It was a long haul, but earlier this morning I completed the last exam necessary to earn a Bachelor of Science in Biology! Although commencements was last weekend, the official diploma won’t arrive for another ninety days. That leaves plenty of time to ask “what comes next?”
The idea of an occupational hazard is, for many, closely associated with professions like health care, coal mining or foundry work. It should be noted, however, that even horticulturalists and landscapers experience their share of work related dangers. Contact with decaying plant debris, spaghnum moss, cut hay, thorny plants or even soil can expose one to a fungus known as Sporothrix schenckii. If infected, a chronic skin disease called sporotrichosis may develop. This is known more commonly as “Rose Gardener’s Disease.”
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Descriptions of liquid fertilizers often mention the concentration. This could be as milligrams per liter (mg/L) or parts per million (ppm). It could also be indirectly expressed as percent mass (% or NPK). Thankfully, converting from one to another is a simple process. For a more detailed explanation of what these measurements mean and how to convert between them, read on.
The more I become involved with hydroponics, the more I personally experience the social stigma surrounding it. Last weekend, for example, I was returning to college after visiting my family for Thanksgiving. Halfway into my drive, I was pulled over by a state trooper. Fair enough, the lights for my license plate were apparently out. Having no criminal record and being pulled over for the burnt out light exclusively, the stop should haven taken maybe ten minutes. After the trooper noticed a copy of Hydroponic Food Production by Howard Resh, Ph.D., on the floor of my car, things took a turn for the bizarre.
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Bilberrybrian.com is now operating with the help of WordPress! This upgrade will make the website more efficient, requiring less effort to maintain and providing more time to create new articles. All previous write-ups have been imported. Many articles from the old site became extremely successful. For example:
This change will be like starting over, unfortunately. Additional reviews and articles down the road will have to make up for the temporary loss of rankings on the search engines. Until then, enjoy the new site!
Most gardeners from colder climates fall into one of two categories; those who garden year-around with the aid of a greenhouse and those who wish they had a greenhouse to garden year-around with. Greenhouse kits are often the first option considered by the later camp, owing to their simplicity and cost-effectiveness. Greenhouse kits of various sizes can range widely in price, from $800 to as high $5,000. With Greenhouse kits from Harbor Freight costing less than half of their competition, we had to ask, what exactly do you get for the money?
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Sooner or later, as with any hobby, you begin acquiring tools that make your favorite pastime more productive, in addition to enjoyable. Scuba divers may purchase a sophisticated dive watch, foodies could invest in premium culinary knives and an audiophile would be meticulous in his or her choice of an amplifier. Hydroponic gardening is no exception. Whatever your passion, it definitely helps to have the right tools at your disposal. For this review will be taking a close look at the Bluelab Truncheon Nutrient Meter with an eye for ease of use, quality and performance.
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If you have been shopping for an affordable hand held refractometer, you may be considering the Milwaukee MR32ATC. Measuring between 0 and 32 °Bx and being priced at approximately $80 US, Milwaukee’s MR32ATC appeals to budget conscious gardeners and shoppers interested in measuring the brix content of fruits and vegetables. After trying the Milwaukee MR32ATC, it was time to share the experience. With this information, readers interested in the MR32ATC can hopefully make the most informed decision possible.
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While digital pH meters have never been more affordable, products for chemically testing the pH of a hydroponic nutrient solution nonetheless remain available. LaMotte’s 5074 Hydroculture Test Kit is a prime example. With the importance of reliable and accurate pH measurements in mind, we took a closer look at LaMotte’s 5074 pH Hydroponic Test Kit.
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Hydroponic Hot Sauce?
Certain things just make our lives more interesting. I’m referring to things like surprise birthday parties, roller coaster rides and good hot sauce. Hopefully scientists will one day discover a means to reliably mass-produce a combination of all three. So long as such an ambition remains safely within the realm of fantasy, the only venue we can genuinely count on any given day of the year is having a full bottle of good hot sauce ready in the kitchen.
