Heeding Good Advice

Well, the last time I wrote for Maximum Yield, I introduced you to the very important benefits of foliar spraying as well as introducing you all to my good friend Jack (Daniels). Jack and I have been working together again!, for this, my second article, which although not of a particularly technical nature, is none-the-less very important when it comes to successful indoor gardening.

I came about this topic as I was talking and reminiscing with an industry colleague about my early days in the industry when I ran and managed a successful hydroponics store in Australia. That topic is; “good advice” and more importantly, heeding that advice. Most established and successful hydroponics stores are a wealth of knowledge and good advice that can help you overcome most hurdles in your garden through having dealt with those same problems many times before. One overriding problem that many growers will face when trying to garden indoors successfully is pride and complacency.

Pride? Complacency? Now, they may seem like very strange hurdles, but it is the single biggest, long-term problem that many growers will face. So why pride, together with complacency and how does it affect how we grow? I find pride normally kicks in around the 3rd or 4th time that an indoor gardener grows. It’s around this time when experimentation starts to happen as the grower gains confidence and wants, quite naturally, to ramp up his or hers results in the garden. Now experimentation is a good thing but this too is the time when pride, complacency and now enthusiasm will conspire against us in our search for the perfect crop.

Excuse Me But These Nutrients You Sold Me Are Bad!

If I could have a dollar for every time I heard that sentence I would be a very rich man and living next door to Bill Gates! The truth of the matter is that the nutrients or the additives are rarely to blame (less than 1% of the time). The real culprits are pride, complacency, and enthusiasm. But hang on I hear you say, “I’ve been growing successfully for a while now and this only happened when I switched brands or tried that new additive.” A good statement and one that many growers use when confronted with the ugly three-headed monster (pride, complacency and enthusiasm). I find this statement is issued when the store owner or employee, who by the way is your friend, asks you about the basics of indoor growing in order to resolve the problem. What is the pH of your solution? What PPM levels are you running? Is your room too hot or too cold? etc. This quite often is taken the wrong way by the grower who feels their competency is being questioned. “Hey I’m not a beginner buddy! Of course those things are correct!” In actual fact the only reason the guy behind the counter is asking you those questions is because it is exactly those things that are most often the problem and they have been overlooked

Complacency by the grower. This is nothing to be embarrassed about as it happens to most of us at some stage. If you get a handle on your pride and listen to the store owner you can, in most cases, quickly resolve the problem and once again be on your way to having a successful indoor garden.

The Store Owner Is Really Your Gardens Best Friend

Most, if not all successful hydroponics stores have two tenets for success; good advice and good service. Without either, they would go out of business very quickly. With this in mind you, as active indoor gardeners, should listen carefully to the advice and try to answer the questions posed to you by the storeowner, or workers, as accurately as possible. If for example the person behind the counter asks you what the pH of your solution is, don’t say it’s fine when you haven’t checked it within the last 24 hours or so complacency. A better response would be “Well I haven’t checked it in the last day or so and I will check it when I get home, so what pH should I be attaining be for my situation?” By treating the questions asked by the storeowner as serious and genuine you will get to the root of your problem much quicker. The people who work at the store are there to try and help you and not to make your life hard. It is their job to help you succeed and they will try very hard to ensure you achieve this. So remember your local storeowner is your garden’s best friend and one of your best resources. Use it wisely and use it often.

Experimenting - When Too Much of a Good Thing Becomes Bad

As we gain experience it is only natural for us to want to experiment in order to achieve superior results. A little more nutrient here, a new additive there, some Co2 supplementation, it has all got to help, right? Wrong! When we conduct experiments in the scientific world we experiment very carefully and we only experiment with one aspect at a time. Why do we do this? We do this so we can quantify our results by eliminating as many variables as possible. It’s no good changing three or more things at once because you have no idea what is helping, or hindering the performance of your garden. For example, if you are going to introduce a foliar spraying program to your garden, don’t change the way you feed your plants or don’t add Co2 at the same time etc. Learn what each thing does, how it helps, or doesn’t and more importantly, learn how to use the new technique or product’s correctly before trying something else. Rely heavily on your local store for advice on what other elements you can add to your program to improve your overall results and listen closely to his or her advice if things aren’t working as you expect. A good hydroponics store will help you quicker than anyone. If you listen to them with an open mind. Experimenting with new techniques or products can be fun and certainly rewarding. But remember to take things easy, and not too much at once. Watch your garden closely to see how it responds.

My Favourite Tools For Success

So now that we have looked at all of this, what basic tools should every grower have to enable them to enjoy the best success and to help them answer the store owners questions should things go wrong? Firstly, no matter what type of hydroponics system you are in or how big or small your system is you should never, ever grow without pH and PPM (TDS) meters! These two tools are indispensable for the serious gardener. You should monitor your solution often for pH and PPM levels and changes as these two parameters will give you a good idea of what is going on in your garden and alert you to impending trouble. If your pH or PPM changes rapidly then you can be certain that something is going on with your garden and you need to consult your store owner for help. If you can afford it, buy the waterproof meters as they will certainly save you the inevitable grief of dropping your meter in your nutrient solution! If you can’t afford to buy a pH and PPM meter, then you can’t afford to grow! They are that important. My other favorite little tool is a good thermo hygrometer. These little guys let you know how hot and humid it is in your room. By employing the services of a good thermo hygrometer you can fine-tune your ventilation system to allow for optimal growing conditions. It is a good idea to get the types that have a maximum and minimum feature as this will allow you to see upper and lower extremes of your room’s environment over a 24-hour period. Remember to reset your thermo hygrometer every day so you can be aware of any changes that are happening in your room. One of the first things you will notice when employing one of these meters is how fast the humidity climbs when you turn your lights off and your fans as well. One of the first lessons that this teaches us is that night ventilation is as important as day ventilation. Last and certainly my most favorite tool is of course a good hydroponics store. If you have a good knowledgeable store and the tools just mentioned, then you are well on your way to maximizing your chances of success and minimizing the time spent identifying and correcting problems when and if they occur.

As I go, I will leave you with this last piece of indispensable advice. Be aware of the three headed monster “complacency, pride and enthusiasm”, learn to trust and work with your hydroponics store owner or employee and only change or experiment with one thing at a time. If you take the time to learn and listen, then you will be well on your way to successful indoor gardening. Look out for the next issue of Maximum Yield as I am working on a series of articles that should help all indoor gardeners, regardless of experience, become competent, more successful gardeners. Until then, Mr. Daniels and myself wish you all well.