Aerogarden IKEA Cabinet Diesel-Ryder Grow

Take one cheap IKEA kitchen cabinet, one aerogarden and some joint doctor diesel ryder seeds and lets see what happens....

After sprouting using the paper towel in a sandwich bag method, seedlings were transferred to aerogarden.

Added airstone after 7 days (once tap root hit the resevoir), added a tiny drop of the aerogarden liquid nutrients at the same time. Pics below are from day 11 (from sprouting). Any comments, questions or advice welcome!

Mad Kitty: Two questions, please. One, what are you doing for ventilation? I realize we have to be stealthy but they need an air exchange. Question two, is the inside of the cabinet finished? I tried growing in a confined space and I had a real problem with mold. I don't think we appreciate how much humidity is generated by an Aerogarden. Also you might want to try planting your seeds in the Aerogarden, as you won't have to move them later. I realize I'm a shaky old man now but I wasn't a few years ago and I had one break when I tried to transplant it into the growing medium. If you plant them directly into the pods you don't have to risk that.

HSA said:

Mad Kitty: Two questions, please. One, what are you doing for ventilation? I realize we have to be stealthy but they need an air exchange. Question two, is the inside of the cabinet finished? I tried growing in a confined space and I had a real problem with mold. I don't think we appreciate how much humidity is generated by an Aerogarden. Also you might want to try planting your seeds in the Aerogarden, as you won't have to move them later. I realize I'm a shaky old man now but I wasn't a few years ago and I had one break when I tried to transplant it into the growing medium. If you plant them directly into the pods you don't have to risk that.

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Hi HSA, thanks for the questions.
At the moment there is no ventilation as I live in a cold climate and the cabinet is in an attic space - keeping the plants warm enough has been my problem so far!
The door is slightly ajar and I am hoping that the heat generated from the AG will try to escape and draw cool air in its place. Spring is starting to make its presence felt so over the next couple of weeks I plan to cut a hole in the top of the cabinet
and attach a fan and carbon scrubber - I will also put a static vent on the front door to allow air to come in.

The inside of the cabinet is lined with insulating foil. I hear you on the mould but I'm hoping the fan will sort that out once I install it.

I totally agree with you about planting directly in the aerogarden. I had a "moment" with one of the seedlings when I thought I had badly damaged the tap root, but it looks like I'll got away with it this time. Next time it's directly in the AG as you suggest!

Hit the 2 week mark, added aerogardern nutes today....

Pics below from day 15. Lots of growth overnight...

I'd top them now, then flip to 12/12, if you plan to flower in that cab. They get tall quick. Good luck

Mr.Natural said:

I'd top them now, then flip to 12/12, if you plan to flower in that cab. They get tall quick. Good luck

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Thanks for the comments Mr. Natural. I was thinking of topping one of them - aparently you are not supposed to top autoflowering strains, but I have seen one or two people do it here and it worked out OK. I was going to keep them on 20/4 - as the seed packet suggests, throughout the whole grow, as they are an autoflowering ruderalis strain - have you tried 12/12 with a lowryder strain?

yea dont top an auto that kinda dumb, lst instead, tie that bitch down, and most ppl use a 20/4 light s with auto looks good so far, just say i'd get some cheap pcs fans and a AC/DC coverenter, maybe cost u around like 20 bucks and less worrys about mold, smell, in betters your plant

frogvsmonkey said:

yea dont top an auto that kinda dumb, lst instead, tie that bitch down, and most ppl use a 20/4 light s with auto looks good so far, just say i'd get some cheap pcs fans and a AC/DC coverenter, maybe cost u around like 20 bucks and less worrys about mold, smell, in betters your plant

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Hi frog, Yep I am definitely going to get a couple of PC fans like you said! Thanks.

I have seen a couple of people on RIU who have succesfully topped an auto, so I am thinking of trying it on one plant as an experiment, but I hear what you are saying - normally it is a dumb idea
At the moment I can afford to lose one of these plants so it might be worth the risk?

Here are some pics from today -day 18. All going OK, Ph staying stable at 6.0 using tap water and aerogarden nutrients.

Looks good MadKitty. Dont top her just bend her over. I put adhesive backed stick on hooks on the sides. They worked fine to tie on to.You need to get some real nutes before they start flowering. Some 2 part stuff works well. lots to choose from. Your local hydro shop can help you. I use House and Garden. Very clean, very easy. A little bit goes a long long way.

Mr.Natural said:

Looks good MadKitty. Dont top her just bend her over. I put adhesive backed stick on hooks on the sides. They worked fine to tie on to.You need to get some real nutes before they start flowering. Some 2 part stuff works well. lots to choose from. Your local hydro shop can help you. I use House and Garden. Very clean, very easy. A little bit goes a long long way.

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Thanks for that Mr. Natural. I'm going to try and get some decent nutes - I'll use up the aerogarden ones for vegging and switch to something better for flowering. Going to check out the local Hydro store today to see what they have.

use canna or general hydro spec the new org line there both kickass! and they have new nutes from general that self ph's how cool?!

frogvsmonkey said:

use canna or general hydro spec the new org line there both kickass! and they have new nutes from general that self ph's how cool?!

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They had Canna Fydro Flores so I picked up some of that today. I'll keep on using the aerogarden nutes for vegging as they seem ok so far.

Wow - the self Ph sounds great - I'll have to check that out for next time!

Alright good choice MK you'll be glad you did. Save the AG nutes for tomatoes. Switch when you do a res flush. You should do that soon if you haven't already. Did the Canna come with a good feeding chart?

Thanks for all the comments guys!

Day 21: Ph staying very stable at 6.0. Very subtle (but nice) smell starting to come off them now.

Still growing fast. I am amazed every day when I do my check how much they have grown!
I haven't changed the resevoir since the start and at the moment I am reluctant to do so as the Ph is staying nice and stable at 6.0 since I adjusted it during the the first week.
I have to say I am impressed with the Aerogarden so far - I grew in soil a few years back and it was a pain in the ass in terms of trying not to overwater etc.

Here are some pics from today (day 23)

looks great! i'm actually working on the same type of project haha - gotta wait for the aerogarden to ship though