My First Grow - LowRyder 2 - Aerogarden Classic - AG Nutes

Welcome to my Grow Journal.

I've been researching an Aerogarden grow for a long time.

It seems like the perfect start for me. I have a small, confined space and only a personal need.

I am using an Aerogarden Classic. The only modifications are an Airstone (6") and putting the lights on their own timing circuit.

I am using the Aerogarden nutrients, as I received a bucketload when I purchased the Master Gardener kit.

I built a cupboard, based around a really cheap wooden desk kit from a certain Viking furniture manufacturer, lined the walls with white bathroom tiles (leftover from a tiling job) and sealed all the seams and joints with bathroom sealant.

It is vented into a secondary cupboard above that contains a Carbon filter, which in turn leads out, through a fan into a chimney.

The secondary cupboard will hopefully be used for the drying process, freeing up the grow room for a second crop.

I have an oscillating tower fan (nice compact footprint) in the corner.

I'm trying to catch up a bit here, and in my haste, attached all the images in the wrong order to my first post...

Here is the initial set-up.

Two Seed-pods - Bert and Ernie.

Feminised Lowryder 2.

I am using filtered tap water, by the way.

Ernie never sprouted. Nada.

Bert had been going strong for two weeks, when I decided to remove Ernie and give Bert the full Reservoir and light.

View attachment 1320869
I think I may have damaged Bert's taproot when I adjusted his position in the rooting material, though...

Or is it 2?

When do you actually start counting?

From sprouting or planting?



I was pretty nervous, so I checked on Bert the next day, just to make sure.



The extra growth heartened me.

I am not emptying out the reservoir every week, either. I am treating this as a regular Aerogarden Herb. Topping up the reservoir with filtered water and adding a nute tab once a week.

Lights are on 20/4 and Aerogarden pump is on Tomatoes. Airstone is on full time.

This is not going to be an optimal grow, I know, simply an experiment in seeing what I can get from as little maintenance and complication possible.

I haven't even got a pH meter set in there. (I will for future crops though)

I use a Baby monitor with a temp sensor, so I can make sure the temps aren;t too high or too low without having to go and open the box each time.

Week 3/4



I try to check at least twice a week now.

This was Wednesday.

Is this it?

I checked Bert today, thinking of "Topping for four colas" but spotted what I think are pistils forming at the upper nodes...

Decided that if flowering has already started, then topping might bugger everything up...

Responses welcome...


Apologies for the photo quality, by the way... taken with an iPhone then cropped to size in Photoshop...

But this does mean Bert is a girl, right?

Those are preflowers. They are not flowering so to speak unless I missed something and you have them in 12/12. I could not find what strain you said they were, but I admit I only read a few post and skimmed the rest. Congrats, its a girl though! I don't have much experience with topping plants but they are a weed, you can walk in and stomp on your plants and put a desk lamp out for it to grow and it will make it, unless it gets infected. Topping them at this point won't likely result in any big issues as long as the equipment is sterilized in some manner.

In short: It's a girl, they are still in veg, but those pre flowers are there way of being nice and letting you know you are not wasting your time. Go for it with topping.

Thank you, sir!

It's a LowRyder 2 Auto.

I was looking for something small that wouldn't be too cramped in a tiny AeroGarden.

Think I may avoid the topping this time around anyway, as this is really my "Control Grow" to give a baseline as a reference for future grows...

Thank you for letting me know I wasn't going too nuts...

By the way, it isnt just the fact that it has those are pistils isn't why its a girl, its because two are popping out. Females have 2 and males have one small one. But wait on it for several days before deciding anything is male because sometimes they come out stuck together and look like a single pistil.