Johnny 99
New Member
How did you manually adjust the aerogarden to 18/6?
I've seen other Aerogarden grow journals, but since Aerogarden has released their new Ultra model with an LED hood (with white, blue and red spectrums), I thought I would give it a try to see what happens, since I couldn't find any grow logs using this new lighting system. Aerogarden claims 75% faster and fuller growth using this new LED hood. Here are the details of the grow:
Grow Space: Inside of an 8' x 4' grow tent (and 7 feet tall). One side has my regular HPS grow going, the other side has 2 Aerogardens, an Ultra LED and a regular ultra that has been modified for 3 CFL's. We will only be focusing on the Ultra LED for this grow log.
Lighting: Aerogarden Ultra's new full spectrum LED hood. Manual override of lighting system timer adjusted to 18/6 light cycle.
Ventilation: The grow tent has a 480cfm fan sucking air through the carbon filter to cleanse it, then pulled through a cool tube HPS(on the other grow in the same room, not near the Aerogarden), goes out the other side of the cool tube HPS, then out of the tent. Passive intake is being used at the bottom of the grow tent. a 10" oscillating fan is mounted in the top corner of the grow tent, blowing on the plants 24/7.
Strain: Autoflower Lemon Haze feminized seed from Emerald Triangle Seeds, purchased through Attitude Seed Bank. Since autoflowers stay shorter in height, the autoflower was chosen specifically for the aerogarden.
Germination: Germinated in wet paper towel. Tap root exposed after 24 hours. Placed tap root down into Aerogarden grow sponge, which I had prepared by pushing a toothpick all the way through the sponge to create a hole for the taproot to reach the water easier. 48 hours after placing the seed in the grow sponge with taproot exposed, the plant was poking through the top, and roots had hit the water.
Pod Spacing: Only one plant is grown in the Aerogarden, since it has a 1 gallon reservoir. The roots from one single plant should fill up the entire reservoir. The pod chosen was the center pod in the front row. The other holes were covered with duct tape to ensure that light does not hit the roots in the reservoir.
Water System: An air stone with aquarium pump was added in to the water reservoir in order to keep the water oxygenated.
Specifics:
PH: 5.8
PPM: Started at 0, after first 2 weeks I bumped it up to 500 with some diluted nutes.
Temperature: 71-78 in Aerogarden area (81 on other side of room under my HPS light for other grow)
Nutrients: After two weeks, I gave them a half dose of Advanced Nutrients Micro-Grow-Bloom 3 part formula (half dose being figured as 1/2 tsp micro, 1/2 tsp grow, 1/2 tsp bloom per gallon of water), bringing the ppm to 500. I'm still learning the nutrient side of things... I've heard you can double the amount of bloom and not use grow at all. I'm also not sure why I'm using bloom nutrients on a plant thats just about to go into veg, but seems to be normal from what I have read from others. Please let me know if this is not correct. Later on, once flowering, I have some "Big Bud" nutes that I plan on adding as well.
Additional Notes: Since this is an autoflower, the size of the plant will remain fairly small. Reduced yield is also expected due to the autoflower strain, and will not be taken into consideration as part of the Aerogardens success or failure, since it's the genetics that will keep the yield low on this grow. It should also be noted that this Aerogarden grow is remaining in the same grow tent as my soil HPS grow. Since the Aerogarden's plant is an Autoflower, I will be adjusting the light cycle to match my regular grow in the same tent, so when I switch to 12/12 flowering on my other grow, the Aerogarden lights will be at 12/12 as well. This is only to the light does not affect my other grow. The Aerogarden plant is an Autoflower, so the photo period will have no effect on putting the Aerogarden plant into flowering.
Changes from Stock Aerogarden Setup: Very few changes were made, in order to test the effectiveness of the Aerogarden itself. Here are the differences:
- Did not use included nutes. Used my own (see above)
- Currently using 18/6 light cycle using manual override. I will soon adjust it to 12/12 using manual override. The plant we are growingis an autoflower strain, so adjusting the light cycle is only to not affect the other plants in the same grow room. It has no bearing on the autoflower strain growing in the aerogarden. Autoflowers will grow and flower the exact same at 24/0, 18/6 or 12/12.
- Aquarium Pump and air stone added, although these are both OEM from Aerogarden, so not really a variation.
- Other 6 unused holes covered in duct tape to prevent light from hitting the root system
- Aerogarden side reflectors and trullis system may be added later as the plant increases in size.
Details on Pics Below: The first pics of the grow, listed below, are 14 days into their life cycle since the seed was germinated.
