Your Individual Sprouter eliminates salmonella outbreaks

“Sprout Recall
Sprout Salmonella Cases Rapidly Rising
NewsInferno.com
Thursday, March 19th, 2009
The ongoing salmonella outbreak linked to a variety of SunSprout Enterprises’ sprouts, has now sickened 121, with 45 additional cases reported in Nebraska and Iowa, says KGAN. The cases are of the Salmonella saintpaul strain, the same strain that was to blame for last year’s massive Mexican pepper recall and outbreak that was first linked to tomatoes. “

March 23, 2009 Email from International Specialty Supply who emphatically stated that their seeds were not involved in any way with this outbreak.

Sprouts in retail stores are normally very safe and nutritious but every so often something happens that results in the spread of some type of salmonella outbreak as the sprouts are shipped from the grower to the distributor to the retailer or restaurant.
One way to ensure that you always have fresh, pure sprouts is to grow your own. With regular and very easy disinfecting you can ensure that your sprouts are grown in sanitary conditions and you know how fresh they really are when consumed.

According to Dr. William S. Peavy, author of Super Natural Gardening, sprouts need to be consumed on the 5th or 6th day of germination, thereafter the young sprouts use their abundant amounts of minerals and vitamins for their own growing process. It is important to consume sprouts fresh and around the 5th day of germination.

A hydroponics sprouter that uses misting to ensure complete coverage of the proper amount of moisture to organic seeds ordered from a reliable seed firm such as International Specialty Supply provides an easy means for ensuring fresh sprouts daily. The misting process also ensures that a disinfectant such as clorox or Hydrogen Peroxide covers all parts of the unit resulting in a complete coverage of all parts of the sprouter unit.

See http://www.hydroponicsfarming.com/sprouters.html for individual sprouting units that can be stacked as your needs grow or can be enclosed in a commercial cabinet for deli or other retail outlets.

Hydroponics Drip Method for large plants

Larger garden plants such as tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, etc. often require more space to grow than many hydroponics systems provide. A good method for handling larger plants is to provide them with buckets instead of pots for their root development. The buckets provide more space and support for the roots to grow and allow more room for the plants to expand and grow without overshadowing nearby plants.

The larger size of the buckets also give you a wider range of plants that you can grow in the system. One bucket may contain just one or two tomato or pepper plants or a larger number of small plants that won’t grow large enough to shadow each other from the available light.

The new EuroGrower from General Hydroponics is the ideal system for someone new to gardening or a veteran wishing to grow larger plants.

The EuroGrower provides users with a simple, yet elegant approach to home hydroponics. It consists of eight two-gallon buckets sitting on top of a 40 gallon reservoir with an energy efficient and well sealed 250 gph Mag-Drive pump connected to a Drip system which keeps the growth medium moist. The excess nutrient drains back into the reservoir ready to start the process all over again.

In a Drip system, the nutrient solution is delivered to the plants through drip emitters on a timed system usually scheduled to run for approximately 5-10 minutes of every hour. The timed cycle flushes the growing medium, providing the plants with fresh nutrients, water and oxygen as the emitter is dripping. The growing medium supplies support for the roots and retains some moisture and nutrients between the timed drip sessions. The draining of the water and nutrients allows oxygen to reach the roots.

The plant roots are most commonly grown in a medium of perlite, grow rocks or rockwool. You can grow tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and other plants cleanly without DIRT in a 3-foot by 5-foot space on the floor. A hydroponics system like this works well in a greenhouse, patio, apartment terrace or porch without a grow light or indoors under a 600 Watt, 800 Watt, or 1000 Watt growlight.

See http://www.hydroponicsfarming.com/product-569.html for more information about the Eurogrower hydroponics system.

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is ESSENTIAL for Efficient Plant Growth

Principles of Carbon Dioxide Enrichment

Research laboratories and universities have proven that increased levels of carbon dioxide will greatly improve plant growth. Plant metabolism is regulated primarily by the availability of the essential requirements – light, nutrients, water, humidity, temperature, oxygen and carbon dioxide. If any of these basic necessities are deficient or limited, then the growth rate of your indoor plants will be limited.

CO2 combines with water, nutrients and light energy through photosynthesis to produce sugars (food).  These sugars provide energy to manufacture plant tissues for new growth. When CO2 levels are inadequate or inconsistent, plant growth diminishes, health and vitality decline, and crop yield is reduced.

The shorter daylight hours of winter limit plant growth. To bring this growth to a maximum rate, it is essential to not only provide normal summertime CO2 saturation rate but to “fertilize” the air with additional CO2.

Adding carbon dioxide to a growing environment that is not receiving proper nutrients or is low on light will not produce the desired results. Similarly, plants that are receiving plenty of sunshine and nutrients will only perform as well as the ambient level of CO2 will allow.

The ambient level of CO2 in the earth’s atmosphere is generally between 300 and 600 ppm. Most plants receive far more water and energy in the form of sunshine than they can use. Increasing the CO2 in the growing area will let the plant use the excess water and energy that is stored in the leaves. The result is a substantial increase in the growth rate of any plant that uses chlorophyll in the process of photosynthesis.

The average CO2 level that is recommended is 1000 to 2000 parts per million (PPM). The object is to maintain a constant level in the atmosphere.

A low cost CO2 generator provides the necessary CO2 to speed up plant growth and during the shorter daylight hours of winter plant quality is also improved as you add low cost warmth to your greenhouse.

Enrichment should commence at sunrise or when photoperiod begins and refrain during darkness hours.

You can run a small unit continuously during photoperiods or you can use a larger unit and time it to function periodically.  Where exhaust requirements are frequent, the latter method is preferable. After the exhaust function the generator can be cycled to replenish CO2 quickly to maintain rapid plant photosynthesis.

CO2 Generator operations also may be automatically functioned according to actual ambient values when installed in conjunction with a Carbon Dioxide Monitoring Controller.  This control device continually samples the level of carbon dioxide in the growing area and runs the generator whenever CO2 levels do not meet your predetermined values. Frequency of recharge depends on the rate of consumption.

See http://www.hydroponicsfarming.com/product-694.html for more information about Carbon Dioxide (CO2) generators.