How much does aeroponics increase results?

Atomizer

Well-Known Member
come on, left over table scraps will quickly ROT, whereas within reasonable use, depleted nutes will simply be void of whatever percentage of specific nutrients that were consumed
They are not just depleted nutes, your forgetting about everything else in the rootzone thats coming back. I guess i should have included a months worth of pissing and crapping in the tote as well as storing a months worth of meals in it ;)
 

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
They are not just depleted nutes, your forgetting about everything else in the rootzone thats coming back. I guess i should have included a months worth of pissing and crapping in the tote as well as storing a months worth of meals in it ;)
In my experience, the largest amount of pissing and crapping take place from mid flower on. Now I grant you, that would be a good time to begin D2W
 

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
I guess that if Atomizer had said " A weeks worth of food and the word refrigerator instead of tote, then your analytical mind could have grasped the comparison to a rdwc reservoir.
This is not the thread to brag on your plants.. Post a link to your hydro thread if you're that proud of them..
WTF? I am merely pointing out an alternative that works just fine in my experience. You really shouldn't need to suggest I start a thread to prove my point
 

OzyM8

Well-Known Member
It isn't worth the hassle, if it was, commercial growers would use it. Most people growing aero just like to tinker.
Hi all, long time reader first time poster with a high interest in HPA and AA. Have been reading a lot of the older and newer posts on the subject within the forum posts.

Great stuff by @Atomizer, Tree Farmer,@dstroy and others. I will get around to posting a thread soon. .

@jonsnow399. There is a lot of interest by commercial growers in Aero, and I know of one large scale facility that does grow Aero, albeit what many here would consider a hybrid method. Their facility is approx 340,000 sq/ft, so not small by any stretch. Probably closer to how destroy does his, although his is HPA, simply for the “workflow”, which by chance destroy has worked out with his system. ;)
 
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sasquatch19

Well-Known Member
Hi all, long time reader first time poster with a high interest in HPA and AA. Have been reading a lot of the older and newer posts on the subject within the forum posts.

Great stuff by @Atomizer, Tree Farmer,@dstroy and others. I will get around to posting a thread soon. .

@jonsnow399. There is a lot of interest by commercial growers in Aero, and I know of one large scale facility that does grow Aero, albeit what many here would consider a hybrid method. Their facility is approx 340,000 sq/ft, so not small by any stretch. Probably closer to how destroy does his, although his is HPA, simply for the “workflow”, which by chance destroy has worked out with his system. ;)
I know of 2 large scale, commercial grows that run a hybrid Aero system. One in Illinois, and another in Arizona. The Illinois facility is about 30K sq.ft. I can tell you that the BIGGEST issue is pump failure (for whatever reason.)

With the lights on and no water, the plants cant last more than about 4 hours. That means constant on site monitoring is required.
 

Keesje

Well-Known Member
Not enough to make the expense worth the effort. A power outage of a few hours can wipe out a crop.
Roots don't die that fast.
But true: the more technical it gets, the more chances of a failure.
Power outages can do less harm when you use an UPS like they use for computers.
 

DaFreak

Well-Known Member
This is a question for growers that grow over average results.

Since you started doing aero, how big of an increase did you see in your results?

It is well known that Co2 can increase yield up to 40% if done correctly. Most get about 20% increase.

What can be expected when going aero, if done right? :)
Absolutely none, there is no benefit for aeroponics. Safe your time and money and just learn to grow a simple way. You can find people killing it with Aero, you can find people killing it with soil, you can find people killing it with drain to waste. You don't need to complicate something as easy as watering a plant to get killer results.
 

dstroy

Well-Known Member
I know of 2 large scale, commercial grows that run a hybrid Aero system. One in Illinois, and another in Arizona. The Illinois facility is about 30K sq.ft. I can tell you that the BIGGEST issue is pump failure (for whatever reason.)

With the lights on and no water, the plants cant last more than about 4 hours. That means constant on site monitoring is required.
pump failure = short cycling pumps, incorrectly sized pumps, or inadequate filtering which causes the pumps to work harder than they should to pick up. Maybe they're experiencing cavitation if they're moving a lot of water with a certain kind of pump design.

Very easy to set up a flow monitor and have it alert you from anywhere if you aren't feeding as much as you expect. No on site babysitting needed, 4 hours is plenty of time to fail over to a backup. It should be set up to just fail over automatically.

Absolutely none, there is no benefit for aeroponics. Safe your time and money and just learn to grow a simple way. You can find people killing it with Aero, you can find people killing it with soil, you can find people killing it with drain to waste. You don't need to complicate something as easy as watering a plant to get killer results.
Oh yeah? No benefit huh? :dunce:

Super complicated huh? :dunce: You spray a plant's roots with a metered fine mist of water periodically (like what a grocery store does to produce). There is no medium to take care of, only the plant. It's as easy as mixing up a batch of nutrient correctly and charging up the system. Exactly as complicated as any other hydro method, not more. I have two plumbing connections per plant, and if they were in trays it would be one.

I veg so much faster than any other method. It cuts down my overall time by about 1/3-1/4, aka weeks. Way, way faster than you can grow. I put up daily pics of my grows on instagram.

Anyone with any successful experience with HPA or AA would not switch to a different method unless there was some significant cost savings (and there wont be because we don't use medium and only pay for ph adjusters, fertilizer, and power).

Do you have direct experience with HPA or are you making observations of observations?
 

Keesje

Well-Known Member
I veg so much faster than any other method. It cuts down my overall time by about 1/3-1/4, aka weeks. Way, way faster than you can grow. I put up daily pics of my grows on instagram.
If I looked correct you have 5 weeks of 18/6. And 10 or 11 weeks of 12/12.
Is that correct?
 

dstroy

Well-Known Member
If I looked correct you have 5 weeks of 18/6. And 10 or 11 weeks of 12/12.
Is that correct?
Depends on the strain. The grape ape I just ran filled 16ft^2 with two plants. I vegged for two weeks, and flowered for 8 weeks (took 7wks from seed). So, really depends on the strain. One of these tennessee kush I ran from seed took 80+ days of 12/12, I harvested the others at 63, 63, 72. I harvest when the trichs are mostly cloudy, a few clear, and some amber.

The major time savings is in veg.
 

Keesje

Well-Known Member
Would be interesting to see a side-by-side grow (DWC or E&F versus Aero)

I know that in hydroponics some strains need less time then in soil.

Perhaps of the fine mist, the roots develop more towards a lot of thin root hairs. (instead of just a few roots)
A couple of thin root hairs have more surface then 1 bigger root.
Thus the plant maybe absorbs more oxygens and nutrients and develops faster.
Once the plants (and roots) get bigger, the rootball starts looking more then any other rootball in hydroponics.
This could explain why in veg you save time, but once your are in bloom, the difference will not be so big.

I am just guessing, so don't start yelling at me that this is all BS :)
 

DaFreak

Well-Known Member
I never said super complicated, it is not. Just more points of failure and more complicated then a pot. Only thing I care about is gpw and cycles per year. Done correctly any style should be the same period. I’ve done all forms of hydro for over 20 years except nft and aquaponics, so yes, speaking from experience.
 

dstroy

Well-Known Member
I never said super complicated, it is not. Just more points of failure and more complicated then a pot. Only thing I care about is gpw and cycles per year. Done correctly any style should be the same period. I’ve done all forms of hydro for over 20 years except nft and aquaponics, so yes, speaking from experience.
There is still plenty to mess up with soil, especially if you listen to the "experts" on here.

Yes, the only things I care about (aside from quality) are money in vs value out as well. I have an excellent idea about how much per month this costs me, and I keep detailed records about plant health, harvest, environmental conditions and my own observations.

Uh huh, so you ran aero and quit it? You did all forms of hydro except nft and aqp.

Got pics of what you're growing now or no? I like to verify that the people I am talking to can, in fact, grow healthy plants.
 

dstroy

Well-Known Member
Would be interesting to see a side-by-side grow (DWC or E&F versus Aero)

I know that in hydroponics some strains need less time then in soil.

Perhaps of the fine mist, the roots develop more towards a lot of thin root hairs. (instead of just a few roots)
A couple of thin root hairs have more surface then 1 bigger root.
Thus the plant maybe absorbs more oxygens and nutrients and develops faster.
Once the plants (and roots) get bigger, the rootball starts looking more then any other rootball in hydroponics.
This could explain why in veg you save time, but once your are in bloom, the difference will not be so big.

I am just guessing, so don't start yelling at me that this is all BS :)
Yes, more surface area and a constant supply of nutrient. More roots = more fruits. If I had space I would use larger root chambers, still buckets though so I could move them around easily. Or maybe trays on sliders. Something so I could still get to every plant and take out problem ones. without disturbing others.
 

Keesje

Well-Known Member
Got pics of what you're growing now or no? I like to verify that the people I am talking to can, in fact, grow healthy plants.
I also have no pics of my past grows.
Way to scared that they ever would be used as evidence.
And it did help me to not have them on my phone when they raided my room.
I could tell "What? Did they really grow drugs in my building? Bastards!"
 

dstroy

Well-Known Member
I also have no pics of my past grows.
Way to scared that they ever would be used as evidence.
And it did help me to not have them on my phone when they raided my room.
I could tell "What? Did they really grow drugs in my building? Bastards!"
That sucks.

My grow is legal, no reason to hide it. All the logs and pics really help you make better decisions. At least logs, for technique.
 
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