Grow Room Upgrade, Boosting Bloom Size

Switching over to a Drip Irrigation Hydroponic System of growing my carnations also gave me the chance to upgrade my entire grow room. As you know I have six 600W High Pressure Sodium lamps providing the much needed light for my flowers. At present I run them with Conversion Bulbs, which come as close to supplying sunlight indoors as possible.

I covered the four walls with large sheets of plastic--white on the inside, black on the outside. Plants need periods of total darkness in order to start flowering, so the black plastic acts as protection against light coming in during these dark periods. The white side of the plastic facing the plants reflects the light and makes sure that my carnations get every possible lumens necessary for photosynthesis.

Near the top of the grow room is an exhaust fan, removing the stale air from the room. Two air vents near the bottom of opposite walls bring in fresh air from the outside. Above the vents are the shelves to hold the ballasts for my lights. Automatic timers control the exhaust fan as well as an air intake fan located on the opposite wall. These fans are variable speed jobs, so when it gets hot they can cool the room within minutes, while at other times they can merely ensure minimum air circulation.

A third fan is placed on the floor aimed at the trays that hold the rockwool slabs with my carnations growing in them. This fan assures adequate air and oxygen getting to the root systems. As a further measure to make sure that enough oxygen is getting to the roots, I was advised to use HyOx, and Advanced Nutrients product designed for this purpose.

Oil-filled radiators have been installed wired to a thermostat. If the night time temperature, for instance, drops below a certain point, these radiators make sure that my carnations don’t get a chill. Much of this is operated automatically, as are the pH and CF measuring devices that make sure that my reservoir of nutrients is always at the optimum acid-alkaline balance, as well as at the right conductivity factor of the dissolved salts and nutrients.

In addition to the Grow-Micro-Bloom regimen, I will also test-run Sensi One Grow and Sensi One Bloom, as well as Sensi Grow A and B and Sensi Bloom A & B. I will experiment with these nutrient regimens, all made and guaranteed by Advanced Nutrients, in order to find just the right plant food solution for my carnations.

I am also planning to test out Big Bud and Bloom Booster Pro, to make sure that I’m using the right flower enhancer. The former was developed by the legendary plant scientist, Dr. Hornby, and is 100% guaranteed to increase the size of your harvest, or you money back. What have I got to lose?

Bloom Booster Pro will turn small flowers into larger ones, and since my carnations have the reputation of being the biggest blooms at the flower shop, I can’t afford not to use this product, which is packed with rich ingredients that enhance not only the quantity, but the quality of your flowers.


Other growers have been very enthusiastic about these Advanced Nutrients products, but I want to see for myself. I’ve also heard good things about Grandma Enggy’s Fulvic and Humic acid, refined from organic matter called leonardite that is actually mined!

Grandma Enggy is another legendary figure, whose Eastern European family have been farming organically for hundreds of years. Her Golden Honey Fulvic Acid is a natural product that is designed to augment synthetic nutrients. It contains the accumulated proteins that took a long time to mature underground, as well as vitamins and other growth enhancing elements.

The experts at Advanced Nutrients are more than willing to give you advice either over the phone or on their website. For instance, they told me about SensiCal Mg Mix, which not only contains the proper amounts of calcium and magnesium in easily absorbed formulations, but also other micronutrients that are essential for the health of my carnations.

I will continue to report on a weekly basis as to how my flowers are doing in their new, hydroponic environment. World wide sales of cut-flower carnations total ten billion U.S. per year. That’s not a figure to take lightly or for granted. These flowers deserve the best possible care and feeding regimen that horticultural experts can devise. For this expertise, I am sold on products made by Advanced Nutrients.

I’ve tried their competitors and in my estimation, Advanced Nutrients wins hands down every time!

Drip Irrigation to Produce Prize-winning Blooms

The Dutch have a reputation for growing flowers. They also perfected a hydroponic system known as the Drip Irrigation System. This is the one I choose to grow my carnations as of today.

As I said in my last posting, I got tired of watering so many pots. Also, growing in soil left my flowers susceptible to pests and diseases. Not to mention that it was messy. So I had the wall to wall carpeting ripped up in my basement recroom and went down to the bare concrete.

I noticed when I bought the house that the floor wasn’t entirely level, and now this sloping has actually worked to my advantage. I had a drain put in on the side toward which the floor slopes slightly, and now I can just turn the hose on to clean the floor whenever I need to do it.

I’m starting my plants in rockwool cubes, then when the seedlings get big enough, I put them in rockwool slabs. I was advised to use a slightly thicker slab, ten or twelve centimetres, rather than a thin one, since it absorbs more nutrients and gives more support to my flowers.

These rockwool slabs are placed in large plastic trays and each plant is fed individually by a dripper that is connected to a reservoir of hydroponic nutrient solution. As you know, I use Advanced Nutrients products to feed my flowers, since they have plant scientists on staff who test each of them and offer a money back guarantee of their performance.

The experts at Advanced Nutrients have convinced me to switch to Grow, Micro, and Bloom, a three-part hydroponic fertilizer that is second to none. This is only the basic part of the diet I feed my carnations. I also use B-52, a dynamite Vitamin-B formula that helps to reduce stress and SensiZym, a product that is chock full of growth enhancing enzymes that help produce magnificent flowers.

I use a low-pressure drip system that recycles the nutrients solution back into the reservoir. It involves a bit of work, since I have to make sure that the drippers don’t get clogged up and I have to flush my rockwool slabs with pH balanced water once every two weeks, in order to get rid of accumulated salts.

The system itself has a whole array of tubes, pipes and fittings. Adding to this are the water pipes under the rockwool slabs, which run hot water in the winter and cool water in the summer, to keep the temperature of the feeding solution exactly at the right level.

The optimum temperature for growing disbuds (carnations whose side buds have been removed to help the main bud grow bigger) is 15º to 18º C (59º to 65º F). Flowering is initiated by mild temperatures and the length of “daylight,” which in my case is provided by six 600W High Pressure Sodium lights, with conversion bulbs to provide light in the blue spectrum. Once flowering starts, I switch to regular HPS bulbs which provide light in the red end of the spectrum.

In addition to root enhancement additives, such as Piranha, Tarantula, and Voodoo Juice, which colonize the root systems with beneficial fungi, bacteria, and microbes—I also plan to use Vita Boost Pro, an extremely helpful multi-vitamin formula to ensure plant health, and Bloom Booster Pro, which guarantees award-winning, huge flowers and is a bloom enhancer with superior ingredients.

And if I really feel adventurous, I'll invest in a container of Hammerhead PK 9/18, which is a new Advanced Nutrients product based on the scientifically proven principle that at the last stage of flowering, plants need twice the strength of Potassium, as Phosphorus, and that their Nitrogen needs have already been met by the base nutrients being administered through my Drip Irrigation System.

Pesky pests & watering too many pots

Before I became a horticulturalist, I was a consumer of cut flowers. I loved to buy or receive bouquets as gifts and arrange and rearrange them in vases. I had a big collection of crystal and ceramic containers and spent a lot of time decorating my home. My old home, that is, the part of my life that is a closed chapter now.

One thing I noticed about cut flowers is that often they came with uninvited guests. Cut daisies, for instance, often had leafminers leaving a telltale pattern on their leaves. Once I received a bunch of flowers from a friend, who is no longer one, and I noticed tiny green pearls moving around on them. I found out later they were aphids.

Indoor soil gardening is not immune from these parasitical insects. During my first growing cycle I had an infestation of white flies. Instead of checking with the experts at Advanced Nutrients, I decided on my own to use a chemical bug spray. Not only did it discolor my carnation crop, but it actually killed some of the flowers.

Since checking with the experts, I’ve put a fine mesh bug screen on each ventilation duct and started using Protector, Barricade, and Scorpion Juice religiously. Protector was designed to ward off and fight Powdery Mildew specifically. Barricade strengthens my carnations from the inside out, making them resistant to bugs, mold and mildew, as well as drought and heat stress.

Scorpion Juice inoculates my carnations with Systemic Acquired Resistance (SAR) which wards off a whole slew of pathogens, some of whose names I can’t even pronounce. These three miraculous products by Advanced Nutrients ensure a pest and disease free environment for my flowers, and they do so without the use of poison.

This harvest looks especially bountiful and in order to celebrate, I have come to a major decision! After I cut, sort, and deliver my carnations, I am going to go hydroponic! There are several reasons for this, the major one being the amount of trouble it involves watering 216 eight and a half inch pots! Try it sometimes!

I started using an eight-litre watering can, and of course my arm almost fell off. Then I got smart and put a watering valve on the end of a hose, and that made it easier. But it was still a messy proposition, what with the dirt splashing onto the floor, causing sanitation problems.

My basement rec room, which I transformed into a grow room, has wall to wall carpeting, which I covered with a thick sheet of plastic. But inadvertently water does get under the plastic, causing mold and mildew problems. After I clear out all the pots (I’m donating them to the Salvation Army) I’m having the carpet ripped up and going down to the bare cement floor.

This will necessitate a whole new approach to heating my basement during the severe Ontario winters. Stay tuned for details.

In my next posting, I’ll tell you exactly which hydroponic system I chose to use, as well as the whole array of products by Advanced Nutrients that are aimed at the hydroponic gardener. For instance, Sensi Zym, which contains 88 powerful enzymes to guarantee faster and larger harvests! And B-52, which packs a wallop with its pharmaceutical grade vitamins, for healthier, more robust flowers.

Or such hydroponic additives to my regular fertilizer regimen, as Big Bud, Overdrive, and Bloom Booster Pro, which enhance growth, flower formation, and harvest quality and quantity.

How I became a horticulturalist

Hi! My name is Jill. I live in Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto. A year ago I got a divorce (good riddens!) and had to find a new place to live. My kids are all grown up, thank heavens, so it was the beginning of a brand new life.

I bought a house with a large, basement rec room. The settlement was large enough to last me a couple of years, but I’m the kind of person who needs a hobby to occupy me.

I always had a passion for carnations. I even learned their Latin name, Dianthus caryophyllus. About the same time, a friend had to leave the country quickly and he had all sorts of indoor growing equipment, which I bought off him for very little money.

Setting up a carnation growing operation in my basement rec room wasn’t easy. I needed help. I looked around on Google, and found a very helpful website, which had a technical help line listed. I called, and my life as a horticulturalist had begun.

Advanced Nutrients told me that the six High Pressure Sodium lights were perfect for the size of my rec room—12’x 20’ or 240 sq. ft. I could fit 36 eight and a half inch pots under each light, with two carnation plants in each pot. This would produce 432 single stem carnations per four months growing period.

I found out that Fusarium Wilt and Fusarium Rot were the major problems in carnation growing, so I bought my seedlings from a reputable garden shop and treated them with No Shock, in order to minimize the dangers of damping off and other seedling diseases.

I decided to grow straight stem, cut-flower type carnations, rather than spray-type, free flowering ones, since I checked with two florists in my area, and they seemed to prefer them. Even though growing carnations started off as primarily a hobby and a passion, it didn’t hurt to have found a market for them.

In order to ward off Fusarium and other pathogens, I treated my perlite and rich soil mixture with Scorpion Juice, Barricade, and Protector. These three products guarantee pest, disease, and pathogen free plants and flowers. Advanced Nutrients is the only company that guarantees all of its wonderful products, and I can attest to the fact that they do what they claim to do.

I wanted a gentle, 100% organic fertilizer to help boost the quality and size of my flowers. I chose Mother Earth Super Tea Grow and Bloom, which can be used both for hydroponic or soil gardening. Their macro and micro nutrients are balanced just right to aid at different stages of the lives of my carnations.

I’m looking forward to my third harvest this September, and with each new crop I learn something new. I found out about Colossal Bud Blast, a magic foliar spray, that enhances the size of my flowers and accelerates growth. Some of my carnations are almost twice the size of the ordinary ones at the flower shop!

Growing carnations has not only filled my life up with hundreds of colorful blooms, but also took my mind off my divorce. I’d rather enjoy the palette of crimson, pink, lavender, orange, lemon, white, and cherry colored flowers, than worry about the man who is no longer a part of my life.