u/Jumpy_Key6769

I design and print a lot of functional prints - needed some "me" time so I did this.

New guide is up, and this one covers a lot of the questions I keep getting in DMs:

• Bush vs. vining — which one actually fits your system, and why picking the wrong one is the #1 reason people end up with a tangled mess in a small tower
• Feeding + lighting by type — vining types run hotter on EC and PPFD than bush types since they stay in fruiting way longer
• The pollination mistake that deforms fruit — if you're growing a seedless/English variety and you've been hand-pollinating it "just in case," stop. I explain exactly why that produces those bulbous, lumpy cucumbers people assume is a nutrient problem
• What NOT to grow with cucumbers (and what you can, carefully)
• Kratky vs. tower systems — and for my Gardyn growers specifically, how to actually support a vining cucumber when you can't stake into the pod

Full guide here: Growing Cucumbers in a Hydroponic System – UGrowFood Inc.

Drop your cucumber questions below — especially if you're running into the misshapen fruit thing, I want to know if the explanation in the guide actually clears it up for people.

We have just published a full guide on growing tomatoes hydroponically — covering the stuff that actually trips people up.

If you've dealt with blossom end rot, flowers that never turn into fruit, or a plant that just stalls out mid-season, this walks through why:

• EC/pH targets by stage (seedling → veg → fruiting) — tomatoes need a lot more than lettuce or herbs, and ramping up too fast will burn a young plant
• Hand-pollination — the step most indoor growers skip, and probably the #1 reason for "tons of flowers, no fruit"
• Support for towers vs. buckets vs. DWC, including how to trellis a full-size plant in something like a Gardyn without staking into the tower itself
• The actual causes behind blossom end rot (hint: it's usually not a straight calcium shortage)

Link's here if it's useful: Growing Hydroponic Tomatoes – UGrowFood Inc.

Anyone else growing tomatoes indoors right now — what's given you the most trouble?

Made a guide breaking down the actual signs your hydro reservoir water needs changing - not just "every 2 weeks" on a calendar.

Most advice defaults to a fixed schedule, but EC and pH tell you a lot more than a date on the calendar does. This covers:

• What it means when EC creeps up (or won't budge) between top-offs
• pH that won't hold no matter how much you dose
• Visual/smell cues (biofilm, cloudiness, that reservoir funk) and what they actually indicate
• A simple size-based baseline schedule (under 5 gal weekly, 5-9 gal every 2 weeks, 10+ gal monthly) to use alongside the readings, not instead of them

Full writeup here if it's useful: https://ugf.onl/blogs/guides/water-change-indicators

If you own a Gardyn system, reach out to me. We’ve developed a new product and I’m looking for someone to check out the listing, see if it’s clear how it works, and let me know if you like it.

Bluem has been hard at work updating many of our Guides. We've found - a lot of corrections and made the guides easier on the eyes as well as reworked much of language to make it easier to comprehend. So, if you want to see what we've worked on, check out the following guides:

• Welcome to Root Balance - An onboarding guide that helps you understand what it's all about and how to effectively utilize our most popular product.
• The Complete Guide to Growing Strawberries Hydroponically - A comprehensive guide to getting you going with strawberries.
• Scarification - A guide to helping you start those tough seeds like pumpkin, watermelon etc.
• Prepping a General Used Grow System - Help starting a used grow system. Versions for general and one for Gardyn systems.

More updates are coming so keep checking back.
Happy Growing!

Well after a lot of work, we finally pushed our website updates to our live site. We have complete revamped our website to make it easy for new growers to pick a path in their hydroponic journey. We've updated the way our guides page shows all of our guides and helps people quickly find what they're looking for. So stop on by and check it out. Let us know what you think and if there is anything you think would be cool to add. Visit it at https://ugf.onl

We've updated our Guide to Growing Peppers in Hydroponic Systems - Please feel free to check it out. We've added a short explainer video on How and Why to hand pollinate your Pepper Plants. As well as added some expected timelines and more.

Our small team has been quietly working on a big update to UGrowFood, and we wanted to share what’s going on rather than just dropping changes out of nowhere. We’re reorganizing the site to make things easier to navigate, easier to learn from, and easier for new growers to get started without feeling overwhelmed.

One of the new things we’re building is a “Start Here” section — a simple walkthrough for anyone setting up a grow system for the first time. We’re also cleaning up product organization and adding tutorials so people can find what they need without digging through menus.

It’s a lot of work (we’re still a tiny operation), so changes won’t happen overnight. But we wanted the community to know what’s happening behind the scenes instead of wondering where updates went.

Huge thanks to everyone who’s shared suggestions, asked questions, or supported us while we grow. You’ve shaped a lot of what we’re building.

If you have feedback, ideas, or questions about growing — hydroponics or otherwise — we’re always here and happy to help.

Our video on how to properly mix our new 2 part nutrient blends is being prepared. It will be available soon. These new blends provide a much higher purity and potency over of former single part blends and provide your plants with optimal nutrition without sacrifice.