Aero-Tube Grow

darrinjefferson · Dec 23, 2010

We have just finished the veg (roughly 4 weeks after a week of shock) and have now flipped to flower. So here is the specs and photos (more to come... hopefully weekly) to our first Aero grow.

Room Size: 5ft W , 9ft L , 8ft T (constructed with mainly panda plastic, pvc, extra hand poles, duck tape, aluminum foil tape, and staples)
Lights: 1600 watts = (1) 1000 watt hps , (1) 600 watt hps
Fans: 8inch fan pulling through 4ft carbon filter and 1 small fan blowing in grow room
Other Gear: 40gal rez , 1600 gal/hr pump , Tri-Meter , Cycle Timer , (2) Airstones
Nutrients: Pro Grow (veg) , Pro Bloom (flower) , *Special Brew* (veg and flower)
Strains: RightTube - (3) Mazars , LeftTube - (2) Bubba Kush (1) Mazar

Week 1 Flower
Room Temp: 70
Water Temp: 63
pH: 6.6
ppm: 1200

Right Tube - Front To Back: Mazar , Mazar , Mazar
Left Tube - Front to Back: Bubba Kush , Bubba Kush , Mazar

Additional Comments:
So far we have had ZERO problems with the Aero grow and have seen amazing results. Big thing that helped was preparing the plants properly to enter the tubes by keeping them completly soil-less and by producing a veg tub with a sprayer system that allowed clones
to veg once rooted and then for them to get adapted and familiar to the new type of enviornment we are about to introduce them to helping eleminate a load of problems. Major reason though for success is... Keeping Control of the Enviornment!!!

Side Notes: All Mazars are between 20 - 23 inches tall before flower with the largest Bubba Kush around 16 inches but very stalky and bushy. First Bubba Kush had some larger shock in the start because it fell into the tube but has rebounded very nice.

darrinjefferson · Dec 23, 2010

Week 2 Flower
Room Temp: 72
Water Temp: 60
pH: 6.7
ppm: 1350

Additional Comments:
Today we went through and stripped off lower growth on all the plants as well as the major fan leaves. This is a technique we use in order to get more light to some of the lower shoots as well provide more light to all the nodal spacing where the flowers are forming. As you can see from the photos (week 1 to week 2) the Mazars have stretched around 6 - 9 inches and the Bubba Kushs are stretching as well just not as much due to the indica base. Watching these plants in flower now is even more crazy then when they were vegging. You can see the inches grow right before your eyes it seems everyday. The jungle just gets bigger and thicker by the hours... This Aero system runs like a Ferrari!

darrinjefferson · Dec 23, 2010

Week 3 Flower
Room Temp: 74
Water Temp: 62
pH: 6.6
ppm: 1500

Additional Comments:
Plants have rebounded really good from the stripping of the major water leaves, lower growth, and have added a few more inches up top too. Going into week 3 we are looking forward to seeing perhaps some buds starting to form on the plants. This week we are adding a netting to run the shoots through on the plants. This net is made for growing and can hold up to 60 pounds of weight so it will hold our plants perfectly once they really start to put on the weight. Also we are going to start vegging some clones in our aero-tub in preparations for out next Aero grow.

Dr.Greenthmb420 · Dec 23, 2010

darrinjefferson said:
Week 3 Flower
Room Temp: 74
Water Temp: 62
pH: 6.6
ppm: 1500

Looking pretty good man. But I thought a good soilless pH was to be around 5.8-6.2. Not for sure if your running a little higher for a specific reason like more available uptake in "P" due to flowering, but I usually Try to keep mine at 5.8 to 6.0 and currently growing mostly in STG (sure to grow). Cheers my friend

xeasyx · Dec 23, 2010

ok mate looking good so far

KrazyieFosho · Dec 24, 2010

why is ur ph so high with my aero setups i keep it at 5.8 at all times

darrinjefferson · Dec 24, 2010

The high pH has proven to work in this sytem and over the week the pH tends to drop to 6.2 as the plants take in a lot of water and nutrients.
Thanks for all the comments and cant wait to show more pics! Every tuesday is a week in flower so expect new pics on tuesday night :thank you:

Dr.Greenthmb420 · Dec 24, 2010

darrinjefferson said:
The high pH has proven to work in this sytem and over the week the pH tends to drop to 6.2 as the plants take in a lot of water and nutrients.
Thanks for all the comments and cant wait to show more pics! Every tuesday is a week in flower so expect new pics on tuesday night

I see. Thanks for the reply. The only element in concern at that level is Fe and possibly Mn. So maybe watch for those. Any how my system takes up/evaporates about 5 gallons a day with 12 plants at 3 weeks into flower as of 12 21 10. You do have a Lovely looking system. Are you thinking doing a bigger scale system in the future? I plan on filling a warehouse some day with my system. Super bushy and tall plants are producting quickly and would be a good setting for it.

Keep up the good work, the ladies look like they are growing extremely fast. I be looking forward to tuesday nights update!
Cheers mate! :ying:

PS just cut the bottom mess off of my 12 AKA "popsicled" them. GET THOSE HORMONES TO THE TOP!

darrinjefferson · Dec 24, 2010

Thanks for the comment dr. I would love to see a warehouse full of these tubes. The only thing is you would have to have a huge pump. I use a 1400 gal/hr pump for my tubes. So the pump would have to be a monster or many smaller tubes.
A good friend who designed this particualr system is working on a "firecracker" design whoch would be the same thing but in 5gal buckets.

I like that you trimmed your lower growth too. Hes out so much. Do you thin out your fan leaves at all?

ganjasuiteseat · Dec 24, 2010

nice set up.taged

!!! · Dec 24, 2010

in hydro/aero ideal pH is around 5.2, maybe let it drift up to 5.8 - 6.0. You definitely don't want to exceed 6.5 as it will cause hydro nutes to precipitate (though modern nutes don't have this problem so much.)

I had success with 5.8 but the plants just responded better to 5.20.

darrinjefferson · Dec 24, 2010

I appreciate all the responses. Again it has been proven to work in this system running it where we are. Tho im looking forward to my next round where i can try it with the lower ph and see the difference.
At these higher ph levels i have seen such an inncredible quality and quantity of bud produced in this sytem that it would be hard to switch up now.

Dr.Greenthmb420 · Dec 24, 2010

Do you thin out your fan leaves at all?[/quote]

I dont do that too much b/c my net i made allows me to pull them away from the bud sites. If I get some leaves that cover alot of sites I may cut it off, but for the most part I just bend them under the bud site.

darrinjefferson · Dec 25, 2010

Just took a pic of the stalks on both the Bubba Kush and Mazar today with the tape measure next to it giving you a good idea with just how big these bad boys are getting! :watchplant:

First pic is the Bubba Kush Stalk, Second pic is the Mazar Stalk.
Tape measure was not completly leveled due to it is nearly impossible to move on either side of the room but Im sure you all will get the picture

ILoveGod · Dec 25, 2010

nice grow, what company is the bubba kush from? Green house?

darrinjefferson · Dec 25, 2010

No clue.
Picked it up from a close personal grower in oregon.
One thing for sure though is its a 100% Bubba Kush.
We have grown it in soil once and our buddy did it in his tube set up, as well as I have compared it to others Bubba Kush and its point on.

Dr.Greenthmb420 · Dec 26, 2010

darrinjefferson said:
Just took a pic of the stalks on both the Bubba Kush and Mazar today with the tape measure next to it giving you a good idea with just how big these bad boys are getting!

First pic is the Bubba Kush Stalk, Second pic is the Mazar Stalk.
Tape measure was not completly leveled due to it is nearly impossible to move on either side of the room but Im sure you all will get the picture

Looking Great man! Incredible gurth on those stocks, they should hold some surious weight! Are you planning on added any support to keep those ladies up? Ill have some new Pics up tonight!

darrinjefferson · Dec 26, 2010

We are def going to be putting up some support for these fat ladies haha

Tomorrow or monday we will be putting up a netting that supports up to 60 pds of weight so in tuesdays photo shoot youll be able to see it!!! :blowbubbles:

darrinjefferson · Dec 31, 2010

Week 4 Flower
Room Temp: 76
Water Temp: 65
pH: 6.3
ppm: 1700

Additional Comments:
Pictures were taken on tuesday, first day of week 4 flower, but due to holidays and working took me awhile to put up the pictures.
The plants are now starting to flower nicely as well getting smelly. Did not have enough time to put up the net but we are making
sure that we do that this saturday before its to late! We were able to do some more defoliation this tuesday though and is showing
great resultes even at this early stage also you can see the mazars are really stretching a lot as well. Hope you enjoy the pics and like always, more to come!!! :bump:

Aero-Tube Grow

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