Ok, Im not a first time grower nor first time DIYer. I was soil a number of years back, and actually built all the control units from scratch, it was perfect. Soil dry past the due line and self watering, Constant water temp and TDS monitoring, humidity too high extra fan came on till it came down, too low and humidifier turned on. The whole set up was cheap to built, though took a few months to get everything right and I felt awesome. For years it served me well. I recently did a great deal of homework on aeroponics and alot of what makes it so different, then a control study with soil vs. Areo. There is no doubt Areo was my choice for this round.
My setup is a home built Aeroponic sprayer system with DWC reservoir. NOT what I want to use, but I need this system as a control object against the system Im currently building indusing ultrasonic fogging and a very different assembly sinse I dont want the roots making contact in the reservoir. Thats will be another thread with pics when its done. I needed cost to be low so I used a pump I had for a million years, used a stocking as a filter, though work great, put my pvc pipe together and threaded in sprayers. I did intentionally go overboard on sprayers due to a) clogging of one or two, and B) the GPH of the pump is unknown (label has long worn away) but I beleive it far exceeds 400 or maybe even 600 GPH and with less sprayers, more resistance, higher motor heat, dissipates into reservoir, wallah, 90 degree water temps, BOOOOO!! So I run it 5 minutes every 4 hours for now and the bubbling action of the two 7" aqua stones keep everything wet inside. This is a VERY inexpensive setup. My more preferred setup is to separate the reservoir meant increasing height of the unit, which I cant do. I keep it on the concrete to dissipate heat best, and with the 6 bulb, 4ft T5 lights 4" from the plants, root development is far faster then I expected. Water temp hangs around 74-76ish after the pump runs, not bad. I want to run it 24/7 for best results so Im going to install a temperature controlled coolworks iceprobe, not too much money but it should fight the motor heat so I can run it longer. Though honestly I dont think the iceprobe will bring the intense heat down enough for a 24 hour run, but perhaps I can run at longer intervals until I buy a good quality pump that doesnt generate heat. Im hoping to not have this problem in the flower chamber with my rainforest system, but we'll see next week when I test it.
I have 5 autoflowering Feminized Blueberrys in now in the unit. They were planted from seed 9/21, they popped up quickly in two days (after 1 day soak). After the soak I planted them in Roto-Rooter medium, that stuff is tits, I like way better then rockwool, and its 100% organic and biodegradable. When I transplanted the roto-rooter plugs which had roots just coming out, they werent all over the place yet, because I didnt want to risk them drying out in the plastic tray, I put them in the 3"coco-lined nets with groton they stunted for a few days. I am using single foxfarm nutes 1/1 for now, once all the plants have sustainable roots that make contact with the water I will step up to the recommended 2/1 nute mix. As soon as the roots popped out the bottom the plants are growing at a very acceptable pace, I do still believe my results would be better with the sprayers running near 24/7, which they will get in the rainforest system soon.They new system will be intermitten spraying and fogging, a constant source of nutrient in different micronic sizes, should completely maximize growing potential, after I kill a bunch of stuff a few times and learn more. There will always be a control object to compare to, so stay tuned for that, it should be super cool to see the actual difference day by day.
Sinse these are autoflowering it really makes no difference when they go in the flowering chamber, as a matter of fact, Im guessing the sooner the better, the 2x3 room wish contains only the 6 plant rainforest system is running 1000 HPS, overkill I know, But I got full setup with switchable ballasts a dozen Halide and HPS, sunagro bulbs and deflectors along with some other odds and ends for about $100, it was a no brainer. And with the fridge giving me 5' of height, I have some room to work, these babes should be potent as hell though. When I run into more money I will actually downgrade to the 600 HPS for that room and build a 400 MH for veg then just use the area you see in the pics with the T5's for seeds and clones. But I went autoflowering on all strains for now so I had time to build the other box. I still have to finish the Flowering box which is a converted full size refrigerator. Pics of that to come once its done, the rainforest fits perfectly in there. So the blueberry plants in the pics, they are exactly 2 weeks old from seed, which again, blows away my soil comparison, though in the soil they are taller and stretched, in the areo system they are still very short and the leaves are MUCH bigger, both receiving equal light. Also adding a fan tonight to flow on the base of the reservoir, I can dump the temps probably and other 2-4 degrees doing so. AND, with wintertime rolling in and having the unit sitting on a concrete slab, I may find the reservoir temp may not continue to be a problem. I may just break down and buy a new pump next week as I understand the newer mag drive pumps create little heat. I'm anxious to complete the fogger areo unit as well, hoping for lots of comments and suggestions. And hoping to get the flowering fridge done this week. I hate putting up mylar, and trying to cool a totally airtight fridge with a 1000 watt light in it, holy crap, I just cant seem to move enough air. Cool tube and such may have to be added later it I cant get it under control, but the object for the next two months is money, gotta make it work without dropping anymore dough. HO fans arent cheap, neither are the scrubbers, etc. I'll be happy when its done, lets hope I dont kill anything. I cant take any clones for backup due to auto flowering. But I do have an Afgani/Hindu cross thats NOT feminized and IS autoflowering.
If I pollinate the flowers will I get perfect seeds? Meaning the same genetic cross AND autoflowering? Casue that would be a nice thing to have stock of. I only have 1 Afganhi/Hindu Auto growing curently, its the tiniest in the pic, But I do have a full batch of 6-8 that I'll be starting soon. Again, not feminized, so should have some males with females. Cant I just let the male's pollinate the females? Although maybe a seedy crop at first, are those seeds going to be the same as the original? A bankload of autoflowering seeds would be a wonderful thing. Thoughts are appreciated. Tanx.
p.s. Forgive my spelling, I was ina rush to get this up.[/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
My setup is a home built Aeroponic sprayer system with DWC reservoir. NOT what I want to use, but I need this system as a control object against the system Im currently building indusing ultrasonic fogging and a very different assembly sinse I dont want the roots making contact in the reservoir. Thats will be another thread with pics when its done. I needed cost to be low so I used a pump I had for a million years, used a stocking as a filter, though work great, put my pvc pipe together and threaded in sprayers. I did intentionally go overboard on sprayers due to a) clogging of one or two, and B) the GPH of the pump is unknown (label has long worn away) but I beleive it far exceeds 400 or maybe even 600 GPH and with less sprayers, more resistance, higher motor heat, dissipates into reservoir, wallah, 90 degree water temps, BOOOOO!! So I run it 5 minutes every 4 hours for now and the bubbling action of the two 7" aqua stones keep everything wet inside. This is a VERY inexpensive setup. My more preferred setup is to separate the reservoir meant increasing height of the unit, which I cant do. I keep it on the concrete to dissipate heat best, and with the 6 bulb, 4ft T5 lights 4" from the plants, root development is far faster then I expected. Water temp hangs around 74-76ish after the pump runs, not bad. I want to run it 24/7 for best results so Im going to install a temperature controlled coolworks iceprobe, not too much money but it should fight the motor heat so I can run it longer. Though honestly I dont think the iceprobe will bring the intense heat down enough for a 24 hour run, but perhaps I can run at longer intervals until I buy a good quality pump that doesnt generate heat. Im hoping to not have this problem in the flower chamber with my rainforest system, but we'll see next week when I test it.
I have 5 autoflowering Feminized Blueberrys in now in the unit. They were planted from seed 9/21, they popped up quickly in two days (after 1 day soak). After the soak I planted them in Roto-Rooter medium, that stuff is tits, I like way better then rockwool, and its 100% organic and biodegradable. When I transplanted the roto-rooter plugs which had roots just coming out, they werent all over the place yet, because I didnt want to risk them drying out in the plastic tray, I put them in the 3"coco-lined nets with groton they stunted for a few days. I am using single foxfarm nutes 1/1 for now, once all the plants have sustainable roots that make contact with the water I will step up to the recommended 2/1 nute mix. As soon as the roots popped out the bottom the plants are growing at a very acceptable pace, I do still believe my results would be better with the sprayers running near 24/7, which they will get in the rainforest system soon.They new system will be intermitten spraying and fogging, a constant source of nutrient in different micronic sizes, should completely maximize growing potential, after I kill a bunch of stuff a few times and learn more. There will always be a control object to compare to, so stay tuned for that, it should be super cool to see the actual difference day by day.
Sinse these are autoflowering it really makes no difference when they go in the flowering chamber, as a matter of fact, Im guessing the sooner the better, the 2x3 room wish contains only the 6 plant rainforest system is running 1000 HPS, overkill I know, But I got full setup with switchable ballasts a dozen Halide and HPS, sunagro bulbs and deflectors along with some other odds and ends for about $100, it was a no brainer. And with the fridge giving me 5' of height, I have some room to work, these babes should be potent as hell though. When I run into more money I will actually downgrade to the 600 HPS for that room and build a 400 MH for veg then just use the area you see in the pics with the T5's for seeds and clones. But I went autoflowering on all strains for now so I had time to build the other box. I still have to finish the Flowering box which is a converted full size refrigerator. Pics of that to come once its done, the rainforest fits perfectly in there. So the blueberry plants in the pics, they are exactly 2 weeks old from seed, which again, blows away my soil comparison, though in the soil they are taller and stretched, in the areo system they are still very short and the leaves are MUCH bigger, both receiving equal light. Also adding a fan tonight to flow on the base of the reservoir, I can dump the temps probably and other 2-4 degrees doing so. AND, with wintertime rolling in and having the unit sitting on a concrete slab, I may find the reservoir temp may not continue to be a problem. I may just break down and buy a new pump next week as I understand the newer mag drive pumps create little heat. I'm anxious to complete the fogger areo unit as well, hoping for lots of comments and suggestions. And hoping to get the flowering fridge done this week. I hate putting up mylar, and trying to cool a totally airtight fridge with a 1000 watt light in it, holy crap, I just cant seem to move enough air. Cool tube and such may have to be added later it I cant get it under control, but the object for the next two months is money, gotta make it work without dropping anymore dough. HO fans arent cheap, neither are the scrubbers, etc. I'll be happy when its done, lets hope I dont kill anything. I cant take any clones for backup due to auto flowering. But I do have an Afgani/Hindu cross thats NOT feminized and IS autoflowering.
If I pollinate the flowers will I get perfect seeds? Meaning the same genetic cross AND autoflowering? Casue that would be a nice thing to have stock of. I only have 1 Afganhi/Hindu Auto growing curently, its the tiniest in the pic, But I do have a full batch of 6-8 that I'll be starting soon. Again, not feminized, so should have some males with females. Cant I just let the male's pollinate the females? Although maybe a seedy crop at first, are those seeds going to be the same as the original? A bankload of autoflowering seeds would be a wonderful thing. Thoughts are appreciated. Tanx.
p.s. Forgive my spelling, I was ina rush to get this up.[/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
