Hey Prodaytrader,

Not sure on the fog portion.. but I'll fill you in on a couple of my lessons when I switched to Aeroponics. I put a couple of pics of my systems in your other thread about spacing on the plant sites. What I tried to do was copy the 1/2 baked article that appeared in HT a few months ago about growing a lb every 3 weeks.. The systems I built use Aeroflow 3" net pots, that I fill using rooted clones.

On my first run in the vegetation system, after advice from the dude at the hydro store, I was putting some hydroton pellets into the bottom of the net pot, putting the rooted clones in next, and finish by filling the net pot to the top with the hydroton pellets. To make a long story short, this was totally wrong, completely slowing root growth and retarding plant growth. The reason I bring it up, is in the picture, yours are full to the brim with pellets.

My other trip ups, were constantly fretting and worrying over pH, using H2O2 out of the gate, and mixing the nutes way too hot.. I had some plants that looked similar to yours and ended up having to trash the lot.. Way too stressed for recovery.

After a bit of research, when I had new clones rooted and was ready for round 2, I started doing the following:

1. Dangle the roots through the openings in the bottom of the net pot.
2. Add just enough pellets to keep the base of the stem from moving around.
3. Use a neoprene collar to stabilize the top of the clone.
4. Put it in the system.
5. Place a black plastic cover over the top to prevent any light penetration or spray on to the leaves. I make them from black heavy duty trash bags.

The idea is to maximize the root exposure to spray in the system. I run my veg sys at 1 min on, 4 min off and it work's great (flower 1/5). I even put in clones with very minimal roots and let them finish developing in veg, which is 3-4 weeks for the size I like to move into flower.

As far as your temps, you're running on the high side. It's key to keep your reservoir at 68 degrees or below. If your lights on temps are hitting 85, your reservoir is probably getting to at least the mid 70's. This can lead to pythium, aka root rot in a hurry.

For nute strengths and ph, I use:

Veg 500-700 ppm
Flower 600-800 ppm
ph 5.5 - 5.7

I set it once, on a fresh reservoir, and swap them every 4-5 days..

I also add 1/2 oz of B52 (vitamin b from AN) to 10 gallons when moving plants between systems: clone-veg-flower. Seems to alleviate stress.. I also use grow nutrients for the first few days when moving plants into flower. My logic is to minimize the stress and let them settle into the HPS lighting.

If you get root rot, 35% H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) can help, but be careful because it's very caustic! I hear 1 TBSP per gallon of water for bad cases, though I've had nothing but trouble with adding that much. Plants going limp!! Now, I use between 3/4 and 1 oz for 10 gallons of water and back the nutes down to the 400-500 range. This method helped me limp through August. Next year, chillers!!

For your immediate problems, if your roots are nicely exposed, you may want to start with a new reservoir at about 400 ppm with your base veg nuts. Run it for a day and change it again and see how things perk up.

Stay with it, with a few tweaks you'll have things going well..

Peace,

Farmer Rich