Aerogarden club

Here is how I'M AeroGardening!! I'm going SCRoG I had hoped for lollipops but missed the boat... started with some clones from my closet bush grow. have to say, so far, i'm VERY happy with the AG. (used it before for kitchen herbs, happy with it then as well)

all in all.. no complaints, should make a nice personal 1/4 or so.. i think

nice setup shackelford.r. looks like you did the punch out the logo thing to add some more light? i have found that with the aerogarden the best way to add auxilary lighting is to get those lamp clips ( http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2112/2255974919_ac9eb6c32f.jpg ) and attach them to something on the side or on the hood of the aerogarden itself, ill up some pics later of what i used to do.

@gypsybush:
those are some fire looking nugs you got out of that, what is that total weight like a 1/4oz? thats incredible ill have to fire my old baby up for some aerogarden lovin' i'd love a report back.

ive got a standard aerogarden and i was wondering
do u have to germinate the seeds? because i cant seem to get my seeds to come up??
and wats the best light time to go with durin the veg stage?

any comments would b appreciated cheerz

mikekronic said:

ive got a standard aerogarden and i was wondering
do u have to germinate the seeds? because i cant seem to get my seeds to come up??
and wats the best light time to go with durin the veg stage?

any comments would b appreciated cheerz

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i prefer to germ in a papertowel and move to the ag after. if not its taken upwards of 1-2 weeks for the seed to finally pop. normally tho if it takes that long the seed has rotted.

also does anyone kno the best type of nutrients to use or does it not really matter?
do u need ventilation such as a fan? and i heard that air stones are pretty good to use aswell
im a bit clueless so any info is good

cheerz

a fan is necessary, yes, both for air quality and to strengthen the stems. AIRSTONES ARE ESSENTIAL. without them your plants will suffer horribly

as for nutes, most people either use Foxfarm, or General Hydroponics. The AG default nutes are usable, but much lower in quality and productivity than made-for-weed nutes, which those 2 pretty much are

how many airstones should i use an were do i get them?

bmn said:

I haven't seen anybody mention air stones yet, so here goes... GET AN AIR STONE GOING IN THERE! To the left of the lamp stand of the aerogarden is where you can lift up and check our pH levels and whatnot, so just open it up, run a tube in there, attach an airstone, and voila, no root rot. 1 little air stone at the front should be fine, but if you really want to get snazzy, then you could put a 2nd one in the back as well. That way your water is full of oxygen. Your plants will love it, and start trying to direct a huge chunk of their roots (once they start reaching down into the water) to get as close as possible to the air stone(s). Oh, I also forgot to mention that it's easier to germinate in a rag first and then bump it into the sponge with the emerging root (or better yet, hopefully it's discarded it's shell) nestled down into the sponge.

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hey mate jus wonderin with airstone im not too sure what u mean by the pump an wat not can u plz describe a little better and maybe some pics??
would be much appreciated cheerz

wat ph level should the water feed be

pastafarian81 said:

i prefer to germ in a papertowel and move to the ag after. if not its taken upwards of 1-2 weeks for the seed to finally pop. normally tho if it takes that long the seed has rotted.

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paper towel on my cable box for heat, works every time, i think 3 days man,

ok, so i have 3 ag models now, i have not had to buy my herb in a long time,

congrats edward. i just may use my AG again for my next grow.
i don't want to use my good beans though. i may get a bag of shwag and do a 12/12 from seed grow.

check my posted threads in my profile. i've done an AG clone/grow as well other related AG stuff.

you sound like you have this done though. just thought you might like the reading material.


Shack

Ladies and gentlemen:
I think we all have our favorites. I've used A/G's nutrients and they worked great until the flowering stage. They seem to be lacking something there. I bought a Techna-Flora starter kit and I love their nutes. It seems to have all we need for the complete plant cycle.
I do recommend the upgrade kit for the older seven hole A/G's because it gives more light, (3 higher intensity CFL's) and 24" of grow height on the taller arm but you still don't want more than a few plants at a time.
I can't give you diagrams because I'm not that computer savvy but the figure eight cord goes to your timer and you can time the A/G garden controller as well off the same timer. In fact if you go to Harbor Freight Tools, their timer has "two" outlets and you can plug the A/G power cord directly in the wall, as illustrated above, and then you can plug in your light figure "8" cord and aquarium pump for the air stone into the timer and put them on the same hourly schedule. I timed all mine on one four terminal power strip that I plug into a single side of my timer on a 12/12 cycle and it's nice and neat and it's worked well for me. Hank

HSA your post makes no sense. can you make a little sense out of your post?
you're saying plug the light hood into a timer. but also timing the air stones? why would you do that? why wouldn't you want to aerate the solution 24/7?

what do you plug in your timer is what i'm asking. this sounds more complicated than when i did my AG grow.


Shack

hey all IF ANYONE HAS FINISHED Harvesting or is near finished and has pictures grown from an AEROGARDEN please post pictures on this thread. https://www.rollitup.org/aerogardeners/288507-aerogardens-near-done-harvest.html

Everything Id buy a air pump & a grow light then make the base where the plant sits out of a 2L mountain dew bottle

I started my first aerogarden 3/9/10 using Fox Farm nutes and 2 extra 40W 5000K CFL Bulbs clipped on the sides of the areogarden and a timer for lights and 6 seeds. I got sick and left lights on 24/7 for over a month and just added plain water when needed. Too sick to do more. 6 weeks in, the illness gone , I dumped the reservoir, rinsed the roots, refilled with water and Fox Farm for foliage, and in error reset the light timer for 12/12. I also lost 2 plants. The 4 plants left went nuts and grew like crazy. End of May I switched the side lights to 40W 2700K CFL Bulbs, dumped then refilled the reservoir with Fox Farm Big Bloom and water but put in the Fox Farm recommended amount instead of 1/2. Within hours the plants were showing signs of nute burn so dumped the reservoir and refilled with the proper nute amount. Caught it quick so no problem. A week ago I reduced light to 10 hours and found some boys just starting on one of the branches only. I pulled the branch and air dried the tips. Yesterday I topped several plants as there was no more room to pull over the tops and they were touching the top lights. This morning the first hairs of budding can be seen.
Bottom line, I used seeds found in low end dried weed, I've abused these plants like crazy and they're still living, thriving and going to set bud. The tips from the boy branch I pulled are real stoney so I can't wait to try some buds in a month or so. I have no doubt my yield would be much higher had I dealt with the lights/nutes/dump/refill better comma but it shows even if you abuse the heck out of the plants they are weeds and will survive and thrive.
I just started my 2nd areogarden with similar seeds and the same light set up as before but this time will stay on top of the optimum light and nute schedule and anticipate greater yield. I'll try cloning those plants and put the clones in the areogarden that will be harvested in a month or so. (Didn't want to clone the current plants as even though they are very healthy they have been badly abused.)
I"m learning so I'll have my own. What I've found is the learning curve isn't that big. Proper nutes and lots of good light set properly are the keys.

vandewalle said:

i know that there are already 10s of posts about this, but i thought this would be a good place for everyone who is using it, to actually say if you are, so i think it would be good if only people that are using the aerogarden post in this one, i know im not a mod, but itd be cool for people to tell what they KNOW works and what some people would change for next time.

i KNOW that foxfarm nutes have been amazing in dealing with the aerogarden.

A/G's own nutes are okay. They work well right up to flowering and then I think you need something else.

just talk about what youve learned and what you are gonna change if you do it again, and if you are new ask for help

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I think everybody has a favorite food for their babies. My hydroponics store turned me on to Technaflora's, "recipe for success," and I've been happy with it for about two years now. It seems to be complete in micro and macro elements and it satisfies the needs of my plants. I'm sure there are other brands that are just as good but I haven't had the need or opportunity to shop around.
Even A/G's nutes are okay if you consider that they are a formula designed to grow six or seven herbs or vegetables in less than a gallon of wter. They're okay if you use them half strength or less until you get into flowering stage and then I think they lack the phosphorus and potassium needed. They now have a flowering formula but I've never tried it.

Merciless_One said:

While digging through some old computer crap I had laying around, I came across this cable, which is a perfect match for the Aerogarden lamp hood, just as Vand had figured out. I figured other people would want to know more info about this kind of cord, so ..

The name for this kind of connector end is called a "figure eight", and is a pretty common type of cord from what it seems. Nothing crazy or propriatary.

Here is a link to purchase the cable from any Radio Shack in your local area:





RadioShack.com - Power & Batteries: Extension & power cords: 6-Ft. AC Power Cord

Also, they have a simple appliance timer there too that you'll need so you can set the light cycle for flowering:
RadioShack.com - Home & Office: Clocks & watches: Mini Plug-In Lamp/Appliance Timer

I walked out of RadioShack for less than $20, and everything is working beautifully with the base unit set to "salad greens" (which keeps the nutrients/pumps running 24/7) , and set the timer to set the lights on an 18/6 cycle.

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Not only does Radio shack have them but the ninety-nine cents store as well now, although theirs is a little shorter. A frugal friend of mine who knew what he was looking for even found one in the junk electrical box at his local second hand store. With a "figure eight cord" and an independent timer you can do just about anything you want with an A/G. The new super duper A/G models have a truly programmable timer that is adjustable from twenty-four hours on all the way down to 12 on and 12 off. But hell that takes all the fun out of it.