High Pressure Aeroponic Grow with LEDs

[Ogiesel]

Hi gang, ogiesel here! back at it with the HP Aeroponics. As some of you may already know. My last HPA grow ended in the plants being thrown out because they both turned Hermi. They were both doing extremely well too. Vigorous growth & great overall health. It was a good test run as it was also my first ever HPA run. I learned alot of information & new techniques.
FYI my setup is the same. < got the system dialed in now.

Anyway this time around, i've opted to go with the two Kona Gold clones I had going in my AG. It was too hard for me to get clones from a dispensary. The nearest dispensary to have clones is about 30 miles away from me, and it's pretty damn hard to find a way over there when I work M-f, let alone the suspended liscense part lol

The plants have currently grown out of the budding faze and have started vegging again. I switched the light cycle yesterday though to 11 on 13 off, so now, they are budding once more(will be soon technically.) They're still pretty small at the moment. Id say about half a foot tall . We'll see how this crop turns out. I'll try to get pics up soon

 

[Ogiesel]

Im still testing the HPA waters here so at the moment ive been running the pump timers differently on this grow compared to my last. The last grow was going great but the root mass was huge..... Healthy.....but huge. I believe it was from having either too short of an off time or too long of an on time. I had it set for 3 on and 3 on during the day and 3 on 4 off at night, but at the moment, I set it to 2 on and 2 off during the day, and 2 on 2:45 off and night. Might jump up the off time to 3 at night. Keeping a close eye to monitor the changes. I took a pic of the roots before I changed the cycle to its current one. I'll take another pic in a few days and see if the change were for the better , or for worse

 

[Tunkers]

I'm subbed. Fingers crossed all female this go!

Pictures of setup etc? I'm running low pressure / dwc and am looking more into high pressure. Would love to see what you're using.

Sent from my Pixel using 420

 

[Ogiesel]

I think iT's just because I'm new to this site but I don't know how to upload pics here. I've been using a website like photobucket but it's kinda a pain to do so. There's got to be an easier way lol.

My system flows like this.
My 40 gallon reservoir sits outside the grow tent. At the bottom is the outlet with a 50 micron screen on it. From there it gets fed to a ball valve then to a electronic pressure release valve. From there, it goes to my pump, then it T's off into two lines, (one line per tote). After it T's, each line goes through its own 10 micron inline filter. From there, they hit each tote and then the T back together behind the totes, creating a closed loop. After they t back together, the tube runs to my electronic pressure release valve which dumps the excess water back into the reservoir. Pretty nifty little setup lol. Oh and for drainage!!!! I built a custom stand for my totes (grow chambers) to sit on. Its tilted about 10° to give it a run off effect. I drilled two holes through the stand where I have the drains of the totes located. Underneath the stand I have a 10 gal low profile tote that collects all the waste water. Inside that tote I have another pump, I only use it when I need to empty out the drainage tote, ( that way I don't have to physically lift up the tote to empty the water, just plug in the pump and boom done. FYI I do drain to recycle, but only during the vegging faze, never during the budding faze.
It all sounds confusing without pictures I know lol, but I'll try to get some up. I deleted all my old pics so I have to take some fresh ones

 

[Tunkers]

I think iT's just because I'm new to this site but I don't know how to upload pics here. I've been using a website like photobucket but it's kinda a pain to do so. There's got to be an easier way lol.

My system flows like this.
My 40 gallon reservoir sits outside the grow tent. At the bottom is the outlet with a 50 micron screen on it. From there it gets fed to a ball valve then to a electronic pressure release valve. From there, it goes to my pump, then it T's off into two lines, (one line per tote). After it T's, each line goes through its own 10 micron inline filter. From there, they hit each tote and then the T back together behind the totes, creating a closed loop. After they t back together, the tube runs to my electronic pressure release valve which dumps the excess water back into the reservoir. Pretty nifty little setup lol. Oh and for drainage!!!! I built a custom stand for my totes (grow chambers) to sit on. Its tilted about 10° to give it a run off effect. I drilled two holes through the stand where I have the drains of the totes located. Underneath the stand I have a 10 gal low profile tote that collects all the waste water. Inside that tote I have another pump, I only use it when I need to empty out the drainage tote, ( that way I don't have to physically lift up the tote to empty the water, just plug in the pump and boom done. FYI I do drain to recycle, but only during the vegging faze, never during the budding faze.
It all sounds confusing without pictures I know lol, but I'll try to get some up. I deleted all my old pics so I have to take some fresh ones

It sounds very complicated on paper. I'm not switched on with technical stuff which is why I like pictures haha do you mind if I ask you questions about your setup? Pick your brain a little?

Sent from my Pixel using 420

 

[Ogiesel]

Yes it sounds very complicated lol its very simple actually, I'll get some pictures up soon. & no problem ask away

 

[Tunkers]

My plants are just in a 20L bucket (5gal) so they end up in the res and get sprayed up at the netpot every hour & half. I'm looking to maybe separate the res and add a high pressure pump and Misters. There just isn't heaps of info on small hp setups. Feels like I could just run one mister to feed the capacity of my bucket which wouldn't need too high psi pump would it? Thanks for any help

Sent from my Pixel using 420

 

[Tunkers]

Btw I'm pretty sure if you just go to the photo gallery section and upload photos and then when you go to post in thread they show up as an option to add. I use 420 on my phone and just subscribed to 420 mag through it. Very simple to use

Sent from my Pixel using 420

 

[Ogiesel]

My plants are just in a 20L bucket (5gal) so they end up in the res and get sprayed up at the netpot every hour & half. I'm looking to maybe separate the res and add a high pressure pump and Misters. There just isn't heaps of info on small hp setups. Feels like I could just run one mister to feed the capacity of my bucket which wouldn't need too high psi pump would it? Thanks for any help

Sent from my Pixel using 420

With that particular setup your running at the moment, I feel that running your pump 24/7 might would work better than having it on a timer. When I grew with low pressure Aero, I always had the best results by running the pumps non stop. I thought running them 24/7 would be a bad idea because of the pump heating up the water, but it didn't effect the plants at all. As song as you have enough airstones , you should be fine. Separating the rez from the grow chamber cuts down on heat issues, but now you have to build your own plumbing, so to speak. Having the rez outside of the grow tent/box is ideal too.
. High pressure aero is really only good to use when you have large rooting chambers. the reason why you don't see too many small HPA grows is because it's very hard to without proper root room. One of those 5 gal buckets wouldn't work too well as the root ball would eventually fill up the entire bucket, limiting proper water flow and eventually causing root rot. You need at least a minimum of 7 gallons per plant and even that is pushing it. Right now I have one plant per 18 gallon root chamber.

 

[Tunkers]

With that particular setup your running at the moment, I feel that running your pump 24/7 might would work better than having it on a timer. When I grew with low pressure Aero, I always had the best results by running the pumps non stop. I thought running them 24/7 would be a bad idea because of the pump heating up the water, but it didn't effect the plants at all. As song as you have enough airstones , you should be fine. Separating the rez from the grow chamber cuts down on heat issues, but now you have to build your own plumbing, so to speak. Having the rez outside of the grow tent/box is ideal too.
. High pressure aero is really only good to use when you have large rooting chambers. the reason why you don't see too many small HPA grows is because it's very hard to without proper root room. One of those 5 gal buckets wouldn't work too well as the root ball would eventually fill up the entire bucket, limiting proper water flow and eventually causing root rot. You need at least a minimum of 7 gallons per plant and even that is pushing it. Right now I have one plant per 18 gallon root chamber.

Wow I couldn't imagine having a root mass that would fill that bucket but as you say, high pressure will do it. I'll just stick to what I'm doing so far and dream big for the future. Appreciate the help mate, all the best for this grow, I'll be watching from the sidelines.

Sent from my Pixel using 420

 

[Ogiesel]

Well I should say that, technically, you could use 5 gallon buckets, But you'd have to start with well rooted clones and start budding them as soon as you put them in. You'd have to keep them as small as possible. But you still may run into problems later down the line. I have never tried 5 gallon buckets myself, but i've seen it done. From what I've seen/ read, im Not really sure it's worth it though. If your going to go HPA , you might as well go all out and get large chambers to save yourself from potential problems

 

[Ogiesel]

I looked everywhere and I still can't find where to even upload photos

 

[Tunkers]

I looked everywhere and I still can't find where to even upload photos

Photo Gallery Guide - How to Resize, Upload & Post Photos


Sent from my Pixel mo fo

 

[Ogiesel]

I'm going to just copy & paste the above with pictures spliced in.

My system flows like this.

40 gallon reservoir sits outside the grow tent. At the bottom is the outlet with a 50 micron screen on it. From there it gets fed to a ball valve then to

a electronic pressure release valve. From there, it goes to my pump, then it T's off into two lines, (one line per tote). After it T's, each line goes through its own 10 micron inline filter

Here's the drainage tote

 

[Tunkers]

Good job working out the photos! I struggled big time trying to use website for uploading. Love the weed socks btw haha

Pictures definitely help my brain get the idea of how it works. It's just the components like the ball valve, filters, pressure valves etc that elude me in their purpose. I just assumed all you needed was a high pressure pump and small micron sprayers. Obviously more to it...

Something for the future perhaps. Thanks for sharing that.

I'm going to just copy & paste the above with pictures spliced in.

My system flows like this.

40 gallon reservoir sits outside the grow tent. At the bottom is the outlet with a 50 micron screen on it. From there it gets fed to a ball valve then to

a electronic pressure release valve. From there, it goes to my pump, then it T's off into two lines, (one line per tote). After it T's, each line goes through its own 10 micron inline filter

Here's the drainage tote

Sent from my Pixel mo fo

 

[Ogiesel]

Realistically, you don't need ball valves or a fancy pressure release valve. All you need are proper rooting chambers, a high pressure pump, a timer for said pump so you can get the right intervals. And inline filters are a must. But that's really it, besides the obvious, tubing, nozzles, fittings, ect. You don't need all the fancy bells and whistles like I have in my setup. I just have those to make maintenance a breeze for me, among other things, but it's all personal preference. I could have kept it simple. But I like to challenge myself haha

 

[Tunkers]

Realistically, you don't need ball valves or a fancy pressure release valve. All you need are proper rooting chambers, a high pressure pump, a timer for said pump so you can get the right intervals. And inline filters are a must. But that's really it, besides the obvious, tubing, nozzles, fittings, ect. You don't need all the fancy bells and whistles like I have in my setup. I just have those to make maintenance a breeze for me, among other things, but it's all personal preference. I could have kept it simple. But I like to challenge myself haha

I'm going to be annoying now and ask the question: what maintenance are you avoiding with the elements you added? Wouldn't even know what a ball valve does..

If I was to just get a decent pressure pump running through a filter into side of bucket, mister on the inside, on a short interval timer, it would surely advance my growth? If I can do it simply enough and cheap enough I can only see positives. Aside from what you pointed out with the limited space in my bucket of course..


On another note, when are you going to post some photos of the plants now you can add pics? Keen to see these babies!

Sent from my Pixel mo fo

 

[Bako]

Hi buds! Sorry there hasn't been much interested shown in this thread OP, but I have been scavenging the internet for HPA growing information for months and would love to collaborate with you.

I have a couple very important questions, first what on/off time intervals are you using? How have you been changing the intervals as they age? Have you cloned with the HPA system? And finally why do you use air stones?

My understanding is HPA is exceptional because of the smaller droplet size and constant air around the roots where/when there isn't water. This allows short on times and long off times for the roots to absorb the small droplets and aerate, creating root fuzz. And with a high pressure pump (guessing you are around 100psi), I'm not sure the airstone in the nutrient reservoir would help, it might even hurt the pump imho.

I have been flirting with 3 seconds on/3 minutes off but think I need more on time during early development. I am currently only using the HPA system for cloning and veg but plan on integrating it into an undercurrent like system as a "top feed" option for roots above water.

I am also still looking for the perfect placement and angle for the misting nozzles (ruined at least 2 totes but now I have a guinea pig for future tests). My 1GPH nozzles seem to have a pretty tight conical spray and it doesn't seem perfectly spread throughout. Currently running 3 or 4 misters per tote with 2 or 4 of them on the corners pointing toward the middle of the tote.

I hear great things about the "cheap" aerocloner which seems to just constantly spray low pressure water so I have been thinking about greatly increased "on" times for cloning and veg.

/scattered thoughts rant over

Love the community here and most places I visit, keep it mello 420 gang!

 

[Ogiesel]

HI guys thanks for showing interest in my grow setup.

I just spent the last 45 minutes typing a huge reply that answered all your questions, and a shit load of tips and techniques that I've learned with HP Aero. I went to look up my pump specs and when I came back the page had to reload and everything I had wrote got deleted. So I'm pissed and don't feel like typing it all again haha not at the moment anyway I'm sorry. I'll get to it later today though.

As for you tunkers, I have those pics

 

[Ogiesel]

I'm going to be annoying now and ask the question: what maintenance are you avoiding with the elements you added? Wouldn't even know what a ball valve does..

If I was to just get a decent pressure pump running through a filter into side of bucket, mister on the inside, on a short interval timer, it would surely advance my growth? If I can do it simply enough and cheap enough I can only see positives. Aside from what you pointed out with the limited space in my bucket of course..


On another note, when are you going to post some photos of the plants now you can add pics? Keen to see these babies!

Sent from my Pixel mo fo

It only makes maintenance less of a hassle, for instance say I have to work on my pump or take off one of the inline filters and work on that, I can use the ball valve from the reservoir to shut off all the incoming flow so I can work on it without worrying about the reservoir dumping everywhere. As for the pump in my drainage tote underneath the plants, I just have it so instead of me having to physically lift up my root Chambers, I can just turn the pump on and pump all the water out. Sometimes if I'm recycling my drainage, I'll put a inline Filter on it so it'll prevent any sediments or plant matter from entering my reservoir.

& Yes it would grow great untill you run out of space, which would happen very quickly.