Aeroponic sprayer nozzle issues.

The_Dude said:

To be honest with you, I have had better results with 360 sprayer head vs the 180 degree, which makes me wonder if the high pressure mist is able to feed the nutes as well. The 360 emits a thick spray while the 180 shoots what looks like little droplets. I can tell the difference between sprayer heads, as my roots are much happier with the 360.

Click to expand...

HPA mist heads create a MIST that fills the entire root chamber

The_Dude said:

Maybe I won't do that, then. LOL

Click to expand...

My comments are not to dissuade you for doing this, I think it would be awesome to see it work. I have some parts I would be willing to just let you have if you would be willing to actually do this. I would really really love to see this turn into a community project type thing. Put down an initial plan, lets us dig into it and give suggestions, make it a living document so to speak.

Look into a HDX 55 Gal. Storage Tote. They are about $25 dollars. You will need a different lid. if you have a Menards near you you could use this

https://www.menards.com/main/building-materials/panel-products/specialty-panels/plastic/3-8-x-4-x-8-hdpe-panel/p-1444424094141-c-14048.htm?tid=6653604513281853278&ipos=2

They have the 1/4 inch in stock usually, but the 3/8 needs to be special ordered. As an added bonus, if you special order them, it comes with 2 free 4x8 1/2 inch sheets of plywood for free. It is really weird, but true.

If i was going to do this again i would actually build my root bin from scratch. It needs to be really big and tall, or your roots will pile up on the floor of the tub, which is no good.

There is really limited good info on HPA out there. So you really need to dig around for it. If you really want to go down this road let me know, i can help you get started. Well, i can tell you what i know, for what this is worth.

The_Dude said:

Click to expand...

You are as pet said "on the cusp" of rot. It has nothing to do with cycle times IMO. With high pressure aero the cycle times are critical but not LPS. Most commercial grows actually spray continuously for veggies. Your issues are probably more related to temps rather than cycles. If your running res temps over 70 your going to have issues, again in my opinion. Check the temp of the root chamber as well. You could try sterile but I never was able to dial it in, I had good luck running hydroguard and after building the chiller stopped all additives. @HydroRed runs sterile so he may have some insight on that but yes you need to get those roots fixed to get the most out of your grow. Switching to high pressure requires exactly that, high pressure so a booster pump at 80 psi and an expansion tank to mitigate short pump cycles.

PetFlora said:

when you fine tune the feed/dry cycle (short bursts followed by short dry period)you will get a root mass that is extremely intricate, like cotton candy

you're close but you need a deep cycle timer to do short feed bursts

Look up High Pressure Aeroponics (HPA) and look for root pics

Sorry, but I deleted mine several years ago

Click to expand...

So no pics of your setup then? I'm sure there are a few here that I've seen? Sorry pet, I'm just looking at your grows and think WTF, like this one.
https://www.rollitup.org/attachments/img_4021-jpg.4027775/.
Are you saying you've got the root thing down?

Budley Doright said:

You are as pet said "on the cusp" of rot. It has nothing to do with cycle times IMO. With high pressure aero the cycle times are critical but not LPS. Most commercial grows actually spray continuously for veggies. Your issues are probably more related to temps rather than cycles. If your running res temps over 70 your going to have issues, again in my opinion. Check the temp of the root chamber as well. You could try sterile but I never was able to dial it in, I had good luck running hydroguard and after building the chiller stopped all additives. @HydroRed runs sterile so he may have some insight on that but yes you need to get those roots fixed to get the most out of your grow. Switching to high pressure requires exactly that, high pressure so a booster pump at 80 psi and an expansion tank to mitigate short pump cycles.

Click to expand...

I'd agree that there may be some temp issues going on there. I see a lot of people running hydroguard with synthetics and still getting root issues.
That water line seems awful shallow too. Less water often leads to higher temps and more ppm/pH fluctuation.

Budley Doright said:

So no pics of your setup then? I'm sure there are a few here that I've seen? Sorry pet, I'm just looking at your grows and think WTF, like this one.
https://www.rollitup.org/attachments/img_4021-jpg.4027775/.
Are you saying you've got the root thing down?

Click to expand...

I responded early in that thread & was completely ignored along with others trying to help. I wasn't at all mean about it either. I just wanted to genuinely help the guy out.
Folks should be very wary of who to get their advice on maintaining roots from & thats all I'm going to say now...

Budley Doright said:

So no pics of your setup then? I'm sure there are a few here that I've seen? Sorry pet, I'm just looking at your grows and think WTF, like this one.
https://www.rollitup.org/attachments/img_4021-jpg.4027775/.
Are you saying you've got the root thing down?

Click to expand...

Seems like you went pic hunting but not threading. This was from my F & D, flooding every 1-3 hours- more during veg, le during bloom)

The problem here was that I was accidentally doubling the nutrients, micros, and humic acid. It had nothing to do with the F & D

Th OP is asking about lpa, which operates much differently

nxsov180db said:

Here's what my HPA roots look like in my clone/veg rig from 8" plants. I don't do the sub-second micro burst with solenoids as these eventually get transplanted to an LPA system. But you can see the difference in roots between HPA and your LPA even though I am over wetting.
Also I don't believe you can do short micro bursts when rooting clones, they have to stay pretty wet or the end will dry out and rot.
View attachment 4046148 View attachment 4046149

Click to expand...

What cycle would you use for LPA? Also, what time cycle are you using in HPA? I want to build an HPA and try it. How come you transplant to LPA?

Budley Doright said:

You are as pet said "on the cusp" of rot. It has nothing to do with cycle times IMO. With high pressure aero the cycle times are critical but not LPS. Most commercial grows actually spray continuously for veggies. Your issues are probably more related to temps rather than cycles. If your running res temps over 70 your going to have issues, again in my opinion. Check the temp of the root chamber as well. You could try sterile but I never was able to dial it in, I had good luck running hydroguard and after building the chiller stopped all additives. @HydroRed runs sterile so he may have some insight on that but yes you need to get those roots fixed to get the most out of your grow. Switching to high pressure requires exactly that, high pressure so a booster pump at 80 psi and an expansion tank to mitigate short pump cycles.

Click to expand...

Good info, I checked temps lastnight and I was running at about 73 degrees. Did not know. Going to look at getting a chiller.

Ok, so I am not sure if I am over wetting, or not keeping the water cool enough. Probably both. I do have a second bin with clones that constantly gets sprayed instead of 15 on 15 off, and those roots look worse than the ones that get 15/15. That LPA bin was an experiment with smaller plants, but the roots look so soupy.

Everything sitting below the water line looks good and pearly white, I'm guessing from the hydroguard.

I have been pondering how to lower water temps, without dropping the heat in that room too much. I am going to move the light drivers to the outside of my tent. That would have my tent at around 70degrees I am estimating.

I just don't want to have to buy a chiller for every bin I have. Too costly.

nxsov180db said:

For LPA I've always done 1 min on and 5 off, that seems to be the standard that most people go by and I've never tried anything else. My HPA cloner doesn't use typical HPA cycle times, I use more of a cycle that you'd wanna use for LPA, the reason for this is to keep the stems of the clones wet so that they'll actually root, I have however ran HPA for reguar grows and my timing was usually around 1 second on and 3-5 min off, you have to play with it to get it just right for the setup that you build, timing for HPA is 100% dependent on the root chamber design, sprayer design, pressure, solenoids, ect.

Click to expand...

I can get roots in about 3 days, how long does it usually take you? I found that only adding biocozyme to my water, will root the clones in 3 days. No matter if I cut the clones from the top or bottom of the mother.

nxsov180db said:

I've never heard of getting roots in 3 days. Is this from more than 1 strain? Quickest I ever get them is maybe 5-7 days, some strain take an extra few days or so.

Click to expand...

I only have blue dream going right now. But the way I used to do it took about a solid week to get roots, unless I cut from the bottom then I saved maybe 2 days. I have this big bottle of biocozyme, that I use for my dirt organic grows, and decided to put some in this last go round. It was the fastest that I have ever gotten roots, 3 days. I was originally using the biocozyme to keep the bin clean in place of hydroguard. Hydroguard does a better job in hydro by far. But was stunned to have roots in 3 days. I also halved all the water leafs.

nxsov180db said:

I've never heard of getting roots in 3 days. Is this from more than 1 strain? Quickest I ever get them is maybe 5-7 days, some strain take an extra few days or so.

Click to expand...

Do you get larger roots in HPA, is that why you veg that way? Then change over to LPA?

never heard of roots in three days.
I have heard of people lying or exaggerating.
Not saying your a liar but it seems unlikely, however not impossible.

One way to find out. Try a small bottle. I was impressed as well.

I don't need to exaggerate I am here posting pics of my fuck ups.

LPA, biocozyme, ro water, then cut the water leaves in half. I used 6inch cuttings this go round. I rooted 26 out of 30 clones in 3 days.

All cuts were from a Blue Dream plant, that I have used as a mother for a long time, over a year.

All cuttings were taken from the top, as I cut large portions from the top periodically to prevent overgrowth. Tops always take forever to root.

All clones were dipped in clonex while I was making my cuts.

The_Dude said:

I bought a BlueLab, I also double check with a Milwaukee. Using two gives me that peace of mind, after not really trusting PH testers. The Milwaukee is always off by .2 I've noticed, 5 min after it has been calibrated. Blue Lab is more accurate.

Got bags coming.

I don't use a chiller.

Yes low pressure aeroponics

Calmag, synthetic NPK, Hydroguard. under 3000k light. Any Suggestions for flavor?

Click to expand...

The Milwaukee ph600 for $25 is the best value I have found over 15 years of using various ones in different price ranges that I have used for aquariums, hot tubs and grow. It ca be finicky but the key to keeping it calibrated is to not have it powered on when out of a solution and not to leave it out between measuring (max 5 minutes or it start to go off by .1 or .2 every few minutes. I have kept it calibrated for over 4 months when being stringent.