~~!!Rollable aeroponic 840Watt Megawattatron blueberry grow!!~~

[DIYer]

Ok ya'll, ive always wanted to do the best form of hydroponic growing out there, and now that all my roommates have moved out I can do whatever the hell I want!!
It's just me and my hot hippie girlfriend living here now so I say let's grow some blueberry in two months flat!

I picked up two heavy duty 27 gallon super boxes at Lowe's (each can hold up to 400 pounds) they're really pretty perfect for growing in, as you'll see in the pictures to come.

I've got 20 gallons of water in the bottom tub, two 10 gallon air pumps are hooked up and bubbling in there, the water pump in the bottom tub is pumping through half-inch line into two 1/2" sprayer head's in the top tub, the water cooler is hooked up and chilling my res, and I've got 16 lowlife blueberry seeds (from a previous grow) germinating as I type.
I'm heading to Home De'pot in a few minutes (and after I smoke a bowl) to buy steel tubing and get cracking on the huge ass light holder man idea (think burning man meats megatron, lol) ive got kicking around in my head ;-)
Pictures of the 840Watt Megawattatron are to follow soon. muahahha!

Sorry but at the moment I can only do one iPhone picture (my girlfriend took the camera out of town for the weekend) but this will give you a good idea of what I've built so far ( more detailed pictures to come) but the whole thing is going to roll around my apartment (which is on the second floor) so I can roll it in front of windows (no one can see in) and give it natural light as well. My goal is to someday have my own home/land and grow via the best of both worlds, outdoors and aeroponically, so for now this is as close as I can come to that.

It's a pretty simple design,.. water pumps up and drains down continuously. I just drilled 1 inch holes into the bottom of the top tub and the lid of the bottom tub.

The second pic is something that I came up with that I think is pretty cool, of course I'm going to need fans blowing on the plants right,.. so I figured why not have the fans mounted to my SCROG fence scaffolding and have them blowing upword slightly from the bottom to blow all the warm air up and away since I have really high ceilings here in my apartment,.. but then I took it one step further and thought since I have the water cooler cooling my res, why not use some of the cool (and humid) air in the top tub and blow that on my plants! Kind of like recycling in a away, using what I already have instead of wasting it on a humidifier, or one of those room coolers. I figured this would also help to circulate fresh air into the top reservoir as well. I'm not sure if the roots really need that but hey as long as they're stay wet I figure it can't hurt right?

 

[Texicannibus]

Like those boxes interesting setup gonna take a seat.

 

[DIYer]

Ya they were $30 for 2 at Lowes, and the depth of recess in the lid is perfect for one to drain to the other after drilling the holes. Kind of pricey for tubs i guess but I used flat sided tells one DWC grow and the pressure of the water inside was a little too strong and it made the side of the tubs bulge out so I didn't do that again. No need to risk my downstairs neighbor getting 20 gallons of water dumped on him due to weak tub so I went with the big boys.

This is going to be my first aeroponics grow but I think I have everything right (correct me if im wrong anyone who's done this before) the two half-inch sprinkler heads I have in the top of our splattering water over everything pretty good, I think my roots to come should be happy what I've made them

 

[Texicannibus]

I tried aero on my first grow was a big learning experience since then Ive gone back to dirt but plan to put back up my setup fairly soon. Are you starting them as seedlings / clones in the unit or? It sounded like seedlings but just trying to clarify. Also what do you plan for timings on the aero system or going with always on?

 

[DIYer]

I'm starting from seed as I have a whole bunch from a previous growth, Some popped today and are in rockwool cubes in a dish of water on my window sill now, they'll be going in 3" net pots and in the aero tub surrounded by some hydroton soon as they poke there heads out. I have yet to get cloning down very good. I tried with these same lowlife autoflowers once before but none took, i think it was too late into flowering which happens real fast with these, who knows though.

Timing is going to be 20/4 for the lighting schedule, and the sprinklers and air pumps will be on 24/7. I've read how some use a cycle timer for aero but also how some just go 24/7 with there water pump and i like the latter idea. Less wear on the pump (no stops and starts) and my misters are just little $1 lawn misters from home de'pot so its not like there going to pump out a fine mist that inundates the roots with water where they'd need downtime to breath.
I do plan to get a battery backup for the pump also,.. would hate it going down if say the power went out. I read plants can die in hours if that happens.



Megawattatron liiiiiives!!
I'm building this right now but just stopped to take a pic. This is gonna hold my lights. Looks rickidy i know, but its not fastened together yet.

Oh and did i mention it telescopes up (poll inside a poll) to about 10ft high

You a Cowboy fan by chance Tex?

 

[Texicannibus]

Well to clone you need the plant to go back into vegative state. Autos (true) cant do this as there vegative state is usually limited to a few weeks at the start of there lifes. I also have a few beans i made out of some lowlife blueberry popped 2 of them gonna see what they turn out like I would expect a huge variation in phenos. I bought a really nice cycle timer for my setup but didnt get it till towards the end of my grow. The always on led to them being a bit droopy and a normal timers 15 mins on and 15 off I believe was stressing them pretty hard. I also my LL BB 24/7 and didnt have any issues so atleast the ones I had was true autos. I believe youll get better resin coverage and potency by letting them have some dark period. A friend did 20/4 roughly and while had a smaller harvest had a better buz. This might just be the pheno difference as mine seemed like a lowrider and his had a very sativa bud structure.

Id say that theres a possiblity that some of your plants will not be true auto flowers. If they dont start flowering after a month of being out of the rockwool you may have to give them up to 12hrs of darkness. These types of hybrids are quite new and they are pretty far from stable I believe. I figured I would have to work it a bit to get anything very consistant.

Good luck and good karma bro

 

[DIYer]

The two LL BB plants i grew to make the seeds im using for this grow auto flowered for me pretty fast so i assume the seeds the two made should as well. One kinda interesting and scary thing for a bit was how the seeds i made (my first made seeds ever mind you) weren't popping (paper towel method that's always worked very well for me) for a day or two longer then the mom and dad did. I feared i wasn't going to get anything but alas they were just a bit slower to pop and as of right now i have 14 out of 16 popped and in rockwool
I hope to get 8 females,.. i think that will fill up my 24"X36" area to grow well.

 

[Texicannibus]

I had a pretty crappy male/female ratio hopefully you have better luck. My beans also took awhile to pop. Im pretty sure its a F1 cross so id expect alot of variation but I could be wrong about its heritage.

 

[DIYer]

ya i had 7 out of 12 go male on me last grow,.. one of the reasons i germed 16 this time,.. i could deal with 6 or 7 fems

 

[DIYer]

Here we grow!

Here we grow!

Nutes are in the water as are all 14 seedlings! I followed the directions on the bottle for seedlings and added 1/2 cup of Botanicare Pure Blend Grow and also a 1/2 cup of cal mag plus since im using what amounts to RO water (20 gallons of Culligan bottled water) that's exactly what the bottle says and my ppm's are 575 (hope thats not too much) and pH is 6.0,.. haven't added any pH up or down yet but im sure i will when i decide what i want it at,.. i know 6 is ok for now.

840 watt light to come in the next day or two (still gotta fab the sheet metal hood) but for now there getting natural light in front of the window.

Res temp is just below 70,.. you can see the return line feeding cool water back into the res from my water cooler. I just ran the line around the cold coil pan under the water bottle, pretty simple. Oh and the same pump that pumps to the sprayers pumps to the water cooler. Pic's of the sprayers to come probably when i have roots to show in the pic too ;-)

 

[Texicannibus]

When I did my research on aero most of what I found recommended a lower ph seems like 4.8ish. Its been awhile and a buncha tokes later so could be wrong its to bad that the more knowledgeable growers havent chimed in yet. Dont give up hope yet though =)

 

[DIYer]

Ya ive gotten use to threads like this not getting any attention till pic's of the finished buds still on the stem show up. I don't care too much, it's more a journal for me so the stoner in me can remember when i started and anyone who wants to learn or point me in a more correct directions if they see me doing something wrong
Like you just did,.. ill look into that lower pH for aero systems nug and post on what i decide to run at. I should get around to looking in the auto flower section too and see what lowlifes seem to like as far as pH goes.
I think this grow is going to be my best by far this time around! I'm by far using the most light ive ever put together (working on the 840watt hood now) and ill also be supplementing it with natural fall sunlight too,.. all that on top of aero is hopefully going to keep me and my girl from having to buy for a long time

 

[sneakinman13]

looking good there DIYer... ill be watchin this grow and hope you have the best of luck with everything!!
later

 

[*mistress*]

nice...

I read plants can die in hours if that happens.

2" of water can be kept in top container. can hand-water if power fails & there will be shallow pool for roots to rest in.

how is the cooler attached to/cooling the res?

the 24/7 misting

enjoy your garden!

 

[DIYer]

how is the cooler attached to/cooling the res?

It's plugged in like a normal watercooler, the bottle on top is just normal Culligan water from Walmart i personally drink from and feed my plants with. What i did was take the water cooling bowl out (every water cooler has one) and wraped about 20 foot of 1/4 tubing around it, as much i as ould get. One end is hooked to my water pump in the bottom res, and the other is feeding water back into the res, in the middle the water in the tube is cooled just like the water in the water cooler
Last time i did this during fall/winder res temps got as low as 55F

 

[Texicannibus]

Far as info on blueberry from lowlife I can remember a few specifics that I had read. They dont like to be root bound (shouldnt be a issue) and they dont like heavy feeding. They also like plenty of water (good thing). I think the only issue might be dialing in the nutes just right. The nicest female I grew I rarely gave nutes but she was in a bunch of dirt.

Cool info mistress could have been all sorts of things that made my girls droop. The aero I had setup was rookie style and didnt get real nutes till way to late in the grow. I still like the cycle timer and intend to use it when I start my aero back up.

 

[*mistress*]

similar to another method of small dorm refrigerator, w/ coils of tubing running from res to refrigerator to res... nice.

enjoy your garden!

 

[DIYer]

I was going to keep a journal next to my grow so i could reference my pH level and so on, but then i got a better idea and just used my phone to take pictures of all the settings, email them to myself, post then on here, and bam i (and everyone else) can see what im at and what the plants are looking like all in the same pic. On the Hanna pen one pic is PPM and the other is pH. To the left that's a co2 meter and the big number (around 1000) is my co2 level in ppm. You probably think im adding some but truth be told im not. From what ive read these are darn nice levels to grow in, nut quite sure why my house is higher then the average (if memory serves average is like 400ish) but ill take it i guess. Also the date and time and RH are on the gauge to the left as well. RH was real high, like 55% (well maybe that's not high to some but that's a lot for around here) and its all due to the fans and ducting i ran off my top res. Prob too much for the plants in the back but oh well they only got a week left. RH goes down during the day when it warms up in the room but still i think its going to be perfect to dry in. Plants for this grow are just about an inch tall for some of them at this point,.. 4 have yet to come out of the rockwool but im sure there on there way soon. Sorry for the lines across the pics but the HPS does that for some reason. The buds you see in the back are from my previous Moonshine Mix soil grow about to finish up in a week. Same blueberry lowlife but this grow is going to be sooooo much better!
Oh ya, and pic's of the light to come ;-)

(fyi 6.15 is pH, 438 is ppm) this is after topping the res off today, it was kinda low,.. i wonder how much my fans are going to lower my res level and fuck with my ppm/pH levels. I mean i guess i can always dial it in still, even if that makes it go down fast it'll just take less nutes to keep level. hmmmm,.. but i wonder how that'll effect how i interpret what the plants really want?

 

[DIYer]

lighting

lighting

400Watt HPS is all im running at the moment,.. it's in the center at the top. In both the side wings of that hood im going to mount 8 55W fluro duo tubes for an additional 440 watts right town by the plant tops. I did the math before i built that massive hood and i should be able to have the hps about 8" further away then the flos so thats a safe distence for the plants.

 

[Dimebagg]

great looking set up you have there. Thats one heavy duty reflector. Looks clean though, and very unique. Are you planning on putting it in a closet or something once you induce flowering?