Goldbud420's DIY Aeroponic Trial - White Russian - 4 x 100w LEDs

Goldbud420

New Member
Hey everybody,

This is my second grow journal, second go round with Blue Planet Nutrients, second go round with the lovely White Russian.

This time, I'm trying aeroponics. Rather than dump hundreds of dollars on a turnkey system, I decided to build my own (for ~$150-200).

For the aeroponic tubes, I used 6" pvc. To save on costs, I used the sewer and drain grade, which is lighter, and ran me ~$15 for 10 ft. I got two 10 ft. sections from a local irrigation supply store to make three 42" tubes. I also got 6 end caps, which cost about 7 bucks a piece, and twenty 3.9 gal/hr misters with barbed ends suitable for drip irrigation systems at 57 cents a pop.

I cut the pvc to 42" lengths using a hacksaw, and sanded the cut ends well to remove any pvc fragments. Every pvc cut I make throughout the construction is also well sanded; I want to try to eliminate any loose pvc that could possibly clog my misters.

Next, using a 3" hole saw, I drilled 4 sites per tube in a line along one side. I centered the sites by the following measurements: the end sites are centered 6" from the ends, and the interior sites are centered 10" from the centers of the end sites, so each site is equally spaced from one another. Of course, I sanded the holes well. It looks like this.

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I put 5 mister sites per tube; they are centered at 3.5" between the sites, and 2.5" from the ends of the tubes. I used a 1/2" wood borer drill bit, but I suppose any 1/2" bit would be fine. Next, as the head of the mister is hexagonal, I "hexed" out the hole using a square file so the mister could be wedged in. Again, I sanded, but I tried not to overdo it because I wanted to keep the fit snug. And voila, the tube construction is complete!

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Next, I prepared three of the end caps to accommodate the drains for each pipe. I drilled holes in the sides of the caps using a 13/16" wood borer, and sanded it to clean it up. Then, I attached each to a 1.25" piece of 1/2" pvc to a coupler using purple primer and pvc glue. A half inch pvc to drip converter was glued into the other end of the coupler. The free end of the pvc fits tightly into the drilled hole in the end cap, and is glued into place.

To connect the drain to the res (a 40 gal Botanicare), I inserted a compression elbow into the end of a ~2" length of 1/2" poly tubing (for drip irrigation), and inserted the other end into the pvc to drip converter. On the other end of the compression elbow, I put ~8" of 1/2" line to run back to the res (once the end cap is in place).

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For the feeder lines, I used 1/2" poly tubing (the kind used for drip irrigation). The spacing and construction of the feeder lines will be different for everybody depending on your space, so I won't go into great detail here, except for a few points which I think are key. If anybody wants any details on measurements, just let me know.

Construct a manifold from which to run your feeder tubes. By using valves and unions, you can turn off feeder arms if a repair is needed on any of the misters or tubes, and you can remove the arms if necessary. All other junctions are glued together (except large tube end caps) with purple pvc primer and pvc cement, so having unions is critical if you wish to disassemble the feeding rack.

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To attach the feeder arms to the misters, I used 1/4" drip line. The barbed end of the mister is inserted into one end of a length of tube, and the other end is attached to a 1/4" barbed connector. One end is inserted into the line the same as the mister, and the other end inserts into a hole punched in the 1/2" poly tube. As there are 5 misters per tube, there are 5 holes punched along each length of poly.

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Close-up of a mister




Now to attach the manifold to the pump. Again, this will vary for everybody, but the key points are to use a filter and perhaps to have another union to facilitate filter housing removal and disassembly of the feeding rack. I use a "Y" filter, and it is attached to a 1/6 hp Wayne Submersible pump (3000 gph).

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That is the crux of it. Attach all of the end caps, make sure the misters are in place, and its good to go.



Also, set up some airstones so the res is good and oxygenated.

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I cut excess 6" pvc in thirds lengthwise to serve as mounts for the aerotubes

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I've planted up some White Russian clones into 3" net pots, filling out the pot with hydroton. Because of the curvature of the 6" pvc, the pots are a bit wobbly, so I stretched some plastic film over ~1/3 of the hole and duct taped it in place, so the pot fits tightly into the hole.

I've been feeding the clones at 5 mL/gallon each of BPN's Grow, Micro, and Bloom, so I mixed up the res at those volumes. Currently, I've got the res filled to 30 gallons. After adjusting the pH to 5.5, the nutrient strength is 510 ppm. I am running four 100w Diamond Series Lights from Advanced LED. I have the lights ~30" above the plants, and I am only using the "veg" band at this time.

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I think that's all for now. If anyone has any questions, or if I've left out crucial info, just let me know.

Thanks, and stay tuned.:thumb:
 
Re: Goldbud420's DIY Aeroponic Trial: White Russian, Blue Planet Nutrients, 4 x 100w

As impressive as your last grow was (all aspects...from seed to smoke), you've really raised the bar here. Everything is well thought out and beautifully put together. As usual, your photos do a great job of providing visual aids.

I'm not sure if the airstones are necessary as the misters should do an excellent job of aeration. I'm sure the extra aeration won't hurt the pump but now you're also running an air pump (extra power...more plumbing).

The only thing I'd be a little concerned about is the size of the reservoir. Personally, I'd plumb a 55 gallon drum to the reservoir using a float valve. The larger the reservoir is, the less the fluctuation in nutrient balance, pH etc. is going to be.

Also, I know you've heard this from me before but your setup really lends itself to CO2 infusion. I'd love to see you add that to your compact plantation.

I assume that the clones are from the best of the best from your previous grow. They already look beautiful.

I will be following your grow with great interest. Keep up the good work. Good Luck!
 
Re: Goldbud420's DIY Aeroponic Trial: White Russian, Blue Planet Nutrients, 4 x 100w

Hey guys, sorry for the hiatus. The girls have grown a bunch over the past week and a half. Here is what I've done.

At day 7 of veg, I topped the clones to promote bushier growth.

On day 8, I turned on the flowering band of the LEDs. I also upped the nutrient strength to 10 mL Grow, 7.5 mL Micro, and 7.5 mL Bloom each per gallon (I did this after topping off the reservoir and returning the strength back to 510 ppm). After correcting the pH to 5.8, the nutrient strength was 800 ppm.


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On day 13, I topped them again. This time, I topped each of the two new top shoots that resulted from the first topping.



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Everything is going great. I think I'll turn them over to flower sometime in the next week.
 
Re: Goldbud420's DIY Aeroponic Trial: White Russian, Blue Planet Nutrients, 4 x 100w

As is usual with your gardens, everything looks immaculately clean and well organized. It looks like these babies are really taking to aeroponics. White Russian is a great cultivar.

Are you done with pinching the growing tips or will you continue to cut the growing tips? As the canopy gets fuller, I assume you will trim the larger fan leaves to allow more light to penetrate.

Are you planning to add CO2 infusion?
 
Re: Goldbud420's DIY Aeroponic Trial: White Russian, Blue Planet Nutrients, 4 x 100w

Awesome, I caught your last grow late but I'll definitely be here for this one. I'm really interested in the advanced LED's, considering two DS100's or a single DS200 in my 2'x4' tent. I would only be using around 2'x2' of the tent however. In your opinion, what is the actual core coverage of the light? By that I mean what is the size of the footprint before you start to visibly lose intensity?

Any reason you decided to ditch the ebb & flow and go for Aeroponics?
 
Re: Goldbud420's DIY Aeroponic Trial: White Russian, Blue Planet Nutrients, 4 x 100w

Awesome, I caught your last grow late but I'll definitely be here for this one. I'm really interested in the advanced LED's, considering two DS100's or a single DS200 in my 2'x4' tent. I would only be using around 2'x2' of the tent however. In your opinion, what is the actual core coverage of the light? By that I mean what is the size of the footprint before you start to visibly lose intensity?

Any reason you decided to ditch the ebb & flow and go for Aeroponics?
If the tent is 2' X 4', unless you're going to erect walls to limit sideways growth, that is your area (even if your growing media only occupies 2' X 2'). The manufacturer of Goldbud's lamps provides specifications for overall and core coverage. I would always recommend more lamps of lesser overall wattage for greater core coverage and overlap. See table below:
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Aeroponics will increase your yield by 15-20% due to the constantly high amount of air that will be delivered directly to the roots (which will grow out of the mesh cups and fill the tubes). In general, this is superior to an ebb and flow system which only delivers nutrient and oxygen to the growing media. Goldbud's system is well thought out and will outperform an Aeroflo (not to mention that his system is custom designed to maximize a limited space).

CO2 infusion will further increase the yield by an additional 15-20%.

I previously posted a great deal of info on CO2 infusion. See:
Goldbud's Ebb and Flow White Russian - 2011
 
Re: Goldbud420's DIY Aeroponic Trial: White Russian, Blue Planet Nutrients, 4 x 100w

Thanks for joining, Stoned. Dean is pretty much spot on in this case. I would get 2 of the 100w lights. Two would be sufficient for complete core coverage of your entire closet (if spaced appropriately), while one 200w would leave a little of your space out of the "core." Getting two of the 100's would be much more versatile.

I went with aero for a few reasons. First, like Dean mentions, I could potentially increase my yield quite a bit. Second, I am curious how it compares, and I am always trying to learn more. Also, I was getting sick of the amount of hydroton that I was using with the Ebb 'n Grow. The fact that my nutrient solution was flowing over the hydroton led to large pH fluctuations early on. With the aerotubes I am using now, I get very little pH shift. While I was adjusting the pH every other day with the Ebb 'n Grow, I adjust the pH once a week with my aerotubes.

Dean, I think I am probably done pinching the tops. They are nice and bushy, and I don't want to make too much extra work (if I keep on topping them, there will be that much more lateral growth that I will have to prune down the line). I will keep pruning throughout the grow, and I purchased some trellis netting to string horizontally across the canopy to help maintain proper spacing and growth.

Also, I did get a CO2 rig per your suggestion. I will introduce it at the beginning of flowering, which should be before the weeks end.

Stay tuned for the real show...
 
Re: Goldbud420's DIY Aeroponic Trial: White Russian, Blue Planet Nutrients, 4 x 100w

Thanks for both your inputs. Looks like two 100's it is. I will only be growing in about a 2'x2' space in my tent so that should give me about 46w/sq. ft which seems like plenty with these lights. If i decide I want to add a few more plants I also have a 150w HPS.
Stevehman runs about 40w/sq ft and gets great results. Are you getting more watts per sq. ft with your new Aero NFT or is it about the same dimensions as the ebb & grow?
 
Re: Goldbud420's DIY Aeroponic Trial: White Russian, Blue Planet Nutrients, 4 x 100w

That should certainly be plenty of light. I did some math and I had about 25-30/sq. ft, and I was very pleased with the results. I imagine that with that much light, your nugs will be other worldly.

My aero set-up is in the same closet that I ran my Ebb 'n Grow, so the wattage/sq. ft. is the same.


Now for an update:

It is day 17 of veg, and the girls are going crazy. I am going to turn them over to flower tonight.:thumb: I will also start CO2 enrichment at this point.


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On day 16, I removed the two lowest branches on each plant. Over the course of the grow, I will remove more, but for now I don't want to overdo it.

On day 14, I cranked the nutes up to 10 mL each of BPN's Grow, Micro, and Bloom per gallon. At this stage, I also introduced the Liquid Blue Bloom Booster at 2 mL per gallon. After correcting the pH to 5.9, the nutrient solution strength was ~1000 ppm.

Things are really starting to take off. I'm excited to see how my system performs in flowering.
 
Re: Goldbud420's DIY Aeroponic Trial: White Russian, Blue Planet Nutrients, 4 x 100w

Your aeroponic system is really kicking butt! Those are some beautiful senoritas.

I can't wait to see how they flower. It seems that you're way ahead of your previous grow.

Don't forget to post pictures and methodology in relation to CO2 infusion.

Keep up the good work.
 
Re: Goldbud420's DIY Aeroponic Trial: White Russian, Blue Planet Nutrients, 4 x 100w

Thanks a lot, Corey and Mudpie.

The girls are coming right along. Last Wednesday, I cranked the nutes up to the "Transition" level, which is 10 mL each of Grow and Micro per gallon, 15 mL Bloom per gallon, and 4 mL Bloom Booster per gallon. After adjusting the pH to 5.8, the nutrient strength was ~1100 ppm. I turned the light cycle to 12:12 and started flowering on Friday (typically I would do this at the same time I adjusted the nutes up to "Transition" but my schedule prohibited this).

I upped the nutes again going into day 5 of flowering. Usually I would wait a full week for this, but being that I put it into "Transition" a couple of days early, I figured it shouldn't be an issue. Also, I am out of town for the next few days, so I figured it would be better to be ahead of the curve rather than behind it. The next nutrient level is the "Bloom" level, which is 12: 8: 15: 5 mL per gallon each of Grow:Micro:Bloom:Bloom Booster. To get to this ratio, I added the difference in mL/gallon of each part multiplied by the amount of H20 in the res. Because the Micro component is lower than the previous step (8mL vs 10 mL), I didn't add any Micro. Although this still leaves me a little high on this measurement, I will correct it soon by emptying and remixing my res. After correcting the pH to 5.5, the nutrient strength was ~1175 ppm. I gave the girls a good pruning now too, making sure to thin out crowded branches and removing some of the lower leaves.

At this time, I have begun to augment the CO2 levels in my grow space. I attached the end of the CO2 tube to an oscillating fan which will bath the plants in CO2 as it passes over them. The amount of CO2 to add is a little tricky: I have a 4'x4'x6.5' closet in a 10.5'x12.75'x8' room. Because I am in a grow closet with the intake vents close to the ground level (and CO2 sinks), I am running my exhaust fan constantly to draw the CO2 back up through the canopy. This will also moderate the humidity. As the exhaust fan is not connected to the outdoors (it empties into the larger room) I am not wasting CO2. So, I've calculated the volume of my grow room to that of the larger room, which means I need about 1 cu. ft. of CO2 every four hours or so. I set my CO2 to ~2 cu ft./hr, and set my timer to run for 30 minutes every 4 hrs during the light cycle. This should give me a CO2 concentration of ~1200 ppm.

Finally, as the girls are really growing fast now, I strung up my trellis across the canopy. This way, as the tops continue to grow, they will be supported by the grid of the trellis, and each have their own "space" to grow.

Now for the fun part...


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Re: Goldbud420's DIY Aeroponic Trial: White Russian, Blue Planet Nutrients, 4 x 100w

Flowering, Day 10

My girls are really going crazy now. In the four days I was out of town, they grew 8".

All I did on day 10 (this past Monday, 4/30) was prune and thin them a bit. I will top off the res tonight, maintaining the same nutrient strength. I also flushed the filter.


Starting to get excited...

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Young Flowering Sites

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Re: Goldbud420's DIY Aeroponic Trial: White Russian, Blue Planet Nutrients, 4 x 100w

You are clearly outperforming your previous grow (ebb and flow). It's probably a combination of the aeroponics and the CO2 infusion.

The plants look amazing. There's no discoloration or dead tips. I look forward to your next report.
 
Re: Goldbud420's DIY Aeroponic Trial: White Russian, Blue Planet Nutrients, 4 x 100w

holy moly you got this grow going well im very impressed.i built my own aerponic cloner but am doing dwc for growing.wanted to try this method but it's only my second grow.keep up the good work.
 
Re: Goldbud420's DIY Aeroponic Trial: White Russian, Blue Planet Nutrients, 4 x 100w

Goldbud setup is great and plants look fantastic. I was wondering is the water running all the time?
 
Re: Goldbud420's DIY Aeroponic Trial- White Russian- Blue Planet Nutrients- 4 x 100w

Thanks a bunch, everybody.

Dean, I agree. They are really growing fast.

Peanut- I run the pump constantly when the lights are on, and I turn it off when the lights are off. However, I have the pump timer set to run 2x in the dark period, once at about 4 hrs in (for 15 min) and once about 8 hrs in (for 15 min). This way, I avoid the risk of having the plants wilt on me.
 
Re: Goldbud420's DIY Aeroponic Trial- White Russian- Blue Planet Nutrients- 4 x 100w

Flowering, Day 12
I topped off my res, about 7-8 gal worth. To bring the solution strength back up, I added 5 gal worth of nutes at the bloom level (see previous posts). To correct my previous overshot of Micro, I undershot this time and only added 6 mL per gallon. I also bumped up the Bloom Booster component, by adding 100 mL extra (about 3 mL per gallon more). After correcting the pH to 5.5, the nutrient strength was ~1230 ppm.


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Flowering, Day 16
The girls are still doing great. I pruned the lower limbs to allow for more airflow, and trimmed a few of the tops to let a bit more light into the canopy. I also strung another layer of trellis across the canopy.

I also learned that my drain tubes are a bit too narrow in diameter, as one of them was clogged up with excessive root growth. So clogged that the entire "aerotube" was filled with nutrient solution, and overflowing out of the lowest site. To fix this, I turned off the feeder arm to that tube until it could drain, and changed the timer of the pump to shut off for 15 minutes for every 30 minutes that it runs. This way, I give the tubes a chance to drain, and hopefully avoid any more fiascos.

Later tonight, I will bump the nutes up to the monster bloom level.



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