Aerogarden Help

I've tried my best to get my Aerogarden to start growing some Autoflower Lowryder and some Sour D. I've attempted 4 seeds, with all of them failing terribly. I germinate the seeds perfectly fine, with atleast 1/2 and inch of the tap root out of the seed. Two of the seeds actually had the two leaves spring out from the seed before I put them in the aerogarden. The problem occurs once I put them into the garden. No matter what happens, they do not grow at all, and instead become frail/weak. In my germination the root was actually kinda strong, but after two days in the aerogarden, if I touch it even the slightest bit, the root falls to pieces. This happened to two of the plants. The other two, did not have any leaves yet, but about 1/4-1/3 inch of the tap root out when I inserted them into the aerogarden. After 4 days, I have looked into the aerogarden and the seed had not grown at all. I'm curious as to know what I'm doing wrong as I've heard the Aerogarden is so simple! (This is my first attempts on trying to grow)

I have the 4 CFL hood mod and also have the RENA 200 air pump.

Thanks,
Twisted

Have you set the pump to run 24/7? There should be instructions in the manual that comes with it to do so. If the root is really that frail, it sounds like it may be drying up.

Although it wouldn't really make the root frail, but are you pHing the water (make sure there's no nutrients at first, just plain water - if tap water, have it sit out for at least 24 hours beforehand). If the pH is too high or low, it can really slow growth - it should be 5.5-6.0

You're really not going to fit more than one full grown auto in there, and ultimately you can only yield so much with such a small reservoir.

I also think those CFLs are 6500k, which are perfectly fine for veg, but you're going to want 2700k spectrum lighting for flowering, which with autoflowering comes on after 2-3 weeks time.

What kind of nutrients do you plan on using?

Lastly, just FYI the aerogarden isn't aeroponics at all. It's simply a top-fed DWC (deep water culture).

Thanks for the reply! Do you think that it could be the root being TOO wet with the AG's pump system constantly running water through the rock-wool? Ofcourse heat is a very big option for my situation too because I am currently building a Growbox, but at this time it's stored in the attic which can sometimes be at 100F+.

The water I used was filtered water with trying to get the pH down to about 5.9-6.0 (First attempt I realized that the water was at ~8.0!)

And yeah I wasn't expecting to start a farm, but instead just a personal stash for myself and friend throughout the year. I have the Advanced Nutrients pH Perfect Grow, Micro, Bloom for my growing setup whenever I am able to work out the growing problems. So the best bet for me would be that the environment should be changed and also being more careful with the water. Currently I'm trying to find an RO water filtration location that I can just go to instead of buying an entire system for myself.

Twisted

Those temps just won't work, especially at the seedling stage when they're the most fragile. Seems that is the source of the problem. You really don't want to go over 85f, and even so it's preferable to stay ~75f. You may just have to wait until you have a proper spot for them instead of wasting seeds.

The pump should be running 24/7 in there so don't worry about that causing them to be too wet.

Unless you have a ppm meter you can't know for sure, but runoff/distilled water really isn't necessary unless you have really hard water. My tap water is ~110ppm and has worked just fine - I don't even need to use as much calmag (which you will most likely need as a supplement since you're growing hydro).

For the first ~1½ weeks before the plant needs any nutrients the pH doesn't have to be perfect, it can be slightly out of the 5.5-6.0 range as that's meant for them to be able to uptake nutrients in the reservoir, however if it's far too high or low then it's a poor environment for them and they will suffer. You'll know when the plant is ready for nutrients as it's very first set of leaves, the cotyledons (the oval-shaped ones), will start to yellow and die off... that is normal and to be expected. If it's an autoflower you're growing start with very small amount of nutes (1/8th-1/4 recommended) and work from there, as autoflowers are known to be more nutrient sensitive - more doesn't mean better, bigger harvests.

I did a couple closet grows with an aerogarden a few years back when I just started, and honestly in the end you are much better off building a simple bubble bucket. Much better yield potential and much cheaper than an aerogarden. However, since you have it you mine as well give it a try.

How much do you and your friend smoke? I'm just going to assume that he/she is a very close friend and someone you can trust with anything, and since it's a very small setup there's hopefully not much temptation to screw one another over. Unless you two are very light smokers, though, I don't see this supplying you with what you need.

Yeah I'm getting all the materials ready to begin building, going to have atleast 2 fans going inside. Yeah I think my tap water should be okay, but I might as well try with some RO water (Found it at Target). I appreciate your help, I've been looking through many different journals, tutorials, guides, etc for about a week and still wasn't quite sure about my problem, so really thank you!

And yeah we've been friends for about 10 years, and trust each other with everything. I probably smoke 2gs/month so for me it's not really a worry about running out before another grow would be done.

I have found that you can easily transfer a plant from soil to an aerogarden and encounter little complication. I carefully wash the soil away from my roots and set them up in my aerogarden. I have never had a problem doing this. So maybe you should try growing the seedlings out a bit in soil and then switch them to the aerogarden

I had 2 friends try to use aerogarden with auto flower and both had weak results. Not saying it wont work just seems the results arent that great for aerogardens.

Twisted: I've got three and I've never had that problem. Lets' compare notes.
1. I plant in the covered seed pods with the humidity domes in place . That way I don't have to transplant the sprouts and risk transplant shock. That could be your down fall.
2. Are you sure your distribution manifold is irrigating all your cages? I had one that was plugged up and only got six out of seven seeds started once.
3. I soften my pods in a glass of water for about a half hour then bury my seeds, 'pointy end down,' twice as deep as they're long. Some times I cover them and sometimes I don't. It doesn't really seem to matter.
4. Then I leave them in the dark for 24 hours to swell with the irrigation going from the pump but the lamp cord disconnected from the hood.
5. When they sprout and come up through the little hole in the paper cover I remove the humidity dome.
Are you doing anything different? I hope that helps. It's not much different from what they tell you to do in the owner's manual. Hank

Edited by Hank Alvarez, 15 June 2012 - 04:08 PM.