Gecko Grow

Today's tomato harvest! 🍅🍅🍅 It may be April 10th, but that doesn't mean fresh homegrown tomatoes need to be months away. We harvested 13 tomatoes off one plant today and had fresh tomatoes with supper 30 minutes later.

When growing indoors, a bush variety is best because they grow nice and compact. These are Manitoba Bush tomatoes and the plant is only about 18 inches tall and the same width. Despite its small size, it produces lots of 2-4 inch tomatoes and never stops.

We grow ours in a simple deep water culture system with a venturi for aeration and Masterblend Tomato Formula for nutrients. All available in our shop. Tap the image for product links.

Today's harvest 😋

Delicious prizehead lettuce grown in a simple hydroponic system using Masterblend Lettuce Formula nutrients.

Happy Growing! 🇨🇦 🦎 🥬

Here's to that time in December we took a picture of a perfect heart shaped strawberry and saved it for a Valentines Day post only to forget about it until we saw it again on Feb 21.

So, happy late Valentines Day! 🍓 ❤️

Happy Growing! 🇨🇦 🦎

Propagation Plug Comparison Part 3: How did the lettuce seeds fare?

Much like the variance we saw in the amount of root development on our tomato and basil cuttings, there was a huge variance in lettuce growth between the different plug types. Two weeks after seeding, the winners (and losers) were clear.

The top performing peat plug in the cutting comparison stood out on the lettuce growth test too. This plug had the most leafy growth with 4 fully emerged true leaves. Floral foam and two other peat plugs also did well with 3 good sized true leaves and the 4th emerging.

Bringing up the rear, both rockwool plug types had two small true leaves. The seeds planted in the h**p fiber plug had no germination for over a week and of the plugs that did germinate, only the seed leaves (cotyledons) were visible at the end of our two week test.

We seeded 6 plugs from each plug type and had 100% germination in all but one of the peat plug types and 100% in the floral foam plugs too. Both the rockwool and h**p fiber plugs only saw germination in 4/6 plugs.

So, what plug did we select as the overall winner? Head over to our shop (www.geckogrow.ca/shop) or stay tuned for the the reveal in an upcoming post.

Happy Growing! 🇨🇦🌱🦎

Propagation Plug Comparison Part 2:

After 12 days, we documented the results on the progress of rooting our cuttings. While there was root growth on all cuttings, the huge variation between each plug type was unexpected. Our basil cuttings showed the most root growth, and the tomato cuttings had slightly less, but still all rooted.

Most of the peat plugs had good, healthy root development coming out of the sides and the bottom of the plugs. The floral foam had roots coming out the bottom, but interestingly, very few out the sides. We also noted that one of the peat plug brands had really started to fall apart at this point.

On the bottom end of the results were the rockwool and h**p fiber plugs. They both had very little root development with few, or no roots coming out of the plug. To see what was going on, we carefully pulled apart the rockwool and h**p plugs and saw how little root development there was compared to the peat and floral foam counterparts.

Stay tuned to see how the lettuce seeds fared (there was a similar variation in plant growth across the plugs).

Yesterday's winter harvest of red romaine. It may be -14C outside right now, but that doesn't slow down the indoor garden at all.

Grown in a simple DWC system with Masterblend Lettuce Formula and our Venturi Air Injector system.

Happy Growing!🇨🇦🥬🦎

At Gecko Grow, we like to put some effort into curating a collection of products that do what they're supposed to do - and do it well. There are many options to choose from in the world of propagation plugs, but what works best?

We decided to get a little scientific and do a side by side comparison of some popular options. We wanted to see what plugs gave us the best results in our system. We got great results with a few, and not so great results with others.

As a result of our testing, we have started selling the winner in our online store, and stopped selling a popular option because it ranked second from last!

Stay tuned to see how the comparison went and what plug got an impressive score of 94/100!

Need plugs now for your spring planting? Head over to our shop at www.geckogrow.ca/shop (we only stock the winner).

In December, I was eating a kiwi and figured - "Why not?" A few weeks later, we have this little guy. When growing indoors, it can be easy to forget that you aren't limited to plants that will normally grow in your zone. Hydroponics isn't just a way to stretch the season, it can help you grow pretty well anything!

Happy Growing! 🇨🇦🥝

Checking in on your roots is a great way to see if your hydroponic plants are doing well. White roots mean a healthy root zone (unless you're growing rainbow chard, which every hydroponic gardener should try at least once), and brown roots means root rot - a clear sign that something is wrong.

Root rot can be caused by lots of things including pH imbalance, bacteria, and high temperature. If the cause is not fixed, your roots will turn to smelly brown sludge and your plant will die.

If caught in time, however, your plant can recover. Two weeks ago, this strawberry plant had a bad case of root rot, but now that the worst of the rot has been trimmed, the nutrient solution has been refreshed, and the pH has been kept stable, new fresh white roots have begun to grow, the plant is doing well again and we will still be enjoying fresh homegrown strawberries this winter.

Happy Growing! 🇨🇦 🦎 🌱 🍓

🌟 SAVE ON BOOTSTRAP FARMER PRODUCTS 🌟

Attention all growers! We're excited to announce that we are the newest Canadian distributors for Bootstrap Farmer's super high quality products. We're just offering case quantities to start (30 trays), so if you want the best trays out there, now is your chance to save.

DM or comment below for details.

Happy Growing! 🇨🇦