aeroponic grow

[wordsandwich]

Hey everyone...

I have learned so much from these message boards over the past few weeks, thanks to everyone for posting their knowledge.

Attached are pictures of my aeroponic grow using an AeroGarden. I have been using the nute tablets that came with the system but I am going to change. These plants are exactly three weeks old. I have completed three outdoor grows, and this is my first indoor. These plants seem to be growing fast!

This week I am purchasing a 400W MH w/ HPS conversion lighting system to use in place of the crappy flourex lighting that the aerogarden comes with. I am going to finish veg with the MH and switch to the HPS for flowering. I assume this will substantially increase both quality and yield. The aerogarden system itself seems to be pretty good except for the lights.

Questions:

1. In the past week I have noticed some light brown spots on the leaves. (see pics) Anyone have any idea what these are? Also, can anyone recommend a commercially sold nute solution for the rest of veg and also flowering?

2. The hanging part of the roots are submersed in the reservoir, is that bad?

3. Should I be emptying the res every few weeks or so, or should I just add water/nute as needed?

Any other observations / comments would be greatly appreciated.

[Opie Yutts]

Hello and welcome. Glad to see you.

I've always wondered how that system would do for growing weed. I hope you will continue to post your thoughts and results. And we all like pictures.

1. In the past week I have noticed some light brown spots on the leaves. (see pics) Anyone have any idea what these are? Also, can anyone recommend a commercially sold nute solution for the rest of veg and also flowering?
That is a problem that I've not personally had, nor am I'm not familiar with it. I have posted several problem charts that could probably answer that question though. Advanced search with my name and "problem charts", and choose to search titles only. You should get at least 3 this way. I highly recommend saving these to your computer in case, God forbid, this site goes away like overgrow did.
:eek: :(
For the nutrients I firmly believe in SuperThrive and Fox Farm stuff. For vegging I use Fox Farms Grow Big, and Tiger Bloom for bud. For additives, it's ST and Liquid Karma for veg, and Fox Farms Open Sesame, Beastie Blooms and Cha Ching for budding. However, you don't need all this to make nice big nugs. For a while I used no additives, and got great results. I recommend not using many for your 1st grow.

2. The hanging part of the roots are submersed in the reservoir, is that bad?
Your roots need both oxygen and water/nutes to survive. It is great that at least some of your roots are in water. That way they wont die during a power outage. However it is also great that some are in air. It is best if they could all be in air, getting wet from popping bubbles, but it aint going to happen in your set-up. Once you switch to HID lighting that res will get completely filled with a tangled root mass. This is not a problem, just a fact.

3. Should I be emptying the res every few weeks or so, or should I just add water/nute as needed?
Yes, by all means you need to do a res flush. Depends a bunch on the system, but at least once per month. I would probably do at least twice per month on yours.

You absolutely made the right choice about the lighting. 400 is a lot for that little system, but that's probably what I would want. Just be sure to keep the light pretty far back (2 or 3 feet at first, while your plants adjust, then eventually you'll want it as close as possible, but change in stages maybe once per week. Also 400W HID makes a bunch of heat. Have you thought at all about what you are going to do with it? You almost need to vent this to the outside somehow, but you may be able to figure out how to cool without doing so.

Good luck, and please keep us posted.

OP

[Opie Yutts]

Looking again at the picture of the roots, unfortunately it looks like you've got a case of root rot. See how they are brown and squishy looking. This is from too much water or too much time in the water. I would turn off your bubbles immediately and lower your res level as much as possible. Then I would search about it as much as possible and learn everything you can. Not sure if that would cause the spots on the leaves.

Not 100% sure though since I have never had it. Please someone else chime in here and disagree or agree, so his success doesn't depend solely on my advice.

[Opie Yutts]

PS. It looks like you have a sponge or something against the roots right where the bad part is. I would get that out right away, since I'm sure it is helping to keep the roots wet.

[Opie Yutts]

PPS. I would post another thing about your problems in the Plant Problem area. You might get more/better help on the subject.

[PharmaCan]

PS. It looks like you have a sponge or something against the roots right where the bad part is. I would get that out right away, since I'm sure it is helping to keep the roots wet.

Noooo!!! Leave the sponge alone.

Opie, Dude, that's a rapid rooter - it can't be removed! All the roots start inside the rapid rooter, removing it will kill the plant.

PC :smokin:

[Opie Yutts]

Cool, nice save PC. I thought it was like capillary matting or a sponge, supplying water to the bad spot. Glad you looked in.

[Opie Yutts]

Notice how that rapid rooter is completely soaked? I would try to get less moisture to it somehow. If I am right about the rot, I would want that rapid rooter to almost dry out completely. I'm thinking this is about the only way that plant will survive. Unless I'm wrong about the rot, then I'm wasting time for both of us.

[Opie Yutts]

Good Lord, this Cranberry/Peach 100% juice drink is awesome!

[wordsandwich]

Thanks for the feedback..I will continue to post updates and pictures. I hope I do not have root rot! I am going to post in the problem plant area with some better close-ups on the roots.

As far as the lighting OP, that 400w HID is going to be in a closet that is roughly 7' x 2.5', and my plan was to just have an oscillating fan inside the closet. Do you think that a closet this size will require better ventilation? If so, any suggestions? I had not thought of this yet...

maybe I should go for a lower wattage HID?

[Opie Yutts]

It would be doable if the closet door were left open, and in addition to your oscillating fan you had a small fan blowing straight up at the light, and one blowing the heat from the light out the closet. Can't you vent into the attic or something? Otherwise I probably would go with 250 watt, then it wouldn't be such a big problem. That would be a nice size for that set-up, I think, but you still would need some good fans.

[wordsandwich]

hey now,

so that blotchy yellowing on my leaves has gotten worse, in three days it has progressed from random yellow spots to lots of brown spots (see new pics) it's only happening on one of the plants (the largest one) and from my research i am pretty sure it's due to a calcium deficiency. That other plant (with minor yellowing around the edges of the leaves) seems to have a slight magnesium deficiency. So far the only nutes i've added are the pellets that came with the aerogrow unit, and i've added them as directed (i know---dumbass move) Is it possible that I have over-nuted? Any feedback on this would would be greatly appreciated.

Today I turned off the bubbles, emptied the res and tried to wash out all of those crappy pellet nutes as best i could, then refilled about 1/4 way with spring water only (about 1/4 gallon) and left the bubbles / lights off for the night. Today I am going to try to pick up some Fox Farms Grow Big to resume nute...here's my questions:

how long should I flush for?

when should I turn on the bubbles & lights?

how much water should I leave in the res while flushing?

Also, I have ordered a 250w HPS light w/ MH conversion bulb from inside sun, it should be here on friday, and I was planning on switching the lights immediately. Should I wait until the plants show improvement before switching the lights?

any and all feedback is greatly appreciated...thanks!

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

i have one of those, if your using the nutes it came with you got some ph problems, its too high, thats why your leaves are fucked up

[wordsandwich]

i have one of those, if your using the nutes it came with you got some ph problems, its too high, thats why your leaves are fucked up

thanks for the info on the PH

anyone have a thought on how long should I flush for and when it is ok to resume nutes?


thanks..

[the image reaper]

I was going to suggest a calcium deficiency is causing your spots, but reading ALL of the posts, I see you already came up with that ... sorry 'bout that :jointsmile:

[Opie Yutts]

Hey word, you don't really have to flush unless you are trying to fix a problem with a plant (as you are). But when things are running right, you don't so much flush as you do change. I would at least do it 2 or 3 times per month, unless you have some problems. If so it might be caused by your salt content being too high from lack of flushing often enough. When your res level gets lower, and you add to it, and you keep doing it, pretty soon the part that's left is full of salts and bad stuff, and your total PPM gets way too high. That's why we "flush" on a regular basis; to get that stuff out of our systems and get a proper nutrient solution in.

Now we also flush to get bad stuff out of our plants. When you are doing this you flush more at one time. It might be good if you fed with nothing but PHd water for a couple three days, changing the res once per day or so. That way hopefully the plant will at least get somewhat cleansed of the bad stuff. Then you can start feeding at about 1/3 strength. Start with 1 thing, probably your main grow nutrients. Watch for a couple days for signs of stress, then you could bump up the PPM or try adding an additive (perhaps two drops of superthrive), but don't do both at the same time. If you do any two changes at once you won't be certain which is the trouble maker. If your pretty sure you have a calcium deficiency, then you might want your second ingredient to be whatever fixes that, perhaps CalMag. That's pretty much what I take the other "flushing" to mean. But I wouldn't be surprised it's just because they gave you suckie nutrients, and once you start giving them some real food they will most likely start really taking off, and being healthy at the same time.

[Opie Yutts]

Oh yeah, I imagine that your PH is all messed up if you haven't been checking it. That is way more important than any recipe of nutrients. For your grow to be successfully you must buy a PH pen for like $25. They should have them wherever your getting the Grow Big. Also consider a PPM pen, as that's the fastest and most accurate way to determine how much to feed. Directions on the bottle are often a little confusing, but there is no confusion with a PPM meter. Perhaps you could save a little money and get something that does both.

[Opie Yutts]

Thanks for the feedback..I will continue to post updates and pictures.

Well?

[wordsandwich]

I ended up having to wait a week for my nutes to arrive in the mail. I had them shipped and the shipper took their sweet ass time....anyway today I got some fox farm grow big (hydro formula 3-2-6) and also tiger bloom (for flowering). I emptied the res today and added about a gallon of spring water with grow big at about 1/3 strength. The spots on the leaves have gotten worse (see pics) and one of the plants has very curled leaves which I think is a phosphorus deficiency (again see pics) but needless to say none of my plants are in great shape. I should have my 250 HID in the mail any day now, it's an HPS ballast with a MH conversion bulb. so here are my questions:

1) Is it possible for these plants to bounce back? or should I scrap this grow and start over once I get my HID lamp?

2) what steps would you recommend I take from here? including nute schedule and when to start using the 250w HID. I am thinking I probably want the plants to show significant improvement before I jam them under an HID..

any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated...thanks

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

nah, there deff fixable, you filling the water past that circle thing? + i would go full strenth on the nutes, you know wat the ph is? and some nutes have a ph buffer so i would use tap water

im feeling like you ph is a lil high, should be around 5.7

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

oh, yo cover up those 2 open holes wit somthing, or you can develope a algee/mold problem, and it is a fucking bitch to fix that problem

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

btw you got any pix of the roots? jq

[Opie Yutts]

quote=wordsandwich

1) Is it possible for these plants to bounce back? or should I scrap this grow and start over once I get my HID lamp?

Absolutely these plants can snap back. I know because they already have started to. Those top nodes are looking comparatively nice and healthy at this point. Well mostly anyway. I can't tell if I see some beginnings of the yellow spots.

2) what steps would you recommend I take from here? including nute schedule and when to start using the 250w HID. I am thinking I probably want the plants to show significant improvement before I jam them under an HID..

IMHO you are correct about the light. When they are struggling like this I would either not use the HID just yet, or keep it about 3 feet back at first. They're getting stressed 6 ways from Sunday. They don't need light stress or heat stress to add to it. You would have to get the light real close to light stress the plants, or maybe add it over night even at an otherwise acceptable distance, but heat stress is definitely something to worry about.

I'm pretty sure the good nutrients can only be helping. However I'm going to have to disagree about upping the amount of food at this point. They will be just fine at 1/3 strength, but they just might not be if you raise the amount at this point. To be as safe as possible during this recovery I would wait 3 or 4 days, then start upping it slowly if everything else looks good.

I cannot stress this enough: You need to do something about the PH. It is way more important than getting the proper nutrients to the plants. If you expect your plants to thrive or at least survive, there is no way around checking PH. Improper PH, or PH fluctuations could have very easily caused those wrinkled leaves. Be extremely thankful if that's all that lack of attention to PH has brought you. PH in hydro is 5.5 (5.2 - 5.9). I try to keep mine at 5.5, and that seems to work out nicely. You could test your water by using some PH down to 5 or so, then seeing if it creeps back up over night or two nights. If so, you might want to consider starting out aiming for PH 5.2, knowing that it will creep up over time. If you use city water be sure to get something to neutralize the chlorine. You can get drops for this, but I don't know if you need some way to measure chlorine, or just ask your water company what percentage it is, then perhaps use a certain amount per directions on the bottle. Not my deal ya know? If you have well water you will start with 100-300 PPM right off the bat, but no chlorine unless you have something that injects it.

I couldn't help noticing something a little disheartening; you didn't mention anything to do with PH coming with your nutrients. At the very least you gotta get a strip-type test kit with the drops, for about $8, or as I mentioned before, a PH pen for about $25. If you plan on doing much growing in the future just go ahead and shell out the $25. Eventually you will decide that people are correct and you will need something to measure PPM. But I'm thinking these are 50 or $60. If I had it to do over again I would figure one meter that tests both, into my start-up budget. $100? Who knows if the directions on the bottle are really correct. And if they are correct, sometimes they're confusing. It's kinda hard to tell if your 1/3 strength is the same 1/3 strength that it really should be. If we could get a PPM meter in there somehow, we would know if it's under the 900 PPM limit that I recommend for a few days. After that I would raise the amount weekly, or a little less or more often, about 100 PPM at a time while watching very carefully for signs of nute stress, which is yellowing and browning on leaf tips and edges. Without a meter, adjust your changes accordingly. I'll let you get out the calculator if you want it precise.

Also the more air you can get into your solution the better. I would chuck that small air stone that I'm assuming came with the system, and put in not an air stone, but an air wand. These will last sooo much longer than the stones, which fall apart after the first harvest. You can clean the wands after each harvest and they continue putting out the bubbles about as good as new. Plus you can cut the wands to any size, and some types you can bend into irregular shapes. I would have one running the entire length of the res, and get a bigger air pump if the small one (again I'm assuming) doesn't produce a nice boiling effect. Keep the level pretty low so that most of the roots are in air, and getting spritzed when the bubbles pop.

and on, and on, and on...

Hmmm, what else...?

Oh yeah, what about the alleged root rot? Your plants seem to be doing too good for that perhaps. If you do have it, I would not have bubbles splashing on the rotten spot. Try to get as much moisture as possible away from that spot, but don't completely dry it out. Please let me know either way so we can rule it out as a problem or not. Pictures would be wonderful.

And oh yeah, I want to see this work. Taking out the fluoro kinda defeats the idea of the experiment I wanted to see, but that's fine. I think I have a pretty good idea of what the end result would look like. I highly recommend going ahead with the HID as planned. That is unless you don't want to quadruple the yield. Just please add it slowly and gently at first.

Well getting late and hard to think. Lemme know.

[wordsandwich]

Thanks for the heads up on covering the holes oldjimmybones, i put some cardboard over them and i don't think any light is getting thru.

You guys are right on the PH, but I have a test kit coming and it should be here today. I got it from stealth hydro, it is the strips and it includes powdered PH up and PH down. I looked for a PH pen everywhere, and all I could find was $90 and above, and well over $100 for a combo meter. The old lady has drawn the line with the spending on this project so i'm gonna have to wait to get digital equipment. nect time I will have it. I am concerned though, how do those test strips work? anyone have any experience with them? or better yet, does anyone know where I can get a digital meter for under $40 or so?

opie, let me know what you think about the root rot (see pics)...i personally think the leaves are yellow because of those crappy nutes I used, and that the roots are fine. they look completely white when I look in there, but somehow when i take a picture the flash bulb makes them look slightly brown. The brown has not gotten worse as the plants and roots have matured, so I am thinking my roots are fine. what do you think?

thanks again guys...

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

heses one for like $25 DIGITAL pH METER LAB SOIL WATER TESTER + CAL FLUID INCL - (eBay item 320192610828 end time Dec-12-07 21:00:42 PST) (http://cgi.ebay.com/DIGITAL-pH-METER-LAB-SOIL-WATER-TESTER-CAL-FLUID-INCL_W0QQitemZ320192610828QQihZ011QQcategoryZ43555 QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

+ on the nutes, guess better safe than sorry so go wit opie

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

be careful wit that thing, on mine the lights melted that arergarden symbol at the top off, and i saw a report on cbs, wit one of these catchin fire

[wordsandwich]

got the ph test strips and powdered ph up and ph down today...

test strips are difficult to read and they suck! I flushed $20 down the toilet here...logging on to ebay right now to buy the digital meter.

thanks for the ph meter link jimmy...opie let me know what you think about the root rot...

[wordsandwich]

the strips aren't that bad...they will do for a few days...but i;m definitely getting the digital meter..

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

np, yea the test strips are a bitch, but what reading did you get?

[Opie Yutts]

be careful wit that thing, on mine the lights melted that arergarden symbol at the top off, and i saw a report on cbs, wit one of these catchin fire

Ouch! That's valuable info.

[Opie Yutts]

Yeah, I know it's hard to tell, but what was the PH to your best guestamite?

And I certainly don't see any rot root in those pictures. The roots look nice and white. As you add nutes that will change over time so don't get freaked out about it when it happens. Especially with organic nutes. Where I thought I saw rot was where the Rapid Rooter was touching the roots the most, and I thought the stem right there looked brown and squishy. If it's not right now then don't worry about root rot. Roots look great, and they will really start bulking up soon with the new nutrients.

[wordsandwich]

turns out my ph was a little high with just plain spring water, maybe slightly over 6.....it was probably even higher back when I was using those crappy nutes that came with the aerogrow. anyway, ph is now at 5.5-5.75 range (test strips are not exact, but i'm definitely in this range) which was the reading last night and then again this afternoon. I am still using the fox farm grow big at 1/3 strength. a few of the yellowed leaves crumbled off the plants and i removed one myself...everything looks good except for that one plant with the crinkled leaves (see pic) which I think is a phosphorous deficiency.

I should be getting my HID early next week...when do you think it's ok to start using it? when should i start upping the nutes?

[Opie Yutts]

They will be just fine at 1/3 strength, but they just might not be if you raise the amount at this point. To be as safe as possible during this recovery I would wait 3 or 4 days, then start upping it slowly if everything else looks good. (from yesterday)

And you can start using the HID right away, just keep it 3 feet back for the first day, then start moving it closer a couple inches daily while you watch for signs of heat stress. Also you don't want leaf temps to be more than 80 degrees, so keep the air around them no more than 82 degrees. This will make it hard to get the light close, so vent, and then vent some more.

[wordsandwich]

water in the res looks cloudy today...anyone seen that before? I will take pictures in a little while and post...

[SFGurrilla]

I ended up having to wait a week for my nutes to arrive in the mail. I had them shipped and the shipper took their sweet ass time....anyway today I got some fox farm grow big (hydro formula 3-2-6) and also tiger bloom (for flowering). I emptied the res today and added about a gallon of spring water with grow big at about 1/3 strength. The spots on the leaves have gotten worse (see pics) and one of the plants has very curled leaves which I think is a phosphorus deficiency (again see pics) but needless to say none of my plants are in great shape. I should have my 250 HID in the mail any day now, it's an HPS ballast with a MH conversion bulb. so here are my questions:

1) Is it possible for these plants to bounce back? or should I scrap this grow and start over once I get my HID lamp?

2) what steps would you recommend I take from here? including nute schedule and when to start using the 250w HID. I am thinking I probably want the plants to show significant improvement before I jam them under an HID..

any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated...thanks

Go out to the store right now and get a pH up and some Muratic Acid for pH down. Get a measure spoon thats small. You need pin head drops. Get your plant to around 5.8 or 5.9 and raise it up to about 6.0 to 6.6 around week 3 or so. The plants raise pH in the soil after 8 hours and that allows the different nuets to be released because dif neuts are released at different pH in the 6.2 to 6.6 range. When there young though keep it low so it wont stress them to bad.

:rastasmoke: Happy growing man.

[wordsandwich]

thanks gurilla..

here are the pics of the res: the cloudy water picture was taken today, the clear water picture is what it usually looks like..

WTF is going on? the only things I have in there are spring water, fox farm grow big at 1/3 strength, and some ph up and ph down...

anyone?

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

looks normal, from the nutes

[Opie Yutts]

water in the res looks cloudy today...anyone seen that before? I will take pictures in a little while and post...

The more things you add to the water, the less clear it will become. That's normal.

[Opie Yutts]

Go out to the store right now and get a pH up and some Muratic Acid for pH down. Get a measure spoon thats small. You need pin head drops. Get your plant to around 5.8 or 5.9 and raise it up to about 6.0 to 6.6 around week 3 or so. The plants raise pH in the soil after 8 hours and that allows the different nuets to be released because dif neuts are released at different pH in the 6.2 to 6.6 range. When there young though keep it low so it wont stress them to bad.

:rastasmoke: Happy growing man.

I would not go over 6 PH ever, unless I'm growing in dirt. Plants don't like PH fluctuations either. This can make them rebel as fast as the wrong PH can.

And where is the bubble stone or air wand? This is important believe it or not, and it will help your solution be less stagnant and therefor less cloudy.

[wordsandwich]

my ph seems to have shot up..i am fluching out the res right now....i can't see the air wand....plus the water in the res looks like it's moving a lot less than it was before....oldjimmybones, you have an aerogrow, right? do you know where the air wand is? is it possible that some roots got stuck in there and circulation is not good?

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

ph is a bitch i adjust mine EVERYDAY, but anyway there is no airwand in the aerogarden

[wordsandwich]

I have some ph down, instead of a full flush can I just add a little bit at a time to the res until i'm good?

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

if the waterflo is not strong enought, remove the white filter on theplant holder(top half of the revisor) and there is a dial (pump control) which it prob set to 2 or 3, change it to 5

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

yea, but PH DOWN IS VERY STONG so add very little at a time on my aerogarden i add 1-2 drops at a time then wait 5mins for the pump to mix it in then check and add more if necessary

[wordsandwich]

i was able to take off the top, but could not find the dial to up the flow...where is it?

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

give me 1 sec ill take a pic

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

HERE:

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

^^^^^ thats the top half of the revosor,



just dont forget to replace the filter
better all that shit on my filter is on the filter and not cloggin the tubes

btw NEVER USE LIQUID KARMA WITH THIS MACHINE IT CLOGS IT VERY QUICKLY AND IS A BITCH TO REMOVE (HAD TO FILL REVISOR WITH BLEACH+RUBBIN ALCHOL AND PLUG IT IN FOR 2 DAYS TO CLEAN OUT THE TUBES)

[Opie Yutts]

If that's the case, I don't think I would try anything organic. It's more likely to have chunks.

Also I didn't think the garden came with an air stone. I highly recomend putting one in. Better yet an air wand.

[wordsandwich]

thanks for the step by step pics OJB

will do on the air stone or wand...i presume this would add more air bubbles to the water in the res, correct? any suggestions on brand/type or where to get one?

[wordsandwich]

OJB, just removed the filter and turned the dial up to 5. thanks for the advice. There was so much root around that filter, i think that was what was clogging it up. I had to tear away some of the roots...I know that is not good, but how bad is it to damage the roots?

[Opie Yutts]

If you don't go overboard, you can cut roots without a problem.

[wordsandwich]

just wanted to give you guys an update plus i have a few questions (surprise surprise)....these seeds were planted on nov 5th so we are at 7 weeks this coming monday dec 17th. The strain is white widow from buydutchseeds.com The tallest one is just about a foot tall and the leaves are almost touching the aerogarden hood. i need to change my lighting soon, more on that in a second here are my questions/issues:

1. PH in this thing is a bitch. I have had a digital hanna meter for about a week now and my readings are all over the place. it came with 7.01 clalibration solution and every time I put the meter in there I have to re-calibrate by a lot. my real issue is that the ph spikes suddenly for no reason. I will change the water (which I do about three or four days) I will use a gallon of spring water (the aerogarden only holds a gallon) with fox farms grow big at approx 1/3 - 1/2 strength, then add a little bit of ph down to get to around 5.3 - 5.5 ph, everything will be OK for a day, but then my ph will suddenly shoot up to 7.5 overnight. is this normal? any suggestions? should I change the res more / less frequently?

2. Yellowing Leaves. As you can see from the pics, I still have yellowing leaves. not sure what this can be due to, I am using the correct nutes now, and ph is somewhat under control. Should I be removing these yellow leaves? if so, where should I cut them? how about the ones that are half yellow / half healthy?

3. Venting. I am adding an 250W HID to this setup in a few days (HID is late due to shipping issues) and the more I read in this forum the more i realize how important venting is. this setup is in a 2' x 9' closet, and that closet is in a room that is 25' x 12' (big room) and i have central ac/heat which i keep the fan on all the time. the door of the closet will be open when the HID is on. in addition i am going to have a table fan blowing on the HID. I would love to have a vent fan in that closet but it's not going to happen, at least not for this grow. do you think this will be sufficient? any suggestions on anything more I can do?

4. HID light. I bought a cheap 250W HPS/MH conversion from inside sun. I ordered and paid for it two weeks ago and still have not received it. latest word is that it shipped yesterday. Their shipping / general sense of urgency is beyond slow. I am not sure how the product is going to be because it was so cheap, but I "upgraded" to the new ballast from the refurbished one, so hopefully that was a good idea. anyone have any suggestions/reviews on this product? I am not expecting much.

5. Flowering. my plan is to run that HID for a few weeks with the MH bulb, then switch to the HPS and start flowering. do you think this is a good idea? are these plants old/big enough? this is my first grow and i'm not so much concerned with the largest yield possible, I am much more concerned with producing smokeable buds. and not failing. I would like to get one or two grows under my belt then upgrade some of my equipment (starting with the aerogarden). so, anyone have any suggestions on when to start flowering these bitches?

as always, thanks for the help...enjoy the pics

[pnice]

As much as it would be nice to save those things......I firmly believe you should start over......and not use that thing. I would personally rather use soil over that. There are so many things about that aeroponic machine that just scream to me, "not for weed growing!!!"

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

As much as it would be nice to save those things......I firmly believe you should start over......and not use that thing. I would personally rather use soil over that. There are so many things about that aeroponic machine that just scream to me, "not for weed growing!!!"


no, no, no, dont think you should start over becides the yellow leaves they look fine

and i completely agree i fuckin hate ph

[pnice]

There are much better solutions out there. You can even build one that operates much better than that. Also, I'm not sure if you're still using those "pucks", but if so, do you even know what those nutrients consist of? Sounds to me like you have very little control over the most important factors of the grow. I will also add, that small reservoir probably isn't helping your PH problem. How big is that reservoir BTW?

[Opie Yutts]

thanks for the step by step pics OJB

will do on the air stone or wand...i presume this would add more air bubbles to the water in the res, correct? any suggestions on brand/type or where to get one?

It will help sooo much. Not only will your plants grow faster and bigger, but they will more likely be disease free.

I don't know the brand names, but I recommend getting an air wand, not an air stone. The air stones break apart after one harvest. The light green air wands will last forever and you can cut them to any size. Got mine at Walmart. Just clean them with a scouring pad after each harvest. Some air wands are a flexible rubberish type but I have not tried them. I've heard good things about them though.

[Opie Yutts]

quote=wordsandwich

1. PH in this thing is a bitch. I have had a digital hanna meter for about a week now and my readings are all over the place. it came with 7.01 clalibration solution and every time I put the meter in there I have to re-calibrate by a lot. my real issue is that the ph spikes suddenly for no reason. I will change the water (which I do about three or four days) I will use a gallon of spring water (the aerogarden only holds a gallon) with fox farms grow big at approx 1/3 - 1/2 strength, then add a little bit of ph down to get to around 5.3 - 5.5 ph, everything will be OK for a day, but then my ph will suddenly shoot up to 7.5 overnight. is this normal? any suggestions? should I change the res more / less frequently?
When you say recalibrate every time, do you mean the meter or the nutrient solution? Normally recalibrate refers to a meter. If it's your meter, take it back. I hear many bad things about Hanna brand. It's not too late to get your money back. If it's the water, use different water. Some water cannot hold a PH level. This is actually fairly common. Also as plants feed, the EC changes and so does PH. One way that you can use the same water and never have to worry about PH is to build this: http://boards.cannabis.com/grow-faqs/58098-build-ph-doser-controller-under-100-tutorial.html Also if you have a little money, it would be real nice if you could have a meter that continuously monitors your PH and EC. These combo meters usually also show the res temp, but that's something I've never had to worry about. Maybe for Xmas? You can test your water by simply PHing it, then leave it sit out for a day and see how much it moves. The water probably won't move at all, but the PH level might, and if it moves a lot you'll need a reverse osmosis machine or different water source.

2. Yellowing Leaves. As you can see from the pics, I still have yellowing leaves. not sure what this can be due to, I am using the correct nutes now, and ph is somewhat under control. Should I be removing these yellow leaves? if so, where should I cut them? how about the ones that are half yellow / half healthy?
This is not nute burn since the tips are not affected, so I would suggest trying a little higher concentration of nutrients, maybe 1/2 or 2/3 strength. The plant may be eating itself to stay alive. Please carefully note that I am not highly skilled at diagnosing plant problems, therefore I suggest looking on one of the 3 problem charts I posted before just plunging into more nutes. FAIRLY SURE THOUGH. (Search problem chart with my name in advanced search, or just problem chart.) Also screwed up PH, or even fluctuating PH can cause a lot of problems, including yellowing leaves. Never remove leaves until they are completely yellow or brown, unless they are blocking an important node from light and you can't successfully bend them out of the way.

3. Venting. I am adding an 250W HID to this setup in a few days (HID is late due to shipping issues) and the more I read in this forum the more i realize how important venting is. this setup is in a 2' x 9' closet, and that closet is in a room that is 25' x 12' (big room) and i have central ac/heat which i keep the fan on all the time. the door of the closet will be open when the HID is on. in addition i am going to have a table fan blowing on the HID. I would love to have a vent fan in that closet but it's not going to happen, at least not for this grow. do you think this will be sufficient? any suggestions on anything more I can do?
I think it will be OK, but you might have to keep the light a couple feet from the plants. That should still do better than what you have right now. Try to have at least one fan blowing up directly at the light and things should be fine. Is the HID MH or HPS? For your setup I was going to suggest perhaps skipping veg for the most part since you don't have a lot of space. That way there would be no need for MH.

4. HID light. I bought a cheap 250W HPS/MH conversion from inside sun. I ordered and paid for it two weeks ago and still have not received it. latest word is that it shipped yesterday. Their shipping / general sense of urgency is beyond slow. I am not sure how the product is going to be because it was so cheap, but I "upgraded" to the new ballast from the refurbished one, so hopefully that was a good idea. anyone have any suggestions/reviews on this product? I am not expecting much.
Well that answers my question in #4. Conversion ballasts are great for non sog-style grows. I must say I would give that company an earful. I bought 2 meters from Seeds Etc. through "buy it now" on Ebay. Their prices were the lowest of the other companies offering the exact same things, and I got free next day shipping. (For a somewhat interesting story concerning that go here: http://boards.cannabis.com/cannabis-com-lounge/144527-what-i-went-through-get-good-ph-meter.html#post1760773.) Kinda the opposite of your deal. In general I believe you get what you pay for, but there are many good deals available. I don't know about your particular brand, but I'll bet it will do the job fine. I also think it was wise of you to get new instead of refurbished.

5. Flowering. my plan is to run that HID for a few weeks with the MH bulb, then switch to the HPS and start flowering. do you think this is a good idea? are these plants old/big enough? this is my first grow and i'm not so much concerned with the largest yield possible, I am much more concerned with producing smokable buds. and not failing. I would like to get one or two grows under my belt then upgrade some of my equipment (starting with the aerogarden). so, anyone have any suggestions on when to start flowering these bitches?
Just remember that it's common for plants to double or triple in size once you go to flower. You might be able to find out exactly what to expect for your strain by looking at seed sites. I would start thinking about how you are going to raise the light as the plant grows, if you haven't got that figured out yet. So I'm thinking flower as soon as you feel the plants are healthy, and after you've fed them at least near full strength once or twice.

I noticed the brown on some of the root tips. This isn't great and is probably contributing to the overall stress. If you can keep the water level no farther than 3 or 4 inches from the top roots, and have an air wand running the length of the res, the popping bubbles will keep all roots moist and you won't have that problem. This and the PH would be my biggest priority, PH first.

I would not just toss the whole grow at this point. You could flower right now and have at least a little bud in the end. Just keep looking after her and try to keep the PH stable. This is huge. You've only learned about vegging with CFL's at this point. You might as well go ahead and learn about HID and budding while you are at it. It should be a big help in your next grow.

And yes, it's true the Aerogarden is not ideal for hydro weed growing, but so what? Many people grow in less than ideal situations, with good results to boot. It's just another reservoir after all. I would even consider a screen to take advantage of all the available area and to keep the plants out of the light(s). For HID lights a stadium screen is best to take advantage of the ball-shaped light intensity. I would grow only one or two plants at a time in that small space, or a couple more and skip veg entirely.

Looking forward to an end result. It's a struggle I know, but I think it would be worth it.

[pnice]

I hope the best for your garden. That HPS should be a nice addition to your setup.

[wordsandwich]

thanks for the advice guys...opie you have basically walked me thru every step here and I appreciate you taking the time to answer all my questions. really, thank you very much..

[Opie Yutts]

You're very welcome.

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

any updated pix?

[wordsandwich]

Here are some updated pics. I added an air pump and air wand to my setup as you can see, the pump/wand are for a 15 gallon fish tank, so the wand wraps around the bottom of my 1 gallon res two times and the res is filled with tiny air bubbles all day. Total cost was just over $20 at petco (prob could have gotten cheaper at walmart i think) but it's more than worth the money I paid. I have had the wand in there for three days and already there is an amazing difference. The roots have gone from brown patchy dry spots to almost pink and covered in bubbles. and my plants have grown a lot over the last three days. a few leaves of my tallest plant actually hit the CFLs (see pics) and have a few brown burned spots, so I had to get creative with my light placement. my HID should be here today, so next post hopefully I will be reporting some bigger better changes..

I am assuming I should run this pump/wand 24 hrs? or should I keep it on with the lights only?

enjoy the pics...

[Opie Yutts]

That is great. I'm glad they are doing good. Oh what a difference some bubbles can make.

And yes, I would leave it running constantly. I do, and I think most others do as well.

[rza733]

Hello all well I'm going to post in this thread seeing as I'm doing almost the exact same thing so at least you can compare the results from mine to yours.. I've made some improvements to my grow station since my cat went ahead and ate and cracked my stem of my last baby while playing with it (pic taken right before it happened :()

Anyway I'm taking everything in this thread and applying it to my current grow aside the 400w lamp. Also I got the newest aero grow news letter in and they have made the aerogrow pro 200 which puts out a lot better light and lets you grow up to 2 feet 24 inches something i will be getting if this grow goes well.

[Opie Yutts]

Hey rza, thanks for the added insight. That's a bummer about the cat breaking your plant. Did you know that you could have taped it back together and it would have healed, even if it was broken clean through? You gotta do it right away though.

[rza733]

HDid you know that you could have taped it back together and it would have healed, even if it was broken clean through? You gotta do it right away though.

I did not know that. This is all very new to me it seems that im learning something new everyday with all of this..

[rza733]

i just got my fox farm grow big in. The instructions say to add 3 teaspoons per gallon.. Ok well thats a no brainer, with the aero garden we are only working with a 1 gallon res.

I assume that i want to do a complete flush ( taking out all the old water and put fresh water in) since i have old nuets in there from the tablets the system origionally came with. Is this correct?

Also how often do i add the 3 teaspoons into the res.?

thanks all!

[Opie Yutts]

Yeah, I would do a flush. Dump everything out, then refill it with plain PH'd water and dump that out. At that point, if your plants are having any kind of problems you should just let them feed on another batch of PH'd water for 2 or 3 days, then dump again and start feeding. Otherwise, proceed as described below.

Also how often do i add the 3 teaspoons into the res.?

Never. Don't ever add nutrients to your reservoir unless you know what you are doing as far as EC and PPM. Unless you have a multimeter monitoring the PPM and PH in the res, you would have no way of knowing how much nutrients or PH up/down to add. It is much much safer to mix up your solution then add it. As the plant uses the nutrients the PH and PPM are always changing. Every time you add solution, you are adding to a solution that is already in there, and each time what is left is higher and higher in salt content and other bad stuff. That's why you need to flush about every 3rd feeding or at least once every three weeks in that size res.

OR

If you don't want to worry about what the PPM or salt content is in your res, you can always play it safe by feeding twice normally, then every third feeding is just PH'd water. This should help keep the salt content and what not low enough that you don't have flush nearly as often, maybe roughly kinda sorta every 8th feeding instead. Personally I prefer more flushing, and therefore more feeding nutrients instead of a watered down version of an old nutrient solution.

As far as how often do you feed? Depends, but I have a similar system right now but on a larger scale, and I just let the nutes run as low as I can without drying out roots too much, then feed. If you have an air stone or wand, you can run the nutes lower since bubbles breaking will splash moisture on the roots. A few days ago that was once every 3 days. Now it's more like once every 2 days. As they get older they eat more and faster.

Oh, and I would just not start right out at full strength with a new nutrient. I use Grow Big, and it seems like 3 teaspoons per gallon might be a little much for even full grown plants, and younguns want even less.

Merry Christmas. Darn I gotta go wrap 2 presents still.

[Atkeni]

i am sorely tempted to try one of these with some of the autoflowering Lowlife strains

The pro version goes up to 24", which is the tallest a lowlife currently gets.

Light shouldnt be a problem, lowlifes are autoflower, so i could just put it in the conservatory, 80w of CFL+Sunlight should be plenty

tempted.., tempted...

[rza733]

Never. Don't ever add nutrients to your reservoir unless you know what you are doing as far as EC and PPM.

That's why you need to flush about every 3rd feeding or at least once every three weeks in that size res.



Thanks for the quick response :)

I currently have a ph meter that i got off of ebay so i will be able to monitor that at least.

So let me see if I got this right. Your saying with my current setup that i want to basically starve the plant then add the fox farm ensuring that I dont over feed the plant?

Again sorry for being such a noob at this..

[Opie Yutts]

You would only want to flush them and then have them suck on plain water for a few days if there is some kind of problem like lock-out, which is very possible when you don't know your PH. If there is no problem, just start feeding after 2 weeks of growth, but start at about 1/4 strength. And whenever you change brands, don't start at what the directions call for, since sometimes they are too aggressive.

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

looks prity good

[rza733]

what is the difference from using distilled or purified water? I have been using purified water with my grows is that wrong to do?

[Opie Yutts]

I would check into that and find out exactly what's in your purified water. If it is like reverse osmosis, where all the metals and trace elements are stripped out, then you need to add CalMag or something to make up for it. Iron, zinc, all that stuff is important. I use well water just fine. Most people use city tap water just fine if they neutralize the chlorine either with drops or by letting it sit out for about 3 days so all the chlorine can evaporate.

I don't know what the difference is between distilled and purified. Try running it through a search engine.

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

think distilled water is heated into steam then cooled back to liquid which is clean water, and purified can be filtered/reverse osmosis, but not 100% im too lazy to look it up

[Opie Yutts]

That sounds about right if memory serves.

[wordsandwich]

in the past few days I have noticed some pink slime in my res...it has gotten everywhere, it's all in the roots and clogging up the flow of the aerogarden..

i will post a few pics later...anyone have any ideas as to what it may be?

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

pink slime....?? hmmm....

whats everything your adding to your revisor?


i just skimmed the last page quickly and noticed that when you added the air wand that you have the tube going through the hindge on the.... water adding lid <- dont know what to call it, has it been like that for a wile?, letting water in the revisor can result in a bad mold problem

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

did it at all resimble somthing like this only in pink?

this is Plasmodium Stage of Slime Mould

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

Maby more like this?

[wordsandwich]

sorry...using poland springs water, fox farms grow big, and powdered ph down...

here are the pics...all of a sudden it's everywhere...all of the roots are surrounded by it, and there is a thin film over the entire bottom of the res. the color is light pink and the consistency is exactly like snot.

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

hmm.. looks like a slime mold but im gunna look it up a little, btw the reason your ag says low water is because that thing that says fill to here has a floater with a magnet in it and for some reason they tend to burst/crack atleast mine and somone else's around here did

[wordsandwich]

huh...no shit. mine has not shown a crack but it always says to fill so i'm sure it's broken.

let me know on the slime thing if you find anything...it's kinda freakin me out!

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

well, im going to say im 99% sure its mold/fungus im reasonably sure its slime mold but it dosent matter, what you want to do IMO


1. SWITCH TO TAP (its fine to use tap and using pure water MAY limit you plants immunity (SAY YOU STAY IN A STERILE ROOM YOUR WHOLE LIFE, THEN GO OUT SIDE. THE SECOND SOMONE COUGHTS IN YOU DIRECTION YOUR GOING TO COLAPSE))

2, ADD 10ML PEROXIDE PER GALLON (REMOVE ABOUT A 1/4 GAL A DAY AND REPLACE WITH PEROXIDE TREATED WATER) i.e. EVERYDAY REMOVE 1/4 GAL FROM REVISOR, AND TAKE 1/4 A GAL FRESH WATER AND ADD 2.5ML OF PERODIXE AND MIX IN REVISOR

3. CLEAN OUT THE REVISOR (ADD FRESH WATER & SCRUB THE SHIT OUT OF IT)

4. CARFULLY RINCE THAT SHIT OUT OF THE ROOTS

5. I WOULD ORDER AN ENZYME (CANNAZYM OR HYDROZYME) + HYDROGUARD

6. MAKE SURE NO MORE LIGHT GETS IN THE REVISOR! (YOU GOTTA TAPE IT UP OR DO SOMTHING SO NO LIGHT ENTERS THE WATER, ESPECIALLY WHERE THAT TUBE IS ENTERING THE REVISOR)

the black cylinder that says fill here, you push it down and turn to the left and it will come off and inside is a white floater, you can empty the water and cover the crack with a little electrical tape but roll it on tight so it dosent come off.

[wordsandwich]

but there really isn't any light getting in...the tubing that connects to the air wand is running through one of the holes on the top, but I have all those holes sealed off with cardboard and the tubing runs through the cardboard..

not saying you are wrong about that type of mold, just saying that there is not much light (if any) getting into the res...

fuck....this shit is everywhere. it looks like someone hocked a huge snot rocket into my res...

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

oh saw this and thought it was set up like that, any way it dosent matter mold is mold and is killed the same way the peroxide should do it + peroxide has a bunch of benifits on plants

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

any reason you not using that hps?

[wordsandwich]

yeah it broke two days after i got it....it is being replaced but the shipper is a little slow

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

ohh, i hate that shit, my last hps, the 2nd time i turned it on the bulb died:wtf:, wasent htg was it?

[wordsandwich]

no, it was inside sun...i just got the second one today and just hooked it up. i want to start flowering should I wait to see what happens with this mold problem first?

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

hmm. i would give it a day or two after the peroxide was added, did you add it yet? looking any better? and is there any of that pink shit at all visible

[Opie Yutts]

Now that is some star trek looking stuff. I've never seen anything like that. At first when you described it, I thought it was algae which is often red. That happens when you let light in the res, but you say that's not happening so I'll have to believe you. Besides algae is not snotty. So pink snot it is. I'm going to have to take a back seat to Oldjim on this one. I've never seen anything like it, and I've never researched anything like it. If you hadn't got any other help, I would suggest 30% Hydrogen Peroxide. The low percentage ones (3 or 5%) put other stuff in that is not good for your plants. I forget what it is, but I read that somewhere. Another possibility is bleach. There is an amount that is proper (and it's small) to mix per gallon of water, and it will not harm your plants but it will kill a bunch of bad stuff. I would research both of those and see if that can help.

It looks like in your situation especially, you could benefit greatly from using a root inoculant of some kind. I use SubCulture by General Hydro. If you look for one remember that most are made for dirt farming. It will help you avoid several problems in the root zone and in general give you a healthier stronger plant. At least that's the theory, and it certainly hasn't been hurting my plants any. It may even have stopped the slime problem before it started, but I'm not sure. I don't know what you have, and I don't know everything the inoculants do.

That sucks about your light, sorry. The good news is your plants (at least the underside of the leaves) look more healthy all the time. I don't know how damaging your pink snot is, but I'm hoping you can get it under control and it won't slow down you plants at all. Good luck, and please keep us posted. Mmmmm, snot. Very interesting.

[Opie Yutts]

An anti fungal probably wouldn't hurt either, but I don't know if there are any designed to put in a reservoir.

[rick357]

:smokin:I got a aerogarden for Christmas from the wifie and I've searched the whole frickin web for solid info and techincal advise. This thread has provided more data then all others combined! I just started my first seeds and I know I need PH control and a bubbler right from the get go. Please keep posting and I'll keep following your lead!
Thanks,
Rick

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

:smokin:I got a aerogarden for Christmas from the wifie and I've searched the whole frickin web for solid info and techincal advise. This thread has provided more data then all others combined! I just started my first seeds and I know I need PH control and a bubbler right from the get go. Please keep posting and I'll keep following your lead!
Thanks,
Rick

Good Luck :)

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

An anti fungal probably wouldn't hurt either, but I don't know if there are any designed to put in a reservoir.

VERY GOOD IDEA.

Opie, i actually been doing a quite a bit of research on this and apparently its quite common, just not in the amount you see here. and it (ive got it down to 3 different possibilitys) but all are not very harmful to the plants, they feed off the nutes and grow very rapidly, and are very unattractive

[wordsandwich]

after spending the past few days researching the poop out of mold, fungus, etc. i decided to clean out the res and added a 3% food grade hydrogen peroxide solution at 1 1/2 tsp per gallon to my regular water/nute solution. I am slowly going to up the hydrogen peroxide to 2 1/2 tsp per gallon. plus i emptied the res and scrubbed all the slime mold off that i could. you should have seen the amount of purple (yes, it turned from pink to purple over the last 24 hours) slime that was on the roots. think slimer from ghostbusters. my camera is at work, otherwise you guys would have had some nasty pictures.

jimmybones, when i was scrubbing the aerogarden res i took out that magnet floaty thing with the "fill to" on it and i couldn't figure out how to re attach it so i left the whole thing off. do you think this will be a problem?

expect updates soon (w/pictures)

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

you just slip it on and turn it to the right to lock it in, but it wont affect anything also food grade peroxide is 35% pure, dont use that unless deluted, use the reg stuff you use on cuts/scrapes + with this mold problem i would go stright to 11.63ml (2 tsp) i have had a lot of expirence with mold (lost my last crop) and if you dont kill it asap it wont be easy to get rid of it (ESPECIALLY WITH THE MEDIA INCLUDED WITH THE AEROGARDEN IT WILL HOUSE THE BACTERIA MAKING VERY DIFFICULT TO KILL(ive had mold in my aerogarden aswell))

also this was posted by trynagethigh it shows the great effects of peroxide


Hydrogen Peroxide and Horticulture
By Bryce Fredrickson

Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) is a clear sharp smelling substance very similar in appearance to water (H2O). Like water it is made up of Hydrogen and Oxygen, however H2O2 has an extra Oxygen atom in an unstable arrangement. It is this extra atom that gives H2O2 its useful properties. H2O2 has been used for many purposes including cleaning, bleaching, sterilizing, rocket fuel, animal feed treatment and in addition many miraculous claims about its health benefits have been made. This article isn't about any of these; instead it will concentrate on horticultural applications. H2O2 is of great use for both hydroponics and dirt/soilless gardening.
1. What Does Hydrogen Peroxide do?
H2O2 is an unstable molecule, when it breaks down a single oxygen atom and a molecule of water is released. This oxygen atom is extremely reactive and will attach itself to either another O- atom forming a stable Oxygen molecule or attack a nearby organic molecule. Both the stable and O- forms will increase the level of dissolved oxygen. This is the method by which H2O2 is beneficial. Pretreating the water supply with H2O2 will drive out the Chlorine many cities use to sterilize it. This will also degrade any pesticides or herbicides that might be present as well as any other organic matter. Well water can be high in methane and organic sulfates, both of which H2O2 will remove. Many disease causing organisms and spores are killed by Oxygen, the free Oxygen H2O2 releases is extremely effective at this. H2O2 will help eliminate existing infections and will help prevent future ones. It is also useful for suppressing algae growth. The free Oxygen atom will destroy dead organic material (i.e, leaves roots) in the system preventing them from rotting and spreading diseases.
2.Over Watering
Roots require Oxygen to breathe and low levels are the main cause of almost all root diseases. Both soil and hydroponic plants often fall prey to the same syndrome although it is rarely recognized as what it really is. Hydroponic crops often fail due to "root rot" and soil crops succumb to "over watering." The real cause of both these problems is a shortage of Oxygen at the root zone. In a soil system the soil consists of particles, a film of water on the particles and air spaces between the particles. When too much water is put into the soil the air spaces fill with liquid. The roots will quickly use up what Oxygen is dissolved in the water, if they haven't drunk enough of the liquid to allow air back in to the soil spaces they will stop working. In this situation roots will start dying within twenty-four hours. As the roots die the plants ability to drink water and nutrients will decrease, this will cause symptoms of nutrient deficiencies (mostly pale, slow, weak growth), and strangely they will start to wilt like they don't have enough water. It is easy to make a fatal mistake at this point and add more water.
In a Hydroponic system the cause is a more direct simple lack of oxygen in the solution, this may be from inadequate circulation and/or aeration. High reservoir temperatures also interfere with Oxygen's ability to dissolve in the water. Temperatures above 70F (20C) will eventually cause problems, 62F-65F (16C-18C) is recommended. The same symptoms will appear as with soil plants but you can also check the roots. Healthy roots should be mostly white with maybe a slight yellowish tan tinge. If they are a brownish colour with dead tips or they easily pull away there is at least the beginnings of a serious problem. An organic dirtlike rotting smell means there is already a very good chance it is too late. As roots die and rot they eat Oxygen out of the water, as Oxygen levels are even further depleted more roots die, a viscius circle may be well under way. Reduced Oxygen levels and high temperatures both encourage anaerobic bacteria and fungi. The plants may still be saved but you will have to work fast.
3. How Hydrogen Peroxide prevents root rot/overwatering.
When plants are watered with H2O2 it will break down and release Oxygen into the area around the roots. This helps stop the Oxygen from being depleted in the water filled air spaces until air can get back into them. High Oxygen levels at the roots will encourage rapid healthy root growth. In a Hydroponic system H2O2 will disperse through out the system and raise Oxygen levels as it breaks down. Strong white healthy roots with lots of fuzzy new growth will be visible. This fuzzy growth has massive surface area allowing for rapid absorption of the huge amounts of water and nutrients needed for rapid top growth. A healthy plant starts with a healthy root system.
4. How to use it.
H2O2 comes in several different strengths 3%, 5%, 8% and 35%, also sold as food grade Hydrogen Peroxide. The most economical is 35% which we recommend be diluted to three percent before using, as at this high concentration it can cause damage to skin and clothing. When working with food grade H2O2 it is very important that you clean up any spills or splashes immediately, it will damage almost anything very quickly. This is extra important with skin and clothing. Skin will be temporarily bleached pure white if not washed cleaned. Gloves are strongly recommended when working with any strong chemical.
Food grade H2O2 can be diluted to three percent by mixing it one part to eleven parts water (preferably distilled). The storage container should be opaque to prevent light from getting in and it must be able to hold some pressure. If three-liter pop bottles are available in your area they are ideal for mixing and storing H2O2. There are twelve quarter liters (250ml) in three liters, if you put in one quarter liter H2O2 and eleven quarter liters (250ml) water in the bottle it will full of three percent H2O2 and the bottle can hold the pressure that the H2O2 will generate. Three percent Hydrogen Peroxide may be added at up to three ml's per liter (2 1\2 tsp. Per gallon), but it is recommended that you start at a lower concentration and increase to full strength over a few weeks. Use every watering even on fresh cuttings. For hydroponics use every reservoir change and replace twenty-five percent (one quarter) every day. Example: In a 100L reservoir you would add three hundred ml's (3%) H2O2 when changing the nutrient. You would then add seventy-five ml's more every day.
5. Where to get it.
35% food grade: called food grade because it has no toxic impurities
Of course your local hydroponics retailer, whom you can locate over the web at Home - Hydromall - Your source for all things hydroponic. Direct order off the web (there may be shipping restrictions on high strength peroxides). H2O2 is used to bleach hair so the local hairdresser may have a source. The local feed supplier may have it in small towns. Prices range from fifteen dollars per quarter liter to eighty dollars a gallon. One gallon will treat up to fifty thousand liters of water.
3%5%, 8%
Can be found at most drugstores or pharmacies, prices start at a less than a dollar for a one hundred-ml bottle that will treat one hundred liters.
6. What to do if you already have root rot.
In Dirt:
Use peroxided water with anti-fungicide (benomyl) and a high Phosphate fertilizer (9-45-15, 10-52-10, 0-60-0) for root growth. Root booster (5-15-5) or any other product with rooting hormone dissolved in it is helpful in regrowing roots and is strongly recommended. If a plant is wilty adding Nutri-Boost may save it. Water heavily until liquid pours out the bottom of the pot. This sound like bad idea, but it flushes out stagnant dead water and replaces it with fresh highly oxygenated water. Don't let plants sit in trays full of water, the soil will absorb this water and stay too wet. Don't water again until the pot feels light and the top inch or two of the soil are dry.
In Hydro:
Change your nutrients. Add H2O2 to the system. This will add oxygen and chemically eat dead roots. If roots are badly rotted and can be pulled away by hand you should pull them off. They are already dead and will only rot, causing further problems. Add a fungicide to kill any fungus that is probably present in the rotted tissue to prevent it from spreading. Root booster will speed recovery. If plants are wilty Nutri-Boost may help save them. Increase aeration of the water, get an airpump and air stones, or more of them, for the reservoir. An air stone under every plant is usually very effective, but will require a larger air pump. Models that will do from forty to four hundred stones are available. Decrease the reservoir temperature, oxygen dissolves better in cold water and disease causing organisms reproduce slower as well. A good temperate range is 62F to 65F; anything above 70F will eventually cause a problem. It is also a good idea to remove any wilty plants from the system and put them on a separate reservoir so they don't infect plants that are still healthy.
Summary
The key to big productive plants is a big healthy root system and Hydrogen Peroxide is a great way to keep your roots healthy. It is a must to ensure the biggest best crops possible and to increase the chances of your plants thriving to harvest. Peroxide users will rarely lose plants or crops to root disease and will harvest larger and more consistent crops.

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

[quote=wordsandwich]

jimmybones, when i was scrubbing the aerogarden res i took out that magnet floaty thing with the "fill to" on it and i couldn't figure out how to re attach it so i left the whole thing off. do you think this will be a problem?QUOTE]



it has a little notch you got to line up, and then just turn it to the right and its locked back in
,,

was it cracked? or broken?...

[wordsandwich]

no it wasn't broken i just didn't put it back in because i figured it wa sjust another crevice for mold to hide in...does it do any harm to leave it out?

[Opie Yutts]

rick357,

Welcome to the forum. Glad to have another point of view on this Aerogarden set up. I hope we can save you a bunch of time and trouble by posting our experiences with the Aerogarden. By all means please post any pertinent info you come up with so we can all help each other as a community should. I'm still interested in the maximum capabilities of the Aerogarden as a weed growing technique. I have been ever since I first started seeing them on TV a year or two ago.

With the increasing popularity of the Aerogarden, I wonder if we should make this a sticky or have a subsection for Aerogardening.

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

nope no harm just shows water level

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

rick357,

Welcome to the forum. Glad to have another point of view on this Aerogarden set up. I hope we can save you a bunch of time and trouble by posting our experiences with the Aerogarden. By all means please post any pertinent info you come up with so we can all help each other as a community should. I'm still interested in the maximum capabilities of the Aerogarden as a weed growing technique. I have been ever since I first started seeing them on TV a year or two ago.

With the increasing popularity of the Aerogarden, I wonder if we should make this a sticky or have a subsection for Aerogardening.

that would be cool since these are now sold everywhere (sears,kmart,walmart,)

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

somthing i found:

Three Ways to Kill Mold Naturally

Tea Tree Treasure
Nothing natural works for mold and mildew as well as this spray. I've used it successfully on a moldy ceiling from a leaking roof, on a musty bureau, a musty rug and a moldy shower curtain. Tea tree oil is expensive, but a little goes a very long way. Note that the smell of tea tree oil is very strong, but it will dissipate in a few days.

2 teaspoons tea tree oil
2 cups water p> Combine in a spray bottle, shake to blend, and spray on problem areas. Do not rinse. Makes about 2 cups, lasts indefinitely.

Grapefruit Seed Extract
The advantage of using grapefruit seed extract instead of tea tree oil for killing mold is that it is odorless.

20 drops grapefruit seed extract
2 cups water

Combine in a spray bottle, shake to blend, and spray on problem areas. Do not rinse. Makes about 2 cups, lasts indefinitely.

Vinegar Spray
Straight vinegar reportedly kills 82 percent of mold. Pour some white distilled vinegar straight into a spray bottle, spray on the moldy area, and let set without rinsing if you can put up with the smell. It will dissipate in a few hours.

[wordsandwich]

Yeah thanks for chiming in rick, fyi you may want to use some hydrogen peroxide diluted into your aerogarden right from the beginning. since jimmybones and myself have both had mold problems in ours..just a suggestion opie anf jimmy both have more experience than me so whatever they say takes precedence...:D

please continue to post results with pictures if possible so we can compare grows.

[Opie Yutts]

Be careful using those natural things. Most or all will affect the PH of your solution. You may need to compensate a little if you use them, by adding a little PH up or down.

I accidentally found this today and thought it sounded real nice for your moldy snot problem:
Physan 20 (http://www.spray-n-growag.com/?html=full&key=ta&sub=triple)

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

yea i saw this a few time, but didnt seem to be worth the money to me, actualy sold my aerogarden today, but it will have some good room to let them grow

also + opie that stuff looks very nice, its been added to the list of stuff i need to get

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

AeroGarden Deluxe Upgrade Kit by AeroGrow (http://www.aerogardendirect.com/promotion/index.php?promoName=catalog&pageName=aerogardens_upgrade&viewProduct=9312-00B)
me and my boy share the same thing thats his plant in the avatar but i just got the pro and dont have the loot 4 a hps lamp so thats my best idea

yo i would at least get a cheap like 250w hps, it will make a hudge diff in the harvest

[wordsandwich]

roots seem to be looking better today, and all the purple spots that were left in the roots have turned a little bubbly white on top (kinda like infected cuts do when you pour hydrogen peroxide on them) so i think it's working. the only part that is not changing is the spouts that drip the water onto the rapid rooter sponge. they are so clogged up with pink/purple snot and they are right next to the rapid rooter so i can't really pull it out....it's tough to describe but jimmy you probably know what i'm talking about..any suggestions??

good find on that physan stuff opie...i'm going to give the hydrogen peroxide a few days but i may be ordering that stuff soon & maybe we'll get to see how it works. thanks for the link I tried to rep you but it won't let me anymore- apparenly i need to spread some love around before repping you again? i think that's BS!!

[JoeSmoe]

Sorry a little off topic but could you use clones in the aerogarden and what kind of light does it put off. Full spectrum or more reddish? I cant find anything about their bulbs.

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

team its full spec but its like 1400 lumins (pic of wat?)

but anyway WORDS - i know what your taling about and my only thought is if its possably to pull out the clear plastic thing thats incerted in the holes (basically pull the whole plant out), and carefully put them somwhere and then fill the revisor with a hot mix of water/bleach and run it through for about 2 hours, it should be gone, OR you can take it apart but you'd still have to remove the plants and its a bitch to get back together.


also is your filter filled with that shit?

[wordsandwich]

yes the filter definitely has some in there...i got most of it out yesterday but there's plenty left. man i wish i had my camera at home yesterday when i cleaned out the res. if only you could have seen how much of this shit was in there!

i am changing about 1/4 of the res water every day and adding fresh nute solution with hydrogen peroxide...the HP I have is just like the 35% food grade stuff but it's already diluted to the 3%, it's sold at a local health food store as a spray for your food...after reading up on HP for the last few days i am finding out that there is this whole popular health movement using HP as a supplement. in fact lots of cancer patients believe it helps them..kinda interesting if your into that whole holistic medicine thing.

i am going off topic...can you tell i'm high as a kite right now?

if I were to remove the plastic cups with the rapid rooter sponge in them (effectively removing the entire plant from the aerogarden) i would be able to clean it out much better. that would involve moving the plants quite a bit though, plus i would have to cut the root mass with scissors as everything is obviously all tangled in the res. Do you guys recommend doing that? it seems like it would be a huge stress on the plants. Maybe i should see where i am in a few days with just running the HP?

Also, as an added problem, i am using about 60% of my vertical space right now and I need to start flowering soon. any advice there?

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

yea when im messed up i stagger on and off topic too,
that was my thought, that you wouldnt be able to remove plant with out cutting roots, so dont cut them

im looking for a solution for you on cleaning that but, in the mean time i would flower tommarow, the peroxide(i know this stuff it crazy, even saw somthing about it being an aid to help quit somking) has been there a little wile, but i would set to flower, not sure if you know the technical details of flowering but its basically,

your going to remove the cfl light, and set up the hps on a timer (timer is better but not necessary) on a 12/12 light cycle, and when the hps is off the plant needs 12 hours of uninterrupted darkness and in 3-10 days we can start to tell the sex of your plants

[Opie Yutts]

Wordsandwich, considering how much space you have left, I would probably try a couple more days to get the snot out then go to flower. I don't think I would cut apart roots at this time. You may end up doing more harm than good.

Teamgreen, what plant in the AV are you talking about? I didn't see one. That's cool they have an upgraded light system. If I were going to spend $109 plus shipping though, I would probably consider a 150W HPS instead, or better yet a switchable ballast or digital ballast (more money though).

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

hmm, ok cleaning that with plants in there is going to be a project, i thought of every possible way it could be done and all has a negative efect on the plant, my thought is its prob going to be killed by the peroxide but remain until cleaned out (ater the plants flower) just got to hope they dont get clogged and stop water from flowing (is the water flowing in all sockets?) other thought is to maby turn up the pump all the way maby it will help get a little out,

when your plants finish, i would boil a pot of water (not to boil but make it HOT) pour it into the revisor and add a little bleach (open a window so you dont breath the bleach fumes) and turn it on for a few hours, when you come back the water will be filled with all the crap, then repeat with no bleach added and it will be like new :) i still got this in my mind and if i come up wit anything to do wit the plants in there ill post it

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

yo word what the hell is in your avi?

[Opie Yutts]

What? You can read that. Man, get some glasses.

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

glasses?, think i'd need a telescope

[Opie Yutts]

For the snot problem I would be flushing. And flushing some more. I would flush with a fungicide like the one I linked. I think Serinade is a more popular fungicide, not sure. I would do a combination of following directions and using your judgment, but in general I would drain the res and fill it with some solution of water and the antifungal. Start at a low strength to make sure it doesn't have an adverse affect on the plants. Turn on the bubbles and anything else that helps circulate, and let it sit for an hour. Dump that and start again with a slightly stronger solution, and keep doing it until you reach recommended full strength, or beyond if you feel adventurous. I would think after a day of this treatment the snot should be mostly or completely gone. Just my guess though.

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

opie, the only thing with these systems is that there is a interinal flow system delivering a steady stream of water to the media, inside there is basically impossable to fix/clean at this point, and if thats not cleaned/killed it will just spread every day

the only way of cleaning would be to
1 disassemble, but not possable with the plants in there
2 flush it out using the pump to circulate harsh cleaner through it, also not possable wit plants in there

This is why my thought was to jump to full strenth peroxide to kill it asap, because with my mold expirence, if you dont kill it quick it wont go down easy. (my last grow i ended up chopping due to mold, when i was cutting it down the whole main shoot was filled with mold, it basically infested the whole plant and reasonably quickly)

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

word, you got me thinking i need an avi

stewie's the shit

[Opie Yutts]

Why do you have to disassemble it to run an antifungal through it? Is it 100% clogged or something? I don't know if I would feel safe letting my plants eat full strength H2O2. You say it's not possible to flush it out using the pump to circulate a harsh cleaner. Well I agree, but why can't you circulate an organic antifungal? What am I not understanding here? I'm not saying you're wrong, I don't even have an Aerogarden. I just don't get it. If it were me, I would be spraying an antifungal on top, and circulating an antifungal underneath (if possible).

Mr. snotty, uh I mean word sandwich, if there is more than one outlet in the line for the pump, is there some way you could make several, or at least an extra one, flow through one opening? Could you make a T or Y in the line, and force two into one delivery system? I'm thinking the extra pressure could help blow the snot out better? Am I making any sense at all?

Well I hope you and jimmy get it figured out and make it a nice learning aid for all who use the garden. I hope you don't think I'm butting in and talking about things I don't know about. I just have always been interested in what the Aerogarden could do if the gardener did things just right and squeezed the maximum capabilities out of it. I'm assuming each grow will get better and better. I must say there's a lot of weird shit involved in these gardens from what I can tell so far. Maybe some day soon I'll see an incredible success story derived from a KISS Aerogarden grow. And I'm rambling.

[Opie Yutts]

Hmmm, never changed my AV, now you guys are tempting me. So many possibilities. What should I be? Cow, dog, moon, brain matter, weed leaf?

[rhizome]

Here ya go, man...

[Weedhound]

YEAH!! :S2:

[wordsandwich]

How's this for an avatar?? i think it fits nicely..although i gotta admit stewie is a good one..

opie do you think i should add an antifungal right away or see how the hydrogen peroxide does for a few days before I do anything else? i mean, hydrogen peroxide is an antifungal but obviously it's not made for hydroponic gardening systems, i think i may be better off with something that is..

good idea too opie...i am going to try to plug some of the openings that do not have plants in them to get more pressure through the other ones...i think that will help

[wordsandwich]

yes rhizome....The French Kissinger

opie you need to seriously consider this as an avatar....it's a big move

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

rhizomes avi disturbed me deeply,

but opie im just saying, that if there is some mold or what ever it may be left in the tubes it leaves chance to spread, i only say this because with my last system (in that yo stinky thread) the last 2 weeks it had plants every day of the it had peroxide running through and the mold seemed to comback, im more saying as a precaution (the tubes run though the lid of the system and are completely hidden and have spots where the water dosent hit often (little crevests) where mold could be) my bad it was just a thought but w/e

OH AND THE WEED LEAF IS DEFF PLAYED OUT, AND WORD THAT DEFF FITS THE SITUATION

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

opie if you want something weed related here a couple thoughts:

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

word about time for some new pics,

im bored.............

[StewieGriffin]

You Try A Pipe Cleaner?

[StewieGriffin]

dont see why that wouldnt work, never has a problem like this on mine.

[wordsandwich]

not to worry jimmy i will post pics later tonight (mon) i left my camera in work this weekend like an idiot that's why i was unable to post pics..

ordered some serenade last night off ebay, hopefully it will be here by wed in case i need it (and i think i will) anyone have any experience using this in hydro systems? i searched a couple of threads but couldn't find much beyond people using it in soil and as a foliar spray...i have to search more but if anyone knows some good threads pls share!!

thanks

[Opie Yutts]

:S2:

So many things to crack me up today. Thanks much guys.

rhizome. Thank you, that is very tempting. Maybe too... uh, political for me though. Oldjim, love the chipmunk, of course. I also love all the vintage cartoon style AVs. And wordsandwich, holey cow did you ever find the perfect one for what's happening in your system. Now if you could get that guy holding a snot covered Aerogarden in the other hand, that would be just perfect. Oh, that is as long as you tint all snot pink.

I don't know if you can run Serenade or any antifungal through your system when your plants would consume it. I'm pretty sure it would be OK, especially starting in small amounts to see what would happen. Just check the ingredients and make sure there is nothing toxic to plants, and make sure the PH is correct. If it were me, and I couldn't get any experienced help on that, I would probably be calling or emailing the mfg to ask about plant consumption and running it through your system.

Oldjim, you said your mold came back after using peroxide, but I'm wondering if a good antifungal would take care of it so it doesn't come back. I don't know. Just a thought. Normally fungus is a ventilation problem, but I don't know when it's under the res lid. Do you really need to keep the inside of a res ventilated? Never heard of it, if so.

[wordsandwich]

Hey there...

no time to type this morning but i wanted to update with some pics..here they are. read the last few pages of this thread for an outline of the problem i'm facing.

anyone please feel free to chime in...

[wordsandwich]

a few more....the purple slime (it started out pink and turned purple) seemd to be coming back now..

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

a few more....the purple slime (it started out pink and turned purple) seemd to be coming back now..

oh shit, its still there that bad?

[wordsandwich]

yes....now the leaves on my plants look like they are starting to curl a little bit..serenade should get here by thursday, i hope that helps.

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

i hate to say it but, my vote would be to chop, i didnt think it was that bad, i would try the serenade for a week at most and if its still there chop them IMO.

it sucks after putting so much time into them (when i cut mine i was sooooo mad), but that shit looks fucking crazy, but i would say give it a chance(a week or so) then start from scratch,

i just started my new plants and i added hydroguard from the start, to help eliminate this kind of problem

BTW that shit looks fucking crazy i cant begin to imagine how, you got somthing like that growing in there, my thought is that thats not your adverage mold, so that would have to come from a spore to start it. hmmm... thats fucking weird......

[Opie Yutts]

Holy crap. You've been slimed. That's some of the weirdest crap I've seen. You ought to get those newest slime photos in the problem section right away. I'm really sorry this is happening, considering all the work you've put in so far. I hate to see any MJ plant bite the big one, but I don't know if yours is long for this world. I think you are either getting a huge case of root rot, or some alien has hatched inside your reservoir. Holy cow, it looks likes some holy cows' guts. Do something now! Oh well, tomorrow is when the serenade is suppose to come. I sure hope that does something. I would not chop down your plants at this point, but it looks more and more inevitable. See if you can't get them at least somewhat healthy, then go to flower. Maybe that way you can at least experience some of the fruits of your labor, however small those fruits might end up. At least we can call it a learning experience, and you'll know next time to use a root inoculant and perhaps a fungal preventative. I don't know your res temp, but you might need a chiller. If it gets real warm in there, there is a higher chance of fungus. I'm glad I don't have mold and slime experience, but I wish I knew a bunch about it so I could give you some decent advice.

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

i feel im going to have some fucked up dreams after seeing this shit, it looks like this shit is fucking up you roots (very yellow) + the plants looks a little like its being over watered. but i did a little more research and found this:

While waiting for the phDown to arrive, i foolishly tried white vinegar.. very bad move...mother of vinegar slime formed all over the roots and the plants took a dive.. they are very wilted and some look burned... one plant is pretty much dried up 'n dead.... all the roots have changed to a brownish color and are coated with slime.. when i try to wash them, they degrade away easily... currently running half strength beastie blooms and h2o2... i'm only 4 weeks away from projected harvest... the phDown should arrive within' a few days.

pictures below:
jrocky278/april-19 - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting (http://s72.photobucket.com/albums/i174/jrocky278/april-19/)

AND I CANT HELP BUT TO DISAGREE 100% WITH THE SOLUTIONS THEY WERE GIVEN

&

green slime on rockwool - Marijuana Growing (http://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/8626-green-slime-rockwool.html)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The green slime you have on your rockwool is called Algae
Algae needs light and nutrients to live, it will spread to your reservoir and will block feed lines. Because of rockwools unique vertical 'tube-like' structure, which takes up nutes via capillary action, and pulls air into the medium as the nutes drain outward, a heavy buildup of algae can effectively block this breathing action. To prevent this from happening, use light-proof and water-proof material to cover your rockwool, for example black/white panda film or thick black bin liners

&

White slime on my roots AND airstones?! permalink

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alright I have a stealth hydro type dwc. Got some Satori (3 weeks old) goin.
About a week ago, I noticed some white slime on their roots, I think only the roots that were under water. Well I started a hydrogen peroxide run, following amounts I have seen on this board and others.

It didn't help. I even picked off some slime covered root and put it in a bowl of peroxide, just to see if it was something that was immune to it. The shit bubbled and mostly disappeared after about 20 minutes.

Just today I snipped off the visibly affected parts and added some more peroxide. I looked a few minutes ago, and happened to see on of my bubble disks had flipped over. 'Well', I think, 'perhaps it is under-aeration that is causing the growth.'

As I grab it, I recoil my hand in surprise. The side with the bubbles coming out is covered in slime! Looking closer, there are chunks floating around the res as well. Now isn't hydrogen peroxide and oxygen supposed to kill this stuff?

btw, I have my dwc triple-lined with duct tape, have some cardboard cutout's covering the netpots, and I am getting a thermometer tomorrow but am pretty sure that temps are staying more or less in the correct range (65-68 ). Also I have grown like this once before, the only difference being I am using GH nutes this time.

White slime on my roots AND airstones?! - Marijuana Growing (http://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/37836-white-slime-my-roots-airstones.html)

&

http://boards.cannabis.com/plant-problems/67775-help-slime.html

&

slime was in my reservoir i think

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ok so i had a small 4 liter hydroponic set up. I had to get rid of if it because 1. the light stopped working 2. there was a slime build up in my reservoir. I suspect the slime was built up because the sides of the container were clear which allowed the light to grow algae?

slime was in my reservoir i think - Growing Marijuana Forum (http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8826)

MABY ITS ALGEE?

[Opie Yutts]

This rare photo shows what may happen if you let the slime go unchecked for too long. It might even make a good AV.

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

This rare photo shows what may happen if you let the slime go unchecked for too long. It might even make a good AV.

HAAAAAA, SHIT LOOKS FAMILIAR...

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

THIS THE CRAZYEST SHIT I EVER SEEN ABOUT SLIME MOLD

Think or Thwim Slime Mold - The Plant That Solved a Maze (http://thinkorthwim.com/2007/05/01/slime-mold-the-plant-that-can-solve-a-maze/)

[wordsandwich]

thanks jimmy and opie...both very helpful. i am going to post in the problem area for good measure.

if i end up chopping this one should i try to take clones? or will the mold problem possibly transfer?

[wordsandwich]

opie thst picture is hilarious....that is next in line for my avatar (i gotta give the constitution a chance through the primaries)

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

thanks jimmy and opie...both very helpful. i am going to post in the problem area for good measure.

if i end up chopping this one should i try to take clones? or will the mold problem possibly transfer?


well, all i can tell you is, the clones i took off my moldy plants were covered in mold very quickly (wile they were still in humidity dome) so mostlikly it will transfer

also thats the constution? was wondering wtf it was

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

where did you get that copy of the constitution, this is a copy of the constitution, its little different

[wordsandwich]

yeah the one in my pic is a one page condensed version...the original document was 4 pages. then there are the amendments, the first ten of which make up the bill of rights

it's very good reading....i would highly recommend it

[Opie Yutts]

I don't see why you couldn't use clones that are moldy. Of course it's not ideal, but if it's a choice between that and not using clones, I would definitely use moldy clones. You can make mold go away. I'm not sure about those roots of yours, but I am a little familiar with mold during the rooting process. I keep a humidity dome on, except for a few times a day, and I usually end up seeing mold in a couple spots here and there. Most often where a leaf touches the cloner. This doesn't mean I'm going to throw them out. I spray a little fungicide on them to keep the mold under control, and I pick out mold as soon as I notice it. You could also try to do away with the humidity dome and use an anti wilt product instead. A dome greatly increases the chance of mold, and removing it greatly reduces the chance of mold. Also hardening them as soon as possible will help fight mold too. As soon as they can stay out of the dome on their own, there should be no more problem with mold, unless you don't have adequate ventilation.

[Opie Yutts]

Oldjim, thanks for that cool link about slime. Very weird.

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

I don't see why you couldn't use clones that are moldy. Of course it's not ideal, but if it's a choice between that and not using clones, I would definitely use moldy clones. You can make mold go away. I'm not sure about those roots of yours, but I am a little familiar with mold during the rooting process. I keep a humidity dome on, except for a few times a day, and I usually end up seeing mold in a couple spots here and there. Most often where a leaf touches the cloner. This doesn't mean I'm going to throw them out. I spray a little fungicide on them to keep the mold under control, and I pick out mold as soon as I notice it. You could also try to do away with the humidity dome and use an anti wilt product instead. A dome greatly increases the chance of mold, and removing it greatly reduces the chance of mold. Also hardening them as soon as possible will help fight mold too. As soon as they can stay out of the dome on their own, there should be no more problem with mold, unless you don't have adequate ventilation.

ive stopped playing the mold game, i had 8 amazing clones, and they all had some mold on them, when i saw it i chucked them, i dont fuck with that shit, it just keeps comming back, and not worth the time,aggravation, and/or money spent on anti mold/fungus shit. some people say its so easy to kill, i find it not even close to easy.. but just my thoughts on the subject i have way too much stress, to add to it with mold thats why i am thaking EVERY precaution possible this time.

[Opie Yutts]

OK guys, there should be nobody having problems with the Aerogarden. I just heard on TV that it is foolproof and there is no work involved. So what's your guys' problem? Not only should you not be having problems, but there's no work involved, so you should automatically just be picking buds once a week or so. I don't know what's up with you guys, but I'm going to be getting several of these.

[SFGurrilla]

Call Ghost Buster!! Ecto-Plasmic goooup. Save it get high, maybe you'll be bale to catch the phantom your self.

Sucks dude sorry to see that, id be pretty upset.

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

OK guys, there should be nobody having problems with the Aerogarden. I just heard on TV that it is foolproof and there is no work involved. So what's your guys' problem? Not only should you not be having problems, but there's no work involved, so you should automatically just be picking buds once a week or so. I don't know what's up with you guys, but I'm going to be getting several of these.


hha, before i read the punchline i was thinking.... shit opie must be in a bad mood

[wordsandwich]

hey guys....thanks for making me laugh with all these posts. i did another res de-slime yesterday and added the serenade but my gut feeleing is that this is not going to turn out good. Barring a miracle this will probably be a chop. no harm though, it was a learning experience and i'm gonna make a comback and my next grow is gonna be incredible. I have been reading up on stadium scrog methods and i think i'm gonna give that a shot IN SOIL this time. Hydro i'll leave for the future.

Before I chop these I am going to use them for some practice cloning. does anyone have any advice here? obviously a rooting/cloning gel and rockwool cubes seems to be the method of choice. i have the cervantes, indoor MJ horticulture which i have read prety much cover to cover and he suggest using vermiculite, anyone have any experience with that? maybe i'll try both.

Opie let me know when all those aerogardens are vastly improving your life...i heard they also help with marriage problems, erectile disfunction, and they are a great diet aid. this one is going back to the store where i bought it...

unless you want to buy it???

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

hey guys....thanks for making me laugh with all these posts. i did another res de-slime yesterday and added the serenade but my gut feeleing is that this is not going to turn out good. Barring a miracle this will probably be a chop. no harm though, it was a learning experience and i'm gonna make a comback and my next grow is gonna be incredible. I have been reading up on stadium scrog methods and i think i'm gonna give that a shot IN SOIL this time. Hydro i'll leave for the future.

Before I chop these I am going to use them for some practice cloning. does anyone have any advice here? obviously a rooting/cloning gel and rockwool cubes seems to be the method of choice. i have the cervantes, indoor MJ horticulture which i have read prety much cover to cover and he suggest using vermiculite, anyone have any experience with that? maybe i'll try both.

Opie let me know when all those aerogardens are vastly improving your life...i heard they also help with marriage problems, erectile disfunction, and they are a great diet aid. this one is going back to the store where i bought it...

unless you want to buy it???

hha, i just sold mine on ebay. heres the basic cloning instructions


Every grower will want to clone at some point. Either you have some crazy plant you want to keep forever, or you just want to cut some time off your grow cycle, this is how to do it without the expense (and frustration when it doesn't work) of a commercial cloning machine.

Materials:
One package of composted tree bark cloning plugs- I use 'Rapid Rooters'. They are very good and have fungicidal properties. You want that, trust me!
One bottle of Dip-N-Grow concentrate- there are lots of cloning solutions, powders, and gels on the market. Don't waste your money, this one is by FAR the best, and it is cheap. Follow the mixing instructions for softwood cuttings. I think the ratio is 1:20.
An exacto knife with a fresh blade
A clean cutting surface- a pad of sticky-notes is GREAT, and I also like to use beer mats, you know, those little bar coasters?
A small pair of sharp scissors
A propagation tray and dome, either new, or if used, wash out and then sterilize with Scrubbing Bubbles foaming bathroom cleanser. Hit every surface. Allow to sit 15 minutes. Rinse it off. Trust me, that stuff was like MADE for growrooms.
Some nursery 6-packs that can hold your rapidrooters upright. Run them through the dishwasher before use, or clean as for the tray and dome
Lighting- I use a single CFL hung right over my dome. You can use your shop lights. Don't use a MH! It's too bright
A spray bottle. The ones that hair polishing products come in, that give the FINEST mist, are ideal. Your girlfriend will be pissed if you dump out the contents though, so ask first.
In the winter, if your house is wicked cold, you also need a seedling heat mat, but if you are above 68 degrees, you are fine- the light gives off a bit of heat too.

Prep your mother. She wants no Nitrogen for the week before taking cuttings, so feed her with a bloom fert and superthrive. About a half hour before use, water her well with plain water.

Pick a shoot that has a growing tip, preferably the most vigorous one on the plant, plus a couple small fans leaves right at the growing tip, and then further down the stem, another node whcih you will be stripping off in a moment.

Make a clean cut with your scissors about an inch below the lower node. Now, working quickly, lay the cutting on your sticky note pad or whatever and cleanly slice off the lowest leaf flush with the stem. Just below that, make a cut at a 45 degree angle and IMMEDIATELY dunk it into the dip n grow. Leave it there for about 10 seconds.
While the cutting is in the dip n grow, take your rapidrooter and slice another hole in the top. The one from the factory is too big for cannabis. You want no air around the cut stem, and good contact with the medium. Just plunge your exacto blade in there. Now gently push the base of the cutting in there. The stripped node must be below the plug surface.
Take your scissors and cut all remaining leaves down to only 1 inch long. You may write the name of the plant right on a leaf with a black sharpie. I use a code 3 characters long to identify strain and plant ID.
Put it in the 6 pack to stand upright, place under the dome, put the dome under the light, and make as many more as you want.
Don't crowd your plants. Air flow now, like at all other life stages, is important.
When you are finished making cuttings, fill your rinsed spray bottle with tap water and thoroughly spray the inside of the clear dome. I don't like to spray the cuttings directly, as water sitting on them can encourage rot.
Keep an eye on them and if they do wilt, mist them.
Also do not let the plugs dry out!!! They should not be sopping wet, but give them a few drops of water every so often.
In about 2 weeks they will be showing upwards growth and be ready to transplant. Treat them as you would a seedling being transplanted for the first time, but a light mist with wilt-pruf or even neem oil helps prevent any shock from going into a drier environment.

[wordsandwich]

thanks for the instructions...how much did you get for it on ebay?

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

$106 + s&h

[Opie Yutts]

Wow, I would have expected less, like 50 or $75. Nice bit-o-bartering.

And no thanks on the offers. I'll let someone else have the opportunity.

You guys have had a bad hydro experience, which is unusual. Hydro is way easier than dirt. Much less problems overall. I hope your experiences don't permanently exclude hydro from your agenda, since the Aerogarden is not a means to judge by. You will be biting yourself in the ass if you do so.

[wordsandwich]

Hey Kids...

I chopped the slime mold plants last weekend...oh well, it was a learning experience and at least I got a new avatar out of the deal! I did use some of the serenade in the reservoir, but serenade is meant for folair feeding and it didn't help at all, so I decided to cut my losses and chop.

my conclusion is that the aerogarden can work for MJ, but it is far from ideal. Maybe if I had a root innoculant of some kind (hydroguard or something like that) and proper nutes from the beginning I would have had a successful grow. The main downfalls of the aerogarden are small reservoir and bad lighting. Also I think the rapid rooter sponge keeps the root ball too wet, and in reality I probably had some mold growing in that reservoir way before I saw the pink slime.

I have already started a new grow and I am going to post in the grow log area within the next few days. I am growing in potted soiless mixture and I want to try cloning this time. Please watch for the thread I could use everyone's help again!

Thanks to everyone, especially opie and jimmy, for answering all my questions during this grow...you guys helped sooooo much and I appreciate it a lot.

[denial103]

wordsandwich: I think the work you put into trying to make those babies live was admirable, I personally think that the aerogarden sucks - you really worked hard on them.

:(

Goodluck next time man :) With that dedication soil is gonna do you a great justice - I think!

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

I am growing in potted soiless mixture and I want to try cloning this time.

Good Luck. Personaly i have never grown with soil, i like hydro/soil, but i cant imagine its much more difficult, maby easier maby not no idea.

btw nice avi (feel like i seen that somwhere before)

[OLDJIMMYBONES]

i ment hydro/aero (not sure i like aero, but i have used it)

[Opie Yutts]

quote=wordsandwich

I chopped the slime mold plants last weekend...
Crap, sorry to hear it.

The main downfalls of the aerogarden are small reservoir and bad lighting.
Absolutely, but that res would probably do a lot better holding one or two plants at most. I've got one doing great in a one gallon res right now.

Also I think the rapid rooter sponge keeps the root ball too wet
I suspect this could have been what your main downfall actually was. It kept things much too wet like rockwool does.

I have already started a new grow
Great to hear.

I want to try cloning this time.
Your best decision yet. It is great, saves sooo much time and trouble. I highly recommend a cheapo aerocloner.

Please watch for the thread I could use everyone's help again!
I will try to look in on logs more. Been meaning to anyway. But where's the time? Oh yeah, over there, in the corner, in a box.

Thanks to everyone, especially opie and jimmy, for answering all my questions during this grow...you guys helped sooooo much and I appreciate it a lot.
You're quite welcome. It was a learning experience for me as well. And denial103 is definitely right. You did put a lot of effort into your grow and so A+ on that. Hydro is not supposed to be like that. You just have to pop in on them every other day or so, do a res flush occasionally, and you're good to go.

Good luck on the new grow. Down with slime! By the way that's a real nice avatar you got there.