My first attemp at aeroponics.. Grapefruit Kush

northeastern lights

Well-Known Member
Do yourself a favor and spend the 7.97 at walmart and get a temp/humidity gauge. They are all digital and will record the high and lows for the day. So when your not around you know what has happened in your garden. Also be aware if room temp is say 75 it is usuall 5-10 degrees hotter under your lights, size depending obviosly.
 

santeelocal

Active Member
Hey thanks for the tip but my meter does record the low and the high for the temp and humidity and I know it is accurate because I work for a calibration company that cals these things all of the time. The high read just says HIGH so it is over 90% at night. The hygro is hanging 6" under the light. Sorry if this is coming off a little harsh, I'm not trying to be;-)
 

northeastern lights

Well-Known Member
No problem. 90% is crazy. Anything much above 60 could lead to problems. 40-60 RH is ideal. I even like to get it down in the 30's during flowering. During veg though under 40 can cause small issues.
 

santeelocal

Active Member
Shit so today was the wife and I's 1st year wedding anniversary and befor we left for the day I unplugged my pump to chek the ppm and pH and guess what, I forgot to plug it back in. It was unplugged for like 4.5 hrs, I came home and all of the plants were seriously wilting(OH SHIT) so I immediatley plugged the pump back in and overode the timer to run constantly and my babies are coming back to life THANK YOU LAWD!........never again will I unplug the pump. I will set the pump back to a schedule after a couple of hours of good saturation.
 

SPODE

Member
OK so here are some pics of weeks for. They have exploded I have a scheduled res change next week. I am one week into flowering. Sorry for the lack of details but I have been busy.

You might want to buy a backup pump; I learned that lesson two weeks ago. I'm currently running an aero setup in a 5'X5' tray with lid using 50 plus red sprayers. Originally I had my 1200 GPH pump going 24/7 but the roots grew so much and so fast that my aero system has turned into an ebb and flow so I now have the timer set at 6 minutes on 4.5 minutes off.

Under a thousand watt light I had a few OG Kush that grew from 5 inches to just under 30 inches while the other strains averaged 3x's an increase in their height (this was all when I switched to flowering). I have my tent elevated so my reservoir in underneath so as to provide maximum growth height. At one point some of the plants were growing almost 2" in a 24 hour period. You might run out of room.

400 CFM is a lot for that tent but buying anything smaller is a waste of money so that is why I use a speed controller for all my fans. The best $20 I ever spent.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=43060

You might also want to get a more robust fan to blow across the top of your canopy. If you are already getting mildew on your leaves then there is a good chance your buds will develop mold.
 

dragonbud

Well-Known Member
It looks like you got some netting set up for your girls. I think you will find they like the extra support they get from the netting, it keeps them organized. My only recommendation is that you trim back the lower branches to channel the growth strength to the upper branches. I've found keeping the branches thinned out in the center of the fence post will keep the air flow up for the plants. Looking good, good luck.
 

santeelocal

Active Member
Hey guys I purchased some clearex yesterday and tomorrow I will be doing a maintenance flush just like the FF feeding schedule says. I will add the proper amount of clearex to plain water then pH it I am going to let it run for 1 light cycle then dump it and start back up with the nutes, does this sound good? I will post new pics on Sat or Sun
 

dragonbud

Well-Known Member
I've never run the clearex to flush out nutrients in the middle of flowering. I just flush the final week or two. But the res. change is always a good idea and the plants love the fresh nutes. I use the florakleen to flush with when it's I'm getting ready to chop them.
I've also made the mistake of leaving the pump unplugged and I've always seen them bounce back. Wait until you have something block the drain on a unit and you get the pleasure of cleaning up 12 gallons of water on your floor, I've had that one happen. good luck
 

santeelocal

Active Member
Im not sure about the flushing in the middle of the flowering but that is what the FF hydro feeding schedule calls for. I figure I will do it by the book my first time then I can tweek things the next go around. my roots are filling up the drain holes so I am going to make some mods to alleviate the problem.
 

santeelocal

Active Member
Hey everyone, today is week two of flowering, they are growing soo fast and big I seriously think I am gonna run out of room. Today I cleaned the res and am doing a maintenance flush just like the FF feeding schedule says to do I am going to let it run until tomorrow morning then I will pic up where I left off with the nutes. I have done a little trimming of the lower branches because the taller plants are shadowing the smaller ones and I added a second trellis. So far everything is going good except for the hight thing is kind of stressing me out.:mrgreen:


I cant load pics right now it says that there is a security token missing I'm not sure what that meanes but I will post them as soon as I can. Sorry
 

dragonbud

Well-Known Member
How much ceiling do you have to work with? I'm lucky to have a 7' ceiling to work with. I was a little worried about mine getting to tall, I'm growing purple grape haze (has some sativa). I just grabbed some arrows and taped them to the uprights and then attached some twine to it and this supported the plants just fine. I have vegged for so long before that my plants were 1.5 to 2 feet before going into flower. I have plants that are at eye level and I'm using the same system, no worries mate.
 

santeelocal

Active Member
I just tried again to post pics but it says the same thing. My ceiling height is 6.5 inside the tent. My light is air cooled so maybe if the plants grow right up to the light it will be OK. Does anyone know how to post pics where the dialog is not in the little window beneath it?
 

santeelocal

Active Member
Hey everyone one of my plants has outgrown my light and I can't move the light up anymore. Is it too late to top that one plant, I assume that it will stunt the plant a little bit but I can deal with that. It is only two weeks into flowering.

Also the three taller plants are all curling a lot I am pretty sure that it is from over fert. I was following the FF schedule for PPM's so this res change I brought the PPM's down to 950 from 1300, the smaller plants are looking good so I didnt want them to suffer from not enough nutes. Will the leaves of the taller plants straighten back up or are they going to stay like that for good.
Here are some pics to explain my problem.:wall:
 

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Nedsterdam

Member
These pictures are @ just under 5 weeks since cutting. They will be going into flower this weekend @ 6 weeks. In the group shoot they are 3 weeks and there is some White Widow mixed in. The large plant in the flowering room is the mom.
 

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santeelocal

Active Member
Hey Nedsterdam those are looking good! I just had to tie over one of mine. Supposedly all six of them are Grapefruit Kush but I dont think they are the three smaller ones look really different than the taller three but we will see.

The roots hanging out of the channels are a little slimey at the end and look brown is this something to worry about, the roots inside are white.
 

Nedsterdam

Member
This is my first go at aeroponics, but I do not think slim is a problem, I have plenty of that.My big problem is the size of the roots!I bought the big mother and she is in soil. The Grapefruit of mine seems to be the least stable right now, I also have Afgan Kush and White Widow, the White Widow is doing the best so far. I just started the garden on March 1st, my first time growing in 15 years, now that the doctor says I can.Sorry to jump in on your thread but I thought you might like to see mine since they a very similar. I will post more pictures as I go if you don't mind.
 
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