Grubbycup
Grubbycup has been an avid indoor gardener for more than 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. Follow his gardening adventures at his website grubbycup.com.
Articles by Grubbycup
5 Key Things Newbie Hydroponic Growers Tend to Overlook
Some of the best benefits of hydroponic gardening have little to do with the end result and more to do with the journey on the way to it.
Understanding Genetic Combinations in Plant Breeding
Grubbycup breaks down the various plant-breeding methods.
What’s Better: Growing Cannabis in Soil or Hydroponics?
The bottom line when it comes to growing cannabis in a hydroponic environment is how important a cultivator is in making it successful.
The Mechanisms Behind Vascular Plants
Grubbycup puts on his biology hat and explains the mechanisms of vascular plants.
Cloning Your Cannabis
Some cannabis plants are so much better than others that you wish they’d just live and produce forever. While you can’t create an...
Caring for Delicate Pre-Veg Seedlings
When it comes to nurturing seedlings, gardeners need to be careful given how fragile plants are in the early development stage. Below are...
The (Light) Cycle of Life: Solstices, Equinoxes, and Growing Cannabis
The solstices and equinoxes are significant for planting and growing cannabis and can be helpful in planning an outdoor season.
Dabbing 101
When it comes to cannabis terminology, “bud,” “oil,” and “edibles” are self-evident. The term “dab,” however, is not. What is it? How do...
Calculating Cannabis Yields
How, exactly, do you measure the success of your cannabis garden? There are several ways to track and calculate your cannabis yields and...
Influencing Auxins Through Pruning
Gardeners can influence the flow of auxins from the growing tips to the rest of the plant through pruning or training to promote bushier...
Sorting Out Seed Types and Terminology
With so many seed types out there, it’s sometimes hard to distinguish which type of seed you’re actually buying. Our grow expert, Grubbycup...
Is Curing Cannabis Always Necessary?
How you handle your post-harvest cannabis is personal, though there are right ways and wrong ways to each method.
Book Review: Ed Rosenthal's Marijuana Harvest
Ed Rosenthal's Marijuana Harvest teaches cultivators how to avoid making costly mistakes, identify problems, and solve them quickly.
Send In The Clones: Tips for Taking Cannabis Cuttings
With a bit of work, some patience and a little trial and error, cannabis plants are reasonably simple plants to root cuttings from. Follow...
4 Common Myths About Cannabis
We know you’ve heard some of these cannabis-growing myths before. Let’s clear the air, shall we?
Breeding with Autoflowering Cannabis
Not all cannabis traits are as simple to explain, which is part of what makes autoflowering a good example for beginning breeders to start...
Balancing Nitrification and Denitrification in Aquaponic Systems
If you want to create an aquaponic system, it’s important to keep in mind how you’re going to balance the nitrogen levels. Denitrification...
Testing a New Nutrient Line
With so many different nutrient lines to choose from, Grubbycup gives us an idea of how.
Growing: Get off to a Good Start
There are many benefits to using starts, but there are a few things to keep in mind to ensure your garden thrives a few months or years...
How to Make Seed Starters from Your Bathroom's Loofah
Luffa sponges, which are the dried fruit of a vining plant, are more than the ultimate body scrubber in your bathroom. You can also use...
Manipulating Flowering in the Grow Room Using Photoperiods
Plants that use the duration of their dark periods to signal flowering are said to be subject to photoperiodism and are classified as...
How a Fungal Outbreak Can Destroy an Entire Plant Cycle
Fungus spores are ubiquitous. For the average person, this is meaningless, unless it is allergy season or black mold is found in a dwelling...
A Garden Doesn't Always Have to be Perfect!
In a world full of competition, even gardening can become a burden. It doesn’t have to be that way. Biggest and best isn’t necessary, as...
7 Ways to Boost the Bloom in Your Grow Room
One of the most satisfying moments for any grower is nurturing flowering crops into producing abundant, vigorous blossoms, which then lead...
9 Creative Places to Start Your Next Garden
Gardens need not be confined to the backyard. Here are some other potential places to start a garden this spring.
How Enzymes Work
Enzymes are organic substances produced by beneficial microbes that are becoming a common ingredient in plant supplements found at the grow...
Same Plant, Different Pots
Plants that share the same DNA can be produced, creating on-demand identical twins (almost).
The Art of Growing Up!
Want vertical interest? Color? Elegance? Whimsy? Vines have it all! They shimmy up poles and curlicue around strings. They twist and turn...
10 Tips For Gardening in Grow Tents
Grow tents are a convenient way to convert an indoor space into a garden. Here are some points to ponder when planning a grow tent garden.
10 Helpful Post-Harvest Hints
Harvest time is a great time to start preparing for the next growing season. Here are 10 tips to get you started.
pHiguring Out pH
If the only thing that comes to mind when you see the letters P and H next to each other is that colored chart from high school, read on...
Debunking Common Gardening Myths: Separating Fact from Fiction
A lot of the advice growers receive is based either on sound science, or a friend or relative’s proven practices, but some things can...
Common Nutrient Additives
When it comes to nutrient additives, there are a lot of options available for growers. But, as Grubbycup explains, it is important to know...
Sourcing CO2 for Your Indoor Garden
As an essential piece of the photosynthesis puzzle, carbon dioxide is an important component of indoor gardening that can be supplemented...
A Plant's Circle of Life
A basic knowledge of the different stages of growth and development plants go through can help growers know what to expect from their...
Growing 101: Nutrient Solution Management
There are certain nutrients that plants crave the most. Grubbycup explains how to mix them up to create nutrient solutions your plants will...
Growing 101: Basic Plant Nutrition
Just like humans, plants need food to survive and thrive. Here’s a quick guide to get you started on designing your first nutrient regimen.
Growing 101: The Basics of Plant Lighting
Outdoor gardens can make use of the sun for their lighting needs, but to meet the lighting needs of indoor gardens, learn how artificial...
Growing 101: Perfect Potting Mixes for Container Gardening
Starting with a good potting mix can make a big difference in how well a container garden performs. Grubbycup shares the basics on what to...
Growing 101: Choosing a Hydroponic System
So, you’ve decided to give hydroponic gardening a try. Now what? First of all, you need to decide which hydroponic system to use.
Gardening 101: A Back-to-Basics Primer for Growing
All gardeners start out the same way—not knowing how to garden, and then learning. Here is the first in a series of articles written for...
The Vascular System of Flowering Plants
Being acquainted with the basics of a flowering plant’s vascular system can help gardeners understand how a plant takes up nutrients and...
Seeds and Meristems
Seeds are amazing storage containers that allow a plant to travel through space and time. Inside each protective casing is a tiny plant...
Photosynthesis, Photoperiodism and Prolonging the Season
Manipulating the light that plants are exposed to can allow gardeners to grow plants out of sync with their normal growing seasons.
Understanding Genetically Modified Organisms
The debate over whether genetically engineered crops should be allowed in the human food supply continues. Grubbycup shares some positives...
pH pHacts
Do you know what pH stands for? Read on to find out and to learn other fun facts about pH.
Holla for Ollas
Spanish for pot, ollas have been used for thousands of years in many places around the world as a simple, yet incredibly effective...
The Dirt on Soil & Potting Mixes
Ever question what was really in your soil or potting mixes, and how it affects your growing? Well, here's the dirt on your dirt.
A Different Kind of Fertilizer: an Introduction to Biosolids
Although biosolids are banned for agricultural use in many areas of the United States, the subject deserves a closer look.
10 Tips Toward a Super Spring Start
Spring planting marks the beginning of the outdoor gardening season, and getting off to a good start can go a long way toward a successful...
Decoding Nutrient Solutions
Often, plants require nutrient elements in quantities so minute that we need to look at them in parts per hundred and parts per million.
The Fungus Among Us
What do molds, mildews, mushrooms, yeasts and mycorrhizae all have in common? Well, they are all forms of fungus, of course!
Mud Pies and Hair Hygrometers: DIY Projects for Indoor Gardening
Sprouting seeds is a common part of gardening and, with a little ingenuity, can be an opportunity to explore a gardener's DIY side, both...
Gardening for Geeks: By the Numbers
Some gardeners are very artistic in their approach to gardening, in that they are content to estimate and remember which years had good...
Reuse, Reuse, Reuse Your Media
During harvest time, there is first the joy of collecting the fruits of your labor, and then starts the somewhat less entertaining chore of...
Photons: The Secret to Light Speed Growth
Plants cannot grow without light, and the amount of light reaching your plants greatly affects how well they grow. Here, Grubbycup takes...
Start Your Plant’s Day Right: Organic and Chemical Nutrients
A plant needs elemental nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium for healthy growth, but where it gets these nutrients presents growers with a...
What Every Grower Needs to Know About Water Quality
Water. It’s a basic requirement for all life on our planet and absolutely essential to every aspect of gardening—both indoors and out—but...
Cloches to Greenhouses
Cloches, hothouses, cold frames, greenhouses—what’s the difference? Grubbycup explains how all these garden structures can help you to...
Backyard Composting Made Easy
If you took a bag containing leaves, lawn clippings and ripped up newspapers and spread it out on the ground, eventually it would decompose...
It Starts With A Seed
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...
Top Growing Media Options for Containers
The two most common types of growing media used for containers are potting soils and hydroponic media, but there are plenty of alternatives.
Q&A by Grubbycup
How can I reduce the cost of starting an indoor garden?
Thank you for your question, Nick. Most of your indoor gardening costs should come from a combination of environmental conditioning and...
What advice do you have when switching from dirt to coco coir?
There are several grow media options out there gardeners can choose from, each with their strengths and weaknesses. Dirt, soilless mixes...
I would like to use pre-buffered coco. What is a well-buffered coco?
Coco coir is known for having good cation exchange capacity (CEC). This is basically a measure of negatively charged sites in the medium...
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