Aeroponic sprayer nozzle issues.

The_Dude

Well-Known Member
My sprayer heads keep getting clogged with little plant debris. Can anyone recommend a way to stop this?


TIA
 

muleface

Well-Known Member
Do you have a grow journal for this? I would love to see pictures. I tried this on my first grow, it went very badly.
 

The_Dude

Well-Known Member
My first aeroponic grow didn't go so well. I never check the PH/PPM, because every meter I bought off Amazon did not work. I did use PH perfect nutes from advanced, and my shit still grew. The yield wasn't shit, but there were a lot of factors. I did a bin of small plants, started them at a foot tall. The potency of the buds was top notch, and the colors came out more in hydro, way more frost, and smell was dank as hell. Just wasn't the yield I was expecting. Now I am doing everything the right way. The first time I tried, I had two 7ft plants going in dirt OG Kush & Blue Dream, so I wasn't as worried about the aero bins. I did not realize the exceptional quality of the aerobin buds until they were dried.
 

Budley Doright

Well-Known Member
I use silk screen and it seems to work well, just make sure you have easy access to whatever you use to clean it as you will need to ;). After trying spray nozzles I went back to flood and drain as I had less issues, also are you chilling your res?
 

dbkick

Well-Known Member
My sprayer heads keep getting clogged with little plant debris. Can anyone recommend a way to stop this?


TIA
Are you talking true aeroponics or low pressure which isn't really aeroponics but is called that a lot.
You should look into an enzyme like flying skull z7 or a new one just out by dynagro which I haven't tried yet because I find z7 to work very well although I generally stick to rdwc, I'm sure it would help with your sprayers.
 

The_Dude

Well-Known Member
I bought a BlueLab, I also double check with a Milwaukee. Using two gives me that peace of mind, after not really trusting PH testers. The Milwaukee is always off by .2 I've noticed, 5 min after it has been calibrated. Blue Lab is more accurate.

Got bags coming.

I don't use a chiller.

Yes low pressure aeroponics

Calmag, synthetic NPK, Hydroguard. under 3000k light. Any Suggestions for flavor?
 

muleface

Well-Known Member
I bought a BlueLab, I also double check with a Milwaukee. Using two gives me that peace of mind, after not really trusting PH testers. The Milwaukee is always off by .2 I've noticed, 5 min after it has been calibrated. Blue Lab is more accurate.

Got bags coming.

I don't use a chiller.

Yes low pressure aeroponics

Calmag, synthetic NPK, Hydroguard. under 3000k light. Any Suggestions for flavor?
AH, OK, low pressure. Yeah, i tried high pressure. It is really a pain in the ass.
 

muleface

Well-Known Member
300GPH pump, connected to 1/2 inch PVC, 360 sprayers, 15 min off and on cycle
is there really any benefit to turning the pump off? I would just let it run. The point of aeroponics is to create a very fine mist, like sub 40 micron droplets. You give your roots a very quick burst of this every few minutes, and due to the droplets being so small the plant rapidly absorbs the nutrients. But the trick is to not let the roots get too wet or too dry. This also allows for a dramatic decrease in water usage, which is great for parts of the world where fresh water is an issue. Just spraying the roots at low pressure doesn't really do this, it just acts more like NFT. If you are recycling your water you will have a lot of trouble chasing around the PH and EC. This is in part due to rapid evaporation. By constantly creating a mist you lose a lot of water, but the EC doesn't drop at the same rate, so the EC spikes and so does the PH. To solve this, you need a huge buffer tank. I use a 110 gallon plastic cattle tank (i am just doing bato buckets and nft, not aeroponics)

how big of tank are you using? how big is your setup?
 

The_Dude

Well-Known Member
I am using 30 gallon bins. I thought the point was to get more oxygen to the roots by 15 on and 15 off. They seem to be doing really well. My 6 inch clone cuttings grew to over a foot in a week and a half. Much faster than I have ever experienced in dirt anyway. I'm doing 1ft plants, just thrown into flower 2 days ago after a 2 week veg.
 

The_Dude

Well-Known Member
I use 5 gallon buckets of RO water. I use very little water compared to the bins size. Just enough to cover the pumps.
 

dbkick

Well-Known Member
is there really any benefit to turning the pump off? I would just let it run. The point of aeroponics is to create a very fine mist, like sub 40 micron droplets. You give your roots a very quick burst of this every few minutes, and due to the droplets being so small the plant rapidly absorbs the nutrients. But the trick is to not let the roots get too wet or too dry. This also allows for a dramatic decrease in water usage, which is great for parts of the world where fresh water is an issue. Just spraying the roots at low pressure doesn't really do this, it just acts more like NFT. If you are recycling your water you will have a lot of trouble chasing around the PH and EC. This is in part due to rapid evaporation. By constantly creating a mist you lose a lot of water, but the EC doesn't drop at the same rate, so the EC spikes and so does the PH. To solve this, you need a huge buffer tank. I use a 110 gallon plastic cattle tank (i am just doing bato buckets and nft, not aeroponics)

how big of tank are you using? how big is your setup?
Yes there is benefit from cycling the pump, it's the heat created by a pump running continuously .
 

The_Dude

Well-Known Member
The 20w pump doesn't heat the water too much. 5 gallons of water lasts about 4-5 days. Not using HPS so I don't worry about heat as much in my room either. When I did HPS I noticed my water disappearing much faster. Now I have LED's that are better than my HPS.
 

Budley Doright

Well-Known Member
is there really any benefit to turning the pump off? I would just let it run. The point of aeroponics is to create a very fine mist, like sub 40 micron droplets. You give your roots a very quick burst of this every few minutes, and due to the droplets being so small the plant rapidly absorbs the nutrients. But the trick is to not let the roots get too wet or too dry. This also allows for a dramatic decrease in water usage, which is great for parts of the world where fresh water is an issue. Just spraying the roots at low pressure doesn't really do this, it just acts more like NFT. If you are recycling your water you will have a lot of trouble chasing around the PH and EC. This is in part due to rapid evaporation. By constantly creating a mist you lose a lot of water, but the EC doesn't drop at the same rate, so the EC spikes and so does the PH. To solve this, you need a huge buffer tank. I use a 110 gallon plastic cattle tank (i am just doing bato buckets and nft, not aeroponics)

how big of tank are you using? how big is your setup?
I never had issues with anything spiking using LPS. What I did have was issues in the root chamber with temps getting to high and getting rot so I started to chill the water and yes running the pump in cycles does help with heat. I also added reflective wrap to the top of the chamber to reflect the heat.
 

The_Dude

Well-Known Member
I find that if I keep the outside of my tent at 70, then let the lights handle the other 4-5 degrees, everything stays nice. It really helps to conserve power, this new setup. I grow organic in dirt also. I like to test things. This new synth fert + aero bin really has decreased my veg time. Lets see how the buds do.

So in a nut shell, less power, faster growing plants, minimal amounts of water needed -ro system(lol), less heat and I can allow my plants to get closer to the light and dim those if need be. I like progress. We'll see how flower goes, before I make my mind up. But regardless this is my select choice for veg.
 

Budley Doright

Well-Known Member
I find that if I keep the outside of my tent at 70, then let the lights handle the other 4-5 degrees, everything stays nice. It really helps to conserve power, this new setup. I grow organic in dirt also. I like to test things. This new synth fert + aero bin really has decreased my veg time. Lets see how the buds do.

So in a nut shell, less power, faster growing plants, minimal amounts of water needed -ro system(lol), less heat and I can allow my plants to get closer to the light and dim those if need be. I like progress. We'll see how flower goes, before I make my mind up. But regardless this is my select choice for veg.
It was a great producer but I had heat issues and sprayer issues but that was no big deal as there were 16 spray heads for 6 plants so if a few failed there was still lots lol. I just found the flood and drain worked as well with less issues
 
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