aeroponic grow

[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...-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-...ml#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..