Hacking the AeroGarden

Three days ago I received my AeroGarden and my seeds (how lucky is that?). I opened up all of the seed pods that came with the Aerogarden and removed the seeds. Next, I followed setup as normal with a few minor changes. I used on of the extra figure eight power cords I had laying around and attached it to the lamp (in lieu of the power cord from the base) and plugged it into a lamp timer, for now it is set to be on 24/7, next I set the AeroGarden to water 24/7 (lettuce), I don't think this will change when I go to flower.

The strain I am using is Top 44, I picked it because it is an easy strain for
beginners (like me) to grow, it is very short, as marijuana plants go, and it is very quick to finish (as fast as 6 weeks)

As I said, that was three days ago, today I have seven plants sprouting up, not a single dud in the whole bunch. I obviously am not able to sex the plants yet but out of the seven that the Aerogarden holds i expect 3 will be female but I am hoping for 4 or more.

Once I have sexed the plants I will remove the males and plant the remainder of my seeds, removing the males until I have seven females or I run out of seeds. the goal of this grow is to find a suitable mother for my next garden, the rest of the plants will be flowered and smoked.

Even though I picked a very short strain I may hack the AeroGarden to allow for 24" of growth (current limit is 12")

The entire grow will be taking place inside of a large cardboard box, which creates several logistical problems, like overheating and lack of airflow. At some point in the near future I will be acquiring a negative ion generator, maybe I will be integrating that into the air circulation system

I look forward to updating everyone on the progress of my garden, perhaps even with pictures.

p.s. I will try to be descriptive as possible about everything that is going on with my garden, If you are reading this and you see that I am doing something really stupid, please point it out.

Here is a picture of my garden, and a closeup (sort of)

Some of the plants seem to be having a hard time developing sturdy roots, I know it has only been a few days so I will give them unitll mid march before I get really worried.

heard a lot of great things about aero gardens! good luck with the grow! I'll keep a close eye on this one

where did you get your seeds? are you located in the US? i wana know what site i should be buying from.

Tell us everything you can about what problems you encounter with your Aero-Garden grow....I have this thread on my favorites I'm very curious!

Today I removed 3 of the humidity domes, I have decided to let nature take its course in this highly unnatural situation, so I am going to stop checking on the roots and hope that will help them to grow better. I don't know if the roots are supposed to grow out of the sides of the pods or if they are supposed work their way into the sponge. I have also decided to start rotating the plants which I read about in another thread. pictures to come later. one last thing, if you have any experience with using sponge as a grow medium could you let me know what is supposed to happen?

If you want your roots to grow wait until they start growing real leaves then switch to 18/6 to utilize sleeping period and heightened root growth.

Yar - dark time stimulates root growth (or so the story goes)... 18/6 light is good to start so they can focus on roots...

They will push thru the sponge if they can - sometimes the tap root will twist around inside the sponge and pop up next to the plant... I split my sponge in half, so they have an easier time finding a path to the water.
If you see the root pop up out the top, pull out the net pot - remove the sprout carefully - rip the sponge, and reinsert the sprout. Ive done it a few times and its fine...

Also, your not going to be able to grow 7 at a time past 3 weeks - they get HUGE FAST. after 3 weeks, theres pretty much only room for 3 plants.
I have 3 at about 5 weeks, and they are crowding each other alot. Time for a transplant.

does the light raise or is that it??just wondering

good to know about the lighting for roots, think I will do that once they are all big enough to come out of their domes. to answer the question about the ballast, yes it does go up, max height is 12" but I am going to modify it for 24" that will be perfect for my strain.

Here are the pictures I promised.

Very nice, your going to have rapid growth from here on in. AeroGarden is Aeroponics which have extremly fast growth during veg, they will grow stong and healthy thats why i love Aeroponics, i might just buy that Aeroponic system for clones. fuck its not a bad little system.

I feel a little betrayed by the people at AeroGrow, I was expecting an array of water pumps with misters on the ends or a fogger. one of these plants is going to become a mother plant so I am going to design a single pod aerogarden with some improvements to the ballast (wider, and taller) and the water/nutrient delivery system (fogger or misters). I am going to try to use readily available supplies and post pictures and instructions for anyone that wants to replicate my design.

Please keep us posted. I have the aero garden & I'm waiting for my seeds to arrive to get started. My aero garden came with the tomato set-up. I may try the fox line since you think that would give better results.
Keep us advised & I'll do the sane as soon as I get started.

O2

Sorry about keeping you guys in the dark for so long, I hope none of you got bored and tuned out. I was on vacation for a week, and kind of forgot about the board as school was starting back up. before leaving I topped off the water and said a prayer. upon returning I found two dead plants, four soso plants, and one that refuses to do anything but grow, I hope to god it's a female. considering the circumstances with the nutrients, I would say that is not too bad. I just placed an order for some fox farm grow big hydro. right now the plants are on a diluted aerogarden nutes, I want to switch the nutes as soon as they get here, is there anything I need to do to prepare for the switch? pictures from friday included, pictures from today to follow after I charge my camera.

I dont understand why people buy this things for growin weed? They cost like at least a $120 cant be used the whole grow or if you do stuby tiny plants.Why not spend $40 and build a bubbler in an hour and have a nice 6 site grower you can control much better. Maybe its just me but seems like such a waste of money.

These are the pics from Wednesday, to be compared with last Fridays, to give a reference to speed of growth. I am going to be REALLY sad if this plant is a male.

nice ipod. nice song too stairway cicks ass

I figured it is time to start training the plant before it is too late. my nutes should be here soon, then this thing will be out of control.