Rookie Aero Flo Grow Together

DF

K+ is potash plus from Dutch Master. Extra K in aero makes a big difference with the roots.

I have an Aeroflo 60 with (2) 600 watt bulbs on a lightrail 3.5 mover that travels about 3 feet in a 36in cooltube. It has a footprint of about 4' x 6'. I have made one run flowering from clone in coco and hydroton using rockwool cubes to clone, with not a lot of production. I used GH Flora Duo for flower with a bit of Rhinoskin for Silica and a touch of Calmag. My tap water is 60 ppm, so I am gonna opt out of the RO program if I can. I hope to have it by next round. I started out about 800 ppm and had rams horn leaves pretty quick, I backed off to about 500 to get the new growth to stop curling under but they looked overfertilized for most of the grow, even at 400 ppm. The clones are under a 130 watt Extreme LED for veg. I think it does a good job. I ordered Dutch Masters Gold Bloom A & B, Zone and Silica. I will be getting the Koolbloom and Floralicious soon. I do not use a reservoir chiller, the room stays 74F in any weather,although I havent tested the rez temp. The plant tops around 80F thanks to the 12,000 btu Frostbox. I have a 70 pint per day dehumidifier which keeps it right at 40% humidity. I have a Hydrogen water cooled CO2 generator with a drain to waste valve plumbed and ready to go. I will have a Co2 controller in a couple weeks to make it a completely sealed room. I have made the support blockswith dowels and bungees and it seems they are gonna work very well.

Aerokrafter, I had clones in rockwool for about 4 days, I removed them from the rockwool and put them in the dusty ass cloner, the roots really took off, but the leaves seemed to suffer using a tad of GH fertilizer. I think I am a couple days ahead of you but lost most of my foliage just after the top in the cloner. Clones are in the cloner and have roots to the bottom of the cloner. I always use 5.5 tap water with House & Garden Roots Accelurator in Rockwool or cloner. I think water temps are the biggest issue with the Aerocloners. I always seem to have trouble keeping a steady ph in the aerocloner. I have had success and depressing failure with the cloners. Hope everyone else has good luck. I have some plants which should be done about the right time to refill it with 30 Bogglegum clones.
I have also been using H2O2 like Oldergrower, seems to do a good job, but gonna give the Dutch Masters Zone a try. Does anyone know what is in Zone?
What day do you usually top the clones? I thought you said day 20 but I cant find it.
I want 3.3 pounds
Does anyone know what is in Zone?
Detroitfarmer, I havent had any trouble with the rockwool cubes in hydroton so far, but I think it would hold too much water if you filled the netpot up with rockwool.

I usually top clones around day 20. I want them to be at least 6 inches tall with good roots before I top them.

Cloners can get hot, I tip a couple pucks to let it vent. The fan on the back of the Turbo Kloner helps with a small amount of evaporative cooling.

I don't know what's in Zone - I do know that it makes a noticable difference with my root conditioning.

It's easy to overcomplicate cloner nutes - Keep it simple. You can root clones in one of these with 100% pure water. The nutes stop the clones from eating their leaves(yellowing). The lighter the better. A little extra K helps with rooting. Rooting hormones have varied success, depending on strain - I don't use any. Frankly I haven't found nutes that don't work for the cloner. Over time I narrowed it down to my current recipe - It hasn't changed in couple years because it has a near 100% success rate and its simple. DM nutes are used because of their inherent pH stability.

Hope this helps

-AK

Dutch master zone is chloramine. Same stuff your city likely uses to sterilize your tap water.

I was unaware that DM Zone is the same thing as CLEAR REZ.

DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THESE PRODUCTS.

you can make your own, and 3 DOLLARS WILL LAST YOU A LIFETIME. Growsjoe1 gave me the recipe, thanks again. this is the recipe for Clear Rez, which is used @ 1 oz per 5 gallons of pure water.

All you need is some hth pool shock n' swim #3 and some water. The recipe is 1 gram of pool shock to 1 gallon of water. Da ta DA!!! chloramine.

One bag of pool shock is a pound, so it is good for 448 GALLONS of DM zone or Clear Rez, good for treating 286,720 gallons of water. 448 gallons of cloramine x 128 ounces per gallon x 5 gallons of water treated per ounce of chloramine.

That Clear Rez shit is $15+ per 16 oz, so it would cost $268,000 to purchase all the Clear Rez that $3 in pool shock will get ya. Stop throwing away money, my friends.

RbDf

Update

Update

Just a quick update-Veg starting pic from day 4



ph lowered to 5.8 ppm at 475 zone and silicia was also in original nute mix

Everything progressing nicely

Looking good! Watch the roots and leaves and new growth - white fuzzy roots and lush green is what you should be seeing. Your numbers look in the zone.

Looks like we will be going to bloom about the same time - I'm guessing one or two week veg? How long ago were these topped?

Good Start!

-AK

Report

Report

AK, Have not topped yet only 5" tall.

Roots and color are looking good.

Modified sheets to document veg cycle.

Thought i'd wait a little maybe 10" before topping, I will veg to 16" for this variety at 16" get 32 to 36" plants.

Everything looking good.

wtf is going on here?

wtf is going on here?

Okay, i have them in the aero and everything was looking great after i lowered the ppm to 400. Then they were showing signs of what i thought to be a calmag def which i always have to battle. So i added 10 ml calmag. Also, while i was working in the upper peninsula my bro added some "stump tea" (2gallons) to the rez and now they look like this!!!! The chem valley kush looks weak while others are growing wild!!

Now my research shows a couple of potential problems..

1. salt build up
2. over fert
3. P def
4. K def

What say you? i have been broke and unable to buy any nutez yet so i have been using flora micro/gro.... no RO system unfortunately...

At this moment i have them running in pure water from the tap pHed at 5.8..

I have to come to the library to post pics so it is sometimes difficult and impossible late...

thank you!!!!

P.S. the ppm after the calmag was 436 and all was fine 15 hours after adding it... then i left and the ppm was at 495 after ther tea was added... The man at the local hydroshop where the tea is free advised my bro that it has no NPK and cannot hurt plants... fact? or fairytale?

P.S.S. I am making the sheets as we speak to show u guys

@older grower

I am using GH nutez for veg also... I have floragro, flora micro, floranova bloom, koolbloom powder and non RO water... Sorry guys, I'll have the flower nutez soon tho...

Anyone??

yes looks like p deff to me what are the temps like in the room? in aero sometimes its better to just use a base dont add extras just keep it simple would flush and mix a new res. you should try the lucas form and just use the add back method if ur going to stay with gh for the time being.

Calculated EC/TDS levels:
G-M-B (Grow-Micro-Bloom)
EC microsiemen:
0-4-8: 946 µS
0-5-10: 1184 µS
0-8-16: 1894 µS
TDS @ 0.5 conversion:
0-4-8 = 473 ppm
0-5-10 = 592 ppm
0-8-16 = 947 ppm
TDS @ 0.7 conversion:
0-4-8 = 663 ppm
0-5-10 = 829 ppm
0-8-16 = 1326 ppm

Hey, whats up Detroit Farmer. I am about to start the grow along myself; I just didn't have the room to flower something like this until October, so I am cutting the SourD clones in a few days. Kinda wanna hang back and be a couple weeks behind so I can experience the corrections Aerokrafter makes and hopefully that will prevent my FIRST aero grow(nervous) from having any problems.

I'm pretty sure the point of this thread is to do Exactly what Aerokrafter say to do, and nothing more. Whatever "Stump Tea" is, I don't believe it is anywhere in the Fertilizer List. No freakin Teas in this Grow Along, this is a sterile grow, we are using Dutch Master Zone. Pretty much bleach, @ a low low concentration. Adding organics to the regiment will only cause problems, as you are experiencing.

I can say with 99% certainty Aerokrafter will tell u to do a Complete Rez change. Go back to your base nutes, and you will see immediate improvement.

I can't wait to start this grow. I will be able to fire up the AeroFlo as soon as temps outside stay in the low 70's. I am doing it exactly as he does it. I'm gonna build a room specific for this grow along. Gonna get a light mover, already have the 1000w ballast and bulb w/ a yield master II hood. If I can get 1000 grams from this grow I will be very excited.

anyway, this is directed at Aerokrafter; You should change your settings on IC, and make it so every time someone posts in this thread yo get an Email. doesn't have to be your regular Email, just make a new one up. Then, make it so whenever you get an Email from this site, you get an alert. People doing the grow along need to get answers to their questions as well as the problem at least observed by you on the same day. This is Aeroponics, and things go south really quick when problems are not solved in as fast as possible.

Thanks again for doing this grow along, hopefully you understand I am only trying to help; in no way am I criticizing you. Talk to you soon.

Rbdf

DetroitFarmer

Tea is not for aero - we are running sterile nutes. The tea will grow things that will clog up your system - it certainly does add to ppms and changes pH.

Your plants are missing some P - those dark splotches. They look like earlier they had too high ppm - some of the lower leaf margins - while other lower leaves are yellowing from starving for a lack of N.

You need to change out the res. If you only have GH 3-part - mix up 1:1:1 with pH down only to get to 450 ppm and a pH between 5.3 - 6.3.

You are encountering the classic nute mismatch - the solution is to follow my recipe. I know you are struggling to get the new nutes. Don't add other things to the mix until you get the base nutes to work by themselves.


-AK

Start up Tip for those setting up a GH AF

I spent last night setting up a brand new unit for another go at the 5lb challenge. I wanted to show everyone in this thread a little mod I use for bloom only units.

New Unit equipment pile - My workshop is being converted into the bloom room annex!



Zip Tie Pull:



Down tube pushed all the way down:


GH uses a zip tie pull that allows you to change the water level in the root chamber. This allows you to veg or even clone in the unit. Since in my method that is done in the cloner - I never adjust the down tubes. In fact I clip those zip ties off so I can push the downtube all the way down. This reduces the pooled nutes in the bottom of the root chamber. The less pooled nutes - the better the quality of the roots.

I will go through more set up tips when I plant GDP for this run next week.

-AK

Chamber water level

Chamber water level

AK, I totally agree with you about water level in the growing chambers. My unit was originally built to do dwc. It did ok but took alot of water to fill up.

In my 6" pvc tubes I used a thru hull fitting, found at marine supplies, for the drain, then used vinyl tubing for the level adjustment. Once i went to aero no tubing for water level and only about 1/4" max sits at the drain end.

DetroitFarmer, I also use gh 3 part my veg mix is 5 ml grow, 2.5 ml micro, and 1.5 ml bloom per gal real close to what we need. I mix in about 2 gal of water in a container. Be sure to mix micro first, then others. I dilute this way and add to res most at first but hold back about 1/4 of mixture and check ppm after good mix for 1 hr ( I have a small pump in res for recirc). Then add more If needed. This run I also put in Silica and zone from DM. I used 20 gal in my res so added 25ml each before adding nutes. Working great so far. GL

******Action Item*******

If you haven't taken clones yet - now's the time! I realize we have many different timelines - but I would like to keep us within a couple months of each other. I'm committed to keeping this thread active for at least six more months and supporting it with every day visits - so there is still plenty of time.

So lets get those clone shots in!

-AK

Thanks guys... I did a rez change twice since those posts actually.. also, I pretty sure I completely understand exactly what we are trying to do with this grow along... However, shit happens n leaves you broke from time to time... Therefore, at this point, I am using the GH nutez with hopes and wishes of having the right ones by flower. The Lucas formula is actually what I was thinking of using if I don't hear anything soon from AK.. No offense guys by I wanna listen to the master in this case.

Temps:
-79 in the room.
-77.3 in the actual aero chamber
-76.5 in the water

Anyways, what I have done so far....
-raised lights to lower heat
-drained an filled rez with fresh water twice
-rinsed off roots and rez (in case over feeding was the issue)

What to do next?

I wanna add my nutrients back today and also top them ASAP! If I don't hear back from AK today then Lucas it is! (around 415 ppm)

As far as topping, should I wait a couple days to do the rest? Many are already done...

Also, how do I figure out what conversion rate I am for my Hanna ppm meter?

Thanks again guys