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What the hell are we talking about? (part 1) |
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| If you’re new to hydroponics, there’s a lot of information to learn before you can get going – the problem is that often it can sound like complete gibberish! Hopefully, this article (and part 2 - below) will explain a lot of the terminology |
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Fed up of trying to work out what we’re talking about? Below is the first part of our common words/phrases glossary – maybe now we’ll make a bit more sense!
Acid – a substance with a low pH
Acoustic Ducting - padded ducting to reduce noise.
Acoustic Fans - Fans built into padded boxes to reduce noise.
Aeration - supplying oxygen to the root zone.
Aeroponics - growing plants by misting the root zone which is suspended in air.
Alkaline - a substance with a high pH
Ambient Air Temperature - outside air temperature
Auxin - plant hormones responsible for root growth and leaf growth.
Bacteria - one celled minuscule transparent organism.
Beneficial Bacteria - some forms of bacteria are beneficial, like Trichoderma mould and Rhizo-bacteria. Some - like fungus - are harmful
Bleaching of leaves - An even loss of colour over the whole leaf to a light green, yellow or white, usually caused by high output lights being too close.
Biodegradable - able to naturally decompose, usually refers to organic material.
Biological action - a term usually used to describe the organic processes that break down the organic matter and other processes that go on in the soil environment.
Buffering - giving a solution the ability to resist fluctuations, especially in regard to pH
Buffer 4 and 7 - these solutions are stable buffered solutions that are exactly pH4 and pH7, used for checking and calibrating pH pens.
Bugs - all manner of garden pest and insects.
Carbon Filters - carbon filters use the enormously large surface area of the carbon granule structure to strip odours or any other undesirables from the air.
Carbohydrate - a carbon, hydrogen, oxygen compound. Examples are sugar, starch and cellulose. Glucose is one of the simplest forms of carbohydrate.
Cell - the smallest portion of living matter, a single unit. All living things are made entirely by cells of various kinds.
Cellulose - A complex carbohydrate used in the plant to form harder structures like cell walls and fibre.
Chelate - a technique for combining nutrients in a more absorbable form.
Chlorine - found in tap water, let your water stand for a few hours exposed to the air and any harmful excess will evaporate off. Used to clean our water.
Chlorophyll - the green colouring matter found in plants.
Chlorosis - the loss of colour to a leaf caused by inadequate formation of chlorophyll cells.
Climate - the average weather and environmental conditions, the general conditions over a period of time.
cF meter - an electronic meter to measure the electro-conductivity of the nutrient solution. The amount of conductivity will rise or fall depending on how much nutrient there is in the solution. This makes this meter ideal for measuring nutrient strength.
Clone - a genetic copy of a plant made by growing genetic material (tissue) taken from another plant. Different cloning methods include taking cutting and growing tissue cultures.
Compost - a mixture of de-composing organic material. Compost needs to be at least a year old before it has decomposed enough to release the essential nutrients for plant growth.
Condense - when the air is completely saturated with water vapour (100%RH), any further cooling of the air will cause the invisible water vapour to condense into visible moisture, as the air shrinks through cooling it can no longer hold this amount of water. This process of turning invisible water vapour into visible water droplets is called sublimation and through the principles of latent heat production, heat is released from the molecules to the surrounding area when this happens.
Condensation - the visible moisture droplets left behind after sublimation has taken place.
Cuttings - a way of cloning plants by removing tips of branches and rooting them in propagators.
Damping off - a fungus that will cause the stems to rot. This is often seen in propagators which are too wet.
Dew point - the temperature at visible moisture would form if you cooled a parcel of air. At this temperature there would be 100% humidity and any further cooling and water vapour would condense.
Drainage - a media with good structure will drain freely and help provide good oxygen content around the root zone.
Drip systems – these systems will irrigate each plant site using a tube that emits drips of nutrient solution, usually supplied via pipe from a pump in a main reservoir. Drip emitters can be used with pots, slabs or any media. Irrigation cycles may vary.
E.C. - electrical conductivity. The E.C. of any solution will vary dependent upon the amount of dissolved feed elements in the solution. This is a different unit of measurement, but measures the exact same factor as cF.
Electrode - a conductor that can be used for carrying electrical current in or out of a substance. Often used in conjunction with pH and CF/EC meters.
Elongate - stretching of the gap between branch nodes.
Evaporation - The process by which visible moisture droplets turn to invisible moisture vapour. This process, through the principles of latent heat production extracts heat from the surrounding area. This is why we get a chill when we come out of the see in the sun, as the water evaporates off our skin, the process cools the surrounding air next tour skin. This is also why exposed roots in an NFT system will go slightly brown with cell damage if the pump is off for too long or the channel is not humid enough, as the nutrient solution evaporates off the root zone.
Feed - Essential nutrient elements the plants need to grow. There are sixteen main nutrient elements including Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium, Magnesium, Calcium, Iron, Boron, etc. There are also 3 free elements, Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide and Hydrogen which are in the air and water. All these elements appear on the periodic table and constitute the plants main feed. Anything else you add is not technically feed and may be classed as additive that includes things like vitamins, which normally the plant would produce itself.
Fertilizer - Another term for feed.
Fluorescent - a type of low wattage light, very useful for rooting cuttings and early vegetative growth. Usually come in tube format and produce low heat.
Foliage - the leafy parts of a plant.
Free Elements - Oxygen, Hydrogen and Carbon. These three essential nutrient elements are called free as they are generally in the air and water, and not in the bottle.
Fungus gnat - a small grey fly that lays it’s eggs in the top of the root zone, they don’t do much damage but are unsightly. A type of scarid fly.
Gene - inherited material situated on the chromosome within the cell nucleus, and has a constant effect on the growth patterns and development of the plant.
Halide - a type of lamp requiring control gear. Lots of white and blue light for good vegetative growth. The adjusted spectrum high-pressure sodium lights have more lumens and are more popular for vegetative and flowering growth.
Hard Water - water with high alkalinity, usually due to calcium bicarbonate content. This will give the water a high pH. Hard water feeds are for water with high alkalinity, with a pH of at least 7.6 or above.
Headroom - a term referring to the overall height of the grow room, as it is often crucial. The more the better.
H.I.D. - High Intensity Discharge light. A term to describe high-pressure sodium and other intense light systems.
Horizontal - parallel to the horizon.
Hormones - produced by the plant and control plant growth patterns.
Humidity - Relative humidity is the ratio of the amount of water vapour in the air to its saturation point. At 100% humidity the air is totally saturated and can hold no more water vapour.
Hydrogen - The first, simplest and lightest element on the periodic table of elements. Sometimes called the glue of life as it joins and holds atoms and molecules together, to form more complex molecules.
Hygrometer - a meter for measuring the relative humidity in the air.
Inert - a term usually used to describe media like rockwool that is chemically non reactive to water or a nutrient solution. What you put in is what the plant gets, with no biological action associated with the media itself.
Irrigation - applying water or nutrient solution to the root zone
Irrigation cycle - the time taken for one complete flood or drip in, including the drain and pump off time until the flood or drip in starts again.
Kilo - a thousand times something. e.g. 1000grams = 1 kilogram
1000metres = 1 kilometre
Kilowatt-hour - a 1000watt light uses one kilowatt of electricity per hour.
Leaf curl - leaves curl at the tips and margins when they are trying to retain moisture. Up curl and the environment is to hot or dry (maybe the light too close). Down curl and the nutrient is too strong or there is too much salt build up in the medium, or both.
Life cycle - the life cycle of a plant encompasses all stages of plant growth from germination to harvest.
Lumen - measurement of light output.
Main elements - the 3 primary nutrient elements, Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium.
Macro elements - the 3 primary and 2 secondary nutrient elements, N, P, K & Calcium, Magnesium.
Micro elements - the trace nutrient elements the plant needs, including Fe, Mn, Mb, B.
Medium - this is the substrate you choose to use around the root zone to retain moisture and feed for the roots. Media include: rockwool, perlite, coir, compost, etc.
Media - the plural of medium.
Meter - used for measuring and obtaining reading.
Metre - 100 centimetres, or 3.3 feet. 1000metres = 1 kilometre.
Milli - one thousandth of something. E.g. One thousandth of one metre = 1 millimetre or One thousandth of one second = 1 millisecond
Look out for part 2 of this article , where we’ll continue with the rest of the alphabet!!
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