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Ask the Professor – Prev. Questions 7

Professor – I have just gotten started with a home built hydroponic system and so far have been having excellent results. I have been noticing that the leaves on all my plants (vegetables.. squash, beans,tomatoes) are very soft and at times downright limp. What is up with that? I’m using white 4gal buckets, could there be too much light coming [ read more ]

Ask the Professor – Prev. Questions 6

Professor – How fast can plants grow in hydroponics? Sabin Sabin – This question is just about impossible to answer. The rate that a plant grows depends on several variables. Amount and quality of light, the amount and quality of water and nutrients, the genetic make up of the plant, etc, etc……..I can’t tell you exact numbers. Generally speaking – [ read more ]

Ask the Professor – Prev. Questions 5

Professor- I am planning on growing 4 plants in a closet that is about 10 feet long, 2.5 feet wide and 8 feet tall. The closet doors are the kind that have spaces in them like window blinds.  Would it be totally necessary to put an exhaust fan in, or could I just put box fans in the floor? Anonymous [ read more ]

Ask the Professor – Prev. Questions 4

Dear Professor – I have a simple question. I am considering buying a h.p.s. light fixture, I’m figuring on buying a 400w lamp, but I keep seeing 430w lamps sold with 430w Son Agro bulbs, my question is: in your experience is it worth it to spend the extra $50 and if I’m not satisfied with the results of the [ read more ]

Ask the Professor – Prev. Questions 3

Professor – We are growing lettuce, we start with well water that is 7.2 pH and 300 ppm. we fill a 500 gal. tank and pump thru a 2″ then 3/4″ pvc pipes into 36 – 25′ gutters covered with black rigid plastic with 2′ holes for the net pots, we use a commercial nutrient and phosphoric acid and the [ read more ]

Ask the Professor – Prev. Questions 2

Professor – Ok, I found another hydroponics site that talks about feeding the seeds a solution, but they measure the solution in parts per million, how do I measure out to parts per million” This is delaying me from starting my hydroponic greenhouse. I talked to a lady here, and the hydro plant food she sells says to use one(1) [ read more ]

Ask the Professor – Prev. Questions 1

Dear Professor Hydro- My students and I am building a hydroponic system for our classroom. It is going to be a perlite/vermiculite mix. My question is this, what pH level should the nutrient solution be for growing tomatoes? How about Lettuce? Is there a happy medium that will work for all plants? Liz  B. Liz We are always glad to [ read more ]

Uriah Farms Keeps Growing

Check out amazing hydroponic growing systems which are bringing living food to the tables of an increasing number of high end, Florida restaurants. We told you about the innovative work our good buddy, Farmer Dave, aka Dave Smiles was doing with his company, Uriah Farms, and his gorgeous living wall display at the Roosevelt 2.0 building in Ybor City. Sadly [ read more ]

Uriah Urban Farms

Some of the most exciting aspects of owning Simply Hydroponics for the last two decades have been our many opportunities to be active in our community through various school and non-profit projects as well as seeing the development of revolutionary new methods of food production. Our collaborative efforts with Uriah Urban Farms on a living wall project at the Roosevelt [ read more ]

Simply’s Glossary

Additive: Additives are vitamins/supplements/nutrients for the plant, they do not have the needed based nutrients. Using additives without base nutrients is like trying to live on vitamins instead of food. ex: There are many different kinds of additives that you can use in addition to nutrients. Aeroponic Systems: Plants that have the root system suspended in nutrient solution or misters [ read more ]