MY True HP Aero Plug&Play Pods

[tree farmer]

I tend to leave the misting pulse timing alone as much as possible and just vary the pause time.
My reasoning is the misting duration will be directly linked to the pause duration.. making the roots even slightly wetter (relatively)will mean they can handle a much longer pause. Altering the mist timing affects two variables, messing with the pause timing only really affects one. Thats my take on it anyway

g-love noticed the mist was hanging around in the chamber for over 3 minutes (which does suggest sub 5 um droplets) and promptly increased the pause timing to good effect.

Yea that sounds like some good advice. I think ill leave the on setting at 2sec and leave the pause at 4 minutes. It seems to me so far that the increased demands of a little one might dictate things to be a little wetter.

Its really hard to see whats hanging around in those chambers because its hard to see the mist unless the light is just right going thru the access holes. ive noticed also that the roots are very fragile at this stage so i dont lift the net pots out which would give me a better look at how the mist is actually hanging around. Im afraid though by the time the roots are tough enough theyll probably be to many of them and i wont be able to get the net pot out.
Oh well this is just a test run now anyway.

 

[tree farmer]

Hey atomizer

Do they look like HP aero roots to you.

 

[Atomizer]

Hi TF
They look good to me, healthy and white. Pic two has some nice detail of the fine root hairs up near the pot.
How old are they?

 

[tree farmer]

5 days. even with all the issues im having trying to get ec levels right im seeing 3/4 inch vertical every 24 hrs. it really is amazing so far.

Another thing im noticing different from LP aero ,the roots arent just coiling around the bottom of the chamber. they hit the bottom but then kind of just start developing laterals instead of just circling around the chamber floor.

 

[Atomizer]

If the roots are on the floor i`d be tempted to try a 1 sec/2 min cycle for a while. You deliver the same amount of nutes as the 2 sec/4 min cycle. If its a step in the right direction you should notice the difference within a day or so.

 

[tree farmer]

If the roots are on the floor i`d be tempted to try a 1 sec/2 min cycle for a while. You deliver the same amount of nutes as the 2 sec/4 min cycle. If its a step in the right direction you should notice the difference within a day or so.

Well i did a dumb thing yesterday. When i went to snap the pics of the roots i turned of the valve to that pod so the mist wouldnt come on and splash my camera while i had it stuck thru the access hole. I have white plastic over the tops of the pod to shield them from the heat. while i forgot to turn the valve on to that pod and left and went home. this morning i go back to check how things are doing and as soon as i walk in i notice the fan leaves on that one are drooping. they werent completly limp just drooping. i didnt get to alarmed i just thought oh thier getting to much mist im going to have to cut back. so i messed around with other things for about 20 minutes then thought let me look and see how wet that one really is getting. i look thru the access hole and see no moisture on the roots and im like WTF are the misters plugged. so i wait for the next mist cycle and no mist. now im like how can this be. so i rip the white plasic off the top to see if something happened to the line running to that pod and then i see the closed valve.

my first reaction after seeing the vavle was how can this thing even be alive anymore. it had been 12 hrs approx. since the valve was turned off. im not bullshitting you the only thing that was drooping was the fans and they werent completly limp even. the top was still standing tall although it hadnt put on any new material.

Well this tells me that the roots must have developed in the net pot somewhat extensively to have enough moisture to hang on like that. there is approx. 2.25 gallon of hydroton in each 10 inch net pot. also i think that amount of hydroton holds alot of water and contributed alot to it being able to survive.

Anyway im not sure if the roots are going to die off some but they still look white and after an hour of misting the fans picked back up.

Ive tryed the 1 sec mist with my other timer off the clone machine and it seems like with one second nothing really reaches the nozzels because of the tubing distances from the manifold to the pods. A weak point when designing tree pods. Its also been on a 2sec 2 minutes for the last 30 hours. i had it on the 2sec 4minute but my humidity in the room was so low it was taking its toll on them so i cut it to 2sec 2minutes. which helped the leaf roll. Ive since added a humidifier so i might go back to the 2sec 4 minute. they definately arent starving for misture if a 9" can go 12 hrs without anything. Another thing that i think helped alot is the one that i forgot to turn the valve back onto was sitting right next to the humidifier and was getting a good breeze of humid air constantly.

Stupid mistake but i can learn something from it. Once they get a little bigger im going to try and coax some finer root hairs out of them. Also now i have the nozzels pointed towards the net pot up high. Im going to turn them silightly more down and away from the net pots so that they fire into the void more. Why im thinking this is because the finest root hair develpoment now is just below the net pot where very little direct misting is taking place because the nozzels are firing to the tops of the net pots now. i had them turned like this because when i put them into the nets there wasnt any roots showing out of the pots and i wanted to make sure to keep the hydroton wet.

I should know in 24 hrs if some of those roots will die off from not being misted. if they do ill cut the dieing ones off as its still little enough to do that with. Do you think theyll die off.

 

[Atomizer]

Good thing you noticed in time, it goes to show that even a little moisture can go a long long way.
Maybe you should make a big bold sign that says "Don`t forget to turn the mist back on!" and put it somewhere you can`t miss it The roots should bounce back pretty quick, i`d leave them be for now and see how they look in 24hrs.

 

[tree farmer]

Yea thats what ill do, wait and see if the roots will recover fully. thats the last thing i do when i leave is listen for a mist cycle, unfortunately that didnt help cause i heard the mist cycle for the other pods. once the tree gets bigger the white plastic will come off cause the tree will shade the pod completely then ill be able to see the valves and hopefully would notice if i had turned one of them off. better advice would probably be put down the pipe.

 

[hairpulledout]

Yea thats what ill do, wait and see if the roots will recover fully. thats the last thing i do when i leave is listen for a mist cycle, unfortunately that didnt help cause i heard the mist cycle for the other pods. once the tree gets bigger the white plastic will come off cause the tree will shade the pod completely then ill be able to see the valves and hopefully would notice if i had turned one of them off. better advice would probably be put down the pipe.

Howdy, Cool thread. I'm doing aeroponics myself for my first indoor grow. I'm having excellent results, and I'm roughly 3 weeks into flowering, with another set in veg. I am also building a 4 x 5 gal aero set-up for my next grow. I'll keep watching.

 

[tree farmer]

hairpulledout

Glad you stopped by. The very first indoor i ever did also was aero. its hard to change when you start with aero. Good luck.

 

[fatman7574]

The U.S. distributor for Delavan/ICS finally answered my email. First thing he started talking about how well their AL product line would work at $300 to $800 per atomizer. Then finally he said "With a gravity feed nozzle the "ON" / "OFF" would be tuff to control and proably not work unless you use a shut off valve on the nozzle." Cute as I had specifically stated a solenoid valve would be used on both air and fluid inlets. Duh! He stated $175 for the stainless steel atomizer (SN model). He did not give a price as I asked for the brass bodied with stainless steel guts etc. He also did not supply any info on the rated droplet micron size or what percentage at what size. So I sent back a reply for more info. The U.S. supplier is in North Carolina. At $175 each that could add up quick. That model has atomizers anywhere in the range from 1.2 L/h to 10 L/h so I could cut back to tow atomizers per cube as in the commercial units. I would expect that to limit the plants down below the 4 per square foot I wanted to go with. I had hoped for a tighter SOG system with more atomizers, but $175 each. That seems to put the high pressure spray system in a better light again. I can make compressors and cubes well enough, but I do not have a capacity to make atomizers. Wow, the "cheap ones" are $175 each. That would mean with compressor etc, etc, etc a cost of about $1300 per cube with four atomizers or about $900 with two atomizers.

 

[Treeth]

nice. I just sent out an inquiry today.
I asked about the 30, the 60, and the sn as well...
175 is a great price. Waaay better than the 600 I was quoted for a 90.
I was gonna ask if you ever got a quote...

I'm thinking two opposing nozzles, 4 square foot table, and 8 plants per square foot for my sog density.

You're out of luck looking for sauter-mean diameter ratings for these nozzles Atomizer,
Apparently the testing procedure is too expensive to do for every nozzle...

However the SN and the AL line are going to be doing sub 50 particles quite regularly, they are the lowest flow highest atomization so-says-delavan.

oh and, its just
-A- US distributor which is in NC...

 

[fatman7574]

I was just think 4 plants per square foot and two nozzles. I am thinking with SOGs the root mass will be small enough in diameter for good effective coverage, but at the cost involved it is a pretty large cost fo experimentation. I did talk to a friend who has a tattoo parlp or that has used DIY silent air comprseeors for over 10 t years and says he gets 3 to 4 years out of one without ever even adding oil and that he uses cooling fins to reduce the air temp and fairly small filters. The department of health inspects him religously and have no qualms with the air compressors. His run more than one would run powering a dozen atomizers. Hpopefully the guy doesn't jack me around about atomization droplet size. If he does not have the information he need only say so. I have no intent on spenf ding more than the $175 each and I hope I can get him to drop that some. They are only stainless steel not a precious metal. I would think there would be some american made atomizers that are comparable but nothing seems to want to pop up on the search engines. European merchandice is pretty pricey at this time. Or the American dollar is just pretty close to worthless.

 

[tree farmer]

Good thing you noticed in time, it goes to show that even a little moisture can go a long long way.
Maybe you should make a big bold sign that says "Don`t forget to turn the mist back on!" and put it somewhere you can`t miss it The roots should bounce back pretty quick, i`d leave them be for now and see how they look in 24hrs.

well you can see that the misters off for 12 hrs did cause some damage but i think it will recover without any surgery. what do you think? before and after pics

 

[tree farmer]

Fatman
Yea thats about the range i got quoted for when i enquired about 6 months ago. not from that company but for an air atomizing nozzel similar to those. I dont think thats just to bad at 175 if it can be controled properly and will yield the 50 micron droplet size or less. Hell i spent 300 bucks just on John Guest fittings for this system. That does include a few extra of each fitting but the little stuff can add up. pump 200, filters 100, pressure switches 150, pressure gauge 70. accumlator tank 200, tubing 60, selenoid 40. and thats just the main stuff theres always little shit.

If you can get by with two nozzels in each rig that doesnt sound to bad especially since you can do the compressor thing you were talking about.

When i type in air atomizing nozzels the first three that pop up under google seem to be US companies selling industrial air atomizing nozzels which i believe are the same as those UK ones your looking at. although like i said the price probably isnt any cheaper.

I dont think its really an experiment either if you did build one, cause its going to work one way or another. might take some tweaking but imho it will generate better roots than any LP aero would.

 

[Atomizer]

Hi TF
They dont look too bad considering they were in the desert for half a day
I`ve been pretty thrifty with component cost and the basics still came to over $500. When you buy a bit here and a bit there you lose track of the overall cost

Hi Treeth
I guess even if they have the droplet info it won`t be worth very much unless your root chamber matches the conditions used in the laboratory test

 

[fatman7574]

Fatman
Yea thats about the range i got quoted for when i enquired about 6 months ago. not from that company but for an air atomizing nozzel similar to those. I dont think thats just to bad at 175 if it can be controled properly and will yield the 50 micron droplet size or less. Hell i spent 300 bucks just on John Guest fittings for this system. That does include a few extra of each fitting but the little stuff can add up. pump 200, filters 100, pressure switches 150, pressure gauge 70. accumlator tank 200, tubing 60, selenoid 40. and thats just the main stuff theres always little shit.

If you can get by with two nozzels in each rig that doesnt sound to bad especially since you can do the compressor thing you were talking about.

When i type in air atomizing nozzels the first three that pop up under google seem to be US companies selling industrial air atomizing nozzels which i believe are the same as those UK ones your looking at. although like i said the price probably isnt any cheaper.

I dont think its really an experiment either if you did build one, cause its going to work one way or another. might take some tweaking but imho it will generate better roots than any LP aero would.

I have found a couple U.S. companies with pretty extensive lists of atomizers but I olny just today sent them email inquiries. I think I am just getting to old as I can not get over the prices for many items anymore. I keep getting these flash backs to my teens and early 20's when gasoline was 20 to 25 cents per gallon and bread was four loaves for a dollar. Now one can not buy a pachage of gum for any less than a dollar a gallon. I bough t for all my youth an my 20's for 5 cents per package. Of course we smoked seedy Mexican, Panamanian and Columbian then for $15 to $20 an ounce.

 

[tree farmer]

Hi TF
They dont look too bad considering they were in the desert for half a day
I`ve been pretty thrifty with component cost and the basics still came to over $500. When you buy a bit here and a bit there you lose track of the overall cost

Hi Treeth
I guess even if they have the droplet info it won`t be worth very much unless your root chamber matches the conditions used in the laboratory test

i started out keeping track but when i went over my budget i stopped cause it just caused me stress

. i dont mind spending money on my hobby but if things are tight then it does poke a little.
yea i love to buy alittle here and a little there when i have the time also but on this one i was under the gun.

Im definately going to get my backup battery pump rigged up in the next 2 weeks. I had a remote switch shut the power off for what reason i dont know.(i suppose since its RF feq something triggered it) anyway it killed the power for about an hour before i could get there. so i figure they sat again this time all of them for about 45 minutes without misting. i can see no damage from it but it sure as the hell cant be doing them any good. i just need a couple items which i should be able to get in the next couple weeks for the backup system. im not expecting the world from this test run.

I noticed that the roots dont follow the the normal path like in LP aero. these dont go straight for the drain. some of the roots are actually starting to go straight up the chamber wall. its kind of strange. i envision them coming out my access ports.

 

[tree farmer]

I have found a couple U.S. companies with pretty extensive lists of atomizers but I olny just today sent them email inquiries. I think I am just getting to old as I can not get over the prices for many items anymore. I keep getting these flash backs to my teens and early 20's when gasoline was 20 to 25 cents per gallon and bread was four loaves for a dollar. Now one can not buy a pachage of gum for any less than a dollar a gallon. I bough t for all my youth an my 20's for 5 cents per package. Of course we smoked seedy Mexican, Panamanian and Columbian then for $15 to $20 an ounce.

Oh the good old days i remember so well. columbian gold $35 an O. yea the shit had seeds but it had some character too.

It might take a few days to get emails back but most of the US comp did reply or direct me to there rep in my area.

 

[Atomizer]

The roots will fill from the bottom up, theres no real water flow for them to follow into the drain like LP. I guess the roots will do slightly different things in different sized/shaped containers.
I spent a little more hard earned today, a 30m (100ft) coil of 15mm PEX for the manifolds and a new footpump to precharge the accumulators and see if they leak pressure. A bike pump would take me a month of sundays I meant to ask what you precharged your tank to..i guess its around 73psi?
I only have to worry about a glitch taking out the RCB (manual reset) that supplies power to my garden shed. Its sited next to the greenhouse about 70ft from the house. Battery backup is a good plan for power outages and glitches.
It sounds like everyone on the thread is getting on in years, i remember a time you could buy a single washer,nut or bolt from a hardware store and the guy behind the counter knew everything about what he was selling