Aeroponic nightmare.

4

420bugmenot

New Member
ive been toying around with an aero unit setup out of a basic rubbermaid tote.. put spray nozzles in a pvc pipe and went to town.

well, it started great, roots were nice and white and growth was explosive. then all of the sudden a week into it everything went to shit pretty instantly. my light is on 24/0 right now, and hte room stays at 80 degrees, which ive always thought was fine for these plants, but not great for water temps in aeroponics apparently. root rot like a motherfucker, root growth completely stopped. roots are not white anymore, leaves are all drooping and yellowing. it's just a nightmare

i know i can get my room down to low 70's or high 60's, but will the plants themselves thrive in this? if i went to 12/12 the room would drop to about 64 degrees toward the end of the dark cycle. will this help keep my water temps cool? or would i be better off going with a different type of system here? should i put the res outside the room where it stays in the mid 60's and pump it into there like that? maybe just toss out the whole aero thing altogether and go with some other easier to manage version of hydro?

i really like aero but i just got very discouraged with it tonight....
 
W

weedismyantidrug

Active Member
I once saw an aero setup where the dude kept the temps at 60 or below, the roots were pure white and the plants were very healthy if a little compact.
 
4

420bugmenot

New Member
That's what im thinking, the thing is in gardenknowm's video with the aquamist sytems they kept the room temp at 80 if i remember right

but from what ive gathered that is too hot for the water to provide adequate oxygen to the roots, and im going to guess the water inside the container is going to be hotter than ambient temp since the container is enclosed and has a pump running inside

/sigh
 
potroast

potroast

Uses the Rollitup profile
Well, it looks like you've asked and answered your own question. The problem is the too high water temps. That causes stuff to grow. And since aero is all about the nute soup, that can wipe out a crop fast. Your room temps are fine, the res is hot. So just chill the res, or move it to a cooler place.

HTH :mrgreen:
 
4

420bugmenot

New Member
yeah i jumped into this one way too quickly. i think im going to take the HPS out of the room for a few weeks and lay down some nice cool floro tubes on it since they are tiny and the hps is just wasting light anyways with the seedlings being this small... and im gonna flush the res with straight RO water, maybe 1/8 nutes

i have some new clones to replace the fucked plants.. should i just ditch the plants that are pretty rotted and start over? You think running an 18/6 cycle will help let the res temp stay at a lower temp throughout the day?

Im just wondering what a cheap and simple way to keep the res nice and cool would be.. it wouldnt hurt much just to keep a lower ambient temp in the room would it?
 
potroast

potroast

Uses the Rollitup profile
Yes, you'll come out much better if you start over. Clean and disinfect the system, and fix the res temp problem. The cheapest and easiest solution is to move the res outside of the grow area.

HTH :mrgreen:
 
Earl

Earl

Well-Known Member
I keep my room temp at 66f,
day and night,
so my rez will stay below 68f.

I also use very low nute loads
because the nutes have a big affect
on the amount of DO the solution will carry.

I have airstones, and a powerhead, in the main rez,
and then I spray the roots with 66ºF,
on a timer, 10 on 30 off.

I use AN 3 part at 250-400ppm, and nothing else.

This is a plant I moved into aero from DWC.
You can see the new roots starting to appear.





Get the solution temp down to at least 68ºf,
and 65-66 is better.

The plants will grow just fine at 66f room temps,
and the canopy temps will be in the 70s when the lights are on.

.
.
 
blonddie07

blonddie07

Well-Known Member
Make sure light is not getting through your res lid... and reaching your roots...

Light + roots = root rot.

Has to be PITCH black in that res.
 
Budsworth

Budsworth

Well-Known Member
I always keep a gallon of water in my refrigerator and add that to the resavoir. Plus I use Hygrozime. The roots love it.
 
Hidden Agenda

Hidden Agenda

Well-Known Member
I just wanted to thank everyone for their help here, I got the problem under control

I also registered my own name here now so ill give some updates soon!

Your posts are always very helpful earl, im always sure to read through every one of them i see and always seem to learn something new!
 
Hidden Agenda

Hidden Agenda

Well-Known Member
By the way about nute loads, my PPM meter hasnt arrived yet, so ive been slowly adding more and more veg nutes to it (fox farm grow big)

ive seriously added more per gallon than max dosage and the plants just keep growing faster with no signs of overnuting. Ive got the room to stay between 65-70 with the light on and 63-65 with the light off now, so we're golden there, although i do need a digital ph meter because i am not too good with matching up the colors on the PH chart.

I do have to say this though, the plants were pretty much almost dead, the tank was filled with slimy green roots and i was about to chalk up this grow to experience. I cleaned out the res, tossed in 16 gallons of RO water, added some nutes and h202, ph'd it and a few days later checked back and the plants had made a 180 degree turn around, new root growth came kind of slow then bam, explosive plant growth

this is my first aero attempt so im using some crap bagseeds, but ive been impressed so far. some of the plants have root masses that are 3x as big as the actual plants, and every day they grow, their growing rate increases expodentially.
 
Earl

Earl

Well-Known Member
Very good.

You should do a rez change pretty soon since you've been adding nutes.
Tip burn can happen fast.
The damage can never be repaired.
The plants will still grow,
but there is damage none the less.


This chart shows that you get the same result from about 50% upt to 100 and then you will see negative results.
It also shows that yield does not increase over 75%
Even Dutch Master has a 75% chart for any water not oooppm to start.
My RO is 20-60 to start, so I use the 70% DM chart.

 
gohydro

gohydro

Well-Known Member
420bugmenot said:
ive been toying around with an aero unit setup out of a basic rubbermaid tote.. put spray nozzles in a pvc pipe and went to town.

well, it started great, roots were nice and white and growth was explosive. then all of the sudden a week into it everything went to shit pretty instantly. my light is on 24/0 right now, and hte room stays at 80 degrees, which ive always thought was fine for these plants, but not great for water temps in aeroponics apparently. root rot like a motherfucker, root growth completely stopped. roots are not white anymore, leaves are all drooping and yellowing. it's just a nightmare

i know i can get my room down to low 70's or high 60's, but will the plants themselves thrive in this? if i went to 12/12 the room would drop to about 64 degrees toward the end of the dark cycle. will this help keep my water temps cool? or would i be better off going with a different type of system here? should i put the res outside the room where it stays in the mid 60's and pump it into there like that? maybe just toss out the whole aero thing altogether and go with some other easier to manage version of hydro?

i really like aero but i just got very discouraged with it tonight....
Click to expand...
Hey 420bug....I've been using the Rubbermaid totes for years with great success. Looks like you have the problem under control though. Feel free to PM with any Aero questions you have.
 
Hidden Agenda

Hidden Agenda

Well-Known Member
What kind of squirters do you use earl?

Ive been doing lollypop style harvests with my current setup, i might try for a big plant next time. i just like to play around.
 
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