aeroponics

Cpappa27

Well-Known Member
I read about this but I don't know what it is can anyone explain it ?
Its pretty much the same thing as hydroponics except the roots aren't submerged in water. The roots are in a sealed pot where a sprayer mists the roots con
 

vostok

Well-Known Member
I read about this but I don't know what it is can anyone explain it ?
Aeroponics is the lost Russian method of growing plants in nuted, steam, at least the roots anyway
we call it the turkish bath, as thats what you are trying to imitate

its largely replaced by the DWC, deep water culture method,
the real issue with SAM(steam aeration method, thats a first on RIU ??)

is the misters get clogged up with nute salts, the same (used to) happens with DWC,
but they got larger nozzles and better salts than the SAM guys.
Once the misters get clogged the element overheats, and burns out,
no steam to carry nutes to the roots ...shit!

The last I saw this in operation was in Germany 09,
and then the guy was using a commercial feet bath as a test
it too failed, currently we are waiting data from the space station
on how plants are grown in zero 'G' ...for input!
 

yktind

Well-Known Member
I read about this but I don't know what it is can anyone explain it ?
How can you read about it but yet still not know what it is?
Very busy don't retain lots
lol... Try this:
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=what is aeroponics

They also have a tab for pictures.

I've done a a few runs in Aero. Timers are key also having a big enough rez weill help. If you are new to growing I don't recommend starting this way. As there is a bit of a learning curve and if you have never grown Cannabis you may not be able to spot problems early enough in aero.

The beauty is you can make corrections easily. But you can also kill your yield if you screw it up.
 

midnitetoak

Active Member
If this is something you are interested in learning more about you should check out Stinkbud's thread in the hydroponics section. I have learned a lot from Stink about aero growing & suggest downloading his ebook as well. You can get all the info you need from the thread & pretty much everything else ( except maybe a pump & sprayer heads) from any home store. Go aero & I guarantee you will not be dissapointed with results.
 

dannyboy602

Well-Known Member
Aero is prob the best way to grow. It combines water, nutes and oxygen at optimum levels to the root system. If I had half a brain I'd get some foggers and hook up an aero system and play with it. I'm sure I read somewhere that plants grow faster in an aero setup than in any other. I just think its fascinating.
 

completenoobie

Well-Known Member
oic what his question was now, duh.

and yes you can even get the pump and sprayer heads at most big chain hardware stores. home depot sells the little submersible pumps for fountains and such and they have a huge assortment of sprayer heads. i got a few different kinds and the ones i like best i think i got off ebay real cheap. the small pumps are low pressure and fairly low volume. i don't think i have a pic of my trial run with four different heads on it and i was really surprised by the differences of each. well i dug and i can't find the pic of the unit with four different sprayers on it. i quickly learned which one i like best, bought lots of em and have built several of these things now. I am not sure that circular looking one is going to be any good at all. but it only takes 10-20 min to make one. three tees, four elbows, 10 1" sections and four caps. to connect to the first tee i can't remember what the part is called and it's sometimes different depending on which pump you buy and usually about a 1" section for it as well.

with these little red spray heads i haven't had any clog yet. Mine is an ongoing experiment every time. i am getting better but i have always grown in soil or soilless.

i love these little standalone aerobuckets. no piping, no plumbing, no leaks or floods. easily movable. easy to change out the nutes, just get an extra bucket and make it up in there and just transfer the lid containing the plants and the pump itself and done.

perhaps i'll try to find the sprayer i like so well on ebay and post a link later. gotta get outside and get busy.
 

Attachments

midnitetoak

Active Member
Aero is truly a great way to grow MJ but if you look in my pics I am back to soil. That is because all it takes is one dumb move- in my case it was getting baked & forgetting to plug in the aerocloner which killed the entire crop for the next cycle overnight. Getting you system dialed in with the proper ppms can be challenging as well so yes I agree do a few old school dirt grows first before diving in
 

completenoobie

Well-Known Member
i have grown off and on for 20 years with the entire gamut of outcomes. always bagseed and even though the plants looked great at harvest they just weren't anything at all to write home about. I finally got some pro seeds and hope i can sift through and find a really good mother. my last crop had a couple really good looking ones that had qualities i was looking for and never was able to take a cutting. they were outside is soil and i had no way to control light cycle, no way to grow inside. i was told that they are ok quality but not like the badass shit my friend gets. and harsh. I tried to flush and i think i did that way too early then went back to feeding for a bit and i think i really fucked up the flush.

I am indoors now and even working on a dedicated room 8'x16'. plenty of room for me to have separate veg and grow rooms. now the hunt is on for the perfect lady and to fine tune my grows and outcomes. the flush is going to be REALLY easy with aero.

could you elaborate on your statement about dialing in ppms and impart some wisdom our way?

i haven't really found any charts about dialing in ppms at different stages. just the very general guides on ml of nutes per 100 liters and i go by that. i mainly stay on top of the pH.

i have been reading about hydro and aero on every board and site i can manage to find. i have been digesting everything i can find on aero specifically. and nute calculations and formulations and contents and additives etc.

but i just still feel there is a knowledge gap and the reason i am just really going for it full throttle is that i am guessing the rest of the knowledge will only come from practice, theory only takes for you so far.

i have pH pens, TDS meters, EC meters till the chickens come home and use them all the time but i am not sure i am dialing it in correctly.

my worst issue at this point is that i am going to have to use flourescents, mainly t5s. i hope that this will be acceptable, i have seen other people do it.

these are the sprayers i like on ebay. didn't search for the cheapest just wanted an example of it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-50-Red-360-Micro-Sprayers-Irrigation-Aeroponics-Hydroponics-Watering-La-/390949493600?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5b0667db60
 

Attachments

midnitetoak

Active Member
Yeah I use the same ones they will work fine. Dialing in ppms is not difficult but there is a learning curve- I started out growing with a couple shop lights & then slowly graduated to a 150w HPS garage light...Fast forward a few years & now I run 600w and LEDs for side lighting in flower phase...hey whatev ya gotta start somewhere.

This is how I mix up my nutes-I'm sure there's other ways but this works best for me:
First I save empty milk jugs that are 1 gal
I fill them up & keep them at room temp with cap off for 24 hrs to leech off any chlorine from the tap.
Then I use my TDS pen to mix the nutrient to desired ppm:
In veg:
Small plants 300ppm
Med plants 500ppm
Very Large plants 700ppm
In bloom:
Small 500-600
Med 600-800
Large full bloom 700-900
Then check ph- if done correctly the ph buffers contained in your nutrients should bump the ph to an acceptable range- if not you it's adjust it
These are just very general guidelines & you may want to use more or less depending upon the size & strain you have going and type of nutrient used
In hydroponics any huge fluctuations in the ph will tell you if you've got an issue like bacteria in the system or if you need to up the ppms because the plants are taking them down too fast
Hope this helps
 

midnitetoak

Active Member
Oh and one more thing- it's way easier to mix up all your nutrients in a separate tub & then pump them all into your totally dry system during a reservior change than it is to add single gallons at a time- never try to back add nutes only water after every change. You must change out the res about every 10 days to avoid issues with bacteria anyway so add back only water after dialing in your res which will of course require you to adjust the ph each time to compensate for the more diluted mix...then the cycle continues it's a constant battle to keep ph/ppm but the results are worth the trouble believe me
 

completenoobie

Well-Known Member
thanks for the chart, i will start there and analyze constantly.

the second post i'm not sure i really understand. I am using five gal buckets so it's real easy for me to do a res change. I just use an empty bucket and get the nutes ready, then just move my plant and pump to the new bucket, recycle the old nutes outside like in the garden or something and wash the bucket waiting on the next nute cycle. I don't like large reservoirs and pumps and plumbing and failure points and i actually really enjoy building a new pump sprayer head. if i had the pumps i would have them units up to my ears.

one other thing i did want to interject to those who speak of clogging sprayers and such, there are filter bags, very small netting or pores or mesh or whatever its called, that specifically help prevent that problem.

i use a product called res clear and when i had my cloner running outside last year trying to clone some tomatoes and other stuff, i had real good luck with spearmint, anyway i digress, i ran it for at least six months out on the porch and never once changed the water with no issues at all. just add a little res clear from time to time.

i also heard H2O2 works and isn't detrimental to plant health to keep bad things from growing?

and i copied and pasted that chart into my nutrient calculator excel spreadsheet, thanks, will keep an eye and see if their recommended ml/l match up close with the chart.
 

completenoobie

Well-Known Member
lol... Try this:
UNLINKED since I can't a second like to be able to post links even after soliciting a second like after being here for years. bummer. now back to your regularly scheduled programming, I mean post, whatever, you know what the hell........

They also have a tab for pictures.

I've done a a few runs in Aero. Timers are key also having a big enough rez weill help. If you are new to growing I don't recommend starting this way. As there is a bit of a learning curve and if you have never grown Cannabis you may not be able to spot problems early enough in aero.

The beauty is you can make corrections easily. But you can also kill your yield if you screw it up.

you know, I would have to disagree. I grew a long time ago in strictly soil then quit for a long time. started back when I first joined these sites/forums and went straight to aero and have been very successful from day one. very easy, foolproof. very forgiving.

all other methods I have strayed to have been absolutely brutal and catastrophic.

there is a reason they teach aero to astronauts. aero is on all the sci-fi shows/movies since the late 80s and I never knew until I actually did it.

aero is hands down the easiest hydro to be successful at with minimal effort. the ONLY learning curve was nutes and that was ONLY because I had zero idea what hydro was, I mean I knew it was soilless, but I also thought it was absolutely media free, like aero until I actually started.

easiest and definitely the most productive and fastest producing.
 

Budley Doright

Well-Known Member
So just to clarify, you guys are all talking low pressure spray systems and not true aero right? True aeoponics is high pressure creating 50 micron water droplets that are easier absorbed into the plant. I ran low pressure systems and the growth rate was not any better than my flooded setups. It actually caused more issues trying to regulate root zone temps
 
Top