Aerogarden: harvest at 8 weeks?

I bought the aerogarden after much research. I recieved it on June 19th. I set it up that night based on the lighting schedule that would be beneficial to our living situation, an apartment complex. The gourmet herb setting sets the light at a 18/6 schedule. Mine comes on at 6:30pm, when the maintenance crew doesn't make any rounds. They shut off at 11:30am. I planted 3 seeds in each pod that came from a bag of midgrade that had the sweetest smell and a high that was motivating and creative-juice flow inducing, and what I mean by that is I smoked, got ~STONED~, and started writing a fucking story! Like I said, creative-juice inducing. Anyhow, I planted 3 to ensure a successful grow. The seeds fully germinated and sprouted in 2 days! I kept the "bio-domes" on the plants until they touched the top of the dome. The plants responded to the herb setting very well, it runs the water feeding during the light cycle and shuts it off during the dark cycle. Three weeks later one of the plants died, I'm not sure why. But the rest of the plants are fine there was a brief nute burn scare until I was advised by these threads that you should only use 1/2 of the nutes that aerogarden recommends.
I've cleaned the resevoir every time the nutes are added. Well on the 20th day I realized after having to raise the hood that it was actually time to start flowering(that an urgent need to produce some results).
The plants are about 8 inches tall with 3 nodes apiece. Some may say it is too early to flower, but considering the aerogarden doesn't have a whole lotta room in it's 1 gallon resevoir, and knowing that flowering causes the plants tgrow and stretch quite a bit, I went for it on the 21st day. But I am trying something, instead of going to an immediate jump to a 12/12 cycle I started them off at a 13/11 cycle to ease them into the flowering stage. I'm guessing that it would simulate the season gradually changing to winter so I can trigger the survival instinct of the plant(I should be able to sex them at this time as well). I plan on doing that for one week then switching to a 12/12 cycle. And touching on the question regarding the light timer, it isn't really necessary to buy a seperate timer. When you switch to the 12/12 you can simply activate that setting by pressing the light button until the lights come on or go off when you want the cycle to start. For example I shut mine off at 7:30am every morning and then the herb setting turns them back on at 6:30pm and starts the water feeding(the water pump and light timer can operate seperate from each other by the way) this gives me 13 hours of light and 11 hours of darkness.
I am doing this grow from start to finish using only the aerogarden nutes and lights. I am doing this to see what kind of raw harvest it will produce on it's own after 5 weeks of total flowering.
A review/experiment if you will.
I plan on posting some pics soon, I have to borrow a friends camera, but hopefully it will be soon.
Lets see what this puppy can do on it's own!
Please message me if you would like to talk "areogarden" shop!

peace, the.fatman.cometh

i just heard of the areo grow recently i was wonder wat kind of lights come with em? is it enuff to take u all the way trew till harvest. and what kind of nutes they give u?

The aerogarden comes with 2 "Full Spectrum grow lights that plug in under the hood side by side but angled like a "v" shape. The specs on the lights are:Light Output(Lumens) 1450
Energy used (Watts) 26
Estimated Life (hours) 6,000

The nutes from the "Gourmet Herb" seed kit are:
Weight 50 grams
Guaranteed Analysis is:
Total Nitrogen 5%
Available Phosphate 11%
Soluble Potash 24%
Thats all the info they provide with the kit when it first arrives.

I have considered adding dry ice for co2 but i'm not sure if that would conflict with my 100% solo aerogarden project.

I am on day 39 1 week into flowering
i killed 3 plants last night leaving all def. females with the beginnings of buds

Lookin good r32115! How long did you veg before flowering?
And have you run into any kind of problems?

a little bacteria due to bad ph fixed with h2o2 in tub on roots and in system
since fixed it has been 6.5-6.7

and i vegged for one month on 24/7 lights

other than that i'd say my setup almost works too good the roots go crazy with the airstone and diy co2 helps a lot

hmmm...I started mine as just a "test" grow if you will for the aerogarden, just to see what kind of potential it has.......cause I have a dream.....donate an aerogarden once every couple of months to people around the way, educate them, donate seeds if necessary, and make the world a greener place, thus dropping crime and maybe eventually poverty levels.
Sound too crazy?

r3 be careful... I thought mine were all fems too. What you have to look for is two white hairs emerging from the buds, they are pretty destinct you will know when you have found them. Watch out for balls.
Today begins week 8. I started with 4 seeds Nirvana's papaya(2), and Hindu kush(2). Today I am left with one gorgeous papaya fem.

Adjustments -
Fox farm nutrients(full line)
400w hps
2 cfl's for side lighting(in addition to the aero hood)
airator w/ airstones one in res. other in replenishment bucket

Using the Tomato's setting, on contrary to what some have said about keeping the pump constantly running, I have read that it is not always good to have the medium(sponge) soaked at all times. Allowing a certain part of your roots to remain without moisture is healthy for them. So far so good, roots are very healthy. Res remains at a 5.3 - 5-9 ph. A little browning of a few lower leaves... but it is to be expected.

very excited for the coming weeks.

Happy growing.

I don't know anything about the ag, but a couple things about growing pot.

Your description of "creative juice inducing" would suggest a sativa or sativa-dominant hybrid. Those typically have the longer maturity time. So if you harvest at 5 weeks, your plants will just be starting to show flowers. For a sativa, figure on 12-14 weeks. For hybrids, 10-12 weeks.

And your idea to give them 11 hours of darkness may work, but if that isn't enough for the critical daylength of that strain, then you'll be actually starting flowering on what you believe to be Day 8.

HTH

after flowering when will i get bud aero garden grower really confused please help asap i have 4 lovely ladies

depending on strain you can figure at least 7 to 8 weeks of flowering on 12/12 until they are ripe

r3 your setup looks like it worked out great . i just ordered the areo garden is there any tips you could give me to have a sucessful plant ?