Starting Aeroponics, what do you think?

[cheesypeace]

Ok so I've been talking alot with the guy at the hydro store about building me an aeroponics setup I can use in my 4x4 foot table.

He is going to build me a top insert that will hold 16 plants in the table in 4 rows of 4 with 3 spray bars between the rows. Each spray bar will have 3 sprayers for a total of 9 sprayers below.

So all spray bars and plumbing runs on top of the table.

Just the top aeroponics part of the table and the water pump will cost 300$ with a filter too, I already have the rez and table.

But I am wondering if this sounds like a good idea? I want to build a 5x5 scrog to use overtop the table under a 1000 watt hps.

That would produce ALOT of yield I am guessing but can anyone share their opinions about running an aeroponics setup THANKS!!

[stinkyattic]

Take this for what it's worth because I've never run one, although I'm familiar with their basic principles of operation.

First off, I am assuming that you intend to start with identical female clones.
Next, I'm wondering why you would add a SCROG to what is already a perfectly serviceable SOG (assuming, again, female clones). With an aero system, you will definitely want to make sure that you have access to the nozzles in case of clogs. So I would be a bit wary of adding a net. A good solid canopy is attainable just with healthy plants spaced appropriately.
Now when you say the spray bars are atop the table, I assume that the plumbing is primarily on top but the nozzles stick into the chamber? I'm trying to envision this.

And finally, what sort of grow background do you already have? Aero is like the Porsche of grow styles- rewarding and fast, but difficult to drive! Be ready for an adventure!

[bongerstonerd00d]

Ahhh, and what a ride aero is:thumbsup:


b0nger

[cheesypeace]

Ya I got 3 White widow clones and I am going to germinate 15 island sweet skunk seeds, and 10 mango seeds. so 25 seeds and 3 clones.

So I am planning on putting 13 females out of the seed crop into the aero table and 3 ww clones so thats 16 females.

The only thing is, what medium am i supposed to grow them in up until the point when I can sex them?? I think I will probably just grow them in 4 inch rockwool cubes under a bank of 4 foot T5's for veg but thats alot of plants to take care of so how can I sex them early and remove as many males as possible and determine females??

[stinkyattic]

I'm gonna have to say that I don't recommend getting into aero until you do in fact have a nice source of rooted female clones.

What you will probably want to do is grow your from-seed plants in standard compost or hydro, take cuttings early to sex, save the most vigorous female of each strain for a mother, and then build or buy a bubble or aero type cloner that does not use a medium at all. The industry standard aero-cloner is the EZ-Clone, which uses no rooting medium, and the plants are suspended in midair secured by a re-usable neoprene collar that gently grips the stem and leaves the cut part hanging in reach of the sprayers. That way, you can put your cutting in ANY medium without fear of stem-rot from a bulky, wet plug.

[cheesypeace]

FFFFFFFFFOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAA

[cheesypeace]

No but seriously I have 3 rooted female clones and 10 more that have been in a bubbler for 16 days and still have no root though so i dont know if they'll root, plus theyre getting yellow.

But do you think it is possible to grow 25 seeds in rockwool cubes and then induce 12/12 early to sex and remove males??

[Illusion]

Don't listen to people that work at hydro shops man. Like who knows- they could be one of us, and actually know their stuff.. but it just seems like they like to talk a lot and be full of shit, and they love people that walk in with huge wallets and high ambitions.

Dont hate me, but unless you have a couple years growing experience under your belt (and even then) i wouldn't recommend trying an aero grow...


*edit*I
I dont think inducing flower early will really do much. they will show their sex when they are sexually mature, i have had 6 plants all show within a week of eachother under 18/6 lighting

[stinkyattic]

Illusion is right... I've seen the whole spectrum. From the unassuming guy with a MS in horticulture and a rusty farm truck, to the young kid with clean fingernails driving a BMW with dubs (*cough* retired dealer *cough*)... One of these dudes is gonna try to sell you on an aero system. The other is going to ask you what your goals are and how much grow experience you have, and fit you to a style that will work, even if it's cheap and he's not making a grand on the deal. After all, there's plenty of time to come back and buy a fancier setup later when you have your procedure locked down tight. If you feel like you are walking into a shop and talking to a sales rep from American Agritech... that might be a clue! :D

[PlantHeadJ]

Hey there, don't take advice from someone who has never run an aero system. They are usually intimidated by areo, often a soil grower, and will resent you suceeding with areo. It's a simple system and a great one. I have used aero systems extensivly over the last ten years and would not go any other way.
The biggest thing people will try to scare you about will be a nozzle clogging or power failure yadayadayada. Pure drivel. A clogged sprayer is one of many. Sprayers aren't supposed to be aimed directly at the roots anyway so there will still be sufficient mist from the other sprayers. What happens if the power goes out with a flood system and rockwool? Exactly, the rockwool drys up and plants die. With Aero same thing except the bottom half of the roots are in WATER, therefore no death.
Get yourself a system and experiment. How else will we progress? Listening to someone say "oh I wouldn't do that" even though it's because they are afraid of failure and afraid you will suceed. Lame. That's why we love hydro right? If something goes wrong it takes a couple days to fix. Big deal. Trail and error are a way of life, you will greatly benefit from an Areo system, and that's gonna be your best yeild!! Good Luck!!
Sorry Stinky, can't sit by and watch someone stifle someone else looking to advance knowledge.
Yes I have 15 years horticulture experience AND work at a Hydro shop and my customer's love me and come back for solid advice to make educated decisions before they buy.

[PlantHeadJ]

Also on your cuttings a raft DWC system is very effective for rooting clones that are going into hydro. Just get a piece of styrofoam or neoprene or cardboard and poke holes to fit the cuttings. When it's time to transplant cut the material away from the cutting and then insert into the aero system. You DON"T need the "industry standard" expensive E_Z cloner system. How about that, honest advice from..................................

[stinkyattic]

Hey planthead, I'm not knocking aero. I think it's a very good system for someone who at least has a background growing plants- it's the same thing I'd tell someone trying any type of hydro for the first time- it's important to familiarize yourself with growing any sort of plants before jumping into a sophisticated grow system.
I'm not a huge EZ fan myself considering how cheap a home-made bubbler is. I've run one, and for the expense and hassle, didn't see any significant advantage over other styles of cloning, at least on a hobby scale.

Honestly I'm not trying to stifle anyone. Straight up if you had read my posts on this thread my main concern is:
-The guy wants to do a SCROG and I am concerned that he is not planning for access to the nozzles in case of a clog. While they ARE redundant enough to run with a clogged nozzle here and there, maintaining clear sprayers is part of a general maintenance routine.
-Growing from seed in an aero system designed, as they all are, to flower rooted cuttings, is not efficient and the process of growing out your first set of mothers is plenty of time to make friends with the cannabis plant.
-Be wary of overly pushy salespeople.

That's it. I've said my piece and if you still think I'm trying to stifle the OP's dreams, there's no way I can defend myself!

[hatch]

Ya'll all have great point's.. If I may add?? Aeroponic's is really not hard at all!!!
The same principal's are like anything, stay on-top of your PH, use liquid nut's, go by the chart's with nut's for right ppm.
I use the 2" basket's and 2" rapid starter plug, from start to finish-That's all, no medium.
Use a good pump atleast 1000gpm, For best mist, use inline filter's and sceen's on intake of pump, keep res. well oxygenated with air pump's and stones.
My Pod's drain into a big res., and don't have standing water in them, But some system's do.
I also use net's, for plant support, First net at about 10" to 12", and it's real easy to lift the lid @ check the mister, all my plumbing has scew end's if need a repair?, In the Pod's I have 7 Mister's in each Pod-(16"x24"- clone Pod's are 9" deep and the veg @ flower Pod's are 16" deep), the mister's are on riser's so the mist hit's the top of the basket's and drain's down the root's.
Hope any of this can help!! and to keep the price down build your own!!! If you would like I can show you how to build your own? Don't be scared jump in with both feet that's how you learn!!! Anyway that's my 2cent's and if you want some help, It's No Problem!!! Later

P.S. Hope this didn't piss any-one off!!! Just tring to Help!!

[Illusion]

I know how to make invisible ink
That means I can dive straight into making LSD!'

Thanks guys, I didn't realize you can just dive with both feet in to start learning! And hey if something goes wrong, its just a couple days to fix and a lot of money! :) riiiight? :thumbsup:

And god forbid hand watering something in the occurrence of a power out!

[PlantHeadJ]

Stinky I must have misunderstood. My apologies, I am a big fan of learning on the system you are going to use. I love it when people dive in and learn the ropes on their own. They are the ones that don't have minds clogged with misinformation as their knowledge is first hand experience.

Illusion, in hydro if you overfeed, wrong nutes, other things we've all done, just swap the water in your res and add fresh nutes. They'll come back. If money is a problem GH nutes are very affordable and work well. Sorry to sound rude but this stuff is easy because plants tell us what they need and this wonderful website is full of people who will help you. Weedhound actually asked someone for advice for me...totally cool!!

I love you all and just wanna see people experiment so we all grow like our plants.

[cheesypeace]

OK so just for the record I've smoked literally the best weed in the world about 5-7REALLY INTENSE KILLER strains that would make any grower the luckiest man in the world to have, but unfortunately I dont even know if these strains are around much anymore because these were all from back in like 2000-2001 when Dre released The Chronic. but anyway my ciTY WAS TIGHT wityh super primo.ok so my mom bought a house in 2001 and we moved in and had to do renovations for 2 weeks but after that it was nice. GET THIS! So I sneak a walk into the back alley to smoke a doobie out of my moms vision and I notice the people living behind me have a bunch of pot plants growing on their deck and a huge rotweiler. So anyway I snuck into their yard later that night and only took 1 plant but they had 4 more in big pots and i saw in the basement window there was a few rows of large buds!!

So anyway I was a HEAVY chronic back then and I also had my own seedlings going from bag seed so i planted those in my alley and wow they grew alright. Anyway Marc emery hooked me up with like 4-5 free packs of seeds after the 1 pack of durban poison didnt germinate and I planted those all over the city after growing them in my closet for a few weeks. So anyway I got a good concept of growing in soil and outdoors, poor soil condiotions bugs fertilizer burns heat issues, short growing season not allowing buds to mature. Cloning some WW and then my 2 WW mothers that were in my back ally got robbed by someone the very next day =[

But all and all That was the past. I just try to grow a little bit of hydro now for myself. So I've already harvested about 20 oz of hydro and smoked that and I'm just trying to get a little more and maybe get into aeroponics while im at it. SO I got it down to a T. And screw you for laughing at my hydro scxissors they were only 8$ and they are sping loaded like shears specifically for gardening and make super sharp cuts..but i get ur point that hydro store is a stoner who doesnt seem to get the best equipment and nutes. But I have since switched hydro shops to the only other one in town which is absolutely fantastic! They carry alot of advanced nutrients and they will even order in special stuff for you like scorpion juice! I got a bottle of that for 40$ Supposedf to kick some serious ass.

But anyway Ya i want to do a 5x5 scrog and the nozzles will be really easy to just pop up and fix and pop em back down. Because Scrog gets suck a thick carpet of buds I love it..

Ok so any help thanks, remember Jesus love you all and so do I. =]

So no matter what kind of crap I hear on this forum i'm still gonna do a little 4x4 aeroponics table because

[hatch]

Dude, You stuck some people out!!!, If you are not serious why did you even post this thread???
I apologize to all involved!!! Miss Stincky, yes I'm with you now, My Bad........Later

[GrowMe]

Hey hatch..Just got done with my first grow..2 ladies, 2.5 gallon buckets, cheap air stones/pump, hydroton and rockwool, and about 400 watts all CFL...Got a little a little over 1/4 pounds from 2 plants...

I was curious if you had a link or something to build a system like yours..You mentioned above for cheesy to ask..I figure i'd do it for him...

I'm trying to figure out the best aero/hydro way to go for me..like i said before it was all cheap and all put together very quickly and last minute with flourescents..

Now i have a 400 watt MH, 400 watt HPS and an extra hood that i was planning on buying a 600 watt HPS bulb and ballast for...As well as another 400 watts in CFL's...

What do you think?

Thanks so much!!!!!!!!!!!!

:joint1:

[hatch]

GrowMe, Hey What's UP?!!,

Yes I have a thread in closet/Cabinet Growing,
Southern Engineering,HATCH Style At the first of my Thread it Show's My Chamber's, And some of the plumbing, @ how thing's are set-up.
I will go get one of my extra Pod's, @ take some picture's of how it's plumbed @ how the mister's are set-up.
I'll post them her in Hydroponics........Later

[GrowMe]

Awesome Hatch!! Thanks.. Talk to you soon
:thumbsup:

[budcronicindo]

aeroponic systems work great for sea of green but i wouldn't scrog them. your asking for trouble & headaches.:pimp:

[stinkyattic]

I think that bragging about stealing plants as a way to get started in growing is a good way to get a thread closed.
That's a dick maneuver all around. Not even taking a plant you found in the woods and trying to justify it as 'oh it's WILD'... straight up PLANNING to sneak onto someone's PORCH to jack plants?
Disgusting. You're not getting any more of my help, and this thread is CLOSED.