Clarification on Aeroponics

Hello everyone,

We have been trying to construct an aeroponic system. We need some clarification on the differences in these types of systems.

The first system we saw was this:





The above system appears to be "Low Pressure Aeroponics"

Then we saw the "AeroFlo2:



The Aeroflow appears to be this sort of system:

http://strainguide.org/wp-content/uploads/Aeroflo system plans_files/image225.jpg

Last, we saw the "High Pressure Aeroponics":

True High Pressure Aeroponics

So after all of this, we have no idea what system is correctly done.

As best as we can tell, the High Pressure Aeroponics is a 50 Micron mist, sprayed into a chamber, at regular intervals. This is done with no liquid recovery.

The AeroFlo2 appears to be a hybrid system.

My question is regarding the first system. It appears to be a variation on the High pressure aeroponics. Is this the case? If so, how does the "wetting" cycle compare with the high pressure aeroponics?

Can someone clear this up for us??

Hmm..the first system reminds me of a NFT hybrid of some sort I haven't actually seen exactly like that before. Kinda reminds me of the Aeroflo also, which is a NFT hybrid that sometimes employs low pressure heads.
Excellent thread by the way on HPA which is increasingly becoming more popular, if you can handle the little bit of complicated math to determine what is going to be appropiate as far as number of misters, container size, delivery method, amount of sites, and the list goes on. HPA is not something I would suggest to the first time DIY unless you have some skills in the DIY area already.
I would love to have the root growth the HPA guys get but perhaps in the future for now it is Low Pressure Aero for me...

I have the aeroflow2 20 plant system phenomenal yields best iv had ine and I've done ebb and flow and bubbleponics

Technically the first system is not Aeroponic by definition due to the size of the droplets in the spray being too large. These systems still work better then most regular hydro systems due to great oxygenation from the spray, but suck because of the low volume of the solution causing volatility in the EC and PH. Go with a bigger Res to reduce volatility.
The Aeroflo2 system by General Hydroponics is a true aeroponic system, and achieves this status not with the spray nozzles such as in the first, but rather in the direct Laser shot that comes out of the internal lines. These Laser lines fire high speed jets of water into the half full tubes filling the solution in the tubes with millions of little bubbles. When the bubbles float to the surface of the water and pop, they have a ef·fer·ves·cent effect. The tiny particles of water and nutrient contain the true surface area of a Aeroponic effect.
The last is the high pressure systems, due to the increased pressure of these systems they use fog nozzles to break up the solution into these tiny particles. When solutions of NaCl are put under pressure the salts will build up at the spray point and clog, making your life hell./ These are expensive and a pain in the ass trust me.
The last way to achieve this cold nutrient for is with a ultrasonic humidification plate. They vibrate the solution causing it to change phaze into cloud! The Problem with these plates is they kick off alot of HEAT

Hope this helps!

Rather than take the opinion of a so called aeropro, I'd read. The information is out there.

i used a DIY aero machine with ez-cloner 360 sprayers. Had 10 sprayers hooked to a pond pump inside a tote, worked great. I never had a problem with any salt build up only piece of roots and a few bugs pluging them up sometimes. I use advanced nutes fwiw. I also was using an aero machine with 20 spots,grows nice plants but I dont like it tbh. I know that it works by spraying water out of a small hole in a tube. The spray hits the wall inside the grow chamber putting off a mist of sorts.

Thanks for your amazing information Mike Young. Your a hero.

No information is better than poor information, I suppose.

Mike Young said:

Rather than take the opinion of a so called aeropro, I'd read. The information is out there.

Click to expand...

Hear that? shit hawks and there flying low.

Shit apples don't fall very far from the tree.

AEROPRO said:

Technically the first system is not Aeroponic by definition due to the size of the droplets in the spray being too large.

Click to expand...

I disagree, the roots are not suspended into soil or water therefore you have aeroponics.

Here we come to the (cough!) root of the issue ...
...defining aeroponics.
I favor the narrow definition. By that defn, aeroponics are characterized by two key features:
1) the droplet size centered on 50 microns (.002 inch), achievable practically by task-specific sprayers operating at maybe 100psi.
2) Spray/rest intervals dialed in so that there is minimum runoff/overspray, meaning nutrient is not recovered/recycled.

If we are ok with that, other "aeroponic" systems that apply excess nutrient under low pressure and recover/recycle the runoff can be described as "variant NFT" nutrient film technique.

A compromise I've seen, and about which I offer no personal opinion, is tlabeling the first sort as "high pressure aeroponics" (to the purists, a redundancy) and the second as low-pressure yaada yaada.

Aside, I have read that using ultrasonic transducers to fog the nutrient leads to very small droplets. These are reported to cause more trouble than benefit. Tuned spray heads are the better technology. Jmo...
cheers 'neer

That about sums it up, as far as I'm concerned.

Both systems are a variation of a NFT system (Nutrient film technique). The water and nutrients are sprayed but most of the aeration occurs during the off cycle of the water pump.

I use a timer set to 1 minute on and 5 minutes off. This allows the roots to drain and set in air for a long time. Not enough to dry out but just imagine how much O2 the roots are exposed to.

My new hybrid DWC/aeroponic system is the best thing out right now. You get the safety of DWC with the growth rates of aeroponics. My last system harvest 20 oz. from one plant!

sort of off topic;
could plants be vegged for a short time using an ezcloner system.
say someone has plants cloned and ready to veg, but no space to veg them for a few weeks.
seems like if i used some nutes in the ezcloner, then it would basically become a small aeroponic vegging system.

would this work for the short term?

from what i understand it is average droplet size that is important as it is impossible to control to the extent that all droplets will be 50 micron etc

traditionally the system run continuously without any lack of oxygen at the rootzone which will be kept at 100% humidity
although i have read about people using high pressure systems and running them with timed bursts of nutrient supply to maximize oxygen/nutrient content

i know nasa did alot of research into aeroponics as it is said to be the most efficient use of water and food, i think the main goal of aeroponics was to waste as little water and food as possible and keep those fluffy roots bursting out

growing the fluffy/hairy type aeroponic roots and maintaing that type of root growth throughout is a good indication that the system is working

the high pressure systems using very large air compressors look impressive but are the most costly

also there are ultrasonic fog type aeroponic systems
i remember another system that used a lower pressure spray and a spinning disk to produce a small droplet size

There seems to be a lot of hubbub here about what constitutes true aero. This is the first paragraph at wikipedia:

Aeroponics is the process of growing plants in an air or mist environment without the use of soil or an aggregate medium (known as geoponics). The word "aeroponic" is derived from the Greek meanings of aero- (air) and ponos (labour). Aeroponic culture differs from both conventional hydroponics and in-vitro (plant tissue culture) growing. Unlike hydroponics, which uses water as a growing medium and essential minerals to sustain plant growth, aeroponics is conducted without a growing medium. Because water is used in aeroponics to transmit nutrients, it is sometimes considered a type of hydroponics.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This angle seems to point more towards absence of a growing medium (roots growing in air) rather than size or pressure of water droplets. Water, in aeroponics is used as a nutrient delivery vehicle rather than a growth environment like DWC.

There are high and low pressure forms of delivering nutes with water jets while the roots simply hang in air and nothing else. They're both aeroponics.

I've read all there is to read about aeroponics and hydroponics. The first stystem with big PVC tubes connecting the two storage bins (the exact bins I use btw) looks like an interesting design, but it's so big. Its footprint is too big to support such small plant sites imo.

The high pressure fine misting to waste is interesting because it utilizes fresh nute once and doesn't reciruclate, allowing for higher levels of quality nute delivery. But high pressure sprayers? Not necessary from the results I've gotten with a low pressure recirculating system. I offset the disadvantage of ricirculating nutes by utilizing an automatic auto-refresh system that tops my res with fresh water as I inject fresh nutrient concentrate to keep the ppm steady. This in addition to weekly water changes renders a drain to waste system unnecessary for me. Salt buildup is nicely accounted for by this type of system as well. -- I mean, I can't really imagine a drain to waste program, or fog or misters making me say to myself, "Wow, these results are so much better than what I've accomplished so far..."

There is also lots to be said about the DWC concept, so I've cannabilized the idea behind DWC along with lo-pressure aero by letting the roots feed on an oxygenated bath in addition to being fed by sprayers as the main root columns hang in air.

This type of hybrid has really brought me the best of both DWC and Aero worlds. And my recirculated process is dialed in to match the quality of drain to waste IMO.

parannoyed said:

I disagree, the roots are not suspended into soil or water therefore you have aeroponics.

Click to expand...

This is correct.

lordjin said:

There seems to be a lot of hubbub here about what constitutes true aero. This is the first paragraph at wikipedia:

Aeroponics is the process of growing plants in an air or mist environment without the use of soil or an aggregate medium (known as geoponics). The word "aeroponic" is derived from the Greek meanings of aero- (air) and ponos (labour). Aeroponic culture differs from both conventional hydroponics and in-vitro (plant tissue culture) growing. Unlike hydroponics, which uses water as a growing medium and essential minerals to sustain plant growth, aeroponics is conducted without a growing medium. Because water is used in aeroponics to transmit nutrients, it is sometimes considered a type of hydroponics.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This angle seems to point more towards absence of a growing medium (roots growing in air) rather than size or pressure of water droplets. Water, in aeroponics is used as a nutrient delivery vehicle rather than a growth environment like DWC.

There are high and low pressure forms of delivering nutes with water jets while the roots simply hang in air and nothing else. They're both aeroponics.

I've read all there is to read about aeroponics and hydroponics. The first stystem with big PVC tubes connecting the two storage bins (the exact bins I use btw) looks like an interesting design, but it's so big. Its footprint is too big to support such small plant sites imo.

The high pressure fine misting to waste is interesting because it utilizes fresh nute once and doesn't reciruclate, allowing for higher levels of quality nute delivery. But high pressure sprayers? Not necessary from the results I've gotten with a low pressure recirculating system. I offset the disadvantage of ricirculating nutes by utilizing an automatic auto-refresh system that tops my res with fresh water as I inject fresh nutrient concentrate to keep the ppm steady. This in addition to weekly water changes renders a drain to waste system unnecessary for me. Salt buildup is nicely accounted for by this type of system as well.

There is also lots to be said about the DWC concept, so I've cannabilized the idea behind DWC along with lo-pressure aero by letting the roots feed on an oxygenated bath in addition to being fed by sprayers as the main root columns hang in air.

This type of hybrid has really brought me the best of both DWC and aero worlds. And my recirculated process is dialed in to match the quality of drain to waste IMO.

Click to expand...

i have to be honest, i researched a fair bit deeper than "wiki" to find my information on aeroponics before i came to any conclusions, just a thought

i wonder if wiki have their own grow manual LOL

skunkd0c said:

i have to be honest, i researched a fair bit deeper than "wiki" to find my information on aeroponics before i came to any conclusions, just a thought

i wonder if wiki have their own grow manual LOL

Click to expand...

The point of the Wikipedia article is to show the word aeroponics as it is generally defined to the normal world -- not the growing community. People getting into the idea that systems without hi-pressure jets aren't 'true aeroponics' are just wrong... That's all.