A Higher Yield

Iguanas in the deep south.

2009-10-16T17:11:00.001-07:00

I was talking to one of my clients today from Florida. I thought I had problems in California growing. It seems in the deep south anywhere there is water there is also iguanas. According to my client "as soon as my vegetables start blossoming and showing fruit the iguanas just destroy them." I guess this is just one more reason to grow indoors in an enclosed environment. No iguanas.

Powdery Mildew

2009-09-18T09:08:00.000-07:00

Powdery Mildew can be a problem growing both indoors and outdoors. Powdery mildew is one of the more common diseases that you see on ornamental plants as well as vegetables and herbs. It is easily recognized by it's gray, powdery spotting that covers the bottom and sometimes the top of the leaves. I have even seen cases where the stalks of plants and even the flowers and buds of plants were blotched over with mildew. Powdery mildew is a fungal disease. It is a disease that can directly effect yields. As the plant is attacked it has to use vital energy to fight the disease and less plant energy is directed to the fruits and flowers. Powdery mildew is found indoors in crowded grow areas where the plants have less than the desirable amount of air circulation. As the plants transpire and release water into the air the room can get very humid quickly. Good climate control practices allow for vent fans to refresh the room with outside air that is run through a HEPA filter prior to entering the room. This is generally controlled by a temperature/humidity controller that can be adjusted to the exacting needs of your individual plants. Most plants like a humidity of around fifty percent when they are blooming. When humidity and temperatures are high powdery mildew has a better chance of starting to grow so really dial in that climate control and you will reap the benefit of less fungal attacks indoors.

If you are reading this because you already have powdery mildew the thing that you have to is decide how far along they are into flowering to see if they can still be treated. Many people follow the theory that if a plant or a flower is in bloom and you treat it for powdery mildew that sometimes you can impart a bad flavor into your plants. The farther you are away from harvesting the better for this reason. How far you vaporize into bloom is ultimately up to you and your taste buds. One of the best ways to treat powdery mildew indoors is by a method called sulfur vaporization. A sulfur vaporizer can be purchased and this apparatus will heat powdered sulfur to a point that is turns into a vapor and covers the room. This process raises the pH level on the plants surface and can effectively stop powdery mildew in its tracks. When you run a sulfur vaporizer it is important to turn off all ventilation and equipment that has compressors because there have been stories of explosions due to having equipment cycle with too much sulfur vapor in the air. A good dosing of a couple of hours a night for two to three nights will generally do the job. If you have a heavy infestation you may need more. Another common way to treat powdery mildew is with a baking soda also know as sodium bicarbonate. I have seen people use concentrations ranging from one to two ounces per gallon in a spray form and some people will also add a small amount of dish soap to act as a surfactant to more evenly cover the plants surfaces. Treat once a week until the powdery mildew disappears. The baking soda method works for outdoors since you cannot treat outdoor plants very easily with a sulfur vaporizer. If you have any questions or comments please contact Troy at troy@ahigheryield.com

2009-09-01T21:01:00.000-07:00

LumiGrow, Inc. Introduces LumiGrow ES™ Enhanced Spectrum LED Lighting for Urban- and Greenhouse-Based Agriculture

Growers Report Reduced Power Usage and Improved Crop Quality

LumiGrow, Inc., the leading provider of LED lighting to the indoor agricultural industry, recently announced the release of the LumiGrow ES™at the San Francisco Indoor Garden Expo. The LumiGrow ES™is a first-of-its-kind enhanced spectrum horticultural lighting solution. It has been proven to produce significant energy savings and abundant, healthy crops. The LumiGrow ES provides professional grade features throughout. Encased in hardware designed to meet the rigors of commercial greenhouse applications, LumiGrow ES LED emitters cast a precise spectral range within 400-700 nanometers. The LumiGrow system also features true deep red LEDs that match peak photosynthesis along with double the PAR value of any previous solid-state horticultural light. Independently adjustable red and blue knobs enable growers to fine-tune lighting, providing plants with precisely the portion of the light spectrum they need at each growing phase.
Chris Wahlberg of Mung Dynasty, a Pittsburgh, PA-based microgreens producer, report that LumiGrow lights deliver superior plant morphology, color and taste.
“The LumiGrow ES grows great plants by any standard,” affirmed Robert Starnes, senior superintendent of agriculture, University of California, Davis. Mr. Starnes conducts product quality assurance testing, including side-by-side comparisons of the LumiGrow solution against high-intensity discharge (HID) lamps, both at the LumiGrow facility on Treasure Island, San Francisco and at the UC Davis campus. In these tests, the LumiGrow solution consistently out-performs 600-watt HID lamps while consuming half the energy.
All LumiGrow LED lights operate at a comfortably cool temperature, enabling customers to achieve still greater savings by unplugging their cooling systems and ballasts. Hardware and operating cost savings grow over time as long-lasting LumiGrow lights eliminate the need for frequent bulb replacement.
“It was essential to demonstrably prove the capabilities of the LumiGrow ES before bringing it to market,” said Kevin Wells, founder and CEO, LumiGrow. “That’s because growers want greater energy efficiency and lower costs, but not at the risk of crop loss. LumiGrow delivers on the claims of LED technology – maximizing cost savings and crop yield.”
Beyond energy savings, the LumiGrow ES offers numerous additional environmental benefits. Unlike fluorescent and HID lighting products, LumiGrow LED lights do not contain hazardous mercury or halogen gases. Further, because the LumiGrow ES emits a controlled and focused spectrum rather than a broad scattershot of light, the solution dramatically reduces the light pollution caused by the use of HID lamps during nighttime hours.
About LumiGrow, Inc.
LumiGrow, Inc. is the leading provider of energy-efficient LED lighting technology to the indoor agricultural industry. Proven in third-party studies to out-perform 600-watt HID lamps while using half the energy, the LumiGrow solution boosts crop yield and reduces operational costs. Each LumiGrow light that replaces an HID lamp saves 2,000 kilowatt hours of power and eliminates 2,680 pounds of carbon emissions annually. Headquartered on Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay, LumiGrow is privately owned and operated. For more information, call Troy at A Higher Yield at (559) 786-3758 or visit http://www.ahigheryield.com/

LumiGrow is a trademark of LumiGrow, Inc.

Welcome

2009-08-27T22:56:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to A Higher Yield's Blog. We will be featuring new products and talking about the ongoing battles of growing both indoors and outdoors. Feel free to stop by often to see what we will be talking about. Thanks for following us and we hope you have A Higher Yield.