Need help setting up large scale Aeroponic for commercial i502

[Jerrix509]

Hey guys I’m looking for anyone who has built an Aeroponic System with a reservoir in a separate tank fed through a line to a table with sprayers. I would need to scale it up to flower thousands of plants.
I have an understanding of how Aeroponics work just need help avoiding mistakes and advice on equipment. Computers with controlling of nutrients, ph, feed times etc...

Even if anybody can point me in the right direction I’d appreciate anything.

Is anyone doing Aeroponics right now? Have you noticed any efficiencies in it? Do you really use a lot less nutrients. Would anybody advise me to use drip lines in Rockwool instead?
We aren’t wanting to veg plants longer than 3 weeks, does aero should help accelerate the growth faster than any other method?

Can you share advise and pictures of your aero grow.

 

[Dr Krieger]

With an operation that big I'd suggest an electronically controlled ph sensor that you just leave in the res. They're expensive for a hobbyist but if its a professional grow then the 300-500$ they cost aren't much. Some can even make ph adjustments if the ph is too high or low and will record info like ppm, temp and ph that can be sent to a computer. An alternative is to build or hire someone to build one with arduino parts. I'm looking to automate my medical grow and since I can program I'll be building my own ph monitoring system as well as building a few automatic syringes to dispense ph up and down as well as liquid nutrients all conected to a computer that will controll all the parts. All the parts I've listed you can buy prebuilt individually but again they're expensive and ment to be very accurate. For the automatic syringes being 5ml off with an operation that has that many plants wont matter as much compared to a small grow like mine so I don't think you would need that kind of accuracy so a DIY one with a basic motor to dispense liquid nutrients/ph up/down wouldn't be a bad option.

I've never run an aeroponic system aside from a clone king but from what I've read the misters can get clogged easily so you might want some kind of filter to keep debris out of the lines. I've also read that one of the reasons to use an aeroponic system is because the misters get the perfect sized droplets for the plants to absorb everything I belive it's like 5-50microns. If the water pressure isn't high enough the droplets will be bigger and be less efficient at keeping the plants fed.

Hope that info helps out.

 

[Jerrix509]

Thank you, it is a professional licensed grow. I will look into the arduino. I think I’d like to build the system so I know it better and can repair if needed. Thanks I will start my list on my note pad and start some researching. I was thinking of asking an irrigation company for help too, they would probably now almost all the parts I’d need.
The filter is a must and I was thinking of adding extra misters to be safe. Do you think adding more is a bad idea? I think better safe than sorry. I didn’t even think about the size of water droplets. I was thinking I’d want a mister that’s not as fine of mist to avoid clogging but not a good idea.
Thanks again

 

[TorturedSoul]

Aeroponics is a little bit trickier than other forms of hydroponics, it appears. Have you done a successful aeroponic grow before, and are just wanting to expand (significantly)? Or is it your intention to jump into a large-scale aero grow with zero past aeroponic experience? If the latter, my suggestion would be to reconsider that idea, and set up a small aeroponic grow and run it from start to finish (successfully) at least once. An equipment failure in a soil grow is inconvenient. An equipment failure in a "traditional hydroponic" grow will cause you to pay extra for rush shipping. But, since the plants depend on the foggers/etc. to keep their roots hydrated, an equipment failure can quickly result in dead plants.

BtW, a simple search via a web-search engine for:

large scale aeroponics

Gets lots of results. Both articles about and virtual tours of actual working large scale aeroponic grows/farms and "scholarly articles" about the subject. You'd probably find far more useful information that way than asking here. There just haven't been a great deal of aeroponic grow journals and such, and the ones I've seen were hobby/personal sized operations. However, as there have been some aeroponic grow journals, you might get some ideas by navigating to the various grow journal sections and using the forum's own search routine to perform a keyword search of just those specific areas. I'd include the "Abandoned" journal section, too, because some aeroponic grows ended up failing, and knowing how/why that happened is... probably important, lol.

Grow Journals

Index of real-time growers showcasing indoor and outdoor grow journals in soil, coco, hydroponics - compare LED grow lights, nutrients and methods of growing cannabis

www.420magazine.com

Grow Journals

Index of real-time growers showcasing indoor and outdoor grow journals in soil, coco, hydroponics - compare LED grow lights, nutrients and methods of growing cannabis

www.420magazine.com

Grow Journals

Index of real-time growers showcasing indoor and outdoor grow journals in soil, coco, hydroponics - compare LED grow lights, nutrients and methods of growing cannabis

www.420magazine.com

 

[pharma0719]

Aeroponics is a little bit trickier than other forms of hydroponics, it appears. Have you done a successful aeroponic grow before, and are just wanting to expand (significantly)? Or is it your intention to jump into a large-scale aero grow with zero past aeroponic experience? If the latter, my suggestion would be to reconsider that idea, and set up a small aeroponic grow and run it from start to finish (successfully) at least once. An equipment failure in a soil grow is inconvenient. An equipment failure in a "traditional hydroponic" grow will cause you to pay extra for rush shipping. But, since the plants depend on the foggers/etc. to keep their roots hydrated, an equipment failure can quickly result in dead plants.

BtW, a simple search via a web-search engine for:

large scale aeroponics

Gets lots of results. Both articles about and virtual tours of actual working large scale aeroponic grows/farms and "scholarly articles" about the subject. You'd probably find far more useful information that way than asking here. There just haven't been a great deal of aeroponic grow journals and such, and the ones I've seen were hobby/personal sized operations. However, as there have been some aeroponic grow journals, you might get some ideas by navigating to the various grow journal sections and using the forum's own search routine to perform a keyword search of just those specific areas. I'd include the "Abandoned" journal section, too, because some aeroponic grows ended up failing, and knowing how/why that happened is... probably important, lol.

Grow Journals

Index of real-time growers showcasing indoor and outdoor grow journals in soil, coco, hydroponics - compare LED grow lights, nutrients and methods of growing cannabis

www.420magazine.com

Grow Journals

Index of real-time growers showcasing indoor and outdoor grow journals in soil, coco, hydroponics - compare LED grow lights, nutrients and methods of growing cannabis

www.420magazine.com

Grow Journals

Index of real-time growers showcasing indoor and outdoor grow journals in soil, coco, hydroponics - compare LED grow lights, nutrients and methods of growing cannabis

www.420magazine.com

Great straightforward advice. Testing my own aero grow with Tefen misters now.

 

[Jerrix509]

Probably gonna go with a drip irrigation system. Taking a tour of a facility this friday

 

[Dr Krieger]

My second grow was with a DWC top fed drip system. It grew the plants really well. It worked great even as a cloner I had a 100% success rate without any hormones. It was a pain to drain, the manifold for the 1/4 in drip lines clogged after a few months along with the pump getting covered in roots because I hadn't cleaned it. I followed a tutorial on a different site but don't want to get in trouble for posting it so here's a picture from it for reference.