High Pressure Aeroponics

P

PetFlora

New Member
It amazes me that none of the e-mags has a separate HP Aero Forum. And yet HP Aero has nothing in common with low pressure or DWC.

I am on my third HP Aero grow and would love to engage fellow enthusiasts with ideas, and questions.

Mine is mostly a DIY using Rubbermaid totes and mist heads and pump from Reptile Basics. I have a completed grow journal that combines TAG (True Aero grow) with LEDs.

Hope you will come out and join the party, :thankyou:
 
They say "A picture is worth a thousands words" BUT are a thousand words as good as a picture? Hmmmmmm...

NASA began developing High Pressure Aeroponics (HPA) well over 10 years ago. The purpose: to feed space station personnel in the most efficient manner, using the fewest nutrients. Their entire system is automated. Why HPA? Efficiency, growing to harvest, the biggest plants in the shortest amount of time.

Nutrients delivered between 50-80 psi, spray as a fine mist aerosol, the most bio-available form.

Roots are fed in <1 second intervals with 3 minutes in between so the root can completely digest the meal, and dry out just enough to be ready to be fed this way again- 24/7.

Deficiencies can be adjusted immediately. Ditto Nutrients

Aero Roots need lots of room around them so that the aerosol can fully coat them. To be TRUE Aero, roots must not collect on the bottom, nor do they grow together forming a canopy. Those grows are named Faux Aero Grow (FAG):) You don't want to be a fag do ya? Not that there's anything wrong with it. :peace:

Best Seeds Keep in mind that roots grow as deep as the plants are tall! LST, SCOG, SCROG of genetically tall plants will cause root chamber problems unless your root chamber (RC) is deeper (and wider) than the plant roots would be grown normally.

I bought my pump, mist heads, fittings and tubing from Reptile Basics. One pump can easily accommodate 4 pods. If you buy there, please tell him I sent you. My chambers are DIY from Rubbermaid.

During veg this system can be continuous in that the over spray can be recycled back into the rez. Not so in flower, as the plants hormones, and excretions through the roots will pollute the the rez, and screw up the pH.

In order to properly time feedings (<2 seconds), you need the equivalent of a Sentinel Timer. For about $300 for the entire set up, you an run up to 4 @ 18G pods with 2 cola genotype plants per pod. For the price of one lousy ounce pays for the whole set up.

I am on my third grow using TAG. It was a huge learning curve, but I explain it all in my Journal, with lots of pics! Google true aeroponic grow with advanced mist system/UFO 90.

I took a break for the summer. I started back a month ago, but the going has been rough. Mercury was in retrograde, and lots of s*&t was dumped on me, throughout.

1. Bad pH probe killed 4 out of 5 seedlings: one is hanging on. Probe was 5+ years old. D'oh! Make sure your instruments are current.

2. Breaker to the pump timer tripped sometime during the night. 4 of 5 roots dried up. One is hanging on, but such set backs in the early stages often creates runts.

I just germinated 4 more lowryder X bubble seeds (60 day to finish; 2 ft tall), and will wait for real good roots development before transferring from Seed/Clone pod- small DIY rig with twin 12" aero stones. All you need to do is make sure the nutrient PPM is <200, and the temp 60-70 degrees.

Once transferred to the TAG pod, roots grow first (and like crazy) followed by the top of the plant.

Any questions?:tokin:
 
Hey everyone, I know you want to see pics, but I am burned out on doing journals. Plus I need more LED watts, but got the fundsrlo affliction just now.

And it's a pain to get the pics from my Album then upload it here, or it was a pain over there. I'll look into it. Keep in mind it's a DIY setup.

It isn't hard to post pics, BUT my prior CPU crashed a month ago (part of the Mercury in retrograde thing) a lot was lost, including imy album of the set up and grow. Sorry, but I tried.
 
Sounds great. But you can't have a build up like that and then not deliver with the pics to support your claims. How do we know you aren't just using this ploy to solicit members of this forum to yours?

It really isn't that hard to post pictures here, and if you need help you can read the sticky on how to do so. I don't want you to think I am attacking you, but your motives with this journal are still unclear to me.

:popcorn: I'll be waiting to see what you are working with.
 
Fair question, but I closed my journal many months ago. I am not soliciting anyone, but let me ask you, do you eat in the same restaurant every day? That would get boring as hell for me.

I am a member of 4 different such sites. Each offers a different level of experience, and I want to learn as well as share.

I did try to upload from my Pictures folders, but unfortunately, the electrical issue took out my $4K stereo amplifier, my CPU mother board, I now see my grow journal photo album, along with a ton of other files, including my entire personal and business address book.
 
Finally, but I can't figure out how to make them larger. If you want to see them without the intrusive 420 logo they are in Photo Gallery

Note the pump is hidden by the 420 logo. The rez is the white container on the far right. you only need 2Gs of nutes to run twin pods. Think of the money you'll save in nutes alone.



DIY_POD.jpg
DIY_POD_1.jpg
 
What an ordeal, but I got it now.


Pom_Poms.jpg
These are what aero roots look like. Note the fish bones. The roots are too wet. Later I got the Sentinel timer which allowed me to drop my feed times down < 2 seconds. The dryness allowed fuzzies to develop all along the fish bones. They then looked like pipe cleaners. More surface area to eat with.

Stacked_Totes_and_HP_Pump.jpg
https: I was growing bag seed. The roots got away from me. Had to stack totes to avoid a huge pile of roots on the bottom.

Aquatec pump is ~$90

[img]https://www.420magazine.com/gallery/data/500/UFO_90_Bud_Shot1.jpg

This was 3 weeks from harvest. I'll look for a closer to harvest shot. Plant was grown under a UFO 90 supplemented with CFLs

Harvest from UFO 90 Pan is 18" long
Harvest17.jpg
LED
 
Seems like a lot of expense/tubs/problems when you can do as well or better with a simple hempy bucket. But I did not go to college so could be wrong about that!:bigblush:

But what is that quote by Docbud "Get a damn bucket and drill a pencil sized hole about 2 inches from the bottom. Fill it with perlite and grow some plants." I love ya Doc!!
 
TMAC: Some people drive a basic car, some are into hot rods. Take what you need (if anything) and leave the rest. :goodluck:

Tmac12 said:
Seems like a lot of expense/tubs/problems when you can do as well or better with a simple hempy bucket. But I did not go to college so could be wrong about that!:bigblush:

But what is that quote by Docbud "Get a damn bucket and drill a pencil sized hole about 2 inches from the bottom. Fill it with perlite and grow some plants." I love ya Doc!!
Click to expand...
 
The picture of the stacked totes: This was my second grow and I did not realize how tall the bag seed was going to grow. Well as above, so below. In a matter of weeks, the roots made it to the bottom, and began forming a hammock. The underside of the hammock was soaking in runoff. Not a problem in vegg, but once you flip the plants raging hormones, excretions, and high pH turn the runoff into toxic soup that causes root rot, and other root issues that look like nute deficiencies up top, until they overwhelm the plant. This is why you need to D2W whenever you use DWC methods.

To remedy, I bought two more totes, cut the bottom out of the top tote so that the roots could hang and the aerosol could work its magic. This was far from ideal, but it worked in a pinch.

Now I know to only grow short plants, or insert the stacked totes before the problem develops. Just keep in mind the bigger the plant the fewer you can cram into a 18G tote- probably only one. I know a grow in Oregon who grows one plant to a 50G rain barrel. The tops of his plants are in the 10 ft range :rasta:
 
OK, Now that I have the photo thing worked out, I will turn this into a real Journal, posting pics once a week and written updates as needed.

Key Factors:

Room temps are moderate lows of 70, highs low 80s. This should be vg. In a month temps should drop 5-10 degrees, near perfect for flower. Humidity <80%. Much above or below this needs immediate attention. Last winter was one of the coldest on record and I was not prepared to warm up the room. Took me 2 weeks to get a heater in there. During that time the plants went dormant.

Lights: UFO 90 LEDs: 455-470 nm / 610 - 660 nm , 680, 740nm. I will supplement with CFLs.


Water: Reverse Osmosis. I have a Kinetico auto-flush system for cooking, drinking, and nute mixing. If I didn't already own it I would get a Merlin for its a high daily capacity and reasonable price. Most systems make only one gallon per hour; a typical storage tank is 3G, but you can only draw about 2G before the pressure drops.

Nutes: I am switching over from FF and Botanicare to DM Gold. Please no haters. DM was made for aeroponics. It is very clean- no clogging of mist heads. Keep in mind due to the extreme efficiency of HPA, during grow, ppms <300 for seedlings; 400 for vegging. Early Flower <600, late Flower <800. More than these amounts will cause nutrient lockouts.

DM products:

Gold Flower A/B
Gold Grow ADD.27
Gold Saturator and Liquid Light

Vegg: FF Grow Big as I have 1/2 a liter left, it is vg for hydro
Botanicare CalMg+ not sure whether the DM Gold compensates

I will use both manual foliar feeding (FF) and automated root feeding. I have everything I need to automate the foliar feed, but will wait until plants are well established (4-6" tall). Since FF provides ntes 6Xs more efficiently, this should be kick-ass.

Seeds: Low Ryder X Bubblicious (said to be 60 day germ to harvest)

Seeds were soaked in PH balanced H2O for 24 hours with a dilute Neptune Harvest Seaweed Plant Food, then placed in natural paper towels (no bleaching residues)

Day 6: Seedlings are 1-2" tall. Put them in rock wool and S2G starter cubes. They are now in my starter seedling/clone pod: 2 @12" air stones running 24/7. I keep the nute temp between 60-70 degrees.

Nothing much going on for about a week. I will take pics of plants/roots then.

Stay tuned. As this is my 3rd grow, hopefully it will be smooth sailing:surf:
 
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