metagrower
Well-Known Member
OK, so I have recently transplanted to my aero setup. It's in my bathroom and my girl's farts rival the cat's. Can this affect my plants?
(I'm kidding. seriously tho, please read on...)
It wasn't going too well initially, as I got some bad advice from our local hydro shop -- they told me to use Cocotek liners and fill them with Pearlite, and use that to suspend the plants in the aeroponic setup. 4 plants died in short order from what I can only guess was over nutes... the Mircle grow Pearlite had trace nutes in it. (0.04-0.01-0.06) they tried to hang on, but the pH of my well water was already at 6.2 and adding nutes brought the pH down to a level I couldn't even measure. Then my setup fucked up and my bathroom flooded. Fortunately I have my own place, but I had to fix that. I tried using pH up, but I couldn't seem to give it enough to make it ok (it seriously took more than 10 doses to get it even close.) Now I don't know what to do. It looks like some of my plants are starting to do better. I lost 4. I think the mixture was far too acidic and also that some of it splashed up on the leaves, and combined with the acidity of the water and the direct light it burnt the leaves. But I don't know, and I'd like the opinion of someone with more experience than me (that's practically everyone here.)
I took pics:
The first pic is of a leaf that was particularly damaged and I pinched it off, so that the plant wouldn't devote too much energy to regen.
I am currently flushing the system with purified tap water (it's well water so it doesn't have as much Cl to begin with, but that also means that water softening has taken place -- thus a pH of 6.2). I replaced the res. (it was probably too small, I have a 10 gal aquarium as a res now.)
The last pic is of my finger holding a curled and damaged leaf straight. I didn't pinch it off cause it was bigger and from the first sprout of leaves, so I didn't want to damage the plant too too much. Wouldnt' shock me to hear I should pinch it off tho.
My water temps are fine 64-68deg F. I had issues at first, but I built a cooling tube and that worked nicely. My air temps are right at 74deg F, though sometimes they rise up to 80, but then the fan kicks on and rights it.
Water sched had been 2mins on 1min off, as I was using a condensation pump that required siphoning from the res, and would only kick on when it sensed water in its res. I have added another siphon tube and it now stays on 24/7 due to increased water flow.
I'll be happy to tell you anything else you want to know to help with a diagnosis. Any help I can get would be super fucking awesome. THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!
(I'm kidding. seriously tho, please read on...)
It wasn't going too well initially, as I got some bad advice from our local hydro shop -- they told me to use Cocotek liners and fill them with Pearlite, and use that to suspend the plants in the aeroponic setup. 4 plants died in short order from what I can only guess was over nutes... the Mircle grow Pearlite had trace nutes in it. (0.04-0.01-0.06) they tried to hang on, but the pH of my well water was already at 6.2 and adding nutes brought the pH down to a level I couldn't even measure. Then my setup fucked up and my bathroom flooded. Fortunately I have my own place, but I had to fix that. I tried using pH up, but I couldn't seem to give it enough to make it ok (it seriously took more than 10 doses to get it even close.) Now I don't know what to do. It looks like some of my plants are starting to do better. I lost 4. I think the mixture was far too acidic and also that some of it splashed up on the leaves, and combined with the acidity of the water and the direct light it burnt the leaves. But I don't know, and I'd like the opinion of someone with more experience than me (that's practically everyone here.)
I took pics:
The first pic is of a leaf that was particularly damaged and I pinched it off, so that the plant wouldn't devote too much energy to regen.
I am currently flushing the system with purified tap water (it's well water so it doesn't have as much Cl to begin with, but that also means that water softening has taken place -- thus a pH of 6.2). I replaced the res. (it was probably too small, I have a 10 gal aquarium as a res now.)
The last pic is of my finger holding a curled and damaged leaf straight. I didn't pinch it off cause it was bigger and from the first sprout of leaves, so I didn't want to damage the plant too too much. Wouldnt' shock me to hear I should pinch it off tho.
My water temps are fine 64-68deg F. I had issues at first, but I built a cooling tube and that worked nicely. My air temps are right at 74deg F, though sometimes they rise up to 80, but then the fan kicks on and rights it.
Water sched had been 2mins on 1min off, as I was using a condensation pump that required siphoning from the res, and would only kick on when it sensed water in its res. I have added another siphon tube and it now stays on 24/7 due to increased water flow.
I'll be happy to tell you anything else you want to know to help with a diagnosis. Any help I can get would be super fucking awesome. THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!