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hi my friend is watchin my ''stuff'' and we seem to be having a mold problem .Ther is mold growing on the top of the rockwell cubes. I did some adjusting in the room the other day, and i knocked some dust onto my flood table ,i cover it with polly, im guessing the dust got on the cubes and thats what created the mold, any how im wondering what is best way to kill the mold, im thinking im going to take the old dusty poly off and some repolly it and spray the cubes with a antifungacide, your opinion would be appreciated ,THX all the way from canada

Mould often grows on cubes that have been covered with plastic, because the rockwool cube no longer breathes and humidity builds up underneath. Use a fungicide or find something with a beneficial bacteria/microflora that can protect over a long term.

Don't use plastic to cover the cubes if mould is likely.

Scott

A New Season
19 June 2003

Hi Scott.

I am back again this year, and trying my best to get the desired results?

I am going to try the auto pot, and the drip system. And attempt once again to use my own seeds. My propagation attempts last year were a total failure. As was growing under lights. I also intend to use a different make of nutrients.

I would like to try your brand of nutrients, for general veg, such as tomatoes, lettuce, and cucumbers. I would like to grow tomatoes and cucumber in a two-pot auto system. Could you recommend the correct size?

And the full range of herbs in a smaller size multi pot system. Please supply a price for the auto systems, Nutrients. I am also going to buy a meter for testing the water. I already have the truncheon. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Have you seen our new network system? http://www.hydrocentre.com.au/network/

This is my favourite system and my system I use at home. Use the small size $7.50 each is okay up to about 12 months old for all these plants. Except Lettuce needs half strength. Need a separate system for lettuce. Nutrient price sheet should come out shortly and pH meter is $115 Inc $5 calibration solution.

Good to hear from you

Scott

basil seedling’s going black and dying
9 Jun 2003

Hello my wife and myself have been growing hydroponically for 12 month's have mainly been growing chives and are doing well with them no problems as yet. We thought we would grow something else so we started growing basil was doing well but the cold weather came in and we are having some problem's we raise all our own seedling's 1400 a week but for the last 3 week's we have noticed the seedling's come up to approx 5mm then they are turning black and dying the mix we are using for our seedling's is 2 part's vermiculite and 1 part perlite. Thinking it was the cold I built covers over the made of steel frame and covered with plastic. My question is would it be the cold causing this. And would putting a heating system under the seedling tray do any good. Thankyou would be very grateful for any information you mite have for us to sort this problem we have thankyou

Sounds like a problem. A seed needs an increase in moisture and an increase in temperature to change what is essentially a dead thing into a live thing. (Scientists cannot explain how something can become alive)

Seeds should be in the fridge in a dry Tupperware container, so they are very cool (instead of going from a nice warm packet into a cold wet perlite mix). The media might be very wet and cold. Try a sample few seeds in a mix in a pot or tray and put inside the house on the top of the fridge/TV or by the hot water system so it’s not cold; and check against a sample in your normal position.

If it’s the cold you should see a difference, and a heat mat is the easiest way to provide heat.

Also try a tank of water with a lid on it, and put an aquarium heater in it (they are cheap and have a thermostat) Use a thermometer to get it to between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius.

Should be able to determine what's happening from that now.

Good luck

Hi...i just added a problem at your site...its entitled...extreme case of pythium in areoponics...then i saw where it said if this was urgent, to write you personally. need sum help with this problem...prevention is waaaaay too late lolol... 

im finding that even tho im sterilizing with food grade peroxide, i still have a problem, up to 30% loss of cuttings...i wish to know the absolute safe amount of peroxide i can run in the system WITH the cuttings, to hopefully protect them for the first week...which seems to be the dangerous time...somewhere i read that there is a percentage that is safe for 1-3 days, then another that would be safer for the remaining time...im so discouraged...all articles speak of prevention, but so few address what to do when that you have an infestation that you just cry over...thanks for your prompt reply *smiles*

Hello. Hydrogen peroxide will treat the water, and the outside of plants roots, with very little impact inside if the infection is inside the plant. Hydrogen peroxide with silver ions will penetrate further, still not completely looking at the infection. Fongarid or similar systemic fungicide will treat the infection inside a plant, but not kill the spores and have limited effect in the nutrient solution. It needs to be reapplied regularly.

A 30% loss of cuttings needs to be fixed.

Cuttings die for the following reasons. 

1. Too wet; stem rot - sterilize the cutting stem to avoid infection and growth of nasties (rooting compound will accelerate fungal and bacterial infection if stem has nasties on it) and keep media/cubes almost dry, If Aeroponic, sterlisise nutrient, use a rooting compound in the liquid and feed continuously or 15min on/15min off 

2. Plants wilt and die - plants are not rooting, too dry, no rooting compound, or bad cloning stock from weak donor plant. Avoid leaving uncovered where evaporation drys out plants. Avoid too many leaves, one large, or one or two small leaves max. Use mini-greenhouse, and/or FX nutrient with gelatin coating and spray daily. 

3. Plants rot at stem, plants roots rot - Mother plant infected with root rot spores. Get new plant or use fongarid regularly.

Peroxide at 0.5% to 1% is about maximum, and you need to look at the label to see what you have. So if you have 30% H2O2, add 1 part to 30 to get absolute maximum strength. If 6% you need to dilute 1:6 50% would be 1:50

A curative for cuttings infected is a very difficult one to answer. Imagine you had something that turned your internal organs into slime and liquid. The human infection equivalent is called Ebola, like in the movies like "Outbreak" Some humans survive but not many. The root rot is similar, turning plant tissue into neurcrotic black slime. The plant that survive have to grow entirely new roots, they don't fix the ones that are damaged. This is an important point. New roots are the key to survival. They must be encouraged, and the roots must not get reinfected.

So, your answer is to STOP ANY ADDITIVES LIKE VITAMINS in the nutrients that will make the infection stronger. Use plain water with Hydroshield or hydrogen peroxide around the roots, and spray the plants leaves with nutrient at 25% strength with vitamins like Nutriboost and so on. The plants roots are not working so feed the plants through the leaves. Change the water if recirculating and flush root system with Hydroshield regularly, try to gently remove any dead roots with your hands, they should just fall away. Don't cut the roots, as this will be an open wound for them to be reinfected. Look for clean new roots. Old roots may recover if not gone to rot.

Finally, know that a cutting that fights off an infection will be slow and yield poorly. Restarting by taking a stronger cutting and euthanasing the sick one, will give you a higher yield and will the new one will finish before the other cutting because of the sick one's longer recovery time and slowness. Cuttings taken off a plant that has been sick will often get root rot despite good gardening practices as the infection is passed on.

Please let me know if any of this is unclear, and if it is helpful

Scott

hello, I just started sprouting my seedlings by soaking them in cotton wool buds, now, I haven't gotten my rock wool or any of that yet, but I was wondering if it is possible to grow the seedling in cotton wool and then place that into a larger rock wool.

I just need a bit of help, I want a setup that can hold about 10 herbs and veggies with a pump pumping the water and nutrients and it draining down into a supply tank. I will be buying a HPS light from you guys.

now what exactly should I be growing these plants in, (e.g., what size rock wool, and is the rock wool in a bucket) I'm just a little confused on what the plants will grow in. I understand the rest about the pump and piping.

Any help would be muchly, muchly appreciated, and I guess ill hopefully be seeing you guys soon. cheers

Hello, Please don't use cotton wool buds. It is really likely to stay too wet, and will often produce a collar rot and damping off when the plant is growing. At least use dirt! Its a lot safer. Use Rockwool or Perlite, or seedling soil mix. I prefer Expanded Clay beads for the system you describe with something like www.hydrocentre.com.au/satellite Note that rockwool in this type of system tends to get too wet in anything other than a very dry environment like Adelaide.

Have a look at www.hydrocentre.com.au/satellite_instructions to get some more ideas and give me a email or a call.

Scott

Just wondering if you guys sell any kind of heating mats. i was looking for one with a thermostat if possible. e-mail the prices to me if you stock them. thanks.

Our single heat mat has a thermal switch that heats to 26degrees, then switches off till 21 degrees. $55 - we have these in stock very good value

Not in stock until winter are:- Our single heat mat with thermostat is $145 Our double is $245 and quad is $355

Of course our automatic propagators such as the aero propagator can have their nutrient heated with aquarium heaters, the flood and drain Rockwool propagator is due for release end of April.

Scott 

l / We attended your basic level course outline and started growing snow peas and tomatoes from seed using the wick method.
The snow peas are doing great but the 2 varieties of tomatoes are not thriving.
Could you give us some idea on what's wrong with our tomatoes.
The seedlings are about 3 cms high to the snow peas 8/10cms high and don't seem to be growing.
No sign of disease.
We used the same food mixture for all (bought from you shop).
All seedlings were in same area.

Well, great to hear you are getting started and hope we can get those tomatoes going.

Here are some things to consider.

Light levels
too bright or hot? or too little light?
Tomatoes generally tolerate a lot more than snow peas, so might not be an issue.
My tomatoes have got really stretched from bad light this few weeks, and its been a little cold with a bit of cold rain spray on them.
Everything else hasn't done as much growing as they should - due to cloudy low light days mostly, and an empty tank I forgot about because it was raining and I didn't want to get wet...

Moisture levels
Tomatoes like wet feet, other plants such as the snow peas generally not as much, If it was really dry the tomatoes might not grow much at all.

Temperature.
If its cold tomatoes might slow up, where I think that snow peas might not mind as much.

nutrients too high
This would affect the snowpeas with tip burn more than tomatoes would. I don't think that would be it.

transplant shock
When plants roots are transplanted, sometimes one or two plants will out perform the rest while some stay in shock initially, then get going. Not so much as they are in trouble, just that plants have personalities, and want to be a pain in the *garden* occasionally.
Did you wash off much roots in the soil you washed off?

seedlings root bound
Some seedlings have been in their little punnets at the nursery for a decade or two.
Were the root small or really big and hard to wash the soil out of?
A good tip is not buying the largest seedlings in the display.
The small ones are fresher.
If this was the case, the plant may have gone off growing for a little while,
but singing to it might help.
or not, it always helps me...
anyhow, a little patience might be the answer here.
If it is the problem, generally, plant a seed right now and the seed would grow a plant to beat a rootbound seedling plant to harvest

Maybe think about these, move them around if possible, and see what happens.
If they get worse, call me.
If they get better, tell me what it was.
If nothing happens in a few days of this added care, let me know and I can throw some more ideas at you.

Scott

Scott: Simply rinse then soak through with fresh water. Give a bit of a squeeze to remove the excess water.
I have often heard that soaking in a pH of 5.5 is better, but rinsing seems to be enough.

Scott

About how many cuttings/clones at a time can be taken from a donor plant/mother plant? Is there a percentage of growing tips that can be taken all at the same time without killing the donor plant/mom?

You can cut the plant back for a lot of reasons and the plant comes back stronger. The parent needs to have some leaves on it to get energy to get growing again. 

If you are trying to avoid stress so you can cut cuttings from it again and again later on, maybe avoid taking too much, say 1/4 (25%) of the total plant mass in one session. Sometimes it is safer to use a cutting/clone and grow it back to replace the mother plant to avoid the cumulative stress and heavy wooded effect of old plants.

It is unlikely you will kill a plant by pruning it heavily, but stress and infections could kill a plant in 5% of cases if you were unlucky/particularly vicious. 

Remember one simple unbreakable rule for plant growing: If you had a sick child and didn't take them to the doctor, and they die, they call it murder. If you plant gets sick and you don't contact someone and it dies....you murdered it! So if the plant doesn't look perfect, call me, email me, send smoke signals, do something! 

It really stuns me how many people say to me, my plant died. My response is, When did it get sick, I don't remember hearing from you, how can you learn how to solve that problem without calling me.

And off my soapbox, sorry about that. Had one of those frustrating days. Don't mean to take it out on anyone. Hope that top information helps...Happy Cloning! Have a great day!

Scott with his clones

how

Scott laughs:

This is the most common question I get, but everyone never actually grows them, they just want to know how.....

Potatoes in a dark humid spot will throw a root out, and you can plant the whole spud, or just cut that part of the potato with the root and plant it.

Using Perlite, I grow them in a deep container, 30cm to 50cm deep, and put around 10cm of Perlite, then the potato, then another 10cm of Perlite. Water them until moist with nutrient.

When the plant is green and healthy above, you can add more Perlite at 10cm at a time and cover up the plant to have more Potatoes growing. By making the Perlite deeper, more spuds can grow. Keep adding. You can rob the potatoes often, by digging down in the Perlite, and feeling for them. When the plant turns brown and dies, this means the potatoes are at harvest. Don't misinterpret this that there is something wrong with the plant, as it is natural.

Scott 

I am repeating this reply for everyone

I have just taken a look at your site (again) and noticed your Aeroponic propagators. I have never seen one before. It looks very impressive, particularly when you consider you can keep the cuttings in there after they take root.
 
Just 2 questions. First, if it is my usual practice to grow for only 2 to 3 weeks before turning to 12/12, could I keep the plants in this system until they are ready to turn? i.e. from cutting to the end of grow period. 
You are limited by lighting levels. Growing needs more professional light than rooting. 
The system will work well until roots are around 10-15cm long, 
then they are in the tank, and that's still okay, because you can trim the roots if required. 
 
Second, are the usual fluro light systems used with this system as with any other propagation system or would it require stronger lighting? 
Fluro cool whites for rooting, good fluros (ACTIVA 172 98% colour rendition or similar ) will keep them growing slowly.
A 68 Watt Metal Halide is $199 and can really do an excellent job up to 6 weeks until system is ready to accept clones.
A 400W is good also, but can require a lot of ventilation and is too bright/hot for rooting. (use in conjunction with fluro etc)

Hope that helps 

Scott 

If I grew 11 plants in 11 different 2 liter bottles that were cut in half would I have to transplant the plants to a larger container? I'm using a flood hydroponics system.

Scott Responds

Maybe, Maybe not. I'd say anything bigger than a 1 foot high plant might have some problems with roots, and you would have to keep an eye on the drainage being sufficient to keep the roots from staying too wet. Better to transplant I think.

Scott 

I wanted to grow carrots and wanted to know if they can be done hydoponicilly? Thank You Carrots grow in 20cm + depth August 2 2002 at 4:25 PM Scott Scott

Response to How would you grow carrots?

Carrots need 20cm or more in depth of a moist medium like Perlite. I have grown them in Soil and Perlite in Crates that were about a foot tall so about 30cm in depth. The perlite was wet down with nutrient when nearly dry. The soil similarly. The soil ones were small and pitiful by the time I had eaten all the Perlite grown Carrots, and they weren't dirty, but almost sweet, they tasted really nice. Worth doing I think! I am growing Pototoes in a similar system, and Onions and root crops would grow well in that system. Keep smiling and growing!
Scott

Hi my husband & I are very new at this - I have done a lot of reading while he's working - I haven't found much on root veggies though, only one person who tried carrots, radishes & onions..... can you grow potatoes, beets, or any others? Thanks - Mimi

root crops March 15 2002 at 10:40 AM Scott 

Response to root veggies

Using Perlite, we are growing potatoes here in the store. You wait for the potato to sprout, then cut the potato to get one shoot, and place in a pot. The pot will need to be tall. You put the potato seed on about 3-4cm of Perlite and cover the seed over. Keep moist with nutrient. Add more Perlite and keep covering over every 1-2 weeks, and build up the depth to get more potatoes. When the green shoots die off that is harvest time (not panic and call scott time!) Carrots, Onions etc all grow well in Perlite, at least 20cm deep. Keep moist not wet, with nutrient. This should answer some questions. Probably create some new ones. Have a go, and keep in touch is the best way! Have Fun! - Scott

they are 2 weeks old and hanging in well...they are left fully open to the air permanently now...I checked today but they still have no roots to speak of...maybe very slightly...other than that they are hanging in fine...what do I do now ???

watch October 17 2001 at 7:20 PM scott scott

Response to what to do with my clones ?

Clones will start to grow when they have enough roots and want more. Give them some nutrients by foliar spraying a quarter strength solution on their leaves, or a normal clone nutrient, and when they start doing something, you'll notice the roots will be too. You can transfer then, but watch out for excessive light or heat over first 2 days. Remember that gardening may be scientific, but you still have to use a bit of common sense and adjust for whatever happens. Let me know how it goes SCOTT

I have two questions about clones. 1, What is the best hormone rooting material,gel powder, paste etc.(or INDOLE-3-BUTYRIC acid + vit B)

2,With clones in plastic pots of perlite,should they sit in 1/2 inch of weak liquid solution or in a dry tray?

Your help appreciated. Al.

clones December 2 2000 at 10:12 AM jack

Response to Clones ?

Cloning powders work as good as anything most times. Clone gels are good if plants are hard to root. So I use gels when I want the best strike

I was going to grow some strawberries in hanging bags but someone told me this is not the way what is the right way?

strawberries October 18 2000 at 3:20 PM Scott Scott

Response to system

Strawberries grow well if given good light and good nutrient. They are prone to "crown rot" which is the strawberry plants "stem" if you like. Just avoid too much water sitting around their base.

As for systems, bag culture can build up nutrients, and although saves space, can reduce the light hitting the leaves if using more than one bag. (Southern Hemishere: always face plants north in a vertical system to catch most sun)

NFT is alright, as long as there is more drainage than normal.

I like Perlite, and Flood and Drain Clay Systems. Drip systems work, but keep drippers away from their crown roots.

THere is no right or wrong usually, in choosing a a system. Usually, there is "easy" and "not so easy"

Happy Gardening

Scott