6 inch PVC aeroponics tube system

HI OG

Where getting there,had to make changes to the drain off, comes off in a 6 inch tube, for about 2.5 meters, then down to 4 inch tube for the bends through the floor, and now, I had to reduce it to 40mm just to keep the noise down, that was one thing I thought I would not have a problem with. and great Ideat the 90mm dia pots, in a 92mm hole rattle, in the 89, they bed in nicely, thanks for the advice.

Hey OG I actually devised "holders" for the clean out to make it a little easier. My biggest worries was if the drain will clog from the roots if I'm using it as a rdwc.

What do you think of my thoughts on only having 2-3 plants in each set up? If I can grow them to around 3-4ft? Do you think for my perpetual grow that I am going for I would be bette adding more holes for more plants? Like I said in my original post I'm going to use 2 seperate set ups so as one set of plants is being harvested the other set will be 2-3 weeks away from harvest and I can move the set of plants vegging into flower. I figured just run it small, I'm using a 2x5x7ft closet. Ill use a 5 gallon tote for each set up. So I should have 4 gallons of water/nut in each res for 2-3 plants. Good to go? Or do I need a bigger res?

SailAway, Looking good buddy.

Bongboy00, with a 2" drain line I would not see a problem with clogging. Like stated earlier
I use to use my system rdwc. I mounted a line inside up high near the net pots and used no spray
heads, just drilled holes in the line so the spray hit the water and added oxygen (do). Because
i had bottom drains and small they did tend to clog. I made my water level adjustable using some
vinyl tubing in the drain opening.
I see no reason why the planned setup won't work in your space. I would use a bigger res though.
You will have more stable res if larger. Watch out for stretch during flowering, research your strains,
you could have height problems if you veg too long. I got plants in veg and some have been topped
twice because my room is not ready and i know they will be 3x taller at the end.

Later and gl, OG

As promised here is Aerokrafters nutrient regieme. Growing this way is as far away from kiss (keep it simple)
as it gets. I can attest to the results they are outstanding, explosive growth and extreme frosty buds with
excellent smell and flavor.

Note res is only changed every 2 weeks. It is per a 40 gal res He uses a aeroflo 36
with drain tube all the way down, splashoponics

Base Formula for start upand res changes:

After all that, it comes down to this:

Fill the 40 gallon res with RO water and add (in ml):

The order is important. Make sure the pump is running and you have topped offwith RO water. If you see a milky precipitate on the bottom of the res, thatwould be your calcium.

110 ml DM gold A
110 ml DM gold B
80 ml pH down
50 ml Silica
50 ml Zone

PS I would not ph the solution till the 3 hour mix is done. Everyones water is different and if i add ph adjuster to mine it is usually
ph down 10 ml. Once you have changed the res a few times you will know what it takes.

Start by adding the pH down, Silica and Zone. Let this circulate before addingA & B. Doing this helps avoid Ca participating out of solution.

Wait at least 3 hours to take readings.

For me this results in a pH of 6.2 and 460 ppm. You should be pretty close tothese numbers. If your plants are in the unit - they drag nutes and affect yournumbers. Its a good idea to do this before putting any plants in the unit nexttime. It's not hard to burn plants if you are putting high concentrations inbursts through the system. Sides - you really need to know the exact amounts ofthese nutes you must have to get to these numbers. Next time follow the orderand take a little pause between adding nutes.

Our target zones are 5.3 - 6.3 for pH, and 420 - 480 ppm. These change withstrain knowledge.

Through the course of the run, we want the pH to drift through as much of thisrange as possible. Different macro and micro nutrients are absorbed atdifferent pHs. There are nute availability charts floating all over the net -beware I have seen a couple mislabeled and wrong. Double check

Root masses will retain some nutrients. The bigger the roots, the more the nutedrag. Starting fresh this isn't a big deal, but later in the grow, must beaccounted for.


Adjustments, Additives and Res Changes:

Over time, the plants remove nutrients and add waste to the solution. Tocompensate we have to add those nutes back. In addition, the plants change whatthey absorb throughout the course of the run, so the menu changes with them.

The ppm meter is really just a measure of conductivity. It tells you howionically active the solution is - nothing more. There is no way of knowing fromthis what is REALLY in the res. The only solution to the problem is toperiodically change out the res. I have experimented the full range from weeklyres changes to no res change ever. I found the optimum res life to be 2 weeks.There was no difference between weekly and biweekly res changes. At 3 week reschanges and beyond, results tail off to 85% effectiveness with no res change atall.


Additives over time

For the first 2 weeks I use no additives only AB addbacks

weeks 3 - 4 I start to add a light flavor and PK boost in addition to ABaddbacks. Over the course of this time, my target is to add 2 doses of 2teaspoons Kool Bloom, and at least 1 dose of 50 ml Floralicious.

weeks 5 - 6 I bump to 3 doses KB and 2 FL + AB add backs

weeks 7 - 8 2 doses KB and 3 FL + AB add backs

week 9 flush

This is my base setup and is adjusted with strain knowledge.


Riding the wave and shooting ducks

So our goal is to monitor Tds and Ph throughout the grow. Reading the changesin the numbers and the plants overall "happiness" as we go.

So how do we react to what we see? Any time you add anything to the res, it canaffect BOTH pH and Tds. By creatively using our "tool" additives, wecan solve multiple problems with one shot.

Here are some rules of thumb for all the things we are using. Keep in mind thatwhen the plants are actively eating, these numbers slide around a little. Theserules will keep you out trouble. Remember less is more. 10 ml in 40 gallonssounds like homeopathic dilutions, but a drop in the bucket is all it takessometimes.

20 ml A / 20 ml B Addback results in:

+45 ppm
very slight decrease in pH

This is my first response to dropping ppm. When the plants are growing at fullspeed this number drifts down. Fresh starts range higher.

10 ml pH down results in:

- .2 pH
slight increase in ppm

pH down is buffered which means that at the ends of our acceptable range itseffectiveness changes. Be careful - a little goes a long long ways.

10 ml pH up results in:

+.3 pH
slight increase in ppm
Once again buffered and be careful.


2 teaspoon dose of Kool Bloom results in:

+20 ppm
-.2 pH

50 ml Floralicious results in:

+10 ppm
+.2 pH

With these numbers it becomes a sort of dance with the plants. They take a stepand eat. You lead them and they respond back

Also, you can foliar feed during the first 3 - 4 weeks with dm saturator and liquid light. I use 20ml each per 16 ounces of water fed
every 3rd day until buds get about tip of your little finger in size. It will destroy frost so i usually discontinue at 3.5 wks of flower.



Gl OG

OG your the man brah, that was actually the first idea I came up with for the "sprayers". I was gonna just hook up a water line with small holes on each side if the pipe, I thought it might be better if the water was more of a saturating mist it would be more oxygenated, than I thought about clogs from the nuts and said hmmm sprinkler heads, but now I'm back to holes in a hoes

How big of a Res would you recommend? Remember I'm going to have 2, each one supporting 2 plants in 6"PVC and that they have to fit in a 2x4 closet and that the smaller they are in height the more height ill have for the plants?
Thanks OG

Bongboy00, 10 gal should do it. Don't forget to use an inline filter found in hardware store
in the well pump section, 200 micron cleanable. OG

Hi All, Thanks for the Program OG, Got the Auto Light Riser working, Well it goes up between 2mm and 3cm a day, So hopefull it will be ok, well once I have sorted out height of the strains I seattle on.

Got a problem, If I put the Auto Grows in with the others, they will be dropping back to 12/12 in a few weeks and the autos still required 20/4 does this mean I can Mix them?

Thoughts please, what happens if the autos go on 12/12?

J

Sailaway, have no experience with autos. Anybody have answer to SA's question
please chime in.

SA if no reply try posting your question in another thread like strains/seeds thread.

Gl OG

Ok thanks my friend.

Ahhh good cool OG thanks!! Can you give me some lighting advise since you know my whole set up I'm going for. I'm going to stick with using an hps to flower but I torn with what to veg with here is my price range choices for the veg/clone area: 4 150w CFLs (guy says they are actual 150w not 150w equivalents. A t5 set up 4 adjustable 54w t5 or a china 300w led. These are all around the Same price range. I'm going to have to always have 2 plants vegging and a propagator (how many clones should I be utilizing for this idea/set up? Just fill up the propagotor than choose the best 2 to veg

Bongboy00, I use a standard flourescent shop light/lights for my veg. Usually pick up 2 bulb 4'
fixtures at hardware store for around $20. Stay away form the cheap fixtures at wallyworld.
I use ho t5's also but just regular t8 bulbs work just
fine and are cheaper. Just be sure to mix 3 cool white bulbs with 1 red bulb for best results.
No need for special grow bulbs. So 3 - 5000k bulbs and 1 - 2500k or about those figures
and all is good (old growers used to use mostly floro's).

Yeah def use hps for flower. I always use hortilux and you can get them reasonably priced online.

Thanks for all the tips OG, that's what I was thinking would be the best easiest, going with ho t5s ( thsts what i meant in the earlier post) the second choose was setting up cfls but it cost the same so... and i was lookimg into leds to save energy but if im using 300w from an led or 300w from a cfl its still .3kw/hr I have a bunch of old t12 recessed lighting ballast and housing that I would be able to rig up but they're all t12s

You throw a 2700k in for veg?
Thanks again man

BB, one out of 4 need to be red 2700k is good. Use the t12's if you got em and save some cash.
You can do well with 4 bulbs of t12, they are 40 watt each and spread the light well, OG

Oh wow awesome thanks again yeah I just remodeled my place (hence now have room to grow) and changed all the old lights I've got like 4 4fts and 4 2fts. All I've gotta do is make a reflective housing out of aluminum I've got laying around

Hey SA you still hanging in there? All Ok

Hi there again, HELP!! another problem, running out of space, the Damn things are about 5 foot now and still going strong, is it ok to encourage them to bend so the dont get too close to the lights.

Yes bend them over and tie down, try not to break them, the tops will bend pretty easily.
That is where strain knowledge comes in, knowing when and at what height to flip to 12/12,
finishing height, flowering time, etc. it all comes with experience. GL OG

How does it do that,

Wipped out half an hours typing again

Ok GO, your experience is appreciated and again required, could you just browse over the attached and advise how the old girls are doing.

Had a few other problems but I think I have put these all to bed, killed all the auto, pump died on the prop and I didnt check it for a few days, there goes 50 wee bains.

Ok how are the attached, please and my first clones are coming through about 60% sucess rate, opk needs a little work on it I know.

Also how long to go, and there is loads of buds all over the plants, is this normal, they are all about .5 to 1 cm though, going to be a real bitch trimming these things if they dont grow any more.

Hey old grower you still around