Towlie’s Experiments With AeroGarden

Wow, that was interesting. Thanks for the link towlie, although I've never had a problem with 6.0 so I'm a little wary of trying it out.

Well… I thought I’d post an update of my first grow. This pic marks the start of week 6. I increased the nutes TDS from 200 to 1100 ppm and the leaves are turning a darker green, and the yellow tips are slowly dissipating. I’m using the following:

FoxFarm ‘Grow-Big’ & ‘Big-Bloom’: 3-1 ratio at 1,100 ppm.
Cannazym: 8-ml per gallon.
Light: 250-Watt CFL; 24 hr/day light schedule.
Pump/Spray: Runs continuously except for two scheduled 1.5 hr shutdowns to help with oxygen uptake.
Airstone & Pump run continuously.
CO2: Canister of Yeast/Sugar/Water is located infront of an oscillating fan that runs 12 hrs/day.
Growth: In the last week it's grown from 7-inch to 10-inches tall.

This is everything I’m doing for this little girl (I hope it’s a girl). Does anyone have any suggestions as to what else I should be doing & why my leaves are so droopy?

Thanks again.

looking pretty good....nice 'n healthy I think. good work!

You're doing great. The plant looks in excellent condition.

I think the leaves are droopy because of the weight of them. In the next week, the growth rate will double... meaning you'll get around 6" of extra growth.

I've had 2" per day before in VEG'. Is she drinking much?

You are growing soil right? That FAQ you are reading is for hydro. In soil your pH needs to be around 6.5. Mine stays between 6.2 and 6.5

F4t4LShot said:

You are growing soil right? That FAQ you are reading is for hydro. In soil your pH needs to be around 6.5. Mine stays between 6.2 and 6.5

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Nope. DWC.

Yep. DWC. Thanks again for your input guys. It's good to know I'm doing better.

Skunk. I hadn't even thought to measure how much water it's consuming. I marked the level, and will start reporting how much she's drinking.

Ahh ok. Then yeah i guess your ph is right. They are just being over watered is all. Should be easy enough to fix. And trust me, when you do you will be absolutely amazed at how much better they look. You think they look good now? I had the same problem, only with a heater. See i thought mine were amazing, then natmoon pointed out the heater fan issue. I turned it around so it was blowing hot air right on the plants and over night BAM!!! Those things made a 180 and look 200% better. Hope it works out for you brosif

F4t4LShot said:

Ahh ok. Then yeah i guess your ph is right. They are just being over watered is all. Should be easy enough to fix. And trust me, when you do you will be absolutely amazed at how much better they look. You think they look good now? I had the same problem, only with a heater. See i thought mine were amazing, then natmoon pointed out the heater fan issue. I turned it around so it was blowing hot air right on the plants and over night BAM!!! Those things made a 180 and look 200% better. Hope it works out for you brosif

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Overwatered in DWC?

Well, maybe. I'm assuming towlie that the level of your water is at least 1" below the bottom of the net pot?

Yes you can overwater in hydro set ups too. They might not be getting enough oxygen. Its very possible and to get them over saturated with hydro set ups.

Yes. My water level is well below the net-pots (about 8-inches.)

How do I keep from over watering? I've got two cycles where I shut off the pump for 1.5 hrs to help the roots aerate. And I have an air-stone. Do I need to add H2O2?

Don't worry about it mate, you're not overwatering. lol.

Like I said, DWC creates massive growth rates.

Hold on... it's been a while since I grew DWC... but as I remember it. If I ever put the plant in a dark period, when I first put the lights on the plant would be all droopy, but then pick up again as the day went on.

Are your roots ok?

towlie said:

Yes. My water level is well below the net-pots (about 8-inches.)

How do I keep from over watering? I've got two cycles where I shut off the pump for 1.5 hrs to help the roots aerate. And I have an air-stone. Do I need to add H2O2?

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This is what the pump does. It aerates your roots. Switching off the pump starts the suffocation process.

Oh. Shoot. Thanks again for setting me straight. I had read somewhere on here that it helped aerate the roots.

Ok. Still more questions. First... Skunk. You were right about trippling in growth rate. She started the week at 10" tall and now she's 12.5"... but she's really droopy. I purchased another pump and airstone, but it doesn't seem to help. This picture was taken in the morning (when her leaves are streched out at a healthy rate) but in the evening all of her leaves are droopy. I don't cycle the lights (yes I'm 24/7 in light) but it droops more in the evening. I've no idea why. You can see in the picture that the larger leaves located in the mid portion of the plant droop over the younger lower leaves blocking them from sunlight. I thought about cutting the droopy leaves but isn't that just a bandaid?

It seems, from what I've been reading, that it needs more O2. So I was going to add some Super Oxy H2O2

Super Oxy(tm) H2O2 (Water Treament & Calibration) by Grotek - Organic fertilizers, plant nutrients, and hydroponics equipment

But I'm using organic nutes (FoxFarm Trio Pack) and the FAQ page says I might hurt my plants

https://www.rollitup.org/view.php?pg=faq&cmd=article&id=145

Any suggestions???

Raise the level of your res'... 8" is too far away... it's like a hybrid of aero/dwc except the roots are working harder to get the feed up. I'd raise the level of the res, that way more oxygenated feed will hit more of the roots.

This is after all DWC. Raise the level, I'm sure it'll help. Raise it to at least 3" below the net pot.

As always thanks Skunk.

Also, should I by using H202 or will that hurt my plants with organic nutrients?

towlie said:

As always thanks Skunk.

Also, should I by using H202 or will that hurt my plants with organic nutrients?

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Don't use it with organic nutes... it kills anything organic. bacteria, everything... even bacteria that is good for your plants. I don't like it at all... but that's my opinion. It would be better to ask someone with experience of it, I only ever used it once... didn't make any difference. Liquid silicone would be better to add... barricade by AN for example, this works by preventing the harmful bacteria in the first place... you'll only need to buy it once, one bottle will last you around 10 years. It should at least last you 5.

Hi all. First off, thanks Skunkushybrid. I raised the water level to 3" and they perked right up. The top leaves are kind of sagging, but that's because they're almost 9-inches in length and are heavy.

This marks the 7th week of growth. It grew 5.5-inches this week. (Skunk you predicted it would grow 6. Apparently you don't know that much after all .) It's now 15.5-inches tall. I'm considering flowering this week. Won't it triple in height during flowering? If I need to stay 18-inches under the 400-watt HPS then I should probably flower at 17-to-18-inches.

Plants can triple in height and will almost certainly double... in dwc though, it will most likely triple in height.

I've had straight-up colas at 2 weeks flower in dwc, even lower branches had decent colas. Growth rate is amazing.