Ugott Home Gardening Tips

Posts Tagged ‘Grow’

Like any thing you can think of, whether it be people, pets or plants, their basic needs must be met to ensure a happy, healthy life.

Plants, of course, are alive, and so have both general and specific needs, depending upon the variety of plant in question.

In this article, we’ll learn about the different parts of plants – root, stem, leaf and flower – and how they work together.

Roots

Most often overlooked and neglected, the root system of any plant plays a critical role in overall plant growth, health and vigor.

The root system is responsible for supplying a plant with water, vitamins and minerals, all necessary ingredients that promote and maintain healthy vigorous growth. As the nutrients around the plant are consumed, the roots will continue to grow out and down, searching for new sources of food and water.

Gardening Tip: Adding a granular or slow-release fertilizer to the soil before you plant will ensure a steady supply of nutrients throughout a plant’s growing season, especially important for vegetables and flowering plants.

Gardening Tip: Growth above ground mirrors growth below ground. For example, if your bell pepper plant is 1 foot tall and 1 foot wide, its root system is 1 foot deep and 1 or more feet wide.

Gardening Tip: Always follow the directions for any gardening product (fertilizer or pest controls). Although if you’re not sure, using less is always safer than using too much. Using the right amount however, will help ensure consistent results.

Roots and Soil

As you may have guessed, the type of soil in your garden plays an important role in overall plant health and vigor.

In general, most plants like a loose, well-drained soil with lots of organic material. Organic material can be peat moss, shredded bark, composted or decomposed plant material, some form of manure (generally cow manure), or even worm casings or rice hulls to name a few.

Potting soil is usually some combination of the above list and may have little or no actual “dirt” in it. Organic material helps to maintain moisture content levels in the soil and helps to prevent soil compaction.

Stem

The stem, stalk or trunk is the “super highway” of the plant. It starts at ground level and supplies the food and water from the roots to the leaves and flowers or fruit.

Leaves

The leaves of a plant take the food and water from the roots through the stem and with the help of sunlight will turn the water and nutrients into energy. That energy is then sent back through the stem to the entire plant, including right back down to the roots. Natures example of Solar Energy at work.

Flowers

The flower or fruit of a plant is responsible for the reproduction of the plant. Whether it’s strawberries, lemons, tomatoes, pansies or pine-cones, their sole purpose in life is to reproduce more of their own kind.

Humans have found over time that various plants either taste good, have a nice scent or are pleasant to look at and have therefore selected out of millions of varieties just a few types to cultivate.

The Gardening Tips and Advice found throughout Your Healthy Gardens are written with the beginning gardener in mind. However, as time passes and the seasons change more and more detail will be added to help any home gardener improve their gardening skills.

Most gardeners live in areas where they can grow anything without much effort. If they plant seeds and water is, chances are that a beautiful lush plant will sprout in a few weeks. However, if you live somewhere like Colorado, you will know what it feels like to have a very small variety of plants that could grow naturally. In fact, it is quite the challenge to try to grow a wide number of plants, most of all when the world in which you live seems to be working against your plans of doing so.

A lot of people opt to solve this problem by feeding their plants with the widest variety of fertilizer and chemicals possible. And although this works most of the time, it still seems unnatural to have to rely on materials made by man to keep plants alive. Also, some may find it unnatural and uncomfortable to eat vegetables and fruits that are mostly made of pure chemicals.

One very reliable gardening theory that is capable of growing a variety of plants is by creating a microclimate for each individual plant. This means you will have to regulate several factors for each plant, such as shade, moisture, sunlight and wind by using shading umbrellas, extra water, wind barriers, and amounts of compost. This is quite a challenging task, however, but it is great to know that each plant will be growing in its own individual, ideal conditions.

If you are up for the challenge of producing microclimates, you will need to plan out every single detail way in advance. Try finding a large bush or tree that will grow naturally fast to use for shade. These can be found in a lot of undeveloped plots of land and was usually left there without any care of planting, which is ideal for your situation. Usually, one plant that grows can bring about another growing plant that is more desirable.

If your backyard has a fence, then you already have quite a good amount of shade to work with, which you can use to start the microclimate process. You could combine this with a large bush or a screen for the latter half of the day, if the fence does not already take care of that. Fences are also very useful as a wind barrier for more fragile plants.

Once the shade has been taken care of, whether natural or unnatural, your little environment has already started to become less harsh. Take note that this process happens gradually and you should always find a new plant to place in the shade of others ones, so your choices are more open. Just because you went for a rugged plant initially doesn’t mean you have to keep using rugged plants. For example, you can opt for one that survives through colder temperatures for a change.

If the next plant you are planning on growing needs more moisture than is available in your general area, try installing a small pond or fountain; this will take care of the problem with its evaporation. Some may think that installing a pond or fountain is a mere waste, but it will seriously make things better for your garden through its indirect watering process. Additionally, fountains are very attractive and could be beneficial in beautifying your garden.

There are a lot of stages to this process, but everyone has different goals and garden setups, so explaining each and every one won’t make much sense. You should simply remember that, to reach your goal, careful research must be done on each plant that you wish to grow in your garden. Find out all that you can about the area in which it usually flourishes and try to imagine how you can create a similar area in your own garden. Most of the times, you will able to take control of your own environment and recreate it as you wish. All it takes is planning and strategy.

Generating between 65 to 115 lumens of light per each watt of consumed electricity, metal halide grow light lamps are considered to have high efficiency. MH lights produce light, which is very close to the natural sunlight with the rich blue spectrum. Due to this, MH lamps support vegetative growing in the most desired way – when plants have many leaves on the stem with short internodes.

Structurally, metal halide lamp is a vacuum glass tube. There is also an arc tube inside, filled with mercury and other metals in iodine form. Under the influence of electric current, those metals start to generate light and heat intensively. Though metal halide bulbs can be either transparent or coated with phosphorus, the first type is more preferred for the indoor gardening, since it produces very bright light.

There are different sizes of metal halide lamps, starting from 70watts and finishing with 1500 watts. However 250w, 400w and 1000w are modifications, most commonly used in hydroponics systems gardening. In order to make MH light to work, it is necessary to use a ballast, designed for a particular bulb size. Ballast is, in fact, a transformer, which decreases voltage to some predefined amount.

The lamps can work only in the positions they were designed for. Those marked with BU or BD should be used only in vertical position; while those lamps, which carry HOR sign, are for horizontal application. Besides, there are also universal (U) lamps, which can operate in either position. 

There are also many different styles of metal halide lamps available on the market today. Along with typical or regular MH bulbs, there are also Super Bulbs, which can produce up to 10-12% more light than ordinary bulbs.

Regular metal halide bulbs should be replaced after about 18 months or 9500-10000 hours of use. Super bulbs are less durable and should be replaced more frequently – approximately after 12 months or 6500 hours of use. These recommendations apply if grow lights will work 18 hours daily.