DIY Hydro Pots

[abnormalgrowers]

We built some time ago our DIY "aeroponic" system. We wanted to stay on budget so we didn't bought the standards hydroponic pots. Instead we bought some general plastic pots and drill some holes in it.

(All the holes in the pots were made by us)

We preferred this approach because we tought all other standard pots had too small holes. We also had a big hole in the middle bottom of the pot, and that is what my post is about.

After some time the plant main branch started to grow out of that hole. It was a big main greenish root and was nice to see how healthy it developed but we still wondered what was this cause.

Here you can see the big thick root coming out the pot

It may loog like some rot but this is the main root branch, it is very healthy but still made us wonder a lot

Do you think that it is good to leave this main root-branch coming out from the pot? Using the standard pots the roots will come out in big number from many small holes; our roots came out in a smaller number from a bigger holes and grow on thickness also.

This seem to affect our root mass becase we don't have as many roots as some pictures we saw here but in the end it seems it kinda of work properly. We have only 2 plants in aeroponic and 8 plants in coco and I can say that most weed will come from the 2 aeroponic plants!

Male rootmass removal. We was very happy with out first test, we never deepent the aeroponic theme but were succesful on the first try

 

[rocky5]

hello mate,im new here but i built one of them ages ago and had untold problems
with it the main one is the container lets light through and lets things grow in it
so you have to cover it up the other problem was the roots intertwine with each
other eventualy so is only good for clones and seedlings unless you keep them
in it all the way through.

 

[FreezerBoy]

Do you think that it is good to leave this main root-branch coming out from the pot?

That's the whole point.

What are you going to do? Cut it off? That will kill the plant. The only purpose of the cup is to keep plants from falling into the tub. If you secure plants above the tub with trellis or screen, you can dump the pots altogether which will make greater use of the Aero process.

Note that you have a serious algae problem on your hands. Your tub and lid need to be painted or taped or it will just get worse. I've never had algae covering my roots so I don't know the cure but, left untreated, it could choke out the roots, killing your plants.

Maybe some H2o2? I avoid it like the plague myself as it's sole purpose is to kill. But, that's what you need here, something strong enough to kill the algae but, weak enough to leave roots unharmed.

 

[abnormalgrowers]

we used some ATAClean and water to clean up the roots. Right now the plants are in the end of the 4th week of flowering and are doing pretty fine still.

At 3rd week

We had some problems with the light creating algaes, infact we are already planning our new system. Right now I have two tanks, so everytime I change tank I get to clean it well. This also happens to the tubes :-(

We prefer to finish this cycle and prepare a better system, at least UV protected

 

[cyberwax]

If your staying at a low budget i would suggest just buying a spraycan of black and get that unit light tight, will save you a ton of troubles. Your plants look a little light tho, how much light, water temprature etc? Just curious, im sure there are small steps to be taken that would increase the yield dramaticly.

 

[abnormalgrowers]

The greenish root in the picture is not algae, because sometimes

the green thing is not algae! It is the stalk that grew below! We wondered a lot what it was, so we washed our roots with nuts, just to get them clean and they are white bright. So we tought it was sticky algae but when we had removed the males we realized it was the stalk growing out from the big hole we did for him. The hole i've been talking in the post above.

The fact is that usually in hydro systems, only the roots should come out the pot. In our system the stalk grows out the pot and the roots grow from the stalk (only some roots are coming directly out of the pot).

In our next system we don't know if is better to use small holed hydroponic pots or hydroballs (because the stalk reason)...

(...) Your plants look a little light tho, how much light, water temprature etc? Just curious, im sure there are small steps to be taken that would increase the yield dramaticly.

I will let you know all the measurements as soon as I make them. I think they are low in yield because we had an hermie. We removed all males preflowers, ALL BUT ONE. hehe, it managed to pollinate all the others plants, and the aeroponic in very seriously manner... Not that bad, we got some interesting free fem seeds now

Here is an update

 

[wisco61]

Thats the tap root not any stalk. You grew from seed correct? And that is indeed algae caused by your near transparent res.

 

[abnormalgrowers]

Thats the tap root not any stalk. You grew from seed correct? And that is indeed algae caused by your near transparent res.

Sorry about my english, I didn't know how to explain it so I called it stalk. But as you see in the second picture of my first post, the light green is not algae, is the color of the thick main branch..

Yes you are true, third picture really looks as algae...
Actually the situation inside the root containser is not that nice looking but we are at the 7th week so we may be able to finish this round...

So my question remains, what you think is best? a big tap root coming out the pot, tiny roots or it doesn't make difference?

 

[wisco61]

It doesn't really matter. Clones don't have tap roots, so its not something many people have to consider when doing hydro.

 

[abnormalgrowers]

mmh, but we are currently growing from seeds and planned on doing so in the future..not a good idea?