Aeroponics basic questions :)

Indoor Growing
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Hi community,

Hope you are well.
I would like to start my journey with HP aeroponics and I have multiple questions:

  1. Which nutes are the best for the nutrient solution for aero? Will hydroponic nutes work? I am gonna try AN Ph perfect. pH Perfect® Grow Micro Bloom | 3 Part Base Nutrient
    Any suggestions are appreciated!
  2. Is it critical to have a chiller for just 1 plant? I see a lot of info saying you need to keep nutrients solution around 20 C.
  3. How you can ensure no root rot will happen? I have great white shark (Mycorrhizae Trichoderma Inoculant Powder – Plant Revolution) do you think it can be used to promote root growth in aero and prevent rot (algae, etc)? Also, I see that roots doesn’t like much of h2o2. Did you use any algae prevention technique? if so , how often and which one? (like once per week, etc)
  4. Are there any best practices for watering. AFAIK, at the very beginning (sidling level), you don’t need too much water (at least in soil or coco). What about aero? how to understand the best ration of water compared to the stage of growth.
  5. I am planning to do first grow using drain to waste, that is why it is critical to understand the amount of water needed and minimize the waste. However, is it a common practice to drain to waste? OR should I simply move the drain water back to nutes tank?
  6. Do you think aeroponics is ok for autoflowers?
  7. I want to use coco coir as starting medium for sidling. I mostly see rockwool & clay pebbles on the internet. Any disadvantages of using coco?

Thank you so much! Any information will be helpful :slight_smile:

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I’ve never done high pressure aeroponics. All of my experience with aeroponic systems was using low pressure misters in a few different systems and a couple different general hydroponics systems (the Aeroflo, which is like a hybrid aeroponic and NFT system, and their rainforest system with vortex sprayer, which is like a hybrid aeroponic DWC system). So I’m not sure how helpful any of my info will be for you, but I’ll try my best to answer.

  1. I would think most hydroponic nutrients should work. Probably want something cleaner so it won’t clog up your sprayers.

My last hydro and aeroponic runs, I was using emerald harvest 2 part base nutrient and really liked it. It ran nice and clean for me and required low doses which helps in that respect. The highest dose they call for on the bottle is 6ml a gallon too, so it’s cost effective (I usually maxed out at 5ml/gallon). And it always produced good results for me.

I have used Advanced nutrients 3 part “ph perfect” nutrient line. It’s decent. Lots of marketing hype but nothing special IMO. I preferred the emerald harvest for sure, or even General hydroponics 3 part base nutrient. But I did run the advanced nutrient 2 part and 3 part base nutrients for a few years and had good results.
I liked their 2 part base nutrient more than their 3 part. I don’t remember it clogging up my lines, so I’d think it should be ok for you.

It was nice not having to ph initially, though I always checked it anyway. But I believe I still had to check+adjust the ph between reservoir changes.

  1. you should be able to get away without a chiller especially with drain to waste. Risk of root rot should be lower with DTW. There’s no nutrient to recirculate and keep cool. A chiller is nice to have though for some recirculating systems (like DWC for sure!).

  2. afaik, mainly you just want to make sure the roots have enough air + no light leaks and don’t let water temps get too high. Also, algae grows with light. No light, no algae.

And I do like to treat my water - meaning either a live reservoir or a sterile reservoir. Both have their advantages and disadvantages in my opinion. I’ve done it both ways. Ideally I prefer a “live res”, but I’ve found situations where a sterile res was better for me. A sterile reservoir does tend to stay cleaner IME. That might be something to consider with high pressure spray nozzles. I’m not sure if a live res could create issues with clogging high pressure sprayers? No experience there, sorry.

Great white might be ok. Although something like their “Orca” might be better (since it’s liquid and meant for hydro). Not sure if the particles in the great white could clog your high pressure sprayers?

SM-90 (coriander oil) is also an excellent reservoir additive to keep healthy roots and help fight disease. But I’m not sure you’d want to combine it with great white.
I used to always use SM-90 in my sterile reservoir.

  1. With most of the aeroponic machines I’ve used over the years, I had the water spraying 24/7. Though I have also used timed intervals (like 1 minute on, 5 minutes off). I have no experience with high pressure aeroponics though, so I’m not sure of the answer here. I’d think timed intervals would work fine.

  2. not sure of the answer for high pressure aeroponic systems. For low pressure aeroponics, recirculating is more common.

  3. I have very little experience with autoflower plants, but if you keep them healthy and don’t stunt their growth, I don’t see why they wouldn’t do well in aeroponics/hydroponics.

  4. I have never used a coco rooting medium with aeroponics, so I have no experience with it.

Personally, I always preferred to root in an aeroponic cloner (no medium needed) then plant into something like lava rocks/hydroton. That way there was no over-wet rooting medium to worry about. I have used rockwool as a rooting medium then planted into net cups filled with hydroton then into my aeroponic machine without issues, but I still preferred no rooting medium.

Hopefully at least some of this info is helpful… lol

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Hey @TeddyNuggets ,
Thank you for taking time and answering all of my questions. Really appreciate your help!

All info is helpful, since I am newbie in aeroponics, any advice is a good advice. I read a lot of forums, articles. Try to find everything I need to have HPS system up and running.

It sounds like aero approach is time consuming, but it gives better results :slight_smile:

JFYI, I gonna use only RO water for the tank & gonna add filter of large particle and hopefully this will help with clogging.
Do you think I need additional CalMg since using RO or it’s enough to use GHE or AN 2/3 part (which should have enough of it)?

Thanks again!

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What type of aeroponic system are you going to be using?

Are you building a high pressure system (that’s where the water is pumped to the misters using much higher pressure than normal, so it can atomize the water) ? Or is it just a normal (aka: low pressure) aeroponic system?

Do you have any pictures of it? Or a drawing?

If you are going to be using RO water, I usually recommend using cal-mag but you might be able to get away without it since you’re using HPS lights. A good bass nutrient technically should have enough cal/mag.
Try without it first and if you see cal/mag deficiencies then buy some. I used to run without it under HPS lights when I was using GH 3 part.
I find that since switching to LED my plants seem more magnesium hungry.

Aeroponics does give good results, for sure. But you need to be on top of problems, because things can go bad FAST. Much faster than soil. It’s really not that hard though, as long as you have some of the basics down.

Honestly though, I prefer organic soil these days.

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  1. Salts. Stay away from organics
  2. Chillers are always optional
  3. Sterile
  4. With towers etc you’d want to fill your setup with fully rooted clones and seedlings. For a single plant I can see treating it like coco working fine for the first bit.
  5. Ultimately aero uses very little water once dialed. I’ve seen some recycle their water, using probes to reajust feed every cycle or so. I never bothered with it. Fill drums with waste and use it in your veggies shrubs and trees they’ll love you for it.
  6. Aero requires a lot of dialage to supplant coco and rdwc growth. Cuts being best. Growing autos will make it much harder to dial for each seedling.
  7. Can’t comment on coco. It’s inert etc. I’d be worried about debris

Cheers

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High pressure (around 8-10 psi). HPS = high pressure system. I know that HPS is also light (little misunderstanding).
For lights I use LED.

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