Hydroponics what is it all about?

Hydroponics is the method of growing plants without the use of soil, there are many different systems and methods 

of hydroponics that are becoming ever more popular in recent years.How can you grow plants without soil? I hear you,

all ask, well its alot easier than you think. When growing plants in hydroponics your plants get fed directley from 

the nutrient rich water that passes over the roots of your plant. This is not a new concept and plants have been 

grown this way for a very long time. Plants grown by hydroponics tent to grow alot faster and stronger than their

 soil grown counter partsand in addition are much less affected by heat,pest and all other stress factors that could 

influence growth.

Today there are many types of system from the auto pot to the IWS system each having their positives and negatives

 ranging fron cost, ease of use and ease of setting up. The systems can be expensive to buy going right up to

over a thousand pounds, but once you have bought it there are very few running costs e.g. no media to buy every time.

Most are easy to use as they are typically automated syatems, just fill them up with feed and nutrient switch it on, 

set your timers and your away. Setting hydroponics systems up is usualyy very easy aswell. Take the NFT system for

example, a tank with a tray that sits in the topand a pump connecting the two easy job.

Hydroponics is big business today with major wholesalers in the uk having a turn over in excess of fourteen

million pounds a year! In any bodies eyes this is a great deal of money and only goes to show the extent

of the industry, and with over one hundred new hydroponics retailers opening their doors for business last year alone

you know that it is here to stay for a long time to come.

We often hear of tales on the news about chinese gangs using hydroponics in the cultivation of illegal cannabis crops

and to some degree this has got to give the industry a bad name and reputation, but it is not the only face of hydroponics users at all.

Many Uk strawberry farmers use NFT gulley systems to give them bigger stronger plants and in turn bigger yeilds and bigger profits.

I have a friend who actually owns and runs a successful hydroponics shop and he says most of his customers are old men and women

with just a few skin heads to make up the numbers. When i go on holiday i notice hydroponics everywhere for feeding plants in public areas

to save time and money paying a man with a long spray gun.

If you are a serious gardener who has never grown with hydroponics  you really should give it a go, try growing half in soil and half in a system

and see which plants end up producing the most fruit. The results from this test would no doubt speak for themselves. 

Horti Hut grow tent review

   I was given a horti hut to road test about fifteen weeks ago now and this is just to let you know all about it and how i got on. First of all let
me tell you about the tent its self the quality of the horti hut is second to none and superior to all of the other grow tents i have used in the past. This
is the first time i have used a grow tent made from the thicker material already i felt better about it a bit more secure. Let me tell you how it looks
from all angels to the front is the door and a viewing window which is none toxic so you can take a look at your plants with out opening the door which
in my opinion is a good idea. Both sides have three outlets and a passive air intake flap at the bottom and two access openings, the back has two outlets
and passvie air intake flap and theres a outlet through the roof of the tent.
    Hanging the lights, fan and filter was easy too with more than enough outlets for ducting and cables and even better they are double socked one for
inside the tent and one for the outside very good idea even more protection against any odour leakage which is a big thing when your growing indoors.
    Working with tent is easy too because you have good access at both sides so you can get to the plants at the back of the tent alot easier for
hand watering and other things that need to be carried out while your plants are growing.

       The horti hut gave me an excellent place to carry out my indoor growing and allowed me to tend to my plants through out thier growth cycles the ease of access
is truely amazing. There was no odour leakage what so ever from the double coughed outlets, they did an amazing job i would never go back to using a tent that
was not double coughed. The results i achieved were better with the hotri hut than any other grow tent i have used i put this down to being able to get
to all my plants and do the work i coundnt do with the other tents.
     
         To any one who is thinking about a grow tent i would track down a horti hut because of the high quality of build materials
and the number of features it has to offer and with no comprimise. Value for money yes i think so because mine didnt cost
any thing but i know when they hit the shops they are going to priced to out sell any other quality grow tents on the market. The horti hut should
hit uk shops later this year so if your looking for a hydroponics grow tent  i would wait and get what i think is going to be the only grow tent worth having
and i have used most top names over the years i have been growing.

What is a hydroponics grow tent kit?

When choosing to become an indoor gardener you have many choices to make regarding how you are going to do this.
A good idea is to buy a ready made kit supplied by hydroponics shops. These kits include everything you
need to grow your plants from the grow room to grow lights and fans. This is a good idea for those of you out there who have
no idea as to what equipment they need and how to set it up. Your typical grow tent kits will include a light obviousley to grow
your plants with, They will come with a fan and filter to pull hot harmfull air away from your plants and clean this removed air,
easy rollers or chain to support lights and fan,timer to turn lighting on and off in a safe manner and last but by no means least
 the all important grow tent.
Some people like to try building their own grow room which can need a bit of skill and money while others dont have the time
or energy to do this and so use a ready made purpose built grow tent. A purpose built tent is in my opinion the best way to go,
 being light tight and holding in all those nasty smells aswell as creating a really good reflective environment for you crop.
There are many places out there to buy a ready made grow tent kits with prices fluctuating
greatly between kits. It is possible to find a good quality grow kit for around four plantsthat will work well for around
£250 but beware all kits out there are not equal.
 A massive thing to look out for is a mylar lined tent for most reflectivity and non toxic aswell as what kind of fan is included as
it has to be powerful to extract all the heat created by your grow lights. You do see alot of kits out there including fans
that are not upto the job so make sure you get a high powered in line duct fan.
In my opinion buying a complete grow tent kit is a very good idea. If you buy the right one the fan will be matched to your
lighting to ensure cool running as well as choosing the right grow lights for area size and number of potential plants.
 In most cases the hydroponics grow tent kit should be your best route to green fingered success as it should have been put together by somebody with a good knowledge of
what a plant likes and needs.

The Horti Hut grow tent

The horti hut is a brand new range of grow tent coming to the UK packed with amazing features and made from the best quality 600d mylar lined oxford cloth. This
cloth is the only material to make grow tents out of, it is very strong and wears very well evan after many repeated erections. Please check when buying any grow tent
that it is made from this material as 190d and 210d simply are not good enough and do not stand up to average plant growing conditions aswell as the 600d.
Everything has been thought about when designing these tents with the indoor grower in mind, There are alot of tents on the market today with insufficient ducting outlets
giving you fewer options as to where to place the tent and as to the size of fan you can use.
 The Horti Hut grow tent has three viewing windows positioned around it making access to those hard to reach places so easy, because we all know how difficult it can be getting the back of your plants to trim
them when they are a couple of months old. The horti hut has nine inlet/outlet ports ranging from small to large for ducting and cabling needs making it simple for positioning fans and
filters for ducting runs and for positioning the tent in your room. The outlets are fitted with double cuffs, one for the inside and one for outside of the tent both having elasticated pull cords to clamp securely
around ducting making them ultra light tight and smell proof. Everything about this tent screams quality, the frame work is powder coated steel to ensure no rusting occures secured with high quality
impact plactic corners and sufficient hanging bars for lights and fans. The zips are extra strength military grade and have been proven over the years to stand the test of time in other tents.
A waterproof catchment tray is provided to catch any spills and run off you may have while watering your plants to further protect your tent.
Obviously the horti hut is made from totally non toxic materials and will not gas or harm plants in any way, they simply create the perfect environment and indoor growing arena
giving you total control over the light and ventilation in your grow area.
 These tents have more features than any other on the market today but also with the quality thick materials you need as a serious indoor hydroponics gardener.
They come in all popular sizes to suit every size of growing space and at prices to suit every wallet and budget that will blow your mind and the competition out of the water
I have used all the main brands of grow tent over the past ten years and i have to say that these are simply the best!

Hydroponics grow lights

High Intensity Discharge, or HID grow lights, are a superd method to get the most growth and yeild out of your plants and have the longest life span and highest efficiency of any type of indoor lighting. When we talk about HID grow lights, we are referring to Metal Halide grow lights (MH), High Pressure Sodium grow
lights (HPS), as well as conversion grow lights. MH grow lights emmit light in the blue spectrum and are best used for the cloning and vegetative growth stages. HPS grow lights emit light in the red spectrum and are best used for
 the flowering growth stage. Conversion lights are pretty much a combination of HPS and MH grow lights, and emit light in both the red and blue spectrums
Fluorescent lights are adequate for plants that do not need much sunlight, but will not help produce anything other than greenery.
Using HID lights extends the growing season in the autumn and allows a head start in the spring, but don’t get too carried away!   Extending the light beyond 18 hours a day will wear your plants out and cause an untimely demise
A 600 Watt HPS grow light is a great selection, not only for flowering plants, but for very nearly any type of indoor garden a person is wishing to grow. A unit of this size and nature is a type of HID or high-intensity discharge, light.
 Most indoor gardeners have always understood that these particular types of lights are about as close as a person can get to copying the beneficial rays of the sun. That is not to say, however, that a 600 Watt HPS grow light is not without its fair share of disadvantages
keep in mind is that a 600 Watt HPS grow light gives off a large amount of heat. If this light is placed too close to the plant canopy, they can burn, dry out, or even die completley. This is why many experts recommend that a person
 put a thermometer and an extract fan in the area where their garden is growing in order to more effectively regulate the temperature and remove heat. A hygrometer is also a great tool to measure humidity and temperature. This is especially important
 if the grow light is being used in a more confined area. This particular type of light may be the perfect choice if a person is trying to compensate for the cooler temperatures and heat up a room.
High performance lamps take indoor horticulture to the next stage By using colour enhancement technologies. You can now get bulbs that come very close to immitating normal sunshine.
All types of indoor grow light make use of what is known as a ballast . With MH and HPS lights, these are remote, meaning that an external box is required in order to house an electronic pre-heating system, which in turn runs the lamp itself
The remote idea is a good one making it possible to place the ballast away from your grow.

Budget grow tent versus so called brand names

There are many different makes of grow tent on the market ranging from quite expensive brand names to cheaper no name models. To a certain degree i think you do get what you you pay for, but from my experience in dealing with all these makes i find the cheaper grow tents tend to be just as well made if not better with thicker material. The only upside if you would call it that to alot of the brand names is the fact that they often come with alot of ducting outlets for heat and air extraction. This is not always a good thing though because more openings means more space for smells to escape, all in all in most cases i have found budget grow tents to offer much higher value for money because of a much cheaper price and of similar if not better quality.

The best way to set up a grow tent kit

When your grow tent kit arrives and it comes to setting up first thing you should do is make sure that you set up some where close to were you can duct your hot out of and have enough room, as when you unpack there is
a lot of equipment and it does take up a lot of floor space.The fist thing you need to do is set up your tent so leave every thing else in its packaging doing this will help you keep track of all the equipment you have recieved
with your kit. Once you have followed the instructions with your tent and got that set up correctly you can move on with installing the rest of your equipment.

Now you can move on and i would say to set up your fan and filter i would this next because if you set up your light first it could get in the way when installing your fan and filter.
To set up yuor fan and filter correctly i would suggest that you first wire your fan as most do not come pre-wired, now short out your ducting run from your fan to were you will be ducting out of as this is the longest piece of ducting and you dont want
to leave your self short. Now sort out the ducting that will go from your fan to your filter about a meter should do this job. Remember to set up your fan and filter so you pull air through the filter not the other way around,
if you do push air through the filter it will not do the as good a job and will shorten the life of the filter.

The next thing you should put into your tent is the light remember dont put the ballast in the tent place it outside your growing area as they do create a lot of heat and could cause you problems if you dont,
and keep them off any carpets with a board or something similar and give them room to breath do not cover!!!.When you hang your light you should hang it up out of the way until your plants have been added then you can adjust
the light hieght to your requirements. When you have got your light to the required hiehgt lower your filter to a hieght similar to that of the light, by donig this you pulling away the heat given off by the lamp and extract it straight out of your grow room.

Some thing you should take into consideration when hanging all your equipment is what you are going to use many people use string if nothing has been provided with the kit. I dont think that string is a very good idea when it comes to hanging equipment in your grow tent as it
can be very unreliable and if your light falls on your crop believe me it will cause some damage. If your kit comes with light hangers make sure that you have locked them into place before you leave as they have also been known to fail and allow lights
to fall onto plants. THe best solution to hanging all equipment is jack chain as its strong and will last a lifetime and has never let me down in all the years i used it.

Grow tent kits are the easiest way to go when comes to indoor growing and when set up correctly will deliver great indoor harvests all year round giving you the chance to have fresh produce grown in any room you choose.
Follow these few simple steps and you should have no problems and one of the best things about a grow tent kit is that when you have finished your growing it can be taken down in just minutes and stored away till next
leaving no trace behind what so ever