Aerogarden... Macguyver Style

The problem with your yellow man and the roots are not really a problem...

I am no expert by far but I assume this is because the seeds didnt start very deep in the sponge....

It should be fine though..... if the stem gets to weak just improvise somthing to hold it up...like using a straw slit up the side and wrapped around the stem...

Peace
-Tek

hello.. so it's day 18 now in this aerogarden and i just got back after leaving it unattended since the 29th for new years... i believe i've got some nutrient burn because of it... when i checked my EC was 2.4 and a very acidic 4.0 pH... 5 days of vigorous solitary growth will drastically swing my reservior ratios i've learned lol.... so i fully changed the solution to 1.1 EC and pH 5.5 (GH MaxiGro with a smidge of MS6 mychorrizal fungi factored in as always) to try and correct it.. i've attached pics of each of my babies..

i did a little musical chairs with the plants to better optimize their growth area because when i came back they were overlapping (large footprints i didnt realize!!!) and i noticed 3 of my 4 plants have developed nice root systems that hang down like fricken alien tentacles -- but trainwreck hasnt yet gone more than a porcupine lookalike from the sponge (no long roots yet....) should i be worried about that? i dont think i fucked it up by leaving it alone for those few days and letting the levels go off a bit.... i know it's kind of a stressor early on and may effect my yield/potency ... but i hope it's minimal since the affected areas seem to be localized... any thougts??

A day or two of such neglect will not harm the plant as long as it is corrected quickly and maintained diligently...

There will be probobly many more times during this grow as it goes on that you will neglect the plants for a day or two....They are a hearty plant and I havent heard much from the other pirates latley (including my self... I have an update soon....I'm done!) but I dont think they have had any problems other than some discoloration that seems to be a common occurence betweens us...This only last for the first few weeks of its life and goes away...

Anyways They look awesome and I cant believe the strains that your using...

Your going to be happy....

I think you should go with a higher ph more like 5.8-6.3

Peace
-Tek

NotMYRealName,

How is the Aerogarden working out for you??? Is it easy to maintain and easy to work with? How is everything growing on a regular basis??? I'm thinking about adding one or two for my new room along with the two large hydro systems.

look at the pictures i posted and you can see for yourself

as far as maintenence goes.... i feel the 1gal reservior in the AG is too small for .... anything we're doing lol..... the "environment" in there swings too much in my opinion... as in, for the few days i left it unattended it (i think) got nute burn and/or pH fluctuation on the older leaves of only one plant.... which when you think about it isnt really THAT bad, but i'm a purist and want the absolute most bangin amazing superfine quality bud around... so next time i'm going the whole big rubbermaid tub + net baskets + rockwool + airstone/pump etc method so i have a much larger reservior and need to do less tweaking midweek on my food supply

with all that said, what do YOU think of the health of my babies? this is my first grow so anyone with an experienced eye could lend me invaluable information to aid my journey into the land of botanicals...

They look very well grown. Very full and lush. Other than the small brown spots which can be fix I'd say you're doing a VERY good job with them. I'm gunna try to find an Aerogarden on ebay cause it looks like it works well

so i pruned back 2 of the dead/dying leaves on one of my plants just now... i've attached pics, and you can see that there is another leaf on that same plant in question (supaweed) that has gotten worse from yesterday to today (day 18-19) i assumed this was due to nutrient burn and as a result i've dropped EC once again to 0.8 and my pH has stayed steady at 6.0 for the past two days.. i am wondering, have i been correct in my diagnosis and resolution? will this clear itself up or am i going to have continually dying fan leaves...

also i would love some expert advice on pruning, i'm debating whether or not to prune away some of the larger upper leaves on these puppies to allow better light penetration to the underlying nodes.. with all the mylar around i'm not so sure i need to as alot of light IS being reflected onto that area so nothing is much darker than anything else... also with the frequency and density of the nodes i'm wondering if i need to do much pruning at all.. comments anyone?

Dont worry about that discoloration it will stay on those leaves but shouldnt appear on any new leaves...

I think you should flower very soon, maybe even now....

How much head room do you have?

Peace
-Tek

hmm well i have planned to wait till they got to 8" tall, and currently the tallest one (with the spots) is like 4-5" from sponge to uppermost grow tip and the shortest one (trainwreck) is like 2" tall -- i figured they can get to a max of like 24" from sponge to tips when all is ready for harvest, hence the 8" milestone i set forth..... however i'm thinking i should snip snip the topmost new set of leaves/growth tip on each of my 2 largest plants so as to supercrop them and increase my yield.... i would need to know if i should do this like TODAY because i dont wanna cut these guys too late into vegitative - i'm kinda leary on pruning as it is cuz i havent found enough good picture references to ease my mind on exactly where/how to cut and then a before/after -- i'm much more a visual person (artist) so images help lol

ah i HAVE noticed discoloration slowly popping up on other leaves, on one of the trainwreck leaves for instance there is a little brown dot on an older leaf, and on some of the other older leaves on the other plants there is what appears to be the very beginnings of that discoloration -- hopefully it will clear up as you said.... anyway, i am maintaining a 0.8 EC and 6.0 pH to hopefully not make more spots

Cool man hope it goes good for ya...

You'll learn from your first grow, I did a lot, this is your first grow too?

Well
Later
Peace
-Tek

yea it's my first grow....

from the looks of these it seems like everything is going A-OK.... aside from the semi-random spotting which i'm 90% positive was nute burn.... i'm in serious need of pruning/supercropping/topping or whatever you wanna call it, because the more i look at them the less of the aerogarden i can see!!

the plants are just fricken LUSH - they're already getting the first 9 bladed leaves and the tallest one is tiny -- only like 5 inches tall or so... so you can imagine the density of the leaf nodes and branches... i'll have some photos up in the next day or two for progress shots.... right now i'm scrambling to make a little cloning station next to the box using the original low wattage CFLs to germinate/root the clones so in case they're some bangin females i can keep the genetic strains alive... didnt think these fuckers were gonna grow so quick!

ok, so i just tried my hand at cloning last night.... after reading thru a bunch of different methods on cloning i decided to take an xacto knife, flame the blade after cleaning with rubbing alcohol, and then cut 45* angle off the main stem for like 2 nodes worth off the topmost growth site (or enough to give me a few inches clone) ... the host plants seem to be doing ok, as the attached image day25 shows, i didnt get to clone the trainwreck because it's super dense with the internode spacing i wouldnt have much of a stem for the clone so i'll just wait till that one is bigger i guess....

looking at the pictures of my clones they seem very droopy.... now when i made that first cut i then dunked the newly cut portion of the cutting in water and squeezed it slightly with my fingers to feel that little click squash to strengthen the bottom of that stem, then i dipped that same soaked cut portion of the stem into some roottech gel and immediately then into the rockwol cubes which had been soaking for an hour or so in pH 5.5 tap water
then i snipped off half of those big fan leaves as i saw in everyone's clone pictures...

the clone setup they're currently on is the extra 2 lights from the aerogarden that i'm not using (something like 1300 lumens each) and are exactly 5 inches from the tops of those clones they are sitting in a very very shallow pool of water in the tray and the rockwool is very wet...


i'm assuming i need to mist these babies all the time, i've been doing it every 4 or 5 hours trying to not make the leaves crisp --- and for the most part they're not, maybe the tinest bit are drying where i cut those fan leaves.......

so following all this..... why do those clones look like crap?
did i do anything wrong???
any help is greately appreciated, thanks in advance

hey can i get a little help here please? i included pics and as detailed a description as i could... i've been misting these guys every few hours and some of the leaves are still crisping and they're showing no signs of goodness... all droopy being held up by little plastic prongs

i would love to know what/if i did anything wrong so i do not repeat the same mistake twice.....

Hi mate..i think your over watering them mist them two to three time a day when the lights are on and no more have you got them in a clone dome to keep the humity in??plus normally the first day after the cut they look good but then you have a couple of days where they drop like they are now....good luck

cheers,

thanks for the help, no i dont have a clone dome i was worried about mold so i opted to just manually mist it.... i saw pictures of both methods and they appeared equal... you think the dome is making the difference? i guess i could go get one, or maybe lightly wrap the general area with plastic wrap?

i put it in my bathroom this morning when i took a shower and then left it in there the rest of the day with the door closed hoping to keep humidity...

i've noticed the edges of some leaves crisping up...

damn homie chill smoke a blunt, your given your plants too much attention. i mean of course you gotta check on them but i agree that you have been misting too much..... all yours plants well do fine dont worry the plants can feel your vibes when your stressed they stress lol. butcha lookin at how fast they grew makes me wanna get a AG mayn good luck dont worry they pull through