the indoor gardener magazine january february 2013

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THE INDOOR GARDENER | CONTENTS

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Published by: Signature Group, Laval, Qc, Canada • Directors of publication: Roxanne Labelle-Lekakis [email protected] and Stelios Lekakis [email protected]• Editor: Stelios Lekakis [email protected] • Managing Editor: Bruno Bredoux [email protected] • Director of Marketing and Production Manager: Stelios [email protected] • Account Manager and Sales Representative: Nick Azakie [email protected] • Contributing editors: Stelios Lekakis, Bruno Bredoux, RoxanneLekakis, V. Green, Nick Azakie • Graphic Concept and Design: KARAKTER (Signature Group, www.tigmag.com) • Editorial coordinator: Bruno Bredoux •Collaborators in this issue: Lars Aikala, Nick Azakie, Kerrie R. Barney, Blair Busenbark, Bruno Bredoux, campus.fortunecity.com, Luc Charnet, Marco Deux, JimFritz, Herb Gardner, Vertuda Green, S. Howard, Grigg Kellock, Loup-Claude Leblanc, Roxanne Labelle-Lekakis, Stelios Lekakis, Frank Nyikos, S. Przytyk,palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk, D. Rigeault, Stéphine Ruthie, techno-science.net. • Rewriting/Copy editing/Proof reading: V. Green • Cover Design: KARAKTER, after aphoto by Forest & Kim Starr, USGS (Ananas comosus (Pineapple Bromeliaceae), leaves and fruit) • Illustrations: DR and Signature Group. • Distribution: Seethe list of our current distributors on our website theindoorgardener.ca/Distributors.html • Administration: Claudine Leonard [email protected] •Information: [email protected]. • Articles and photos submission: [email protected].: Should you need to refer to our conversion table, go to our Website.

© 2013, Signature Group, Laval, Qc, Canada • Printed in Canada.The Indoor Gardener Magazine, P.O. Box 52046, Laval, Quebec, H7P 5S1, CANADA Phone: 1 450-628-5325, Fax: 1 450-628-7758, website : theindoorgardener.ca.

Articles, iconographic representations and photographs contained in this magazine cannot be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the written consent of thePublisher. The magazine (The Indoor Gardener) and publisher (Signature Group) are not responsible for mistakes or erroneous information provided by theirauthors. The publisher further declines any and all liability related to any problem stemming from the unsuccessful application of any advice provided by an authorin an article.

Publications Mail - Agreement number PP41129557. Canada Post: Return undeliverable items to Signature Group, PO Box 52046, Laval, QuebecH7P 5S1. U.S. Delivery and Subscriptions: Periodicals Postage Rates are paid in Laval, Qc, Canada, H7P 5S1 – Post Canada AgreementPP41129557. U.S. Post Master: Return undeliverable items to Signature Group, PO Box 52046, Laval, Quebec, H7P 5S1, Canada. Canada PostPublications Mail Agreement number: PP41129557. Legal deposit: Second Quarter 2005. National Library of Canada. Bibliothèque nationale duQuébec. ISSN: 1715-0949. Printed in Canada by Solisco, Scott (QC).

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6 A Garden in DangerBy Bruno Bredoux

8 News from the IndustryBy Lars Aikala, Grigg Kellock, R. Labelle,L. Charnet and Blair Busenbark

14 The Lucky Bamboo in theLaundry RoomBy Kerrie R. Barney

18 Which Fruits andVegetables for myHydroponic System?By Stéphine Ruthie

22 Wild Plants of theColorado CanyonsBy Jim Fritz

28 Why Is the Sky... Blue?By techno-science.net

30 Hosta HybridizingTechniqueBy Frank Nyikos

32 Who's Coming In [Not Invited] from Outdoors?By Doktor Doom

36 My Fruit Stand Adventurein PalisadeBy Jim Fritz

37 The Hydroponic World ofNorth America

47 A Passionate Green-EntrepreneurBy D. Rigeault

And our usual features: Editorial 6 • Industry News 8 • Gallery 28 •The Hydroponic World of North America37 (US), 39 (Canada) • Discovery 40 • Sports44 • People in the Industry 47 • Q & A 48

VOLUME 8 ISSUE 4 • JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2013 • www.theindoorgardener.ca

| THE INDOOR GARDENER

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EDITORIAL

A GARDENIN DANGER

Community gardens have become a place of choice for meetings and discussions in Montreal and theyhave been part of the city’s landscape for decades, providing residents with green islands where concretewould otherwise be king. The greater Montreal area has almost 1,000 of these plots and they arecultivated with passion by as many gardeners. When one of these precious pieces of land is threatened bya real estate project, you can be sure that a citizen movement will soon mobilize to defend its survival.

This is what happened last summer when the City of Montreal announced “La Coop de la montagne verte”,a housing project for low income families in the heart of the downtown area. The centerpiece of theproject was a high-rise building which would wipe away part of the Georges-Vanier garden, one of the lastgreen spaces in this part of the city.

Located between the business district in the north and an area of former industrial buildings convertedinto prestigious offices in the south, the garden is owned by the Ministère des Transports du Québec, forthe vegetable garden, and the City of Montreal, for the section devoted to flowers, the one that was to beeliminated to make way for the “Coop de la montagne verte”.

“To build the Coop, the City would have to use all of the land it owns on thepremises, which amounts to half of the flower garden, which would then be cutdiagonally. Since the projected high-rise building has 10 floors, it wouldradically reduce the amount of sunshine on our flower section and potentiallyon all the vegetable gardens”, Franck Delache, President of the gardencommittee said last July in an interview with Radio-Canada. James, one of thevolunteer gardeners added: “It discourages me. We do not want that. Myimpression is that they will take half of the garden away and then, later on,they will take the rest away.”

“For us, it means the complete destruction of this garden because what remains will be in the shade,”added Cécile, another volunteer. This garden is in fact the cherished project of about sixty volunteers who,with their passion, have transformed the wasteland that existed before into beautiful, lush gardens. Greenspaces of such quality are few and far between in downtown Montreal. Seeing one disappear indeedbreaks many hearts, not only in the activist community.

The advocates of the Georges-Vanier flower garden have gone to great lengths to explain that they are notagainst the construction of social housing. They are essential and the city certainly needs the 88 rentalunits in the short term. The question that is raised, however, is whether this is the right place to buildthem and whether the families who will settle there will really have access to a green space nearby.

Some have promoted the idea of integrating the greenery destroyed by the project into the new buildingitself. “Why not build a green roof on top of it,” asked an activist. Others lament the disappearance of thesocial bond that existed between the land and the people who cultivated the gardens in an area of socialhousing where tenants are often little motivated to properly maintain the premises and their surroundings.

With the recent events that have shaken the Montreal City Hall (the resignation of Mayor Gérald Tremblay,the uncertainty surrounding his succession, etc.), the real estate project has been sidelined for themoment, giving some pause to the 62 volunteers of the Georges-Vanier garden. But in the upcomingspring, the fight will be renewed when time comes to prepare the soil for a new season in the sun!

Bruno [email protected]

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INTEGRATED CONTROLLERFOR TEMPERATURE, HUMIDITY AND CO2

• Manages ALL indoor garden’s climate parameters.

CO2 CONTROL WITH HIGH TEMPERATURE SHUT OFF

• Easy to install and set up;• Display with day/night selection;

• Adjustable CO2 set point from 100 to 4,900 ppm.

FLEXTIMER

• A precise control for lighting,or irrigation,

or any cycling process.

INTEGRATED CONTROLLER FOR TEMPERATURE AND HUMIDITY

• Intelligently manages 4 actions: heating, cooling (AC or fan), humidifying and dehumidifying;

• Prioritizes actions according to a logical sequence;• Allows temperature and humidity’s differential

adjustment.www.novabiomatique.com

8 | VOL. 8 ISSUE 4


Korkeasaari Zoo Shines a Light!

Valoya White Grow LED Lights nowUsed at Helsinki ZooBy Lars Aikala

Valoya Ltd. now provides lighting for the Helsinki Zoo, inFinland. The Zoo selected Valoya’s LED lights because oftheir unique white plant spectrum, which enhances theillumination of plants, animals and human beings in theAfricaAsia House.

In addition to various animals, the Helsinki Zoo hostshundreds of different plant species. This explains why theZoo pays great attention to the optimal lighting of indoorareas where animals and plants coexist. Until now the Zoohas used traditional high pressure sodium (HPS) lamps, butas these did not provide sufficient light for the plants, otherlighting options had to be found for the AfricaAsia House.

The Valoya LED grow lights were selected for their uniquelight spectra especially optimized for plants. TimoPaasikunnas, in charge of reptiles, amphibians andinvertebrates at the Zoo comments: “LED lights have made

the natural colors of the plants more visiblewhen artificial light is used. These have alsoenabled us to diversify our selection of plantswhich now includes not only shade plants butsun and flowering plants, even under a forestcanopy.”

What makes the employed Valoya ARCHspectrum especially unique is the quality ofthe light it produces. Though perceived aswhite by human and animal eyes, it containsall the information plants need for growingand prospering faster while remainingpleasant for humans and animals.

In addition to the superior spectrum, theHelsinki Zoo chose Valoya’s grow lightsbecause the LED’s provide extensive energysavings and the robust fixtures significantlylengthen the lifespan of the lights.

About Valoya

Valoya is a provider of energy efficient LED grow lights forprofessional use. Valoya LED-lights have been developedusing the company’s proprietary LED technology andextensive plant photobiology research. They are currentlyused for a wide variety of plant species in 18 countries.Valoya’s customer base includes numerous greenhouses andresearch institutions all over the world.

Valoya has a complete range of products to address variousplant lighting needs: the L-series in a T8 form has beendesigned to replace fluorescent tubes in low proximityapplications. The R-series is a powerful roof light thatreplaces High Pressure Sodium (HPS) installations. The B-series bars are perfect for inter-lighting, mid heightinstallations and special cultivation spaces within residentialareas. For more information, visit valoya.com.

INDUSTRY NEWS

If you would like to send us your company news item or new product releases for publication,please submit your text and pictures with any additional information at [email protected].

(The Indoor Gardener magazine reserves the right to determine which press releases areappropriate for publication, and may edit for length, content, or style.)

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Price per copy is S4.76 for Canada, $6.95 for the U.S., and $10.95 for international customers.Some issue may be out of print. Signature Group, P.O. Box 52046, Laval (Quebec) H7P 5S1, Canada

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Vol. 3-6 Vol. 4-1 Vol. 4-2 Vol. 4-3 Vol. 4-4NOTE

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Please enclose your check or money order together with back issue order and mail to: Signature Group, P.O. Box 52046, Laval (Quebec) H7P 5S1, Canada or fax this page at 1 450 628-7758 and pay later, or sendyour request at [email protected], and pay later.

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INDUSTRY NEWS | THE INDOOR GARDENER

Sanitizing your Indoor Gardento Control Pest

In all growing areas, it is importantto maintain a maximum level ofsanitization in order to preventinfestations by pest. Here are a fewpractical measures to achieve this.By Dr Doom

Indoor Growing Areas and Greenhouse Sanitation Tips

1. Always wear clean clothing when working in your growingenvironment.2. Wash your clothes in hot water and dry them in a warmdryer.3. Do not allow friends or pets into your growingenvironment. They both can transport spider mites into yourgreenhouse.4. Remove all dead foliage from growing area daily.5. When drawing fresh air into your growing environment,be certain to treat regularly with Doktor Doom the outsidearea from which this air is coming and use an inlet microparticle filter.6. Keep everything clean. This includes table tops, floors,walls, ceilings, shades, bulbs, etc.

Fogger Application Tips

1. Always read the label before use.2. Use in homeowner greenhouses and other indoorgrowing areas.3. Use up to one day before harvest on vegetables, flowersand ornamental plants;4. One ounce fumigates or fogs an area of 28.5 m3

(1,000 cubic feet). [To calculate your surface: width x length x height = m3 or ft3.].5. Always fog in the dark; do not use in direct sunlight orwith HID lights on.6. The fogger is best used two to three hours after thelights are off or two to three hours after sunset.7. Always do an under leaf treatment with Doktor DoomSpider Mite Knockout prior to fogging.

Preparation before Fogging

1. Shut off pilot lights and open flames in the area to befogged (this includes furnaces, hot water tanks, CO2

burners, etc.).2. Turn off exhaust fans, air conditioners and circulationfans.3. Turn off any automated appliances that cycle “On & Off”.This includes timers, CO2 controllers, etc.4. Close all windows and doors in the growing area.5. Water your plants before application.

Fogging the Garden

1. Lighting shades need to beraised to maximum height orremoved in the growing area.2. Prop the foggers up on a 5-gallon pail.3. Do not allow the mist to comein direct contact with plants. Thesubstance is designed to bevaporized in the air and fall onthe plants.4. Depress the valve into lockedposition, exit the areaimmediately and close the doorbehind you.5. After application, open alldoors and windows. Turn onexhaust fans and circulation fansto “air out” (ventilate) the area forat least 1/2 hour before startingwork in the area. The greenhouseor indoor area should ideally beunder 22 ºC (75 ºF). The spider-mites are more active at thistemperature and Doktor Doom

products are most effective at this temperature.6. Do not re-enter the area until at least two hours aftertreatment (the longer the better).

Re-entry Times (then ventilate opening all doors and windows for 30 min.)

Doktor Doom Total Release Foggers and Fumigators

• 2.4 oz “Mini Fogger” / 70 gram “Mini Fumigator”: Great for eliminating wasp nests under steps and porchesor to fumigate your average size room up to 10’ x 10’,greenhouses, attics, crawl spaces or wherever else you have a major infestation of insects. Flushes out and eradicates insects and pathogenic pest on contact.

After fogging with After fogging with After fogging with

Fogger size Min 2.4 oz. fogger Total Realise 5.35 oz. fogger

Hi-pressure 14.29 oz. fogger

Fumigatorsize

Mini 70 gramfumigator

Total Release 150 gram fumigator

Hi-pressure 400 gram fumigator

Re-entry time 2 hours 2 hours 2 hours

Ventilation 30 min 30 min 30 min

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THE INDOOR GARDENER | INDUSTRY NEWS

• 5.35 oz “Total Release Fogger” / 150 gram “Total ReleaseFumigator”: Great for larger rooms within the home, cabins,RV’s, small airplanes, boats, larger attics, greenhouses,garages, etc. Fumigates areas up to 15’ x 15’.

• 14.29 oz “Hi-Pressure Fogger” / 400 gram “Hi-PressureFumigator”: Ideal for use in areas with a heavy infestationof insects and also for use in larger areas. Fumigate areasup to 25’ x 25’.

All products are fragrance free.

The biggest benefit of using the Total Release Foggers andFumigators is that they are made with natural pyrethrumwhich biologically breaks down in a couple of hours thusproviding very fast re-entry times to fumigated areas. Theyreally do not have a strong odour which insures that therewill not be any long lasting obnoxious odours lingering inthe air. If used in conjunction with Doktor Doom Residualproducts, these will provide the homeowner with a bug freeenvironment. Use the fumigants first to flush out anderadicate the insects and then follow up with the Residualproducts to prevent further infestation of pests into yourhome or gardening environment.

Signature Group WelcomesGreen Publications Vertesunder Its Banner

The publishing activities of Green Publications Vertes willhenceforth be regrouped under the banner of SignatureGroup.

“We are proud to announce this expansion of SignatureGroup. By concentrating them under a single banner, ouraim is to facilitate the continued development of themagazines and publication products we now create”, saidSignature Group President, Stelios Lekakis.

The teams that publishes The Indoor Gardener magazineand Le Jardinier d’intérieur will remain the same andcontinue the very fine work it has done for several years.

About Signature Group

Signature Group is specializing in the development ofinnovative concepts for trade publications and magazines.With a team of publishing and marketing professionals, theGroup has recently launched the latest addition to itsprojects: Signature Magazine, the shopping reference(signaturemagazine.ca).

For more information, please contact Roxanne Labelle([email protected]).

Diamond Nectar

What Does It Do?

Diamond Nectar from General Hydroponics is a fantastichumic acid supplement for all types of growing. But it is alittle mysterious, and has some heady science behind itsformulation. It is a chelator, a substance that will assistplants in uptaking other available nutrients.

Diamond Nectar offers these characteristics:• It improves the plant’s capacity to absorb nutritiveelements by converting them into easily available particles.• It delivers nutritive elements to each part of the plant:roots, stems, foliage, flowers and fruit.• It offers the benefits of a natural organic element in liquidform.• In hydroponics or soilless cultures, it creates anenvironment resembling that of soil.

Directions for Diamond Nectar:• Use 2 to 3 ml/l during all phasesof growth, fructification andflowering.• Add to the nutritive solution in anysubstrate, soil, or hydroponic system.• Beware: Diamond Nectar is anacid: it will lower your solution’s pH.Add it to your water beforecorrecting the pH.• These quantities can be raised.Above 20ml/l, however, themanufacturer has observed asaturation phenomenon that couldslow plant growth.See page 41 of this issue for moreinformation.

generalhydroponics.com

Black Gold Makes Donationsto Schools and CommunityGardens

As Black Gold, a Sun Gro Horticulture product-line, transitionsto new packaging and finalizes its line for the 2013 gardeningseason, some products must be phased out. Rather thanselling to a discounter, Blair Busenbark, National MarketingManager at Sun Gro Horticulture, opted for a morephilanthropic solution—to donate these valuable organic soilbuilding materials to non-profit organizations that promotesustainable gardening. “Non-profit organizations need qualitysoil products for their organic food gardening programs, so wedecided to help them out”, says Busenbark. WasatchCommunity Gardens (in the Salt Lake City area), SacramentoCity Unified School District, Sacramento Food Bank, Marion-Polk Food Share of Salem, Oregon, the Rotary Club at MargaretMcDowell Manor (Portland, OR) and Future Farmers of Americain Oregon are among those that received the donations.

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When my family first moved into our new apartment in Pullman, WA, I was a bitapprehensive, especially when I learned that 99.9% of my new neighbors were WashingtonState University students. In my own youth WSU had quite the reputation for being a “partyschool”: a place where studying was an incidental activity at best. Just what, I wondered,would living with so many young people be like? Would it be loud music and drunkendebauchery every night?

It took me less than a week to discover that my fears were groundless. Perhaps this isbecause I live in one of the few places in Pullman where students can have pets. As oneyoung lady told me quite seriously in the dog park, “Kids willing to pay extra rent just sothey can take care of an animal are usually a lot more responsible than the ones who justwant to get wasted.” Or perhaps the current economic hard times has something to do it.In these days of scant student aid, most of my neighbors are working two or even three jobsin order to pay for their education. They aren’t about to mess up their GPAs partying awaythe few hours they actually have to study. So even on weekends it’s generally lights out byeleven pm. And if I find a pair of panties abandoned on the lawn—which I do, withsurprising regularity—the odds are good that they weren’t left over from some wild parkinglot encounter. They probably just bounced out of someone’s basket on the way to thelaundry room. Almost without exception, my new neighbors are hardworking, friendly, andextremely polite.

THELUCKYBAMBOO IN THELAUNDRY ROOM

By Kerrie R. Barney

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HOME SWEET HOME | THE INDOOR GARDENER

But every time there is a major exam week at theUniversity, a marked change comes over them. They stopsaying hello at the mailboxes. Their faces assume a grey,unhealthy pallor. They begin stumbling down the sidewalkswith all the inherent grace of a shamble of zombies. Theyaren’t particularly EVIL zombies; if you corner one and insiston having a conversation, they’ll still be polite. But there isa definite air of distraction to everything they do. Theseare the times when I’ll watch my neighbors get into theircars and drive away, quite unconcernedly, with the cardoors still open; these are the weeks when I see youngmen happily walking their dogs while wearing no shoes andonly one sock, and the young ladies jogging with theirsports bras on over their college sweatshirts. (Well, okay.To be fair, I only saw this last thing happen once, and itmay very well have been a fashion statement rather than anexam-related mental lapse. But I have my suspicions.)Every time a WSU exam week rolls around, I have come toexpect the unexpected.

So naturally, it was during finals week last December that I first met the Lucky Bamboo in the laundry room.

It was just sitting there by itself when I first walked in, fourstems of green Dracaena sanderiana supported by prettygrey river stones in a large glass vase. Someone had left iton one corner of the big central folding table. The plantlooked a little dry. The water level had dropped way belowthe top stones. But otherwise it was green and alive andvery beautiful. Being the plant person that I am, I wasinstantly rather taken by that beauty. And being thechronic worry-wart that I also am, I was instantly concernedfor the plant’s well-being. After all, a laundry room ishardly the world’s most hospitable growing environment.Was the plant safe there? Was it getting enough warmth,water, light? And—the million dollar question—just whatwas it doing there in the first place?

As far as I could see, there were two explanations. Collegestudents are an extremely nomadic species by nature,constantly moving in and out as they transfer schools,move in with friends to save money, or break up with theirsignificant others. They are also extremely practical-minded, with a fine tradition of recycling personalpossessions. So whenever someone moves out and they

have still-useful things that they no longer need—furniture,dishes, unused bottles of dish soap, etc.—they leave thembehind for their neighbors. Normally, such things are leftout on the ground by the dumpster, where there is anunwritten understanding that anyone who wants them cantake them. But occasionally, the smaller and more weather-sensitive items—which the little plant most definitely was—are left in the laundry room. It was quite possible that theLucky Bamboo’s original owner had left it in the hopes thatsomeone would give it a new home.

But the laundry room is also a place where people areconstantly just putting things down and then forgetting topick them up again. Once, during a perfectly normal, non-exam, non-distracted-zombie week, I walked in to find adozen roses in a plastic vase sitting on one of the dryers,bearing a card that read “Happy Birthday Angie”. I was justwondering who the heck Angie was and what her roseswere doing in the laundry room when a very pretty younglady came. She did a double take when she saw theflowers, exclaimed “The doofus! So *that’s* where he leftthem!” and burst into tears. It turned out that herextremely absent-minded math major boyfriend had takentheir movie money for the week to buy her the flowers, andthen shame-facedly confessed that he’d managed to losethem before he got home. Angie had been sure he’d leftthem on the bus, and that the roses had been lost forever.But once they were reunited, she went home with glowingeyes, smiling the way only a young twenty-something inlove can smile…

…and leaving me with a memory that made me extremelyreluctant to disturb the bamboo plant now. Lucky bamboois a common gift plant. It was just possible that thisparticular specimen and Angie’s roses shared a history. Ifso, then it would be a grave wrong for me to carry it away.The best plan would be to simply leave the plant where itwas until the original owners had a chance to reclaim it.

So I finished loading my clothes into the dryer, and when I came back later to retrieve them I brought a bottle ofwater with me from home, which I carefully poured into theplant’s container. I decided that I’d keep an eye on it for afew days, watering it as necessary. If the original ownerscame back during that time, well and good. If not, then I’d

Bamboo: “Making a new

friend at Kerrie’shome!”

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THE INDOOR GARDENER | HOME SWEET HOME

give the bamboo home myself. It seemed to me to be agood plan, an excellent solution to the moral conundrum ofthe rights of the plant versus the rights of the possibleowners, and I left the laundry room in a fine glow of self-congratulation. Sadly, the second I got home my dog hadan epileptic seizure, and in all the chaos of caring for himthe little plant slipped from my mind. It wasn’t until nearlythe end of the week that I suddenly remembered it. It waslate in the evening when I did; I’d already brushed my teethand changed into my pajamas. But I knew I could neverget to sleep until I knew if the plant was all right. So I threw a coat over my jammies and rushed to thelaundry room…

Where I found one of my neighbors standing over the plantwith an old yogurt container full of water, carefully refillingthe vase.

At least, I had to assume she was my neighbor. I honestlyhad never seen her before—and given that her hair wasdyed a vibrant anime-blue, I’m fairly sure I would haveremembered her if I had. But the large basket of cleanlaundry balanced on her hip spoke for itself. We bothjumped a little, neither of us having expected to seeanyone else in the laundry room at that late hour. But I was so relieved to see the plant being cared for that I didn’t let that stop me. “Oh, hello!” I said brightly. “So it’s yours, is it?”

She looked extremely startled—which, looking back on it, ishardly surprising. Even during finals week, it isn’t everyday that a strange woman wearing pajamas with brightyellow ducks on them rushes into the laundry room atmidnight and tries to strike up a conversation. “Excuseme?”

“The plant,” I said, gesturing at the bamboo. “Oh, I’m soglad that you came back for it! I was worried no one everwould.”

She looked even more startled. “It’s not mine.”

I frowned. “But you’re watering it.”

“Well, yeah,” she answered, clearly puzzled. “I wasn’t justgoing to let it die. Someone might come back for it.” Andwith that she tipped the last few drops of water into theplanter, smiled an uncomfortable-but-trying-to-be-reassuring-smile at the crazy woman in the pajamas, and carefullyedged past me out the door.

I must admit, I stared after her. Nice as my youngneighbors were, I had, in my own ignorant, prejudiced way,assumed that I would be the only one in the complex whowould care about the little plant’s fate. Especially duringfinals week, I’d believed that everyone else would be fartoo wrapped up in their own affairs to even notice it. Letalone perform a selfless act like bringing it water in a cup.

But now that my eyes were opened, they stayed opened. Asfinals week ground to a close and the first week of vacationbegan, I witnessed not one, not two, but three differentyoung people taking water into the laundry room alongwith their dirty clothes. There may well have been othersthat I didn’t see. What I did see was that the little plantwas never allowed to go dry, a feat made all the moreamazing by the fact that all of these good Samaritans wereacting independently. There was no organization, nocommunication, not so much as a flyer put up to coordinatethe watering efforts. The students simply saw anotherliving thing in need and took a minute to help it out.

Amazing!

But perhaps what’s even more amazing is what didn’thappen. There was no violence or thoughtless crueltydirected toward the little plant. Nobody knocked it to thefloor with their laundry baskets or pulled off any of itsleaves. Which meant it wasn’t just a handful of good

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Bamboo:“Near the miniblinds thanks

to a caringperson!”

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HOME SWEET HOME | THE INDOOR GARDENER

Samaritans looking out for the plant. In a way, it waseveryone. Even the people who didn’t take an active rolein caring for the little bamboo respected it enough to workaround it.

I began to suspect that my new home was a very goodplace to live.

When I came in one morning and discovered that someanonymous, caring person had moved the plant closer tothe window and angled the mini-blinds so that it couldmake the most of the scant December light, I became sureof it.

Winter break is always a time of mass exodus in Pullman, withU-hauls filling every parking lot and a steady stream of trafficheaded out of town. My apartment complex was no exception.I’d say that more than half of my neighbors moved out duringthe next week. There were times when you couldn’t see thesidewalk for all the different packing boxes piled onto it. Buteven those students who meant to return for the springsemester left town, going home to spend the holidays withtheir families. For a few weeks, the complex was asabandoned as a ghost town.

It was this mass evacuation that forced a crisis in myrelationship with the little bamboo plant. I had, of course,wanted to take it home with me right from the beginning. Butonce I knew that its needs were being met in the laundry roomI refrained, out of respect for the original owner who, as theblue-haired girl had said, might still come back for it. Evenwhen the flood of people moving out made the odds of thatseem slim, I left the plant where it was.

Right before New Year’s, though, we had a big winter stormwhich left nearly a foot of snow on the ground. The laundryroom, which normally was kept quite toasty by the steadystream of students using the dryers, turned into an icebox. I could almost see the little plant shiver. So, I took it back tomy apartment to keep warm. I did leave a small note on thepop machine, just in case: “Found: Lucky Bamboo Plant. Call 509-XXXX if it’s yours.” But no one ever did.

I’m glad they didn’t. Not only has the bamboo plant thrivedsince I brought it home, becoming a most beautiful addition tomy personal houseplant collection, but I love everything itsymbolizes. Lucky Bamboo plants root in water, not in soil—abit like me, trying to find my feet amongst the ever-changingtide that is Life in a College Town. But we’re both flourishing.And the story of how I found it is a constant reminder of howgreat this current generation of young people really is.

I think the future is in good hands.

Bamboo: “I'm justa plant; I'll be atree someday.”

Bamboo: “Home at last!”

18 | VOL. 8 ISSUE 4


Twenty Minutes from Harvest to Plate

I would like to start with a recent personal anecdote. I harvested two eggplants in my garden. I rinsed them wellunder running water and cut them in slices, one-centimetrethick. I sautéed them for a few minutes in a pan, alongwith a filet of olive oil. When the slices were golden onboth sides, I served them.

Before that day, I did not know the real taste of eggplant. I had eaten it all my life without savouring the delicate

flavour that few people know, which has led to theeggplant’s reputation as a bland vegetable. Twenty minutesfrom harvest to plate can make a huge difference—for anyfruit or vegetable. While the main gain might be taste, wealso win in terms of intrinsic nutritive value.

Twenty minutes after it is harvested, the vegetable stillcontains most of its potential benefits, just as if it waseaten raw as soon as it was detached from the plant.

And don’t forget that home hydroponics equals food safety!

THE GROWER’STEXTBOOK

Which fruits and vegetables are best suited for your hydroponic system?

By Sté phine Ruthie

Everybody knows that fine herbs (basil, parsley, chives,marjoram, coriander, thyme, rosemary, savoury, sage, mint,oregano, citronella, etc.) can adapt perfectly to hydroponic

cultivation. When comes the time to setup an indoor garden ofedibles, however, the indoor gardener is faced with the title

question. Aside from tomatoes and cucumbers that are famousfor their hydroponic possibilities, other possible varieties remainsomewhat vague. Let us first look at the advantages, other thanthat of eating our favourite fruits and vegetables out of season,

of an indoor vegetable garden.

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GROWING EXPERIMENT | THE INDOOR GARDENER

Root Vegetables, Bulbs and Climbers: Not for Hydro!

Unfortunately, not all vegetables can be adapted tohydroponics. Those vegetables of which we eat the rhizome,the bulb or the roots cannot do without soil to developtheir edible part. In hydroponics, forget about carrots,potatoes, Jerusalem artichoke, parsnip, radishes, onions,shallots, salsify, rutabagas, turnips, peanuts, beets, yams,celeriac, ginger, etc. Their growth in soil-less hydroponicswould only give us rachitic tubers—and then only is thevegetables managed to survive in such an environment.

For their part, vegetables that require a mesh or a stakecould prosper in hydroponics, but they are notrecommended for the indoor gardener. The garden space isoften small, and we do not always have the ceiling heightrequired for climbing tomatoes, Lima beans or corn! In thesame fashion, crawling vegetables such as the bottle gourd,gherkins, pumpkins, water melons and all cucurbits, wouldinvade your garden space and your hydroponic installationcould break under their weight and chaotic extension. Sincenothing is impossible, however, some horticulturistspersevere, and you can find online advice on how tocultivate climbing or crawling vegetables in small spaces.

You must also know that some plants only producevegetables after one or more of their ovules are fertilized.Unless you are a professional, it can be difficult for a novicegardener to be successful while attempting to manuallyfertilize the plants. The technique is delicate and requiresmuch patience. You must prevent pollinating insects fromentering the garden and protect the stamens (by wrappingthe closed flower in gauze, for example) to prevent pollenfrom being dispersed. Then, early in the morning, when theflowers have opened, you must transfer the pollen, byhand, from the stamens to the pistil. It’s a wager. If you donot feel up to the task, forget about tomatoes, beans,eggplant, okra, Jalapeño peppers and bell peppers: theirpollination must be kept in check!

Must-haves: Leafy Vegetables

If all of this has discouraged you, do not give up hope. Youcan still grow your own leafy greens, whose cultivationmethod resembles that of fine herbs. Hence you canpractice your green thumb on lettuce, purslane, watercress,beets, spinach, chicory, sorrel, aragula, Chinese mustard,

artichoke, etc. For these, as for fine herbs, you must seedthe plants in synthetic moss cubes (“Oasis” style) or in rockwool cubes. Germination can be done in a propagationdome, like the 18 cm Altitude dome by OptimumHydroponix, that will give enough space for the seedlingsto grow to a reasonable size before your transplant them.The onset will require 16 hours of light each day, directlyabove the dome (start at a distance of 15 centimetres) withan irrigation pump linked to a timer set to water the domefor one quarter of an hour every six hours (four times aday).

Once the seedlings have been transplanted, it is importantto make sure that the nutrients added to the nutritivesolution do not contain too much nitrogen. The nutrientsused can cause an accumulation of nitrates in the leaves,which at the time of consumption will appear as a bitter oreven acrid flavour. Ideally, the seedlings will have beenplanted in rock wool. This substrate minimizes the requiredcare and the frequency of waterings. Roots are bettersupported than, for example, in expanded clay pellets and,most importantly, since the cubes are independent from oneanother, you can cultivate many different leafy greens in thesame hydroponic system. Plants that have a tendency tospread will prosper in rock wool as well, since their growthwill meet fewer restrictions than in other substrates.

Producing to Consume Is More Delicate Than Producing for Beauty

Before you begin your own production of indoor vegetables,be aware that this will require more perseverance thansimple indoor plants. We are not trying to attainaesthetically pleasing forms, but a fruit or vegetable thathas all the qualities you cannot find in grocery stores. Thismeans a strict adherence to lighting, ventilation, nutrientchoices, care frequency, etc.

We can be less precise and regular with a house plant thanwith vegetables we plan on consuming. First, adaptedlighting is essential—commercial neon tubes will not do.For growth, you will need to use a metal halide (MH) bulbwith white or cool light, between 400 and 1,000 watts,depending on the size of your garden. For flowering andfructification, you will need at least one high pressuresodium (HPS) bulb, giving off a more orange light. If atomato or an eggplant lacks light, yield will be affected.

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THE INDOOR GARDENER | GROWING EXPERIMENT

The same goes for nutrition. Nutritive deficiencies have littlevisible impact on a house plant compared to a vegetable.Your nutrients will need to be concentrated and adapted tothis or that vegetable variety. General nutrients must beavoided at all cost.

We recommend establishing a nutritive table, with the helpof the horticulturist working at your local hydroponics store,according to your crops.

Lettuce Bean Cucumber Tomato Eggplant Spinach Watercress Bell pepper Soy Corn

Light16 to 18

hours/day16 to 18

hours/day16 to 18

hours/day16 to 18

hours/day16 to 18

hours/day16 to 18

hours/day16 to 18

hours/day16 to 18

hours/day 12/14 h/day 12 h/day

Substrate RW RW/CP RW/CP RW/CP RW/CP RW RW RW/CP RW RW

Watering(Rock wool)Watering(Clay pellets)

pH 5.5-6 5.5-6 6-7 5.8-6.3 5.8-6.8 6.4-6.8 7 5.8-6.1 5.5-6.2 6.1-6.5

EC 1.5-2 mS 1-1.5 mS 2.5-3 mS 3-4 mS < 2 mS < 3.7 mS 0.4-0.7 mS 1-1.3 mS 1. 5-1.7 mS 1.7-2 mS

Temp.(Average) 18/20°C 18/24°C 20/25°C 18/25°C 20/25°C 15/20°C 18/20°C 20/25°C 20/30°C 20/30°C

Temp.(Maximum) 25°C 29°C 30°C 30°C 30°C 25°C 25°C 30°C 32°C 36°C

Humidity 40-60% 40-60% 40-60% 40-60% 40-60% 40-60% 50-70% 30-50% 50-70% 42-55%

Nutrients(Growth) NPK / Balanced NPK / Balanced NPK / Balanced NPK / Balanced NPK / Balanced NPK / Balanced NPK / Balanced NPK / Balanced NPK / Balanced NPK /Balanced

Nutrients(Flowering) Balanced + P & K + P & K + P & K + P & K Balanced Balanced + P & K + P & K + P, Mg & Zn

NutritiveSupplementsMultiplic-

ationSeedlings Seedlings Seedlings Seedlings Seedlings Seedlings Seedlings Seedlings Seedlings Seedlings

Total Cycle Duration

45-90 days 50-70 days 50-70 days 50-80 days 60-80 days 50-70 days 45-90 days 60-110 days 50 days 50-70 days

minimum once or twice per day, maximum four times 1/4h per day

minimum every two hours, maximum a few minutes every hour

Consult with your local hydroponics store

General and specific characteristics of 10 vegetables adapted to hydroponics

Abbreviations:RW: rock woolCP: Expanded clay pelletsEC: Electro-conductivitymS: milliSiemens/cm

N: NitrogenP: PhosphorousK: PotassiumMg: MagnesiumZn: Zinc

VOL. 8 ISSUE 4 | 21


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THE INDOOR GARDENER | BOTANICAL DICTIONARY

The Tales of the Hippy Dippy GardenerWild Plants of the Colorado Canyons

By Jim Fritz

The “Memories of my Life” stories arerecollections of the days when I was living in

Molina, Colorado. Then indoor cultivation,arrangements of dried flowers, and running a

fruit stand were essential parts of my life.Over the years, I have decorated my indoorgarden with more than 200 almost perfect

specimens, ranging from bonsai to thetantalizing Brassia verrucosa (Spider Orchids).

The stories about those experiences arededicated to my friends who constantly

encouraged me, especially during my twopolitical campaigns for Congress, and also

supported my project to write The MostUnconventional Gardening Book Ever Written!

The following comes from those times andform the second part of my recollection of the plants

I have always admired in Southwest Colorado1.

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BOTANICAL DICTIONARY | THE INDOOR GARDENER

It is fair to say that through the years, I traveled all over this part of theState and, especially during my political campaigns, I acquired an in-depth knowledge of the many fascinating plants that grow in this veryspecial environment. One evening, on a campaign stop near CanyonCity, I took my friend Duke on a walk up Phantom Canyon to show himthe array of wildflowers that I had long ago discovered in this area.Among them were Wild Blue Flax, Wild Lupine, Scarlet Gilia, ColoradoYarrow, Colorado Aletes, Artemisia, and yellow and pink Prickly Pear.This area is also rich in insect life and a visitor will run into severalspecies that only live there. But that is another story.

Here are but a few of the plant species you will find on the WesternColorado road sides.

Wild Blue Flax (Linum perenne)

Blue Flax is a perennial flower which, when grown from wildflower seed,will bloom in its second year. It grows from tough, expanding clumpsand produces little pastel blue flowers, 1.25 to 2.50 centimetres (onehalf to one inch) across, on light and graceful arching branches. Eachblossom only lasts a day, but will be replaced by a new flower every day.A very pretty plant indeed, it will grow in all regions of North America.

The clear Blue Flax flowers that appear in late spring are the hallmarksof perennial Flax. Clusters of buds typically droop at the branchingends of the slim stems. They produce a 2.50 centimetres (one inch)wide, 5-petal flower. Buds bloom successively over the weeks, openingin the early mornings just before dawn. Unless the day is overcast, thefully open flowers drop their petals by midday. A new round of bloomfollows each day until mid-summer. Because these Linum perenneplants produce a profusion of buds, there are always plenty of flowersduring its bloom season and they drop their seed to produce newplants the following spring.

Blue Flax wild flowers do best on well-drained soils. They can easilytolerate drought and cold winters. This wild flower prefers an acidic soilwith a pH of around 6.5 to 7.5. Wild flower seed plants are usuallyfound in open areas, but will tolerate semi-shaded conditions. They arefire resistant because their leaves and stems stay green with relativelyhigh moisture content during most of the fire season.

When sowing Blue Flax seeds, the best results are obtained fromseeding in late fall to very early spring. Late summer (August to mid-September) seeding is not recommended. Dormant fall seedlings willpre-chill the Linum perenne seeds and reduce seed dormancy whichmay be present. Mulching, irrigation and weed control all benefit standestablishment.

Blue Flax seedlings are vigorous, but not as much as most grasses. Youmay get nice blooms the first growing season, but if you plant wild flowerseed, full bloom onset should not be expected until the second year.

Wild Lupine and Nebraska Lupine(Lupinus perennis and Lupinus plattensis)

Lupines were once thought to deplete or “wolf” the mineral content ofthe soil; hence the genus name derived from the Latin lupus (“wolf”).Actually, the genus and basically all others in the pea family(Fabaceae) enhance soil fertility by fixing atmospheric nitrogen into auseful form. The plant from the pea family is also known under a varietyof different names such as sundial lupine, blue lupine, wild blue lupine,or perennial lupine.

There is considerable interest in re-establishing colonies of lupine,because the federally endangered Karner blue butterfly (Lycaeidesmelissa samuelis) relies on Lupinus perennis as a larval host plant.However, wild lupine is poisonous to livestock and the seeds can betoxic to humans if ingested. The species found in Nebraska, Wyoming,and Colorado, Nebraska Lupine (Lupinus plattensis), has blue flowerswith a dark spot on the standard and paddle-shaped leaflets.

The Lupine’s habitat usually covers sandy, well-drained, sunny orpartially shaded sites such as prairies, barren woodlands andpinewoods, oak savannas, forest edges and openings, openwoodlands, lakeshore dunes, disturbed sites, power line rights-of-way.It is a plant that can also be easily cultivated as an ornamental.

Like other members of the pea family, it requires the presence ofmicroorganisms which inhabit nodules on the plant’s root system andproduce nitrogen compounds necessary for the plant’s survival. A goodsoil/seed inoculum is available at most native plant nurseries.

Blue Flax Lupines

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THE INDOOR GARDENER | BOTANICAL DICTIONARY

Scarlet Gilia (Ipomopsis aggregate or Gilia aggregate)

Scarlet Gilia is one of our most widely spread and common wild flowersin Southwest Colorado, occurring from the lowest elevations to highmountains. It blooms from late spring through summer and into fall. Thefinely cut green basal leaves are silver speckled with fine white hairsand are easily identified even on very young specimens. Flower colorsrange from fiery red to red/orange and, though very rarely, to yellow.Early flower buds look similar to those of the Penstemon, ScarletBugler, another very common, long-blooming, bright red flower in theFour Corners area.

The species name “aggregate” is from the Latin word for “broughttogether”, probably referring to the cluster of flowers. Scarlet Gilia wasfirst described by Frederick Pursh in 1814 from a specimen collectedby Meriwether Lewis along the Lolo Trail in Idaho. Pursh called theplant, Cantua aggregate. The plant has endured dozens of scientificname changes since 1814.

The name Gilia aggregate was given in 1825 by Sprengel and in 1956,Polemoniaceae experts Verne and Alva Grant changed its name toIpomopsis aggregate. However, as often happens with a name that hasbeen so long in use, the Gilia part of the name just wouldn’t die andremained part of the most commonly used name, Scarlet Gilia.

Ipomopsis means “similar to Ipomoea” (or morning glories, one ofwhich has a tubular red flower). The Ipomopsis genus was named byAndré Michaux in 1803. Twentieth century Gilia experts, Verne andAlva Grant, re-assigned the Ipomopsis species from the Gilia genus tothe Ipomopsis genus in 1956. The plant is found in semi-desertfoothills, mountain areas, woodlands, meadows, and prairie openings. Itflowers from late spring, through summer, and into fall.

Colorado Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)

One of my favourite perennials at the Hippy Dippy Gardener’s placesurely is the Achillea, or yarrow species. I have a passion for thisgenus that can thrive even when neglected and, if given a little extrawater and fertilizer, will produce splendid blossoms. My favouriteyarrow species have always been the Achillea millefolium or summer

pastels hybrid. Being hardy to zone 3, it thrives in our cold mountainclimate. It is a real attraction here, at the Hippy Dippy Gardener’s. Inthe five years that I have grown it, it has spread everywhere. Luckily, itsbright butterfly blossoms sell as cut flowers as well as dried bouquets.Being about 60 centimetres (24 inches) tall, they are more adapted tothe garden path. All summer and fall they are loaded with bright pastelblossoms that can be treated with glycerin and dye to form a wonderfulnon-shedding preserved flower.

You will also note the presence of the Giant Gold yarrow if you tour theHippy Dippy Gardener’s place. Achillea Filipendulina var. Gigantea hasmuch larger rounded disk-like blooms of a gold color. They add longlasting summer and fall colors to a landscape or floral arrangement andneed little water. Because of their majestic size they can be placed atthe back of the floral border where they have room to grow as much asthey can. They are also easy to treat with glycerin and floral dyes andscents like cinnamon and Christmas pine can be added. In fact, theirlarge gold disk-blossoms are equally superb in fresh or dryarrangements.

Achillea ptarmica (white tansy or sneezeweed) is another interestingvariant. It does not look like yarrow and produces semi-double to fullydouble flowers like a giant baby breath blossom. The sparkling whiteblossoms dry well when hung upside down. Also known as “the Pearl”flower, this species might go unnoticed because of its innocent charm.Yet its white composite daisy flowers are lovely when mixed into freshbouquets, as well as a beautiful addition to any dry floral display.

In general, to obtain gorgeous dried bouquets, short stems of firm, fullymature blooms of yarrows may be totally immersed in a solution of 25per cent glycerin and floral stem absorption dye and weighted with abrick for 2 or 3 days. When rinsed and hung to dry, they form anexcellent dry floral product. They also are used to represent trees inarchitect’s models.

Larimer Aletes or Colorado Aletes (Aletes humilis)

The Nature Conservancy (a non-profit organization) protected thePhantom Canyon Preserve in 1987 primarily because this extensivefoothills ecosystem supports the Larimer Aletes (Aletes humilis), a rare

Scarlet gilia Red yarrow

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BOTANICAL DICTIONARY | THE INDOOR GARDENER

member of the parsley family. The plant’s distribution is limited toLarimer and Boulder counties in Colorado, with the most occurrencesat the preserve. Other native plants include Bell’s twinpod (Physariabellii), Needle-and-thread grass (Hesperostipa comata) and One-sidedpenstemon (Penstemon strictus or Penstemon secundiflorus.

Larimer Aletes was first found in 1898 near Virginia Dale in LarimerCounty. This species can be identified by its bright green, sharplytoothed leaves that are thick and leathery in order to combat moistureloss in its arid habitat. It also produces sprays of little yellow, umbrella-shaped flowers that appear in late April and early May. It grows in lowmats, hence the name humilis, which means low-growing.

Aletes humilis grows in cracks of massive Silver Plume granite and inadjacent thin soils composed of disintegrated granite and pine needles,usually along west and north-facing cliffs.

According to the Center for Plant Preservation, only 300 individuals ofLarimer Aletes are left at Phantom Canyon Preserve and seven otherlocalities have been identified in Colorado, six in Larimer County andone in Boulder County.

Artemisia

The genus Artemisia comprises hardy herbaceous plants and shrubs,which are known for the powerful chemical constituents in theiressential oils. Artemisia frigida (sagewort) can be found in SouthwestColorado in foothills, montane and subalpine areas, as well asmeadows and gravels, from summer through fall.

The flower stems emerge from a tight tuft of sweetly scented silverygray-green basal leaves which are handsome and very conspicuous.The tiny stem leaves are clumped together. Flower clusters are aquarter inch in diameter and made up of numerous tiny disk flowers.

Artemisia frigida—“frigida” is Latin for “cold”—is abundant on dry,gravelly hills and is widely distributed in Phantom Canyon. Othervarieties include Artemisia ludoviciana (grey sagewort or silverwormwood), Artemisia franserioides (ragweed sagebrush), Artemisiafilifolia (sand sage), and Artemisia absinthium (absinthe wormwood).

Plains Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia polyacantha)

Prickly pear cacti are easy to identify because there are few cacti oftheir size in Colorado. It forms clumps of oval pads, each of which cangrow to be six centimetres (three inches) long and contain rows ofsharp spines. Its flowers bloom copper, yellow, or pink in May andJune. Plains prickly pear cactus (Opuntia polyacantha) is a succulentperennial shrub usually found in sunny prairie grasslands and on dryhillsides at elevations ranging from 1,200 to 2,300 metres (4,000 to7,500 feet).

The plains prickly pear cactus is an important member of the prairieenvironment. Wasps, bees, moths and butterflies feed on its nectar.Birds and mammals (e.g., rabbits, coyotes, deer, fox, and prairie dogs)eat its fruit, stems, and seeds. Wildfires can burn off the spines makingit easier for mammals to ingest it. Finally, insects and reptiles use it forshelter and protection.

This cactus is easily propagated through cuttings and can grow in yourown garden. Harvest cuttings only when night time temperatures are aconstant 15.5 oC (60 oF) or warmer. You can transplant the cactus plantin the spring once soil temperatures reach 15.5 oC (60 oF).

Water the cactus immediately after planting. And then, water theplanted cactus once a week when night time temperatures are above15.5 oC (60 oF). Water the cactus every 14 days when night timetemperatures drop below 15.5 oC (60 oF).

Every Plant I Like Has a Story

These wild flowers and plants are but a few of those that so brightlydecorate the State of Colorado. Throughout the years, they haveenriched my life and inspired my gardening work.

Today, many more species of flowers are permanently in full bloom inmy garden. But I have always had a special feeling for those that arenative to my region and I couldn’t imagine a world without them. I hopeI have inspired the same feeling to you.

To contact the author: [email protected].

Prickly pear cactus

Artemisia

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THE INDOOR GARDENER | GALLERY

WHY IS THE SKY...

In simple terms, the sky is the atmosphere of the Earth as seen byhumans from the surface of our planet. The atmosphere, a protectivelayer in fact, plays an essential role in shielding us from the light and thegamma-rays emitted by the Sun. Other planets in the solar system havesimilar atmosphere, Mars for example. Our atmosphere is made up ofmany molecules such as oxygen and nitrogen. It also contains watermolecules and other small particles that are responsible for creating thecolor of the sky. The beams of light from the sun penetrate theatmosphere at different wavelengths. When the light comes in contactwith the molecules at a given wavelength the color of the sky is produced.

The spectrum of the color emitted by the sun is white, a result of theseven primary colors of the rainbow in the sky. Air molecules areattracted by small intensity colors like blue or purple, which, in physics,correspond to shorter wavelengths. From the ground, the human eyeperceives both the direct light emitted by the Sun which is white, andthe blue rays which are created by the scattering of sunlight off themolecules of the atmosphere (this scattering is called “Rayleighscattering”). This is why, from our perspective, the sky is blue. TheBible uses this contrast between what is high in the sky and what islow on the earth to illustrate the contrast between the spiritual (the skyor Heaven where God reigns) and the material (the lowly lands weremortals reside). In this metaphor, the sky is not high because it isphysically located above the Earth, but because life in Heaven issuperior to life on Earth.

Here is indeed a different look at the sky... and a whole new set ofthoughts too!

(Source: techno-science.net)

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GALLERY | THE INDOOR GARDENER

BLUE?

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Soon after that, I became a member of the National Daylily(genus Hemerocallis) Society. This was several years beforethe National Hosta Society was organized, but some of thefree material from the Daylily Society contained basicinformation about hybridizing. In it, I found the ideal way toproduce a large number of hostas for very little money. Allthat was needed was simply good old work and time, ofwhich I had an abundance. In fact, growing the newseedlings I wanted could have required almost no money. I could have re-cycled tagging supplies from old breadwrappers and I could have planted my seeds in a garden

bed, thus eliminating the need for small containers, pottingmix and artificial lighting. But the onset of winter and theirresistible urge to be growing anything from seed promptedme to spend a few dollars to go ahead with my hybridizingexperiment.

Hybridizing is easier than you think. First you will have todecide which plants should be crossed together to obtainnew descendants. Doing that is quite similar to producing afamily tree. Basically, this will require that you determinewhich traits you want to intensify and which are not of

HOSTAHYBRIDIZINGTECHNIQUE

Hybridizing is one of my life’s passions. My interestin it began when I was in college. I had always

enjoyed growing plants. I was living on a small citylot which, at the time, seemed huge and wonderful

to me. This is where I started gardening, at firstwith small free starts that were given to me by

experienced gardeners I met. That soon was notenough for me especially after I discovered hostas

and daylilies while visiting a large specialty nursery. Ifell in love with them but there was not a chance in

the world I could afford to grow as many of thesewonderful new plants as I wanted.

By Frank Nyikos

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Hosta Tardiana ‘El Niño’

Typical leaf of Hosta Tardiana ‘El Niño’

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TECHNIQUE | THE INDOOR GARDENER

interest to you. This will test your intuition as well as yournatural abilities. To achieve this, I have developed my owntechnique, which I call the “colored pencil” test. Here ishow it works.

Start with a cultivar you like. A cultivar is a particularexample of a genus and species some consider a subspecies. I use this term “cultivar” because I believe it isimportant to be meticulous about knowing the exactidentity of the plants you want to hybridize. Those I personally use are all registered with the internationalnomenclature committee. For example, one of my favoritehostas is one known as ‘Little Boy’ (‘El Niño’), or Hosta[genus] Tardiana [species] ‘Little Boy’ [cultivar], i.e. HostaTardiana ‘Little Boy’.

To insure that my hybridizing project is successful, it isessential that all plants called Little Boy be geneticallyidentical. No other hosta can be allowed to be called LittleBoy unless it is a clone of the original plant. While one cancertainly use this technique without registered plants, I have found that genetically identical clones should alwaysbe preferred. Most plants have a recognized and recordedhistory. Should you work with one that does not, youshould be prepared to initiate a society to oversee thestabilization of the genetic qualities of recognized cultivars.

The practical objective of my technique is to create a familytree for the cultivar. To do this you will want to put themother or pod ancestry on the top left of your tree and thepaternal or pollen donor’s information on the top right inorder to clearly show the parentage of the cultivar you areresearching. If possible, indicate the ancestry for eachparent above each and take your research back for as manygenerations as you can.

Let’s apply this technique to Little Boy. I like severalattributes of this plant. For this study I wanted toemphasize and trace through the family tree three qualities,the size, the intensity of color and the leaf texture of thisplant. When assessing a value to each of these attributes I did not want to be excessively specific. For example, whenI considered the size of each of the cultivars in the LittleBoy ancestry, I just used small, medium and large so thatthe full diversity of the species could be integrated in myproject. A hosta, for example, can be as small as an inch(2.50 centimetres) and as tall as 3.5 to 4 feet (1 to 1.20metre).

It is probable that you will not be familiar with many of thenames I mention here. However, you can verify them all onthe list recorded and held by the American Hosta Society,which you can consult on the Society’s website(americanhostasociety.org), on the Hosta Library page. Inaddition to their names, the registrar (hostaregistrar.org) forthe genus has recorded various aspects the nomenclaturecommittee determined to be important and verified at thetime a cultivar is named. Those include leaf size, color,flower characteristics and so on. In particular I candetermine the attributes for each of the parents in my studyof Little Boy by accessing this database.

It is always helpful to grow yourself all the plants that arerelated to the one you are analyzing. It will help youvisualize how these attributes are expressed in your localmicro habitat. What is an intense blue to me in my gardenmay be slightly different for you. My micro climate mayimpact on how blue my hostas appear as well. However,the relationship with the others to which I have assigned ablue aspect should be comparable to the intense blue inyour own garden.

When analyzing the origin of the attributes you study, it willbe necessary to work backwards. For example I like theintense blue color in Little Boy. So, I will work backwards tofind out where it came from. In this case, I found that thisparticular blue was a paternally dominant trait. A corrugatedor puckered leaf surface also turns out to be paternallydominant. Size however appears to be a maternallydominant trait that can be seen in the top branches of thetree where a cultivar called Tardiflora was crossed withanother cultivar called Sieboldiana elegans. I only markedthe traits that appeared in the ancestry of my topic plant.In my chart I used a blue ink for the blue hue, a green inkfor corrugation, and a black ink for size. This helpedidentify more easily the origin of a trait by associating theink color with the trait. This is why I call this my “coloredpencil” test.

From my chart I learned that if I wished to produce a betterblue, I would have to make sure that the pop or pollendonor parent should be as blue as I can find. Or, if I want alarger hosta, I will have to work through the mother todevelop this feature in new seedlings. This method is notinfallible though. Even I have found out that blueness ispaternally dominant for hostas, it does not mean that thepod parent or mother will not in some way influence thisfeature in the descendent plants. It simply means that thefather is more important than the mother for this trait.

I hope this has illustrated the way one can determine howa feature is transferred to future generations through thestudy of past family influences. Finding the recognized andaccepted ancestry for a cultivar is the important first step.Researching the databases of registrars for your plant ofchoice is the second step. Then, analyzing the evolution inthese cultivars of the features you wish to develop willindicate how to actually enhance these traits in the plantsyou have selected.

If, for example, you are interested in blue hostas, findalready registered blue hostas and trace their ancestry tosee how the feature was produced. In the 1920s and 1930s,in early experiments in hybridizing, Arlow Burdette Stout—(1876-1957) botanist and pioneer breeder of the modernhybrid daylily—did this to develop a more intense red colorin daylilies. Before this, red was not a natural color fordaylilies. By spotting small changes in orange seedlings hewas able to introduce and develop the red color in eachsucceeding generation.

Give it a try. This may just be the aspect of cultivation thatwill make you a more complete gardener.

PESTCONTROL

32 | VOL. 8 ISSUE 4

THE ULTIMATE BREAK DOWN OF

SOLUTIONS

Who’s Coming In [Not Invited] from Outdoors?How to eliminate pests from plants coming in

from your home outside display garden, your open inner courtyard,

your open-air patio or your balcony…By Dr Doom

Bringing plants in from outdoors or starting plants fromseeds or from clones will always carry the threat of

pathogenic insects. To eliminate insects from plants, youshould always treat them with a residual based insecticide

before bringing them indoors. Outdoor plants will carrysoil-borne insects as well as surface crawling insects.

Here, we break down our picks for the best insecticideplant sprays on the market and the expert tips on getting

the most out of every can.

VOL. 8 ISSUE 4 | 33

PEST CONTROL | THE INDOOR GARDENER

House and Garden Spray

Of all the products on the market, one of the best for thispurpose is Doktor Doom’s House and Garden InsecticideSpray. It leaves a lasting residual coating on all treatedsurfaces. For soil-borne pests, allow the soil to dry out toat least 7 to 10 centimetres, then apply the spray to thesoil. Let the product dry in the soil for at least two hoursbefore stirring it in. After stirring it, apply the product oncemore and allow it to dry. Water your plants at least fourhours after the second treatment. Water will not reduce theproduct’s effectiveness. Once it has fully dried, it willcontinue to kill insects as they emerge through the soil.

For foliage-crawling insects, lightly mist the plant withHouse and Garden Insecticide Spray—make sure to sprayfrom a safe distance—use your hand as a guide: if the mistis cold on your hand, you are too close to the plant andthe cold will be a shock to it—be certain to treat both theunderside and the top side of the leaves, as well as thestems, as best you can.

These two preventative measures will give you lastingresidual insect control and you will not need to applyanother product on the plants for weeks.

Botanics Plant Spray

Indoor seedlings and clones should be treated early in thegrowth stages. The best product for this use is DoktorDoom’s Botanics Insecticide Plant Spray. It has the highestconcentration of pyrethrins allowed in a plant spray inCanada (10 to 20 times stronger than a standard plantspray). This 0.20% pyrethrin formula is pH-balanced,perfume free and has the lowest amount of oils available inany formula. Oil and soap-based insecticide productsactually stunt plant growth and are phytotoxic. They clogstomatas, preventing photosynthesis and in many cases canburn your plants.

Doktor Doom’s Botanics Insecticide Plant Spray effectivelykills all pathogenic insects on contact and is soft andgentle on your plants, as it does not create phytotoxicitynor does it prevent plant growth. Doktor Doom’s Botanics

organically breaks down in a matter of hours throughexposure to HID lighting, humidity and air flow. Be certainto apply from a safe distance as to prevent the cold chillfrom the container shocking the seedlings—this is essential.

If you are growing a large volume of plants indoors underintense artificial light, you are likely to see insects. In anideal world, you could effectively eliminate these insects;however, you will always be vulnerable to infestationsunless you can diligently maintain absolute sterileconditions.

Total Release Fumigators

The biggest problem in an indoor growing environment isoften spider mites. These pests lay their eggs once theysmell insecticides: it is their evolutionary defense andsurvival mechanism. It is extremely important to eradicatethem early in the growing stage. The best eradicationmethod is using Doktor Doom’s Fumigators every three tofour days. Before each use, apply Doktor Doom’s Botanicsto the underside of the leaves. Spider mites do not likeintense heat or bright lights, so when the HID lights areblazing, the spider mites are hiding out in the shade. Oncethe lights go off, they come out to play.

Use the Fumigators and apply Botanics Plant Spray aboutfour hours after the lights have gone out. Be certain thatthe exhaust fans are shut off, so as to keep the smell ofthe insecticide in the growing environment. The longer it isin the area, the more effective it is. When using theFumigators, make sure not to have a CO2 burner running—extinguish all open flames prior to treatment. It would bebest to apply the Plant Spray first, and then use theFumigators, as this reduces your risk of exposure to theinsecticides. Always wear a mask when spraying and alwayswash your hands thoroughly after all treatments.

Spider Mite Knock Out Spray

Doktor Doom Spider Mite Knock Out Insecticide Plant Sprayfor Tomatoes and Vegetables is the best-selling Canadianinsecticide plant spray in North America. This 0.20%pyrethrin insecticide has the highest level of pyrethrin

34 | VOL. 8 ISSUE 4

THE INDOOR GARDENER | PEST CONTROL

available for a plant spray. It does not containany piperonyl butoxide, which is very importantfor the organic-minded gardener and does notcontain any perfumes or unnecessary additives—this is a fantastic benefit for those who usefoliage and clippings to make essential oils. The27.4 oz can comes with a special spray valvethat even sprays upside down for hard-to-reachareas.

How to throw a one-two punch combination inspider-mite elimination? First, you have to learnabout the spider mite evolutionary defence.Spider mites lay eggs when they are threatened.Doktor Doom kills them so they lay eggs beforethey die. In a climate controlled indoor growingenvironment, spider mites reproduce every threeto four days as the conditions of hightemperature and humidity are extremelyfavourable. These are ideal conditions for rapidreproduction. For complete eradication take allsteps, start applying Doktor Doom Spider MiteKnockout thoroughly to the underside of theleaves followed up with a Doktor Doom fogger.Due to this rapid evolution you should havecomplete success in eradication if you apply these productsevery three to four days and three to four times a day.

When applying Doktor Doom Spider Mite Knockout, followthese steps cautiously: 1. Always read label before use!2. Always apply product in the dark—late at night or earlyin the morning—and never in direct sunlight or with HIDlights on (the product is best used when temperature isunder 22 ºC (75 ºF).3. Water your plants before application. Be certain toremove any webbing that you see by hand prior totreatment—the webs work as an umbrella and preventsprays from getting through to the plant.4. Spray the underside of the foliage from a distance ofthree to four feet away from the plant (Doktor Doom SpiderMite Knockout is equipped with a special spray valve thatsprays upside down). Spray with short bursts, one to twoseconds at a time—a light mist is all that is required—donot soak foliage! Remember that insects must enter incontact with the spray to be killed.5. Fog area with Doktor Doom foggers after Spider MiteKnockout application. It is recommended that suchinterventions include sufficient protection.6. Wear a dust mask when you are spraying products in anenclosed environment. Wash your hands after using anyinsecticide products.7. Stay informed. Doktor Doom Spider Mite Knockout ismade with natural pyrethrin and is safe to use up to oneday before harvest. Natural pyrethrin biologically degradesin a matter of hours after exposure to light, air flow andhumidity—it guarantees no residuals. Pyrethrin is approved

for organic gardening programs (restricted uses).Refer to OMRI (omri.org) for more information.

Surface Deodorizer

Powdery mildew and gray mould have a verypungent acidic odour. Doktor Doom’s new SurfaceDeodorizer effectively eliminates the odourscaused by these organisms. The Surfacedeodorizer leaves an invisible barrier on thetreated surfaces, which continues to kill theodours as the organisms try to establishthemselves within the growing environment.

Apply Doktor Doom’s Surface Deodorizerthroughout the entire indoor growingenvironment—including plants, equipment,ventilation systems, etc. A very good moisturecontrol and exhaust system will definitely assistyou in eliminating the problem before it starts.Dehumidifiers and temperature controls are ahuge plus. Doktor Doom’s Surface Deodorizer hasgotten great results on plants in the final days oftheir life cycle prior to harvest. Always mix thisproduct according to the label directions and be

certain to use it up within the recommended shelf life.

Doktor Doom’s Surface Deodorizer is 100% non-toxic,environmentally friendly and will not eliminate the beautifularomas or flavours from your plants. It only attacks thesmells caused by mildew and moulds.

Neem Oil

Doktor Doom recommends that you use a neem oil plantstimulant during your vegetative growth cycle. Neem oildoes not kill the insects but makes them moult—literally; itacts as a vasectomy and prevents the adults from layingnew eggs. Neem oil is a systemic product, so it will notstart working immediately—it usually takes about 10 to 12days for it get into the vascular structure of the plants,whether you are applying it as a foliar spray or watering itin through the growing medium. We recommend watering itin through your growing medium, as the foliar spray willclog the foliage’s stomatas!

Using the above methods of insect and odour control willprovide you with fewer headaches and a bountiful harvest.

Check out the Doktor Doom products available in the USAat doktordoom.com/productsusa.htm. If you live in Canada,check the products available in your country at:doktordoom.com/catca. Contact Doktor Doom [email protected] or 1 800 452-0023 for moreinformation and to find the distributor closest to you.

Happy growing!

VOL. 8 ISSUE 4 | 35


36 | VOL. 8 ISSUE 4

THE INDOOR GARDENER | ELECTION DAY

I have always been making my own peachcobbler. One day, my sister Kary and I found3,000 pounds of peaches dumped in a gully.That’s one of the things both of us cannotaccept, good food wasted. We decided tosave what could be recuperated and usedthem to cook deserts for the migrant peachpickers. I know what some of you folks arethinking: “There he is, running a fruit standwhere he sells produce from the dumpsters”.Well I can indeed assure you that no matterhow bad things got, I never sold anyvegetables that came from a dumpster!

Or almost! There was that one time! My goodfriend Bob and I had just picked 50 bushels of

great big beautiful slicers from our field andhad set them next to the stand while Kari waswashing the ripe tomatoes that we had justpulled from the City Market dumpster. We justhad not been able to pass them up, all 400pounds of them. A little lady came by andwhen she saw them, immediately told me:“Young man, these look great. I want yourbest and nicest!” We just didn’t have the heartto tell her about their origin and sold her whatshe wanted.

This was not the first time that Kari and I hadscored with a dumpster treasure. There alsowere 1,500 pounds of perfect potatoes, nearly100 gallons of gourmet Lucerne ice cream—

frozen solid and wrapped in plastic but slightlydented during transport—, 40 cases of Doritoscorn chips—all in delicious shape—and the3,000 pounds of peaches dumped in aPalisade gully!

The Beginning of the Fruit StandAdventure

My fruit stand adventure began in a mostimprobable way. My co-worker Mickey and Iwere on our way to Houston for the Houstonswap meet. Before leaving, we had spentevery single dime we had just to get the vanrunning. All along our way, we created quite astir every time we opened the van door; the

MY FRUIT STANDADVENTURE IN

PALISADEThe Tales of the Hippy Dippy Gardener

The Grand Valley Adventure Begins Here!By Jim Fritz

Palisade is a part of my life in Colorado of which I am very proud. This townhad a butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker, all of them living there in just

the right way to create a typical small sleepy town in western Colorado. Thebiggest thing happening each year was and still is the Palisade Peach Festivaland today, the park is full of the aromas from the many peach recipes beingserved across the street. Peach harvest is indeed a wonderful time to spend

your vacation in Colorado and savor some of the world’s finest peaches.Illu

strati

ons:

Jim F

ritz

VOL. 8 ISSUE 4 | 37

FREEGANISM | THE INDOOR GARDENER

beautiful colors and the sheer mass of ourflower displays generated instant sales andwe earned enough on the road to pay all sortsof expanses, including the swap meetattendant, when we arrived in Houston.

Every morning, my traveling gardens would beon the road bright and early. We would travelas far as possible and when we needed somemoney, we would stop to sell at a flower shop,a nursery or a swap meet. We made our bestsales at the flea markets, which also allowedus to expose our plants in sunlight during theday to keep them healthy. The stops alsogave us time to water them and remove thedead leaves.

At one point, we stopped on the side of thefreeway to fix a rear flat tire. We had unloadedhalf of the plants from the truck to lessen theweight on the jack. But there was a definitelysilver lining to our misery: in no time at all wehad three cars pulling up to buy some beddingand house plants. While Mickey fixed the flattire, I sold and when we left, after 45 minutes,we had made 75 dollars.

Our first six hours at the show would earn usabout two hundred dollars and an addedbonus; we met our old friends Larry and Loisfrom Galveston who were running the boothnext to ours and whom I have met on thebeach at Galveston.

The long trip back home in Colorado wouldtake 10 days as we stopped to water and carefor our plants and often selling some of them.It seemed as if every time we needed a littlemoney, the good Lord would provide for usand we would be back safely on our way.

When we finally returned and crossed theColorado River bridge, Mickey and I let out aloud hoot. As we arrived into town, we spottedan attractive fruit stand on the left of PalisadePark and pulled in looking for some freshroasting ears of corn for supper.

As soon as I got out of the van, I wassurprised to find that my old friend Painter

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THE HYDROPONIC WORLD OF NORTH-AMERICAUNITED STATES

38 | VOL. 8 ISSUE 4

THE INDOOR GARDENER | FREEGANISM

Bob owned the fruit stand. Bob told me to justpull in on the other side of the stand. Shortlyafter that my old pal Ron pulled in and guitarsand harmonicas were soon playing. All my oldbuddies soon joined us for an evening meal.Bob had fresh broccoli from the garden and abox of fresh mushrooms. I contributed thefresh sirloin and peeled shrimp we hadpurchased to celebrate my homecoming. I grilled the steak and sautéed the broccoliand mushroom in Coors beer until al denteand kept them warm. At the last minute, Ithrew in the shrimps and cooked an additional3 minutes. I then popped the sizzling steakson top and let the juices mingle in the broth.We had a real feast.

The next morning Bob suggested that we puttogether our resources and that I help run thestand and garden for the rest of the summer.Soon the fruit stand was flooded with morevegetables and fruits than we could possiblysell to the local crowd. In the neighboring parkI spotted a couple holding a sign that read“Will work for food”. I invited them over fordinner and soon they were inviting anotherhungry couple.

Every day would bring new faces and a fewold ones attracted by the delicious odorsdrifting from my campfire and Coleman oven.My friend Betty was working for United Fruitand would bring me bushels of overripepeaches every day so that I could bake 10 to15 pounds of cobbler to feed the crowds that

were coming fordinner each night.My friend Banjo Joebrought his banjo,Ron and Russ theirguitars. I joined inwith my harmonicaand the crowd justappeared, some 33people enjoyingpeach cobbler andsinging along withthe music. It wasthen that I noticedSheriff Lou acrossthe street giving us

the eye. I decided to shut the party down by 9o’clock so that we wouldn’t disturb anyone.

Freeganism, An Alternative Way of Life

I returned to farming and selling produce.However, I soon found out that when thegenie is out of the bottle it is hard to put itback in, which, in this case, meant keepingpeople from returning for another free meal. By now we were throwing away a lot ofvegetables and it seemed a shame to wasteso much.

My foster sister Kari and my God daughtersAmy Joan and Judith Elana showed up thevery next day with a jeep full of vegetablesthat they had retrieved from the City Marketdumpster. Kari had continued doing that eversince I showed her how much was wasted.She had set up a route to give the food away.As Palisade had many poor retired folks inneed of extra groceries, I was able to give hersome extra tomatoes that were overripe.

This is when Kari and I embarked on a grandproject. We decided to prepare a world classmeal for 350 of our neighbors. The sun wasbarely up when Kari and I started hauling themountains of food necessary for this banquet.The chore of moving that much food took usseveral hours.

Kari and I worked for three days washing andcleaning food and cooking sauces andvegetables. We worked 16 hours a day while,my buddy Mickey played the guitar. At the endof those three days we served mountains offood and 28 gallons of spaghetti sauce,enough for everyone to have a secondserving!

Yes, 28 gallons of spaghetti sauce! And all Ihad to buy was 20 dollars worth of hamburger.We also served 15 gallons of broccoli andonions deluxe, a 20-gallon tub of fruit salad,potato salad with walnuts and bacon, peachpastries, garlic bread, all of it taken from adumpster! We even had a 10-pound sack ofsugar which a single small hole had sent tothe trash.

Kari, Mickey and I had made up really niceposters to advertise the event. The Saturdaybefore, Kenny dropped by the fruit stand andtold us he saw the police removing theposters from every bulletin board in town. I walked across to the quick stop to find thatone was missing there too. I admit that I hadadded some of my political views on theposters. It appears that it was not in oursheriff’s mind to allow the people of Palisadetheir constitutional right to read those views.

To compensate, we used the telephone andcalled as many people as we could to let themknow of the event we were holding atPalisade Park. We also invited everyone inthe park including the migrant peach pickers.We had 350 people that came over. As webowed our heads at the beginning of themeal, we prayed that it would bring anawakening to America. After the meal wewould deliver food to old folks in Palisade andto the migrant peach pickers that could notattend. We even brought some to thehomeless camping under the bridge.

When it was all over, nothing was wastedalthough Kari and I would be eating a lot morespaghetti than usual for the next… two years!And we would deliver groceries to the poorthroughout the rest of the summer!

The Palisade Peach Cobbler Recipe

This recipe is made from frozen peaches sothat it can be made year round.

Empty into a large covered pan the peachesthat have been frozen in a syrup made upfrom an equal volume of water and sugar.Heat slowly to thaw the syrup. Add one can ofEagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk anda package (small or large depending on yourtaste) of Philadelphia Cream Cheese in smallchunks. Add water to thin the mixture and stiron medium heat until the Philadelphia CreamCheese is melted into the mix.

Incorporate sugar and natural vanilla to taste.Bring to a boil and thicken with corn starchdissolved in cold water. Pour bubbling hot

Illustr

ation

: Jim

Fritz

VOL. 8 ISSUE 4 | 39

FREEGANISM | THE INDOOR GARDENER

mixture in a large greased (I use Pam) bakingpan. Dust the hot mixture with cardamom andcinnamon and place into a 350 to 375 degreeoven. You must keep the mixture hot toproperly cook the top cake mixture.

Topping for Cobbler

In a large mixing bowl add 2 to 3 cups of JiffyMix or Bisquick baking mix and add 1/3 cupsugar and ground nutmeg to taste.

Mix the mixture with a whisk and add wateruntil it reaches pancake consistency. Addnatural almond extract and vanilla to taste.

Whisk together. At this point you mayincorporate 1 egg.

Pull hot peach mixture from oven and pour thecake mixture evenly on top of it. Dust top withcinnamon and slivered almonds and place itback into the hot oven. Bake at 350 degrees30 to 35 minutes.

Note: One gallon Zip-lock bags are perfect to freezeyour homegrown peaches and are the perfect sizefor a family size cobbler. Remember to save theused Zip-lock bags and recycle them intoCUBANEGSS grow bags for Solar ElectricGardening (see The Indoor Gardener Volume 6 –Issue 2).

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40 | VOL. 8 ISSUE 4


None of the different species existed for the entire 160million years, but the dinosaurs’ ability to change, adapt,and proliferate made them the most numerous landcreatures of their time.

At first the dinosaurs’ habitat was a single landmass thatscientists call Pangaea, or “all earth”, but in time thissupercontinent split up into the separate continents.

The gradual dispersion seems to have posed no problem tothe dinosaurs, whose skeletons have been found embeddedin the sedimentary rock formations of every continentexcept Antarctica.

Causes of the Extinction of Dinosaurs 65 Million Years Ago

Just why the dinosaurs and so many lesser animals diedout suddenly and without warning remains one of the mostintriguing puzzles in modern paleontology. In the late 18thcentury, Baron Georges Cuvier of France theorized that theearth had suffered several natural catastrophes after theCreation and that these were responsible for repeated massextinctions. The idea that certain animals had existed in thedistant past and then vanished from the face of the earthwas a fairly new theory, with few adherents and far-reachingimplications. When the French scientist was given an

DEATH OF THEDINOSAURS

They once roamed the Earth. How did their 160-million-yearreign come to an abrupt end 65 million years ago?

Sources: campus.fortunecity.com and palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk

The dinosaurs were a diverse group. They came in many different shapesand sizes and fitted into virtually every niche of the natural world. There

were enormous beasts more than 80 feet long, the largest creatures ever toroam the earth, but there were also small dinosaurs no bigger than a raven.

Not all these creatures were slow and ponderous, though that is how theyhave been depicted in popular legend. There were meat-eating dinosaurs

with sharp, curved teeth, plant-eating ones with simple peg-shaped teeth,and a few with no teeth at all, which meant that their diet probably

consisted of soft foods such as fruits, insects, and eggs.

VOL. 8 ISSUE 4 | 41

extraordinarily large set of jawbones to examine in order todetermine their origin, he declared that they belonged to avery ancient marine lizard that had passed into extinction.

This idea, and the discovery of yet another marine fossilthat Cuvier claimed was a flying reptile, paved the way forthe identification of the first dinosaur bones in Sussex,England, in the 1820’s—and to the creation of the worddinosaur, which means terrible lizard. Since that remarkablefind, scientists have offered many ingenious theoriesexplaining their sudden disappearance.

Did the dinosaurs die because of their stupidity?

One theory was that dinosaurs were slow and dumb, andwere outwitted by smarter, more aggressive mammals thatwere their competitors. However, studies shows that inspiteof their remarkably small brains, not only did the dinosaurssurvive for an exceedingly long time, they were also on ofthe most versatile groups of animals that ever existed. Andbased on measurements of their brain cavities, they wereno less intelligent than the reptiles that survived.

Another notion was the dinosaur eggstermination. The firstexplanation holds that animals developed a large appetitefor the eggs. The second explanation was thatenvironmental stress in female makes them produceextremely thin-shelled eggs, which are more fragile. Anotherimplication was of the dinosaur’s changes in diet. Duringthe Cretaceous period, a new class of plants, theangiosperms, began to appear. The dinosaurs possiblydeveloped a hearty appetite for the angiosperms whichcaused constipation based on what the paleontologist said.

Angiosperms caused slow kind of poisoning or drugintoxication because they contained potent alkaloids. Insupport of their argument, the alkaloid theorists point outthat many dinosaur skeletons have been found in highlycontorted positions, as if the animals went to their death inthe kind of nervous spasm and convulsions that poisonsproduce.

As the Mesozoic era drew to a close, the earth’s climatewas changing. In North America and Europe the land was

A PRODUCT STRAIGHT OUT OF THE PREHISTORIC ERA: Diamond Nectar

General Hydroponics has designed the Diamond Nectar,an exclusive fulvic acid extract, as found in leonardite.The product is rich in the mineral and organic matterrequired for plant growth in any stage of a plant’s life.This regulating product contains chelates that remainstable in a wide range of pH (between 4 and 10 onaverage). Because of the chelates, the product alsooffers a high ion exchange capacity at the root level.

All types of cultures can benefit from this product: fruit-bearing trees, medicinal plants, ornamentals, foodproducts, etc. The benefits of this fulvic acid extract canbe attained in an outdoor garden, in hydroponics or inaeroponics. It can be mixed in the nutritive solution orapplied by foliar spraying, and can be used withcomplete fertilizers or more conventional plant nutritionprograms. With the action of fulvic acid on their cells,plants are more vigorous, flowering and fructificationoccur earlier and in abundance. Finally, their taste orsmell will be greatly improved.

FUN FACT: Formation of Leonardite

Prehistoric plants and animals cadavers were buried in the geologicaltransformations that Earth went through during the Triassic, Jurassic

and Cretaceous periods. The continents drifted and, thousands ofmeters deep, the organic remains of extinct living beings were “mixed”,

only to be better pushed back towards the surface during the Tertiaryice age. Some of those organic pools turned into carbon. But underwhat is now North Dakota, an extraordinary pool of leonardite was

formed. It is nothing but a huge piece of land where for millennia thesoil composted the best natural organic matter (residues of the 95% of

species that became extinct). That pool is now exploited to extracthumus. Leonardite is also present in New Mexico, Alberta (Canada),

Bacchus March (Australia), Achlada and Zeli (Greece) and in Turkey.

FULVIC AND HUMIC ACIDS | THE INDOOR GARDENER

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THE INDOOR GARDENER | FULVIC AND HUMIC ACIDS

rising and the great inland seas were disappearing; oceancurrents and wind patterns were shifting too. Yet, thedinosaurs could have migrated before these changes tookplace.

A contrary explanation is offered by a theory involving agreenhouse effect caused by worldwide volcanic action.Theorists propose that hundreds of volcanoes were activealmost simultaneously at the end of the Mesozoic era, andthat their constant explosions saturated the earth’s

atmosphere with carbon dioxide, the product ofcombustion, and trapped the radiant heat from the sun.

But the one theory that keeps gaining momentum involvesa collision between the earth and an asteriod or comet. In1979 geologist Walter Alvarez, of the University of Californiaat Berkeley, announced a new and intriguing extinctionhypothesis. In the Apennine Mountains of northern Italy,while carrying out routine samplings of limestone sedimentsdating from the Cretaceous and subsequent Tertiary eras,Alvarez had found a reddish-gray layer of clay less than aninch thick. Nobel Prize winning physicist Lusi Alvarez, hisfather, examine what the son has uncovered. Chemicalanalysis showed that the clay held uncharacteristically highlevels of the heavy metal iridium, which is found in highconcentrations in meteorites and other cosmic materials.The clay was also barren of fossils, though the layers oflimestone immediately below and above were rich inspecimens.

The iridium, father and son reasoned, had to have comefrom outer space. The most plausible agent was anasteroid, one of those thousands of small planetary bodiesthat orbit the sun in a belt between Jupiter and Mars. Thenin June 1987, two Canadians announced a spectacular find:an undersea crater 28 miles wide. Situated on thecontinental shelf 125 miles southeast kof Nova Scotia, thecrater was found to contain rich deposits of iridium.As a result of this powerful collision, the Alvarezesconcluded, a cloud of dusty debris had girdled the globe,blotting out the life-giving rays of the sun and plunging theplanet into darkness for several months. This causedtemperatures to fall sharply, as much as 80 degreesFahrenheit in inland regions, freezing some animals andplants outright and temporarily interrupting the growth ofthe remaining plants. The herbivorous creatures that

FUN FACT: Fulvic and Humic Acids

Fulvic and humic acids are the most complex and refined water-soluble substances on Earth. Inthe human body, they act as free radicals antioxidants and are powerful chelating agents of heavymetals. Health food stores sell them in capsules and in liquid form. In horticulture, they stimulatethe cellular metabolism of plants and revive the nutritive solution’s electro-conductivity as well asthe plant’s cellular electrolyte. Fulvic acid transports organic matter directly to the cells.

FULVIC-ENHANCEDAll-natural Mineral Water

The effect of prehistoric organic matter is not felt only onthe health of plants. It can also affect humans throughsubstances such as fulvic and humic acids. For sometime now, you probably have noticed the invasion ofthese fulvic-enhanced beverages such as Blackwater—or its fiercest competitor blk water—on the shelves ofyour grocery and health food stores. These products arethought to greatly improve the absorption ofmicronutrients in the body by increasing biochemicalstimulation in the human organism. The twomanufacturers—which are currently suing one another—, both pretend to have invented the formula.

The Blackwater formula combines fulvic and humic acidsinto a cocktail of 77 macro and micro elements, essentialminerals and electrolytes. The promoters of blk wateralso claim to mix fulvic and humic acids with 77 traceminerals and antioxidants in their own beverage.

There you are: you can now drink an organic substanceproduced by nature millions of years ago! Let’s just hopethat while enjoying this rare pleasure, the contemporaryconsumer will, for a second, be aware of all the richeswe extract, often mindlessly, from our good old Earth!

VOL. 8 ISSUE 4 | 43


managed to survive the cold died for lack of food. Thecarnivorous dinosaurs succumbed to starvation soon after,since they depended upon a continuing supply of plant-eating creatures as their source of food.

Additional Proof

In 1987 researchers at the United States Geological Surveyin Denver, Colorado, announced that they had found strongevidence to support the Alvarezes’ theory that a hugeasteroid or comet had collided with the earth 65 millionyears ago. Thegeologists analyzedmicroscopic particles ofquartz found in 65-million-year-oldsediments from eightwidely separated sitesaround the world. Thesequartz depositscontained structuralcracks associated with asingle cataclysmic impact. More specifically, the fractureswere of a type that could only be produced by suddenimpacts exceeding 1.3 million pounds per square inch, andnot by the lesser pressures created by volcanic eruptions.

Finally, the crystals were embedded in the same sedimentlayers that contained abnormally high amounts of iridium.Whether the comet-collision theory will someday begenerally accepted, or whether still other ideas are toreplace or modify it, no one can yet say. But one thingseems certain: when the answers are found, they will haveimplications that go far beyond the margins of thedinosaurs’ past—they will extend to matters of man’s futuretoo.

FUN FACT: Black Waters Lawsuit

Who really invented the recipe of blk water andBlackwater? A copyright war is currently ragingbetween one of the stars of the reality TV showThe Real Housewives of New Jersey (whoclaims to have had the original idea in 2008)and Creative Thinkers, the Canadian companythat first put the drink on the market. Thereeven is a Quebec twist in this story. The recipeof blk water was developed and manufacturedby a company in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu forJacqueline Laurita and her husband Chris,owners of the blk water brand.

44 | VOL. 8 ISSUE 4


PARKOURONE FLEW OVER A

GARDEN OF CONCRETE

Don’t try this at home… Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it’s thenon-competitive and high-fuelled extreme sport craze that’s

lighting up the European night sky.By S. Howard (source: myspace.com/headsmag)

Next time you’re holidaying in the big cities of Europe and you’re lookingfor some high-octane action, forget the delights of the Arc de Triomphe and

Buckingham Palace. Lift your gaze. You might just catch something unusual,a flash of Adidas against the city skycape, a modern-day Spiderman in

sneakers tackling a 20ft leap between tower blocks.

We all know that punk subculture and skateboarding share strong culturalties, but how about a deviant form of punk subculture and leaping off high

buildings? Sounds like a recipe for broken bones? Not so for a newgeneration of European extreme sportsmen, for whom the kicks are big and

the stakes are high, well at least as high as your roof. Meet the modern daySpidermen who are using the city skyscape as their unforgiving playground.

Australian skydivers jumping from the 421-metre-high Jinmao Tower in Shanghai, China.

VOL. 8 ISSUE 4 | 45

EXTREME SPORTS | THE INDOOR GARDENER

Devotees of the sky-leapingsport / art form / lifephilosophy known in France as“le parkour”, or obstacle-running, have taken their leadfrom a now 39-year-oldParisian, David Belle. Hisfather, Raymond Belle, haslong been a highly skilledrescuer in the French militaryfire service (“sapeurs-pompiersde Paris”). David, who claims never to have been seriouslyinjured, is credited with having invented parkour 26 yearsago, when he and friend Sébastien Foucan reclaimed thegrey urban tundra of the Parisian suburbs as a concreteplayground. The two lithe, fearless teenagers led a gang of“parkouristes” known as Les Traceurs (the group later calledthemselves the Yamakasi), who combined their addiction todanger and adrenaline with study of the philosophies of thebrick-breaking Shaolin monks, who famously performsuperhuman feats of endurance by harnessing the powersof the mind. David Belle once said that he founded parkourbased on his own training and the teachings from hisfather, Raymond. Today the sport is big business.

Belle’s sporting legacy has spread across the globe,inspiring a youth cult and leading the Nike moneymen tosign “parkouristes” for their European ads. David Belle isnow an actor, film choreographer, and stunt coordinator.After he came to fame via his videos which spread on theInternet, his famously worked with director Luc Besson—earning acting parts in movies such as District 13 (2004)and Babylon A.D. (2008)—and as a stunt coordinator onbig Hollywood projects like Prince of Persia: The Sand ofTime (2010) or Colombiana (2011).

Parkour and freerunning also conquered the UK scene,nurturing the most talented freerunners in the world. Rossand Baz are two English business studies undergraduatesand extreme-sport-addict buddies who have cultivated theirown, less dramatic version of the trend and coined it“Urban Street Running”. Ross says: “We started as a fewmates going out jumping over stuff after a few shots. Weenjoyed it so we started doing it sober. I’ve always beeninto rock climbing, skating and breakdancing, so this seemsto be a natural extension. My non-running mates think I’m abit mad, but I’m sure they thought that before!”

Exponents of the sporting branch of parkour, and concernedmainly with testing their testosterone-charged physicallimits, the Urban Street Runners are dismissive of theexistential and philosophical precepts of French parkour.

“People believe what they want, don’t they? Some peoplemight call it freedom of expression, but we’re competitive.It’s a challenge”, says Baz.

Not so for the Saiyan clan, a group of Barnet-bornteenagers attempting to gain acceptance as the first trueBritish “parkouristes”. Cable, the group’s founder andspiritual leader, speaks in a US-inflicted drawl, stumblingover his words with raw excitement as he attempts toexplain the Saiyan clan’s raison d’être.

“Society looks upon what we do as a bad thing, but theybuilt up this concrete jungle around us”, says Super SaiyanCable. “Concrete, roofs, whatever. And we’re told we canonly walk in a certain way, we can only move in a certainway. Mankind has struggled for centuries to be free. Thepursuit of parkour for us is a pursuit of freedom, […]. Thefirst big high I got from parkour was when I was sitting ona rooftop in central London. A pigeon sat with us. We werewhere the birds were and I suddenly felt free.”

Formerly a graffiti writer “before [he] got into a spot ofbother”, Cable claims to see links between graf culture, hip-hop culture and parkour in their attempts to reclaim urbanspace and their sense of belonging to a secret brotherhood.The Saiyan practice every day in their childhood stampingground Barnet, or in central London, where increased risksincrease the kick.

Blake, the Marshall Arts fanatic amongst the Saiyan crew,remembers a couple of close shaves with the centralLondon police force, who are baffled by a group ofenergetic young lads chambering around rooftops withoutaerosols or any obvious evidence of illegal intent. “We tryto avoid the police as much as possible, if they look angrywe’ll run,” brags Super Saiyan Blake. “We use our parkourskills to get away. We were chased on a bus once, the buswasn’t going very fast, it was funny.”

Cable takes the point up here: “Yeah, when we do getcaught we have a little scam. We always bring a tennis ball

David Belle invented parkour in the mid-80s.

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THE INDOOR GARDENER | EXTREME SPORTS

with us and if we’re caught,like we were a few weeks ago,huge riot and everything, wesay we’d just gone up on theroof to collect a tennis ball.They call us ‘teenagedaredevils’, they can’tunderstand what we’re doing.”

The police aren’t the only onesattempting to clamp down onthe urban trend. In the pastdecade, as parkour explodedfrom smartphones and TVscreens out onto the rain-soaked rooftops of the citylandscapes, detractors circledbelow, fearful of the risk tothe milk-nourished bones ofthe European youth. In France,where parkour has been incommon consciousness formore than fifteen years, oneright-wing daily notoriouslydubbed the sport suicide and,as British local papers beganto pick up on the trend,canting out “Spiderman copycat” headlines, the situationonce looked bleak for the UK street leapers.

Do they think that parkour’s now well-established popularityinevitably leads to increased and regular media criticism?Cable nods: “Yes, but it’s not that we’re trying to show off.The criticism is inevitable, and understandable. If we’d justwatched the BBC ad (youtu.be/SAMAr8y-Vtw—“Rush Hour”featuring David Belle) and tried to fling ourselves off thenearest roof then OK. I’ve been leaping over objects since Iwas young, before I even heard about the French parkourcommunity, and my body is built up enough to pull offextremely high jumps. We didn’t start high; we’ve beenworking up to it for years. That would be suicide.”

Parkour, as its French originators would have us to believe,is all about calculated risk, and, to the initiated, is about asdangerous as taking a trip down to the mall on yourskateboard. Therefore a poorly thought-out or unsuccessfuljump is against the ethos of parkour: the humility of man inresponse to his environment and, importantly, knowing yourbody’s limits. The long-serving French Traceurs andYamakasi clans are scathing bout those who sustain injuryin pursuit of parkour, particularly their Johnny-come-latelyBritish parkour cousins. One of the “parkouristes”comments: “They say they are skilled but no-one practicingparkour will ever say that. Any fool can jump from one roofto another but will he know if he’s really capable of doingit? A beginner must understand that in parkour, his body ishis tool, so there is no room for kamikaze-type moves.Parkour is the total opposite of madness.”

I asked the British parkour crews if they’d honestly everinjured themselves. Cable jumps in to answer: “Only intrying to overdo myself. I learned my limits. I’ve dislocated

my left arm once, my kneethree times, almostelectrocuted myself jumpimgbetween platforms at a tubestation. I learned my lesson,you know. And when you haveto go to hospital you can’texactly say you were doingparkour, we don’t want it toget a bad name.”

Despite the parent-baiting hi-jinks and occasional physicalscrapes these latter-daySpidermen should bechampioned as an example ofhuman nature crying outagainst the claustrophobicstrictures of modern times,rather than being vilified as athreat to the world’s youth. Ayouth who are, let’s face it,capable of watching endlessacts of TV violence withoutheading down to the local mallfor a gun-happy shooting spree.

As globalization, once hailed as the force which wouldbreaks down world barriers, leaving a happy, prosperous,communicating world in its wake, threatens to choke urbandwellers in a gagging concrete garrote, masquerading asverdant consumer choice, the “parkouristes” (or “traceurs”)are truly reclaiming the streets. They’re kicking aroundthrough the fences and artillery of a repressive urbanfaçade.

As Canadian author and social activist Naomi Klein puts it:“Maybe it’s Thai peasants planting organic vegetables onover-irrigated golf courses, students kicking ads out of theirclassrooms or swapping music online. These are postcardsfrom dramatic moments in time, the first chapter in a veryold and recurring story, the one about people pushing upagainst the barriers that try to contain them, openingwindows, breathing deeply, tasting freedom.”

For more information, check out:• youtu.be/x98jCBnWO8w(Best of David Belle’s videos)• youtu.be/ippMPPu6gh4(David Belle’s Speed Air Man video)• parkour.com• davidbelle.com• parkour91.com• wayofthesaiyan.com (Saiyan Parkour Academy)

Raymond Belle is the grandfather of all “parkouristes”.

David Belle, one of the first “Traceurs”, is now anactor, film choreographer, and stunt coordinator.

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VOL. 8 ISSUE 4 | 47

ACTOR IN THE INDUSTRY | THE INDOOR GARDENER

This profile is part ofa series which aims

at keeping youabreast of what ishappening in the

hydroponic industryand agri-food

industry throughpresentations,

anecdotes and visitsto companies, as

well as with profilesof the main movers

and shakers in theNorth American

hydroponicgardening and agri-

food industrynetwork. With it, we

hope to open awindow on career

opportunities in themany fields related

to gardening andagriculture. Dylan

Perceval-Maxwell, of“Utopia Boutique

Je L’Ai” in Montreal(Quebec), is ourfourth feature.

A GREENENTREPRENEURA GREENENTREPRENEUR

The Province of Quebec actually is host to animportant hydroponic industry and indoorgardening community that even rivals B.C.’s.Although Montreal is rarely thought of as a great“agriculture and indoor gardening” destinationoutside of Eastern Canada—more often, it isknown for its relaxed attitude towards sex—the cityis quite progressive and filled with grow shops andindoor gardening centres, as well as a bi-annualgrow show. The suburbs of the North Shore (Laval,St-Jerôme, etc.) also offer a great choice.

But today, we are exploring Duluth Avenue, in theheart of the city. Utopia Boutique Je L’Ai is a cozy,eco-friendly store—located in this Montreal’s hypePlateau area—, stocking a huge variety ofmaterial, accessories, gardening items, books,and much more. The young ladies who tend thestore are bilingual and very friendly.

The shop’s owner, Dylan Perceval-Maxwell, gotits start in the early 90’s, when he began sellingimported Nepalese organic fibres clothing at the“tam-tam”, a festive, immensely popularsummertime drum circle and gathering of thetribes, taking place every Sunday (from May toSeptember) in Montreal’s Mount Royal Park. Oneof the most original musical events in Montreal,this free festival takes place near the monumentto Sir George-Étienne Cartier and in the park’ssurrounding green spaces. A colourful gatheringof drummers, dancers, vendors and their admiringaudiences for more than twenty years, it is theultimate place for Montrealers and visitors tocome to play music and dance, or just watch andlisten. Attracting a diverse, growing granolaclientele as a vendor there, Dylan decided toopen a more permanent shop in 1996.

Interviewed by The Globe and Mail on his rise inthe Montreal alternative scene, Dylan told them:“I’m a pragmatist—if something will help theenvironment, I’m for it.” And he addedenthusiastically. “I support the Green Party ofCanada because it’s the only sane option for ourtimes, but I’ll also applaud green policies from thepolitical left or right, so long as those policieswork.” As a passionate green-entrepreneur, Dylanstudied part time at McGill University in the early90s to research climate change. He said to theGlobe and Mail: “I was seeking genuineeducation, information, and learning, rather thanstatus or a piece of paper.” He continues to usethat knowledge in his store which is a hub of eco-information and green alternatives. “Young peopleare thirsty for alternatives”, Dylan says of hisclientele. “They just need to be pointed in the rightdirection,” he believes.

Dylan is a very recognizable character on theMontreal scene. He has been proudly running hisVolkswagen Golf on used vegetable oil since1993 and, as a political activist, he wasinstrumental in getting the City to switch apercentage of their buses to biodiesel—made withvegetable oil. Active in the local Green Party,Dylan also wholesales organic fibres clothing withother items—bio-diesel, ethanol and otherrenewable-energy products, organic soaps andfood, reusable feminine-hygiene products and thelike—, through his company, New Earth.

Dylan, we love your store, almost as much asyour lovely employees!

> 159, Duluth Avenue East, Montreal, QC,Canada, H2W 1H4 — Tel: 1 514 284-5393

Note: If you would like to submit a candidate for ourprofiles of movers and shakers in the industry, in the U.S.

or in Canada, please e-mail the details to:[email protected]. Our future issues will feature

more profiles of the best shop-owners and professionals in North America!

By D. Rigeault (with S. Przytyk)

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QuestionHello!I have a quick question for you. Does adding CO2 in anindoor garden really change anything? Thank you, – Hannah

Answer Hello Hannah,CO2 (carbon dioxide) is an essential element in indoorcultivation. In fact, a plant (once dried) is made up of 90%carbon, and all the carbon in the plant comes from itsactual CO2 supply, or at least from the ability offered to herto obtain it in a closed space such as an indoor garden. Anadequate CO2 input in a grow room should, in theory,increase the yield by approximately 30%.

In an indoor garden, I use CO2 in two ways: first, toincrease the yield and second, as an investigator, because ifthe yield has not been about 30% higher, it is a hint thatthere is a limiting factor in the cultivation space; it isusually insufficient lighting or an inadequate wateringsystem.

Plants cannot produce more than their lowest resourceoffers them. It is like the weakest link of a chain idea. Thedenser the lighting in the garden, the more CO2 your plantswill require! A reasonable use of CO2 in the indoor gardenwill always be an advantage.

It is essential, even. –

QuestionHi,In a past issue, you discussed various hydroponic systems.In a pictured hydroponic garden, we can see a CO2

controller, to ensure that the plants will regularly get carbondioxide. From what I hear, they mostly need it during theday, since they need it in exchange for oxygen. But is itreally essential to have a CO2 controller, and what would bethe consequences of going without one? Thanks, – Michel B.

AnswerHi Michel,Plants produce CO2 at all times, but it is true they onlyrequire it during lighting cycles. Using a CO2 controller(diffuser) to control the distribution of CO2 in m2 (expressedin ppm) in the grow room is very important. The tinystomas under the leaves, which the plant uses to extractCO2, are very sensitive: if the CO2 rate is too high, it willactivate the closing of the stomas, which will in turn stopphotosynthesis. The plant will then vegetate in a “stagnant”phase until the CO2 concentration goes back to normal.

These production interruptions provoked by highconcentrations of CO2 interfere with the smooth progress ofthe crop. The opposite would be less damaging to theplants, but just as infuriating for their development. Indeed,trying to save by giving the plants less CO2 to postponehaving to fill the bottle can also play trick on you. If you donot diffuse enough carbon dioxide in your indoor garden,

Q & A

We return to the question and answer formula which was metwith enthusiasm in our previous issues. Continue sending us

your questions (at [email protected]), our green thumbsare awaiting them impatiently! To keep on getting the bestservice available, our gardening specialists will answer your

questions and comment your remarks in every issue.

Photo

: For

est &

Kim

Star

r (US

GS)

VOL. 8 ISSUE 4 | 49

Q & A | THE INDOOR GARDENER

you run the risk of losing your crop slowlybut surely, because the plants will nothave time to absorb CO2 before itdisperses in the air! A CO2 controller thusconstitutes a very good investment. Have a great harvest! –

QuestionHello Terry here,Could you e-mail me back, I am in somewhat of a hurryand can’t wait for the next issue or the next after. I hadsome plants that were a week or two from finishing tomaturity. They were real tight flowered. Well some stupididiot added root stimulator to the reservoir and they startedto grow again. The tops went away and were replaced by aMASS of branches and leaves and the flowers are nowstretched out with gaps in them. Some of the others lostany flowering they had (these were under a smaller wattlight). Is there anything that can be done in this type of asituation? Thank you, – Terry J.

AnswerHey Terry, No matter what you do it will take time for the plants toswitch back to flowering mode and finish properly, I guessone to three weeks depending on how far the plants haveregressed. You basically need to “re-flower” the plants. (I assume it has happened within the last week or so?)

It is important that you maintain a 12/12 light cycle, keephumidity at 50% and temperature at 21–24 ºC (70–75 ºF),too much stress right now could cause the plant tohermaphrodite.

First of all, flush the plants with water (no nutrients orsupplements). If it is a hydro system just fill the reservoirwith new water, if the plants are in soil just give themwater until it flows out the drain holes. This should helpremove any root stimulator that is still present in the soil orreservoir.

Second, mix up your flowering nutrients the same as beforethe error. If your plants are in soil, wait until the soil hasdried out from when you flushed them before adding thenutrient solution. If you are using a hydro system flush thesystem with water (no nutrients or supplements) for 24 hrs,then dump that water and add your flowering nutrientsolution. You may wish to add a bloom stimulator likeliquid Kool Bloom (genhydro.com) or B’Cuzz BloomStimulator (atami.com).

These will help remind your plants that is flowering time(for soil and hydro). Seven days after the bloom (flowering)nutrients have been given, you may cut off any new growththat is not actively flowering (the new branches andleaves). Now, this causes stress to the plants but theyshould have stabilized enough after a week. If you haveenough room you may leave the plants alone, but if theyare getting too big, trimming is your best option.

As for the stretched flowers they maybecome more compact over the nextfew weeks but I really don’t know. Ihave heard of people intentionallyregressing their plants to double-flower them for larger yields, but thatis just what I heard not what I know.

So to sum up: • Maintain light cycle, temperature and humidity;• Flush the plants; • Feed the plants Bloom (Flowering) nutrients andstimulators; • One week later trim the plants if you wish (give B-1 theday before trimming); • Water and Feed the plants as if nothing happened.

The best advice I can give is to stay calm and keep an eyeon the plants. If you want them to finish properly you willhave to wait and in the mean time keep everything in thegarden constant. All the best, –

QuestionHow do I order an Angora Cat Lamp MPS4-25featured in your March/April 2011 magazine? Idid note, however, that the article suggested aprice of under $20 but the price listed on theWeb is $79. Rather a big difference. Cute, butnot that cute! Thank you.– Cynthia

AnswerDear Cynthia,You can order the “My Pet Lamp/Angora CatLamp or Begging Puppy Lamp” fromamazon.com or directly from the maindistributor’s (Offi and Co.) official Website:offi.com. The lamp is manufactured by MegasiiDesign Group in Hong Kong.

Some other Websites are also offering the same lamps:mygreenwaystores.com, allmodern.com,homefurnitureandpatio.com, ruksliving.com/angora-pet-lamp.aspx and modernseed.com.

Unfortunately the author of our articlementioned only the wholesale price($20) for novelties’ distributors (whoare an important part of ourreadership) and not the retail price($69 to $79). We are sorry for thaterror! I hope this answers yourquestion.

The colour-changing iPots by Megasii,which double as contemporary desklamp with a USB cord connection, arealso available on most on theaforementioned Websites.Happy Holidays from all the staff atSignature Group, –Ph

otos:

Mega

sii D

esign

Gro

up

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the indoor gardener magazine january february 2013

Documents

canada phone

stelios lekakis

karakter signature group

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bruno bredoux collaborators