Questions regarding Aeroponics (before transplant)

[Jookie]

We've three cannabis plants (Royal Gorilla, Shogun & Critical) and they're all looking fine. Shogun is a bit of a lanklet, because I was scared of too much light intensity. The light is down to around 18" from the plant and the growth in height stopped. Critical was a free seed and was a problem child from the start - however, Royal Gorilla is as easy as Shogun (same genes, huh). Shogun is 12 days old, Critical and Royal Gorilla is both 8 days old.

Current size of plants: https://imgur.com/a/q6Oz5Ag

Our HPA is arriving tomorrow and we felt like we needed to gather the last bit of information.

• When do we start giving the seedling nutritions? We've Biobizz Heaven, Grow, Max, Alga, Root Stimulant, etc. Most sites online mention giving them around 1/4-diluted fertilizer after their first true leaves have developed. In the image above; there's some small leaves developing from the mid-points of Shogun. Is these the "true"-leaves and should I spray a mildly diluted fertilizer on them? Will be using Biobizz Bloom with Root stimulant?
• We will be using 6" inches netpots with 15x15x14.5cm rockwool (they've been soaked in pH-solution around 24 hours. Hopefully they hit the 5.7 - 5.8 pH tomorrow). Is this fine for Aeroponics or are they too large? Getting conflicting (and sometimes a lot of broscience) information regarding this.
• We will be using Mistking's system with the 125psi pump and nozzles, which should give around 50 micron. It should only mist on the roots when the humidity is down to a certain threshold. Hopefully it works fine.
• Till now they've been in a small 2" rockwool. Would it be okay to transplant them into the larger one now?
• Currently we have been using a large flamingo box attached to 2 airpumps. Three times each day we've been pouring in 90 Celsius water to create humidity. It works pretty fine, but seems a bit low tech. Can anyone recommend any humidifiers?

Stats:

Temperature in tent: ~ 27 Celsius

Temperature on leaves: ~23-24 Celsius

Humidity: ~60-75%

Pressure: 1.0 Bar

Watering: Light misting on the surrounding plastic bottle 1-2x each day. Haven't watered the plant directly. Better to underwater, than overwater.

Medium: Rockwool.

Sensors: DHT22 Sensors w. RPI Zero and Model B (Hosted on Apache Webserver). Separate 433mhz sensors are also attached (for calibration).

Tools: Bluelab pH-Meter & EC Truncheon.

Experience: We've grown in soil several times with good results. Wanted to try Hydroponics, but brother is pretty techy and demanded Aeroponics. So here I am with his questions.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Growenhaft]

the recommendation to use 1/4 of the dose of fertilizer refers purely to mineral fertilizers.

biobizz is not particularly suitable for your plan to cultivate without soil. only a small amount of nutrients is directly available ... the majority in the fertilizer is fodder for the soil life in the earth ... so that it converts many nutrients that can be used by the plants. With biobizz you primarily nourish your soil ... and the soil then nourishes your plants.

That is also the reason why you use around 300% of the scheme in comparison to the scheme on earth when you grow on coco with biobizz. only a good 30% of all nutrients in the fertilizer can be used by the plant.

it is better not to use organic fertilizer for your project ... also because it only causes problems as a nutrient solution in the tank ... the ph starts to wander wildly ... the nozzles clog, etc. it is better to use a fertilizer that is suitable for aqua systems ... because these are balanced to keep the nutrient solution stable throughout ... and the nutrients are fully available to the plant.

 

[Jookie]

the recommendation to use 1/4 of the dose of fertilizer refers purely to mineral fertilizers.

biobizz is not particularly suitable for your plan to cultivate without soil. only a small amount of nutrients is directly available ... the majority in the fertilizer is fodder for the soil life in the earth ... so that it converts many nutrients that can be used by the plants. With biobizz you primarily nourish your soil ... and the soil then nourishes your plants.

That is also the reason why you use around 300% of the scheme in comparison to the scheme on earth when you grow on coco with biobizz. only a good 30% of all nutrients in the fertilizer can be used by the plant.

it is better not to use organic fertilizer for your project ... also because it only causes problems as a nutrient solution in the tank ... the ph starts to wander wildly ... the nozzles clog, etc. it is better to use a fertilizer that is suitable for aqua systems ... because these are balanced to keep the nutrient solution stable throughout ... and the nutrients are fully available to the plant.

Makes sense. Will buy some non-organic fertilizer ASAP. It was actually recommended several places, but I don't know why I ignored that and brought Biobizz anyway. Will get some new fertilizer tomorrow
Critical dropped earlier today - seems like she have problems standing on her own. So removed the bottle sprayed the plants with a mild solution of Bio Heaven (0.2mL/L) and Root Juice (2mL/L). The EC was 0.4 and pH was 5.5-6.0. She is rising a bit now; I think she was too dry.

Would you recommend transplanting them to the larger stonewool? All of them have several roots under their small netpot?

 

[Creeperpark]

General Hydroponics has done well for me with Grodan cubes in the past. Plus I use it with pro mix hp too and had super results

 

[Jookie]

General Hydroponics has done well for me with Grodan cubes in the past. Plus I use it with pro mix hp too and had super results

Was also recommend elsewhere. Which did you use?

 

[Jookie]

General Hydroponics has done well for me with Grodan cubes in the past. Plus I use it with pro mix hp too and had super results

Would the following from GHE Terra Aquatica be fine as fertilizer?
0,5 L DualPart Grow
0,5 L DualPart Bloom
0,5 L FinalPart

 

[Creeperpark]

I haven't used their organic line yet. If you do a thread I'll watch and see how it goes. It's a new product and suppose to be pretty good, but I don't know first hand. It would be interesting to know.

 

[LostTribe]

I'd recommend General Hydroponics Maxibloom as you are new to hydroponics. Its a simple 1 part nute and is still capable of excellent results. I wouldnt use anything organic/microrganism/bacterial since you are new. I wouldnt use any of those with rockwool ever.

When I do aero I take cuttings out of an aero cloner and straight into net cups with only hydroton. Its the tried and true method for aero. I prefer ebb systems with hydroton.

A short cycle timer is an absolute must for aero or your rez temp may heat up to unacceptable levels. Also why ebb systems are superior. If its not to late I'd just make a DIY dutch bucket setup with buckets, 1/2 inch black tubing, t barbs, a large enough tote container for a rez and a pump. Cheaper than any pre made system you'll likely find.

 

[Jookie]

I'd recommend General Hydroponics Maxibloom as you are new to hydroponics. Its a simple 1 part nute and is still capable of excellent results. I wouldnt use anything organic/microrganism/bacterial since you are new. I wouldnt use any of those with rockwool ever.

When I do aero I take cuttings out of an aero cloner and straight into net cups with only hydroton. Its the tried and true method for aero. I prefer ebb systems with hydroton.

A short cycle timer is an absolute must for aero or your rez temp may heat up to unacceptable levels. Also why ebb systems are superior. If its not to late I'd just make a DIY dutch bucket setup with buckets, 1/2 inch black tubing, t barbs, a large enough tote container for a rez and a pump. Cheaper than any pre made system you'll likely find.

We brought Terra Aquatica starter kit (soft water) from General Hydrophonics? Would you recommend Maxibloom over that?

I inserted the small chump of rockwool into the big chump of rockwool some days ago. Filled all the gaps with hydroton and laid a smooth overlay to protect the rockwool from lighting (algae). Both plants received a light breeze and some finger tapping to develop rootnetwork and it worked nicely. There's finally some true leaves developing on both and Shogun is really going at it.

We brought the Mistking system with the DHT22 sensor. There's automatic spraying with 50 microns at specific drops in humidity around the root chamber. But we have, airpump, aquapump and everything to a DIY setup. So if everything fails we will definitely do your system instead untill we get more experience.

Will probably start a journal in here, when everything has settled. We also brought a 600w HPS just to ensure there's enough energy available for the plants.

The nutritions haven't arrived yet and the plants looked sad. I mixed around 0.75mL of Root Juice, 0.75mL Bio Heaven, 0.5mL Alga-A-Mic and 0.5mL BioBloom with 0.5L of RO water. I adjusted the pH to 5.8 and EC to around ~1. I gave each plant around 250mL to Shogun and Gorilla, when the lights turned on and will only use GH from now on. Hopefully I didn't mess anything up I searched around and Bio Heaven and Root Juice can be used in hydro-systems. Alga-A-Mic and Biobloom should be used sparingly, but this will be the only dose they recieve of Biobizz. Better to play it safe and minerals are minerals for the plants; organic or not.

 

[goingrey]

We brought Terra Aquatica starter kit (soft water) from General Hydrophonics? Would you recommend Maxibloom over that?

While LostTribe is giving some good advice for beginners, I'm sure you'll be able to handle the complexity of three bottles just fine (FloraGro, FloraBloom, FloraMicro is the starter kit right?). Use them if you already bought them.

 

[Jookie]

While LostTribe is giving some good advice for beginners, I'm sure you'll be able to handle the complexity of three bottles just fine (FloraGro, FloraBloom, FloraMicro is the starter kit right?). Use them if you already bought them.

We're also grateful people is giving beginner friendly advice, since we're have obviously made too many impulsive decisions But live and learn as some say
They just arrived and will follow the feeding instruction - starting with a low dose and slowly build up to EC ~1.3.

Thanks for all the help so far! Will create a journal in some days.

 

[Creeperpark]

Yes get started and happy gardening. If you make a few mistakes then you will learn from your mistakes. Anything from GH is good as for as I'm concerned. Make sure you have pH and EC meters and use pure water fortified with cal-mag. If you have soft water then it would be much better than hard water. Soft water doesn't have a lot of stuff in it and so it may need cal-mag. Your water type is very importaint.

 

[Jookie]

Yes get started and happy gardening. If you make a few mistakes then you will learn from your mistakes. Anything from GH is good as for as I'm concerned. Make sure you have pH and EC meters and use pure water fortified with cal-mag. If you have soft water then it would be much better than hard water. Soft water doesn't have a lot of stuff in it and so it may need cal-mag. Your water type is very importaint.

Thanks mate! Good seeds are pretty inexpensive, when we're only growing so few plants.

We use Blue Lab Truncheon for EC and their pH-meter? We've read mixed review, but overall they were recommend, if we remember to clean and calibrate each month.
We've two systems for water; a RO-system and a BWT Water Filter System for drinking water.
The EC for RO is 0.0 and the BWT WFS is around ~0.2 - 0.3 - we use it mainly for tea tho Is this fine or should we turn the EC up a bit?

 

[Creeperpark]

It all depends on what the 0.2 - 0.3 EC is in your BWT Water? Not knowing what's in it makes it difficult for me to recommend it to you. RO water will be your best bet but it needs to be stabilized with calcium and magnesium. If you made your RO water into 0.2 - 0.3 EC using cal-mag, you would know that it has a perfect Cal -mag ratio and you would know what's in the water. I use cal-mag to stabilize my nutrient water for the correct pH. When stabilizing RO or rainwater with cal-mag it needs to set for a while until it reaches equilibrium between Hydroxyl and Hydrogen ions. I'm not sure what the exact EC you need but I know that using a pure EC with the right buffer is key.

 

[Growenhaft]

if you use the 3 series you have to make sure that the flora micro fits your tap water. in your case you need the micro for soft water.
This contains more calcium, magnesium and iron to compensate for the assumed deficit of these nutrient elements to a reasonable extent... in this case you do not need any further additives that would contribute to the stability of the water.

 

[SofaKingStupid]

I cut my teeth on aeroponics. Now I do rdwc. But when I ran aero I used a 15-0-0 at around 800 ppm along with an 0-27-17, all at 6.4 ph for the duration of flower. I would occasionally switch some plant life products 10-60-10, and 15-30-15. And also a little cool bloom. When I used the plant life stuff and the cool bloom I would never go above 1300 ppm. You can try looking up “Sugar Shack Junk Yard”. By Thingfish if you want to see the thread. It’s real old tho.