Hey guys, i'm new... been lurkin quite awhile though and have read most of the aerogarden threads. I got myself 2 Aerogarden elite 6+s.
Apocalyptic what model aerogarden do you have? You say you added an airstone, any particular reason why? Anyone have the elite 6+?
I am currently trying to grow some mothers for a cloning operation. I got 3 Ice in one machine and 3 Hindu Kush in the other both 2 weeks in veg. Just lookin for 1 female of each to put into my Soil/Mothering chamber. Also got a 1 week old femanized Snow White in the 2nd machine just for the hell of it. I have a 1 week old fem Snow White in soil just to compare. The soil is actually developing about a half day faster than the aero. Everything is running at 18/6 timing. All my research for an answer to the 24 hr light debate goes nowhere. All I have in the soil mother chamber at the moment is 4-24" T5 24w Flourescents. 2 are 3k and 2 are 6500k. Everything is in the under construction phase at the moment so yeah I know I should be running 4 of the 6500ks right now. I am getting tons of CLFs this weekend as well as ventilation fans etc. I basically just wanted to get the operation underway with the growing so got those seeds in the pods ASAP while I continue to construct the chambers. Right now the machines are just out on my dresser.
Had 100% germination rate just from following the directions of the aero. Just plopped the seed on the plug and put the dome over it. All of em survived simply following the aerogarden instructions. Don't know how familiar you guys are with the 6 pod series. The plugs are longer and actually dip into the water, and I believe its just a single airstone that runs 24/7 regardless of what the lights are doing. There is also a 24 hour light option for the machine. I am following the fox farm hydro nute schedule exactly. The machine reservoir actually holds .85 gallons of water but I am feeding the machine according to the schedule as if it is a gallon. So technically they are getting a bit more then reccomended. I just flip the lid open and measure and pour the fox farm nutes right in each week. They are only 2 weeks 2 days old but that's been 3 feedings so far. No PPM meter or anything. Plants look good I think. I'll get pics up this weekend. Any probs with how i'm feeding them guys?
I see a water change coming up for the next feeding. So far just the grow big & big bloom from fox farms have been fed into the chamber. The big bloom is cloudy so a few mins after I put the tablespoon in, the entire reservoir is cloudy so apparently the one airstone is circulating enough. I saw no signs of over-feeding and have actually felt the opposite so I put one "small" aerogarden tablet in each machine yesterday. The plants don't seem dark green enough, so until I get a "nitrogen only" supplement, I am concerned the fox farms isn't enough. There are uneven plant sizes and since this is my first run idk whether they are gender, machine, or what differences. It's actually really just one of the HKs wayyy underdeveloped. I actually believe the tap root ran into the plastic and took longer to find its way out. Since there arent long roots yet I twisted each pod 1/2 turn 5 days ago and again today. Just for different light exposure. No fans blowing, or extra CLFs mounted yet (everything planned). So thin stems and growing angled I figured I would combat with the 1/2 turns. I actually see the tiny HK starting to grow today. Maybe the small tablet worked, or now since I actually see a root made it's way into the water. IDK.
Tek, if you are still reading this far. When I switch to 12/12 I planned on just running 2700k CLFs on a timer and unplugging the aero lamps since they are bright veg lamps anyhow, but can I buy a cord from radioshack to plug the aero light seperately? The machine has no 12/12 hr option, even though the airstone runs 24hr regardless of setting.
I'm actually building 3 chambers in the closet. One chamber will run 3 different strain mothers in soil. Basically just 6500k lights as well as one clone tray. Figure i'll keep the clones with the mothers in that aerogarden 66 plug seedling starter tray. I'll just keep the clones in the plug tray in like 1/2" of water instead of wasting 2 weeks of time waiting for the clones to root in the machine. When enough root, they'll go straight to the machines (for immediate flowering) which will each have their own chamber running at different growth intervals. I'm guessing 2-3 per grow pod opening. What do you guys think? I'm actually gonna copy this and paste this in a new grow journal thread right now. I'll try and get pics up right now too.