Can someone tell me what type of hydro system is featured in these pictures?

gabanja05

gabanja05

Member
View attachment 1144880View attachment 1144879

Would this be considered aeroponics? I am thinking of either going with a system similar to this or a multi-site dwc setup. I just do not understand, though, how the plants grow from this type of setup. 2 questions: Where does the air pump go, and what is inside the blue tote? Just water/nutes, right? Also, If the plants are placed in the neoprene sleeves in the holes inside the pvc fence post, where do the roots go? Do they make their way into the blue tub somehow?
****EDIT- Must I use hydroton, or are the neoprene sleeves enough? also, could I start from seedling in rapid rooter plugs inside the net pots?
 
HomeGrown&Smoked

HomeGrown&Smoked

Active Member
led is correct, that is an aeroponic system. The plants should be in net cups, about 3-4 inches diameter, and the roots will grow through the slots in the cups and will start to fill the square pvc posts. The pump will be in the blue tote along with the water and nutes.
 
gabanja05

gabanja05

Member
Homegrown- Are you suggesting that there is a such thing as an air pump that can be placed in water? I only knew of the cheap ones from wal-mart that
I don't believe are water proof?
 
IndicaFriendica

IndicaFriendica

Member
Many people use neoprene inserts instead of net cups for aeroponics. Its just a circular neoprene cutout with a slit going to the center where you anchor the plants stem. This way all of the roots get sprayed but you will definitely need those supports to keep the plants stable. These systems work great but the one downfall is that the plants are so close together. This is why many people build their own Aeroponics system. I believe NASA invented Aeroponics and it is the fastest way to grow a plant that I know of. Due to the fact that sprayers often clog I believe the best Aeroponic systems use high power pumps like 600gph and high quality sprayers. Also I a hybrid Aeroponic/DWC is your best bet, especially if your talkin trees because its hard to get a good spray on a huge root mass so having several inches of aerated H2o below the spray zone for the roots to hang into will help your plants and save them if there is a pump failure.

IF
 
gabanja05

gabanja05

Member
i get it now. i would just tie the plants to the pvc posts above it for stability. would i tie like some sort of wire or string around the plant's stem and then
the post? I like the idea of the setup in the picture, but personally I would create less sites using a fence post that size. I don't believe having so many plants
that close together would do so well in the amount of light they would receive..just my opinion..of course, I would rather have 1 or 2 plants to a 400 watt hid
as opposed to trying to jam as many as possible under one light.
 
HomeGrown&Smoked

HomeGrown&Smoked

Active Member
IndicaFriendica said:
I believe NASA invented Aeroponics and it is the fastest way to grow a plant that I know of. Due to the fact that sprayers often clog I believe the best Aeroponic systems use high power pumps like 600gph and high quality sprayers
Click to expand...
Right on the money, they developed it because they are looking into ways of producing food in space. It reduces waste water to zero and even though it is the only effective way to provide nutes in zero gravity, we are lucky in that the effectiveness doesn't diminish when gravity is introduced.

As far as pumps go, you will (usually) have a water pump that pressurizes the water and shoots it through sprayers, and as Indica mentioned the system is prone to clogs. One way to work around this is to use a fogger to produce a fog that will feed the roots. Here is a video that will give you an idea of what I am talking about:

[video=youtube;brvJ2fGXusU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brvJ2fGXusU[/video]

Search for a "terrarium fogger" and that should have you good to go.

One more thing: don't forget redundancy. If your fogger goes out, your plants will develop issues quick since the roots are exposed. If you buy one, go ahead and get a second one so you don't lose your crop waiting for a second one to arrive.
 
D

disposition84

Well-Known Member
I was looking up a fogger recently myself to see if it would work, and there have been many people who have tried
and they now recommend staying far away from them as they are a constant headache.

1. Like you mentioned the foggers break rather quickly.
2. The foggers create a good amount of heat in the water and that warmth can lead to root rot or other problems.
3. Many of them claim that the foggers don't provide the best method to delivering the proper nute levels to the plants.

I use a fogger for my clones with great success, but that's with plain RO water and some rooting gel, no nutes.

That first system you posted is a stinkbud system and it's got rave reviews from everyone who uses it. As long as you keep
your nutes clean and you're not using shit that will cause clogging your mister heads would be fine. Worse come to worse install 2 per
plantsite and if need be upgrade to a bigger pump. Then you will have redundancy if anything did happen to clog.

The stinkbud system is also about as cheap as you can get for a QUALITY aero system that doesn't look like a ghetto piece of shit.
It's well thought out as far as maintaning your nute levels, draining, stability, etc. It has been proven to be a champion of champions.
 
gabanja05

gabanja05

Member
Awesome! Great info, man. I am definitely giving this system a shot. As far as the fogger goes, does using one mean there is no longer a need for sprayers? I would
rather not take my chances with sprayers and have to deal with clog issues.
 
DarthD3vl

DarthD3vl

Well-Known Member
they both have problems clogging or breaking, there are also combinations of both sprayers and foggers I've read claims that the spray isn't fine enought for the fine hairs and the fog is only absorbed by the fine hairs on the roots, I dont know I dont use either but may be worth looking into before purchasing
 
homebrewer

homebrewer

Well-Known Member
You really can't tell what type of system that is by the picture, you'd need to look at the insides. That could be a flood and drain, NFT or aero. There could even be foggers in there, you just can't tell.
 
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disposition84

Well-Known Member
Do some searching in google and various growing forums around about the foggers for yourself.

If you went with JUST a fogger, you'll definitely have a headache growing out full plants.

Earl, Al b. Fuct, and other highly regarded figures around here have all said the same about them.

I have however seem people have good results mixing the two (foggers/sprayers).

I wouldn't really fret about the sprayer heads clogging, I've run an a similar aero system to what you posted in your original post
as well as the aeroflo 60 and rarely had clogs.

Homebrewer, are you really in Santorini? I got married there last fall and stayed in the Santorini Princess, I can't wait to go back it's absolutely stunning.
 
S

SupremeGreenTeam840

Member
Just wanted to say what's up everybody had a question about the hole fogger debate I recently purchased a The Neutralist Universal d Fogger for my first aeroponic setup up! Have not had a chance to use it do to unforeseen circumstances have not even had a chance to use most of my new equipment from switching from soil to aero so that being said just wondering if any of you guys especially disposition84 had any personal Experience with this unit or second hand knowledge negative or positive will be greatly appreciated! Thanks bros
 
D

disposition84

Well-Known Member
I purchased 2x nutramist foggers off ebay roughly a month ago.

My plan is to use it with clones though, and it's working great so far took some clones 3 days ago and so far so good.

I'm using it with straight RO water and no addatives for cloning.

While I don't have personal use using it for a flowering system, I have read too many negative things about using
them for flowering from too many reputable people on the forums. So I decided it wasn't worth possibly having a crop
wont finish due to the method of feeding and wasting 2/3 months doing so. I had heard great results for cloning
so that's why I went that route as I've tried lots of different methods for cloning but want to find a solid method
for having transplantable clones in 10 days.
 
JimmyT

JimmyT

Well-Known Member
That particular system/setup is an Aeroponic/NFT hybrid. Those pictures were taken from this thread, https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/116859-harvest-pound-every-three-weeks.html

All your questions and curiosity will be satisfied when you go through that thread. You'll need a few bags of popcorn. I'm actually running that type of setup! I had originally seen something similar posted by Filthy Fletch, a member here on RIU, explaining how to make that type of system. Stinkbud just perfected it.

There are some that would argue that aeroponics is not aeroponics unless the water being sprayed reaches a certain amount of microns. Otherwise, it's only NFT on steroids. Nevertheless, the growth rate is amazing and is undisputedly faster than soil grows. I am, however, a firm believer that the most aggressive growth is with DWC. The more aggressive the bubble action, the faster the growth. Good luck deciding which one works best for you:leaf:

p.s. Don't waste your time with foggers.
 
gabanja05

gabanja05

Member
Jimmy: you're right, the pictures came from "harvest a pound every three week". And, I did review the entire journal, and it answered
a lot of my questions. But, there were still a couple that he did not cover. It was a great journal, but I see a lot of journals on here
where it seems people forget that some of us our relatively noobs, and leave some information out. Believe me, I scoured the journal
very closely and still had questions. Ultimately, I have decided to pass on the aeroponics, and instead construct a DWC system. I have seen
on here one guy harvested 16 oz from one dwc setup in a 5 gallon bucket.. Very hard to pass up a setup that can do that.
 
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