The Shack's AeroGrow

Shackleford.R said:

no such thing as "the right way to grow" i've discovered very quickly..

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But there are a million and a half ways to do it wrong...

GypsyBush said:

But there are a million and a half ways to do it wrong...

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So true

How not to grow dope by Al B. Fuct

Funny shit....

All of Al's threads are great!

Here's another one that's worth reading...

Noobs: If you fail to plan... plan to fail!

i took your advice Gypsy all of the clones got pulled up the slightest bit and the cut ends are now well covered in the AG rooters... by the way!! my AG master gardener kit did NOT come with the gray foam sponges you see in most of the photos of the kit. the plugs more resemble rapid rooters, they are a brown peat looking material.. same story? covered completely?

Yup.. those are the plugs I use too...

Same deal... much better than the gray sponges...

i just hope these root! does it just happen? what can a first time cloner like myself do wrong, for it to not root. seems like this process makes enough sense, it should just happen. what factors inhibit rooting i guess is my question?

Rotting of the stem before roots happen is probably cause #1 for no roots...

Over watering, under watering, disease, nutes as they will burn the root nubs that start, pulling them from the plugs to check and see and rip the microscopic roots structure that starts but cannot yet be seen, ...

TONS of shit you can do to kill it...

But if you just figure out your watering schedule, and don't fuck with it... it should work...

It's like the keys you were looking for... it wil only happen when you finally give up and forget about it...

Setting it and then leaving it alone is the best advice I can give you...

How do you have your watering scheduled now?

Currently watering 4 times a day 15 minutes each, and the sponges stay JUST damp. opening the tank door you can see they are damp, but not dripping. the beastly air stone setup is doing a good job spraying the sponges between waterings. seems to be working... scratch that SIX times a day.. just checked haha i forgot! sue me!

you said more often for less minutes... but this fewer times for more minutes, seems to keep them at a good moisture level. like i said very consistent moisture, and no dripping.

I would not mind seeing a drop EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE, just to make sure they are not under watered... but the would go limp on you real bad if that was the case... you're probably good...

As for just happening...

The roots will grow and one day you will see it poking out of the plug...

Doing my nightly check on the clones, who am I kidding I come in here and check them out all the time. The sound of the air stones bubbling away, it's very relaxing to me...

Such peace (by the way, two medium "ball" air stones do a GREAT job)

Then TRAGEDY!!



I expected to see some like this...


But all that yellowing? I know rooting is a struggle for these guys, they went from taking nutrients one way, to having no "real" support system I guess. Is that common? Yellowing that intense.. everything I've learned up until now says MORE NITROGEN! but clearly thats a bad idea right now... so what then? leave it be? this is a process?

I guess I learned nothing from my impatience pre-flowering in my other journal haha.

Yellowing happens from the plant utilizing the nutrients stored in the leaves...

It's normal... some do more than others...

Lots of clones die though...

I have been at it for 8 months now and still do not have 100% roots...

in two days it will 7 days of 24 hour light.. should i consider setting up a timer on 18/6 ??? does light have an effect on rooting?

There is much argument on the "roots grow in the dark" thing...

But I have raise plenty of plants in 24/0 and they all developed roots...

I keep my mom light at 18/6 just to save money and keep the plants a little closer to flowering than 24/0...

The whole "flowering hormone" is not very well understood even by the botanists.. but.. one way I was explained by a botanist and it made perfect sense was...

The plant creates this "flowering hormone" during the dark hours... and it dissipates during the light hours...

So a plant will flower when it has enough dark hours to allow it to accumulate...

If you give a plant 18 hours of dark, it will start building the "hormone" much faster... but growth will be stunted by the lack of light...

So it was experimented with and found that MOST Cannabis will accept 12/12 as a general guideline for flowering...

But of you grew one strain only and got to know it in depth... you could totally fine tune your photoperiod to suit that specific strain.... we're talking YEARS of experimenting to maybe prove I was wrong..

But I do believe that...

And I should also note that they are not "hormones" at all.. there is a mile long name for it... but it is not well understood...

Hope this helps...

Boy I'm stoned...

sORRY TO SEE UR LITTLE LADIES IN THAT CONDITION..... HOPE IT WORKS OUT DUDE

MrAlex said:

sORRY TO SEE UR LITTLE LADIES IN THAT CONDITION..... HOPE IT WORKS OUT DUDE

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it IS working out. the plant with the heaviest yellowing has tiny visible white nubs (possibly the heaviest rooter out of the bunch!).

i split the sponges in such a way that you can see inside the sponge like a cross section.

currently 4/6 have white nubs growing inside their sponges!!

i don't plan to veg these more than just enough to grow another node on top of whats there, then straight to 12/12. i may just leave the lights 24 hours until i'm happy with their growth?

all this wanting to change light schedules and start flowering i forgot to mention... not for a few more days, nothing changes until roots are pushing out the sides of the sponges. then a short 18/6 veg period. soon as the roots are submerged in the res about an inch or so, 12/12 and flowering will begin!!

by the way, i'm really REALLY happy with the floranova series in my other grow. i would like to go organic with this grow and NOT use the Flora series... the thing is the flornova has microscopic solids that you distribute by shaking. any concerns about those microscopic solids and the AG water pump??

I've been using Fox Farms, which is all organic and contains little solid particles. My AG pump has been off for some time now, but when it was on I never had any problems with those particles jamming it up. I wouldn't say that its not possible though. Those particles tend to float down to the floor of the rez after a little while so you probably wont get too much of that stuff sucked into the pump. Theres is a little filter screen over the AG pump that was getting pretty gunked-up on mine, but I guess it was working because I never had any pump problems.

Roots are shooting out all over the place! 1 has rooted and yet to show outside the sponge (can see in from the top.. pics will explain) 3 have roots shooting out from all sides of sponges , and 2 have yet to root

Going to give the two a few more days to show some root development, and if nothing by say Tuesday or so... they're gone and FloraNova Grow seedling strength is going to circulate for about a week. Then 24 hours dark and 12/12!!

Hey Gypsy! One of those "nugs with roots" you did in the AG... what was the dry weight for just one of them??

(oh yeah photo update coming later... camera battery died!!!)

keep us posted man