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  • Introduction to Plain 2 Grow Systems and Our New Forum!
  • Plain 2 Grow Systems Video and Blog Content Index and Link Page
    • Plain 2 Grow Systems Hydroponic Slideshow>
      • Latest Video added 12-03-2013: Plain 2 Grow Systems Easy, Inexpensive, Bigger Better PVC Pipe Wood Greenhouse Part 2 Almost Done !>
        • Video: The Improved Bigger, Better PVC Pipe Greenhouse!>
          • Video: Plain 2 Grow Jim's First Easy-to-Build PVC Pipe Greenhouse>
            • Video: The Free, Easy-to-Do Passive HydroSock Plain 2 Grow Hydroponic Growing System
            • Video: A Musical Slideshow of Hydroponic Success Using the Plain 2 Grow System
            • Video: " Simple Inexpensive Compact Hybrid Aeroponic Nutrient Film Technique Hydro Hydroponic Cultivation "
            • Video: Purple Haze: Phosphorus Deficiency In Hydroponic Tomato Plants.
  • "Why in the world would I want to grow plants in water?"
    • "How much does Plain 2 Grow Systems hydroponics cost?">
      • "What is pH and why is it so important to hydroculture?">
        • "What are air roots? Why are they important to hydroponics and hydroculture?">
          • "What is hydrogen peroxide - H2O2 - and why should I use it?" Part One.>
            • "What is hydrogen peroxide -H2O2- and why should I use it in hydroponics?" -part two.>
              • "What are leaf and nutrient deficiency charts? How do I use them? Where can I get them?">
                • "What is ' foliar feeding '? How can it help my hydroponic plants?">
                  • "How can aspirin help my plants fight off disease and insects? Is it easy to do?">
                    • "What are hydroponic media? Which media would be best for my system?">
                      • "Different hydroponic growing systems; if you are new, then try a simple, low-cost passive wick system.">
                        • Purple Haze: Phosphorus Deficiency in Your Tomato Plants; or Why They Look Purple!>
                          • My experience with EcoSmart organic, safe and non-toxic insecticide.>
                            • My Adventure In Experimental Hybrid Organic / Natural Hydroponic Nutrients: Edison Would Be Proud!>
                              • Basic Hydroponic Meter Function, Terminology, and Use: Explaining EC, TDS, ppm, and pH>
                                • It's Springtime! Six Common Hydroponic Insect Pests (with images) and How to Deal with Them.>
                                  • Determinate. Indeterminate. Open pollination. Closed pollination. Heirloom. Hybrid. Cloning. Help!>
                                    • Some Thoughts on the Extreme, Off-the-Grid, 'Combat' Easy Build, Cheap, No-Nonsense Hydrosock Hydroponic Passive System.>
                                      • Tomato Hornworms Are Destructive! Here Is a Novel Way to Identify and Remove Them.
      • Why You Should Use a Degrees Brix Refractometer to Check Plant Sugar, AKA Nutrients. It's Easy and Cheap!>
        • What Is Biochar (Biological Charcoal)? Part One.
go to my stuff fast!
Hello! My handle is Plain 2 Grow Jim, but my real name is Jim Flavin. No, not the guy in Ireland who owns about half of the mother country. Just plain Jim who grows stuff “magically” out of water and microscopic stuff that you can't see.

I am rushing headlong into my sixth decade hiking around on this ball of dirt. Either the path has started to ramp uphill, or the gravity has increased, because I have become slower, more cautious, and less likely to skip breakfast to rush willingly into a long and stressful work day!

I am married with children. My lovely wife supports (tolerates) my crazy hydroponic ideas and experiments. I believe I have convinced her that I am saving the world and in the process I might eventually be making a living from this. Or she's just laughing behind my back. Whatever. It's my hobby, my avocation, my passion. I don't drink (hardly), I don't smoke, and I don't play golf. I'm not a big sports fan ( mostly motorcycle and auto racing), and I'm quickly approaching that special age, over "60."

I spent my formative years in Japan and California. I have lived all over the USA and I have visited several other countries. I served in the military. I was born in the South and I choose to be a Southerner. The American South has IT ALL. If you aren't a Southerner, then it is just a geographic location -south- and a lower case “s.”

I have a plethora of college education; I just never finished. I paid off my student loans and decided that the “college of life” was my better bet.

I owned a successful business with my deceased first wife. We received three patents in the textile arts. When she passed, I tried half-heartedly to run the business (she was the genius, I was the “gopher”), refusing sound advice from everyone. Splat! Face first. In the dirt. Hard. I went back to work, and I've been working ever since.

I hope that my efforts in hydroponics may teach others to grow stuff “magically,” and for me to possibly make a living from it as I approach retirement. I am going to turn you all (or y'all, here in the South) into rabid Plain 2 Grow fans and successful growers! I aim to entertain you and teach you, and to sell you goodies! And by the way, it's science and God's creation, not magic, that makes this all possible.
Why did I start growing hydroponic fruits and vegetables? A few years ago my garden plot was deviously infiltrated by furry horned creatures of the night. Yes, DEER! Actually, one of the deer tore into my electric fence and ran off in a panic, likely decorated with the fence. Her buddies thanked her for the sudden gift and chowed down throughout the night. Once the deer were satiated, then the armadillos, rabbits, wild dogs, and birds tidied everything up.

I woke up to a gorgeous, sunny day, ready to pick beans and tomatoes, and instead I saw a plot laid to waste and a bit of stubble here and there. I cried. Then my son Aidan and I began designing a PVC pipe greenhouse and started talking about container gardening and hydroponics. I built. I tinkered. I grew stuff. I killed stuff. I grew stuff again. I was told by some “experts” that my ideas wouldn't work. I guess I'm the bumblebee that didn't know that it couldn't fly! That is how Plain 2 Grow Jim and Plain 2 Grow Systems got started.

My mission is to continue to create “real-world,” easy-to-build and inexpensive hydroponic systems that anyone can build so they can grow great fruits and vegetables. My goals to support my mission are: Make it simple. Make it inexpensive. Use “low-level” technology as much as possible so people who don't have the resources that I do can grow food. Use as much recyclable, recycled and resuable parts as possible in the designs. Provide a blog and forum for the discussion of gardening, hydroponics, microfarming, sustainability, the environment, and food production.

Promote the idea that the various elemental salts-based nutrient solutions (I currently use General Hydroponics) are safe, effective, inexpensive and are USDA-approved; they are made from natural nutrient elemental salts found in the ocean and all life. I will also equally promote any well-known, proven and safe organic nutrient solutions, commercial and home-grown. I will market useful and quality-made general gardening and hydroponics tools, products, and books. I will provide useful information and try to make it entertaining, funny, and understandable. I will use You Tube, the www.plain2growsystems.com website, FaceBook, Twitter and Google Plus to make all of this happen. Let's Grow!

"As we search for a less extractive and polluting economic order, so that we may fit agriculture into the economy of a sustainable culture, community becomes the locus and metaphor for both agriculture and culture."  >> Wes Jackson,
Becoming Native to This Place