An Introduction to Hydroponics

Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soils. An Introduction to Hydroponics infographic goes over the benefits of using the technique, and a couple of different methods you could use. It is a great visual explanation of each setup and could really come in handy for any newbies interested in the field. Just make sure you read the section on what plants are best for hydroponics! You can find the full details at Green and Vibrant. 

Hydroponics is a dirt-free, space-saving, water-effective method of growing soilless.

This practice is not new. In fact, the earliest records of Hydroponics dated back to the ancient civilizations. And modern Hydroponics has been used widely in the commercial greenhouses as well as at home for over 30 years.

If you're just getting started with Hydroponics, or you're looking to hone and your knowledge and skills.

You come to the right place.

In this guide, you'll learn about the most important details about Hydroponics and all the basic knowledge to set up a year-round hydroponic garden of your own.

Read more at https://www.greenandvibrant.com

Found on Green and Vibrant

Animated Visualization of First Leaf Appearance

Spring is coming! Jeremy White at the NY Times has animated data from the USA National Phenology Network showing the average dates of "first leaf" across the U.S.

In some cases, an animated data visualziation is better at communicating the data to the audience than a static design. This animation clearly shows the progression of Spring across the country and you can understand the data within seconds.

Go Green to Breathe Clean

Go Green to Breathe Clean infographic designed by GridSpace at HypothesisGroup proposes a way to solve "sick building syndrome" by adding plants to a room.

Indoor pollutants are found in the office and at home. They can cause a wide variety of serious respiratory and central nervous system problems. What to do? Plants have the answer with natural pollutant-fighting power. Which plants work the best to remove pollutants, and which pollutants are the most dangerous? Infographic content and design by GridSpace at HypothesisGroup. Follow on Instagram @hypothesisgroup. www.hypothesisgroup.com

The infographic is portrayed in a linear and simple way. It's in an easy to read but stylized font, and doesn't use any intense colors to distract the viewer. You can follow the information down the page without getting bored or distracted. 

It has an ideal amount of content. The creators chose to target only 5 common air pollutants that cause health risks, and then recommended 8 plants. Even with this amount of information they are still able to help the reader pick the ideal plant for their needs and environment. By using the circular graph, it's different and the reader can compare the similarities and differences between the plants rather quickly and easily.

It's interesting that they used LinkedIN's SlideShare as the platform to publish the original infographic and then embedded into their own blog post. 

Thanks to Majorie for sending in the link!

Gardening Hardiness Zones

When planting a garden, it is best to understand which crops will preform best in different climate zones. Avant Gardening has developed the Gardening Hardiness Zones infographic for the gardener in any part of the United States.

We love the changing seasons, but we definitely miss spending time in our gardens. Every winter, we are starting to wonder when we can begin planting again. 

So, when can we get back out there? The best time for starting your garden depends on where you live. That’s why every gardener knows their USDA Plant Hardiness zone.

A hardiness zone, as defined by Wikipedia, is a “geographically defined area in which a specific category of plant life is capable of growing, as defined by climatic conditions, including its ability to withstand the minimum temperatures of the zone.” 

The USDA sets the zones based on the average annual extreme minimum temperature during a 30-year period in the past. The zones are not determined by the lowest temperature that has ever occurred or what is predicted to occur.

Know Your Hardiness Zone

So, how do you know which zone you’re in? The USDA has created a very detailed map outlining the US and how the zones are broken down. This resource is second-to-none when it comes to hardiness zones.

Once you determine in which hardiness zone you reside – and it is as simple as visiting the USDA map and clicking the mouse on your location - you can use this information to better plan your garden. 

Thanks to Deirdre for sending in the link!

30 Years of Asteroid Discoveries Animated

This is a very cool video animation, Asteroid Discovery From 1980 - 2010, of asteroid discoveries over the last 30 years.  Not only does it show the orbits of the asteroids in relation to the inner planets, it highlights them over time as they were identified and colors them according to how close to Earth their orbits will come.

The only visual inaccuracy is the size of the asteroids.  Since the asteroids have to be at least one pixel wide to appear in the animation, they are represented much larger compared to the planets than they really are.

View of the solar system showing the locations of all the asteroids starting in 1980, as asteroids are discovered they are added to the map and highlighted white so you can pick out the new ones. 
The final colour of an asteroids indicates how closely it comes to the inner solar system. 
Earth Crossers are Red
Earth Approachers (Perihelion less than 1.3AU) are Yellow
All Others are Green

Notice now the pattern of discovery follows the Earth around its orbit, most discoveries are made in the region directly opposite the Sun. You’ll also notice some clusters of discoveries on the line between Earth and Jupiter, these are the result of surveys looking for Jovian moons. Similar clusters of discoveries can be tied to the other outer planets, but those are not visible in this video.

As the video moves into the mid 1990’s we see much higher discovery rates as automated sky scanning systems come online. Most of the surveys are imaging the sky directly opposite the sun and you’ll see a region of high discovery rates aligned in this manner.

At the beginning of 2010 a new discovery pattern becomes evident, with discovery zones in a line perpendicular to the Sun-Earth vector. These new observations are the result of the WISE (Widefield Infrared Survey Explorer) which is a space mission that’s tasked with imaging the entire sky in infrared wavelengths. 

Currently we have observed over half a million minor planets, and the discovery rates show no sign that we’re running out of undiscovered objects.

Orbital elements were taken from the ‘astorb.dat’ data created by Ted Bowell and associates at http://www.naic.edu/~nolan/astorb.html

Music is ‘Transgenic’ by Trifonic: http://www.amazon.com/Emergence-Trifo…

Quite a few journalists, bloggers and tweeters are attributing this to NASA or Arecibo Observatory - while they do fine work they had nothing to do with this. If you write a story you can credit it to Scott Manley.

Found on FlowingData and VizWorld