My Radiator

Somebody wanted to see my radiator so here you go. I figured while I was at it I would post pics of my aeroponic setup. It's not too fancy, but it seems to be working well for me. I am working out the details to make a better system, but I don't think my old lady will go for a 4th revision of my hydro station any time soon.

Currently the water only cycles through the radiator whenever the misters come on, but it didn't take long to see the fallacy in that decision. I have a spare pump that will be perfect for this job. I just slipped the ends of the hoses over the ends of the radiator and it seemed to work. All told there are 18 spray heads on a 1/2" pvc line. The pump is probably overkill but whatever, it seems to be working.

I should note that if anyone attempts to copy this system, make sure your nutes are at about 40% of the minimum feeding schedule for whatever product you are using. Even at this stage and you can see how big the plants are, the ppm's are at 325 and there were signs of over fert. I'm pretty sure from this point on I can start creeping the nutes up, but to what levels I don't know. I plan to stick with 40% of a feeding chart I found for Advanced Nutrients. Lastly, I have found that 90 seconds on and 4 off is pretty good for a watering schedule. Within a few weeks the roots will touch the bottom anyway which is why I have a bubbler too. Hell, you can never have too much Oxygen can you? I put about 1/4 cap of hydrogen peroxide from the drug store in there too.

Decided to post some comparison shots too.

Top Row: Oct 25, Nov 10, Nov 16
Bottom Row: Nov 29, Dec 1

You can see how I didn't really start to get the hang of it until around the 3rd picture which then took about 2 weeks to get to the 4th pic a few days ago. If I didn't take these pictures I wouldn't have a clue how I was doing. I was even at the hydro shop today complaining about how I didn't think they were growing fast enough. I was trying before these pics too. In reality it took me 2 months to get this far, but if I count from the point of Nov 16th then I think I am doing just fine. I will allow the smaller ones another couple weeks in veg and then I am starting flowering.

These plants have seen everything from 800 ppm's to no water for hours on end. Go figure. I have thus far only had one male. I am unsure about the 5 smaller ones but for sure the 2 big ones are female.

I use hydrozyme which may account for the bushiness of the plants. I also topped the two big ones too about a week ago, but they were plenty bushy before I did that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Prodaytrader

Decided to post some comparison shots too.

Top Row: Oct 25, Nov 10, Nov 16
Bottom Row: Nov 29, Dec 1

You can see how I didn't really start to get the hang of it until around the 3rd picture which then took about 2 weeks to get to the 4th pic a few days ago. If I didn't take these pictures I wouldn't have a clue how I was doing. I was even at the hydro shop today complaining about how I didn't think they were growing fast enough. I was trying before these pics too. In reality it took me 2 months to get this far, but if I count from the point of Nov 16th then I think I am doing just fine. I will allow the smaller ones another couple weeks in veg and then I am starting flowering.

These plants have seen everything from 800 ppm's to no water for hours on end. Go figure. I have thus far only had one male. I am unsure about the 5 smaller ones but for sure the 2 big ones are female.

I use hydrozyme which may account for the bushiness of the plants. I also topped the two big ones too about a week ago, but they were plenty bushy before I did that.

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looking nice to me....

I do about 50% of the Advanced Nutrients nute schedule and that works for me. Always good to watch how other nutes work for other folks. How'd you come up with 40% for yoru schedule?

Can't wait to see how this goes for you, man...:hippy:

Hey ProDayTrader,

Looking better!

How are those roots doing now? Also, I\'d stay in the 500-600 ppm range on your veg for now...

Can you put up some new pictures of the roots?

Peace,

Farmer Rich

I guess this thread sort of became my grow log. It's been about 20 days since I last posted pictures and what troubles I have had. I'll include some of of my "troubles."

Apparently I'm not much of a gardener. It took some time for my to realize that much of my behavior was harmful on the plants. I had to learn some lessons on humidity, mold and cold all in the past 2 weeks. I imagine that come summer I will have to learn some further painful lessons on temperature control. At any rate, as the plants sit today, they look awesome. Just the past two days alone has shown more growth then all of last week. Once you get things dialed in right, they really take off don't they? My ppm's are much higher then I am used too, primarily because I cut my fog out entirely. ppm's are at about 700 and ph at 5.8. Now I just use low pressure misters at 15m on and 15m off. My water level is about half way up my tub which is allowing my roots more contact with water. I have two large bubblers in the bottom as well as a homemade radiator all helping to keep the water oxygenated and fresh. Assuming I have no further issues this coming week, I hope to begin flowering next week and certainly no later then Jan 1.

I ordered some new stock today. I hear it can take a month to get your seeds if things go wrong. So I figured why not order them now, hopefully I get them on time but if I dont, then it wont hurt as much. I got a jump pack of 30 seeds (ICE, White Widow and Crystal). I was really after the White Widow as I have tried that once before and loved it. The other two are simply along for the ride. I figure any one of these strains has got to be 10x better then the bag seed I am using now..lol. At any rate I intend to reconnect the fogger into a new system that I will be designing for this next batch. I have some killer ideas that I want to try, now that I know a little bit more.
Top Row 1 and 2 were taken Dec 9 while the rest have been over the last day or two (Dec 22). They look really really nice today. I think heat has been the overwhelming issue that has set me back a week or more. These plants can not tolerate anything below 65 in my opinion. Once I figured out how to keep the temps higher then 65 they picked right up.

More to follow in a week or so.