with potentially surprising results that will demonstrate much greater variation.

levels are maintained. One drawback to using final pots to start seeds in is that each seedling will take up a fair amount of space, which can be a pretty dramatic limiting factor when you’re starting seeds indoors in the early spring for spring plantings. One solution to this dilemma is to first start your plants in smaller pots and then transplant them into larger

containers once the plants have grown to fill the smaller pot—this allows for more seeds to be started in the same area.

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

Treat the roots gently while transplanting, as they are easily damaged. To start even more plants in a given area, they can be planted in ‘starter plugs’, which are commonly made with rockwool, foam, coco or compost. Inserts are available to allow seeds started in plugs to be kept neatly in standard 1020 trays. A crochet hook can be very handy as a probe, or to make a

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Many seeds can be sprouted by simply burying them at a depth three to four times their width and keeping them moist—but not soggy—until sprouting. To prevent the medium from drying out too quickly, sometimes domes or plastic sheets are used to keep humidity high while the seeds sprout. Do not allow your seedlings to stay too wet for

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

IT starts with a Seed

too long, however, or fungus might start to grow on the plant near the medium, causing the fatal condition known as ‘dampening off,’ where infected sprouts will wilt and rot. To prevent root rot, make sure the seedling medium is allowed to dry out slightly between waterings. Media should be moist, not wet. Don’t allow the media to dry out too much, however—once the plant has germinated it loses its ability to survive without water and with such a small root system it can dry out and die quickly. Seeds are not only essential to the survival of many types of plants, but they are an important food source. Corn, wheat and rice are seeds commonly used for food. Quality harvests depend on quality seeds—whether purchased, exchanged or gathered. Seeds from many plants can be collected and used the following year. If you’re planning to collect and use seeds, for predictable results open-pollinated varieties should be employed—these will tend to produce similar plants from one year to the next. If consistency isn’t that important to you, seeds from hybrid plants can be used, with potentially surprising results that will demonstrate much greater variation. In late winter to early spring, it is common to start seeds indoors to be prepared for spring planting. To determine when to start your outdoor garden seeds indoors, find out the date of the last frost in your area. Then read the seed packet, which should tell you how many weeks before the last frost date to start them. If the information is not available on the seed packet itself, look up the information online. There is an additional concern with some plants when calculating their planting dates because of something called photoperiodism—which means that these plants use the duration of their dark periods to determine when to flower. These plants bulk up during the summer until the longer nights of fall trigger flower or fruit set. The reason that this can be a concern is that if these plants are set outside in the early spring months when the nights are still long they can immediately begin flowering. This summer I want to try growing loofahs (a plant sponge that can be used in a variety of ways) on the top of my patio porch and in my backyard. Loofahs need a very long growing

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

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Quality harvests depend on quality seeds—whether purchased, exchanged or gathered. Seeds from many plants can be collected and used the following year.

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season (160 to 220 days) to produce sponges. Since the last frost in my area is March 23, I know I can start my seeds on March 1 and they will have time to sprout and get in a couple of weeks of growth before getting moved outside. Depending on your area, it is common to start seeds indoors six to eight weeks before the last frost date. Plants started indoors should be ‘hardened’ by moving to a sheltered location or by gradually increasing the time the plant spends outdoors—this will allow the plant to become used to its new conditions over time and minimizes shock from the change. Starting plants from seeds can be very rewarding and much cheaper than purchasing established plants.You’ll get a real feeling of accomplishment from growing a big, beautiful plant from a tiny seed— and as a bonus, starting your seeds indoors will extend your active gardening season as well. MY

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

SOIL

BASICS (Get Excited!) by Lee McCall

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

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oil gardening is one of my favorite methods for producing flavors, 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 Coco and forest longer to humus…possess dry up. Coco and exceptional waterforest retention properties humus— I prefer and provide an ideal Alasrefuge for beneficial kan— possess microbes. exceptional

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waterretention 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 capac-

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ity of nutrients. Currently, I favor 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. 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

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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 you go and dump boxes of additives into your fresh new soil base, research what they will do for your crop and in what increments. I use two separate mixes—one designed to stimulate lush, green, leafy structural growth in plants that are in a vegetative stage and the other containing higher amounts of phosphorous and potassium, designed to encourage healthy fruit set and flowering development in blooming crops. Transplanting from the vegetative mix into the flowering one allows the crop an easier transition from one stage of growth into the next with less Is a soil that holds overall stress and provides the required nutrients in more water or satisfactory ratios. Used in less water more combination with certain liquid supplements or effective? compost teas, peak growth potential is achievable at all stages with most plant varieties with these two formulations. Once your ‘super soil mix’ is complete you can either let it sit so it can compost or pot it up and use it

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right away. Obviously space is a factor if a composting stage is in your plans, as the soil mix will need a place to sit for somewhere between 45 to 90 days. Composting will break down many of the dry fertilizer elements into plant-

available forms ready for absorption, but if this stage is skipped it isn’t the end of the world—the addition of enzymes and microbial inoculants will help make the non-available nutrient elements in the soil mix available to your plants.You may also reuse old soil if you wish, from the previous harvest. This can be labor-intensive but it also helps reduce overall waste from the garden. I would avoid reusing soils that were exposed to root rot, mildews or root parasites for obvious reasons. Also, a good soil mix should maintain a spongy consistency throughout its growth cycle—a healthy rhizosphere and soil mix when fed properly will have immense amounts

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A simple rule of thumb is to ensure that the temperature remains around 75°F when the lights are on and that there is anywhere from 30 to 50 per cent relative humidity in the garden.

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

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of fungal activity, causing the soil to stay spongy and absorbent. Before potting up any containers, try lining the bottom of your containers with LECA (light expanded clay aggregate) or diatomite to cover up the drainage holes and prevent soil from falling out. This will enhance oxygen supply to the roots and the drainage properties of the soil mix and increase feeder root production. Lately, air-pruning containers, both fabric and injection molded, are my primary choice for both soil and soilless gardening—both root growth response and uptake of water seem to benefit from the air-pruning technology the containers impose.You’ll also eliminate the hassle of root circling and becoming root bound too quickly by implementing these types of containers in the grow room. Wick systems are also advantageous as they require less watering maintenance. I definitely favor

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

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of water than cacti, succulents or plants like orchids that absorb water and nutrients through foliage and aerial roots. Water uptake and consumption will also depend on the size of the plant and pot, as well as on temperature and humidity. A simple rule of thumb is to ensure that the temperature remains around 75°F when the lights are on and that there is anywhere from 30 to 50 per cent relative humidity in the garden. This type of atmosphere will promote healthy water uptake by the plants along with a dense and vigorous root system so long as harmful pathogens are not introduced. Water every plant only when it needs it, judging by weight. This can be tedious 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 ready for water when I can pick it up easily, despite its overall mass. A gallon of water weighs roughly eight pounds without any elements

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added into it, so once fertilizer is added to the mixture and given to the plant there is a noticeable weight gain. I feel that providing water to the plant approximately six to 12 hours before it can show any signs of wilt is ideal, if possible. If you’re using liquid fertilizers or supplements, I recommend consistent usage as opposed to alternating feedings with water—use lower nutrient concentrations more often and it should provide the intended results. These guidelines are my recommended ‘basic building blocks’ any time I am gardening in soil.You’ll likely want to change a few things in your garden, but that’s okay—this guide is intended to be for reference only, not a set of immutable rules that will apply in the same manner to every soil-based garden. Every grower faces a different situation and every garden reflects the grower’s individual style. MY

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the kind of root development that wick systems create due to the constant capillary action in the root system—these roots are ductile but thick and usually fill up any available space in and around the growing medium. I assume that because the capillary action initiates the uptake of the proper amount of oxygen and water, the plant is able to produce the exact root system it needs for constant feeding and ideal elemental absorption. Watering your soil is a topic that everyone seems to have different opinions about. How much water should go into each container? How often should I water? Should I fertilize with every watering? This is an issue that is often made to seem more complex than it really is—you should water the soil based on the types of plants being grown. For example, fastgrowing annuals that develop vigorous root and shoot growth in order to produce a fruit, flower or seed at the end of their cycle might consume larger volumes

I feel a plant is ready for water when I can pick it up easily, despite its overall mass.

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Avant-Gardening

How to Control Cross Pollination by Heather Rhoades

Cross pollination can cause problems for gardeners who wish to save the seeds of their vegetables or flowers from year to year. Unintentional cross pollination can muddy the traits you want to keep in the crop you are growing.

Can you control cross pollination? Yes, cross pollination can be controlled. You need to take some extra steps, though, to ensure that cross pollination does not occur.

Prevent cross pollination by growing only one species of plant. One method is to only grow one variety of a species in your garden. There is, however, a slight chance that a stray pollinating insect could carry pollen to your plants. If you want to grow more than one variety, you need to determine if the plant you are growing is self-, windor insect-pollinated. Most flowers are wind- or insect-pollinated but some vegetables are not.

Stopping cross pollination in selfpollinating plants Self-pollinated vegetables include: • beans • peas • lettuce • peppers • tomatoes • eggplant Self-pollinated plants pollinate themselves (obviously). Accidental cross pollination is more difficult in these plants, 108

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

but still very possible.You can eliminate a significant chance of cross pollination in these plants by planting different varieties of the same species 10 feet apart or more.

Preventing cross pollination in windor insect-pollinated plants Almost all decorative flowers are windor insect-pollinated. Wind- or insectpollinated vegetables include: • onions • cucumbers • corn • pumpkins • squash • broccoli • beets • carrots • cabbage • cauliflower • melons • radishes • spinach • turnips With wind- or insect-pollinated plants, the plants need pollination from flowers on other plants (either the same or different varieties) to produce healthy seeds. To prevent cross pollination, you need to plant different varieties 100 yards or more apart. This is normally not possible in an indoor home garden. Instead, you can select a bloom that you will later collect seeds from the fruit or seedpod. Take a small paint brush and swirl it inside the flower of a plant of the same variety and species. Then swirl the paintbrush inside the flower you have selected. If the flower is large, you can tie the flower itself shut with some string or a twist tie. If the flower is smaller, you can cover it with a paper bag and secure the bag in place with string or a twist tie. Do not use a plastic bag as this can trap heat around the seedpod and kill the seeds inside. (Source: gardeningknowhow.com) Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

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Senescence by Matt Geschke

Simplified Does stressing plants out to make them stronger make sense in the long run? Matt Geschke argues that the proof is in the harvest…

When you discuss gardening, the content of nearly all conversations inevitably boils down to a comparison of overall yield and quality. It seems the gardening community generally accepts these two barometers of botanical success as fairly broad yet valid indicators of a gardener’s overall prowess.

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“If you want to grow great plants you need an environment tailored to where your plants evolved to grow indigenously.” In reality, these two variables are often difficult to quantify and are the result of hundreds if not thousands of discrete events, the products themselves of countless independent yet often cascading chemical reactions. As entertaining and informative as a brief dissertation on the hormone/enzyme interplay responsible for guiding, inducing and regulating plant senescence might be to some, the content of such a discourse would likely plunge you into a boredom-induced stupor that I can’t be certain you would ever recover from. Gardening is supposed to be fun, after all, so I will refrain from addressing

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this topic from a biochemical position. I will attempt something that is quite the opposite—I will attempt to address plant aging in a simple and uncomplicated fashion. My hope is that if I approach this complex topic casually, many readers who might have felt overwhelmed

by a dry article about ethylene, abscissic and jasmonic acid, day length, root zone temperatures and incident angles of solar irradiation will continue to read along and perhaps even come untraumatized to a better understanding of the whole complicated subject.

Maximum Maximum Yield Yield USA | December USA | March 2012 2011

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First off, know your cultivar. I know it sounds a bit remedial, but most people base their selection of plants on what they want to grow—not on what their current garden is capable of growing most efficiently. If you want to grow great plants you need an environment tailored to where your plants evolved to grow indigenously. If your plant’s ancestors evolved in Hawaii, for example, they will probably find the harsh environment of North Dakota in winter to be uncomfortable and frigid. Now take into account the fact that plants are generally sedentary and unable to flee in the event of radical changes in their environment. Simply put, since the dawn of cultivation plants have been slaves to our lack of understanding. Most terrestrial plants are hypersensitive to minute alterations in their environment and often display dramatic physiological responses to change—this means small changes often yield big results, for better or worse. Don’t be lured into radically stressing your plants—chemically, physically or environmentally. Although some of these methods might result in a dramatic and nearly immediate positive response, the underlying stress caused to the plant will likely lead to a delayed harvest or a diminished yield. Transitions from the vegetative stage to the bloom stage in nature are generally incremental and gradual, not dramatic and shocking. Countless books, articles and even peer-reviewed journals reference 12 hours of daylight as the generally accepted day-length duration associated with the triggering of flowering in most fruitsetting plants. However, the vast majority of gardeners I know change their lighting schedule from veg to bloom over a maximum of just four days, with the first two being days of complete darkness. A strong flowering response is displayed by many plants exposed to this method of transitioning and this might be a 114

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“Don’t be lured into radically stressing your plants—chemically, physically or environmentally.”

result of the awakening of an ancient genetic trigger responsible for accelerating senescence when exposed to a ‘nuclear winter’like event that’s typically associated with the impact of something like a meteor with the Earth. Hundreds of these impacts have been seen in the fossil record, with the most notable event occurring at the K/T boundary. Those of you who took an Earth history class in college might recall that the K/T boundary reflects the impact event responsible for the great dinosaur extinction. It should then be reasonable from a position of evolutionary benefit that a plant would attempt to ‘seed out’ as soon as possible when exposed to an impact event like the one described above, as this would provide the best probability for successful post-fallout re-colonization. Although this scenario is plausible and the effect documented, though, stressing a plant into senescence does not allow for the gradual depletion and utilization of stored resources within the plant. Worse yet, trace amounts of unused nutrients trapped within the plant might lead to deleterious changes to the overall taste, quantity or appearance of the end product at harvest time. Changes in substrate chemistry in nature take place over months and years, not hours and days as is commonly found in most hydroponic systems. Some experts even claim that by stressing your plants by altering their nutrition you will achieve better results than by pampering your plant with a balanced diet. This statement is true to a certain extent—but somewhat misleading. Although many growers believe that by decreasing the nitrogen constituent of their nutrient solution while simultaneously increasing the ratios of the P and K components they will encourage a strong flowering response, it is important to realize that plants that are shocked continuously throughout their growth cycle will most certainly be more likely to exhibit stunting, delayed harvests, poor harvest volumes and increased incidences of failed fruit setting. Nitrogen is a critical component, necessary during flowering and senescence—and its wholesale removal will lead to poor, weak results. I find that gradually changing the chemistry of my feed solution over a two-week period from veg to bloom and maintaining a small but consistent amount of nitrogen throughout the flowering cycle produces the best overall results. Remember, fruit that is forced to finish through increasing environmental stressors will always be inferior in taste and overall quality when compared to the exact same cultivar left to mature naturally, assuming no other variables differ.

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“Remember, fruit that is forced to finish through increasing environmental stressors will always be inferior in taste and overall quality when compared to the exact same cultivar left to mature naturally, assuming no other variables differ.” Finally, it is important to understand that the ‘if a little bit is good, a whole lot must be better’ approach is not really applicable to gardening. This approach to indoor cultivation is becoming increasingly prevalent in North America and runs diametrically counter to what nature took nearly four billion years to perfect. It is reckless and arrogant to believe that simple reductionist science will unlock the nearly limitless potential of plants—just remember when pushing your plants to their limits with ultra-high ppms, excessive wattage and cool rooms with low VPDs you run the risk of catastrophic crop failure. My suggestion is to run the lowest nutrient ppms possible without sacrificing yield, to utilize the smallest amount of wattage necessary for optimum growth and never run your CO2 ppms above 1,250. By following these fairly simple guidelines, your chances of crop failure or disappointing harvests are slim. Bottom line— sometimes the field just can’t take the stress! Now I am sure I will catch flack from fellow academic types criticizing my shockingly over-simplified summation of senescence and plant maturation, but in the end I don’t write articles of this nature to further confuse an already enigmatic issue—I write them in the hope of fostering understanding. After all, the more you know the more you can grow… MY 116

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Tips and Tricks

Seeds Clones

by Karen Wilkinson

Do you like the same thing every time or do you prefer to be surprised? There’s no wrong answer… Imagine driving along a winding road without any clear destination. You may end up at the beach or a friend’s house, or—if you’re lucky—a magical meadow teeming with flowers, plants and creatures you’ve never laid eyes on before. You’re in for an adventure with a surprise ending. Now imagine driving along the highway in a GPSequipped car with the intent of exiting in exactly 6.4 miles. Your path is direct—you’re going to your favorite restaurant, the one that consistently leaves your belly feeling warm and happy. You know exactly what to expect and that’s what keeps you coming back.

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When it comes to growing a new plant, there are two very distinct, divergent paths a grower can take to accomplish the job—you can start from a seedling (the scenic route) or you can use a cutting from an established mother plant (the paved road). Neither approach is intrinsically better than the other and each offers its own unique set of advantages and disadvantages.

Growing from seed

Die-hard traditionalists will tell you growing from seed is the only way to go, that it’s the purest or ‘most real’ approach, that any kind of shortcut is lazy and without merit.While it’s certainly rewarding to see your plant progress from a tiny seed to a fully grown, fruit-producing monster, it’s also a lengthy process when compared with growing rooted clones, although it does offer the opportunity to breed and cross strains. Here are some other pros and cons of growing from seed: • Female seeds can often produce greater yields than clones. • Seeds from known, trusted sources of known lineage and genetics should produce similar results. • If they’re from a healthy, pest- and disease-free plant, the seeds should inherit these desirable qualities. • Not all seeds are guaranteed to germinate! That in itself is a gamble. • Because seeds take longer to mature into fully established plants, more time, money and labor is required from the grower. • Seeds can be saved and stored in very little space, whereas clones require constant upkeep and care.

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Die-hard traditionalists will tell you growing from seed is the only way to go, that it’s the purest or ‘most real’ approach, that any kind of shortcut is lazy and without merit.

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• Seedlings need much tender loving care when their root system is forming—just like clones in their root-forming stage. The right balance of water and heat will get their roots popping, but too much or too little of either can be detrimental. Keep in mind that starting from seed is no easy task. From the time and energy you’ll devote to keeping it healthy and strong, to maintaining a balanced diet with plant-specific nutrients, to ensuring its lighting and watering needs are consistently met—your seedling will seem a lot like a baby, without the crying and diaper changing. Starting a plant from a seed is definitely challenging, but that also means it might offer potentially greater rewards—who doesn’t want to be able to step back from their enormous flowering plant and say, “Yeah, I grew that bad girl from seed.” Am I right or am I right?

Growing from cuttings (or ‘cloning’)

There are lots of advantages to growing from cuttings, starting with their dependability. Growing rooted clones is a time-saver as far as crop turnaround—you can take a vacation following harvest or keep going with another batch of babies. It will also take a significantly shorter time to go from a tiny cutting to a fruit-bearing plant

than it would have if you had started with a seedling. Here are some other things to consider about growing clones: • They are super-sensitive, as they are at one of their most critical life stages! You have to seriously baby them until their roots are fully established—in some cases, this means keeping them away from direct light (their roots can get burned) and not feeding them nutrients. • Clones have nearly identical traits and characteristics to the mother plant they are taken from—expect similar growth vitality, resistance to disease and pests, and so on. • Conversely, if your clone is unhealthy or came from a mother susceptible to powdery mildew, pests or other issues, the plant that it grows into will inherit the same bad traits. There are bad clones and you don’t need either in your garden! If you’re still unsure of which route to take, don’t fret—experiment! That’s the only surefire way to learn what works best in your environment and what will ultimately produce the best results for you. MY

About the Author: Karen Wilkinson is a writer and gardener based out of Sacramento, California. She most recently worked for EZ-CLONE Enterprises, Inc., and has spent much of her career writing for newspapers and other publications. She's a health freak, yoga fanatic and is always ready for a new challenge, including spreading the word about best grow practices.

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a Plant’s Life From Seed to Seed Producer Matt LeBannister takes us through the various phases of a plant’s life and wonders who’s using who in the survival game

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by Matt LeBannister

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A Plant’s Life

"From the great plains of the Serengeti to your backyard or indoor garden, plants allow other creatures of every shape and size to flourish."

Life is a very complex concept. We are not sure how it began, but we know that plant life has been around for hundreds of millions, maybe billions, of years. Homo sapiens—modern humans in evolutionary terms—have only been around for roughly two million years. With all this time to evolve and adapt it is no wonder that plant life has become so complex and varied. For instance, there are well over 20,000 accepted species of orchids, each requiring a specific insect to pollinate them. The number of hybrid orchid varieties is over 100,000 and always climbing. There are trees over a thousand years old and flowers that only bloom every decade or so. We even have plants like Venus flytraps and pitcher plants that are carnivorous. Plant life is almost always at the bottom of the food chain, but when you see plant life you know it is supporting all kinds of other living beings. From the great plains of the Serengeti to your backyard or indoor garden, plants allow other creatures of every shape and size to flourish.

Planting Seeds and Clones

The life of most plants begins as a seed. These small capsules contain all the genetic information that plants need to form and grow. Many seeds are found in the food we (and many other animals) eat and are spread over wide distances after passing through the digestive track unharmed. Seeds can be small or fuzzy so that they can travel on the wind, or large like those of a coconut, with a nearly impenetrable outer layer to protect 122

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the seed within. Whatever shape the begin feeding the seedlings small seed happens to be, its purpose is the amount of ‘grow’ nutrients. same—to sow life. Clones are exact genetic replicas of Seeds germinate at different rates. the mother plants they were taken Some are quick while others are from. They should be taken using a slow. There are some tricks you can sterile cutting tool, after which the use to ensure that your seeds have cut end should be dipped in rootthe best chance for success, ing hormone and then placed though—most fruit, vegetable, into the growing medium to herb, salad green and other root. After this step you can "Seedlings require a photoperiod seeds that might be grown infollow the same protocol you of 18 hours of light followed by six doors will sprout fastest under used for seedlings to ensure hours of darkness." certain specific conditions. For the best rooting success rate. instance, seeds will germinate Once seedlings or clones and sprout most successfully have established roots they when the air temperature is can then be transplanted into between 70 and 85°F. The root zone not yet have an elaborate root structure larger containers to begin their next temperature should also be kept five so they can easily dry out, but a humidstage of growth. degrees warmer than the air temperaity dome can help keep in the essential Vegetative Growth ture, which can be accomplished with moisture. Fluorescent light bulbs are The next phase of plant development is a heating mat placed beneath the tray ideal for seedlings, which do not need a the vegetative growth phase, where plants containing your seedlings. Seedlings also lot of light to thrive. Seedlings require are more mature and generally require do best when their environment is kept a photoperiod of 18 hours of light folmore intense levels of light. Switching at a humidity level of around 90 to 95 lowed by six hours of darkness. Once to a 6,500 Kelvin HID bulb should do per cent. Seedlings are delicate and do there are some visible roots you can the trick, as it will tend to promote leafy growth while encouraging the plant to stay squat and bushy. Plants grown indoors will need a photoperiod of 18 hours of light followed by six hours of darkness during their vegetative growth phase, which will keep them from flowering prematurely. During the vegetative stage plants also require larger amounts of nutrients to thrive. Using a high quality ‘grow’ nutrient is the best way to ensure a healthy plant with vigorous leafy growth. This stage of plant development is also a good opportunity to transplant your plant into a final, larger container. Root space is one of the factors that determines the amount of fruit that a plant can produce and since transplanting can be very stressful for plants it should be done no later than a couple of weeks before the flowering stage begins. 124

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The vegetative stage of plant growth is also the best time to do any pruning. Pruning can be stressful to the plant as well and should be done at least a couple weeks prior to flowering. Some gardeners prefer to prune the bottom third of their plants as these lower branches are older and receive less light than those above— since they photosynthesize less efficiently than the newer top branches, this can focus energy on the healthiest branches that will produce the best fruit. Many edibles that are grown indoors will not flower. Plants such as basil and salad greens can be harvested gradually during the grow phase—leaves can be taken a few at a time and the plant will continue to grow and will replenish the leaves that are picked.

Fruiting and Flowering

The final phase of plant growth is the fruiting and flowering phase, which is the reproductive phase of plant life. Most plants reproduce by pollen transfer from the male organ to the female organ— some plants have both male and female organs, while other plants are either male or female. Pollen is spread by the wind or by pollinators such as bees, butterflies, moths and hummingbirds. When gardening indoors, however, pollination must be achieved manually.You can pollinate indoor plants effectively by transferring pollen from the male flower to the female by using a soft-tipped paintbrush— just collect the pollen and then dab the paintbrush into the pollen and then into the female flower. Once pollination has occurred the plant will produce seeds to continue its life cycle. For the indoor gardener this will allow plants to produce fruit or vegetables.You could look at this as being an ingenious evolutionary method in which plants are essentially using humans to further their existence. Fruiting and flowering plants need lots of light and nutrients to produce fruit and vegetables—a 3,000 Kelvin HID light bulb should be ideal for this stage of growth. A photoperiod of 12 hours of 126

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"You could look at this as being an ingenious evolutionary method in which plants are essentially using humans to further their existence."

light followed by 12 hours of darkness is also required for plants to flower indoors. These plants will also need large amounts of a high quality ‘bloom’ nutrient formula, high in phosphorous and low in nitrogen—a formulation ideal for promoting the growth of fruit and vegetables.

Harvest

Harvest time is what we all look forward to as gardeners—the time we get to reap the rewards of all our hard work. Harvest times vary greatly for different plants; some plants are determinate and produce

all their fruit or vegetables at once, while others are indeterminate, producing their fruit gradually over a period of time, allowing you to harvest the fruit as it becomes ripe. Once harvested the fruit can be eaten fresh, frozen, dried or preserved in mason jars.

Buying and Selling

After a good harvest you have some decisions to make—mainly, what to do with your crop. Flowers might end up in a vase, but they could also make their way to the local florist or be dried as an ingredient for potpourri. Herbs could be eaten fresh, processed into a salad dressing or pasta sauce, sold fresh to local restaurants or dried and packaged. Peppers

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can be dried and made into something like an olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette bread dipper, or saved for heirloom seeds that could be distributed through one of the many seed-saving sites online. Heirloom tomatoes are extremely popular and the right variety might be really popular at your local farmer’s market. Alternatively, you could join an indoor gardener’s co-op (or start your own) where members meet monthly to share the rewards of their stellar harvests. Most people think we use and control plants—and that is certainly true, as most edible plants have been modified by agriculture over centuries, becoming more delicious and nutritious by our continued selection of the best seeds to be used to grow the next crop. However, plants that produce the food we eat are actually using us for their own ends as well—by producing the food we need to survive they have also ensured their own survival. MY

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Ways

PLANTS

MOVE by Philip McIntosh

Plants move and react to things in their environment in all kinds of ways and for all kinds of reasons—Philip McIntosh takes us on a tour of tropic responses… All living things respond to stimuli in one way or another. Plant responses are subtle at times, but always very efficient—the solar tracking of leaves to maximize light capture is one example. Plants move, grow and change form in response to a variety of factors. Plant responses to changes in their world are regulated in many ways and on many levels, ranging from the molecular to that of the whole plant. Tropisms are plant movements directed toward or away from a stimulus. Some familiar tropisms are phototropism (movement toward light), gravitropism and geotropism (movement relative to a gravitational field, or toward the center of the Earth) and thigmotropism (plant growth in response to physical contact). Other tropisms include chemotropism (movement in response to a chemical in the environment), hydrotropism (growth or 130

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Six Ways Plants Move

Tropisms are plant movements directed toward or away from a stimulus." developmental response to water) and thermotropism (response dependent upon temperature). It is helpful to also designate plant responses that are triggered by a definite stimulus, but not in a direction that is related to the direction of the stimulus. Such movements are called nastic movements. Examples of this are a mimosa folding its leaves in response to a touch or a Dionaea (Venus flytrap) closing in response to the presence of an insect. A lot of tropism research has focused on how plant hormones known as auxins control plant growth by stimulating cell elongation. It is well accepted that phototropic and geotropic bending of shoots and roots results from cells on one side of a plant elongating faster than cells on the other side, thus causing the plant to bend and change the direction of its growth.

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Phototropism Photosynthesis is a popular way to make a living on Earth and plants—as well as some microscopic organisms—have finely tuned, light-controlled positioning systems. Auxins are important in regulating how plant organs move and grow toward a light source and photosynthesis is one of the most-studied topics in botany. In the basic model of phototropism, the concentration of auxin is elevated on the unlit side of a plant shoot exposed to light, which causes the cell walls on that side to become less fixed in structure. The cells on the unlit side elongate and then re-solidify their cell walls—the effect of this deceptively simpleseeming process is that the elongating cells cause the shoot to bend toward the light. Exactly how the concentration of auxin gets to be higher on the dark side is not perfectly understood, but current research suggests that auxin is transported from one side to the other and perhaps from other places in the plant. The biochemistry of auxin-regulated bending is still being worked out, even after many decades of research. Two other pieces of the phototropism puzzle lie in the proteins phototropin and phytochrome. Although these two molecules are almost certainly on the light-receiving end of the phototropism system, the biochemical steps that go from there to the action of auxin are still under investigation.

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Photosynthesis is a popular way to make a living on Earth and plants—as well as some microscopic organisms—have finely tuned, light-controlled positioning systems." Geotropism Geotropism is a form of gravitropism, which is growth in a direction parallel to a gravitational field. Earth’s gravity results from its mass, is directed toward the center of the planet and diminishes in strength as one gets further from the Earth’s surface. Plants are able to detect the presence of gravity and align themselves with it accordingly. Primary stems are negatively geotropic in most plants and have a strong tendency to grow upward

away from the Earth, while primary roots are positively geotropic and grow toward the earth. Secondary stems and roots are plagiogeotropic, meaning they grow at an oblique angle—not exactly straight down and not perfectly horizontally, either. And then there are the diageotropic rhizomes, which snake along perpendicular to the pull of gravity. It is clear why plants benefit from having a gravitational sensor system—after all, roots need to get into the ground

where the water and minerals are and shoots need to get into the air where the light, carbon dioxide, pollinators and the rest of the exciting world exists—but how exactly do they do it? Early researchers suspected that auxins played a role in gravitropism and they were correct. Roots curve into the Earth because of differential cell elongation in the root. This is pretty much exactly the same mechanism that guides phototropism, but the sensing and signaling system is different. As is the case with phototropism, the detection phase of the gravitational response is well known. Starchy grains called amyloplasts in root caps settle, under the influence of gravity, to the lower side of cells—this transmits a biomechanical signal of some kind that indicates which way is up (or down, as the case may be) and the auxin transport and regulation machinery takes it from there.

Hydrotropism

Plants can detect the presence of gravity and align themselves with it accordingly; primary stems in most plants grow upward away from the earth and primary roots grow toward the earth.

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Plants cannot detect water at a distance and do not have the ability to direct their growth toward it. However, if they do detect water in their environment, plants are able to direct growth in the direction of greater water concentration. Plants also respond to water by rapidly growing when it is present and slowing growth when it is not. Roots can be sparse in a region of low moisture but suddenly explode in a riot of highly branched growth in a spot where water is plentiful. Roots grow in all directions exploring the local substrate and when a good source of water is found it makes sense for a plant to take advantage of it by

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shifting resources away from non-productive regions to more promising ones. Some tree species have a reputation for finding their way into water pipes and sewer systems—they are simply taking maximum advantage of a lucky find.

Thigmotropism Anyone who has seen a morning glory coiling around a fence post has observed thigmotropism in action. This response occurs following a force contact—the direction of curvature of an extending tendril when it comes in contact with a rigid surface is toward the rigid surface, which results in the tendril growing in a coiled fashion if contact is made with a suitable support. The sensory input to elicit the growth response is mediated by blebs, which are cell membrane protrusions on the plant epidermis. Blebs operate by an unknown mechanism, but somehow transmit a signal that is acted upon very rapidly. Some tendrils will begin to curve within less than a minute of being subjected to a touch stimulus. At the cellular level, a combination of differential cell elongation and changes in cell turgor pressure are responsible for generating growth along or around a solid object.

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Chemotropism Chemotropism is growth toward a chemical stimulus. Both positive and negative chemotropisms are well known to occur. Throughout the evolutionary history of plants the soil has provided a chemically diverse environment, which explains why roots are generally the most chemotropic plant organs. Early research indicated that plant roots had a tendency to ‘turn away’ from a poor soil toward a healthier one, which suggested some sort of chemical sensing was occurring. Plants roots tend to proliferate in regions of high nutrient ion concentration and they are also sensitive to organic compounds that can signal the presence of potential sources of nutrients or would-be attackers such as bacteria and fungi. Pollen also exhibits a strong response to biochemical factors. When a pollen granule alights on the stigma above a clutch of waiting ovules, the growth of its pollen tube is guided inexorably downward by chemical signals from below.

Thermotropism Thermotropism is a plant movement in response to a temperature change. A typical nastic response is that of downward

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leaf curl in cold weather, which can often be seen in rhododendrons. This movement and change in leaf geometry is thought to be aimed at preventing water loss through stomata on the underside of the leaves. In controlled experiments where a source of heat is directed at specific plants and plant organs, results are variable. The roots of some plants show positive thermotropism (bending toward the heat source) in one temperature range and negative thermotropism for another temperature range. In general, higher temperatures (68 to 86°F) elicit a negative response and lower temperatures (59 to 68°F) result in a positive response. Plant thermotropic response can even cancel out the gravitropic tendency of young laboratory-grown corn roots, suggesting there is a complex interaction between the two tropic sensory systems. MY

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References Devlin, R. M. and Witham, F. H., 1983, Plant Physiology, Wadsworth Publishing Company, Belmont, CA Fortin, M.C. and Poff, K. L., 1991,“Characterization of Thermotropism in Primary Roots of Maize: Dependence on Temperature and Temperature Gradient, and Interaction with Gravitropism”, Planta, number 184, pages 410 to 414, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ pubmed/11538117 <accessed January 5, 2011> Whippo, C.W. and Hangarter, R. P., 2006, “Phototropism: Bending toward Enlightenment”, The Plant Cell, number 18, pages 110 to 119, http://www.plantcell.org/content/18/5/1110. full <accessed January 9, 2011> Blancoflor, E. B. and Masson, P. H., 2003, “Plant Gravitropism: Unraveling the Ups and Downs of a Complex Process”,

Plant Physiology, number 133, pages 1677 to 1690, http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/133/4/1677.full <accessed January 8, 2011> Atwell, B. J., Kreidemann, P. E. and Turnbull, C. G. N., Editors,“Thigmotropism”, Plants in Action, http://plantsinaction.science.uq.edu.au/ edition1/?q=content/8-2-2-thigmotropism <accessed January 9, 2011>

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Growing for Health

The Benefits of Growing

Your Own Peppermint by Matt LeBannister Of all the medicinal herbs in the world, peppermint (Mentha piperita) has probably been in use the longest. Archaeological evidence suggests peppermint was used in medicine as early as 10,000 years ago. It is used as a tea and for flavoring in ice cream. Peppermint is also a common ingredient in cold vapor rubs, cosmetics and many other products. This medicinal herb is easy to grow and has many health benefits. The active ingredient menthol can help stomach and digestive problems when consumed, and can help with skin problems when applied topically. Mint leaves can be dried and stored for future use, making it an ideal plant for the indoor garden. The main medicinal use of peppermint is to treat mild to moderate digestive problems. Drinking peppermint tea is an effective and delicious way to deliver the medicinal ingredient to your stomach and digestive track. The menthol has been known to calm stomach problems and improve the flow of bile.

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This will help alleviate gas and bloating and improve digestion. It is also known to reduce symptoms of nausea and diarrhea. Peppermint can also be helpful to people who suffer from I.B.S. (Irritable Bowel Syndrome). In this instance peppermint oil is in enteric-coated capsules so that they dissolve in the small intestine and not in the stomach, ensuring its effectiveness to the area in need. According to university research, “One study comparing enteric-coated peppermint oil capsules to placebo in children with I.B.S. found that after two weeks, 75 per cent of those treated had reduced symptoms. A similar study of adults found that 79 per cent of those receiving peppermint had less severe pain than those who had received the placebo.” Peppermint can also be used as a topical medicine to relieve various skin problems. The leaves of the plant can be rubbed on the affected area to provide some comfort from the itchiness of hives, poison ivy and poison oak. The menthol in

"The leaves and young flowers of the peppermint plant are the parts that are to be used and harvested." the leaves will have a cooling effect on the skin. Rubbing anything on oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s skin must be done with caution. Try rubbing it on a small section of skin first to make sure there is no allergic reaction before exposing anywhere else. Peppermint can be easily grown in any home. Mint thrives in bright places but in indirect sunlight. Fluorescent lights are suitable for this if the natural conditions are not ideal. Try using organic nutrients for the best flavor. The leaves and young flowers of the peppermint plant are the parts that are to be used and harvested. These can be used fresh or can be dried and stored for future use. Peppermint is one of the longest used medicinal herbs for a reason. As someone who has survived rectal cancer but lives with constant bowel problems, I drink at least one cup of peppermint tea a day. Peppermint is the perfect plant for the indoor herb garden whether it is grown for its medicinal properties, or simply its taste and smell. MY

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by Shane Hutto



MAINTAIN YOUR GRAIN Growing a bumper crop of perfect plants is just the beginning— the job of the grower doesn’t end with the harvest!

You have made it this far—your crops are ready for harvest and the route to their final destination is all planned out. This is when many growers start partying, assuming the battle is over and they’ve won. Even after harvest, though, your plants are not truly dead, as they actually continue to ‘breathe’ (exchange gases) for many days after they are picked. They can’t grow any more or increase their sugar content after they’ve been harvested but they can degrade, which means that after harvest a crop can only maintain or lose value. I have had the opportunity to study in some depth what happens to plants after they are harvested and I know that typically as much money and effort can go into a natural product after it is harvested as went into growing it. The basics of these post-harvest processes involve cooling, processing and storage.

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The cooling process pertains to temperature regulation of post-harvest crops, which is critical because it directly affects metabolism. Plants start preparing for death long before harvest, but live for some time after. Metabolic processes do not cease until the food source (water, carbohydrates and minerals) is no longer available. The harvested commodity is inherently susceptible to the elements after harvest, because without roots it can no longer self-regulate temperature or humidity. With regard to the temperature of harvested plants you have to consider not only the ambient temperature of the environment where they are stored but also the heat given off by the harvested commodity itself. All living cells respire, producing heat by using sugar and releasing carbon dioxide. Most people think plants only take in CO2 and give off oxygen, but the truth is most plants actually respire and give off CO2 as well, during the night. Metabolic processes like respiration produce heat and once harvested, most crops should be moved to an area with a lower temperature. This is especially true for leafy crops, where the heat of respiration is considerable. Case in point—if you harvest basil plants and place them directly into a garbage bag and wait 20 minutes, when you reach into the bag again you will notice a dramatic increase in temperature. This is due to the plant’s respiration, resulting in an increase in heat and humidity. Humidity is closely linked to temperature during post-harvest processes. Leafy plants left to be dehydrated should have plenty of air circulation and a moderately low humidity, which will slow the metabolism of the plants. Once the metabolism slows, lowering the humidity until the moisture content is below 15 per cent will keep the product from molding after storage. For home hobby growers, the more slowly and gradually you can lower the

"Plants start preparing for death long before harvest, but live for some time after."

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"if you harvest basil plants and place them directly into a garbage bag and wait 20 minutes, when you reach into the bag again you will notice a dramatic increase in temperature." humidity the less stress it will cause to the dying plant. That ‘15 per cent or less’ mark is critical, so don’t stop too soon! Many growers get their vegetables or herbs nearly dry and begin storing them, only to return a week or two later and be horrified to find the entire stored commodity affected by mold. On the other hand, plant parts that are dehydrated too long with moisture levels that are too low tend to crumble, disintegrate and lose flavor and aroma. Balance is the key! While most home hobby growers won’t actually bother to measure moisture content, it can be done quite easily. In the method explained here, the sample will be destroyed by drying to a theoretical zero moisture content. First, pull out a test

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sample and note the precise weight of the material. Then bake the sample in the oven at a very high heat for a few hours. Measure the weight of the sample again, directly out of the oven—avoid waiting too long after taking the plant material out because it can actually reabsorb moisture and throw off your calculation. Finally, for the calculation, subtract the smaller weight from the larger weight. This number is then divided by the original larger weight. The result will give you the moisture content of your original sample. Keep in mind the more accurate your measurement, the more accurate your moisture content calculation will be. The main goal of processing, regardless of method, is to extend the shelf life of a product while maintaining quality. There are other types of processing besides dehydration—the herbal cultivation industry also uses extraction processing, for instance. Extraction is achieved by using one of several different solvents at various temperatures and pressures. Other common types of processing are freezing, freeze drying and canning. After cooling and processing are completed you’ll have to consider storage options. There are many variables that can degrade plant products during storage. Oxygen and other gases influence degradation the most, along with light, heat, moisture and pests.Yes, we breathe it—but oxygen is probably the most destructive molecule on the planet! Several oxygen radicals are toxic to all living cells in both plants and animals. One example is ozone (O3), which we currently use in many sterilization processes. Other examples of radical oxygen varieties are super oxide and even hydrogen peroxide, both byproducts of metabolic 148

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processes. Once you have reached a low enough water content (less than 15 per cent) you can store most products safely in an airtight container so that oxygen and humidity are excluded and cannot degrade the commodity. As an added precaution nitrogen gas can be blown

surface waxes and this can be a problem because many secondary metabolites are stored in the surface waxes. A solution for light degradation can be as simple as storing the product in opaque containers. Once your products are in storage there are still a few more challenges to address. Moisture can creep into the smallest imaginable places and ruin a stored crop. Simple warming and cooling can cause condensation, which will produce just enough moisture to encourage mold. Heat is also known to degrade the structure of all proteins and the amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) that make up plant tissue are also susceptible. If you can’t store your harvested crops in a cold room they should be at least be stored somewhere cool, where temperatures never exceed 75°F. You should also be aware of the possibility of pests in any storage situation—if there is a food source, pests are adept at finding it. The best solution is to pay close attention and not let creatures like rats, roaches or ants sneak into your storage area while you are visiting. Precision growing for production is very labor-intensive and those who achieve long-term success deserve an enormous amount of respect for their accomplishments. The grower’s work begins before planting and continues long after harvest and involves meeting many difficult challenges along the way to maintain the quality of the final product for the consumer. Keep this in mind the next time you select fresh vegetables or herbs from your local grocery store—and perhaps you’ll begin to develop a newfound respect for the precision grower. And if you are that grower, pat yourself on the back—we salute you! MY

"Have you have ever been told not to put apples and bananas together? There is actually a scientific reason for this."

into the container, pushing out other gasses and thereby replacing the harmful oxygen with nitrogen—after which the container must be sealed quickly. Nitrogen gas is nonreactive and will not degrade plant products. Have you have ever been told not to put apples and bananas together? There is actually a scientific reason for this. Apples produce a lot of ethylene gas, which actually causes ripening in many plants. In fact, most tomatoes in stores are picked nearly green and ripened with man-made ethylene. Ethylene gas is also produced by natural gas heaters and even some light ballasts—and should be avoided during storage of plant products to prevent further ripening. Light can also degrade certain plant products. It is mainly known to degrade

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Beginnerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s corner

Fertility Management

in Container Plants by Guy Sela

Testing both irrigation water and leachate (drainage) solution for several parameters is an essential part of regular monitoring of fertilization and irrigation in container plants. These parameters should include at least EC, pH and the percentage of leachate. Simple test kits are also available for other parameters, such as nitrates and chlorides. For a more comprehensive analysis, water samples should be sent to a laboratory. The main goal of testing the leachate solution is to quickly identify trends, indicating dynamics in plant requirements and salt content in the container. A single test result is not enough to get a clear picture, and periodical testing is an important tool for that purpose. During irrigation, leachate solution content is dynamic. For example, here are EC values tested in the same leachate solution at different times during irrigation. EC of irrigation water was 1.0 ds/m:

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Time during irrigation (min) EC of leachate solution (ds/m

10 2.1

20 1.7

30 1.3

Interpretation of leachate test results depends entirely on the percentage of leachate out of the irrigation water amount. The same result (EC or any nutrient level) measured in different percentage of leachate solution can get completely different interpretations. Let's consider the following case: Irrigation water EC N-NO3 (ppm) 1.0 80

Lecheate EC N-NO3 (ppm) 1.6 140

What is the correct interpretation of these results? Just by looking at the results it is impossible to say, unless the percentage of leachate is known. If the leachate percentage is low (e.g., 10 per cent) the result in the leachate can mean that irrigation amount is insufficient and that the amount of irrigation water has to be increased. If the percentage of leachate is high (e.g., 70 per cent) the same results can mean that fertilization level is too high and has to be decreased. The same rule applies for all elements in the leachate solution. Note that test results of nutrients are always expressed as concentration, and it is worthwhile to consider also the amounts in order to correctly interpret results. For example, a concentration of 100 ppm nitrogen in 17 ounces of leachate solution means 50 milligrams (because one ppm = one milligram per quart). The same concentration in seven ounces of water translates into 20 milligrams. Thus, the result 100 ppm may not be used as is, but should sometimes be converted into the actual amount of the element tested. In order to effectively compare leachate solutions content, it is important to consistently use leachate samples that reach same percentage of irrigation water.

EC Monitoring The EC of the water indicates the total concentration of salts in it. Comparing the EC of irrigation water to EC of leachate solution collected from containers is a valuable practice. Testing the EC of irrigation water confirms that the actual EC resembles the planned EC. Testing the leachate solution gives indication of adequacy of irrigation water amounts as well as fertility levels. When the EC of the leachate solution is noticeably higher than the EC of the irrigation, it usually indicates salinity buildup in the container, either due to over-fertilization or due to too low irrigation water amounts. When the EC of the leachate solution is much lower than the EC of the irrigation water, it could indicate nutrient deficiencies. A commonly acceptable difference between EC of leachate solution and irrigation water is 0.5-1 dc/m, depending on crop type.

pH Monitoring The pH of the irrigation water and leachate should be tested as soon as possible after irrigation is over.Waiting too long might result in an incorrect reading, since CO2 from air dissolves in water, creating bicarbonates and increasing pH levels. It is very important to understand that pH of irrigation water is rarely the actual pH that the plant sees. There are various reactions taking place near the roots, influenced by nutrient concentrations in the growing media and in the irrigation water. As a result, pH in the root zone changes frequently. Nevertheless, the pH of the leachate solution can give a rough, yet accessible, indication of the status in the media, and is therefore widely used.

When the pH of the leachate drops below an optimal level, or even to a harmful level (below five), ratios between nutrients in the irrigation water should be assessed, mainly ammonia/nitrate ratio. A higher ammonia/nitrate ratio usually results in a lower pH in the root zone as well as in the leachate solution. Other causes of low pH may be excess of potassium, calcium or magnesium. MY

About the Author: Guy Sela is an agronomist and a chemical engineer for his innovative software company, Smart Fertilizer (smart-fertilizer.com) that provides fertilizer management solutions. Applying his background in water treatment, he has lead a variety of projects on reverse osmosis, water disinfection and water purification, providing high quality water for irrigation.

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Is Root Zone Heating Really

Necessary? Part One—the Basics by Chris Pianta

What are you actually doing when you heat your root zones? The science behind keeping your roots warm and cozy is explained.

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With proper root zone management you can grow tropical plants in 45°F ambient air as long as the root zone is in the 70s. The benefits of root zone heating to help extend a plant's growing season or increase plant yield have been recognized and employed by gardeners for centuries. Growers have devised hundreds of methods to keep plant roots warm and looked for ways to heat the ambient air for plant foliage as well. The reasons for keeping roots and foliage warm might seem obvious, but the physiological processes occurring in the root zone are quite complex and affect the growth and development of your plants profoundly—in fact, what happens under the surface is far more important than what happens above. With proper root zone management you can grow tropical plants in 45°F ambient air as long as the root zone is in the 70s. Sound farfetched? It's not. The biochemical processes that sustain a healthy plant are based on the root zone environment—the

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foliage propels the photosynthetic process and as long as the leaf tissue does not freeze (it should not fall below 40°F for sustained periods) and the root zone stays in the 65° to 80°F range, you can grow plants in an ambient temperature of 45°F. Many growers start seeds or small plants in cold frames, heating the soil but keeping the air at cooler-than-normal temperatures. Their efforts extend their plants’ growing seasons and—in some cases—their yields as well, while conserving the energy normally wasted on heating the ambient air. How does root heating benefit plants? First, you have to look at the soil as a living entity, not just a substrate whose purpose is to support and stabilize plants and act as a reservoir for water and nutrients—the traditional soil science viewpoint. All living things have a temperature ‘comfort zone’ that they are most comfortable within. Living things that exist in environments that fluctuate from cold to hot or dry to soaked, however, are constantly under stress. Under ideal conditions, though, if the root zone is properly maintained in a consistent environment— where temperature, water and aeration remain within optimal levels—the plant will be stress-free. Typical root environments fluctuate constantly. They go from being flooded after watering to dry between waterings and from cold at night to warm in the day—the living soil is constantly trying to adapt to this ever-changing environment and so the plant roots do not function as efficiently as they could. If root zone environments are maintained consistently in the comfort zone, however, plants actually become more photosynthetically efficient—using all the energy they produce to focus on efficient growth and reproduction. As the plants use energy more efficiently, they begin to process nutrients better and they use light and water more efficiently as well, with less ‘stretching.’ In short, the plants can now utilize resources at the level of their needs, not in excess to overcompensate for stress. Temperature has an enormous impact on these processes. There are a few basic concepts that need to be considered when trying to understand the dynamics of root zone management of temperature. Soil science breaks up into three main areas: biological, physical and chemical. The biological aspect of soil science is concerned with the living constituents of the

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The key is to optimize the root zone conditions to conform to your plants’ comfort zone and then consistently deliver the appropriate temperature to the root area. soil—microbes, organic materials, soil fauna and flora, bacteria and so on. The physical aspect of soil deals with the solids, liquids and gasses found within it and the chemical aspect refers to things like pH levels, nutrients and fertilizers. All three areas are directly affected by temperature in differing ways. The key is to optimize the root zone conditions to conform to your plants’ comfort zone and then consistently deliver the appropriate temperature to the root area. The biological area—that is, the living components found within the soil—has been shown to have the most impact on the health and productivity of plants. For years, soil sterility was thought to be the key to successful growing and gardeners fed their plants with soluble synthetically produced nutrients delivered to the root zone in a sterile medium. The realization that plants grow dynamically in living soil and are actually more productive and healthier has only come to light in the last 20 years. Today’s mantra? Feed the soil and feed the plant! Temperature impacts soil biology by promoting the growth of beneficial soil microbes, bacteria and fauna—biological elements that interact with the roots by allowing the uptake of nutrients and water by root cells—and by promoting the reproduction of root cells. Maintaining consistent temperature levels in the root zone keeps both the biological elements and the roots in a stress-free condition and allows them to both focus on what we as growers need them to do—facilitate plant growth and reproduction. When it comes to the physical area as it pertains to maintaining ideal temperatures in the root zone the thing to remember is that soils do not conduct or retain heat very well—mostly due to air and water concentrations in the soil—but delivering water to the roots at a managed temperature in the form of vapor can help maintain the heat in your soil without drying

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it out. Water and air conduct heat in the soil and need to be balanced so as not to occupy too much or too little pore space. Water vapor is readily absorbed by plant roots and is a delivery mechanism that provides just what the plant needs, while top watering or liquid film watering requires the flooding of pore spaces to deliver water to the roots, which causes anaerobic conditions harmful to soil biologicals. Variations in temperature as they affect the biological and physical aspects of your soil will also impact the chemical aspect through pH (soil acidity), which directly affects nutrient availability. Plants uptake nutrients all the time, but only certain nutrients are available to be absorbed at certain pH levels—the optimal soil pH level is on average six to 6.5. Soils that are too acidic don't release nitrogen, more basic soils don't release micronutrients and so on. Temperature impacts the health of the biologicals, which impacts cellular absorption, organic decomposition, water chemistry and the aerobic/anaerobic process, all of which result in modifications to the soil pH. Soil science is not magic and finding the right soil to grow plants in is not really that difficult. Using a soil that is nicely balanced in its physical aspect—with enough pores and spaces to hold water and air in sufficient quantities—and biologically active (like compost-based soils) is the right way to start and these products are abundantly available on the market today. Root zone management is a bit more complex to understand, but can be accomplished with simple tools, creating the right balance of the three soil areas to result in a consistent root environment. Temperature management and water delivery methods are key aspects to managing these three areas and there are products and technologies available to you that will work well in any soil-based growing system. Finding the right balance and managing the root zone environment will result in optimizing your plants’ living conditions and will make them healthier and more productive, giving you what you want most out of your garden—less work, less worry and better results. MY 158

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Biodynamic Compost by David Perkins

Do you know what’s going into your garden?

High-quality compost can make the difference between a so-so result and stunning success when growing in soil. Compost is now widely available in hydroponic stores, but how is a grower supposed to know the difference between one brand of compost and the next? 160

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”

Biodynamic compost

We can check the ingredients listed on the bag, but that doesn’t tell us anything about the composting process—all compost is not created equal!

”

Compost is a bit like cheese. There are so many types of cheese in the world—from the kind that is made by skilled artisans following a traditional recipe just as generations of cheese makers have done before them, to the kind of mass-produced cheese-like product that comes in a spray can. These products are vastly different, but we use just one word to describe the whole range of products we call cheese. The same can be said about compost— there is such a wide variety of feedstocks and processes involved in its production and the end product can have major differences in appearance, smell, nutrient values and biology, but we still use just one generic name for it. We can check the ingredients listed on the bag, but that doesn’t tell us anything about the composting process—all compost is not created equal! On a personal quest to find the highest expression of the art of compost making, I came across the traditional recipe for biodynamic compost. It comes from Rudolf Steiner, a philosopher/scientist who originated biodynamic agriculture in the 1920s.

At the heart of biodynamics is a deep respect for fertile, productive soil and the crucial role of compost in sustaining it. Steiner had some remarkable insights about how plants grow—to enhance the uptake of nutrients he provided a recipe for compost that has stood the test of time and has been proven by scientific research. What’s so special about this recipe? Beginning with a simple base of organic dairy cow manure and straw, the biodynamic recipe requires six botanical ingredients, which are concentrated by specific alchemical processes during the course of a year before they are added to the pile. The six biodynamic preparations are yarrow, chamomile, nettle, oak bark, dandelion and valerian. Each 162

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“

This is a glimpse into the web of life forms that dwell in the skin of the earth and it’s also a diagram of a wild feeding frenzy combined with an orgy, going on 24/7.

”

of these relates to one or more plant nutrients and it is thought that the preparations act as catalysts to influence biological availability and nutrient uptake by plants. For example, nettle is linked to potassium, calcium, sulfur and iron, while valerian assists in the utilization of phosphorus. Hydroponics has proven that plants can be grown under artificial conditions—but the plants are often stressed, which is the underlying cause of disease. Today, however, there is an increasing number of growers making a shift away from synthetic nutrients who are appreciating the simple beauty of working with natural processes within the soil—and they’re recognizing the benefits of using high-quality compost. Disease prevention can be achieved with high-quality compost because the massive numbers of beneficial microbes (good guys) it contains outnumber the diseasecausing organisms (bad guys) so problems like powdery mildew tend to be suppressed. Not eliminated entirely, perhaps—but held in check to a level where they’re no longer a big issue. ‘Feed the soil and let the soil feed the plants.’ You’ve heard that before, but what does it mean when we say ‘feed the soil?’ What are we feeding it, exactly? Who’s hungry and what’s for dinner?

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The answer is sweetly summed up in the soil food web diagram (see below). It shows a complex community of critters that is a whole ecosystem unto itself but is mostly invisible to the naked eye. This is a glimpse into the web of life forms that dwell in the skin of the earth and it’s also a diagram of a wild feeding frenzy combined with an orgy, going on 24/7. Plants have evolved with this web of interactions—with processes like the symbiotic relationship between themselves and fungi and especially the nutrient cycling that goes on whenever a microbe is swallowed by a predator and pooped out back into the soil. Gardeners of all levels of experience would be wise to explore this fascinating aspect of working with plants. “Start teaming with microbes, and get that biology into your soils and working for you”, say Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis in their popular book Teaming with Microbes: A Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Foodweb. Always use the best-quality compost you can find. Make your first assessment with the compost testing tools you already possess—your eyes and nose. There are some obvious visual clues: there should be very few, if any, pieces of recognizable woody bits or other plant material, and you should look for the color of dark chocolate—about 70 per cent cocoa content. As far as smell goes, anything other than a pleasant, earthy

smell is a bad sign.Your nose is giving you an early warning that something went astray in the composting process and that that particular compost doesn’t belong in your garden.

“

The same standards should apply when you’re buying compost—ask questions and know exactly what you’re buying.

”

Compost is a fertilizer. It’s not standardized, so producers typically don’t list NPK on their bags. Growers still need to know what nutrients they’re getting in compost, though—and that’s where lab reports come in. Ask the manufacturer for a copy of the lab reports on their compost, both the nutrient analysis and the biological assay. In my opinion, any trustworthy company should be regularly producing these reports and they should be willing to share them with customers. If not, why not? Compost is a biological inoculant. Good compost should be chock-full of a wide variety of microbes, along with the naturally-occurring foods they prefer. The humic acid you find in compost is

far more biologically available than the humic acid you might obtain from mined substances like Leonardite. Compost is also cost-effective. The organisms it contains provide priceless services. Bacteria store nutrients in their bodies—they are like tiny little packets of bioavailable fertilizer. This fertilizer then gets released back into the soil when the bacteria are consumed by predators like nematodes or protozoa. There’s really no need to entirely replace potting soil every year—simply rejuvenate it with highquality compost. Ultimately the results will speak for themselves. Compost teas and extracts essentially give your soil and plants many of the benefits of whole compost but in a liquid form. They also have the added advantage of containing a very high biomass of organisms if they’re made correctly. It’s absolutely essential to begin with highquality compost when making actively aerated teas and extracts—and you might consider using more than one type of compost for your brews as well. Diversity is king! When you go to the store for some cheese, you probably already know what type you want and how to recognize it. The same standards should apply when you’re buying compost—ask questions and know exactly what you’re buying. It’s up to you to know what’s going into your garden! MY

“Effects of Biodynamic Preparations on Compost Development”, Carpenter-Boggs, Reganold, and Kennedy, in Biological Agriculture and Horticulture, volume 17, 2000. 1

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Plants Know Best: Life Force and the Garden by Evan Folds

This article might make some of you out there roll your eyes. If you find the use of the term ‘life energy’ as it relates to gardening sort of nutty, and find solace in believing only in what can be proven—or that which is based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence—you might not allow yourself to take the concepts we’re discussing here too seriously.

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That’s okay—you can grow plants without paying attention to this sort of stuff. All that I’m asking here is for you to think about what you could be missing. Consider first that there is no human logic in nature. For instance, ask yourself: why does a plant grow up? It’s a tricky question if fully considered. Think about it—a plant resists the most powerful force on Earth…gravity. In school we spend plenty of time learning about how plants grow, but we are rarely encouraged to ask why—we are only learning half the story. Humans formulate scientific laws to provide order in the way we look at the world. Many of the forces and processes described in our laws and axioms take place on a scale that we cannot observe, and yet we take it all for granted without actually having seen it for ourselves. We have Bohr models in chemistry class that allow us to ponder the structure of the basic forms of life, but they are exactly that—models. Who knows what’s really happening down there?

Why does a plant grow up? Einstein’s relativity theory attempts to explain the forces that govern the universe in the way that Newton’s laws demonstrably govern humans on Earth, but the two are not always compatible, so a physical law as applied to a human can be different than the law that seems to govern the behavior of vast processes in the universe. Consider that a growing plant fails to abide by the Second Law of Thermodynamics, or increased entropy. The idea expressed in this law is that available energy—in this case, heat—is used up for the purposes of productivity and growth and in the process some usable energy is always irretrievably lost. As this occurs, disorganization, randomness and chaos increase. Why then do plants not decompose as they grow, and why do warm-blooded animals retain heat against the forces of entropy? What is it that allows living organisms to resist these natural laws? The main reason these apparent inconsistencies go unexplained is because they lack an explanation that fits neatly into our human constructs. We make laws that only apply to parts of the universe, and we use scientific methods to tell us what is true in the natural world when these methods are actually incapable of measuring or describing the mechanisms at work. Nature works in spirals, not straight lines. In the end, the subtle energies that work in harmony to organize life are not only unobservable, but often impossible to measure.

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This apparent disconnect between measurable scientific laws and what actually happens only begins to make sense when we make the connection that there is a life force involved in living systems that operates beyond our physical senses and that functions on a frequency that our instruments are incapable of registering. The truth of it is that there is more to life than we can know—with our current state of scientific knowledge, at any rate—and we must humble ourselves to accepting this. It is the five human senses and our intellect that calibrate the technology we use to measure our world. But what happens if we cannot experience or even detect the presence of some aspect of universal reality in order to calibrate a machine to measure it? Does it make this universal reality irrelevant, or not real? Let’s think about Einstein again. He came up with the theory of relativity not by experiment but through original thought. His idea has been accepted by most as truth,

T he subtle energies that work in harmony to organize life are not only unobservable, but often impossible to measure. but it has never actually been proven. We are all capable of original thought—just imagine how much more there is out there! The concept of ‘life energy’ has a bit of a New Age ring to it, but our language is limited. It’s a shame, because there certainly is a force of life, as evidenced by the difference in behavior between the individual components that make up life forms versus that of the activity of the entire life forms themselves. Most of us would accept the premise that there is more to life than that which is physically measurable, yet very few of us ever enter into experimentation with it. We can argue all day long trying to define what this ‘more’ actually is, but it shouldn’t prevent us from taking advantage of its existence. Think of it this way. There is absolutely no explanation as to why the calcium coming out of a worm is 10 times higher than that which goes in, or how a chicken lays an egg every day without eating enough calcium to form it, but who wouldn’t use worm castings or eat eggs because they don’t completely understand the processes involved? In order to fully explore the idea of life force and its relevance to the garden, we must first investigate how plants are linked through innumerable processes to the life of the world around us. 172

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In 1924 the spiritual scientist Rudolf Steiner delivered lectures in response to a request by farmers who had noticed degraded soil conditions and deterioration in the health and quality (or life force) of crops and livestock, resulting from the use of chemical fertilizers. These eight lectures became known as the Agriculture Course, and are a must-read for anyone who strives to understand plants and their relation to the natural world. Steiner opens the lectures by speaking on how rhythms indicate the degree to which natural beings have become emancipated from their relation to nature. This emancipation from nature is almost complete for human life, and is expressed as free will. Plant life, on the other hand, is still to a high degree immersed in the general life of nature, which is why the moon and other celestial bodies so strongly influence plant growth—as demonstrated in farmer’s almanacs with concepts such as ‘sow by the moon’ and in planting calendars such as the Stella Natura. The scope of this article is not sufficient to fully express these concepts, but suffice it to say that the organization of what Steiner called the ‘higher energy bodies’ corre-

Humans are unique in possessing an ego, or the ability to recognize ourselves in the mirror. sponds directly with how we experience nature. Humans are unique in possessing an ego, or the ability to recognize ourselves in the mirror. Animals possess no ego, but they do, along with humans, possess an astral—or soul—body. This is the bearer of pleasure and pain, cravings, desires and passions. It is the astral body that regulates instinct, and it is also at work in the human dream state. Plants are not subject to the influence of emotion. According to Steiner, however, they do possess an ‘etheric’ body. This energy body can be explained as being responsible for fighting off decay. This is why seeds can sprout in a compost pile—even though decay is being encouraged, life can emerge. When a plant dies and the physical body is removed from its energetic association with the etheric body, only then does it begin to decompose. The same is true for all living organisms. This occurs through the phenomenon of resonance. When the higher energy bodies are no longer retained in the physical body, the frequency is changed and the physical organism begins to break down. So how does this apply to the grow room? The short answer is—in every way possible. The point of a grow room is to grow living organisms: plants. We are bringing living systems into our grow rooms and only considering the 174

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physical aspects of what we are growing. Simply put, we are squandering the potential of what we can grow when we fail to consider the mechanisms of the natural systems involved. The broader idea at play here is that there is far more involved in nurturing crops than we presently understand, and it is related to what plants want as opposed to what they need. Humans can eat nothing but fast food and continue to grow, but they won’t stay healthy for long, and the same is true with plants. All of us realize you can grow a plant hydroponically with nothing but 17 elements and tap water, but what are we

Humans can eat nothing but fast food and continue to grow, but they won’t stay healthy for long, and the same is true with plants. missing? Is mere growth good enough, or do we want growth that boggles the mind and nourishes the soul? The very act of contemplating concepts like this can begin to open doors of potential in the garden that were not even on your radar previously. Plants are sentient beings—read The Secret Life of Plants or Secrets of the Soil. Imagine you didn’t make your bed in the morning for a whole week, then think about how it would make you feel when you entered the bedroom. Something would be off in the energy of the room, and it would affect how you acted and felt. The Chinese call this concept feng shui. Nature works this way by design, but humans march to the beat of their own drum. We mean well, but we can be very disruptive. Although we have the capability to make plants grow in spare rooms in our house, we don’t always consider how the plants actually feel about it. If we can humble ourselves to accept these concepts and realize that subtle energies are all around us—the threads that run through every aspect of life in our world—we will be able to start growing happier, more nutrientdense plants with higher yields. Consider it feng shui for the grow room! MY

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Immunity by Frank Rauscher

The best way to protect our indoor crops is to understand how they protect themselves… Yes, plants do have immune systems! Unlike mammals they do not have defender cells that are mobile or adaptive cells within their bodies, but the ways in which plants defend themselves from diseases and pests is fascinating to say the least.

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Immunity

protein can trigger responses that can prevent disease Pathogens are those life forms that attack from affecting the plant. and damage our plants. Pathogens have difA pathogen-encoded effector is a protein secreted ferent strategies for surviving and thriving by a pathogen and it works to help the pathogen within the plant—bacterial pathogens, for adjust to its new living environment within the instance, proliferate in the spaces between host plant—sort of like the Trojan horse. The plant the cell walls. They often get started by has a counter move to this attack, entering through a gas pore however, as the introduction of an (stomata) or a water pore (hyeffector often triggers the activation dathode) and of course they of a disease-resistant protein within can enter through a wound the plant. The ‘R’ protein recognizes as well. Some other plant inthe modified version of the plant vaders are aphids and nema“Pathogens have different caused by the effector in a similar todes—which insert their litstrategies for surviving and way to the ‘danger signal’ models tle stylets into plant cells—and thriving within the plant.” that kick into action in a mammal. fungi, which have many ways The war goes on. to get under the protective There are two basic branches of skin of your plants. There are plant immune systems—one uses many types of pathogens that transmembrane pattern receptors (PRRs) that respond to try to use, feed off of or injure plants; without some system the slowly evolving changes caused by microbial- or pathof defending themselves plants would be unable to survive. ogen-associated molecular patterns (MAMP or PAMP). To obtain a basic understanding of these plant defense The other acts mostly inside the cell, using protein prodprocesses you’ll need to add a few terms to your vocabuucts activated as the result of some effector. lary: disease-resistance proteins (R), pathogen-encoded efThe thin black arrows indicate the ongoing level of plant fectors (PE), transmembrane pattern-recognition receptors immunity. In the first phase, the plant detects the initial (PRR), microbial-associated molecular patterns (MAMP) effectors from the microbial or pathogen-associated moand pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMP). lecular pattern (MAMP or PAMP) and triggers increased In order for a disease-resistant plant protein to be effecresistance and immunity (PTI) for that pathogen. During tive and result in no disease there needs to be a dominant phase two, certain pathogens deliver effectors that interfere resistance gene in the plant and a corresponding aviruwith PTI. This enables pathogen nutrition and disperlence gene in the pathogen. In this type of match the right sal, resulting in effector-triggered susceptibility (ETS). During phase three, one of the effectors (Avr-R) is recognized by a plant protein, which activates effector-triggered immunity again. Sometimes the immunity response is so strong that it triggers a hypersensitive celldeath response (HR) in the plant. In phase four, pathogen isolates are selected that have lost the red effector and gained new effectors though gene flow (in blue). These blue PRRs can help the pathogens to suppress the ETI in their attempt to survive the plant’s defense. This selection, however, helps the plant to again recognize the new effector and the ETI response is retriggered. Hypersensitive cell death (or HR) is a process of programmed cell death in a plant that is associ-

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ated with the plant’s reaction to pathogens. It is a kind of suicide reaction by the plant initiated in order to kill or limit the threat of the pathogen that is attempting to invade the plant—and is one of the most fascinating aspects of the plant immune system. You might have seen whole branches of a tomato plant curl up and die shortly after a bite from an insect—the concept is to burn the bridges in front of the invading pathogen in order to save the plant as a whole. This process spreads rapidly and is often quite effective. For gardeners tending plants exhibiting this reaction, the plant should be stripped back to the stem or branch just before the dying portion in order to help minimize the amount of ‘HR’ that will occur and the pathogens that might invade. Other plant reactions are also initiated as a result of ‘HR.’ Local and systemic-acquired resistance is often found very near the site of pathogen attack—or sometimes quite some distance away, indicating the key role of these forms of resistance in the plant. Many studies have examined these plant responses and the results clearly indicate the complexity of the regulation of these responses within the plant and the interplay of the signals between the pathogen, the environment and the host plant itself. The hypersensitive cell-death response is one of the most powerful mechanisms the plant has to defend itself and as gardeners we need to be able to recognize this response as being something different from plant failure. Some pathogens—such as those

“The hypersensitive cell-death response is one of the most powerful mechanisms the plant has to defend itself.”

carried by an insect—are not transferable in themselves to other plants and therefore the entire plant need not be removed. It is the insect itself in this case that spreads the disease to other plants. Another very interesting method of plant self-defense is when they ‘tag’ an invading insect with a protein. When digested by the attacking insect this tagging protein converts to another chemical within the insect, a chemical that will then be recognized by a plant when the insect is feeding from it. The chemical gives off a sort of SOS to the other plants to alert them that this particular insect is a bad guy. They then immediately begin to put into force their defense systems, which will repel the insect before it has had much

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“The chemical gives off a sort of SOS to the other plants to alert them that this particular insect is a bad guy.”

of a chance to create trouble. In this example the plants might not know that every wasp is a menace, but they would recognize the ones that had already eaten, limiting the damage from insects to just the initial attack and avoiding any further damage. Quite fascinating. Research has also shown that bacteria and fungi can also trigger a variety of chemical warning signals, causing plants to respond by increasing hormones in order to build up their defense systems. It is obvious that not only do plants have immune systems, but that these systems are vital to their health and productivity. If we want optimum health, vigor and production from our crops, we need to help ensure that they are given what they need to keep their immune systems strong. This is why it is so important to examine more than just the NPK of our fertilizers—micronutrients also play a large part in supporting these plant functions. For example, magnesium is one micronutrient that plays a significant role in facilitating photosynthesis. In order for the plant to synthesize chlorophyll, magnesium must be present in sufficient amounts within the plant’s tissues. It is also an enzyme activator. The plant’s metabolism itself is an interwoven maze of reactions that regulate and promote growth, health and the immune system. Establishing the right protocol for everything from watering and nutrition to temperature and light control is vital for maximum plant vigor and health and will promote the effective functioning of plant immune systems. Keep your plants strong and they will be able to fight off much of the disease and pest damage they face on their own. MY

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In Control: A Guide to Achieving the Perfect Indoor Climate BY Stephen Keen

Does it seem like you’ll never achieve your ideal harvest? If you consider all the climatic factors, it might finally be within your reach.

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in control: the perfect indoor climate

As every gardener knows, hydroponics and indoor farming can present a number of challenges. Cycle after cycle, it seems that there are always obstacles that have to be overcome. After each harvest, though, we challenge ourselves to do better next time—regardless of the hurdles, we keep at it and eventually we usually end up getting it right. One of the common early mistakes that gardeners make is failing to consider how absolutely vital climate is to the health and wellbeing of their plants. Temperature, humidity and CO2 levels in the garden have every bit as big an effect on the success of a plant as nutrients or lighting. And it’s not just the direct effect that climate variables have on your plants that must be considered, but also the indirect results—the more controlled the climate, the less inviting your garden will be to pests, pathogens, fungi and other harvest killers. Deciding exactly how to control the climate in your garden can be intimidating and we often underestimate

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our needs; the goal of this article is to help you consider all of the factors that will affect the climate in your own garden.

Heat Rarely is the novice gardener prepared for the sauna that their first garden can become! This is usually an early hurdle for the small gardener and an enormous consideration for commercial farmers. When you consider the size of your cooling system, remember that cooling anything is simply the removal of heat, which is measured in BTUs. You don’t add coolness to something—you take heat away from it. So if you’re going to cool your garden,

"Rarely is the novice gardener prepared for the sauna that their first garden can become!"

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you have to consider how much heat is being produced in the garden and how many BTUs you will have to remove. Most cooling systems are measured in tons and one ton of heat is the equivalent of 12,000 BTUs. Lighting is the biggest contributor to your garden’s heat load. A standard 1,000 watt HID bulb produces approximately 4,000 BTUs of heat. (Watt for watt, the heat production of an LED is similar to that of an HID lamp). Air cooling the reflector is commonly the first measure for removing this heat, but if the ambient temperature outside is hotter than you need your garden to be you aren’t really addressing the problem. Under most circumstances, air cooling can remove between 10 and 40 per cent of the heat your lights produce. There are customfitted heat shields available through major reflector manufacturers that can be utilized to boost the efficiency of your air cooling—these reduce the amount of heat that can escape from the reflector, which increases the amount of heat being removed by your fans. There are some drawbacks to exhausting air outside of your garden as well—some of the circulated air will escape into the garden and it can carry pests and fungi with it. Also, if you’re using CO2, some of it will be drawn into your reflector airstream and out of the garden, increasing your need for CO2 production. If you’re using a CO2 190

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you determine how often your generator will run and therefore how much heat it will produce. Water cooled CO2 generators are also available; these can be used in a drain-to-waste capacity or on a chiller and recirculating pump. In these units, most of the heat produced by "Gardeners in moderate the flame is removed or humid environments by the water, which nearly always have to use a reduces the heat load dehumidifier in the garden." on the climate control system dramatically. As mentioned, air cooling your reflectors or venting your garden will affect the run time and heat production of any CO2 generator. Outdoor climate will be a consideration burner, this actually adds to your heat for you no matter what your circumload.Venting your room or exhausting stances. When it’s really hot outside, your air from the garden out and bringing garden will need a certain amount of air fresh outside air in will present similar conditioning regardless of whether you obstacles on a much larger scale. In this have equipment running or not. Most circumstance, the outdoor temperature is even more important, as venting won’t manufacturers of cooling equipment will provide reference materials to assist you help you when it’s 90°F outside. with determining the amount of heat We also often fail to consider the heat that must be removed from the garden load created by the other equipment in even when no equipment is running (the our garden. Ballasts, for instance, are big ambient heat load). In cooler climates contributors to overheating. Magnetic where the temperature stays moderballasts create approximately 3,500 BTU ate all year this is often not an issue, but of heat and digital ballasts create about in warmer climates seasonal outdoor 2,500 BTU per 1,000 watts. The most temperatures are a big consideration. energy-efficient solution for ballasts is to Your garden’s ambient heat load number keep them out of the garden entirely— is going to be arrived at by calculating a while you don’t want them baking, it’s combination of square footage, insulation just not necessary to keep them at the quality and the average high outdoor comfortable temperature you’re probtemperature. Consider also that the hotably shooting for in the garden, so there’s ter it is outside the less efficiently most no need to expend the same amount of air conditioners will run—the same is cooling energy as you do in the garden to offset their heat load. If it’s not possible true of chillers in water cooled applications, but to a much lesser extent. to get them out of the garden, you must account for their heat production when you size your cooling system. Humidity CO2 generators are also a huge Humidity is also a big factor in the health contributor to the garden’s heat load. and success of your crop. Humidity levels The BTU rating on your generator that are too high will give certain fungi is a ‘per hour’ rating, so if it’s capable a perfect breeding environment, which of 12,000 BTU per hour but is only will in turn result in a less-healthy plant running for 15 minutes an hour, it will and a smaller—and usually lower qualproduce 3,000 BTU of heat per hour. ity—harvest. Humidity levels that are too Most manufacturers of CO2 generators low will often result in rapid transpiration will have a chart available that will help of moisture by your plants, which will

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in control: the perfect indoor climate

usually result in reduced nutrient uptake. Gardens by their nature are generally humid environments, so the addition of humidity is usually only necessary in exceptionally dry environments—high humidity is a much more common problem. When venting or air cooling, the humidity outside is going to have a direct effect on the humidity inside the garden. If you’re striving to maintain a humidity level of 50 per cent and you introduce air that’s 90 per cent humidity, you have to offset that somehow. Gardeners in moderate or humid environments nearly always have to use a dehumidifier in the garden. Dehumidifiers are also a source of heat (usually anywhere from 1,000 BTU to 5,000 BTU per hour, depending on the size of the dehumidifier and the amount of time it’s running), so this will need to be considered when the cooling system is being sized. Liquid cooled dehumidifiers are available as well. All air conditioning and chiller systems will dehumidify to some extent, but if you’re able to maintain the humidity where you want it with lights on using only the a/c or chiller, during the lights off cycle the humidity will build quickly, because the cooling system doesn’t need to operate as frequently and less dehumidification will occur as a result. For gardeners who prefer not to use a separate dehumidifier, some air conditioning systems are available with a 24 hour dehumidification option, which utilizes a heater in conjunction with the a/c system to achieve dehumidification without adding cooling. These same options are also usually available in chiller systems, as well as an ‘extended’

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dehumidification option, which utilizes a thermostat in conjunction with a humidistat for tighter control.

Nutrients In hydroponic applications maintaining the correct nutrient temperature is abso-

"Chiller systems are extremely energy-efficient alternatives for climate control."

lutely vital. A certain amount of dissolved oxygen is necessary to maintain the health of your plant’s roots and its ability to uptake nutrients—if the nutrient temperatures get too warm, the level of dissolved oxygen in the nutrient solution goes down, which results in slower nutrient uptake by the plant. Compounding this problem is the fact that the warmer the nutrient water temperature, the more dissolved oxygen the plants need for proper nutrient uptake—so they require more dissolved oxygen in this circumstance, but they’re actually getting less. If the problem continues, the dreaded pathogen pythium is the usual result. If the garden is warmer than the recommended nutrient solution temperatures for your application, a nutrient chiller will need to be employed. If you’re using a standard a/c, the chiller is a separate piece of equipment that must be accounted for as part of the heat load

when sizing the a/c system—unless you’re able to keep it outside the garden—because all of the heat being removed from your nutrient reservoir is eventually exhausting out the back of your chiller. Complete water cooling systems are available that will allow you to utilize a single chiller to control both the climate in the garden (or gardens) and maintain the proper nutrient temperature as well. If you are utilizing a water cooled CO2 generator, this can be incorporated into the single chiller system too. Chiller systems are extremely energy-efficient alternatives for climate control. What you’re doing when you cultivate a garden indoors is trying to create the perfect environment for your plants to thrive. In order to be successful—regardless of what you grow—each gardener’s specific environmental challenges must be considered and overcome. As long as you take into account all the relevant factors, you can eventually achieve that perfect climate. And if the climate is perfect for your plants, that perfect harvest will finally be within your reach. MY

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you tell us

Sasha Gimpelson

Although it might sound like something out of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., AgroSci’s SELFWATR technology is making root zone management a lot simpler and saving money and energy at the same time. We recently spoke with Alexander “Sasha” Gimpelson from AgroSci about it. Maximum Yield (MY): Who are the people behind AgroSci? Who started the company? Sasha Gimpelson: AgroSci developed out of a collaboration between four individuals: Mark Prescott, the inventor of SELFWTR™ patent-pending technology; Chris Pianta,

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horticultural entrepreneur and soil system expert; myself, international sales and technology ‘tester;’ and Mike Yamnitsky, IT expert and cutting-edge social media marketer. Recognizing the potential applications of SELFWTR, we banded together to create AgroSci™ and launch the Lazy Gardener™, a consumer version of the technology.

MY: How long have you been in business? What was the first product you put on the market? Sasha: We have been in business for about a year. Our first product was the Thermoplanter™, a fully integrated root zone management system including a double-walled container. This product is targeted to the serious grower or for commercial applications. MY: Your website doesn’t provide a lot of information on your product lines—can you give us a brief summary of the products you sell? Sasha: We wanted to make sure when we launched the website that we had a clear and complete vehicle to demonstrate our products and our technology. The site will be ready by February, 2012. Our complete product line offers three versions of the Lazy Gardener—two for containers and one for raised beds,

all available in both 110 volt and low voltage versions—plus the Lazy Gardener Lazy Pot (a double-wall insulated container) and the Thermoplanter. Solar-powered versions of the Lazy Gardener are in the works for 2013. MY: Can you tell us something about the technology behind your Lazy Gardener products? How do they work and why should we want one? Sasha: SELFWTR—Subsurface Evaporative Lift Format with Temperature Regulation—is a patent-pending root zone environment management system. It is a three-in-one self-regulating warming, watering and aeration system that promotes a consistent root environment to optimize growing conditions in lower ambient temperatures and low light while increasing yield and reducing water and energy use. All this is accomplished with an economical and easy-to-use device that saves time, energy and money while producing excellent results—basically it is a ‘set it and forget it’ root warming and watering system. MY: How do you market your products? Do you go to a lot of trade shows? Sasha: We promote via trade shows—Maximum Yield shows this year as well as lawn and garden shows—and also via distributors and consumer advertising in print media. MY: Where do you sell your products? Are you involved in any markets besides North America? Are you looking for foreign distributors? Sasha: Our products are marketed and sold all over the globe. We have distributors set up in Europe and Canada and have active interests in Australia and Eastern Europe. We believe that this technology has an application anywhere plants are grown, in any soil media—so, the world market is wide open!

ue-added turf such as golf greens. Another possible application for SELFWTR is that it can use brackish water (salt water) in the subsurface evaporative method to irrigate value-added crops—the system would circulate heated salt water below the surface that would evaporate fresh water vapor into the soil system to irrigate the roots. The salts stay concentrated in the circulation system and flow back to the original salt water source.

MY: Are you more involved in the professional agriculture business or the consumer market? Where do you make most of your sales? Sasha: We divide our efforts between the professional and consumer markets. Right now, most of our sales come from consumers, but we have developed large-scale systems using SELFWTR technology for the interior greenscapes, green walls and green roof industries—all these market segments are growing quickly and the interest level for a variety of other applications is growing too. We see an application for our products in the landscape turf and ornamental areas as well, promoting low water use for value-added turf and ornamentals. This can be done with bed planting for trees and shrubs, as well as with val-

MY: What’s up next for AgroSci? Do you have anything amazing in research and development that we should know about? And what’s the next step for the company as it moves forward? Sasha: AgroSci is on the cutting edge of the ‘Clean Air for Buildings’ campaign, as we have teamed up with researchers from RPI to develop Phytometrix™, a phyto-remediation system to clean air of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and other airborne contaminants in large commercial buildings. This has a global application in both new and older buildings as air can now be cleansed through plant leaf and root tissue and recirculated through the building, providing clean, healthy air for building occupants while saving energy, water and money. MY

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talking shop

AT A GLANCE Company: Chlorophyll

Based on years of hands-on experience and education in the gardening business, Chlorophyll’s company mission is to educate the public on the benefits of growing healthy produce in a green fashion year-round and to provide an outlet for the consumer to purchase everything they need to do so successfully.

Owners: Lee McCall and Beau Speicher Location: 3801 Mariposa St. Denver, Colorado Phone: 1-303-433-1155 E-mail: support@chlorophyllonline.com Motto: “Self-sustainable gardening year-round.”

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Chlorophyll opened for business in May of 2010.The location was chosen based on regional market demographics, accessibility, size, layout and building style.The shop is located in what’s known to locals as The Highlands, an up-and-coming area in North Denver that’s an erupting hot spot for the kind of culturally-diverse mix of consumers who tend to have a passion for supporting green initiatives such as organic gardening, recycling, low-emission transportation and green construction. Green business is more like a way of life in this corner of Denver than a trend and eco-friendly businesses—including everything from groceries and dining to organic dry cleaning, weekend farmers’ markets and even eco-friendly oil changes from mechan-

ics specializing in reducing vehicle emissions—occupy virtually every available commercial space in the zip code. Pinpointing an ideal location in this part of the city was the first crucial step in planning Chlorophyll’s successful future. The garden center occupies a stand-alone, singlelevel 14,000 square foot facility with off-street parking located at the rear of the building.The north and east sides of the building feature three different bays, allowing for efficient loading and receiving for customers. Approximately 6,000 square feet of the layout is devoted strictly to the showroom in order to display products and provide easy access to the wide variety of products available. An additional 500 square feet was also converted into a fully functional, state-of-theart grow room, visible through a custom-built pine frame housing five commercial glazed windows, each measuring four by six feet. This room is fully visible to the public from both the inside of the store and outside from the street, but is only accessible to employees through a single entrance that sanitizes each in-

dividual prior to entering the room.The grow room features four 1,000 watt light systems set up in two separate rows, with inline air-cooled reflectors featuring both six and eight inch ducting for maximum cooling efficiency.The reflector models were chosen for their particular footprints and light-dispersion design properties. A custom ventilation manifold was built in-house and engineered to recycle heat from the grow lights back into the building during the winter—this kind of heat recycling saves drastically on natural gas furnace costs, since the bulbs produce heat for the building at the same time they give off light for the plants.The grow room provides exclusive varieties of produce for a fine dining delicatessen in the neighborhood and plants are grown using a variety of substrates in systems using products aimed to achieve healthy, vitamin-rich vegetables, fruits and edible flowers.The produce showcased at the restaurant is completely organic, natural or pesticide-free and is guaranteed to have come directly from the garden to the kitchen. For the most part only heirloom crops are produced and delivered—depending on the season—but all seeds used are certified organic.The on-site garden is a great resource for consumer education and allows newbies to understand hydroponic concepts more easily.The warehouse and stock area for the garden center comprises an additional 7,000 square feet, give or take. Directly attached to the back of the retail space, the warehouse makes it simple to efficiently operate all aspects of the business from one hub. Lee McCall, Beau Speicher and Joe McCarthy make up the trio that operates Chlorophyll’s day-to-day, and as the store approaches the beginning of its third year in business, things are really taking off for the three part-

ners. Lee and Beau have a combined two+ decades of gardening experience between them—not only hands-on with numerous varieties of plants, but also in retail and wholesale at various hydroponic garden centers. Both Lee and Beau got their start in this industry from a much-respected individual: Charlie, the late owner of TGS Inc. After years of managing stores for one of the industry’s largest retailers, Lee moved on to take a position with Hydrofarm, another pioneering company in the grow biz. Meanwhile, Beau was managing a large-volume store in the Denver metro area. Lee and Beau eventually reunited back

"The on-site garden is a great resource for consumer education and allows newbies to understand hydroponic concepts more easily." in Denver and started to talk about launching their own year-round gardening center. Joe McCarthy joined Lee and Beau shortly after their acquisition of the new location in the Highlands—he was a long-time family friend of Beau and his family, so it couldn’t have worked out better in terms of him being the perfect person for the job. Having started with no gardening experience whatsoever, Joe is now fully versed in the fundamental methods of hydroponics and soil gardening.With a background in professional racing, Joe worked on a NASCAR team as a technician and had the privilege of visiting every state in the

United States and a few parts of Canada, too. Chlorophyll was a breath of fresh air for Joe—a break from the crazy hectic world of NASCAR—but by no means did he ever imagine it was going to be his newfound passion. Joe’s exceptional attention to detail and efficient control of business operations carried over from NASCAR into the world of indoor gardening, however—and allowed Chlorophyll to advance its productivity by leaps and bounds. Chlorophyll’s customer base is comprised of 90 per cent regulars, with the remaining 10 per cent being newly acquired walk-ins.The owners like to say that every customer deserves their full support from the moment they enter the store until they are able to attain success and beyond—that’s how walk-ins become loyal repeat customers.The passion that all three of Chlorophyll’s operators share for gardening is always available for those who have the desire for further education—in fact, Chlorophyll is as much of an educational center as it is a place to purchase cutting-edge gardening products.They place as much emphasis on organic soil gardening as they do on hydroponics, so depending on what your flavor is the team is sure to be able to set you on the right path—or at least refer you to someone who can. And coming in summer 2012, ChloroFoods—a revolutionary new store devoted to providing high-quality and organic produce at affordable prices—will be breaking grounds in the Highlands as well.You’ll be able to come by and get your fresh fruits and vegetables, all while supporting locally grown, sustainable, organic small-farm agriculture. ChloroFoods will feature exclusive varietals of fruits and vegetables from their greenhouses, as well as provide education on vitamin-rich, nutrient-dense foods. MY

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MAX-mART

LLC

Phone: 510.903.1808 Fax: 510.764.1246 13762 Doolittle Drive, San Leandro, CA 94577

www.hydrogardendelight.com

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MAXIMUM YIELD distributors

ALABAMA Alabama Organics 3348 Bethel Road, Hammondville, AL 35989 256-635-0802

ALASKA Brown’s Electrical Supply

365 Industrial Way, Anchorage, AK 99501 907-272-2259

Far North Garden Supply

2834 Boniface Parkway Anchorage, AK 99504 907-333-3141

Southside Garden Supply AK

12870 Old Seward Highway, Unit 114, Anchorage, AK 99515 907-339-9997 Holmtown Nursery Inc.

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

Gonzo Grow 10297 W Van Buren Street, Suite 8 Tolleson, AZ 85353 623-780-GROW ----------------------------------------------Natural Pools & Gardens

2143 North Country Suite C, Tucson, AZ 85716 520-323-2627 402 North 4th Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85705 520-622-6344 ARKANSAS Mickey’s Mercantile

1303 Highway 65 South, Clinton, AR 72031 501-412-0214

Ground Control Landscape ServicesHydroponic & Garden Supplies

Old Soul Organics and More

Northern Lights Greenhouse & Garden Supply

Suite 105-9737 Mud Bay Road Ketchikan, Alaska 9901 907-225-GROW (4769)

Alaska Jack’s Hydroponics and Garden Supply

1150 S. Colony Way, Ste.9 Palmer, AK 99645 (907) 746-4774 Anuway Hydroponics

Suite #1 2711 W Walnut Rogers AK 72756 USA 479 631 0099

1771 Crossover Road, Fayetteville, AR 72701 479-444-6955

Growfresh Organics & More

2900 Zero St, Ste 106 Fort Smith, AR 72901 479-648-8885

Far North Garden Supply

300 Centaur Street, Wasilla, AK 99654 907-376-7586 ARIZONA

Sea of Green Flagstaff

204-C E. Route 66 Flagstaff, AZ 86001 928-774-SOGF(7643) The Hydro Closet

5826 West Olive Avenue #106 Glendale, Arizona 85302 02-361-2049 -----------------------------------------------

Growtown Horticulture Supply 1945 E. Indian School RD. Phoenix AZ 85016 602-277-0121 ----------------------------------------------Homegrown Hydroponics 2525 West Glendale Ave

3915 Crutcher Street, N. Little Rock, AR 72118 501-758-6261 Anuway Hydroponics

2711 W. Walnut Street, Rogers, Arkansas 72756 479-631-0099 CALIFORNIA -----------------------------------------------

Greenleaf Hydroponics 1839 W Lincoln Avenue, Anaheim, CA 92801 714-254-0005 ----------------------------------------------Grow It Yourself Gardens

401 Sunset Drive, Suite L, Antioch, CA 94509 925-755-GROW

2408 Brundage Lane, Suite B, Bakersfield, CA 93304 661-323-7333 -----------------------------------------------

Better Grow Hydro Los Angeles

5554 Bandini Boulevard, Bell, CA 91106 323-510-2700; 877 640 GROW -----------------------------------------------

Super Starts PO Box 732, Bellmont, CA 94002 650-346-8009 ----------------------------------------------844 University Avenue Berkeley, CA 94710 510-549-2918

921 University Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94710, 510-486-0117 Hydroponic Connection, The

560 Valdry Ct #85, Brentwood, CA 94513 925-634-6704 Good To Grow & Global Garden Supply

1350 Rollins Rd, Burlingame, CA, 94010 (650) 733-4420 Advanced Garden Supply

Homegrown Hydroponics

1041 E. Grand Ave. Arroyo Grande,CA 93420 (805) 473-0004

Sea of Green Hydroponics

4035 Grass Valley Highway, Auburn, CA 95602 530-823-8900

Auburn Organic

High Street Hydro

180 Cleveland Avenue, Auburn, CA 95603 530-885-5888

3113 Alhambra Drive, Unit F, Cameron Park, CA 95682, 530-676-2100 Precision Hydroponics

132 Kennedy Avenue, Campbell, CA 95008 408-866-8176

Elite Horticulture Supply

22330 Sherman Way, C13, Canoga Park, CA 91303 818-347-5172 Hydro International

7935 Alabama Avenue Canoga Park, CA 91304 Advanced Hydroponics

17808 Sierra Highway, Canyon Country, CA 91351

Northcoast Horticulture Supply 1070 Highway 101, Crescent City, CA 95531 707-464-1200 ----------------------------------------------Seaside Hydrogarden

1070 Highway 101 North, Crescent City, CA 95531; 707-465-3520 Pacific Coast Hydroponics

4147 Sepulveda Boulevard, Culver City, CA 90230 310-313-1354

Dr. Greenthumbs Hydroponic Garden Supplies

Garden Connection, The

Constantly Growing - Davis

566 San Ramon Valley Blvd. Danville, CA 94526; 925-314-9376 123 D Street, Davis, CA 95616 530-756-4774 Constantly Growing

Hydro King

2540 South Whitman Place, Chico, CA 959282 530-893-GROW (4769) Grow4Less garden Supply & Hydroponics

The Hydro Shop 3980 Saco Road Bakersfield, CA 661-399-3336 -----------------------------------------------

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

NorCal Creations

Kern Hydroponics

Let it Grow

Sweet Harvest Hydroponics & Organics

7619 Fair Oak Blvd. Carmichael, CA 95608 1 (916) 515-9130

2145 Park Avenue, Unit 2 Chico, CA 95928 530-342-7762

3903 Patton Way #103 Bakersfield CA 93308 661-245-2616

Brentwood Hydroponics & Organics

160 Westwood Center, Arcata, CA 95521 707-822-8733 -----------------------------------------------

San Diego Hydroponics North County Coastal 6352 Corte Del Abeto #J Carlsbad CA, 92011 760-420-8934 -----------------------------------------------

Green Leaf Hydroponics

2816 San Pablo Ave Berkeley, CA 94702 510 704-9376

601 I Street, Arcata, CA 95521 707-822-3377

2450 Impala Drive, Carlsband, CA 9210-7226 760-438-2021 661-299-1603 -----------------------------------------------

PO Box 28, Cedar Ridge, CA 95924

Humboldt Hydroponics

ACI Hydroponics

1301 E. University Dr. Tempe AZ, 85281 800-266-4136

Stop N Grow 5455 Rosedale Hwy Bakersfield, CA 93308 (661) 859-1988 -----------------------------------------------

Berkeley’s Secret Garden

286 South G Street, Arcata, CA 95521 800-458-6543

Myron L Company

The Greenhouse Garden Supply

American Hydroponics

13631 Pawnee Road, #7 Apple Valley, CA 92308 760-247-2090

Northcoast Horticulture Supply 639 6th St., Arcata, CA 95521 707-826-9998 -----------------------------------------------

601 East Broadway Road, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-377-9096

62 Sutherland Drive, Auburn, CA 95603 530-889-8171 Bakersfield Hydroponics Bakersfield , CA 1 (661) 808-4640 -----------------------------------------------

Berkeley Indoor Garden

2340 W. Bell Road, Suite 116, Phoenix, AZ 85023 602-504-8842 1325 South Park Lane, Tempe, AZ 85282 800-633-2137

Tell 2 Friends Indoor Gardening

High Desert Hydroponics

Phoenix AZ 85051 602-368-4005

Sea of Green West

230 Palm Ave, Auburn, CA 95603 530-889-2390

Fermentables

Peninsula Garden Supply AK

44224 Sterling Highway, Suite 4, Soldotna, AK 99669 907-420-0401

Quail Mountain Ranch

Sea of Green Hydroponics

1301 - 30th Avenue, Fairbanks, AK 99701 907-451-8733

1067 Ocean Dr. Homer, Alaska 99603 907-235-1521

Retail Stores listed alphabetically by city in each state.

320 Trousdale Dr., Suite L Chula Visa CA 91910 619-425-GROW

6200 Enterprise Drive, Suite A Diamond Springs, CA 95619 530-642-9710 Harvest Hydroponics

6650 Merchandise Way Suite B, Diamond Springs, CA 95619 530-622-5190 Victory Garden Supply

Citrus Heights Hydrogarden

8043 Greenback Lane Citrus Heights, CA 95610 916-728-4769

1900 N Lincoln St #100 Dixon CA 95620 707 678 5800 -----------------------------------------------

Conrad Hydroponics Inc.

14915 Unit E, Olympic Drive, Clearlake, CA 95422 707-994 3264 Under The Sun 12638 Foothill Boulevard, Clearlake Oaks, CA 95423 707-998-GROW (4769) -----------------------------------------------

The Lucky Garden Dublin Hydroponics 7071 Village Parkway Dublin, Ca 94568 925-828-GROW (4769) ----------------------------------------------Grow A Lot Hydroponics, San Diego

1591 N. Cuyamaca Street, El Cajon, CA 93612; 619-749-6777 Gro More Garden Supply 2937 Larkin Avenue, Clovis, CA 93021 559-348-1055 ----------------------------------------------G & G Organics and Hydroponics

901 W. Victoria Street Unit D, Compton, CA 90220 310-632-0122

Indoor Garden Solution Inc.

12424 Exline Street, El Monte CA 91732, 626-453-0443

Go Green Hydroponics

15721 Ventura Boulevard, Encino, CA 91436 818-990-1198 -----------------------------------------------

Concord Indoor Garden

2771 Clayton Road, Concord, CA 94519 925-671-2520

A Fertile World (Eureka) 6th Street, Eureka, CA 95501 707-444-0200 -----------------------------------------------

Hydroponics Plus

2250 Commerce Avenue, Suite C Concord, CA 94520 925-691-7615

Bayside Garden Supply

Hydrostar Hydroponics & Organics

1307 W. Sixth Street, #211, Corona, CA 92882 951-479-8069 The Hydro Spot

21785 Temescal Cyn Rd Corona Ca, 92883

4061 Highway 101 Ste 6 Eureka, CA 95503 1 (707) 826-7435 Humboldt Hydroponics

1302 Union Street, Eureka, CA 95501 707-443-4304 -----------------------------------------------

A+ Hydroponics & Organics

1604 Babcock Street, Costa Mesa, CA 92627 949-642-7776 The Hydro Source 671 E. Edna Place Covina, CA 91723 877 HYDRO 82; 626-915-3128

Northcoast Horticulture Supply 60 West 4th Street, Eureka, CA 95501 707-444-9999 -----------------------------------------------

Let it Grow

Constantly Growing

1228 2nd Street, Crescent City, CA 95531 707-464-9086

4343 Hazel Avenue, Fair Oaks, CA 95628 916-962-0043

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201

MAXIMUM YIELD distributors

Fallbrook Hydro

208 E Mission Rd Ste B Fallbrook CA 92028 1 (760) 728-4769 -----------------------------------------------

Tulare County Growers Supply 435 W. Noble Avenue, Unit A, Farmersville, CA 93223 559-732-8247 -----------------------------------------------

Retail Stores listed alphabetically by city in each state.

Golden Gecko Garden Center, The

Dutch Garden Supplies

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

Probiotic Solutions

West Coast Hydroponics, Inc.

Green Coast Hydroponics 2405 Mira Mar Avenue, Long Beach, CA 90815 562-627-5636 -----------------------------------------------

4665 Marshall Road, Garden Valley, CA 95633 530-333-2394

20889 Geyserville Avenue, Geyserville, CA 95441 707-354-4342 South Valley Hydroponics 320 Kishimura Drive, #3 Gilroy, CA 95020 1-866-848-GROW -----------------------------------------------

Park Circle Suite 12 Irvine CA 92614 949-748-8777

27665 Forbes Road, Unit 10 Laguna Niguel, CA 92677 949-348-2424 La Habra Hydroponics

1301 S Beach Blvd, Suite O. La Habra, CA 90631 562-947-8383 -----------------------------------------------

Grow Light Express

5318 East Second Street suite 164, Long Beach, CA 90803 888-318-GROW -----------------------------------------------

Santa Cruz Hydroponics & Organics - North

6241 Graham Hill Road, Felton, CA 95018; 831-335-9000 -----------------------------------------------

Eel River Hydroponics & Soil Supply 164 Dinsmore Drive, Fortuna, CA 95540 707-726-0395 ----------------------------------------------The Shop

6542 Front Street, Forestville, CA 95436 707-887-2280

Grass Roots Hydroponics 31875 Corydon, Suite 130 Lake Elsinore, CA 92530 951-245-2390 ----------------------------------------------South County Hydroponics

Stop N Grow 340 Pine Avenue, Goleta, CA 93003 805-685-3000 -----------------------------------------------

22511 Aspan Street, Suite E Lake Forest, CA 92630 949-837-8252

Clover Hydroponics & Garden Supply

43 Soda Bay Road, Lakeport, CA 95453 707-263-4000 -----------------------------------------------

Hydrogarden Mendocino County

All Seasons Hydroponics 17614 Chatsworth Street, Granada Hills, CA 91344 818-368-4388 ----------------------------------------------AG Natural

Northcoast Horticulture Supply 357 Main Street, Fortuna, CA 95540 707-725-5550 ----------------------------------------------Nature’s Secret Garden and Supply

41469 Albrae Street, Fremont, CA 94577 510-623-8393 -----------------------------------------------

Roots Grow Supply 1330 North Hulbert, #101 Fresno, CA 93728 559-840-0122 ----------------------------------------------Tower Garden Supply & Organic Nursery

403 W. Olive Avenue, Fresno, CA 93728 559-495-1140

12506 Loma Rica Drive, Grass Valley, CA 95945 530-477-2996 -----------------------------------------------

Vital Landscaping Inc. 12817 Loma Rica Drive, Grass Valley, CA 95945 530-273-3187 -----------------------------------------------

Total Hydroponics Center Inc 4820 Paramount Blvd Lakewood, CA 90712 562-984-GROW (4769) ----------------------------------------------44901 Harmon Drive, Laytonville, CA 95454 707-984-6385 -----------------------------------------------

13481 Colifax Highway, Grass Valley, CA 95945 888-924-4769 Joy's Green Garden Supply 340-A Elm Ave, Greenfield, CA 93927 831-674-1416 M.G.S.

22540 D Foothill Boulevard, Hayward, CA 94541; 510-582-0900 Thrive Hydroponics

70 A West North Street, Healdsburg, CA 95446 707-433-4068 Bear Valley Hydroponics & Homebrewing

SB Hydro

Surf City Hydroponics

13325 South Highway 101, Hopland, CA 95482 707-744-8300 7319 Warner Street, Suite B Huntington Beach, CA 92647 714-847-7900

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

INDOOR/OUTDOOR GARDEN SUPPLY

1501 W. Main St Merced, CA 95340 (209)580-4425

The Urban Farmer Store

653 E. Blithedale Avenue, Mill Valley, CA 94941 415-380-3840

Green Door Hydro and Solar

Mission Viejo Hydroponics

Hardman Hydroponics

Coca’s Central Valley Hydroponics

Hollywood Hydroponics and Organics

Year Round Garden Supply

3350 Glendale Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90039; 323-663-8881 830 Traction Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90013 212-625-1323

5109 1/2 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90027-6105 323-662-1908

24002 Via Fabricante Suite 502 Mission Viejo, CA 92691 949-380-1894 116 West Orangeburg Avenue, Modesto, CA 95350 209-567-0590

11000 Carver Rd. #20 Modesto, CA 95350 Tel: 209 522 2727 -----------------------------------------------

Hydroasis

2643 S. Fairfax Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90232 888-355-4769 10912 S. La Cienaga Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90304; 310-337-6995 Nirvana Hydroponics

340 South San Pedro Los Angeles, CA 90013; 310-795-2914 -----------------------------------------------

Green Light Hydroponics 2615 Honolula Ave. Montrose, CA 91020 818-640-2623 -----------------------------------------------South Bay Hydroponics and Organics - Mtn. View

569 East Evelyn Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94041 650-968-4070 Sunland Hydroponics 4136 Eagle Rock Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90065 323-254-2800 -----------------------------------------------

Redwood Garden Supply

55 Myers Avenue, Myers Flat, CA 95554 707-943-1515 ------------------------------------------------

Green Giant Hydroponics

West Coast Growers Hydroponics

Emerald Garden

202

PO Box 1301, 44720 Maint Street (at Hwy. 1), Mendocino, CA 95460 707-937-3459

Atwater Hydroponics

Weather Top Nursery

Grow Wurks Hydroponics 765 S. State College Boulevard. Suite J Fullerton, CA 92831

1109 W. 190th Street, Unit #F, Gardena, CA 90248 310-538-5788

Long Beach Hydroponics & Organics 1772 Clark Avenue, Long Beach, CA 90815 562-498-9525 -----------------------------------------------

LAX Hydro

Grass Valley Hydrogarden

17455 Bear Valley RD. Hesperia CA 92345 760 949 3400

714-253-Grow (4769)

San Diego Hydroponics East County 11649 Riverside Drive, Suite 141, Lakeside, CA 92040 619-562-3276 -----------------------------------------------

403 Idaho Maryland Road, Grass Valley, CA 95945 530-274 0990

Valley Hydroponics

207 E. Sierra Ave. Fresno, CA 93710; 559-449-0426

Mendocino Garden Shop

1004 W. 15th St. Suite B & C, Merced, Ca 95340; 209-723-1300

3511 Youree Dr., Shreveport Los Angeles 71105 318-865-0317

17975 H Highway 1, Fort Bragg, CA 95437; 707-964-4211

A Fertile World (Fortuna) 610 7th Street, Fortuna, CA 95540 707-725-0700 -----------------------------------------------

Northcoast Horticulture Supply 1580 Nursery Way McKinleyville, CA 95519 707-839-9998 -----------------------------------------------

Hooked Up Hydroponics

Zen Hydroponics 1801 Victory Blvd. Glendale, CA 91201 877 ZEN Grow; 818 806 4500 -----------------------------------------------

Dirt Cheap Hydroponics

1240 North Main Street, Fort Bragg, CA 95437 707-962-9252 -----------------------------------------------

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

CNG Garden Supplies 22 Ricknbacker Circle, Livermore, CA 94551 925-454-9376 ----------------------------------------------DL Wholesale

6764 Preston Ave. Suite D Livermore CA 94551 510 550 0018 -----------------------------------------------

National Garden Wholesale/ Sunlight Supply 6485 Brisa Street, Livermore, CA 94550 888-570-4678 (Southern CA) -----------------------------------------------

7183 Hwy 49 Unit B Lotus CA 95651; 530 622 4465

California Green Hydroponics

16491 Road 26, Suite 101 Madera, California 93638 559-674-1400 grow

22333 Pacific Coast Hwy., Ste. 101 Malibu, CA 90265; 310-456-2910 Deep Roots Garden Center & Flower Shop

207 N. Sepulveda Blvd. Manhattan Beach, CA 90266 310-376-0567

B & S Gardening Supplies

592 Commerce Court, Manteca, CA 95336 209-239-8648

Garden Depot, The

Monterey Bay Horticulture Supply

Valley Rock Landscape Supply

Two Chix Garden Supply

203 Commerce Street, Suite 101 Lodi, CA 95240 209-339-9950 2222 N H Street; Lompoc CA 93436 805 736 0841; 805 735 5921

218 Reindollar Avenue Suite 7A, Marina, CA 93933 831-38-HYDRO 1230 Yuba Street, Marysville, CA 95901 530-923-2536

Endless Green Hydroponics 25 Enterprise Court,Suite 3 Napa, CA 94558 707-254-0200 -----------------------------------------------Wyatt Supply

4407 Solano Ave. Napa, CA 94558; 707-251-3747 Conejo Hydroponics

3481 Old Conejo Road #106 Newbury Park, CA 91320 805-480-9596 -----------------------------------------------

Stop N Grow 640 S. Frontage Road, Nipomo, CA 93444 805-619-5125 -----------------------------------------------

Valley Garden Solutions Inc.

15650 Nordhoff Avenue, Suite 104, North Hills, CA 91345 818-336-0041 -----------------------------------------------

Foothill Hydroponics 10705 Burbank Boulevard, N. Hollywood, CA 91601 818-760-0688 -----------------------------------------------

Palm Tree Hydroponics

2235 E 4th St,Suite G Ontario, CA 91764 909-941-9017 -----------------------------------------------

RH Distribution 1751 S. Pointe Avenue Ontario, CA 91761 888-545-8112 -----------------------------------------------

One Stop Hydroponics

12822 Victory Boulevard North Hollywood, CA 91606 818-980-5855 Lumatek Digital Ballasts

33 Commercial Boulevard, Suite B Novato, CA 94949 415-233-4273 Marin Hydroponics

55 Frosty Ln Novato, CA 94949 (415) 233-4104

Marin Hydroponics

1219 Grant Avenue, Novato, CA 94945 415-897-2197

Roots Grow Supply

40091 Enterprise Dr. Oakhurst CA 93644 559 683 6622

Bloom Hydro 1602 53rd Ave. Oakland CA 94601 707 980 0456 ----------------------------------------------Medicine Man Farms

1602 53rd Avenue, Oakland, CA 94601 707-980-0456 Plant-N-Grow

1602 53rd Avenue, Oakland, CA 94601 707-980-0456 Hydrobrew

Green Coast Hydroponics 496 Meats Avenue Orange, CA 92865 714-974-4769 ----------------------------------------------Natural Pest Controls

8320 B Hazel Avenue, Orangevale, CA 95662 916-726-0855

Greenback Garden Supply

9341 Greenback Ln., Ste C Orangeville, CA 95662 (530) 391-4329 -----------------------------------------------

Advanced Soil & Garden Supply 350 Oro Dam Boulevard, Oroville, CA 95965 530-533-2747 ----------------------------------------------Igrow Hydro

5250 Olive Hwy Ste 1 Oroville, CA 95966 530-589-9950

US Orchid & Hydroponic Supplies

1621 South Rose Avenue, Oxnard, CA 93033 805-247-0086

Socal Hydroponics

(650) 355-5100 -----------------------------------------------

90 Eureka Square Pacifica, CA 94044

1751 S Pointe Avenue, Ontario, CA 91761 213-596-8820 GreenCoast Ontario

Unit 102-103 1920 South Rochester Avenue Ontario, CA 1 (909) 605-5777 -----------------------------------------------

National Garden Wholesale/ Sunlight Supply 1950 C South Grove Avenue, Ontario, CA 91761 888-888-3319 -----------------------------------------------

34150 123rd Street, Parablossom, CA 93553 661-944-2226 Alternative Hydro

3870 East, Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91107 888-50-HYDRO Better Grow Hydro Pasadena

1271 E. Colorado Boulevard, Pasedena, CA 91106 626 737 6612 365 Hydroponics

2062 Lincoln Ave Pasadena, CA 91103 1 (626) 345-9015

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GreenLeaf Hydroponics 2212 Artesia Boulevard, Redondo Beach, CA 90278 310-374-2585 ----------------------------------------------Radiant Roots Gardening & Hydroponics

1394 S Pacific Coast Hwy Redondo Beach, AB 90277 1 (310)540-2005 75 Kimick Way, Red Bluff, CA 96080 530-526-0479

Bear Roots Hydroponics

1615 East Cypress, #5 Redding, CA 96002 530-244-2215 Dazey’s Supply

Humboldt Hydroponics

2010 Tunnel Road, Redway, CA 95560 707-923-1402

Redway Feed Garden and Pet Supply

Foothills Hydrogarden

1151 Evergreen Road, Redway, CA 95560 707-923-3606 -----------------------------------------------

House of Hydro

224 Weller Street, #B, Petaluma, CA 94952 707-762-4769 Wyatt Supply

Sylvandale Gardens

America’s Best Hydroponics & Gardening Center 641 W. Palmdale Blvd. Unit D Palmdale, CA 93551 661-266-3906 ------------------------------------------------

Turbo Grow

1889 San Pablo Avenue, Pinole, CA 94564 510-724-1291 Hillside Hydro & Garden

4570 Pleasant Valley Road Placerville CA 95662 530-644-1401

Best Yield Garden Supply

Hydroponics Unlimited 641 W. Palmdale Blvd. “D” Palmdale, CA 93550 661-266-3906 ------------------------------------------------ Palm Springs Hydroponics

4651 Ramon Road, Palm Springs, CA 92264 760-327-ROOT

Green Acres Hydroponics

1215 Striker Avenue, Suite 180, Sacramento, CA 95834 916-419-4394

Green Thumb Hydroponics

Humboldt Hydroponics 2174 Pine Street, Redding, CA 96001 530-241-7454 -----------------------------------------------

35 Quinta Court, Suite B, Sacramento, CA 95823 916-689-6464 ____________________________

Hydro King

105 Hartnell Avenue, Suite C and D, Redding, CA 96002 888-822-8941 Orsa Organix

111 Willow Street, Redwood City, CA 94063 650-369-1269 -----------------------------------------------

KY Wholesale 8671 Elder creek Rd. #600 Sacramento, CA 95828 916 383 3366 ____________________________ Mystic Gardens

8484 Florin Road, #110, Sacramento, CA 95828 916-381-2464 Sac Hydroponics

9529 Folson Boulevard, Suite C Sacramento, CA 95827 916-369-7968 Mendocino Greenhouse & Garden Supply 960 East School Way, Redwood Valley, CA 95470 707-485-0668 ----------------------------------------------EZ Green Hydroponics

7017 Reseda Boulevard, Reseda, CA 91335 818-776-9076

Skywide Import & Export Ltd.

5900 Lemon Hill Avenue, Sacramento, CA 95824 916-383-2369

Tradewinds Wholesale Garden Supplies

1235 Striker Avenue #180, Sacramento, CA 95834 888-557-8896 Green Joint Ventures

Hydro Hills Hydroponics

Mission Hydroponics

Box Of Rain Inc.

Emerald Garden

Hi-Tech Gardening

8249 Archibald Avenue, Ranch Cucamanga, CA 91730 909-466-3796

Igrow Hydro

3230 Auburn Boulevard, Sacramento, CA 95821 916-485-8023

3503 West Temple Avenue, Unit A, Pomona, CA 91768 909-839-0505 1236 East Mission Pomona CA 91766 (909) 620 7099

5665 Redwood Drive, #B, Rohnert Park, CA 94928 707-584-2384

Greenfire Sacramento

1016 Lakeville St. Petaluma, CA 94952 707-762-3747 4774 Phelan Rd. Suite 2 Phelan CA 92371 760 868 0002

All Ways Hydro 2220 Eastridge Ave. Suite C Riverside CA 92507 888-HYDRO98 ____________________________

9000 Atkinson Street, Roseville, CA 95678 916-773-4476

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

Funny Farms Hydroponics 963 Transport Way, #12 Petaluma, CA 94954 707-775-3111 ------------------------------------------------

Discount Hydroponics 4745 Hiers Avenue, Riverside, CA 92505 877-476-9487 ------------------------------------------------

Hydro Depot

290 Briceland Road, Redway, CA 95560 707-923-2765

3133 Penryn Road, Penryn, CA 95663 916-270-2413

2121 San Joaquin Street, Richmond, CA 94804 510-524-1604 -----------------------------------------------

Calwest Hydroponics 11620 Sterling Avenue, Suite A Riverside, CA 92503 800-301-9009 ____________________________

3082 Redwood Drive, Redway, CA 95560 707-923-3002

Supersonic Hydroponic and Organic Garden Supply

3850 Ramada Drive, Unit D2 Paso Robles, CA 93446 805-434-2333

The Urban Farmer Store

Shadow Valley Aquatics

JNJ Hydroponics

Cultivate Ontario

Flairform

1236 East Mission Pomona CA 91766 (909) 620 7099

Orville Organic Gardens

1319 South Coast Highway, Oceanside, CA 92054 760-966-1885; 877-966-GROW

2000 Grove Ave #a110 Ontario, CA 91761 909-781-6142

Mission Hydroponics

2280 Veatch Street, Oroville, CA 95965 530-534-4476

Pacifica Hydroponics

1727-B Oceanside Boulevard, Oceanside, CA 92054 760-439-1084

DNA Hydroponics Inc 19345 North Indian Canyon Drive, North Palm Springs, Suite 2-F CA 92258 760-671-5872 -----------------------------------------------

New Leaf Hydro

3rd Street Hydroponics

636 3rd Street Oakland, CA 94607 510-452-5521 -----------------------------------------------

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

19320 Vanowen St. Reseda CA 91335 Po Box 302, Rexford, CA 59930 406-755-7245

5327 Jacuzzi Street, #282, Richmond, CA 94804 510-524-4710

61 Tarp Circle, Salinas, CA 93901 831-998-8628 ____________________________

Reforestation Technologies International

1341 Daton Street, Unit G Salinas, CA 93901 800-784-4769 ____________________________

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

203

MAXIMUM YIELD distributors

____________________________

Retail Stores listed alphabetically by city in each state.

____________________________ UrbanGardens advanced hydroponics and gardening

704 Filbert Street, San Francisco, CA 94133

Xtreme Gardening

1341 Dayton St. Annex B Salinas CA 93901 800-784-4769 ____________________________

National Garden Wholesale / Sunlight Supply 1900 Bendixsen Street , Bldg. 1, Samoa, CA 95564 800-683-1114 (Northern CA) ____________________________ Greenmile Hydroponic Garden Supply

1480 South E. Street, Suite D, San Bernardino, CA 92408 909-885-5919 Garden Shed, The

1136 El Camino Real San Carlos, CA 650-508-8600

Miramar Hydroponics & Organics 8952 Empire Street San Diego CA 92126 858-549-8649 ____________________________

Oracle Garden Supply 5755 Oberlin Drive, Suite 100 San Diego, CA 92121 858-558-6006 ____________________________ Pacific Beach Hydroponics

1852 Garnet Avenue, San Diego, CA 92109 858-274-2559 ____________________________

Green Gopher Garden Supply

679 Redwood Avenue, Suite A, Sand City, CA 93955 831-899-0203 Modern Gardens

26620 Valley Center Dr. Santa Clarita, CA 91351 661-513-4733 Best Coast Growers

4417 Glacier Avenue Suite C, San Diego, CA 92120 800-827-1876 City Farmer’s Nursery

4832 Home Avenue, San Diego, CA 92105 619-284-6358

Green Lady Hydroponics

4879 Newport Avenue, San Diego, CA 92107 619-222-5011

Home Brews & Gardens

3176 Thorn St San Diego, CA 92104 619 630 2739 ____________________________

123 Tenth Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 The Urban Farmer Store

US Garden

417 Agostinio Rd San Gabriel Ca 91776 626 285-5009 Inland Empire Hydrogarden

1301-C South State Street, San Jancinto, CA 92853 Hahn’s Lighting

260 E. VA Suite 1, San Jose, CA 95112 408-295-1755 Plant Life

32 Race Street, San Jose, CA 95126 408-283-9191 San Diego Hydroponics Beach Cities 4122 Napier Street, San Diego, CA 92110 619-276-0657 ____________________________

South Bay Hydroponics and Organics - San Jose

Wai Kula Hydrogardens

17-130 Doolittle Drive San Leandro, CA 94577 510-430-8589

5297 Linda Vista Road, San Diego, CA 92110 619-299-7299

Direct Hydroponics Wholesale

1034 W. Arrow Hwy#D San Dimas, CA 91773 888-924-9376 Liquid Gardens

1034 West Arrow Hwy.#D San Dimas, CA 91773 888-924-9376 Extreme Hydroponics

11479 San Fernando Road C, San Fernando, CA 91340 818-898-0915 Plant It Earth

1185 South Bascom Avenue, San Jose, CA 95128 408-292-4040 D&S Garden Supplies

Hydrogarden Delight

13762 Doolittle Drive, San Leandro, CA 94577 510-903-1808

Central Coast Hydrogarden

1951 Santa Barbara Street, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 805-544-GROW

1 Dorman Ave. San Francisco, CA 94124 (415) 970-2465

____________________________

Planet Earth Hydroponics

102 East Haley St. Santa Barbara, CA 93101 P. 805 899 0033 ____________________________

2958 S. Higuera St. San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 805.596.0430 ____________________________

Santa Rosa, CA 95404 707-578-3747) Santee Hydroponics

7949 Mission Gorge Road, Santee, CA 92071 619-270-8649 Gardening Unlimited

Pro Gardening Systems

Urban Grow Systems 204 N Quarantine Street Santa Barbara, CA 93103 1 (805) 637-6699 ____________________________ Santa Clarita Valley Hydroponics

25835 Railroad Ave. #26 Santa Clarita CA 91350 661 255 3700 661 255 3701

California Hydroponics

310 Coral Street, Suite C Santa Cruz, CA 95060 831-423-4769

Hydro-Logic Purification Systems

370 Encinal St, Suite 150, Santa Cruz, CA 95060 888 H2O LOGIC

Santa Cruz Hydroponics & Organics - West Side

815 Almar Avenue, Unit K, Santa Cruz, CA 95060 831-466-9000 Full Sun Supply

3535 Industrial Drive, Unit B-3 Santa Rosa, CA 95403 877-FULL-SUN

765 Petaluma Avenue, Sebastopol, CA 95472 707-829-7252

Better Choice Hydroponics

610 S. Washington Street, Senora, CA 95370 209 533 2400 Go Big Hydroponics

4501 Van Nuys Boulevard, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403 818-789-3341 Bloom Brothers Garden Supply, Inc.

3293 Industry Dr. Signal Hill, CA 90755 562 494-0060

We Grow Hydroponics

3350 East Los Angeles Avenue, Simi Valley, CA 93063 805-624-4566 Abundant Hydroponics LLC

1611 Shop Street, #1-A, S. Lake Tahoe, CA 96150 530-54 HYDRO ____________________________

Gonzo Grow

2550 Guerneville Road,Suite C, Santa Rosa, CA 95401 707-546-1800 Gottagrow Garden Supply

769 Wilson Street, Santa Rosa, CA 95404 707-544-7782 ____________________________

Advanced Garden Supply 2660 Lake Tahoe Boulevard, Building C, Unit 9, S. Lake Tahoe, CA 96150 530-541-4769 ____________________________ Farm Hydroponics, The

1950 Lake Tahoe Boulevard #3, S. Lake Tahoe, CA 96150 530-541-3276 Green Logic Garden Supply 860 Piner Road, #38, Santa Rosa, CA 95403 707-843-3156 ____________________________ Organic Bountea

San Diego Hydroponics North 802 N. Twin Oaks Valley Road #108 San Marcos, CA 92069 760-510-1444 ____________________________

Wyatt Supply 747 Yolanda Ave.

60 Old El Pueblo Road, Scotts Valley, CA 95066 831-457-1236

Healthy Harvest Hydroponics and Organics

661 Divisadero San Francisco, CA 94117 (415) 626-5082 Plant It Earth Warehouse

204 N Quarantina Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93103 805-687-6699

San Francisco Hydro

2833 Vicente Street, San Francisco, CA 94116 415-661-2204

Pure Food Gardening/Microclone

830 H Bransten Rd. San Carlos,CA 94070-3338

Urban Gardens Unlimited 704 Filbert Street, San Francisco, CA 94133 415-421-4769 ____________________________

Nutes Int’l

1919 Dennis Lane, Santa Rosa, CA 95403 800-798-0765 ____________________________

Valley Hydro and Organics

19230 Sonoma Hwy. Sonoma CA 95476 707 396 8734

Santa Cruz Hydroponics & Organics - East Side

4000 Cordelia Lane Soquel, CA 95073 831-475-9900 ____________________________

H20 Gardening

355 West 7th Street, San Pedro, CA 90731 310-514-1416 Indoor Garden Depot 1848 Commercial St. San Diego CA 92113 619-255-3552 ____________________________ Innovative Growing Solutions (IGS)

5060 Santa Fe St. Ste.D San Diego, CA 92109 858-578-4477 ____________________________

Mighty Garden Supply 4780 Mission Gorge Pl. #A-1, San Diego, CA 92120 619-287-3238

204

Marin Hydroponics

Grow Your Own 3401 Traval Street, San Francisco, CA 94116 415-731-2115 ____________________________ Hydroponic Connection Warehouse, The

1995 Evans Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94124 415-824-9376 Nor Cal Hydroponics 4837 Geary Boulevard, San Francisco, CA 94118 415-933-8262 Plant It Earth

2279 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94114 415-626-5082

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

721 Francisco Blvd East San Rafael, CA 94901 415-482-8802 Pacific Garden Supply

128 H Carlos Drive, San Rafael, CA 94903

San Rafael Hydroponics

1417 Fourth Sreet San Rafael, CA 94901 415 455 9655 ____________________________

Green Coast Hydroponics 3560 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93105 805-898-9922 ____________________________

Pro Gardening Systems 3715 Santa Rosa Avenue #2, Santa Rosa, CA 95407 707-585-8633 ____________________________

Orange County Hydroponics 12797 Beach Boulevard, Stanton, CA 90680 714-893-9493 ____________________________

Sun-In Hydroponics 1257A Cleveland Avenue, Santa Rosa, CA 95401 707-578-5747 ____________________________ HomeGrown Indoor Garden Supply 681 A Grider Way, Stockton, CA 95210 209-477-4447 ____________________________ Sweet Leaf Hydroponics 1611 Sebastobol Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95407 707-575-GROW (4237) ____________________________

Golden Harvest Hydroponics & Garden Supply

8626 Lower Sacramento Road #48, Stockton, CA 95210 209-951-3550

2509 West Lane, Suite B Stockton, CA 95205 209-939-0664 Pacific Ave Indoor Garden Supply

4633 pacific Ave Stockton , CA 95207 209-955-0945

City Farm Hydroponics

8903 Laurel Canyon Boulevard, Sun Valley, CA 91352 818-767-2076 ____________________________

____________________________

81 Hangar Way, #1, Watsonville, CA 95076 831-761-9999 HydroPacific - Hydroponics & Garden Supplies 351 C Hastings Av., Ukiah, CA 95482 707-467-0400 ____________________________ Northcoast Hydrogardens

3450 North State Street, Ukiah, CA 95482 707-462-7214 Wyatt Supply

Sunland Hydroponics 8300 Foothill Boulevard, Sunland, CA 91040 818-352-5300 ____________________________ Anthony’s Garden & Lighting Supply

30 Ridge Road, Suites 8 & 9 Sutter Creek, CA 95685 209-267-5416 Tahoe Garden Supply

645 Westlake Boulevard, Suite 2, PO Box 487 Tahoe City, CA 96145 530-581-3200 The Otherside Hydroponics

41669 Winchester Avenue, Temecula, CA 92590 800-A1-HYDRO

Atlantis Garden Supply

2851 A Whipple Road, Union City, CA 94587 510-487-8007

Evergreen Hydroponics

923 N. Central Avenue, Suite B, Upland, CA 91786 909-946-7100 9490 Main Street, P.O. Box 763 Upper Lake, CA 95485 707-275-9565

1647 W. Sepulveda Boulevard, Unit 5, Torrance, CA 90501 888-326-GROW Los Angeles Hydroponics and Organics

3007-3009 W. Artesia Blvd. Torrance, CA 90504 310-323-4937 Anything Grows

10607 W. River Street, Building 3 Suite C, Truckee, CA 96161 530-582-0479

Emerald Garden

307 East Perkins Street, Ukiah, CA 95482 707-463-2510

7543 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA 90046 323-845-9874

Flower Hut Nursery

Nick’s Garden Center 2001 S. Chambers, Aurora, CO 80014 303-696-6657 ___________________________

____________________________

Greenhouse Tech

917 East Fillmore, Colorado Springs, CO 80907 719-634-0637 Hydro Grow Supply

644 Peterson Road, Colorado Springs, CO 80915 719-596-2600 Purple Mountain Hydroponics LLC

1530 S Nevada Avenue, Colorado Springs, CO 80906 719-635-5859 422 South 8th Street Colorado Springs CO 80905 719 633 8682

2491 Boatman Drive, Suite B West Sacramento, CA 95691 916-372-4444 603 4th Street Wheatland, CA 95692 530-633-4526

737 Garden of the Gods Road, Colorado Springs, CO 80907 719-278-9777

Room To Grow LLC

Hydronation

The Big Tomato Indoor Garden Supply 14440 E. 6th Ave. Aurora, CO 80011 (303) 364-4769 ___________________________

Hydroponics Market

GreenWay Hydroponics

Family Hydroponics-Boulder

Lazy Gardeners Hydroponics ‘N’ More

Polar Ray

15816 Arminta St Van Nuys, CA 91406 818-305-6261 886-72-HYDRO

____________________________

11510 Whittier Boulevard, Whittier, CA 90601 14626 East Whittier Boulevard, Whittier, CA 90605 562-945-0909

BWGS-CA 7530 W. Sunnyview Avenue Visalia, CA 93291 888-316-1306 ____________________________ The Green Shop

66420 Mooney Boulevard, Suite 1 Visalia, CA 93277 559-688-4200

Greentrees Hydroponics Inc.

2581 Pioneer Avenue, Unit D Vista, CA 92081 760-598-7551

Home Life Hydroponics and Organics

1745 East Vista Way, Vista, CA 92084 760-643-2150 ____________________________

Sparetime Supply

Deep Roots Garden Supply

____________________________

Mile High Hydroponics

208 E. San Francisco Avenue, Willits, CA 95490-4006

6395 Gunpark Drive, Boulder, CO 80301 303-473-4769 1790 Airport Road, Unit 1 Breckenridge, CO 80424 970-453-1440 37 Strong St. Brighton, CO 80601 303 637 0069

Hydromagic Supply 40 N. East St. Suite F Woodland,CA 95776 530-661-0117 ____________________________

Brighton Hydroponics

839so.Kuner rd., Brighton Colorado 80601 303-655-1427 ___________________________

Urban Gardens

22516 Ventura Boulevard, Woodland Hills, CA 91364 818-876-0222 ____________________________

Ultra Lo Hydro ultralohydro.com 937-252-8224 ____________________________ Garden Highway Garden Supply

598 Garden Highway #22 Yuba City, CA 95991 530-755-2877

Golden Valley Hydroponics

870 W. Onsott Rd. Ste F Yuba City, CA 95993 (530) 763-2151

Southern Humbolt Garden Supplies

34919 Yucaipa Boulevard, Yucaipa, CA 92399 909-797-6888 707-459-6791 Specialty Garden Center 1970 East Vista Way, Suite 10, Vista, CA 92084 760-758-4769 ____________________________

5171 Eldorado Springs Dr. Boulder, CO 80303 303 494 5773 Way To Grow

Kaweah Grower Supply

1106 1/2 N. Ben Maddox Way, Visalia, CA 93293 559-625-4937

2125 32nd Street Boulder, co 80301 303-996-6100

Garden Spout, The

260 Margie Dr Willits, CA 95490 707-456-0196

Hooked Up Hydroponics

339 S. Golden State Boulevard, Turlock, CA 95380 209-668-1300

No Stress Hydroponics

National Garden Wholesale/Sunlight Supply 3550 B Odessa Way, Aurora, CO 80011 866-877-4188 (Northeast) ____________________________

1650 Lewis Brown Dr. Vallejo, CA 94589 707 647 0774

Stop N Grow 4160 Market Street, Unit 11 Ventura, CA 93003 805-639-9489 ____________________________

Green Thumb Lighting & Garden

1043 South Glendora Avenue, Suite A West Covina, CA 91790 626-813-0868

Green Coast Hydroponics 11510 Whittier Boulevard Whittier, CA 90601 562-699-4201 ____________________________

Everything Green

28822 Old Town Front St. #206 Temecula, CA 92590 886-74-HYDRO ____________________________

Art of Hydro 2636 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd. Thousand Oaks, CA 91362 805-230-2227 ____________________________

California Hydro Garden

42 E Buckskin Rd. Alma CO 80420 719 836 1533 ____________________________

Roots and Rocks Hydroponic

and Organic Garden Supply 1014 S. 21st Street Colorado Springs, CO 80904 719-634-1024 ____________________________

TNC Supply

Inland Empire Hydrogarden

805 Hydroponics & Organics 1785 E. Thousand Oaks Boulevard Thousand Oaks, CA 91362 805-494-1785 ____________________________

1131 Main Street Weaverville, CA 96093 1 (530) 623-2884

Garden Tech

Yucca Valley Hydroponics

56825 Twentynine Palms Hwy. Yucca Valley, CA 92284 760 369 0300

ACME Hydroponics 300 Nickel St Suite 3 Broomfield, CO 80020 720.524.7306 ___________________________ Colorado Grow

3400 Industrial Lane, Unit 10A Broomfield, CO 80020 (303) 465-GROW (4769)

High Tech Garden Supply 5275 Quebec St. Commerce City, CO 80022 720-222-0772 ____________________________

N-BR Y-

Hydroponics 4 Less

2200 N. State St. Ukiah, CA 95482 707-462-7473

Evergreen Farm Feed and Garden

COLORADO South Park Hydroponics

19425 Ventura Blvd Tarzana CA 91356 818 881 hydro (4937)

Monterey Bay Hydroponics and Organics

ROC K

M&M Garden Supply

I F E R, C

R-n-B Horticultural Supply 25797 Conifer Rd #a-8 Conifer, Co 80433 303-838-5520 ____________________________

Roll-N-Green Farms Horticultural Supply 25797 Conifer Rd #A-8 Conifer, Co 80433 303-838-5520 ____________________________

Global Organics & Hydroponics 11 N Broadway Cortez CO 81321 970 564 8100 ____________________________ Your Grow Bud

6801 South Emporia St. Suite 106 Greenwood Village, CO 80112 Tel: 303-790-2211 ____________________________

Hydrofarm CO

400 Burbank St Broomfield, CO 80020 800-634-9990 J&D Organic Growing Solutions

217 1/2 Clayton Street Brush, CO 80723 970-310-5408

BWGS-CO 11685 E. 55th Avenue Denver, CO 80239 888-316-1306 ____________________________

BIG BloomZ

1011 Caprice Drive, Castle Rock, CO 80109 303-688-0599 Indoor Garden Warehouse

8100 S Akron St., Suite 322, Centennial, CO 80112 720-496-2110

Chlorophyll 3801 Mariposa St. Denver CO 80211 303-433-1155 ____________________________

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

205

MAXIMUM YIELD distributors

Denver Hydroponic & Organic Center

Retail Stores listed alphabetically by city in each state.

____________________________

Harvest Moon Hydroponics

LiquidSun® CT

7100 N. Broadway, Suite 3D Denver, CO 80221 303-428-5020

Primo Gardens 1600 North Ave. Suite B Grand Junction, CO 81501 970-241-1209 970-668-0359 ____________________________

The Grow Outlet

Greeley Nutrients

4272 Lowell Boulevard Denver, CO 80211 303-586-5543

700 11th Street Unit 101 Greeley CO 80631 970 673 8302

Way To Grow

GroWize

6810 North Broadway, Unit D Denver, CO 80221 303-650-0091

Rocky Mountain Lighting and Hydroponics

301 East 57th Ave. Denver, CO 80216 303-296-7900 ____________________________

3225 S. Wadsworth Boulevard, Lakewood, CO 80227 303-986-2706 Grow Store, The

8644 W. Colfax Avenue, Lakewood, CO 80215 888-510-0350 Ever Green Hydroponics Inc.

All Seasons Gardening 434 Turner Drive, Suite 2B Durango, CO 81303 (970) 385-4769 ____________________________

1131 Francis Street, Suite A, Longmont, CO 80501 303-682-6435 ____________________________

775 Silver Lane, East Hartford, CT 06118 860-568-4067

10C South Main Street, East Windsor, CT 06088 860-254-5757 ____________________________

Rogue Hydroponics 160 Broadway Hamden, CT 06518 866-277-4432 ____________________________

Gardener’s Edge Gainesville

5000 NW 34th Street, Suite 13, Gainesville, FL 32605 352-375-2769 ____________________________

Florida Garden Supplies 2692 W 79 Street, Hialeah, FL 33016 1-800-931-5215 ____________________________ Hydro Terra Corp.

924 North Federal Highway, Hollywood, FL 33020 954-920-0889

Organix Hydroponics

Simply Hydroponics & Organics (North)

Delaware

Hydroponics International Inc.

749 Saybrook Road, (Tradewinds Plaza) Middletown, CT 06457 860-343-1923 Sunny Day Organics

1867 Coastal Hwy. Rehoboth Beach, Delaware MD 19917 302 703 2538

3642 South Suncoast Boulevard, Homosassa, FL 34448 352-628-2655

7029-10 Commonwealth Avenue, Jacksonville, FL 32220 904-693-6554 ____________________________

FLORIDA

Blue Sky Hydroponics

1301 Florida Road Unit C Durango, CO 81301 970-375-1238 Grow Store South, The

5050 S. Federal Boulevard, #37, Englewood, CO 80110 303-738-0202

Ultra Lo Hydro ultralohydro.com 937-252-8224 ____________________________

Alpenglow Garden Supply

Best Hydro

2712 South College Ave Fort Collins, CO 80525 970-266-8888

Bath Nursery & Garden Center

2000 E. Prospect, Fort Collins, CO 80525 970-484-5022

Gold Coast Hydroponics West

8101 S.W. Frontage Road Suite 300 Fort Collins, Colorado 80528 970-232-3220 Indoor Paradise Hydroponics

309 S. Summit View, Unit 17, Fort Collins, CO 80524-1462 970-221-3751 Way To Grow

3201 E. Mulberry Street, Fort Collins, CO 80524 970-484-4769 ____________________________

Victory Hydro Gardening

1387 E. South Boulder Rd. Louisville, CO, 80027 Tel: 303-664-9376 ____________________________ Lyons Indoor Gardening 138 Main Street, Lyons, CO 80540 720-530-3828 Head Start Hydroponics & Organic Gardening Emporium

34500 US Highway 6, Unit B-9, North Edwards, CO 81632 970-569-313

Pueblo Hydroponicss and Organics - Downtown

113 W 4th St, Pueblo CO 81003 719 542 6798

Pueblo Hydroponics and OrganicsSouth

2704 S Prarie Ave Suite C Pueblo CO 81005 719 564 2660 Hydro Shack, The 220 Main Street, Suite E Frisco, CO 80443 970-668-0359 ____________________________ GWS Hydroponics

7025 Highway 82 Building 4B, Glenwood Springs, CO 81601 970-384-2040

Urban Sunshine 1420 E. Altamonte Dr. Altamonte Springs, FL 32701 407-830-4769 ____________________________

Pueblo Hydroponics and Organics

609 E Enterprise Dr Pueblo West CO 81007 709 647 0907

Salida Hydroponic Supply

1242 C Street Salida, CO 81201 (719) 539-4000 ____________________________

4920 Lena Road, Bradenton, FL 34211 941-756-1928 Palm Coast Hydroponics

4490 N Hwy US1 Ste. 108 Bunnell FL 32110 386 246 4119 ____________________________

Rocky Mountain Hydroponics and Organics

15985 S. Golden Road Golden, CO 80401 720-475-1725

Desert Bloom Hydroponics

445 Pitkin Avenue, Grand Junction, CO 81501 970-245-6427 970-668-0359

206

Urban Organics & Hydroponics

5325 Fairmont Street, Jacksonville, FL 32207 904-398-8012

Simply Hydroponics & Organics

7949 Ulmerton Road, Largo, FL 33773 727-531-5355

GrowSmart Indoor Garden Centers

14587 Southern Boulevard, Loxahatchee, FL 33470 561-429-3527

Palm Beach Discount Hydroponics – West

East Coast Hydroponics & Organics 461 Forrest Avenue, Suite 105 Coca, FL 32922 321-243-6800 ____________________________ GreenTouch Hydroponics Inc.

5011 S State Road 7, Suite 104 Davie, FL 33314 954-316-8815

Absolute Hydroponic Garden Center Inc

1607 Old Daytona Steet Deland, FL 32724 386-734-0696 Organic Grow Hut 2

780 Deltona Blvd. #107 Deltona, Florida 32725 1-888-574-grow 386-259-5777 Gold Coast Hydroponics

14703 Southern Blvd. Loxahatchee, FL 33470 561 296 8555

430 Count Street, Melbourne, FL 32901 321-821-1535 ____________________________

Advanced Hydro Gardens

4960 NW 165 Street, Suite B-4, Miami, FL 33014 866-97-HYDRO

____________________________

Florida Garden Supplies 9545 Sunset Drive, Miami, FL 33173

7207 NW 54th Street, Miami, FL 33166 866-452-4769

800-931-5215

Future Farms Inc., The

Biofloral 6250 NW 27th Way, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33309 877 735 6725 ____________________________

Grow Crazy

Green Thumb Hydroponics Supplies

11 Berlin Rd. Unit 2 Cromwell CT 06416 203 660 8486

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

13482 North Cleveland Avenue, Fort Meyers, FL 33903 239-997-4769

3D Hydroponics and Organics

7139 US Highway #19, New Port Richey, FL 34652 727-847-3491 ____________________________

Florida Garden Supplies 8442 Tradeport Drive, Unit 200, Orlando, FL 32827 ____________________________

Urban Sunshine 6100 Hanging Moss Rd ste 50 Orlando, FL 32807 407-647-4769 ____________________________

Urban Sunshine 6142 S. Orange Ave Orlando, FL 32809 407-859-7728 ____________________________ Green Winters Inc.

147 Tomoka Avenue, Ormond Beach, FL 32174 386-235-8730 800-931-5215 The Healthy Harvest

Ste. 126 21113 Johnson St. Pembroke Pines, FL. 33029 Tel: 954-538-1511 Eden Garden Supply

5044 N. Palafox Street, Pensacola, FL 32505 850-439-1299 Healthy Gardens and Supply of Florida, Inc.

196 East Nine Mile Road, Suite F, Pensacola, FL 32534 850-912-4545 ____________________________

National Garden Wholesale/ Sunlight Supply 455 S. Andrews Avenue, Pompano Beach, FL 33069 877-649-3567 (Southeast) ____________________________ Hydroponic Depot II

High Tech Garden Supply 2975 West New Haven Avenue, Melbourne, FL 32901 321-821-0853 ____________________________

Blossoms Experience, The

Cultivate Hydroponics & Organics 7777 W. 38th Avenue, A120A, Wheat Ridge, CO 80033 303-954-9897 ____________________________ CONNECTICUT

7921 NW 67th St Miami, FL 33166 786 845 8633

Atlantic Hydroponics

1539 SW 21st Avenue, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33312 1-800-780-7371

Hydro Planet

711 Washington Avenue, Golden, CO 80401 303-279-6090

Grower’s Choice & Hydroponics 11855 North Main Street, Jacksonville, FL 32218 904-683-4517 ____________________________

VitaOrganix

14291 SW 120th Street, Suite 105 Miami, FL 33186 305-382-2757 Gold Coast Hydroponics

4241 SW 71st Avenue, Miami, FL 33155 1-800-780-6805

Growing Garden Inc., The

12811 SW 42nd Street, Miami, FL 33175 305-559-0309

2395 S Tamiami Trail #19 Port Charlotte FL 33952 941 255 3999t EZ Grow Green

604 S.W. Bayshore Blvd. Port St. Lucie, Fl 34983 772-807-7755 Urban Sunshine Organic & Hydroponic Gardening

2841 South Nove Rd., Ste. 5 South Daytona, FL 32119 386-236-9989 386-492-6978

Mr. Nice Guy Hydroponics

1800 NW. Federal Hwy., Stuart, FL 34994 772 934 6785

Esposito Garden Center

2743 Capital Circle NE, Tallahassee, FL 32308 850-386-2114

Evershine Hydroponics

1519 Capital Circle NE Unit #35 Tallahassee FL 32308 850-765-0040 Grace’s Hydro-Organic Garden Center

8877 North 56th Street Tampa, FL 33617 813-514-9376

Harvest Time Hydroponics

14414 N. Florida Avenue, Tampa, FL 33613 813-264-7101 Hydroponics of Tampa

120 W. Bougain Villea, Tampa, FL 33612 813-333-6828

Stoney Hydro @ Schiro’s Barn n Garden Supplies

7812 Causeway Boulevard, Tampa, FL 33619 813-626-0902 ____________________________

Alpha Hydroponics and Garden Supply Inc.

____________________________

Savannah Hydroponics & Organics

4107 Eighth Street, Suite C Garden City, GA 31408 912-349-4030 Atlantis Hydroponics

5182-B Brook Hollow Parkway, Norcross, GA 30071 770.558.1346 HAWAII 810 Haiku Road, #394 Haiku, HI 96708 808-575-9171 Aqua Plant Hawaii / Kahala Hydroponics

4224 Wailae, Suite 1A, Honolulu, HI 96816 808-735-8665

Inc.

Monkey Hydroponics 940 West Oakland Ave. Unit A1 407 574 8495 ____________________________

Ohana Greenhouse & Garden Supply

300 Hukilike Street, #2M, Kahalui, HI 96732 808-871-6393

Winter Garden FL 34787

Aiyah’s Garden

Cultivating Eden Hydroponic Supplies

Aiyah’s Garden

13054 W Colonial Drive Winter Garden, FL 34787 407-656-GROW(4769)

946 18th Avenue SW, Vero Beach, FL 32962 772-564-8880 ____________________________

Florida Garden Supplies 8020 Belvedere Road,Unit 4, West Palm Beach,FL 33411 800-931-5215 ____________________________ Palm Beach Discount Hydroponics – East

968 North Congress Ave. West Palm Beach, FL 33409 561 296 6161

GEORGIA ____________________________

Goldman’s Grow Shop 910 Greenwood Road, Glenview, IL 60025 847-657-7250 ____________________________

4558 kukui st. kapa’a, Hi. 96746 3-3122 Kuhio Hwy. unit B-2 Lihue, Hi. 96766 808 245 2627

Flora Hydroponics, Inc.

1239 Fowler St. NW Atlanta, GA 30318

Flora Hydroponics Inc.

2475 Jefferson Road, Suite 600 Athens, GA 30607 866-404-0551 Flora Hydroponics, Inc.

195 Paradise Blvd. Athens, GA 30607 ____________________________

Grow Masters 4641 Old Grand Ave. Gurnee, Il. 60031 (224) 399-9877 ____________________________ Big Grow Hydroponics

9225 Trinity Drive, Lake In The Hills, IL 60156 847-854-4450 Grow Big Hydroponics 7817 B North 2nd Street, Manchesney Park, IL 61115 815-637-4769 ____________________________

15-2754 Old Government Road, Pahoa, HI 96778 808-965-9955

1900 South Dirksen Parkway, Springfield, IL 62703 217-553-6929 ____________________________

5895 Ensign Avenue, Boise, ID 83714 ILLINOIS Aerostar Global

824 South Kay Avenue, Addison, IL 60101

KANSAS Green Circle Hydroponics

6890 W. 105th Street, Overland Park, KS 66212 913-642-3888

BWGS-IN 1400 Hancel Pkwy., Mooresville, IN 46158 800-316-1306 ____________________________

Gardinside 618 S. Rt. 59 suite 104 Naperville, IL 60540 630-276-9885 ____________________________ Green Fields

8137 N. Milwaukee, Niles, IL 60714 847-965-5056 ____________________________

29 East 7th Street, Covington, (Cincinnati Metro), KY 41011 859-360-1843 ____________________________

INDIANA

7854 North State Road 37, Bloomington, IN 47404 888-464-9676 ____________________________

Boise Hydroponics

Greenthumb Greenhouses

Midwest Hydroganics 949 W Irving Park Rd. Streamwood IL 60107 630 483 1600 ____________________________

Sunleaves Garden Products

IDAHO

Worm’s Way Kentucky 1360 Donaldson Hwy. Suite A, Erlanger, KY 41018 800-669-2088 ____________________________ Grow Shop, The of Lexington

2320 Palumbo Drive, Suite 130, Lexington, KY 40509 859-268-0779 Louisville Hydroponics

3471 Taylor Boulevard, Louisville, KY 40215 502-366-4000

New Earth Garden Center

9810 Taylorsville Road, Louisville, KY 40299 800-462-5953

Worm’s Way Indiana 7850 North State Road 37, Bloomington, IN 47404 800-598-8158 ____________________________

181 Crossroads Parkway, Bolingbrook, IL 60194 847-885-8282 ____________________________

Bluegrass Organic Grow Shop

125 Quinn Dr., Nicholasville, KY 40356 859 887 0677 LOUISIANA Geaux Hydroponics!

2126 O’Neal Lane, Baton Rouge, LA 70816 225-751-4769 Laughing Buddha Nursery

Let it Grow - Carbondale West Main Street, Carbondale, IL 62908 573-450-5401 ____________________________ Alternative Garden Supply

615 Industrial Drive, Unit A Cary, IL 60013 800-444-2837 Brew and Grow

3625 N. Kedzi Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 773-463-7430 Fertile Ground

Atlantis Hydroponics 2561 West Point Avenue, College Park, GA 30337 678-510-0032 ____________________________

Water Works Indoor Gardening

Five Point Gardens 56555 Oak Road, South Bend, IN 46619 574-287-9232 ____________________________

Garden Grove Organics

Pahoa Feed & Fertilizer

614 North Orchard Street, Boise, ID 83706 208-344-3053

6805 Madison Ave Indianapolis, IN 46227 317-786-0066 ____________________________

KENTUCKY

Brew and Grow

Atlantis Hydroponics 1422 Woodmont Lane, #4, Atlanta, GA 30318 404-367-0052 ____________________________

Kreation’s Indoor Gardening Center 3427 Old Chatman Road, Springfield, IL 62704 217-341-0821 ____________________________

Green Hands of Aloha

1713 Mary Street, Honolulu, HI 96819 808-847-4263

Next Generation Gardening & Hydroponics

Midwest Hydroganics 20647 Renwick Road, Crest Hill, IL 60403 815-838-0100 ____________________________

Eco-Island Supply

Worm’s Way Florida 4412 North 56th Street, Tampa, FL 33610 800-283-9676; 813-621-1792 ____________________________

Organic Garden Center 9223 Skokie Blvd.

Skokie, IL 60077 (847) 675-2722 ____________________________

3904 N Druid Hills Rd. Suite 247 Decatur GA 30033 404 590 4769

463 West MacArthur Drive, Cottage Hills, IL 62018 618-259-5500 Brew and Grow- Crystal Lake

176 W. Terra Cotta Ave. Crystal Lake, IL 60014 1 (815) 301-4950

Autumn Bloom Alternative Indoor Gardening 1020 Derby Street Pekin, Illinois 61554 309-642-6943 ____________________________ Aerogro

502 N Prospect suite 18 Bloomington, IL, 61704, 127 N Main St E Peoria 61611 Prairie House Garden Center

15151 South Harlem Avenue, Orland, IL 60462 708-687-3131 Brew and Grow

3224 South Alpine Road, Rockford, IL 61109 815-874-5700 Brew and Grow

359 W. Irving Park Road Unit E, Roselle, IL 60172 630-894-4885

Worm’s Way Mail Order 7850 North State Road 37 Bloomington, IN 47404 800-274-9676 ____________________________ Frogs Lilly Pad, The

706 Citation Road, Carmel, IN 46032 317-846-4610

4516 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, LA 70006 504-887-4336 Urban Organics 285 St. Claude Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70117 504-352-4709

Ourcrazydeals Hydroponics

Hops & Harvest

4616 E. DuPont Road, Suite Q, Fort Wayne, IN 46825 260-918-3035 Harvest Moon Hydroponics

1336 East Washington St. Indianapolis, IN 46202 317-780-8020

Magic Bulb Garden Center

6229 Allisonville Road, Indianapolis, IN 46220 317-202-2852

Maximum Grow Gardening

6117 E Washington Street, Indianapolis, IN 46219 317-359-GROW (4769)

201 Angus Drive, Yungsville, LA 70592 337-303-6146 MAINE

The Urban Garden Center

600 Wilson St. Brewer, ME 04412 1-207-989-2020

LiquidSun of Maine

51West Gray Rd. Gray, ME 04039 207-657-8033

Natures Palate Indoor Garden Store

1321 Mercer Rd ( rte2) Mercer, Maine 04957 877-587-4150 207-587-4150

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

207

MAXIMUM YIELD distributors

____________________________

Retail Stores listed alphabetically by city in each state.

HotHydro®

5245 Jackson Road, Suite F Ann Arbor, MI 48103 734-761-5040; 877-893-0716

____________________________

Urban Gardening Center, The 2520 22nd Street, Detroit, MI 48216 313-898-0200 ____________________________

Synthetic Sun Hydroponics, LLC 705 S., Loxley Houghton Lake, MI 48629 989-422-2800 ____________________________

Homelight Gardens

Evergreen Garden Center 301 Forest Avenue Portland, ME 04101 207-761-2800 ____________________________

High Tech Garden Supply Maine178 Rand Rd. Portland, ME 04102 Phone 207-899-4387 ____________________________

High Tech Garden Supply 560 Boston Turnpike (Rt.9) Shrewsbury, MA 01545 508-845-4477 ____________________________

3471 S. Huron Road, Bay City, MI 48706 989-922-0088 J&L Growco

206 S. Michigan Avenue, Big Rapids, MI 49307 231-796-1528 916 W 13th St Cadillac, Mi,49601 231-775-7075

New England Hydroponics 15 D College Hwy. (Rt. 10), Southampton, MA 01073 888-529-9025 ___________________________

303 W 14 Mile Rd. Clawson, MI 48017 (248) 435-2250 ___________________________

659 Warren Ave Portland, ME 04103 1-207-347-2350

19 Stage Road, St. Albans, ME 04971 207-938-5909

Urban Garden Center

235 Lewiston Road, Topsham, ME 04086 207-373-0990

Greenlife Garden Supply

611 US Rt. 1 York, ME 03909 207-363-0844

MARYLAND East Coast Organics

2800 Sisson Street, Baltimore, MD 21211

Healthy Gardens and Supply

5001-F Harford Road, Baltimore, MD 21214 443-708-5144

Maryland Hydroponics Inc.

10051 North 2nd Street, Laurel, MD 20723 301-490-9236

Meadowview Feed & Garden Center

1202 Meadowview Road, Pasadena, MD 21122 443-817-0018

Maryland Hydroponics Inc.

12130 Nebel Street, Rockville, MD 20852 240-551-4625

Worm’s Way Massachusetts 121 Worc-Providence Turnpike, Sutton, MA 01590 800-284-9676 ____________________________ MICHIGAN Hydro Vision

11820 Belleville Belleville, MI 48111 (734) 325-6210 Growers Outlet

7720 Clyde Park SW Byron Center, MI 49513 616-878-4444 A Plus Hydroponics of Michigan LLC

9750 Cherry Valley Ave SE Caledonia MI 49316 (616) 891-0706

HydroMaster

36345 Groesbeck Hwy Clinton Twp, MI 48035 586-792-0277

MASSACHUSETTS

46912 Gratiot, Chesterfield, MI 48051 586-949-7453 ___________________________

Van Hydro

7480 N State, Davison, MI 48423 810-653-8267 The Grow Station

5670 Telegraph Rd. Dearborn, MI 48127 313-406-5147 800-797-4769 (GROW) ____________________________

Hydro Giant 14455 Ford Rd, Dearborn, MI ____________________________

611 Main st. Norway, Michigan 49870 (906)563-1518 ____________________________

481 Boston Road, Unit 4, Billerica, MA 01821 978-262-9966

GYOstuff – Grow Your Own

Harvest Moon Hydroponics

29 Washington Street, Route 1 Foxboro, MA 02035 800-660-6977 LiquidSun® MA

Cultivation Station of Michigan Inc., The 6540 Allen Road, Allen Park, MI 48101 313-383-1766 ____________________________ Gro Blue Indoor Gardening Supplies

8 Lynwood Avenue, Holyoke, MA 01040 413-539-6875

270 W. Liberty Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48104 734-913-2750

Green Path Garden Supply

4095 Stone School Rd. Ann Arbor, MI 48108 (734)-677-0009 (734)-677-0509

276 West Main Street, Northborough, MA 01532 508-393-4181

208

Grow Show, The

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

Green Forest Indoor Garden Supply, LLC. 2555 N. State(M-66) Rd. Ionia, MI 48846 616-523-6111 ____________________________

Synthetic Sun Hydroponics, LLC 799 S. Wisconsin Avenue Gaylord, MI 49735 989 731 8800 ____________________________

4646 W. Main Street, Kalamazoo, MI 49006 269-567-3333 Kalamazoo Indoor Garden 450 W. Maple, Kalamazoo, MI 49001 269-344-2550 ____________________________

Growco Garden Supply 1042 Michigan Street, NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49503 877-939-6900 ____________________________

High Tech Garden Supply 2815 East Grand River Ave. Lansing, MI 48912 (517) 580-0555 ____________________________

Home Grown Hydroponix

5333 Plainfield Suite C, Grand Rapids Michigan 49525, 616-361-2924 ____________________________

15201 N. Holly Road, Unit B Holly, MI 48442 248-369-8333 ____________________________

Aric’s Indoor Garden Supply

2731 East Grand River Howell, MI 48843 517-376-6843 ____________________________

Horizen Hydroponics

3364 Arent Ct Coloma, MI 49038 269-468-3890

Hills Hydro

1290 S. Lapeer Rd., Lake Onion, MI 48360 (248) 693-5747 Horizen Hydroponics

5425 W. Saginaw Highway Lansing, MI 48917 517-323-ROOT Cultivation Station – Eastern Market, The 2518 Market Street, Detroit, MI 48207 313-394-0441 ____________________________

Greenlife Garden Supply

2400 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02140 617-945-1654

495 Fenway Dr. Fenton, MI (810) 714-1719 ___________________________

H2O Grow Supply

Hydro Grow Room

Purple Mountain Organics

100-7010 Westmoreland Avenue, Takoma Park, MD 20912 877-538-9901

Superior Growers Supply 4870 Dawn Avenue, East Lansing, MI 48823 517-332-2663 ____________________________ Sunnyside Hydroponics 24930 Gratiot Avenue, Eastpoint, MI 48021 586-777-2528 Hydro Vision

Cultivation Station 3 Inc.

Hydro Vision

5844 N. Shelton Rd. Canton, MI 48187 (734) 335-6818

Superior Growers Supply, Inc.

Hydro Vision

The Urban Garden Center

Green Thumb Indoor Gardening

Hydro Vision 1247 e Grand River Howell, MI 48843 (517) 552-4965

Greenway Gardens

Hydro Giant 21651 W. 8 Mile Rd. Detroit, MI (8Mile & Lahser) 313-387-7700 313-216-8888 ____________________________ Hydro Heaven 73647 W 8th Mile Road, Detroit, MI 48235 313-861-0333; 877-823-2076 ____________________________

Ultra Lo Hydro ultralohydro.com 937-252-8224 ____________________________

Horizen Hydroponics 1614 Leonard Street, NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49504 866-791-1664 ____________________________ Hydro Grow Room

15201 N Holly Rd Unit B Holly MI, 48430 248-369-8333 ____________________________

Superior Growers Supply Inc.

3928 West Saginaw Highway Lansing, MI 48917 517-327-1900 Hills Hydro

700 Main St. Ste III Lapeer, MI 48446 (810) 245-8687 Superior Growers Supply

292200 Seven Mile West Livonia, MI 48152 248-473-0450

Northern Lights Hydroponic and Garden Supply

Flower Factory, The 2223 East Highland Road Highland, MI 48356 248-714-9292 ____________________________ Hydro Vision 2858 E Highland rd Highland, MI 48356 (248) 714-5556 Holland Hydroponic Outlet 587-40 East 8th Street, Holland, MI 49423 616-298-7395

29090 Campbell rd. Madison Heights, MI 48071 248-439-6269 BIg Creek Hydroponics

555 Old Little Lake Road, Marquette, MI 49855 906-249-5297 Growing Consultant

2260 Apple Avenue, Muskegon, MI 49442 231-773-5600

Sunshine Supply Co.

5800 East Pickard Street, Mt. Pleasant, MI 48858 989-775-3700

Flo-N-Grow.

214 N. 2nd Street, Niles, MI 49120 269-683-1877 Super Grow 288 W. MONTCALM PONTIAC, MI 48342 248-24SUPER (78737) Green Earth Hydroponics

Grow Store, The

90 N U.S. Highway 31 South , Traverse City, MI 49685-7923 231-421-5191

Portage, MI 49002 269-342-4190

Hydroponics Highway Inc.

Hydroharrys.com

2708 14th Ave. Port Huron MI, 48060 810-982-4769 Hydro Vision

66783 Gratiot Ave. Richmond, MI 48062 (586) 430-1956 Hills Hydro

896 S. Rochester Rd. Rochester Hills, MI 48307 (248) 650-4937 Green Thumb Hydroponics and Organic Indoor Supply

8460 Algoma Suite G Rockford MI 49341 616 884 5500

24500 Dequindre, Warren, MI 48091 800-461-8819

Beste's Indoor/Outdoor Garden Supply

21410 Schoenherr Warren, MI 48089 586 776-1794

2570 Dixie Highway, Waterford Twp., MI 48328 248-673-2200; 877 22 HYDRO ___________________________

Home Grown Hydroponics

8075 Gratiot Road, Unit C, Saginaw MI 48609 989-781-1930

Hydrospot 34236 Michigan Avenue, Wayne, MI 48184 734-722-1285 ___________________________

Hydro Giant

19363 Eureka Rd, Southgate, MI 734.281.8888 ___________________________ Hydro Vision

22180 Pontiac Trail South Lyon, MI 48178 (248) 435-2268 ____________________________

Cultivation Station of Michigan Inc., The 23529 Little Mack Avenue, St. Clair, MI 48080 586-775-9485 ____________________________

Indoor Eden 11090 Hi Tech Dr. Whitmore lake MI 48189 810-355-1465 ____________________________

26 W 1st Street Duluth, MN 55802 218-341-7253 ____________________________

Indoor Gardening

Brew and Grow

8302 Highway 65 NE., Minneapolis, MN 55432 763-780-8191

Midwest Hydroponics

5825 Excelsior Blvd., St. Louis Park,MN 55416 888-449-2739 ____________________________ Eden Indoor Organic Gardens

757 S. U.S. Highway 131 Three Rivers, MI 49093 269-278-130

Heartland Hydrogardens

705 Vandiver Drive, Suite G Columbia, MO 65202 573-474-4769 ____________________________

12 East Missouri, Kansas City, MO 64106 816-421-1840 ____________________________ Grow Your Own Hydroponics

3617 Saint John Avenue, Kansas City, MO 64123 816-241-2122 ____________________________

Let It Grow - Springfield

2519 E. Kearney Street, Springfield, MO 65803 417-862-GROW ____________________________ U-Grow

1724 North, 13th Street, St. Louis, MO 63106 314-452-6368 ____________________________

831 Highway 75 North Moorhead, MN 56560 218-477-EDEN (3336) ____________________________

American Garden Supply

G.C. II

Still-H2O Inc.

G.C. II

1006 E. Colby St. Suite A Whitehall, MI 49417 231-893-2400 22 50th Street Wyoming, MI 49504 616-249-8338 ____________________________

Cultivation Station – Grand Rapids, The 4907 S. Division Ave., Wyoming, MI 49548 616-855-4440 ____________________________

238 Highway 93 S., Eureka, MT 59917 406-882-4496 ____________________________

Butteopia

127 Main Street, Butte, Montana 59701 1-406-782-8476 ____________________________ Big Sky Garden Supply

528 West Idaho, Kallispell, MT 59901 406-755-1465

Box of Rain Indoor Garden Center

860 N. Meridian Road B-19, Kalispell, MT 59901 406-755-RAIN (7246)

Cornucopia Grow Your Own

127 Stoner Creek Road Lakeside, MT 59922 406-709-1076 Dr. Green Thumbs

1106 West Park, Livingston, MO 59047 406-222-7440 Bizzy Beez LLP 5875 Highway 93 S, Whitefish, MT 59937 406-863-9937 NEBRASKA Bodhi Organic Garden Supply

1438 S1 St. Ste 6

Lincoln, NE 68502 402 438 6785 Patio-Ponics

3255 Cornhusker Highway, Suite 4 Lincoln, NE 68504 402-466-9218 ____________________________

Worm’s Way Missouri

601-6th Avenue, North, Princeton, MN 55371 763-631-0543Q ____________________________

14375 North 60th Street, Stillwater, MN 55082 651-351-2822 Eco Garden Supply

800 Transfer Door 25 in rear St. Paul, MN 55114 651-647-1896 MISSISSIPPI Indoor Garden Shop LLC

1310 Bienville Boulevard, Ocean Springs, MS 39564 228-875-3725 ____________________________

Sunrise Garden Center

5173 W. 4th St., Hattiesburg, MS 39402 (601) 264-9300 ____________________________

Advanced Hydro-Ponics

10711 Mockingbird Drive, Omaha, NE 68127 (108th and L-Q) 402-991-6630 ____________________________

Green Thumb Organics

249 Mid Rivers Mall Drive, St. Peters, MO 63376 636-397-4769 (GROW) ____________________________ Beste's Indoor/Outdoor Garden Supply

21410 Schoenherr Warren, MI 48089 586 776-1794 MONTANA

NEVADA 2520 Empire Ranch Road, Carson City, NV 89701 775-884-4769

Heightened Harvests

Lorraine Ink

2018 Main Street #4, Billings, MT 59105 406-252-4311

Billings, MT 59102 (406)-245-LEAF(5323)

One World – Life Products

906 Broadwater Billings MT 59101 406 839 9969

Paradigm Gardens

8949 J Street, Suite 5, Omaha, NE 68127 402-339-4949 ____________________________ Carson Valley Hydroponics

Magic City Organic & Hydroponic Supply 812 Central

8210 Telegraph Road, Taylor, MI 48180 Great Lakes Green Horticultural Supply

HYDROGARDENS

Interior Gardens

Hydro Grow, The

313-633-0641

Let It Grow - Girardeau

Green Circle Hydroponics

Synthetic Sun Hydroponics, LLC 3218 W. Houghton Avenue West Branch, MI 48661 989-345-8800 ____________________________ Whitehall, MI 49461 231-893-2400

3103 Harrison Avenue, Suite B

879 S. Kings Highway, Cape Girardeau, MO 63703 573-803-0628 ____________________________

1225 North Warson Road, St. Louis, MO 63132 800-285-9676 ____________________________

AAA Hydroponics LLC

High Tech Garden Supply 7889 Telegraph Road. Taylor, MI 48180 313-908-7554 ____________________________

MINNESOTA Duluth Hydroponics

115 -1620 Central Avenue NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413 800-498-4178; 612-870-9077 ____________________________

Superior Growers Supply, Inc.

5716 South Pennsylvania Avenue South Lansing, MI 48911 517-393-1600 ___________________________

Stealth Hydro 15 E. Cross Street, Ypsilanti, MI 48198 866-998-1916 ____________________________

10 NE 3rd Street, Faribault, MN 55021 507-209-1546 ___________________________ Light Green Water 3661 Highland Road, Waterford, MI 48329 248-681-0001 ___________________________

Heightened Harvests

Butte, MT 59701 Alpengrow Nursery Supplies

Indoor Garden Superstore

High Tech Garden Supply

28000 Groesbeck Highway Roseville, Michigan 48066 (586) 435-2335

MISSOURI ____________________________

Wild Child

7740 M 72 East, Traverse City, MI 49690 866-711-GROW Hydro Vision 1910 West rd Trenton, MI 48183 (734) 301-3745

8127 Portage Rd.

____________________________

290 Spear Court, Fernley, NV 89408 775-575-7757 Hydro Store, The

1014 W. Sunset Road, Henderson, NV 89014 702-434-7365 AAA Indoor Organic Garden SuperCenter

2101 S. Decatur Boulevard, #21, Las Vegas, NV 89102 702-450-4769

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

209

MAXIMUM YIELD distributors

___________________________

Retail Stores listed alphabetically by city in each state.

East Coast Hydroponics

14649 Horace Harding Exp, Flushing, NY 11367 718-762-8880 Healthy Harvest Organics and Hydro

Advanced Gardens Hydroponics

3111 South Valley View, (on Desert Inn West of Valley View) Suite V103 Las Vegas, NV 89102 702-257-4769 ____________________________ Advanced Gardens Hydroponics

7850 Dean Martin Dr. Suite 506 Las Vegas,NV 89139 702-247-4769

All Seasons Gardening 3600 Osuna Road, Suite 406 Alburquerque, NM 87109 505-508-4292 ____________________________ Common Shaman

1319 San Mateo N.E., Albuquerque, NM 87110 505-255-6463 ____________________________

All American Hydroponics

All Seasons Gardening 1228 Parkway, Suite E Sante Fe, NM 87507 505-438-GROW ____________________________

6818 W Cheyenne, Las Vegas, NV 89108 702-750-9300 Hydro Store, The

7145 W. Ann Road, Las Vegas, NV 89130 702-434-9376

Santa Fe Hydroponics

Nevada Hydroponics

4700 B Maryland, Suite 1, Las Vegas, NV 89119 702-798-2852 Anything Grows

190 West Moana Lane, Reno, NV 89509 775-828-1460 P.O Box 34869 Reno, Nevada 89533

Natural Roots Hydroponics

24 Crown St. Nashua, NH 1 (603) 204-5528

NEW JERSEY Garden State Hydroponics

511 Avenel Street, Avenel, NJ 07001 888-300-8711

70 Essex Street, Hackensack, NJ 07601 201-342-2001 ____________________________

HYDRO PO N I C S

I N C .

Green Touch 2 Hydroponics Inc. 888 Route 33, Unit 1, Hamilton, NJ 08619 609-570-8829 ____________________________

1652 Hurffville Road, Sewell, NJ 08080 856-228-5290 ____________________________ 77HYDRO

37 Fairfield Place, West Caldwell, NJ 07006 877-774-9376 Claraqua

4 Redwood Court, West Windsor, NJ 08550 NEW MEXICO AHL Year Round Garden Supply

1051 San Mateo Blvd. SE, Albuquerque, NM 87108 505-255-3677

210

Crossroads Hydroponics & Organics

181 S. Plank Rd. Newburgh, NY 12550 845-561-GROW

The Grow Room

Nyack, NY 10960 800-449-9630

Saratoga Organics & Hydroponic Supply

Sunlight Solutions Hydroponics

Revolution Hydroponics 309 West State St.

Olean NY 14760 716.373.Grow (4769)

Mor Gro Hydroponics

5680 State Route 104 E Oswego , NY 13126 315-877-8725

The Grape Vine

Environmental Gardens

39 Bruckner Boulevard, Bronx, NY 10454 718-993-3787

Bklyn Hydro & Garden

316 McGuiness Blvd Brooklyn NY 11222 718-383-0095 51Hicks Street St. Brooklyn, NY 11231 347-725-3491

Indoor Outdoor Gardener

8223 5th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11209 718-836-2402

Hydroponics of Buffalo

1497 Hertel Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14216 716-838-3545

340 West at 59, Central Nyack, NY 10960

California Hydroponics

27 Corporate Circle, East Syracuse, NY 13057 315-432-9387

8 John Walsh Boulevard, Suite 310 Peekskills, NY 10566 800-254-0507; 914-736-6676 Harvest Moon Hydroponics

Henrietta Townline Plaza, 3047 West Henrietta Road, Rochester, NY 14623 716-865-7353 Hydro Garden Center

1069B Lyell Avenue, Rochester, NY 14606 1-800-277-1322

Sunset Hydroponics & Home Brewing

1590 West Ridge Road, Rochester, NY 14615 866-395-9204 KG Garden Supply

4575 Commercial Drive New Hartford, NY 13413 877-KG-HYDRO

FutureGarden Inc.

59 Central Avenue, Farmingdale, NY 11735 516-420-0884 ____________________________

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

21 B Westside Dr. Asheville NC 28806 828-225-5007

Fifth Season Gardening Company

2606 Erie Boulevard, Syracuse, NY 13224 315-251-2516 ____________________________

1721 Greenville Road Bristolville, OH 44402 330-889-0049

Magic Home Gardens

209 Cemetery Road, Canal Winchester, OH 43110 614-837-2440 ___________________________

Fifth Season Gardening Company

106 South Greensboro Street, Carrboro, NC 27510 919-932-7600

Be Well Hydroponics & Urban Gardening

4732 Monroe Road, Charlotte, NC 28205 704-344-8010 ___________________________

CincyPonics

3314 Harrison Ave. Cincinnati, Ohio 45211 513-661-3886 ___________________________ Dumont Seed Co.

619 30th ST. N.W. Canton, ohio 44709 330-492-0204

Dayton Hydroponics BWGS-NC

4045 Perimeter West Drive,Suite 400, Charlotte, NC 28214 800-316-1306 ___________________________

4920 Provident Drive Cincinnati, Ohio 45246 513-942-7111

Eastside Hydroponics

550 Ohio Pike #136 Cincinnati, OH 45255 513-528-GROW

Kissed by the Sun Hydroponic

High Tech Garden Supply

2712 B Freedom Drive Charlotte, NC 28208 704-697-0911 ___________________________ Flow & Grow Hydroponics & Organic Garden Center

4521 Cumberland Road, Fayetteville, NC 28306 910-423-FLOW (3569)

Fifth Season Gardening Company

1616 D-3 Battleground Avenue, Greensboro, NC 27408 336-271-3373

Good Harvest Garden Center

629 Oakridge Farm Hwy. Mooresville NC 28115 704-658-9136

Fifth Season Gardening Company

5619-A Hillsborough Street, Raleigh, NC 27606 919-852-4747 New Age Gardens

2236A US Highway 70, Swannanoa, NC 28778 828-299-9989 ____________________________

10740 Reading Road, Cincinnati, OH 45241 513-769-0159

Cleveland Garden Center Inc.

727 East 185th Street, Cleveland, OH 44119 216-481-7868 Grow Wizard, The

5700 Denison Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44102 216-961-2500 Herb-N-Garden Center

14901 Puritas Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44135 216-252-2001

Garden Indoors of Ohio

4720 Indianola Avenue, Columbus, OH 43214 800-833-6868 Magic Home Garden

4538 Indianola Avenue, Columbus, OH 43214 614-263-2440 Garden Connections

3341 Centerpoint Dr. Grove City OH 43123 614 871 0707

Advanced Hydrorganics Indoor Garden Center

5204 Darrow Road, Hudson, OH 44236 234-380-1287 Sweet Greens

1702 Fiero ave Rotterdam, NY 12150 518-952-4654

Hydroponics Shops of America

Campbells Indoor Gardening Supplies

45 Banks Avenue, Asheville, NC 28801 828-253-4112

LiquidSun of New York

All Season Hydroponics

5540 Brecksville Road Independence, OH 44131 800-421-7084 ____________________________

890 South Kerr Avenue, Wilmington, NC 28410 ____________________________ Progressive Gardens

6005 Oleander Drive, Wilmington, NC 28403 910-395-1156

Upstate Hydroponics

2026 Lake Rd unit B Elmira, NY 14903 607 483 9199 ____________________________

Fifth Season Gardening Company

The Grow Room 8 Bridge Street,

19 Front Street, Ballston Spa, NY 12020 518-885-2005; 800-850-4769 4020 Hempstead Turnpike Bethpage,NY,11714 516-731-1100

55 Shiloh Road #6 Asheville, NC 28803 1 (828) 277-3488

Hudson Valley Hydroponics

Organica: Garden Supply & Hydroponics

Harvest Moon Hydroponics East Coast Horticultural Supply

199 E. Fairmount Ave, Lakewood, NY 14750 (716) 763-1612

2045 Niagara Falls Boulevard, Suite 13, Niagara Falls, NY 14304 888-GROWBOX

Brooklyn Farms

greentouch2

308 Elmira Road, Ithaca, NY 14850 607-272-3666

NEW YORK

Bronx Hydro & Garden

Bergen County Hydroponics

Greentree Nursery

821 W. San Mateo Road, Suite 4, Santa Fe, NM 87505 505-467-8454

32-32 49th Street Astoria, NY 11103 718-218-GROW (4769)

NEW HAMPSHIRE

10 Saratoga Ave S. Glen Falls, NY 12803 (518) 798-820

217 Route 32 North, New Paltz, NY 12561 845-255-3633

296 Delaware Ave., Albany, NY 12209 518-618-7666

Everything Green Hydroponics

518-480-4698 Saratoga Organics & Hydroponic Supply

Mike’s Nursery and Grower Supplies

2675 East Patrick Lane, Unit 8, Las Vegas, NV 89120 702-894-9888 Best Hydroponic Supply

163 Broadway, Fort Edwart, NY 12828

NORTH CAROLINA Advanced Hydroponic Garden

OHIO Green Zone Hydroponics

2148 Niagara Falls Blvd. Tonawanda, NY. 14150 716-693-9663 ____________________________ Harvest Moon Hydroponics

147 Fourth Street, Troy, NY 10960

Akron Garden Center

434 W Wilbeth Road, Akron, OH 44314 330-724-2700

Summit Hydroponics

1030 Kenmore Boulevard Akron, OH 44314-2114 330-753-5222

Hydro Gardens and Lights

1144 N Memorial Drive Lancaster, OH 43130 705-65 Hydro ____________________________ Carefree Garden Center

134 West Drive, Lodi, OH 44254 330-302-4203

CropKing

134 West Drive, Lodi, OH 44254 330-302-4203

OREGON ____________________________

USA Hydrogarden

7450 Industrial Pkwy, Ste. A Lorain, Ohio 44053 440-282-4880 The Grow Shop 165 Davids St. Marion OH 43302 740 223 7467 ___________________________

Paradise Supply LLC

560 NE. “F” Street, Unit C, Grand Pass, OR 97526 541-955-7293

____________________________

Aqua Serene

465 Applegate Way, Ashland, OR 97520 541-482-7600 ____________________________

Salem, OR 97302 503-566-7888 Wizard’s Garden, LLC

621 Spruce Street, Unit C, Myrtle Point, OR 97458 541-572-2333 ____________________________ Green Zone Garden Center &

Oregon Rainforest Co.

Astoria Indoor Garden Supply

Urban Gardens

671 E. Center Street Marion, OH 43302 740-375-2800 ____________________________ Top Garden Products

8600 East Avenue Suite C. Mentor, OH 44060 440-290-8773 Green Garden Indoor Garden Center

1343 Duane St. Unit C Astoria OR 97103 503 468 0606 ____________________________ POB 21, Azalea, OR 97410 541-837-8590 B.I.G.S.

155 SW Century Drive, Suite 401, Bend, OR 97702 541-385-5222 Herb N’ Jungle Hydroponics

930 SE Textron Drive, Bend, OR 97702 541-382-4010

Indoor Gardens

Northern Light and Garden Beaverton

9290 SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway, Beaverton, OR 97005 503-297-7331 Westcoast Organic and Hydroponic Supply

12410 SE 282nd Avenue, Unit C Boring, OR 97009 503-766-4106 Trinity Hydro Organics

The Good Earth Organics

465 Woodman Drive Riverside, OH 45431 937-252-GROW ____________________________

30088 Redwood Highway, Cave Junction, OR 97523 541-592-4496

Toledo Hydroponics Ltd.

93779 B Troy Lane, Coos Bay, OR 97420 541-266-8822

855 S. Holland-Sylvania Road, Suite 2 Toledo, OH 43615 1-877-893-0716 Greenleaf Hydroponics

1805 Elm Road, Warren, OH 44483 330-372-1039

Anthony’s Garden & Light Supply

Corvallis Hydroponics & Organics

5490 SW Philomath Boulevard, Corvallis, OR 97333 541-738-2820 ____________________________

3856 Miamisburg-Centerville Road, West Carrolton, OH 45449 937-859-3999

Garden Supplies

In & Out Gardens

93484 Hwy 99 South Junctin City OR 97448 541-234-2342 ____________________________ Basin Indoor Gardening

417 N. Spring St. Klamath Falls, OR 97601 541-273-2023

Green Zone Garden Center &

Hydroponic Supplies 1845 S W Hwy. 101 Ste. 3 Lincoln OR 97367 USA 541 994 7070 H2organic LCC

620 NE 3rd Street, McMinnville, OR 97128 503-434-6107 Green Thumb Hydrogarden and Organic Supply

2021 West Main Street, Medford, OR 97501 541-779-8600

Growing Crazy (Hooked On Hydroponics)

817 W. 2nd Street, Medford, OR 97501 ____________________________

Indoor Garden Worx

906 Blue Avenue, Zanesville, OH 43701 866-900-9679

OKLAHOMA Tulsa County Hydro-Organics 1928 W. Albany, Broken Arrow, OK 74012 918-259-HYDRO AAAAHA! Hydroponics Unlimited P.O. Box 74, Oakhurst, OK 74050 Organics OKC Garden Supply 3620 N Pennsylvania Avenue, Oklahoma City, OK 73118 405-528-GROW The OKC Urban Gardener 3711 N. Western Ave. Oklahoma City, OK 73118 405-521-9300 Urban Garden 3141 E. 15th Street, Tulsa, OK 74104 918-289-0018

Aqua Serene

2836 W. 11th Avenue, Eugene, OR 97402 541-302-9073 ____________________________

1574 Skypark Drive Medford, OR 97501 541-858-3333 ____________________________ Ladybug Indoor Gardens

3960 W. Main Street, Medford, OR 97501 541-618-4459

Advanced Organics & Garden Supply Aurora Innovations

PO Box 22041, Eugene, OR 97402 866-376-8578 ____________________________

290- B Merlin Avenue Merlin, Oregon 97532 541-659-1466 ____________________________

Advanced Indoor Gardens

17831 se 82nd drive Gladstone, OR 97027 503 305 6341

Northern Light and Garden Grants Pass

1203 Rogue River Highway, Grants Pass, OR 97527 541-474-1700

Gorilla Garden Supply

2011 Union Ave, North Bend, OR 97459 541-756-5005 ____________________________ Green Garden Indoor Garden Center

1664 North Main St. N. Canton, OH 44720 330-494-1234

Cascade Horticulture

39570 Pioneer Boulevard, Sandy, OR 97055 503-668-8242 Moonshine Park Farm

135 South East 62nd, Unit F South Beach, OR 97366 541-444-2298 155 West Central Avenue, Sutherlin, OR 97479 541-459-9211 Samurai Greenhouse Supply

32067 Old Hwy. 34 Tanget, OR 97389 541-928-3431

Grow America Garden Supply LLC

11511 SW Pacific Highway, Tigard, OR 97223 503-841-6868 Pharmer Hydroponics

American Agriculture

9220 Southeast Stark Street, Portland, OR 97216 800-433-6805

11135 SW Industrial Way Bldg 10-4 Tualatin, OR 97062 (503) 486-5751 PENNSYLVANIA

Bloom Garden Supply

Pocono Hydroponic Solutions

BWGS-OR

Green Solutions Hydroponics

Everybody’s Garden Center

Garden Indoors of Pennsylvania

Garden Spout, The

422 GROW

25 Route 611 Bartonsville, PA 18321 Tel: 570-730-4544

518 NE 20th Ave. Portland, OR 97232 (971)255-1336

18201 NE Portal Way, Ste. 104 Portland, OR 97230 (888) 316-1306 2701 SE 14th Avenue, Portland, OR 97202 800-669-5483

4532 South East 63rd Avenue, Portland, OR 97206 503-788-4769 Homegrown Garden Supply

Island Flowers & Indoor Garden Center

1700 Orange Street Berwick, PA 18603 570-752-1530 208 Route 13, Bristol, PA 19007 800-227-4567

1775 North Main Street Extension Butler, PA 16001-1327 724-561-3777 ___________________________

20232 Route 19, Unit 6, Cranberry Twp., PA 16066 724-473-1113 ___________________________

Lights Distributing

New Moon Indoor Garden Supply

20550 Route 19 Perry Highway, Cranberry Twp., PA 16066 724-591-8086

9843 SW 55th Avenue, Portland, OR 97219 Rain or Shine

Easton Hydroponcis

13126 NE Airport Way, Portland, OR 97230 503-255-1981

437 N. Hampton St. Easton, PA 18042 484-373-3232

Roots Garden Supply

Home Hydroponics of Pittsburgh

5426 North Gay Avenue, Portland, OR 97217 503-285-4768

830 Route 119, Greensburg, PA 15601 724-836-1118

Urban Flora

Buds to Blooms Garden and Supply Co., LLC

BIGS Warehouse Indoor Garden Depot

15828 SE McGloughlin Boulevard, Milwaukie, OR 97267 503-786-2445 ____________________________ H2organic LCC

620 NE 3rd Street, McMinnville, OR 97128 503-434-6107

High Tech Garden Supply

909 N. Tomahawk Island Drive, Suite 103, Portland, OR 97217 503-546-3185

2865 South East, Portland, OR 97214 503-236-3344

SunInside Gardening Co.

665 Conger, Unit F, Eugene, OR 97402 541-686-9966

1915 Lancester Drive, Salem, OR 97305 503-364-4769

7112 NE Gilsan Street, Portland, OR 97213 877-EZ2-GROW In & Out Gardens

Harvest Moon

Northern Light and Garden Salem

J-N-B Hydro 2 Go

Dayton Hydroponics

9215 Market Street, Youngstown (North Lima), OH 44452 800-776-8399

Hydroponic Supplies 454 S.W. Coast Hwy Newport OR 97365 USA P: 541-265-8252 ____________________________

Rogue Silicates Inc.

1664 North Main St. N. Canton, OH 44720 330-494-1234

1222 Hill Road, North, Pickerington, OH 43147 614-866-6065 ____________________________

19949 E. Burnside Street, Gresham, OR 97233503-465-9909 ____________________________

853 SE Stephens Street, Roseburg, OR 97470 541-229-1420

Indoor Garden Center 1697 SE 25th Street,

Vital Organix

932-B SE “M” Street Grants Pass, OR 97526 541-226-9283 ____________________________

Roseburg Hydroponics

2606 SW 4th Street, Unit B Redmond, OR 97756 541-504-8886

509 Orchard Avenue Kennett Square, PA 19348 484-860-8056 ____________________________

Indoor Garden Supply

536 SW 6th Street (rear alley), Redmond, OR 97756 541-504-7750 DC Hydroponics & Organics

7275 Green Siding Rd. Roseburg, OR 97471 541-679-3700

The Companion Plant

363 E. Main St Kutztown, PA 19530 1 (610) 683-9676 ____________________________

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

211

MAXIMUM YIELD distributors

Flairform

POB 1417, Lansdale, PA 19446 215-395-6353 ____________________________

RHODE ISLAND Oakworld Garden Center

39 West Street, Barrington, RI 02806 401-245-5705

Retail Stores listed alphabetically by city in each state.

The Urban Garden Hydroponics

9557 Two Notch Rd. Ste. E Columbia, SC 29223 803-788-9313 ____________________________

____________________________

2406 Putman Pike, Chepachet, RI 02814 401-710-9010

Worm’s Way Tennessee

Organically Grown RH Distribution

PO 1417, Lansdale, PA 19446 888-545-8112 ____________________________ Esbenshades Greenhouses

546A East 28th Div Hwy Lititz Pa 17543 717-626-7007

Hydro Ponics of Harrisburg

310 South 10th Street, Lemoyne, PA 17043 877-684-3808

Always Green Garden Supply

Hydro-Earth

1243 Mineral Springs Avenue, North Providence, RI 02904 401-305-5520 The Organic Grow Hut 375 Putnam Pike- Ste 13 Smithfield, RI 02828

(401)349-4141

51 Old Tower Hill Road, Wakefield, RI 02879 401-783-1733

New Stanton Hydro

Mother Nature Hydroponics

150 Post Ave. New Stanton, PA. 15672 724-635-0297

1268 Post Rd. Warwick RI 02888 401 780 0600

The Companion Plant

LiquidSun® RI

363 E. Main St Kutztown, PA 19530 1 (610) 683-9676

Esbenshades Greenhouses

1179 Central Avenue, Pawtucket, MA 02861 401-722-2724 ____________________________

546A East 28th Div Hwy Lititz Pa 17543 717-626-7007

Home Hydroponics of Pittsburgh

2008 Smallman Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222 412-232-7030

Healthy Gardens and Supply

1012 Lincoln Avenue, Prospect Park, PA 19076 866-32-HYDRO

Northeast Hydroponics & Homebrewing

221 Scranton Carbondale Hwy. Scranton PA 18508 570 209 7924 Home Hydroponics of Pittsburgh

9 North Main St. Washington, PA 15301 724-222-0200

Western Pennsylvania Innovative Gardening

Good To Grow

34 Nooseneck Hill Road, West Greenwich, RI 02817 401-392-3100 ____________________________ Growin’ Crazy

93 Kingston Road Wyoming, Rhode Island 02898 401-284-0810 SOUTH CAROLINA GreenSpirit Hydrogarden 1864 Meeting Street,

Charleston, SC 29405 843-225-1GRO; 247 Garden Supply

535 D Clemson Road, Columbia, SC 29229 803-788-4445 ____________________________

800 Washington Blvd. Williamsport, PA 17701 570-322-3120 ____________________________

PA Hydroponics & Home Gardening Supply

20 Quaker Church Road, York Springs, PA 17372 717-528-4175

212

1230 Rutherford Road, Greenville, SC 29609 864-271-8830 ____________________________

Greenspirit Hydrogardens

3600 Unite 1 Hwy.17 S. North Myrtle Beach, SC 29582 843-361-7777 ____________________________ SOUTH DAKOTA ____________________________

6729 Two Notch Road, Columbia, SC 29223 803-708-4819 ____________________________

5700 Highway 79 S.,Unit 1, Rapid City, SD 57702 605-342-1307 ____________________________ TENNESSEE Innovative Hydroponic Supply Inc.

3286 North Park Blvd. Unit G Alcoa TN 37701 865 984 0280

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

Brite Ideas Hydroponics & Organics

4360 S.Congress Avenue, #310, Austin, TX 78745 512-444-2100

5126 Burnet Road, Austin, TX 78756 512-459-4769

Texas Hydroponics & Organics (South Austin)

Advanced Hydroponic Garden

783 French Mill Road, Dandridge, TN 37725 800-521-1643 Perpetual Harvest

75 Riverport Drive, Jackson, TN 38301 877-422-3391

2235 Whitten Road, Suite 104, Memphis, TN 38133 901-372-8100 ____________________________

All Seasons Gardening and Brewing Supply Co.

924 8th Avenue, South, Nashville, TN 37203 800-790-2188

15120 Bellaire Blvd Houston, TX 77083 281-575-1999 Houston Discount Hydroponics

9384 Richmond Avenue, Houston, TX 77063 713-464-9406 Hydroponic Nation

9700 Almeda Genoa Road, Suite 108, Houston, TX 77075 281-501-9636 In-N-Out Garden Supply

11011 S Wilcrest Drive Ste K Houston, TX 77099 1 (281) 568-5265 Texas Hydroponics & Organics (Houston)

7730 A Park Place Boulevard, Houston, TX 77087 713-641-4769 Ultimate Hydroponic Garden Supply

6125 West Sam Houston Parkway, North Suite 206 Houston, TX 77041 713-856-8425

2125-A Goodrich Avenue, Austin, TX 78704 512-440-4769

Texas Growers Supply

Third Coast Horticulture Supplies

Field of Dreams Indoor Growing Supplies

Happy Harvest Hydroponics & Organic 1500 C rescent Drive, Suite 202

Carrollton, TX 75006 972-466-1300

5990 N. Sam Houston Pkwy. E. #602, Humble, TX 77396 281-441-3739 5302 Slide Road Unit B,Lubbock, TX 79414 806-793-2901 Hydro Mart

3841 Main Street, Rowlett, TX 75088 972-475-6114 ____________________________

GroGreen Hydroponics

4015 Main Street, Dallas, TX 75226 214-370-9984 ____________________________

1800 Rossville Avenue, #3, Chattanooga, TN 37408 423-752-5400

126 Belinda Parkway, Mt. Juliet, TN 37122 888-265-9005 ____________________________ All Season Hydroponics

3101 Avenue E East, Marshall, TX 76011 817-649-0100

Atlantis Hydroponics

National Garden Wholesale/ Sunlight Supply

6729 Two North Road, 10B Columbia, SC 29223 803-708-4819 ____________________________

TEXAS Abundant Harvest Hydroponics & Organics

7010 Burnet Rd., Ste.A Austin, TX 78757 512 459 4353

Sun City Hydroponics All Good Hydroponics & Gardening

901 Main Street, Nashville, TN 37072 800-397-4153 ____________________________

Texas Hydroponics & Organics (Central Austin)

6912 Clinton Highway, Knoxville, TN 37921 866-938-3318

National Garden Wholesale/ Sunlight Supply

450 Grim Lane, York,PA 17406 877-779-7111(Northeast) ____________________________

Green Thumb Unique Gardening & More

Advanced Hydroponic Garden

1177 Pittsburgh Road, Suite 103 Valencia, PA 16059 724 - 903 - 0800 Organic Garden Center

1350 Hwy. 501 Business, Store 3&4 Conway, SC 29526 843-347-9266 ____________________________

Green Earth Products Inc.

Full Bloom Hydroponics

84 South 24th Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15203 888-872-3602

All Season Hydroponics

South County Hydroponics

4400 Old William Penn Hwy Ste. 106 Monroeville PA 15146 412 646 1243

P.O. Box 980904, Trader’s Village #363, Houston, TX 77098 713-942-0484 Botani Garden

Solar Seed Hydroponics, Inc.

768 Atwood Ave Cranston, RI 02920 401-944-0549

Airline Hydroponics

Sol Organics & Hydroponics

Jolly Green Hydroponics (Greenhouse Horticultural Supplies)

13628 Neutron Road, Dallas, TX 75244 (866) WE-JOLLY; 469-341-5555 ____________________________ Lone Star Hydroponics and Organics

1302 Motor Circle, Dallas, TX 75207 214-634-9376

1634 Babcock Road, San Antonio, TX 78229 210-366-9082 ____________________________ Innergrow Hydroponics

24451 Interstate Highway 20, Wills Point, TX 75169 866-475-4769 UTAH Wasatch Hydroponics

4050 South Howick, Suite 11E, Salt Lake City, Utah 84107 801-716-4133 ___________________________

Texas Hydroponics & Organics (Dallas)

3400 Elm Street, Dallas, TX 75226 214-744-4769 ____________________________

Salt Lake Plant & Hydro60 West 3300 S. #6

,South Salt Lake, UT 84115 801-488-3200 ____________________________ Organic Garden & Feed

3801 N Interstate Hwy 35,Suite126, Denton Texas 76207 940-381-9890 ____________________________ Earth Organics

1360 Lee Trevino Drive,Suite 105 El Paso, TX 79936 915-591-9500

VERMONT Greenthumb - Vermont

394 Route 15, Jericho, VT 05465 802-899-4323

Peak Hydroponic Garden Supplies

20 School Street, Plainfield, VT 05667 802-454-8000

LiquidSun® VT 1 Bellows Falls Road, (Route 5 North) Putney, VT 05158 802-387-1100

Kitsap Garden & Lighting

Green Thumb Gardening

M & R Lighting

P.O. Box 235, Route 15, Underhill, VT 5489 800-564-9376 VIRGINIA

2130 6th Street, Bremerton, WA 98312 360-377-1277 Unit C 22914 Highway 410, Buckley, WA 98390 253-891-4190 ____________________________

Fifth Season Gardening Company

900 Preston Ave. Charlottesville VA 22903 434-293-2332

Clean & Green Technologies

196 Corning Drive, Christiansburg, VA 24073 866-694-1628 I Love Hydroponics

612 N. Sheppard Street, Richmond, VA 23221 804-377-3020 Lucky Roots

612 North Sheppard St. Richmond, VA 23221 804-377-3020 Blue Ridge Hydroponics & Home Brewing Company

The Williamson Road Plaza, 5327 D Williamson Road Roanoke, VA 24012 540-265-2483

Inside-Out Garden Supply

Indoor Tropics 5930 Sunburst Lane #B Cashmere, WA 98815 509-470-7782

13400 Occoquan Road, Woodbridge, VA 22191 703-490-0700

KP Indoor Garden Store

8912 Key Peninsula HWY N Lakebay, WA 98349 253-884-SURE (7873) ___________________________ 1158 Commerce Longview WA, 98632 360-353-3851 ____________________________

500 Bond Drive, Castlerock, WA 98611 360-274-7960 Grow Center, The

615 South Fir DeerPark WA 99006 509-276-GROW Healthy Grow Indoor Garden Supplies

10 SE Everett Mall Way Suite B Everett WA 98208 425-374-2227 ___________________________

Indoor Garden & Lighting

20505 Highway 99,, Lynnwood, WA 98036 425-673-2755 ____________________________ Go-N-Green Hydroponics

1241 State Ave Suite #102 Marysville, WA 98270 (360)386-8230

Green Acres Indoor Garden & Lighting

514 State Ave Suite #102 Marysville, WA 98270 360-658-GROW (4769)

Island Hydroponic & Supplies

1515 5th Street #B, Marysville, WA 98271 425-299-5855 Indoor Garden Depot 1401 S. 324th Street, Federal Way, WA 98003 253-874-1112 ___________________________

Mike’s Indoor Garden Supply

1204 East Wheeler Road, Moses Lake, WA 98837 (509)766-5856 M & R Lighting

West VIRGINIA Panhandle Hydroculture

Northern Lights Gardening

800 East Moler Ave. Martinsburg, WV 25401 304-240-7587

Island Horticulture Supply

8608 S March Point Rd. Anacortes WA 98221 360 293 0000 ____________________________

North West Hydro Supply 1355Pacific Pl Unit 117 Ferndale WA 98248-7824 360-778-3254 ___________________________ Good 2 Gro 3507 W Clearwater Ave. Kennewick WA 99336 509 737 1313 ____________________________

11522 Canyon Road East, Puyallup, WA 98373 253-531-9641

Indoor Garden & Lighting 714 South Central Avenue, Kent, WA 98032 253-373-9060 ____________________________

Northern Lights Gardening

Kent Garden Supplies Ltd. 18817 East Valley Highway, Kent, WA 98032 425-251-9299

Liquid Sunshine Hydroponics

Grogro Hydro 12403 NE. 124th Street, Kirkland, WA 98034 888-7-GROGRO 425-820-6200

4159 Hannegan Road, Bellingham, WA 98225 360-715-8585 5087 Lincoln Road, Blaine, WA 98230

161 Hooker Road, #1, Sequim, WA 98057 360-582-0702

National Garden Wholesale / Sunlight Supply

5408 NE 88th Street, Building A, Vancouver, WA 98665 888-478-6544 ____________________________

207 Sunset Blvd. N, Building A, Renton, WA 98055 425-917-9000 Eco Enterprises

1240 NE 175th Street, #B Shoreline, WA 98155 800-426-6937 ____________________________

Aqua Serene 3839 Stone Way North, Seattle, WA 98103 206-547-GROW (4769) ___________________________

VM Indoor Garden Supply

2903 NE 109th Ave Ste. D Vancouver, WA 98682 P: (360) 256-2933 ____________________________ Indoor Garden Supply LLC

1250 Atlantic Ave, Woodland, WA 98674 360-841-8055

509 Grow

2718 N Division Spokane, WA 99207 509-327-GROW(4769)

WISCONSIN ____________________________

Grow Center, The

2808 W Sprague Spokane WA 99202 509-456-GROW

Aric’s Indoor Garden Supply

River City Hydroponics

1514 East Francis Avenue, Spokane, WA 99208 509-464-0246 Spokane Organic and Hydroponic Supply

4823 East Sprague Avenue E., Spokane Valley, WA 99212 509-534-4055

Green Tree Hydroponics and Garden

12316 Pacific Ave South Tacoma, WA 98444 253-536-1791

___________________________

1104 West Wisconsin Avenue, Appleton, WI 54914 920-574-3258 ____________________________ Grow BIG Hydroponics 954 S. Westland, Appleton, WI 54914 920-749-4769 H2oGrow 1150 Madison rd Beloit WI 53511 608-289-1852 Brew and Grow 285 N. Janacek Road, Brookfield, WI 53045 262-789-0555 Garden Supply Guys 752 Memorial Drive - Suite A Green Bay, WI 54303 920-857-9493

Indoor Garden & Lighting 3839 6th Avenue, Tacoma, WA 98406 253-761-7478 ___________________________

Brew and Grow 3317 Agriculture Drive, Madison, WI 53716 608-226-8910 ____________________________

Solar Shop

306 West 4th Street, Tonasket, WA 98855 509-486-4508 ___________________________

Renton Indoor Garden Center

Belfair Garden & Lighting

12738 Bel-Red Road, Bellevue, WA 98005 425-454-5731

Indoor Garden & Lighting 8606 Preston Fall City Rd. SE Preston WA 98050 425 222 9661 ___________________________ Linda’s Gardening & Hydroponics

6121 172nd Street NE #A, Arlington, WA 98223 (360) 474-1900

Green Gardens Distributing

Sodo Hydro 1727 1st Ave. South, Seattle, WA 98134 206-682-9377 888-90HYDRO (904-9376) ___________________________

1524 Riverside Dr #2 Mt. Vernon, WA 98273 360-982-2217 ___________________________

Mike’s Indoor Garden Supply

24090 NE State Route 3 #F Belfair,WA 98528 360-275-2130

2121 Aurora Avenue, North, Seattle, WA 98103 206-547-2202 ___________________________

Northwest Horticulture Supply

Garden Smart

17238 Memorial Drive, Mt. Vernon, WA 98273 360-848-1080

WASHINGTON ____________________________

____________________________

12316 32nd AVE NE #103 Seattle, WA 98125 Hydro-Tech

___________________________

I Love Hydroponics

Hydroponics & Growlights

Grogro Hydro

InDoor Gardening

6517 Backlick Road, Springfield, VA 22150 703-451-3259

368 Newtown Road, #105, Virginia Beach, VA 23462 757-490-5425

___________________________

Indoor Garden Depot 6400 NE Highway 99, Suite H, Vancouver, WA 98665 360-993-7779 ___________________________

National Garden Wholesale / Sunlight Supply

4525 NW Fruit Valley Road, Vancouver, WA 98660 888-478-6544 (Northwest) ____________________________

Paradigm Gardens 4539 Helgesen Drive, Madison, WI 53718 608-241-3800 ____________________________ Brew and Grow 2246 Bluemound Road Ste. B Waukesha, WI 53186 1 (262) 717-0666 PUERTO RICO ____________________________

Tecno-Hydro Ave Campo Rico GJ17, PO Box 1450 Carolina, PR 00982 787-752-8252 ____________________________

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

213

DO YOU KNOW?

Hypersensitive cell death (or HR) is a process of programmed cell death in a plant that is associated with the plant’s reaction to pathogens.

Most people think plants only take in CO2 and give off oxygen, but the truth is most plants actually respire and give off CO2 as well, during the night.

4. 5.

Very high light intensities will break down chlorophyll, imparting a white, bleached appearance to the leaves and resulting in a decreased ability to carry out photosynthesis.

A base fertilizer with multiple sources of each particular element is a good choice—this diversity allows the plant to choose the source from which the nutrients are taken.

If you can’t store your harvested crops in a cold room they should be at least be stored somewhere cool, where temperatures never exceed 75°F.

6. 7.

In order for a disease-resistant plant protein to be effective and result in no disease there needs to be a dominant resistance gene in the plant and a corresponding avirulence gene in the pathogen.

Seedlings require a photoperiod of 18 hours of light followed by six hours of darkness.

8. 9.

Tropisms are plant movements directed toward or away from a stimulus.

Plants start preparing for death long before harvest, but live for some time after.

214

COMING UP IN aPRIL

Maximum Yield USA | March 2012

Seeing Green Turn your garden from brown to green, from synthetic to natural, with easy tips from Maximum Yield’s organic experts. After reading this issue cover to cover and implementing the techniques you’ll be seeing green in the garden in no time.

• • • • • • • • •

Applying green principles to hydroponics Conserving resources in the garden Going organic Eco lighting Composting Aquaponics An intro to natural and organic products Detecting toxins in your water More!

www.maximumyield.com Maximum Yield USA April will be available next month for free at select indoor gardening retail stores across the country and maximumyield.com Subscriptions are available at maximumyield.com/subscriptions.php

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Maximum Yield USA | March 2012