It is that time of year again when we all scramble to find the perfect gifts for our family and friends. If you have a gardener in your life that you’re not sure what they could use, then you’ll love our 2018 grower gift guide
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Everyone on the list
First off, if you’re not sure what to get someone but want to further encourage more gardening, then you should help them get what they need easier, or learn more about what to do.
To that end, let’s start with our preferred vendor of all things too obscure to find at the local stores, Amazon. Amazon Prime allows them to get free 2-day shipping on everything, some better deals, and a ton of other perks like free movie streaming and music services. And if you are buying incredibly large object from Amazon, the first free shipping is worth about as much as the membership.
Learning is an ongoing theme in gardening and you might want to get them a few of our favorite books:
Plants from Test Tubes: An Introduction to Micropropogation is a great book on cloning plants and how plants function at the cellular level. We’re currently using this as a resource on our upcoming series on practical home cloning of plants.
The Cannabis Grow Bible is a classic and in its 3rd edition. This huge book has pretty much what you want to know about growing the ganj, and them a whole mess more. It’s not updated to the absolute latest on LED lighting yet, so that’s something to be aware of, but it’s still an amazing resource for anyone that wants to learn more about the cultivation of cannabis.
Do they drive a lot? With a fairly large selection of gardening audio books, Audible is a great way to learn while driving, or listening around the house. The signup includes 2 free books, and you get a new book each month and 30% off any more you get.
Stocking stuffers under $15
Let’s keep it cheap. This is all useful stuff that most indoor or outdoor gardeners could use.
A TDS Meter Tells you how conductive a solution of water is, which you can use to figure out how much fertilizer you’re throwing at your plants. No need to get anything fancy, most of these work well enough to ensure you’re not over or underfeeding plants.
Small plant labels are always handy. The number of times you can’t find something to tell your herbs apart, or even varieties of the same plant, boggles the mind. Keeping lots of labels handy is always a good idea.
Want to do a better job of keeping your plants labeled? Get these multi-colored labels to help keep it all together nicely. I like using these when I have a lot of varieties or run experiments with different parameters. It lakes it really easy to see which are which from a distance.
Gardening gloves are basic and keep your hands from getting grimy when digging through dirt, or “organic matter”. I like these for the dipped coating that keeps stuff from coming in through the fabric.
A good set of garden shears is super handy for trimming, or cutting down plants. No need to use a ton of force with smaller scissors, or break our a saw.
Conversely, a nice set of trimming scissors is great for delicate work like working on a bonsai, cloning, or trimming bud. These have an anti-rosin coating that keeps them running smoothly if you’re doing a lot of trimming.
Indoor gardening is a lot like playing nature, and if your plants don’t need 24 hours of light, this lamp timer does the hard work of remembering to turn stuff on and off for you. The digital ones are nice because they can get better resolution and don’t have little plastic bits to fall off, but analog timers are easier to work with for some people.
Most indoor gardeners need to keep track of temperature and humidity. These are commodity items, now, but a good temperature and humidity display it invaluable to have. If you want something you can check remotely, the Sonhoff TH16 works well, and you can configure it to turn on fans/humidifiers/air conditioning/etc as temp and humidity change.
If you need to hang anything in a grow area, these hanging ropes are pretty standard and you can never have enough. Great for lights, holding up vents, fans, and many other things.
Useful gifts under $50
Show someone you really care about them and their grow space with a gift that says “This secret santa’s limit is $50”. It’s all love.
Does the reciver want to grow some small plants on the counter or in a confined space? These inexpensive grow light panels are cheap and put out over 350PPFD at 6″, making them great for growing greens, herbs, or small vegetables. They are flat and low power while being fairly bright.
Does your budding grower complain about airflow or are they getting a tent? This vertical fan is great for getting airflow in a grow area and reasonably priced.
You can never have enough clip fans to get airflow in the nooks of your grow area. Plants want air to grow, and all active grow areas should have a little fan (at least).
If your growing friend doesn have a pH meter yet, get them this Apera economy pH meter. Unlike the under $20 meters, these don’t lose calibration quickly, and come with everything you need to calibrate and store. As a bonus, they have replaceable tips so that replacing the sensor is much cheaper than getting a new unit.
If your grower wants to monitor the environment remotely, this Sonhoff TH16 allows you to remote measure temperature and humidity, and control a 120VAC device (like a dehumidifier, humidifier, or AC) based on sensor readings, manually, or on a timer.
Want someone to grow something for you?
Continuing on our Grower Gift Guide, we move to the selfish gift… Want to sucker someone into growing a special plant for you? Try these:
The HLG 135 is a workhorse light that is highly efficient and very well built. It’s one of those that last you for years and can see a lot of service even if you do outgrow it. It’s not cheap, but you’ll save all the monies over buying a cheap and inefficient light.
If you want to grow inside and don’t have a place you can optimize for the grow, a small 2x2x4 tent is the best way to go. Grow that monster Carolina Reaper, or maybe a large herb. They love the reflective walls to make lighting more efficient.
Large plants need lots of air, and sometimes they smell bad. Fix both with a good ventilation system. a 4-inch system with a quiet fan and charcoal filter will quietly ventilate the grow area, and hide any smell (Those tomato plants really do have a pungent smell, don’t they?)
Grow your plant in a simple hydro system like the Bubble Boy. It’s easy to use and grow way faster than soil.
You have to feed that plant, so go with the system NASA uses! It’s hard to grow wrong with the General Hydroponics Flora Series Performance Pack. It contains the basic nutrients and all their adjuncts that increase yeild and grow speed. Given that some of the stuff in there is $135/Gal, it’s a reasonable value for what you get.
For the chili growers
For the chili heads out there, here are a few simple gifts to feed their addiction.
The constant din of “Hey, what pepper is this?!?!” echoes from the Internet… Let your friend siphon some easy internet points by using the knowledge in The Field Guide to Peppers to give a better guess than everyone else!
Do they make a bunch of sauce or want to start? Grab them a 14-PACK Hot Sauce Bottles and fill kit. It contains 14 bottles, and the small funnels, caps, and spouts for packaging their own hot sauce! Makes a great selfish gift!
Big gifts
Got a lot of money you don’t need? Good. Get your growing friend the following.
CO2 is a hugely important component in plant growth, but few know the amount in the plant’s grow space. If your buddy is metrics driven, this CO2 Meter will let them better manage grow space CO2, and figure out if the need to supplement for faster growth. Check out the related items for CO2 delivery systems.
Do you really love your friend? Do you want them to grow a LOT of plants. The HLG 550 v2 is the Cadillac of modern grow lights. Sure, it’s almost $1,000. However, it can properly illuminate a 4’x4′ area, rather than having to get 4 other, also expensive lights.
I hope this helped you and if you have any comments, suggestions, or want to ask any questions, please comment below, or contact us. Thanks for visiting!
Everyone on the list
