Grodan Display Contest 2007

Competition Entries

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Grand Prize Grace’s Hydro Organic Gardens-Florida
Second Place The Indoor Outdoor Gardener, New York
Third Place Mendocino County Gardens, Fort Bragg, California
Runners-up:
Coca’s Central Valley Hydroponics-California
OSGS-One Stop Garden Shop - California

Grace’s Hydro Organic Gardens-Florida

The Grodan displays in our store consist of Super Chili Peppers, Collard Greens, Dwarf Sunflowers and Mammoth Sun Flowers growing in Ebb & Flood systems.

Super Chili Peppers grown in 4"x4" block.

We have 12-15 various growing displays throughout our 12,000 sq. ft. store.

Sunflower roots in Grodan 1.5”x1.5” starter cube.

The Indoor Outdoor Gardener, New York

I thought of all the grandparents, parents, and children who came through the store on a daily bases. What does it take to inspire someone? A vivarium, the living quarters of reptiles and amphibian, sounded like a wonderful idea. Grodan is what made my fairy land come to life as Fish benefit from plants and plants benefit from fish the same goes for amphibians. Cuttings that were started from day one were transplanted into the Grodan landscape. A 4-bulb 2ft T-5 light shown down on my fairyland. The fish pool water cycled for a week before I added aquatic plants and fish. I hooked up a small Rio-180 pump to water the plants from the pool water, and every three days I mixed and organic nutrient “cocktail” that kept my plants nice and green. With daily maintenance, my vivarium was getting ready to add some amphibian. In July, red eyed tree frogs were suggested by a vender at a reptile show in White Plains New York. so Aglaychnis callidryas, red eyed tree frogs it was for the fish stock, I went to a wholesaler in New Jersey and purchased a variety of fish such as Pearl, Blue, and Dwarf Guramies, tiger pleckos, a spiny eel also freshwater clams helped filtrate the water and gold snails kept algae at bay.

All types of customers were amazed to see plants growing in something other than soil and plenty of them wanted to know how to make their own habitats. There are a lot of hobbyists in our neighborhood and when anyone looked at our display they left with their own ideas. One example was a customer who had a 55 gallon salt-water aquarium that was overwhelming him so much that with advice on plant care and a little direction, he is now enjoying a desert themed vivarium with Leopard Geckos and live plants.

The Rockwool was kept at a neutral pH of 7.0 and the water from the Rockwool drained into the fish pool below. The livestock kept in the display did very well. I was amazed when I found an egg-sac attached to the screen. My tree frog actually showed signs of wanting to breed. A perfect environment was created with the help of your innovative product.

Thank you so much for creating this contest and Helena thanks you even more because word was getting around the neighborhood of a fantastic new habitat living in the Indoor Outdoor Gardener. The results were more customers coming in to see and to buy terrarium supplies and more. As Helena always says; something new, something inexpensive, and something impressive will attract more and more customers.

Mendocino County Gardens, Fort Bragg, California

In the first picture, named lettuce, is a Hugo that I cut four sides out and planted Musculin Lettuce as well as on top. It has grown so well that I had to put the Hugo on something to protect the roots. So I took an 3x8x36" slab, cut it in half, taped up the ends, cut a hole in the top to fit the hugo, made drain holes in the bottom of the slab, and inserted the slab in a 10x20 white tray. We made a stand for this out of slabs and hugos.

The second picture is of the whole Grodan display. There are a variety of items in this display. In the white Grotek Jungle Garden, we used the Grow-Cubes as filler, and the seeds were started in 1.5x1.5x1.5 individually wrapped cubes. To cover the Grow-Cubes, we used the Grodan Coco Caps.

Underneath, we have a cloning tray set up. We used the Grodan Starter Tray with the Grodan Grow-Cubes and took clones.

We also set up a Crop King Window Herb Kit. We used the Grodan 1.5x1.5x1.5 cubes to start the seeds.

We made another stand out of slabs and different size Grow-Cubes (4x4, 3x3, etc.) for our Grodan brochures. We took the picture and then had to move it because it fell over onto the Crop King display, luckily, everything held up really well.

We sell a lot of Grodan products. In another part of the store, we have at least two cases of every size.

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