First Grow! In Aerogarden pro 200

Hello all, Learned most of what I know about growing from spending hours looking thru the forums and decided it would be a good place to record my first shot at growing so here we go..

Any comments/suggestions are MORE than welcome!

Grow area is a small portion of my closet, trying to be as stealth as i could. Painted walls with flat white ceiling paint and using a window shade to keep light in/out

Using:
-Aerogarden Pro 200 (3 built in lights)
-2 4' T-5 54watt florescent tubes
-Foxfarm Grow Big, Big Bloom and Tiger Bloom
-2 small fans for airflow inside of the small grow area
-window fan for intake/exhaust
-timer
-cheap temp/humid meter

Started with 2 clones i got from a buddy, not sure if they are fems yet, but easier than obtaining seeds for me.

They looked pretty sick at first but slowly got better.

Ran the lights 24/0 for the first 3 weeks, now im at 20/4

I have 3 separate weeks of pics but this first set is a day after i got the clones from my friend..

This is the second week, not looking much better. I used nutes off the bat but quickly learned that wasn't working for me so i flushed and just used distilled water.

Bad case of nute burn on the left plant i think

This is week 4. One plant looks good!!! (i think). But im pretty sure the guy on the left is a lost cause. The middle plant has had roots for almost a week, and the only leaves showing any bad signs are on the bottom node, and have been that way since week 1.

I was dealing with some high temps in the water reservoir so i taped white trash bags to the top to help reflect some light.

Running the nutes at about 1/2 strength for one more week then going full blast.

Just topped the plant in the middle earlier today so i should have 2 stems growing soon!

The roots are starting to turn brown, think i may add some plastic or tape around the base of the plant to help keep light out, not enough fan leaves yet to keep it dark there. Water seems to be a good temp tho (room temp or a little colder) Any other advice would be great!

New growth just starting to sprout on both sides of where i topped it yesterday

Just read that with the Aerogarden its better to turn off the water pump and just lets the roots soak em up once roots are well established to help prevent root rot.

Can anyone confirm/deny this?

wowtestdrive said:

Just read that with the Aerogarden its better to turn off the water pump and just lets the roots soak em up once roots are well established to help prevent root rot.

Can anyone confirm/deny this?

Click to expand...

I did a couple of grows with the aerogarden a while back. It was with the regular version, not the pro, but I ran the pump continuously with no root rot problems. I also used the Foxfarm nutes, and the reason the roots turn brown is from the Big Bloom.

I also found that water at ph 6.5 is best for getting roots to establish, and keep away from nutes until roots appear.

Good luck with your grow ! What strain are you running?

Thanks for the tip man, guess ill plug this water pump back in..

Yeah these nutes are pretty dirty looking lol

Think its just bag seed this time around , took a clone from a friend because it was readily available, but he seems to have damn good pot every harvest. Just trying to get a good feel for the grow before i invest in my 12 plant system.

So i had some PH issue... Wasnt watching it too close and let it slip too low which locked out some nutes so i got some brown spots. But over the past 2 days it hasnt got any worse and she keeps growing.

Topped her last week so those growths are starting to pop up some.

Think the PH issue slowed her down, but its back on track.

Also bought 4 26watt 2750k cfl bulbs but haven't plugged them in yet. Not really 100% sure if its better to have them on right now or to wait for flowering...

New closet setup pics:

Everything lookin good man, just keep the pH between 5.5 and 5.9 and you should be good

I would say after she recovers, give her a lil more time to veg, then i would throw her into the 12/12 cycle, you do have the lights connected to a timer right

[QUOTE="SICC";3153213]I would say after she recovers, give her a lil more time to veg, then i would throw her into the 12/12 cycle, you do have the lights connected to a timer right[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I also have another 4 26watt 2750k cfls to add and can mod the hood to go higher than the 24".

Still think its better to keep her short?

Yea man, cause in flowering they will just about triple in size

Alright thanks for the tips SICC

Alright first update in awhile. Dealt with a ton of issues that are slowing her down a little bit (but didn't expect much different for my first grow). Under advice of the guy at the local hydro shop i bought the Technaflora starter kit for 30 bucks instead of the 3 Fox Farm solubles i was going to buy for 90. Just flushed with flora kleen and started the new nutes about 2 hrs ago.

Looks like i have a little nute burn going on? not really sure, but either way hope the new nutes help straiten it out. FF may have been to harsh for this strain

Plan on starting 12/12 sometime in next 2 weeks when she starts looking pretty

Using:
B.C Boost
B.C Grow
Thrive Alive B-1
RedMagiCal
SugarDaddy

@ PH of ~5.8
@ PPM of ~850

p.s tube in pics is from fermenting co2

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=11688





Calcium (Ca) -Macro Nutrient and an Immobile element.

Calcium is another important element that helps the plants cell walls, cell division in making the plants stems, stalks, branches stronger, as well as contributing to root growth, mostly the newer root hairs, Calcium also helps enhancing the uptake of K in the the plants roots. Calcium moves really slow within the plant and tends to concentrate in roots and older growth.



When plants exhibit a Calcium deficiency the younger leaves are the first to show it as well as older leaves. The Leaf tips will die back, the tips may curl, and growth of the plant is stunted. The plant can show a weakness in the stems and branches, as well as a under developed root system that can lead to bacteria problems with roots dieing off. Having slow plant transpiration rates can aggravate the uptake of calcium. Make sure your soil isn’t very acidic, for calcium gets harder to be absorbed through acidic soils, Which leads to having a plant that is deficient in Calcium. The leaf tips, edges and new growth will or may turn a yellow/brown color that happen in spots and often surrounded by a sharp brown outlined edge and then the leaf tips die back. If too much calcium is given at an early stage of growth it can stunt the growth of your plants. Having to much of calcium will also flocculate when a concentrated form is combined with potassium. The parts affected by a calcium deficiency are the roots. Stem or petiole, young or old leaves.

Too much Calcium will lead to other micronutrient deficiencies. Calcium fixation is caused by many types of mediums such as: clay soils, unbuffered coco and humus. The lime tends to bond to these soils very easily. The stems of the plant will not be able to hold the plant up and will exhibit a white brown in between the veins of the leaves when having too much calcium. Also having to much potassium and or nitrogen will cause a calcium lockout.



Problems with Calcium being locked out by PH troubles

Very acidic soils with excessive potassium, dry and or wet soil. Lack of calcium in the soil may cause too acidic soil. This may cause to Mg or Iron deficiency or very slow stunted growth


Soil


Calcium gets locked out of soil growing at ph levels of 2.0- 6.4
Calcium is absorbed best in soil at a ph level of 6.5-9.1 (Wouldn’t recommend having a ph of over 7.0 in soil) anything out of the ranges listed will contribute to a
Calcium Deficiency.


Hydro and Soil less Mediums

Calcium gets locked out of Hydro and Soil less Mediums at ph levels of 2.0- 5.3
Calcium is absorbed best in Hydro and Soil less Mediums at ph levels of 5.4-5.8 (Wouldn’t recommend having a ph over 6.5 in hydro and soil less mediums.) Best range for hydro and soil less mediums is 5.0 to 6.0. Anything out of the ranges listed will contribute to a Calcium Deficiency.




Solution to fixing a Calcium deficiency
To fix a calcium deficiency you can treat by foliar feeding with one teaspoon of dolomite lime or Garden lime per quart of water, Or Any Chemical/Organic nutrients that have Calcium in them will fix a Calcium deficiency. (Only mixing at ½ strength when using chemical nutrients or it will cause nutrient burn!)
Or you can take crushed up dolomite lime or garden lime in a gallon of water and water it in the soil. 1 to 2 teaspoons per gallon of water, which will be slow acting. Garden Gypsum, which is medium absorption. Limestone, which is medium absorption, Rock Phosphate and Animal wastes which are both medium/slow absorption. Note: Caution when using gypsum to an already acid soil (pH that is less than 5.5) can have a very bad effect on different types of plants by effecting the absorption of soil aluminum, which is poison to plant roots.


Now if you added to much chemical nutrients and or organics, (which is hard to burn your plants when using organics) you need to flush the soil with plain water. You need to use 2 times as much water as the size of the pot, for example: If you have a 5 gallon pot and need to flush it, you need to use 10 gallons of water to rinse out the soil good enough to get rid of excessive nutrients.




Pictures 1-2 shows calcium deficiencies. First one shows late, 2nd one shows early development.

Aight, ill try a little MagiCal foliar feeding, thanks sicc

no prob man, look thru that link a lil bit, see if you notice anything else

They are starting to look more healthy, especially the new growth. But still alota leaves are curled into cylinder like shapes.

*Pics coming tomorrow*

Should I be going to 18/6 or is sticking with 20/4 fine for veg?

Looking a little sharper. Still looks like shes hurting tho. Been almost a week since the new nutes. Added more Magical to last weeks res to see if it helped what appeared to be CA issues. Back to the suggested doses this week. We'll see how she does..

Any comments/suggestions welcome!