# First time grow hydro/aero



## homegrown99 (Oct 15, 2008)

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, hope everyone is having a spliffy night.....


I have recently decided to give this growing thing a test run as I'm getting tired of everyones **. Anyways here is a list of my setup....

Have "misters" set up to spray the roots of the plants, which drips into a second container underneath. I have 8 nozzles being ran by a 350 gallon pump. I bought a dual air pump to go along with it. A 400 watt HPS light and a 400 W metal halide light. 

From reading another post, for a system to be aeroponic the mist must be mist, and not just tiny sprinklers as these seem to be. Is this true? Does it really make a big diff?

Anyways, as stated before, this is my first time and all help is greatly appreciated! Onto the questions..


I germinated 2 seeds about 24 hrs ago by sprouting them with the paper towel method. My question now is what do I do next? Do I put the seed in some type of pod? or is it put in some type of medium? My thoughts were that they grew through just a pod and not for example rockwool....

If the case is that I just grow it in a pod, how do I go about that? transfer the seed into the pod, make sure the pod is moist, water sparingly until roots are seen and then turn on the system fully? 

Similarly, if i should use something similar to rockwool, how do i go about that method? is another medium preferred?

Also, I have no problem running the system 24/0 but is this ideal in my setup? or are the roots moistened intervally? if so, what timeage is recommended? What do you guys recommend as far as scheduling goes?

Nutrients shouldn't be used the first two weeks (correct?) But what nutrients do you guys recommend? The less abbreviations the better 

Is it enough just to put hoses from the air pump into the water or is it the air rock that gives off something special?

My lights are being borrowed from a friend, so I'm sure he knows the answer, but I'd prefer professional help. One is mainly for growing and the other for budding..... which is which? What type of lighting time do you guys recommend in the beginning? middle? end? Distance from the plant should be considered by the "burning" it does to my hand when placed at the plants max height?

As far some extra information......

My seeds are ones that were found in some local good stuff. So I have no idea of the type and whatnot. 

The setup is made for 6 pots, i know, i only have two seeds, but hopefully find some more soon. 

I apologize for the Noob questions as well as not using the search feature. 

Oh yeah, I'm leaning more towards a aeroponic setup than anything else, so if there's any recommendations of tweaks to the setup, please don't hesitate. I just read that aeroponic systems are harder to grow is that correct? 

Pics of setup to follow in a few, gonna setup my closet for the grow


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## 420usagrow (Oct 15, 2008)

I have a suggestion for a couple of your questions. 
Use your MH for your veg phase of growth (either 18/6 or 24/7 for light cycle). The HPS will be used when you move your light cycle to 12/12.
I germ my seeds in paper towel method, then put them in rapid rooters. The roots go crazy in the rooters. After the roots start coming through the bottom of the plug, then I transplant the plug into a 4" rockwool cube, that has been pretreated with a light growth nutes and ph balanced water. I let them go without water for 2 days or so, and then begin feeding (I have a top drip system) 10 minutes on every 6 hours.
I use Dutch Master Advanced Grow and Bloom and Zone for root health. I foliar feed every third day with Liquid Light mixed w/Penetrator. I have Reverse that I will spray on my plants on day 1 of flower and day 10 to kill off any hermie tendencies. I think the Dutch Master line may be overpriced and I am ordering the Ionic line with is about 1/2 the cost and much simpler. I will be interested to see the difference! 
With your nutes, start out very light with your dosage (1/4 strength on first feed). I made the error a couple of times and nute burn can kill your plants faster than you would believe. All strains are different in there tolerance to nutes, so be careful. 
I just want to give 1 more piece of advice, there is nothing like trial and error to learn what you and your individual conditions are going to need, so watch out for advice from noobs with one grow under their belts. They will give poor advice based on limited experience (like the "genius" who wrote in a thread that ph up and down aren't needed in his opinion.). I was a victim of that idiots advice because I was a noob and killed 8 fem seedlings believing it unnecessary to check my ph! Boy was I stupid, but you learn and adapt as you go! Good luck on your grow, 429usagrow


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## Tater (Oct 15, 2008)

Have you tested your system yet?  Can that pump handle all those sprayers?  If its a magdrive pump I'll bet it can't.  Just something to think about before you get to where you need it.  Good luck keep us informed.


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## homegrown99 (Oct 15, 2008)

Now that I look at it, I actually have 10 sprinklers with a 330 gallon pump. It's getting enough pressure to feed all of them, and just a tiny bit of back pressure. 

So I did some more shopping today, and now I understand why the prices are what they are .

I picked up some 35% hydrogen peroxide, 2 air stones, some ph down, six 3 1/2 net pots, some green fuse root stimulator, dutch master advance grow A and B. does this sound about right? did the salesman talk me into stuff? what else am I lacking?

Also, for more accurate pH, is there a cheap digital pH reader? If so, where can it be bought? I bought a 3 in 1 analog reader from harbor freight which is used for soil... thought it would work if i just stuck it in the water, but seems not to be working, unless my tap water is at a pH of 2 lol. 

Oh yeah, also bought rockwool and the rapid rooters.... placed both my seeds in the rooters, enclosed them in a ziplock bag which was poked with a fork twice, and some spare water in there. 

I did buy some more "misters" that the hydro guy said actually mist.... they don't :/ so I guess my system will still be somewhat hydro.... meh guess hydro, aero, all the same almost......

As far as my system, what will be a good run time? I read 420 say he used 10 min on/6 hrs off, does this sound good? This may be a dumb question but is it possible to over water a hydro/aero system? I know you can underwater it to where the roots dry out, correct? 

In regards to nutrients, how often do I change out my water? read somewhere about some guys research that showed changing it out 3-4 times during the whole process yielded the same as multiple changes.... 

Also, if it is only changed 3 or 4 times, do I add nutrients weekly? or do I only add nutrients when the water is changed?

In regards to the amounts of nutrients, the guy told me to go onto dutchmasters website which has a calculator for everything. 

How many gallons do you guys recommend to use? as I said, only have 2 seeds at the moment, but should hopefully get some more by the end of the week 

Thanks for everyones input


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## 420usagrow (Oct 15, 2008)

I think the pumps will be good if you run every 6 hrs. for 10 minutes, and if you see overwater issues you can make the cycles longer.
The Dutch Master nutes have a nutrient calculator that let you enter your res size and then you print out the whole cycle. Also, the Dutch Master nutes say not to use H202 in the res. 420usagrow


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## Elven (Oct 15, 2008)

Welcome Homegrown . I am a n00b on my first build and grow, (already had my first casualty) so please feel free to take my advice as such. Since you are doing an aero sprayer system these would be my recommendations based solely on the huge amount of reading I did before I built mine. if you turn your misters off it will cause your roots to grow even longer than they will if you leave the misters on 24/7 and that could be 2 much root. An airstone in your res will keep your roots alive once the make it that far. Good luck and I cant wait to see the pics of your system and grow.


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