Trying True Aeroponics/ High Pressure Aero

tree king said:

so would you guys consider the botanicare aerojet true aeroponics?

what about this other one called the apollo 3?
http://www.4hydroponics.com/hydroponics/items.asp?ItemNo=apollo3

im trying to choose a system as we speak

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Trichy Bastard said:

Hi Tree King... Neither of those systems, or any commercial system in production today would constitute real high pressure aeroponics that I am aware of. There might be a company or 2 close, but even their setups fall short in one way or another likely due to the fact even most companies don't seem to have a firm grasp on what really matters, or it is too cost prohibitive to go all the way with it. The Atomix system from the UK was the only production system I know of that really performed, and well at that. Unfortunately it went out of business, the rights to sell have been transferred to a company here in the US, but even so, it is aroung 5k or so-lol... If you do your homework, you can build your own for a fraction of the cost. You'll likely come up with companies like Bio-controls- which are even working with NASA, but they still constitute "soak-ponics" from what I can tell, and are still around 5k... Now- the units you mentioned can and will still grow some nice plants, the aero-flo seems to get some pretty decent results too from what I have seen. They just don't have the additonal benefits of true high pressure aero, and are much closer to an NFT system regardless of the fact the roots are itinially suspended in air.

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tree king said:

i understand thanks for the info. looks like im going with one of these nft hybrids then lol

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Trichy Bastard said:

Cool man... Wish you luck and beautiful bushes BTW- check out homebrewer's threads, he does some amazing stuff with flood/drain. It's simple and cheap, and the pics speak for themselves ...

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tree king said:

im doing that right now and i cant stand it. id rather grow without a medium to be honest.

could you give me your opinion on the systems im trying to choose from? 32 plants in a 47" x 47" space and each plant has 8" of root/grow space its called the apollo 3 heres a link
http://www.4hydroponics.com/hydroponics/items.asp?ItemNo=apollo3

heres the other system
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQrxInYFRvU&lc=Eafn6UqZVlduLaWoYf9iKQMweSAzjZEkjhM4wdJXS9Y&context=C367428cADOEgsToPDskLUohZVYxoSze7eTXilntUT
30 plants in a 4 x 4 but there pipes instead and the unit is only $450.00 which is less than half price of the apollo 3

any opinions you have would be greatly appreciated thanks

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Trichy Bastard said:

Between the two, the results probably wouldn't be much different- the roots are going to start of hanging in the air, and crowd themselves fairly early on while being soaked with spray. The results won't be much different than flood/drain or any other method of soakponics. I suppose the one that saves you money would be better in this case. What about trying some bubbleponics or something you can put together for really cheap? Why is it you don't like using media? If the results aren't good it's probably needing to dial in some variables, and those same issues will probably show up in these systems as well. You don't to throw a bunch of money out, just need to get the variables correct and dialed in.

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tree king said:

tell you the truth i dont even know what bubbleponics is? i guess i gotta do some research

as for ebb n flow i cant stand hydroton cause its a bitch to work with when your doing alot of plants like cleaning everything and filling a bunch of pots up while balancing each clone. as for rockwool i cant flood it enough because of overwatering problems like root rot etc. ive also found that the run off is impossible to control. in my 4" squared rockwool cubes i soaked them over night in 5.5 ph water and even doing that weeks later the ph is at 6.3 and tds is double what the res is. this is while using drip clean. and not to mention not being able to keep the fungus gnats under control. trust me i can go on and on

i came to the conclusion that i want a system that uses no medium where i just need neoprene inserts and that also i can do around 36 plants per 4' x 4'. i love my ez cloner so im trying to mimic that for flower

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Trichy Bastard said:

I'm not into hydroton myself. Rockwool cubes can be good, you just have to flood them at appropriate intervals. I have done quite well with it in the past. You can always do well with Dyna-gro nutes, and add in a few drops of bleach per gallon, keeps all the nasties away, and won't hurt a thing. Really, check out Homebrewer's journals here- the pics show just how good the results can be with a simple and cheap system that is dialed in, don't need a bunch of bottles of crap either. The issues you mention in the media, will probably eventually crop up in the water of your low pressure aero setups too. You'll need to address water temps and some sort of sterilizer such as bleach, or peroxide. Here is a recent bubbleponics setup someone mentioned in my thread: http://forum.grasscity.com/do-yourself/121335-lets-build-bubble-bucket-*step-step*.html
As you can see- it is very cheap, but seems to produce some nice plants according to the pics.

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tree king said:

i never have these problems in my ez cloner only in ebb n flow using rockwool so i know when i switch systems il be all set with these run off issues. when i use h202 my res ph is more stable but the run off is still outta wack. im with you on the dynagro though and il be switching in the next couple months after seeing homebrewers threads

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Trichy Bastard said:

Cool, so check out those bubble buckets I guess, and I have seen alot of people get good results with an "aeroflo" I think it is similar to the other 2 systems you listed there. Keep me posted on how it's going, I am interested.

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