First Grow! - Aerogarden Ultra With Mars Reflector 48 Using CK Dwarf Low Flyer

[Heraldo]

This grow brings back good memories. I had an aerogarden a while back (the one with 3 CFLs). They seem to have come a long way with their designs and kept up with the times. And you seem to have done your homework with lots of extra credit.
Anywhos, I'm gonna put in my 2 cents even though renegade probably has it covered already.
1 plant per grow is a good idea. These new models seem to have a bigger res but I still don't think I'd be enough for 2 to fit comfortably and/or not get their roots tangled.
The plastic things you put the grow sponges (or whatever they're called) in weren't wide enough for the stalks to fit comfortably so i tossed 'em and made my own sponges that would fit directly into the hole and give the stalks a bit more space.
Even though you're running autos I'd make myself some kind of grow tent. Back in my aerogarden days I just stapled some reflective plastic to a big cardboard box and made some cuts in the right places for easy access. I'm guessing that isn't an option with that light you've got hanging, but I'd definitely think about making some kind of tent.
Hope that helps.

 

[Renegade69]

Yep, yep Heraldo. Mine was also the old 2 bulb CFL model. A tent or cabinet (in my case) should be considered for better control of the environment.

CM, I left the domes on till they turned up. Should have happened by now. As for the lights, I really couldn't tell you what is best with the LED's but for my model I just left it at 6-12" till I removed it altogether for the hanging LED. Then no lower the 12-24". I had a few SME's jump in and cautioned me about have the LED to low. You don't want to burn your plants. Old school though process was if it's hot on your hands then it's hot for the plant. But that was old CFL days. It's easier to go high and drop till she's happy then the other way around.

My thoughts....

 

[CMJJMC2000]

I raised it up to about 10 inches, just to be safe. Temp is 81 and humidity is 52%. Tempt will probably drop to 70-72 in the room tonight when lights go off.
I've attached pics of where I stand tonight, 4 days after I started germinating, which is quite exciting for me.

 

[CMJJMC2000]

Heraldo, with these being a dwarf auto strain, I figured this would be a good opportunity to roll the dice on 2. They shouldn't reach much higher than 18" so I'm hoping I end up OK on the root side of things. What happens if the roots start to touch the other plants roots, is it catastrophic?

 

[Renegade69]

Heraldo, with these being a dwarf auto strain, I figured this would be a good opportunity to roll the dice on 2. They shouldn't reach much higher than 18" so I'm hoping I end up OK on the root side of things. What happens if the roots start to touch the other plants roots, is it catastrophic?

Roots touching...catastrophic...LOL. Not at all. They will of course get all tangled but as long as there is plenty of air and movement you should be good.

 

[Heraldo]

Heraldo, with these being a dwarf auto strain, I figured this would be a good opportunity to roll the dice on 2. They shouldn't reach much higher than 18" so I'm hoping I end up OK on the root side of things. What happens if the roots start to touch the other plants roots, is it catastrophic?

Didn't mean to worry you. Nothing'll happen. Only thing is once they're bigger try not to lift the lid thing (in case you damage the roots) and you'll have to replace the water a bit quicker. No biggie.
I just remembered the main reason I grew 1 plant at a time was I was lacking in the light department. I'd say you're golden with the setup you've got.

 

[CMJJMC2000]

I must have forgotten to dial back the humidifier last night, as the closet was at 70% humidity this morning. I turned it off and will let things settle naturally until I get home. I want it to stay in the 50% range. I'll eventually get a digital humidifier with a built in controller and a grow tent. But, for now, I'm OK with the current setup. Seedlings were looking great this morning. Here's to rapid growth!

 

[CMJJMC2000]

Humidity back down to 50% until I left the door open while doing maintenance, now back to 40%. Anyhow, I lowered the lights so they're about 6" over the seedlings. I think that with the aerogarden hood only having 30W of LED power, there's little to no chance of burning these little girls. Hoping this makes for less stretch and tighter nodes.

Also, I added in 2ml of Voodoo Juice and 2ml of B52 - that's it. Not 2ml per liter, just plain 2ml. This works out to 20% of the full strength dosage and puts my PPM at 130, which is less than my tap water.

I'll probably start on Sensi Grow A and Sensi Grow B on Thursday if all works out.

 

[Stinky Snid]

The gas tank is filled up, fresh rubber on the tarmac. Get those engines reving cuz the Green flag just dropped. These girls are off to do some racing now..good luck CMJ, KIG

 

[CMJJMC2000]

Final update for the night. This is day 4 since starting germination process. Temp is at 78 and humidity is at 55%. I bumped reservoir temp down to 72F tonight. Chiller handling it no prob. It cycles on about every 15 minutes for a few minutes to bring things back in check. Very pleased with that chiller unit and the controller, I think it will be able to help me push this Aerogarden well beyond stock capabilities.

Plant #1 (rear right) - this was germinated via simply dropping the seed into the sponge. About 1 inch over the light shroud, so 1.7" total height. The first *real* set of leaves is expanding nicely, both pointing slight up towards the light and looking very healthy. The taproot on this one came out to say hello on Saturday (48 hours in) in a strange way. It went out to the side of the sponge instead of straight down. It's made quite a prolific set of roots since then - very cool - as seen in picture below. It still has about 1" to go before the main root hits the water. However, it's currently over an airstone as well, and getting some nice light bubble action to moisten the roots.

Plant #2 (rear left) - this was germinated via CK's recommended paper towel method. Worked like a charm. It took about 16 hours longer to pop from the soil than the drop-in method did. However, the taproot on this one has burrowed straight down, just as I had imagined it would. Very optimal. The taproot on this is well below the water line now and right over my 4" circular air stone. Above ground progress is very similar to Plant #1 now, they're pretty even in development. Pic below of the taproot.

Plant #3 (center front) - doesn't seem like it wants to come out and play. I'll wait and see on this one.

 

[CMJJMC2000]

Day 5 Update: Plant #3 is about to get the boot - it's still below ground and seems to have stopped moving upwards. On a positive note, leaves are getting bigger on #1 and #2. The 2nd real set of leaves (not counting cotyledon) is coming in and lowering the stock LED hood seems to have done the trick with halting the vertical growth. Temp in the room is 75F and humidity is 50%. Reservoir temp is holding at 72F. I'm going to drop it to 70F tonight. Roots are looking great on #2 and expanding into the reservoir. Roots on #1 seem to be spreading out but still about 1" above the waterline. I'm hoping they drop down soon instead of sending out more horizontal runners. I did adjust my pump settings last night from stock. They were set to 1 hour on, 11 hours off. I've switched it to 15 minutes on, 75 minutes off. My hope with doing this is that the #1 plants roots won't dry out since so many are exposed but not in the reservoir yet.
I'll get pics tonight of the roots and the above ground progress and post those later.
Last thing that I plan on doing tonight is adding a 1/4 dose of Sensi Grow A + Sensi Grow B. This should bring my PPM closer to 200.

Renegade, how did you go about flushing your reservoir on a weekly basis? I'm really wishing I had installed a drain plug or spout when I was drilling and plumbing for the IceProbe chiller. If there's no pretty way to do it, I may just rig up an external pump to drain via tubing into a bucket.

 

[CMJJMC2000]

Pics and some notes for tonight; PH was up to 6.4 and after adding a 1/4 dose of sensi grow a + b my PPM went up to 400. I cycled about 1/3 of the reservoir with 7ppm PH'd RO water. PH adjusted back to 5.7 and PPM's in reservoir down to 225. Scary how fast water parameters can deviate in a small reservoir! Pump was not on during any of this, so fortunately no high PPM water went onto the grow sponges or over the plant. Pump kicked on about 5 minutes after I stabilized everything - phew!
Plant #3 has been voted off of the island.

Here's pics for day 5.

 

[Renegade69]

Day 5 Update: Plant #3 is about to get the boot - it's still below ground and seems to have stopped moving upwards. On a positive note, leaves are getting bigger on #1 and #2. The 2nd real set of leaves (not counting cotyledon) is coming in and lowering the stock LED hood seems to have done the trick with halting the vertical growth. Temp in the room is 75F and humidity is 50%. Reservoir temp is holding at 72F. I'm going to drop it to 70F tonight. Roots are looking great on #2 and expanding into the reservoir. Roots on #1 seem to be spreading out but still about 1" above the waterline. I'm hoping they drop down soon instead of sending out more horizontal runners. I did adjust my pump settings last night from stock. They were set to 1 hour on, 11 hours off. I've switched it to 15 minutes on, 75 minutes off. My hope with doing this is that the #1 plants roots won't dry out since so many are exposed but not in the reservoir yet.
I'll get pics tonight of the roots and the above ground progress and post those later.
Last thing that I plan on doing tonight is adding a 1/4 dose of Sensi Grow A + Sensi Grow B. This should bring my PPM closer to 200.

Renegade, how did you go about flushing your reservoir on a weekly basis? I'm really wishing I had installed a drain plug or spout when I was drilling and plumbing for the IceProbe chiller. If there's no pretty way to do it, I may just rig up an external pump to drain via tubing into a bucket.

My brother....LOL. You are doing great. Wanted to hit you up before heading off to my 9-5. First in your statement in post #72....LOL. It is crazy how much it fluxuates. But the biggest factor will be the res temp. Keeping it low and steady and the PH imbalance will be easier to adjust. And don't disregard the PPM. It's hard to tell actually what is in the water but once you figure out the numbers it will be another way to tell if you need to change out the res or add more nutrients. I played with my PPM meter out of the box. Testing all kinds of shit out of the frig. Settling into my tap and distilled water. If you know what you water is before adding any supplements and then checking it when you add the supplements just before refilling the res. The PPM level in that new batch of water is your starting point. In most case's the PPM should be dropping, which is a sign that the plant is feeding. Then you'll know when it's low and time to change or add. Get yourself a PPM scale so you can see what nutrients are taking at each level. If you cant' find the scale I'll try and post the one I found. It's also somewhere in my journal...good luck with that...LOL.

As for your pump. Run it 24/7. I too am concerned with the roots drying out above water but like I said in my experiment I had mine on 24/7 and had no problems. Remember it's a drip system so water will always be running from the pod keeping the sponge wet and down the roots to the res.

As for the roots with more side shoots the length. In my opinion it's a good thing. Keep the pump running and she'll hit the water soon enough. In the mean time the more roots and or mass the better for the plant. More highways for the nutrients to get to her.

Obtw....LMAO. I wish I had put a drain plug in as well. I bought a little AG hand pump from Crazon. It was on AG's web site.

To be honest with you I've got nothing to teach you...you got this.

Keep at it....

 

[Canadian Joe]

I'm finishing a grow with three plants, one being a Dwarf LF in the larger Bounty Aerogarden so it works fine although I wouldn't grow a LF with other strains in an Aerogarden again as different strains require varying nutrient requirements.

 

[CMJJMC2000]

I'm finishing a grow with three plants, one being a Dwarf LF in the larger Bounty Aerogarden so it works fine although I wouldn't grow a LF with other strains in an Aerogarden again as different strains require varying nutrient requirements.

I just saw your picture on the other DLF thread - very frosty!. Have you harvested yet? If so, what do you think of the smoke? Yield? Do you have any pictures of the plant in the Aerogarden for scale? The Bounty has the same reservoir as mine, just a nicer LED hood and 2 extra grow spots, can't believe you grew 3 in there!
Sorry for all of the questions, but I can't find any journals on here for a start-to-finish guide on this strain. Hopefully, between all of the mods I've made to the Aerogarden (and all of the extra LEDs for late veg and flower) and the 3 times-per-day monitoring I'll have a successful first grow.

 

[Canadian Joe]

I just saw your picture on the other DLF thread - very frosty!. Have you harvested yet? If so, what do you think of the smoke? Yield? Do you have any pictures of the plant in the Aerogarden for scale? The Bounty has the same reservoir as mine, just a nicer LED hood and 2 extra grow spots, can't believe you grew 3 in there!
Sorry for all of the questions, but I can't find any journals on here for a start-to-finish guide on this strain. Hopefully, between all of the mods I've made to the Aerogarden (and all of the extra LEDs for late veg and flower) and the 3 times-per-day monitoring I'll have a successful first grow.

.


My plant is embarrassing to even show because it was an experiment. I put it in as a seed sprout at the same time I put my other two in flower at 12/12 so it only got 12 hours of light instead of 20/24 like most indoor autos and it started flowering immediately which I've seen from putting autos in 12/12 they don't veg at all. So showing you this 4" tall plant that will probably yield 2-3 grams is no representation of what it should have been but I already had a Hash Plant and Mexican Sativas in there so I had no room. I'll only grow one plant in there in the future.

Mine is still in there and not harvested yet so I've no clue about the smoke. The Aerogarden doesn't need extras for growing one plant although it doesn't hurt I guess I'd they are put at the same height as the Aerogarden panel. If you put the lift above the Aerogarden it will not do anything as the aero gardens led hood will block any light from above and waste electricity, so keep any extra lights to where they can get to the plant. Use good nutrients too, Flora Nova or Fox Farms, I used the latter and the Dwarf likes 1/3 to 1/2 strength.

 

[CMJJMC2000]

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My plant is embarrassing to even show because it was an experiment. I put it in as a seed sprout at the same time I put my other two in flower at 12/12 so it only got 12 hours of light instead of 20/24 like most indoor autos and it started flowering immediately which I've seen from putting autos in 12/12 they don't veg at all. So showing you this 4" tall plant that will probably yield 2-3 grams is no representation of what it should have been but I already had a Hash Plant and Mexican Sativas in there so I had no room. I'll only grow one plant in there in the future.

Mine is still in there and not harvested yet so I've no clue about the smoke. The Aerogarden doesn't need extras for growing one plant although it doesn't hurt I guess I'd they are put at the same height as the Aerogarden panel. If you put the lift above the Aerogarden it will not do anything as the aero gardens led hood will block any light from above and waste electricity, so keep any extra lights to where they can get to the plant. Use good nutrients too, Flora Nova or Fox Farms, I used the latter and the Dwarf likes 1/3 to 1/2 strength.

Once I get 3 sets of leaves the stock hood is coming off entirely. I've got 200 watts of true LED power (stock hood from behind, mars hydro reflector from above, and 2 x taotronics 36w bulbs from bottom left and bottom right) to get this plant growing optimally.
Also running Advance Nutrients line with all products through expert and a few from professional and grand master.
I've also installed a handy-dandy chiller in the reservoir to keep temps low in the water.

 

[Renegade69]

Once I get 3 sets of leaves the stock hood is coming off entirely. I've got 200 watts of true LED power (stock hood from behind, mars hydro reflector from above, and 2 x taotronics 36w bulbs from bottom left and bottom right) to get this plant growing optimally.
Also running Advance Nutrients line with all products through expert and a few from professional and grand master.
I've also installed a handy-dandy chiller in the reservoir to keep temps low in the water.

CJ please check out my AG grow journal. Most of your questions are answered there. Primarily the LED ver the hood concern. The hood comes off thus providing direct new and better LED. I'll let the senior SME's chime in regarding the wattage, power and stuff like that. I don't have to tell you that when you go from say 2 bulbs to 20 and so on it's a good thing.

CM's adjustment to the res is key. IMHO, the key to what he has done is the Chiller....need I say anything else. The icing on the cake is AG's PH balanced nutrients.

I failed in so many ways with my AG experiment if I play with mine again I will certainly take his lead. However I came out of mine with a few ounces'.

For all others, the AG is no more than a play thing but it will....WILL produce some very smokeable meds. Others have proved it.

"Jump in the waters fine...LOL"

And sorry CJ for hijacking your thread....back to the shadows I go...LOL.

 

[CMJJMC2000]

Day 6 Update: Temp this morning was 72F and humidity at 52%. Temp tonight is 79 and humidity is 51%.
Leaves appear to have roughly doubled in size/area and the second set is coming in nicely. Both are still very small, but no signs of damage from the 225 ppm nute dose. Leaves are still pointing slightly up, looks so healthy. I re-balanced the PH in the reservoir to 5.6. I also removed the cal-mag (full dose) water from the 1 gallon aerovoir. I have a feeling that the top off that would occur throughout the day via the aerovoir was causing a PPM spike, since it was nute dosed water. I left it 25% full and filled the rest with plain PH'd RO water @ 7ppm. This ought to keep things stable - I hope.

Renegade, per your advice I've switched the pumps over to 24/7. This should be a good test for the chiller to see if it can handle the constant heat soak of the pump running 24/7. I bumped the chiller controller down to 70F and it has held there all day. My ideal temp is going to be 68 and I should have it there by tomorrow night.

I've attached pics of the roots at this stage and the above ground growth.....
Plant #1

And Plant #2

 

[Heraldo]

Haven't popped in here in a while. Things are looking good. Those babies are about to blast off.

I went back to check out renegade's journal and realized it was what I based my aerogarden grow on. It's a must read for sure.