First Grow EVER- Aerogarden

Hey guys,
So I've completely read through the newbie forum and quite a few other sites of growing, but this is the only one I've found that has it's own aerogarden sub-forum which is why I joined. Anyhoo, I'm not completely new to growing plants as I have a tech degree for horticulture, but this plant is a little different then what we grew. Right now I have 7 plants in an Aerogarden pro 200, these 7 are a mix of purple haze and bubblegum kush and a random bag seed I felt like growing. They were not started in the Aerogarden and were not actually planted into the Aerogarden for about a week, I had to plant them in soil initially because I didn't have the Aerogarden yet. I know that they can not all stay in the Aerogarden and once they get about 4" tall I plan to transplant 4 of them to another Aerogarden. I've seen several youtube videos of Aerogarden grows which is why I chose to go with one, especially since I got them for free. I'm using rockwool as my growing medium and maxigrow (10-5-14) as my growing fertilizer, I have maxibloom (5-15-14) for when I put them into bud mode. My babies were started Oct 1st and I pre-sprouted them in a moist paper towel. For the past 2 weeks my areogarden was on the 24hr light setting and I have just changed it to 16.5/7.5 (weird aerogarden setting). When I start the 12/12 light cycle for bud, I might switch to a 150watt hps lamp (depends on my finances). I also have a ph kit and have adjusted the water to about 5.5-6 and I do plan to buy an airstone if I can afford it...

The seeds:


1 wk old seedlings transplanted to Aerogarden:

10/10/2010: After three days in the Aerogarden, my plants have grown so much that had I not been witnessing it I would not have believed it. My friends that gave me the seeds are in shock too xD.



Damn cat bent this one, but I gave it a wire support and it's doing much better:



P.S: I know the thread and update dates are a little off, I'm just trying to organize a grow journal from a previous thread of mine.

Looking pretty health keep it up. You may have to tie them down if they grow like crazy. Will follow!!

My plants are getting HUGE (to me at least) and they are starting to smell really good.. I've just changed their lighting from 24hr to 16.5/7.5 in preparation for flowering them in two weeks. They're Gorgeous! Right before flowering or sooner depending on when my new Aerogarden get's in, I'll be setting them up so 3 are in one and 4 in another, which I know is pushing the grow space a bit.

The babies 10/12/2010:


10/14/2010:

notice that the plant the cat bent is now totally fine and back to standing on it's own!

This is after I shortened the stalks of the plants by lowering them more into the substrate:

I was concerned that you had the light too far away as they stretched like crazy but you have gotten that sorted out nicely.

Little Tommy said:

I was concerned that you had the light too far away as they stretched like crazy but you have gotten that sorted out nicely.

Click to expand...

Yes, they ended up stretching really bad because I didn't have the equipment to grow them when I started...it was kinda on a whim and I didn't have any grow lights. I have since done my research and pretty much figured out you can shorten and root the stalks if you just put them down farther in the substrate, which worked and my plants are doing great. I think I'm even going to make a little tutorial on it

Hell yeah sub'd.

Just a small photo update of the babies!
View attachment 1215698

Aerogarden vs. Soil:

Very Nice. Great start!

Good job. I would be worried about running out of space if I were you. If you plan on keeping all those I would start LST now.

lookin good bro! keep up the good work. cant wait to see how it turns out.

assasinofyouth420 said:

Good job. I would be worried about running out of space if I were you. If you plan on keeping all those I would start LST now.

Click to expand...

I have another Aerogarden coming in, so that will help with the space which they are quickly running out of >_> How would yo LST plants in an aerogarden?

I use twisties to hook onto the plant then hook that up with a ziptie taped to the grow deck. Lets me easily tighten it.

****BEWARE!**** If you LST your plants to anything other that the grow deck (like I do) make sure you disconnect it before pulling it out. Otherwise youll just rip your plants out.




Notice how the ziptie is attached to the reservoir. I snapped the stem when it was a seedling cause I left it on there and tried to change the reservoir.

But I would start now while they are small. I waited too long so I didnt get to do what I wanted.

your pics aren't very clear, I can't see what it's attached to?

It's duct taped to the side of the reservoir.

I really can't believe these plants. I pinched/topped them the other day and they have just exploded growth wise. I'm really out of space in the Aerogarden for these plants already, hopefully my new Aerogarden get's here this week since I really need to thin out these plants. I still can't afford a fan or air stone, but the plants seem to be just fine and the stems are pretty thick. I think it's because my cat loves batting at them, but she hasn't bothered them...yet...*knocks on wood*

your plants are comming along vry niely. how much do the aerogardens cost?

rsharp said:

your plants are comming along vry niely. how much do the aerogardens cost?

Click to expand...

Depends on the model you get. The one I have is an Aerogarden 200 Pro and new would have been around $200 shipped. My model is now old as they have the new Aerogarden Elite which replaced it and is about $200. I got mine for free off CL and I've seen plenty of cheap one's on ebay. However, Aerogarden only has 2 models where the lights extend high enough to grow properly with out having to get a different light and those are the 200 pro and the elite. You could also buy an aerogarden and use just the base for the hydroponic aspect and then use your own lights, which granted everything is used, would still probably cost less than a new one. I like it A LOT, but I don't think I'd ever pay new price for one since I'm a pretty handy DIY type of person.

Well, I ended up deciding to LST a couple of my plants even though I hadn't originally planned on doing so. The reason being that my plants are really starting to compete with each other for light as I am still waiting on my second Aerogarden to come in from ebay. Overnight two of my plants took off and grew a full 3" making it so that they were touching the lights. I'm noticing a good amount of lower growths starting to really take off after pinching my plants a little bit ago. The leaves on some of them are HUGE, like the size of my hand huge...incredible..Anyhoo, I figured it would be easier to just use aluminum wire to train my plants with as I couldn't find a good spot on my Aerogarden for a tie-down.

yourplants are comming along great. cant wait too see them grow up!!