Germinating with aeroponics

How yall doin? I was going to start an aeroponic grow. I am aiming for something with no medium at all. No rockwool, no hydroton, or anything else. I will use neoprene collars to hold the stems, but i have a question about seed germination. People usually grow a mother plant in soil and then just take clones and put them in aeroponics. People that use medium start it in the medium obviously. Is there any technique to germinate seeds within the aeroponic system? I've read about seed disks but I'd prefer not ordering anything online. Also, if anyone has used the seed disks then how does the stem thicken when its in those small mesh holes? Thanks in advance for any input

No one knows???

I think you are going to need a medium dude.....its worth some experimentation, but most people here use the tried and true methods to get things going.

Well say i use rockwool. the roots inside of it wud be too wet. When the roots grow out of it a little and i start to water them, the rockwool would just be overflown to the max and the roots would drown. How do u surpass this? 6 of my widows died while being seedlings the last time i tried it.

Rockwool is tricky. I say go for organic peet plugs, they seem to be easy to use. Personally, I just pull out one of my AeroGarden sponges and dump the seeds in there, not to say go buy those things....I just have an abundant supply because I use my AG for actual veggies (and the occasional clone).

root riot cubes do well with aero.
i use them with an aero probogater for clones and seeds and never had a prob.
but thats only my personal experience.

growem green---------------spike.

cyborg said:

No one knows???

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I think we know, but you don't like the answer. Most people use something like Rapid Rooter plugs which are my choice.

If I'm understanding correctly, you are asking for a solution that doesn't use items specifically designed and made to do exactly what you want, but rather uses parts a person would find lying around?

anyone ever use cotton? I saw it done legitametly somewhere. I think it was on the volksgarden website for their other product.

Cotton won't work. It will loose its air pockets with water and drown your seed.

Hi. Check out my thread (link at bottom of page). I am using a coffee can to start my roots with no medium. I am using neoprene colars to hold stems as you will be doing. 11/22/08, and 12/12/08 are the dates you are looking for. I am very new to this and am learning too, so don't quote me on anything, I'll deny it... loL. This is working for me and I have gotten strong roots 2 times in 5 days. I've tried

Hope it helps.

no picasso. i have all the specific things, but i was told that aeroponics uses no medium meaning just air and water, and something to hold it steady. i got the steady part, but if i had my timer 1minute on and 4minutes off then wouldnt it drown the seed or seedling?

i meant in root riot or whatever

I cannot answer that question because i have not tried that specifically, but I imagine 15 every 60 as suggested might be a starting point but I really couldn't say with certainty.

In a few weeks you'll be the guy answering that question for someone else, so get started already... lol. What ya gotta do is get some bagseed to experiment with.

What type of timer do you have that you can set to come on 1 minute every 5 minutes??? I need one of those...

They are called recycle timers. A few different once out there. They just repeat whatever you set them for.

Picaso, thanks I need ... lol

When germinating seeds for an aero system, it cannot be done without some kind of media. I tried germinating seed using only the neoprene plug and the seeds germinated, but only roots developed. With no actual plant, they quickly died. I also tried germinating using moist paper towel and a ziploc bag. The seeds germinate well, but I get less than a 50% mortality rate within 2 days of transplanting into my aero system, and almost a 90% mortality rate after a week. I think the reason is that the sprouts cannot draw out enough water from the fog as the root system is almost non existant this early in development.

What I am trying now is germinating the seeds in paper towel, then filling the netted pots with expanded clay pellets around the roots and part of the stem of the sprout. The idea is to keep the roots of the sprout very moist while the root system develops. Once the roots have developed, and start sticking out of the clay pellets, the benifit of the nutrient fog takes over. The added bonus of the clay pellets is that you do not have to order hundreds of neoprene cup lids as the clay pellets support the plant. The clay pellets are also reuseable. Just remember to wash them in a H2O2 solution, then rince with distilled water between grows. I hope this helps.

I have the same question. Bump.

Im using a daisy cloner and put a seed in one of the collars near the bottm with the seed just barly poking out the bottom. Ive got my collar cockeyed a little so its not evenly tight in the middle. Im thinking the reason only roots developed and no leaf for the person earlier is because it couldn't push itself up through the collar. Just a guess. One of my seeds has already sprouted in less then 48 hours. Hoping it makes it to through the collar provided in the Daisy cloner 8.

plebe said:

I have the same question. Bump.

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If you want to have have a plant growing in Aero you could grow it in soil just for a bit then rinse the soil off the roots then put them into your aero garden.

The way I do it is in rapid rooter plugs. After I see the roots coming out of the bottom of the plug I make sure its good and wet and then just split the plug trying not to damage the plant roots to much. I put the seedling in a neoprene collar and into a 2" net pot and into the cloner it goes. For timers I would definitely recommend against the CAP timers like the picture above. They are pieces of crap and way to expensive. Get two of these for less than half the price of one piece of shit CAP timer.
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