my gravity fed air atomizing aeroponic system

no pictures today.
but i have an announcement to make
delavan waste oil nozzle part number 30609-11
is not effective for this application, although its gonna be awesome for humidifying outdoor mushroom greenhouses.
in my 48x24x15" chamber im not able to achieve much root hair unless i run my timer, down to 0.2 seconds. with this short of a pulse i get crappy coverage, as the mist isnt able to expand with this short of an on time
if i increase the on time i end up getting my roots to wet. and they dont send out any horizontal roots

i wish fatman would have mentioned which nozzles he had success with. im torn between
delavan 30609-1 (1/10 gallon per hour)
and
hago SN609-5 (1/2 gallon per hour)

i think i will go with the hago heres what is looks like, theres half stainless steel. although i dont care what theres made of. Aeroponcis call for very low salt concentrations so i dought ill ever have amy problems with corrosion.
http://www.patriot-supply.com/products/showitem.cfm/HAGO_030L2154

so im really disapointed in how my root picrures turned out, they look a tad bit more impressive in real life.
im thinking about retireiing my gas can resivoir and replacing it with a 5 gallon bucket. im just not sure what size hole to drill for my john guest bulkhead fitting.
and where to get the right size rubber washer some thing ill have to look up.
my clear water lines are finally starting to turn green with algae, im surprised it didnt happen quicker. better take care of it before i clog my nozzles.

also going to start adding bleach to my resevoir. ive heard 6 drops per gallon is the way to go. anyone know the ppm of clorine im looking for

so im changeing out my nozzle tips. im going from 1 gallon per hour, to 1/2 gallon per hour.

good news i found them for $17 shipped. so its only going to cost me $36 instead of the $65 i would have spent on hago tips.
hopefully these end up being able to give me good root hair.

sorry for the lack of cannabis in this thread, i kind of have some legal issues at the moment. so no chances.
just imagine these are cannabis roots in slow motion.

i just scored some delavan 1/10th gallon per hour nozzle tips. now im ready to rock

things are going well yesterday i recieved my delavan #5 nozzles.
i am running 0.4 timer setting up from 0.2 second timer setting on the old #11 nozzle tips.
my roots get the same amount of moisture. but i get better coverage.

cant wait to try the #1 nozzle tips that will be coming tomarow gonna wait to plug em in for at least a week though. gotta see what the differences are between the #5 & #11.

i never mentioned it but one time i left my machine unpluged from 4pm all the way to 9Am the next day. there were no adverse effects to the roots.

one last note. i added a lambsquarter plant, its a weed that grows in my region. it grows as fast as a cannabis plant. and has the same growth pattern. it also produces floral clusters similar to cannabis, with crystals. hopefully its capable of high root hair

nice thread, keep the spirit of fatman alive. Will be watching this one.

squarepush3r said:

nice thread, keep the spirit of fatman alive. Will be watching this one.

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hell yeah dude, havent spoken to him in 6 weeks now or so sort of lost track. be cool if he would catch back up with me on one of the boards.
id like to know which nozzle tip he had success with.

so i was schooled in aeroponics today. i came in and my roots were dryish. i dont think these #5 nozzles are even half as "wet" as the #11 nozzles. as i set my timer at 0.5 seconds and 5 minutes. more than twice the on time of my previous nozzles, and they did not maintaint the same level of moisture.

this prompted me to try 0.7 seconds on time. i now get a fog that sort of lingers for around 3 minutes or so, havent timed it yet. it reminds me of what g love reported in his threads. i bet these nozzles arent far from what the atomix had. damn thats a bold statement

i recieved my #1 delavan nozzle tips today, i love ebay. only $17 a piece.

damn the orfice is tiny, ive never even worried about clogging my other tips ill have to build a new gravity reservoir.

i never really mentioned but one of the reasons im so interested in these misting aeroponics. i actually want to produce a system to acclimatize plant tissue cultures. its so clean compared to soil, and i could mildly disinfect my water using uv radiation and chlorine. to kind of give my cultures a headstart

it would consist of a very shallow root chamber. the top would be a clear humidity dome and there would be a port to release mist into the top vegetation chamber. i would use a timer and trial and error to tune the humidity. im not sure how i would down size the 2 inch net pots and neoprene collars. perhaps i could use strips of neoprene to sandwich the cultures, using clamps. the tips of the cultures would stick into trenches instead of holes cut into the top of the rooot chamber.

i hate high pressure hydrolic aeroponics, dripping fucking mess. so i would use very low flowrate air atomizing nozzles and compressed air. maybe these delavan #1 nozzles will suit the needs of this project.

alright time to go swim a mile at the gym

Definitely going to keep an eye on this one. I love learning from you guys!!

so today was interesting, i didnt see my system yesterday. but today i went in and i saw that my roots are really starting to shoot out sideways alot.
im not sure if its the new nozzles or my plants are ready to do there thing. wish i had brought my camera oh well tomarrow.

i played around with my #1 delavans and i think im not going to say anything about them quite yet. i went int here brain dead and ran them at 60psi regulator setting, the same as ive run the #11 and #5 nozzles , im hoping i just need to turn the pressure down, because at 60psi regulator setting, what i saw was a very fine mist, id say more of a fog. and even after 6 seconds the chamber just didnt seem to have much vapor density to it, there is some good news to these #1 nozzles though there quiet enough to be run in an apartment

LivingCanvas said:

Definitely going to keep an eye on this one. I love learning from you guys!!

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might as well dude im not going anywhere.

oxanaca said:

i wish i knew of a way to measure the water and air volume my delavans are using, rather than going by the waste oil specs.

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It shouldnt be too difficult to fathom.
To figure the water consumption, i`d just fill a bottle with water and up end it into the feed res so it automatically maintains a constant level. Run the nozzle for a minute at a known air pressure and measure how much water is left in the bottle. Multiply that by 60 for the hourly flowrate. The result will only apply to the gravity feed height and air pressure (measured at the nozzle) used in the test.
Air consumption is more of a headache, you`ll need the tank volume, tank start and end pressures, the air pressure at the nozzle and a stopwatch. Again, the results will only apply to the gravity feed height and air pressure used at the time. For the full picture, you`d need multiple tests with different pressures and feed heights.

Atomizer said:

It shouldnt be too difficult to fathom.
To figure the water consumption, i`d just fill a bottle with water and up end it into the feed res so it automatically maintains a constant level. Run the nozzle for a minute at a known air pressure and measure how much water is left in the bottle. Multiply that by 60 for the hourly flowrate. The result will only apply to the gravity feed height and air pressure (measured at the nozzle) used in the test.
Air consumption is more of a headache, you`ll need the tank volume, tank start and end pressures, the air pressure at the nozzle and a stopwatch. Again, the results will only apply to the gravity feed height and air pressure used at the time. For the full picture, you`d need multiple tests with different pressures and feed heights.

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sweet your back,
i have my system hooked up to a "kill a watt" electrical usage meter, this type of system uses just a tiny fraction of the energy as the 1000 watt hids hanging above them. its basically negligible, and the plants growing in it are worth buku bucks, so its not even on my radar.

question for you. in the years that you have been doing this, have you found hairier roots to be more productive top side than less hairy roots. i want to belive like tricky does but ive never seen any real hard evidence of this yet, from my research on the internet.

also do you know of a non-cannabis plant that i can grow in my system that produces high root hair similar to cannabis, maybe it has a similar growth rate, and appetite as well

just a little dear diary

so i noticed that im getting a ton of root branching, new nodes are popping out everyday, since i switched from the #11 to #5 nozzles.
not sure if it the nozzles or just coincidence, but it happened. im going to come up with a way to get good root pictures before i post more, no need to litter on the Internet.

also as i suspected the #1 nozzles need to be operated in the 30-40psi range to work normally, not 55psi. im going to try them out in a week or so.

tomorrow im going to refill my resevoir with fresh nutrient solution. im going to try 300ppm 5.7ph. up from 147ppm 5.7. going to use sodium hydroxide instead of baking soda to raise my ph to that level, this time, as i do with my plant tissue cultures.

The delevan spec sheet i have only lists air pressures up to 2.8 bar, so you`re in uncharted territory with 55psi Lowering the psi will increase the flowrate which should create a wetter mist.
Tomato plants make good test subjects, they are fast growing and handle abuse well. All things being equal hairy roots are more efficient, grow faster and take less resources. If the plant generates the same root area in half the time using half the resources it can focus more time and energy on the top growth.

opps i dont actually operate my #5 or #11 nozzles at 55psi. i have to set my regulator to 55psi to achieve 42ish psi at my #11 nozzle tip. and about 50psi to achieve about 40psi at my #5 tip due to the volume constrictions caused by my 1/4 inch inside diameter pex hose.
anyways these #1 tips dont require much volume so it stayed at the 50psi or so pressure i had it set to, and i was to busy to mess with it for long, sorry to confuse people
where do i find this spec sheet your looking at, all ive seen is the specs for oil burning applications, so far.

also if you dont mind.
what air atomizing nozzles have you found to be capable of producing high surface area roots?

do you consider g-loves roots to be of this type, they sort of look like hydro roots to me, unlike treefarmers roots which appeared to me to be much finer?