And it begins! My first grow ever, I thought I'd try a small one in this Aerogarden Ultra I just received. My goal is to harvest my own personal meds and try to keep a year round supply learning as I go. 1-2 zones would be a successful first run to me. Wish me luck and any advice or constructive criticism is welcomed!! Supplies: 1 x Auto Berry Ryder & 1 x Auto Mass Diesel(Blake & Daphne) Aerogarden Ultra w/3 x 26w daylight cfl(I think) 2 x 42w 2700k cfl Mylar to cover top of ag and to use as makeshift reflectors Temp/Humid digital probe Ph & ppm meters GH ph up & down GH FloraSeries with Liquid Koolbloom and FloraBlend Distilled water Oscillating fan 2 x 6 inch air stones 10 gallon air pump w/tubing Day 4: Daphne(mass diesel) has her leaves and has begun her journey Blake(Berry Ryder) seems to be taking her time coming out of her shell, she has her root in place but her leaves aren't showing yet(maybe tonight). This is the 4th day since I placed the seeds in the pods and the first day I could see Daphne without having to look for her any tips are very welcome as stated before. Thanks for stopping by!
Going good so far still waiting on Blake to show herself, gonna change the reservoir water tomorrow. I'm contemplating whether or not to add a little nutes but since the seed leaves are still green I'm not sure.
I'm kinda an intuitive gardener, so I figure adding one thing at a time in increments is the easier way to figure out what your plants want. If you want more SCIENCE! There's a bunch of threads here, but my experience is: light, oxygen, water, attention.
Week 2, Day 8 Blake finally peeked out of her pod and is looking ok Did first reservoir change yesterday, ph'd 1.5 gallons of distilled water to 5.8 and added 7.5ml of GH FloraBlend(just to help with root development). Daphnes' roots seemed to like it no real difference with Blakes. Ph held at 5.8 overnight. Temps are consistently between 75-80, RH is between 32-55%(have to run my humidifier to keep it on the higher end). Gonna run this grow at 24/0 unless I have major problems. Blake Daphne
Small update just a note for my next grow. Week 2: Day 11 I added FloraBlend to my last reservoir change, ph'd to 5.8/70ppm. Yesterday I checked, ph had rose to 6.1 and ppm dropped to 25, so the girls liked the FloraBlend . I then topped off with ph'd water, added 10ml FloraBlend and ph'd ppm came out to 126 so far both girls have doubled in size since last week, not sure if its natural progression or the FloraBlend, I'm hoping the latter. l'll have pics at the beginning of week 3 which should be start of flowering but I think my girls are behind but who knows what two more days may bring.
Week 3 Day: 15 Things are looking pretty good. I still think my girls are growing a little slow but they are growing. Yesterday I emptied the reservoir and added 1/4 strength nutes(using Gh's aggressive growth schedule): 2.8ml FloraMicro, 4.7ml FloraGro, 0.9 FloraBloom and 3.8 FloraBlend supplement. PPM/320, Ph/5.6, Temps/76-82, Rh/30-47. Daphne is looking nice I think she will be short and bushy, while Blake has what I'll call "character", her first set of true leaves grew at a 90 degree angle and circled her pod(weird). She is trying to stretch which is typical of her strain(from what I've seen) and her second set of true leaves seem to be growing strong. Blake is taller than Daphne atm even though it took her a couple more days to come out of her pod. I am going to monitor how the girls do this week on the 1/4 strength nutes and might bump them to 1/3 strength since they should be close to flowering if they haven't started already. Daphne Blake
Well had a little extra time on my hands and came up with the idea of turning the trellis attachment that came with the AG Ultra into a mini scrog screen using some kitchen twine and a little tape. I know I won't be able to fill the screen since I'm growing autos but it should help when Blake starts to stretch and will come in real handy when I decide to grow a photo strain. Here it is...
How big is the screen, as for using it on an auto, not the best solution imo, I'd just go with some LSTing, I promise once you bend her over the vertical growth will stop.
The screen is 14"L x 8"W centered. Thanks again for the advice, guess I'll be learning some LSTing this grow . I have one question though,(iyo) which training method is the least stressful it seems like scrog would be since you're just pulling the top of the plants down and redirecting them under the screen vs. pinning the top down in lst?
Probably not what you want to here but if I was you, I'd look to unload your aerogarden as its never going to provide you with proper growing environment for MJ, just saying, for the cost of that you could have had a tent + light and a good start to the carbon filter for odor control. As for the screen, way to small imo to be effective. On to training, there both low stress training techniques, one you tie down and one you pull down, but with the tie down method(LSTing) you have more versatility i.e. easier to move around and make changes.
I can feel what your saying about the AG, in comparison to your grow and a lot of the journals I've read but I am starting with micro grows to learn what I'm doing and with a small amount of space. If I can master this Aerogarden and get good personal yields I'll consider it a 200$ well spent. You were spot on about the lst because it definitely will give me a lot more room to make changes if needed vs trying to reach up under the screen I made but when I pop this NL BLUE in May I'm gonna try my luck and see what it do
Each to their own, right? I like my AG for a small personal grow and to get my other veggie and herb plants going, and it's just fine. For a bigger grow, of course there's other ways to increase yield. It's fun to see what people can accomplish with whatever tools are at their disposal, though.
Thanks for posting all of this. I just bought myself an AG ultra with the same intentions and have found your posts all very helpful. I have zero experience so it's going to be a big experiment for me. Thanks and keep up the good work!
Thanks and welcome aboard, I look forward to seeing your progress. I'll be glad to help or offer any tips. I am learning to so it will be interesting.