Dropping temperatures, keeping it cool

Here in Mississauga, nighttime temperatures this coming Monday will go down to minus 4º Celsius. That’s only 24.8º for those still of the Fahrenheit persuasion. In other words, it’s cold. In Ontario, the closer we come to winter, the colder it gets.

Everyone knows that flowers grow best during the warm season of the year, so if you’re growing carnations—like I am—in your basement recreation room, you have to fool your babies into thinking that it’s still a warm season. (I do this with several oil based electric radiators, as well as hot water pipes running under my growing medium.)

Not too warm, mind you. The optimum temperature for disbuds or Sims—the kind I grow—is 15 to 18º C, or 59 to 65º F. Carnations do not like the temperature to be above 22º C (72º F) and neither do I. I’m just a Canadian lass, used to cool temperatures. I’d wilt in Florida, to be sure.

High humidity in your grow room should also be avoided. Whenever I see a gardener misting her flowers, I tell her that it’s an open invitation to fungal infestation. My drip irrigation system injects the nutrient solution into the rockwool slabs that my flowers grow in and the moisture never touches the upper part of the plant.

As you know, I’ve switched nutrients a number of times, but now I feed my babies a basic diet of the Advanced Nutrients 3-part (Micro, Grow, and Bloom) along with some vitamins and bloom enhancers. I also like to add Grandma Enggy’s Humic and Fulvic Acids, as well as Carbo Load Liquid, in order to boost my babies’ growth with energizing carbohydrates.

Humic acid adds natural drought and stress resistance, protects against diseases and pathogens, and stimulates root branching.

Fulvic acid provides for faster growth and nutrient absorption. Its secret is an organic loamy material called “leonardite,” which is mined from deep places beneath the earth’s surface.

I was turned on to these magic products by an elderly gardener who claimed that Grandma Enggy was one of his relatives. He grew the most beautiful orchids using these and Grandma Enggy’s Seaweed Extract, which is another Advanced Nutrients product that I’ve been meaning to order.

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