| LED Gardener |
| The Dirt on Grow Mediums What do the majority of grow mediums you find at your local gardening shop have in common? They are formulated to retain water lost to a radiant heat source. Over the years we have developed mixtures that have amazing properties of water retention that have become staples in many indoor gardens. Then in walks LED Grow Master with led grow lights that do not heat up your space. The parameters have changed for the LED gardener. What now becomes a priority when choosing your grow medium is porosity and the ability to hold oxygen for your root zone. This concept goes hand in hand with over watering. Plants take in air through their roots, if the soil is constantly wet, they cannot do this. Anything that a plant can grow in is a grow medium. The fact is that most plants will grow in whatever you plant them in. If you are among the large number of gardeners that find a system and stick with it... Feel free to continue with the medium you are using. For optimal growth under LEDs- try out a more porous medium. If you have access to freshwater Diatomaceous Earth, it is an ideal medium for LEDs. Aeroponics also offers an excellent option for keeping your root zone oxygenated. Simply mixing in some gravel or perlite may be enough to show improvements. Mediums to avoid include sphagnum moss, peat pellets, and rockwool. Be creative. My personal best crop yet has come from planting seeds in "Turface". You can gather it at your local baseball field. The key is to avoid mediums that advertise water retention as a feature. Give your plants some room to breathe.--AL ***************************************************************** Cattleyas Friedrich von Schiller once wrote that "There is no such thing as chance; and what seems to us merest accident springs from the deepest source of destiny." Surely this was the case in the story told of William Cattley. He discovered what appeared to be a bulb in the packing material sent with some plants he had imported from Brazil. He decided to plant it and see if anything came of it. He became the first man to bloom the "Queen of Orchids" in Europe and it kicked off a life-long obsession with collecting and cataloging the species. His enthusiasm was contagious and it has carried on in corsages and Orchid Societies. Cattleyas have large, exotic flowers that bloom in almost any color. Today it is the most commonly cultivated orchid in the world. Anyone that wants to make a generalization of what growing orchids entails, uses the Cattleya as a reference point. It is also a genus that has had incredible success under LED Grow Master lighting. Light is the most important factor in growing and flowering Cattleyas. Blemishes caused by "sunburn" from grow lights overheating the orchids has been a difficult problem when balancing out how to get enough light to indoor plants. LED Grow Master provides the solution to this problem by providing growers with a light source that doesn't heat up. No more unsightly brown spots and that long awaited bloom- (Cattleya may take 7 years from seed to the first bloom) lasts longer without the heat of traditional lighting. Nothing is too good for the Queen.--AL ***************************************************************** Jump on the Bandwagon LEDs offer more in the terms of efficiency, cost effectiveness, safety, and minimal environmental impact than any other form of lighting. They do hundreds of jobs and are found in thousands of devices. The rapid advancement of the technology has created an extremely prosperous environment for companies that manufacture, distribute, and design LED lighting. New products are steadily streaming on to store shelves creating success stories for thousands of companies jumping on the LED wagon. As economies world wide, grow, so does the energy demand. Governments have reacted with initiatives to increase efficiency and reduce consumption. Dr. Samuel Bodman, the US Secretary of Energy, noted that “a set of revolutionary new technologies called solid state lighting offer excellent prospects for meeting our future lighting needs in a less costly, more efficient way than today’s incandescent and even fluorescent fixtures.” One of the major components of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 is to promote the advancement of the technology. A conversion to LEDs in lighting applications can have an immediate, significant impact on energy use and nations looking for a plan quickly acknowledge LEDs as a simple method of meeting these goals that also offers greater safety and financial advantages over the status quo. Here at LED Grow Master Global, sales have increased by over 300% for the last 4 years. Other niche LED lighting companies are experiencing similar growth. It is only a matter of time before LEDs do to light bulbs what light bulbs did to the candle. There is no time like the present to jump on the bandwagon. It’s green and moving at the speed of light.--AL |
| May 1, 2007 Volume 2, Issue 5 |

In This Issue The Dirt on Grow Mediums Cattleyas Jump on the Bandwagon Featured Distributor ProgressiveGrowth Garden Supply and Hydroponics Operating on Vancouver island for over 10 years and providing quality goods worldwide. Candada 1-800-405-GROW www.progressive-growth.com info@progressive-growth.com Educational Links Gardening With Children The Future of Green Design Electrical Cost Calculator Discovering Light Care to Comment? The LED Gardener appreciates all the input we receive from our readers. If you would like to submit an article or pictures about led grow lights or if you would like to comment on a current article please send submissions and comments or questions to angela@led-grow-master.com You are receiving this email because you subscribed at led-grow-master.com If you do not wish to receive this newsletter :Request your name removed angela@led-grow-master.com Contact LED Grow Master Global, LLC: Admin@led-grow-master.com |
