Snipperooo
Active Member
I figured I would write a follow up / lessons learned based on the 1lb a week aeroponic sticky. First off I would like to thank the original author of the thread as when I finished reading it, I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. I knew my life was about to change. I went to the hardware store right away and got to work. This is my first indoor grow, so this testimonial proves you do not need to be an expert to use this method. One thing I will add is I have not yet done any flowering with this system, just clones for my outdoor grow. I will include all of my lessons learned to date from the original thread, as well as any other strain related info.
So I built the aero cloner and fired it up.
Lesson # 1)TAKE THE BIGGEST CLONES YOU CAN. The reason for this is that bigger clones = bigger stems. To paraphrase a cloning thread I read on RIU : “the more stem material is disrupted, the more surface area there is for roots to grow”. My first cuts were small as my mothers were not yet that old and I was late and in a damn rush. The small ones took 2 weeks to root, that drove me up the wall. I was very impressed that the cuts did not wilt one bit. Bigger clones are also easier to get rooted into soil, which is what I was doing (but I will get to that later). Clones were cut on a typical 45, placed in neoprene and right into the cloner.
Lesson#2) Check the PH after the first 24 hours of operation to ensure it stays at the recommended 5.8, I noticed mine changed slightly but a slight correction fixed that. I am not sure how important it is to have it spot on, I am just trying to make sure I do not deviate from the instructions. They are the gospel when it comes to this method.
Lesson#3) Some strains take longer to root than others. I am a very impatient individual by nature so it took some getting used to. I built a 2nd cloner as I needed to increase the output. To summarize, I will list the strains I used, and rate them by root growth rate. Keep in mind this is by my own experience, and all strains I plan on growing outdoors. When cloning these is complete, I am switching to indoor strains.
Skunk#1 – Sensi – Feminized – I would categorize these as medium –slow rooters in aeroponic. Excellent strain to grow, stays short and compact, responds very well to cloning.
Northern Lights Blue – Delicious Seeds – Feminized – I would rate these as excellent rooters, consistently rooting faster than all of the strains in this list. Respond well to cloning, very nute tolerant.
Lemon Skunk – Greenhouse Seeds – Feminized – I would rate these as slow-medium rooters. To be honest I grew 5 seeds, 3 grew, 1 I killed because it didn’t even look like marijuana, and the other 2 are very hard to keep happy and seem to be overly sensitive. The smoke is good, but this is my first and last time growing this strain, as I have heard lots of complaints and have a few of my own. Live and learn, they’re cheap. Maybe bad pheno.
Super Skunk – Sensi – Feminized – I would rate these as excellent rooters. Seem to grow LONG roots first, followed by lateral roots. This is an amazing quality, high yielding strain for the outdoors, high recommended for cash croppers outdoors.
Sugar Black Rose – Delicious Seeds – Feminized. As much as I hate to let the secret out, this is the secret weapon for the outdoors. Good rooter. High quality, good yields, great taste and smell. This is a cash croppers dream for outdoors, I cannot get enough of this stuff. Very highly recommended.
Iranian g13 – dr. greenthumb – feminized. I would rate these as medium rooters so far as I only have one run worth of experience. High quality outdoor stuff, one hitter quitter. Clear your schedule if you’re gonna burn one of these.
Lesson #4 – Transferring from aero to soil. This was my biggest concern as aero was not yet a proven method by me and there is very little info online about this. I will start by saying it works amazingly. I transferred after only 1 week of roots showing into soil. I would recommend 2wks minimum if you have the time, but I didn’t. Start by putting your medium base in your cup. 1/3 full for longer roots, less for shorter. Lay your roots in, twirl them in if required, adding medium around the roots as you go. Pack down lightly, be gentle, but don’t worry too much. Once complete, pack the base around your stem and soak with water. Include a light nute mix and some rooting accelerator in the water (I did, you do what you want). I set them 5ft from the 1000w for a week, then once the leaves show some tip discoloring, they can be moved into the light. After the initial watering, I let the dirt almost dry out before watering again. I find this helps getting the roots going, but again do what you want. I like to give 1-2wks from cup install before transplanting outdoors or into bigger pots.
Lesson#5 – The rubbermaids. When I first got them fired up they leaked a bit. So make sure you have them on a surface that wont get ruined. IE not on your carpet flooring. What I did to fix them was to bend in the sides as stated in the original thread, but I found it helped to set a tape measure or something slightly weighted in the exact center of the Rubbermaid to weigh it down towards the center, this just changes the path of the run off. If you’re worried, run them for 24hrs before to see how its going to work out. Water: I found if I overfilled, it would leak no matter what. So I filled the water to 3cm above where the pvc meets the pump.
Lesson#6 – Have an extra netpot and neoprene ready for when you remove a cutting to transplant. If you don’t, when the pump kicks in it will spray water all over your babies. The base of an empty solo cup also works, sort of aha.
So that’s it, that’s where I have made it so far. This is one of my first if not my first post on RIU. I decided that I owed it to this online community that has taught me so much to contribute, so I hope it has some value for at least one person. I would encourage everyone to contribute what they can as long as it is of value. There are enough fools out there commenting, shit talking others and we just don’t need that. If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Keep the good info flowing, help each other out and the world will be a better place because of it, literally. If you have some questions feel free to ask I will do my best to answer but I use an ipad at home and its hard to get long-winded on there I find.
Happy Growing.
So I built the aero cloner and fired it up.
Lesson # 1)TAKE THE BIGGEST CLONES YOU CAN. The reason for this is that bigger clones = bigger stems. To paraphrase a cloning thread I read on RIU : “the more stem material is disrupted, the more surface area there is for roots to grow”. My first cuts were small as my mothers were not yet that old and I was late and in a damn rush. The small ones took 2 weeks to root, that drove me up the wall. I was very impressed that the cuts did not wilt one bit. Bigger clones are also easier to get rooted into soil, which is what I was doing (but I will get to that later). Clones were cut on a typical 45, placed in neoprene and right into the cloner.
Lesson#2) Check the PH after the first 24 hours of operation to ensure it stays at the recommended 5.8, I noticed mine changed slightly but a slight correction fixed that. I am not sure how important it is to have it spot on, I am just trying to make sure I do not deviate from the instructions. They are the gospel when it comes to this method.
Lesson#3) Some strains take longer to root than others. I am a very impatient individual by nature so it took some getting used to. I built a 2nd cloner as I needed to increase the output. To summarize, I will list the strains I used, and rate them by root growth rate. Keep in mind this is by my own experience, and all strains I plan on growing outdoors. When cloning these is complete, I am switching to indoor strains.
Skunk#1 – Sensi – Feminized – I would categorize these as medium –slow rooters in aeroponic. Excellent strain to grow, stays short and compact, responds very well to cloning.
Northern Lights Blue – Delicious Seeds – Feminized – I would rate these as excellent rooters, consistently rooting faster than all of the strains in this list. Respond well to cloning, very nute tolerant.
Lemon Skunk – Greenhouse Seeds – Feminized – I would rate these as slow-medium rooters. To be honest I grew 5 seeds, 3 grew, 1 I killed because it didn’t even look like marijuana, and the other 2 are very hard to keep happy and seem to be overly sensitive. The smoke is good, but this is my first and last time growing this strain, as I have heard lots of complaints and have a few of my own. Live and learn, they’re cheap. Maybe bad pheno.
Super Skunk – Sensi – Feminized – I would rate these as excellent rooters. Seem to grow LONG roots first, followed by lateral roots. This is an amazing quality, high yielding strain for the outdoors, high recommended for cash croppers outdoors.
Sugar Black Rose – Delicious Seeds – Feminized. As much as I hate to let the secret out, this is the secret weapon for the outdoors. Good rooter. High quality, good yields, great taste and smell. This is a cash croppers dream for outdoors, I cannot get enough of this stuff. Very highly recommended.
Iranian g13 – dr. greenthumb – feminized. I would rate these as medium rooters so far as I only have one run worth of experience. High quality outdoor stuff, one hitter quitter. Clear your schedule if you’re gonna burn one of these.
Lesson #4 – Transferring from aero to soil. This was my biggest concern as aero was not yet a proven method by me and there is very little info online about this. I will start by saying it works amazingly. I transferred after only 1 week of roots showing into soil. I would recommend 2wks minimum if you have the time, but I didn’t. Start by putting your medium base in your cup. 1/3 full for longer roots, less for shorter. Lay your roots in, twirl them in if required, adding medium around the roots as you go. Pack down lightly, be gentle, but don’t worry too much. Once complete, pack the base around your stem and soak with water. Include a light nute mix and some rooting accelerator in the water (I did, you do what you want). I set them 5ft from the 1000w for a week, then once the leaves show some tip discoloring, they can be moved into the light. After the initial watering, I let the dirt almost dry out before watering again. I find this helps getting the roots going, but again do what you want. I like to give 1-2wks from cup install before transplanting outdoors or into bigger pots.
Lesson#5 – The rubbermaids. When I first got them fired up they leaked a bit. So make sure you have them on a surface that wont get ruined. IE not on your carpet flooring. What I did to fix them was to bend in the sides as stated in the original thread, but I found it helped to set a tape measure or something slightly weighted in the exact center of the Rubbermaid to weigh it down towards the center, this just changes the path of the run off. If you’re worried, run them for 24hrs before to see how its going to work out. Water: I found if I overfilled, it would leak no matter what. So I filled the water to 3cm above where the pvc meets the pump.
Lesson#6 – Have an extra netpot and neoprene ready for when you remove a cutting to transplant. If you don’t, when the pump kicks in it will spray water all over your babies. The base of an empty solo cup also works, sort of aha.
So that’s it, that’s where I have made it so far. This is one of my first if not my first post on RIU. I decided that I owed it to this online community that has taught me so much to contribute, so I hope it has some value for at least one person. I would encourage everyone to contribute what they can as long as it is of value. There are enough fools out there commenting, shit talking others and we just don’t need that. If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Keep the good info flowing, help each other out and the world will be a better place because of it, literally. If you have some questions feel free to ask I will do my best to answer but I use an ipad at home and its hard to get long-winded on there I find.
Happy Growing.
