Hello fellow enthusiasts, I'm new to this forum but I've been reading it for over a year, and growing for longer than that. This site has a plethora of good members that are interested in aeroponic growing, so I start this thread with the hope that some of these people will drop by here and share some of their knowledge with me.
I've tried many methods of growing in my short grow career, and the pinnacle for me and some others is the successful combination of vertical and aeroponic techniques.
The light usage of a vertically oriented canopy, especially when arranged into a cylinder, is unmatched- I don't think there is any question of that. Theoretically perhaps a sphere would be better.
The usefulness of high Pressure aeroponics to feed the the plants is a bit more in debate, but for the purposes of this thread, I'm a fan of it and want to use it.
To cut to the chase, these roots you see here are the best I've done so far with HP aero.
This pic is the first rig that I tried, when I first decided to attempt vertical and aeroponic growing, both at the same time.
It was fed by a sump pump from a large tub res, and had spray tubes with holes in them that dangled down inside the vertical pipe. The fittings are all 3" lightweight pvc. Ultimately I upgraded the feed system several times, all the way up to setting up a high pressure aero system with accumulator tank and solenoid. I stopped short of putting a mist head at every plant site, but that was what it needed. Ultimately it was a failure, and I retired nearly $500 worth of plastic with no production.
I went back to the drawing board and drew countless designs, but cost and practicality always drew me back down to earth, especially considering my previous expensive failure(s). I realized that until I really knew the ins and outs of all that is required, I needed to stay cheap and disposable, as well as modular, with any systems going forward.
This is what I came up with: A vertical rack of horizontal pipes, arranged in rings. This is merely experimental, but it has wheels to allow it to be rotated, so that it can be tended from one spot, bringing the plants to you. With a 30" diameter cylindrical screen in the center, the plants will have about 10" or so between the netcup center and the screen, so I theorize that I can tend the plants completely from the outside of the rings.
Not present in that pic are the vertical lighting or the cylindrical screen that will surround it. My idea is that with perhaps 36 sites, 12 per ring, that I can grow approximately 24"-30" plants, perhaps a week from clone, and get a full cylindrical screen.
I realize that these few pics don't really tell much of a story, but the purpose of this thread is to give me a home base on RIU while I talk to the people here about their experiences with vertical aero. This site has the most operational units/journals and interested parties, from what I've seen.
I've also seen that the aero crowd can get a little contentious at times, so hopefully we can all get along!
I owe a tremendous debt to Cavadge, Atomizer, Fatman, Treefarmer, Petflora, Bob Smith, and so many others, hopefully now that I have a RIU presence I can interact with all these people for real. Well, except Fatman- dude's banned from everywhere. His history lives on!
Next post will show my HP aero system, which is in use right now but needs work, so I'll get some pics while I perform that.
As stated in the title please feel free to post any experiences you care to share with a vertical aero noob!
I've tried many methods of growing in my short grow career, and the pinnacle for me and some others is the successful combination of vertical and aeroponic techniques.
The light usage of a vertically oriented canopy, especially when arranged into a cylinder, is unmatched- I don't think there is any question of that. Theoretically perhaps a sphere would be better.
The usefulness of high Pressure aeroponics to feed the the plants is a bit more in debate, but for the purposes of this thread, I'm a fan of it and want to use it.
To cut to the chase, these roots you see here are the best I've done so far with HP aero.
This pic is the first rig that I tried, when I first decided to attempt vertical and aeroponic growing, both at the same time.
It was fed by a sump pump from a large tub res, and had spray tubes with holes in them that dangled down inside the vertical pipe. The fittings are all 3" lightweight pvc. Ultimately I upgraded the feed system several times, all the way up to setting up a high pressure aero system with accumulator tank and solenoid. I stopped short of putting a mist head at every plant site, but that was what it needed. Ultimately it was a failure, and I retired nearly $500 worth of plastic with no production.
I went back to the drawing board and drew countless designs, but cost and practicality always drew me back down to earth, especially considering my previous expensive failure(s). I realized that until I really knew the ins and outs of all that is required, I needed to stay cheap and disposable, as well as modular, with any systems going forward.
This is what I came up with: A vertical rack of horizontal pipes, arranged in rings. This is merely experimental, but it has wheels to allow it to be rotated, so that it can be tended from one spot, bringing the plants to you. With a 30" diameter cylindrical screen in the center, the plants will have about 10" or so between the netcup center and the screen, so I theorize that I can tend the plants completely from the outside of the rings.
Not present in that pic are the vertical lighting or the cylindrical screen that will surround it. My idea is that with perhaps 36 sites, 12 per ring, that I can grow approximately 24"-30" plants, perhaps a week from clone, and get a full cylindrical screen.
I realize that these few pics don't really tell much of a story, but the purpose of this thread is to give me a home base on RIU while I talk to the people here about their experiences with vertical aero. This site has the most operational units/journals and interested parties, from what I've seen.
I've also seen that the aero crowd can get a little contentious at times, so hopefully we can all get along!
I owe a tremendous debt to Cavadge, Atomizer, Fatman, Treefarmer, Petflora, Bob Smith, and so many others, hopefully now that I have a RIU presence I can interact with all these people for real. Well, except Fatman- dude's banned from everywhere. His history lives on!
Next post will show my HP aero system, which is in use right now but needs work, so I'll get some pics while I perform that.
As stated in the title please feel free to post any experiences you care to share with a vertical aero noob!
