GreenX ~ Aero Trials ... Grow 1 (w/ Pictures)

Hello everyone!

Long time soil / soiless grower, first time Aeroponics grower.

This is my first attempt with my homemade aero setup and I figure I may as well share it with everyone in a thread dedicated to my first aero trial.

This IS a trial - These strains are nothing special - It is simply to iron out any major flaws I find before putting more valuable strains through the system.

So here's the basics:

Veg - 3 Weeks - 400W Metal Halide (MH)
Flower - 10 Weeks (Approx.) - 600W High Pressure Sodium (HPS)

Nutrients: Growzilla (Veg) - Budzilla (Flower) - Earth Juice (EJ) Microblast and Catalyst for an added boost!

Ventilation and Circulation fans on 24/7 - Dehumidifier may be used in late flowering if necessary.

Aero Mister/Sprayer Cycle is: 15 Minutes ON / 30 Minutes OFF.

But enough of that boring crap, if you want to know something about this Aero Trial, just ask! - I will try to update with pics weekly!
Now, the fun part, the pics!

Oh, and the strains go like this:

Front Right: AK-48
Rear Right: Bagseed Skunk - Has proven to perform well in past soil and soiless grows!
Front and Rear Left: Unknown strain, Sativa dominant, very Hazey buzz - Seems to love the aero so far!


Here are the roots of the plants, the first picture is taken at the end of week 1, the second Week 2, and the third at the end of Week 3 - and the first day of the 12/12 flowering switch (hence the orange tinted light from the HPS).




And this is the canopy at the end of Week 1 (Left) and 2 (right) of Veg:



End of Week 2 Veg - Moved the Aero tub to centre of grow room - Pictures are before (Left) and After (Right) some random LST abuse hahaha (Sorry bout the low quality of the photos):



And this is at the end of Week 3 Veg / First day of Flowering. The plants quite liked the LST abuse lol:




I'll keep you updated with more pics next week, and hopefully each week after that till harvest!!!
... Any questions, feel free to ask!

Remember, I've grown a lot in soil and soiless setups in the past, but I've never grown Aeroponic styles before, and barely ventured into Hydro at all, so forgive my mistakes, be gentle and wish me luck!


Further information:
Provided this grow goes well and I can iron out any flaws in my basic system that arise, some of the strains that I will be growing in this in the future are:

- Super Lemon Haze (Green House Seeds)
- Kali Mist (Serious Seeds)
- White Russian (Serious Seeds)

...and maybe, MAYBE further in the future:

- Super Skunk (White Label)
- Afghan Kush (White Label)

So keep an eye out for future threads!

Cheers everyone!!!

~ GreenX ~

UPDATE

No pics today, sorry guys.

Just thought I'd let everyone know, I did a pH and EC test today and here's the results:

pH = 6.0
EC = 1.6 ... (CF = 16 ... ppm [EC x 500] = 800 ... ppm [EC x 700] = 1120)

I don't often measure temps (as I have no way to cool the rez anyway, and it's too warm here for it to require heating), but the temp sits at around 22 - 24 (C) 71.6 - 75.2 (F) ... I know that's warmer than desirable, but like I said, I have no way to cool it (other than dumping Ice Cubes - which I can't be bothered with), and I'm not prepared to dish out for a chiller at the moment, just hoping for some cooler weather!

Also I don't think I mentioned above, but the aero system has 2 air stones in the reservoir to keep the water well aerated and the nutrients stirred up.

Cheers all, and thanks to anyone who stops in! I'm sure I'll get more interest when those beautiful buds start to bloom!

~ GreenX ~

dude you need to get an a/c in that room pronto if you want to keep going hydro, didnt we speak about this before? about root protection? water temps over 75F will gaurentee you pythium, which is a nasty fucking slime, turning your roots brown thus giving you root rot, hell of a battle to keep your plants alive once this happens....go and get HYGROZYME! you might be able to keep them at 75F firm with the use of hygrozyme, please for my benefit use the stuff, like a condom for your roots

yes i remember this set, i remember how the ones in dirt are a 1/3 of the size as the tub, how u doing greenie>?

Haha yea man, cheers for stopping in! ... Roots are still healthy and white ... although its hard to see in the photo due to HPS ... Haven't seen Hygrozyme in my hobby shop, but will ask about root protection next time I'm in.

Like I said, I've done grows in smaller systems with warmer temps and never had a problem, but lady luck may be siding with me, she usually does! lol ... Cheers for helping me out with this new venture man!
And yes those soil plants are still 1/3 the size hahaha!

Oh, and I don't use condoms, that's what vasectomies are for

Stay tuned and if I have root problems because I don't get root protection in time, you can say 'Hahaha, I fukn told ya so!' - Do it for me

Cheers!

P.S - Was looking into water chillers for the rez when I move into "proper" aero grows... You think it'd be worth importing one? (can't get them over here that I know of) ... Also, can I hook a chiller up to more than one rez at a time?

chillers are going for like 300$usd on ebay, and i dont think you can do multiple rez's with them, the cheaper chillers are rated for like 15-20 gallon rez, i am fortunate to have a boiler room next to my space and hooked up an a/c unit in there and ducting cold air directly to my rez, if u used this system before with no root issues then your good, all i know is that over 75 set me back like 2 weeks in growth, damn near lost all my clones

chillers are going for like 300$usd on ebay, and i dont think you can do multiple rez's with them, the cheaper chillers are rated for like 15-20 gallon rez, i am fortunate to have a boiler room next to my space and hooked up an a/c unit in there and ducting cold air directly to my rez, if u used this system before with no root issues then your good, all i know is that over 75 set me back like 2 weeks in growth, damn near lost all my clones

Click to expand...

Well hopefully I'll be sweet this time too, the rez is bigger in this setup so it should actually be cooler and less temp fluctuation ... But I appreciate the advice and will look into root protection for sure, I'll ask my hydro guy bout it, see what he reckons, he always has some good advice... That's why he's the hydro guy! lol

Yea chillers aren't cheap aye ... $300 USD is like $600 over here :s ... But I would prefer my rez to sit at about 15 C (59 F) so the water holds more air and the roots can do their job more efficiently!

Cheers for the info!

good luck its very interesting

A little bit of pruning near the end of flowering week 1 to help with future bud development...

Will have the Weekly Update pics 2moro night probably.

Left: Before
Right: After

Weekly Update is a few days late this week, but the pics were taken a few days ago...

This is the Week 4 (total) - And the end of Week 1 Flowering.

Left: Last Week ... Right: This Week

looking good!!!

Cheers man!

Previous Page for pics at the moment guys and gals lol

Just a quick update - Yes I'm aware this thread has virtually no structure to it!

UPDATE

pH = 6.0
EC = 1.8 ... (CF = 18 ... ppm [EC x 500] = 800 ... ppm [EC x 700] = 1260)

__________________________________________________________________________________

Not a bad trunk for a 4 Week old plant




Some big leaves too

I Know this sounds noob but...

What are all these hydro acrynyms and where can I find them? Like EC, EBB, DWC, all that kinda stuff, thanks.

Btw the hydro grow is looking nice, those plants grow incrediblky fast 0_0

I believe the majority of those terms you can find in my Glossary of Terms, which happens to be in my signature ... Or just follow this link: https://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/98008-glossary-terms.html - That should deal with the majority of abbreviated terms you come across!

EBB will be under E&F in that glossary btw, as E&F is an abbreviation of Ebb & Flow

what sort of enclosure u growing this in??
looks like a big cloth bag!!
im intrigued
wouldnt mind trying this my self, see how u go!!

It's a large box, basically lol ... The walls are covered in Panda Plastic - a plastic sheet that is white on one side and black on the other (from SOG) ... Running a 200mm passive air intake near ground level and a 250mm Centrifugal for the exhaust which has some ducting hanging near the light to take out some of that heat, the exhaust is mounted on the roof of the box.

Have 2 (15cm) wall mounted fans (just like desk fans screwed to the wall haha) - They're for air circulation and are just generally pointed toward the plants.

Lights for vegetative growth are just 400W Metal halide (and standard ballast)
Lights for flowering are 600W High Pressure Sodium run on a digital ballast (with turbo mode - although I'm still not convinced turbo mode actually does anything, but digital ballasts can run both MH and HPS bulbs without needing any special/expensive conversion equipment or bulbs - so I can veg with a 600W MH instead of 400 if I want - Which I may well do if I'm going to be vegging for only 1-2 weeks in future!)

And I have a dehumidifier for late flowering when rH get a bit too high - I'm sure you know all about how humid our lovely climate is

Room measures about 1.2m x 1.2x x 2m (tall) ... All ballast sit outside the room near the exhaust so they get a bit of air coolage going on haha.

The Panda Plastic used to be tight against the wall (stapled on with a staple gun), but due to the extreme suction of the centrifugal and the smaller sized passive intake the vacuum created in the room ripped the plastic away from some of the staples so it looks loose like a sheet haha.
Mylar may have been a better option, but not sure how strong that is as I've never used it.

All equipment can be bought at SOG or Easygrow, not sure of any other stores round here :S

... I'm going to do some improvements on this system next grow - Have 20 smaller plants per tub instead of 4 large ones, I didn't think they'd grow this fast lol. 20 smaller plants vegged for 1-2 weeks from clone, and flowered for 8-10 weeks, would yield approx. 1/4 - 1/2 ounce per plant in this setup I think, so if I have 2 tubs, that's enough for me!!!

Next grow I'll be running a couple clones from this grow as well as Super Lemon Haze, White Russian and Kali Mist - So that will be a grow to keep an eye out for! ... But that's awhile away, still got 7+ Weeks of this grow to go!

Cheers!

Green great setup you have there! I've been doing soil/soiless for a little while now, and want to step up to an areo setup. I was thinking of only doing 2 sites but i think you've inspired me to do 4. I will surely be pulling up a seat to see how well this turns out. Best of luck

~Buddy J~

very nice.

subscribed

blessings!

Green great setup you have there! I've been doing soil/soiless for a little while now, and want to step up to an areo setup. I was thinking of only doing 2 sites but i think you've inspired me to do 4. I will surely be pulling up a seat to see how well this turns out. Best of luck

~Buddy J~

Click to expand...

Hahaha, first of all - Awesome avatar man! ... Secondly, I highly recommend doing 4 plants, 2 would be pretty awesome too though, I saw one setup with 6 plants, it was pretty awesome, but they had a longer tub than the on I have so they had the room. (My tub is 80 something Litres - which is about 21 US gallons I think?)

In future I may upgrade to larger tubs if I can find them for a reasonable price somewhere... Will have to start looking!

You've got the best part of a week to wait till the next proper picture update, but it will be worth the wait I'm sure! lol

Cheers!

mean bro thanks for the detailed info
i be watching closely too
chr!!