CleverGreen The UKs Only Hydroponics Hypermarket

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OPEN all year Monday to Saturday 1000hrs-1800hrs

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Massive range of AIR-COOLED SHADES in Stock

32 Different Shades - Budget to Expert - Available from Stock - All on Display

35 Different Lamps in Stock from 55w to 1000w

Air / Climate

Light

Water

Nutrient

Medium

Hydroponic Systems

Complete Kit

Tanks, Trays, Pots & Nets

Plastic Connectors

Accessories

Nutrient Management

Sheeting

Tents

Propagation

Mother Plants

Trimming & Harvesting

Pests & Problems

Reading Material

New systems and new products in store and online now

Incredible savings on Grolux lamps

Air cooled shades from just £45 and complete air-cooled systems from just £104

New HID light systems from £75

All sizes of Secret Garden tents available from stock

Lumatek digital ballasts, Canatronics range, Compact, Brightstar & Megalight ballasts from MaxiGrow

Complete Canna, Ferro, Growth Technology, BioBizz, Atami B'Cuzz, Vitalink & Advanced nutrient ranges all in stock and available for next day delivery, buy online or in the shop.

Clever Green

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Worldwide shipping is available, please call for a quote.

Most of what we offer in-store is available on-line, but our range is always expanding and what you want may not be listed, so please ring on 01952 257 200 and we'll be happy to help. So far we have around 1000 different lines on the site and still growing! We stock a complete range of plastic connectors for pretty much any size of standard hose and have many spares for the systems we sell. If you need a widget and its not here, then give the shop a call and we'll find out about availability and give you a quote.

CleverGreen is the only Hydroponics Hypermarket in the UK, so why not come along to the shop and see if we can help you. We welcome all growers, large or small and we have the range to meet your needs

CleverGreen Hydroponics Hypermarket - Serving the Grower with Honesty and Integrity

Clever Green

Check out our dedicated trimming machine site where you'll find a complete range of trimming machines for all growers, large or small

www.trimmingmachine.co.uk

Please call / e-mail us 01952 257 200 / sales@clevergreen.co.uk

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Why Hydroponics?

Hydroponics (From the Greek words hydro, water and ponos, labor) is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions, in water, without soil. Terrestrial plants may be grown with their roots in the mineral nutrient solution only or in an inert medium, such as perlite, gravel, mineral wool, or coconut husk.

Researchers discovered in the 19th century that plants absorb essential mineral nutrients as inorganic ions in water. In natural conditions, soil acts as a mineral nutrient reservoir but the soil itself is not essential to plant growth. When the mineral nutrients in the soil dissolve in water, plant roots are able to absorb them. When the required mineral nutrients are introduced into a plant's water supply artificially, soil is no longer required for the plant to thrive. Almost any terrestrial plant will grow with hydroponics. Hydroponics is also a standard technique in biology research and teaching.

The study of crop nutrition began thousands of years ago. Ancient history tells us that various experiments were undertaken by Theophrastus (372-287 B.C.), while several, extant botanical writings of Dioscorides date from the first century AD.

The earliest published work on growing terrestrial plants without soil was the 1627 book, Sylva Sylvarum by Sir Francis Bacon, printed a year after his death. Water culture became a popular research technique after that. In 1699, John Woodward published his water culture experiments with spearmint. He found that plants in less pure water sources grew better than plants in distilled water. By 1842 a list of nine elements believed to be essential to plant growth had been made out, and the discoveries of the German botanists, Julius von Sachs and Wilhelm Knop, in the years 1859-65, resulted in a development of the technique of soilless cultivation. Growth of terrestrial plants without soil in mineral nutrient solutions was called solution culture. It quickly became a standard research and teaching technique and is still widely used today. Solution culture is now considered a type of hydroponics where there is no inert medium.

In 1929, Professor William Frederick Gericke of the University of California at Berkeley began publicly promoting that solution culture be used for agricultural crop production. He first termed it aquaculture but later found that aquaculture was already applied to culture of aquatic organisms. Gericke created a sensation by growing tomato vines twenty-five feet high in his back yard in mineral nutrient solutions rather than soil.By analogy with the ancient Greek term for agriculture, geoponics, the science of cultivating the earth, Gericke introduced the term hydroponics in 1937 (although he asserts that the term was suggested by Dr. W. A. Setchell, of the University of California) for the culture of plants in water (from the Greek hydros, "water", and ponos, "labor").

Reports of Gericke's work and his claims that hydroponics would revolutionize plant agriculture prompted a huge number of requests for further information. Gericke refused to reveal his secrets claiming he had done the work at home on his own time. This refusal eventually resulted in his leaving the University of California. In 1940, he wrote the book, Complete Guide to Soilless Gardening.

Two other plant nutritionists at the University of California were asked to research Gericke's claims. Dennis R. Hoagland and Daniel I. Arnon wrote a classic 1938 agricultural bulletin, The Water Culture Method for Growing Plants Without Soil, debunking the exaggerated claims made about hydroponics. Hoagland and Arnon found that hydroponic crop yields were no better than crop yields with good quality soils. Crop yields were ultimately limited by factors other than mineral nutrients, especially light. This research, however, overlooked the fact that hydroponics has other advantages including the fact that the roots of the plant have constant access to oxygen and that the plants have access to as much or as little water as they need. This is important as one of the most common errors when growing is over- and under- watering; and hydroponics prevents this from occurring as large amounts of water can be made available to the plant and any water not used, drained away, recirculated, or actively aerated, eliminating anoxic conditions which drown root systems in soil. In soil, a grower needs to be very experienced to know exactly how much water to feed the plant. Too much and the plant will not be able to access oxygen; too little and the plant will lose the ability to transport nutrients, which are typically moved into the roots while in solution.

These two researchers developed several formulas for mineral nutrient solutions, known as Hoagland solution. Modified Hoagland solutions are still used today.

One of the early successes of hydroponics occurred on Wake Island, a rocky atoll in the Pacific Ocean used as a refueling stop for Pan American Airlines. Hydroponics was used there in the 1930s to grow vegetables for the passengers. Hydroponics was a necessity on Wake Island because there was no soil, and it was prohibitively expensive to airlift in fresh vegetables.

In the 1960s, Allen Cooper of England developed the Nutrient film technique. The Land Pavilion at Walt Disney World's EPCOT Center opened in 1982 and prominently features a variety of hydroponic techniques. In recent decades, NASA has done extensive hydroponic research for their Controlled Ecological Life Support System or CELSS. Hydroponics intended to take place on Mars are using LED lighting to grow in different color spectrum with much less heat.

In 1978, hydroponics pioneer Dr. Howard Resh published the first edition of his book "Hydroponics Food Production." This book (now updated) spurred what has become known as the 3-part base nutrients formula that is still a major component of today's hydroponics gardening (See our GHE & Advanced Nutrients 3-Part ranges). Resh later went on to publish other books, and is currently in charge of a highly advanced hydroponics research and production facility in the Caribbean.

In the last few years, the popularity in the hydroponics marketplace has increased rapidly