My First Ever Grow And It's With An AG

Let me warn you, I fried my plants using PH up and down. Aerogarden nutrients don't need ph adjusters because they have buffers in them. Can't help you if you're using other nutrients but I know not to adjust PH if you use the Aerogarden nutes. Good Luck.

heres my 2 babies at 5 weeks.....i threw my ag in the "things i shouldnt of bought pile"

cerveza420 said:

heres my 2 babies at 5 weeks.....i threw my ag in the "things i shouldnt of bought pile"

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seriously you should bring it back out.

if you have female plants, you should clone one and run that SOG setup that is explained around here.

the AG is certainly good enuff to support 2 plants and clone others. dont give up on it. either learn more about using the AG nutes or use real hydro nutes.


also, check out that SOG thread by AL. B. Fuct. he uses 2 plants i think and gets 20-25 clones every two weeks.
you dont need to do that many, and can do it with 1 plants and a couple clones. check it out if you havent. might get some ideas.

i plan on doing this. AG for my moms, then use my knowledge gained from here and make another DWC system for the clones/rotation.

Ok, I have been vegging these plants for 2 months now. I have given them nute burn (or maybe the first time was just the AG browning i have heard so many people talk about) and definitely stunted their growth. I am using Fox Farms nutes (1/2 strength) according to their schedule (though i have stopped at week 4 and have kept that week going for 3 weeks as well as small amounts of epsom salt and superthrive with each weekly change. I also have an airstone in the res.

They finally started to really take off about 1 week ago (noticeable growth both up and outward) Most people i have spoken with said that even with the Pro 200 series AG that i have (with three lights) there wasnt enough lighting and that was slowing growth. So today i made a trip to home depot and bought two CLFs (one daylight and one more towards the blue spec), a fan to push the air out the window eventually, and a bunch of PVC piping to build a frame that i will be able to hang them from once they grow larger. Let's see how they fair now. They are def drinking much more water than they were last week.

I will also be wrapping the back of it in mylar and coming up w/ a better way to enclose the space with reflective material. I have been using a science fair board with mylar glued to one side of it as you can see in pic #3

JackyD said:

Ok, I have been vegging these plants for 2 months now. I have given them nute burn (or maybe the first time was just the AG browning i have heard so many people talk about) and definitely stunted their growth. I am using Fox Farms nutes (1/2 strength) according to their schedule (though i have stopped at week 4 and have kept that week going for 3 weeks as well as small amounts of epsom salt and superthrive with each weekly change. I also have an airstone in the res.

They finally started to really take off about 1 week ago (noticeable growth both up and outward) Most people i have spoken with said that even with the Pro 200 series AG that i have (with three lights) there wasnt enough lighting and that was slowing growth. So today i made a trip to home depot and bought two CLFs (one daylight and one more towards the blue spec), a fan to push the air out the window eventually, and a bunch of PVC piping to build a frame that i will be able to hang them from once they grow larger. Let's see how they fair now. They are def drinking much more water than they were last week.

I will also be wrapping the back of it in mylar and coming up w/ a better way to enclose the space with reflective material. I have been using a science fair board with mylar glued to one side of it as you can see in pic #3

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looks like you got a handle on things and they look superb.

couple of things to point out.

1.) if those are all females, you are gonna have trouble with room. they are gonna shadow each other. you will see when they double their size that some absolutely perfect and HUGE fan leaves will be produced.

you may want to think about slimming down to 3 plants max in the AG.

2.) 7 females are gonna stress when they get bigger due to reservoir size limits. they will drink almost 1/4 of the res in 24 hours.

in fact what i saw when i had SIX plants going was that if i filled the AG up to the brim, in 12 hours it had gone down almost to the point where i filled it up from. that told me that the plants were drinking the majority of the water in the first 12 hours and less in the next. either they were stressed from low res level or that just may be what they due from light to dark not sure.

the fact is my 3 plants now drink almost the same. i fill to the brim of the AG without spilling over and in 24 hours it is below the "fill to here" indicator on the AG.

3.) not to be one to just point out issues, here is a possible solution.

check out the SOG setup explained around here. you may get some ideas.

i found the AG to be wonderful learning tool but it certainly needs to be more specifically used, IE: mothers or rooting clones. i am i the process now of setting up the second area to transfer my AG and mothers to veg out. gonna build my own dwc similar to AG but more betterer.

the only issue i am coming up with is that the AG produced so many good spots to clone from my THREE plants right now that i could have 20-30 clones. i only have room for maybe 2 or 3 on that 2 week rotation as explained by al.b.fuct

hmmm what to do.......

wow, thanks for the fast reply

I will be keeping my 2-3 best looking females. I need to start them on 12/12 to tell sex correct ? If there is a way to tell now, ill pull them now
Also, is there a safe and proper way to prune these plants (is it even really needed) I dont want to stunt their growth again.

Now to be nosey but whut is your temps running in the grow area? Hopefully you in an air conditioned house or something. I dont have that lurxury. The closet was right at 100 f. I got a shit pot of the CFL's. I finally turned on the AC and opened the closet door for a while and brought them down to 70 twice. I sorta curious if the Lord really wanted us to smoke this stuff why He would make it so hard to grow. You got any thoughts? Thanks. How come it needs Co2 etc?

Big Wheel

The room it is in is ussually pretty hot (80 or so due to lights and 2 servers running in the same room) Though i have been trying to keep it cooler now.

Yo jacky, you need to get those cfls a lot closer and maybe get 2 more....Keep that aerogarden hood as low as possible too...

Besides that it looks nice...

Peace
-Tek

I just raised the hood in pic2 to take the pic, its about an inch from the plants atm. Ill see if i can get the lights a little closer.

Thanks

Also, with the AG, how many people here change the res water completely every week? If i am just adding some water every day to top if off, and at the end of the week, i add nutes into the res, is that good enough, or should i dump the water and refill completely at the end of the week? I have heard people say they do it both ways.

JackyD said:

Also, with the AG, how many people here change the res water completely every week? If i am just adding some water every day to top if off, and at the end of the week, i add nutes into the res, is that good enough, or should i dump the water and refill completely at the end of the week? I have heard people say they do it both ways.

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I never changed mine .. I used spring water , and filled it to the brim

your plants are kinda small for 2 months jacky, my guess is there probaly really rootbound.

this is what i do...fill up aerogarden rez to where it says with nuted water thats also ph'd...i only refill the rez when the light goes on (air is good for the roots especially the top half closest to the stem)...somtimes i even let the light blink for a while 1/2 day or a day....then I'll fill it up with plain tap water, and when the day comes to add nutes I add nutes and some water or if it is the day to change the rez i will do that....

I usually go two weeks before changing the rez...

Good luck
Peace
-Tek

I will be keeping my 2-3 best looking females. I need to start them on 12/12 to tell sex correct ? If there is a way to tell now, ill pull them now
Also, is there a safe and proper way to prune these plants (is it even really needed) I dont want to stunt their growth again.[/quote]

yes 12/12 to sex them. takes 7-10 days if the plants are ready. longer if they are not. i found it pretty easy to tell once they flowered.
make sure you have like 7 nodes and possibly preflowers before 12/12.
keep light right on top of plants. that will keep stretching down.
prune as you wish. be smart. i read somewhere that if you look down on your batch and cant see bud sites due to fan leaves, then the bud sites cant see the lite.

i had six at different stages of growth. the males were ready to flower and did so pretty well. i pulled them up alittle out of the foam insert and snipped them. the three females were a little young and are now stretching,.

the males grew tall and i had to adjust the light, but when i cut the males out i didnt reset the light position closer and now they stretched alittle. they are definetly females though. and no hermies i pretty sure.

i need to set up mothering/cloning area. but my three plants are gona give me more clones than i have the room or setup for.

pruning tips.

1.) prune the top and the sides will grow.
2.) prune the sides ant the top will grow.
3.) bending the plants over away from the light and tying down will maximize grow area if constricted for space. plants will grow back to light.


good luck.

JackyD said:

Also, with the AG, how many people here change the res water completely every week? If i am just adding some water every day to top if off, and at the end of the week, i add nutes into the res, is that good enough, or should i dump the water and refill completely at the end of the week? I have heard people say they do it both ways.

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just put up a post a week ago about using well water with the AG and the General Hydroponic nutrients. their shit is a breeze to work with and my plants looked healthy and green with no nute burn. i used exact concentration as stated.

ppm was good, ph was on the money and never had nute burn once i started using them. even the males looked real good. i ignore the AG's "fill to here" indicator. in fact my float on the inside has a crack and fills with water and sinks. tells me my res is low all the time.

i fill it to the brim. sometimes i overfill it, by mistake and it runs down the control buttons. oops,
i pre mix my nutrients in gallon containers and it takes about 1.5 weeks to use both gallons before i make more. right now my fems are really starting to bud and stink.

love the learning experience and love all the camaraderie.

Well my AG is now empty. Moved both survivors over to hempy buckets. Thought about trying to take the lights off the AG and use them to light up the buckets..but then I said naw..I just got buy a couple more of them 150 Watt cfls. Planning on cleaning up the AG and start growing a new set of babies. Guess I have to read up on that cloning stuff one of these days.

Big Wheel

caingetsbrain said:

your plants are kinda small for 2 months jacky, my guess is there probaly really rootbound.

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I said in an earlier post that they stunted at around 2-3 nodes for like 3-4 weeks. It was a combination of things I did/didnt do. They are growing rapidly now however. The roots aren't giant yet. I think im going to start flowering on monday.

Here is just ONE DAY of VEG with the new lights in place. The difference they are making is insane.

Pic1 is 1 day ago
Pic2 is tonight
Pic3 is tonight showing lights closer

Whats good every body. I found a AG kit (the white one) in a Tj Max type store (im glad mothers day is over) for $100. all new not returned or nothing. I get payed tomarrow. is it worth the $100 just to screw around with, is it going to give my plants and their roots room to grow, should i go SoG on it, and should I go get real nutrients?

Take a look at the 9000 threads here on this site about AG grows If you started on just this thread and read through, i think all your questions are answered.

Short answer is.. If you want to be able to grow 2-3 plants at a time, and are just starting, it is a nice device. You will want to skip some of our mistakes here and just go out and buy fox farm nutes (though there are some success stories w/ the AG nutes) and at least 2 CLFs for supplemental lighting (especially if you are getting the $100 version.) If anything, once you get a harvest or two grown, and you want a more "homebrew" setup, the AG will make a perfect cloner.