Bentley's DIY Aeroponic HPA, Northern Lights Auto, Grow Journal Jan 2021

[lvumlow]

Intro/background:

Hello, I have been a long time cannabis enthusiasts but have never cultivated indoor so this will be my first grow. I have grown some plants over the years (outdoor) but have never done much to get into the cultivation science so this will be my introduction. I moved to the mid-west US from California so I need to come up with an indoor solution to get around the weather limitations I now have and this presents space limitations as well so I started researching my options. I originally planned to start with a Coco DWC setup but i cant leave well enough alone and ultimately decided to start a DIY Aeroponics grow. I have a very small amount of space to work with so for this grow it will be all about efficiency; I am going to strive for the best quality and yield possible in the smallest space possible. I have about 5'x5' total space (for all equipment) so this will be interesting. I enjoy science and biology so this is a very exciting project.

We have many resources available for research but because there are so many variables, it am seeing a huge range of results (even with people who seem to be doing the same thing) so I will try to be as specific as I can about my environment and equipment. I hope it will be helpful to someone along the way (probably more helpful to identify things NOT to do than how to do it right but I will do my best).

DISCLAIMER: I am 100% a beginner with no real botany background so go easy on my mistakes. I almost talked myself out of posting because some people can be really judgmental on the net but I figure if it helps someone doing the same thing, it will be worth it in the long run.

Ok, on to my setup....

Because this is a completely new DIY build from the ground up and this topic can get complex very quickly, I chose to start with one seed and see how she goes. I never planned to grow anything other than personal so this will likely be a boring journal for most people who like to see big grows (I would consider this a "pocket grow"). I figure that my chances for success are pretty low being I chose a technique (Aero) that requires the most skill for my first project and this will likely fail but I will do my research and see how it goes.

I will be growing Feminized Northern Lights Auto's in the hopes of having some room for error (if that is even possible with Aeroponics) since I have read they can be very tolerant and robust plants. The autoflower feature will help me get all the lighting parameters dialed in before they are critical like when growing photo-period plants. I was advised to avoid autoflowers from most of my peers but I feel most of that feedback is centered around having as more time in veg for the largest yield. I have a small space so I don't think the autos will be a problem for me and who knows, if I can optimize my parameters well enough, I may still be able to get a decent yield? I believe they are 80% Indica, 10% Ruderalis and 10% Sativa and purchased the seeds from Growers Choice Seeds.

I got most of my equipment from Multiponics, they have been very helpful in getting me setup. If you are just starting out, reach out to them and I think you will find them just as helpful.

Equipment:

I went with a standard Aquatech 8800 pump, 2 gal accumulator tank, solenoid, 1/4" lines with nozzles from Multiponics. I am using a very basic cycle timer (analog) and a standard 27 gal tote with a 10" net pot with 4 nozzles. My lighting is from Carson Technologies (Model/SKU : CT-D02060GLB - 4x) but I added 4 additional light bars so it is now rated at 480W of LED full spectrum light controlled by a Titan digital timer (Apollo 9). They are installed in a 3x3 tent and I am using ForaMax nutrients with a 5 gal reservoir with an IceProbe chiller on it set to 68 degrees. I have good ventilation with variable speeds for both the input and exhaust ports to help me dial in temp/hum variables. I have a small humidifier and dehumidifier to help keep things stabile as well. I also have a Ubibot-GS1-AETH1RS data logger for monitoring and a inexpensive CO2 controller with a DIY CO2 generator that keeps the system at 1500ppm when the light are on.

I wanted to try and automate as much as I could so I found a great video on YouTube (linked below with all the equipment) for a DIY automatic pH doser so I will be implementing a Marine Technologies pH controller for aquariums to help stabilize my pH and also used an Inkbird temp/humidity controller to assist with some of the other environmental parameters.

So that is the basic system I am starting with and will start posting up some of the grow details a little later.

 

[lvumlow]

I wanted to provide some links to the equipment i used as a reference but I did put this together a year or two ago so not sure if there are better options today but this will hopefully help someone trying to put everything together from scratch.

This is the kit I purchased to get started:

OK, that is the bulk of my base equipment so it should give someone a general idea of how much everything costs but there is always more to buy...

Now, I talked earlier about some automation and below is a link to a YouTube video to help build a DIY pH doser. I did not compile all the items for that but they are link in the comments section of the video. I built this pretty easily and it has been very reliable but I always use a second manual meter to ensure I am where I think I am. If you have the money to spend I believe it is a worth while investment to help control pH drift but remember automation can be bad as well if something goes wrong. There is a pretty good argument that automation helps the grower get lazy so dont rely 100% on it - be sure to confirm your numbers. I did find that the sensor got dirty and my absolute pH numbers were off but since I do double check everything with a second meter I found that even when the controller was off in terms of absolute numbers it was still very reliable as a relative control (ex. once I start to see a variance in pH numbers (referenced with another handheld meter) I was able to simply adjust to automatic dose by the delta and it held steady. I may talk more about that later in the build because I did experience some pH issues along the way. I did include the pH controller info because I think i needed to find that separately.

 

[lvumlow]

Now that we have all the introductions and equipment out of the way I wanted to talk about meters and precise measurements before we get started with the grow.

Keeping in mind that I am completely new to this (it is my first time), I may have learned some lessons the hard way so I will try to give a quick opinion of my experience that I believe may help another beginner (lets face it, anything in this thread will likely only help beginners - if you are a master grower you wont be reading this). If I were going to do this all over again I would provide some advice to beginners BEFORE they begin.

Know your environment before you start a grow! This was a huge mistake on my part so assuming someone were to ask me for help getting started, I would recommend you get a good quality data logger and put it in your grow space for a good week or two so you have some "unmodified" environmental parameters for that space before you start. Do not forget that most grows will span seasons so plan for this whether your grow will transition hot or cold weather it has the potential to change everything so knowledge is power. This will help you understand just how much you will need to modify the environment. I struggled the most with environmental conditions because I did not have a complete understand of things before I dropped a seed(s). Most people are naturally in a rush but this hobby just simply does not provide immediate gratification at any stage so you will need patience anyway.

Plants (like people) can live under good OR terrible conditions and what we are all looking for is the best quality product right? The closer you are able to keep the pant in optimal conditions, the better the product will be. So, if you start your grow in a place that is way out of optimal conditions, you will need to work really hard to keep things optimal and this can result in unexpected work and expense that can be significant. I will share one such store shortly that I experienced but the bottom line here is to try and find a grow space location that is as close to optimal conditions as possible, the closer you get to this, the less work (and expense) will be required for an outstanding product in the end.

If you take a data logger and put it in your grow space and collect some data for a week or two beforehand, you will have some information that may lead you to find another location or at the least have a better understanding of the work and expense that will be required to modify that environment to optimal standards throughout your grow.

One example I have read many times is people trying to setup a grow space in a garage or upstairs attic; basically a location that is not used but many times those locations will not be insulated or well ventilated in some situations so the more you know about the unmodified temperature and humidity swings the better armed you will be for dealing with them and in many cases you may find it is better to simply find a better location. Obviously, this is something you want to know before you start.

I mentioned that I moved from California to the Mid-West and in my particular example, I started my grow the first of November. This means it is starting to get colder and the heater is on in the house 24/7. I made the mistake of placing my grow space in my basement but later realized it is literally right next to my HVAC system. At the time I started it was not overly cold yet but snow soon came and that heater has never stopped since so I am really struggling with stabile temperatures. If you done any research already you will find that when your temperature changes wildly, so does your humidity. Yes, we can chase all those parameters down and deal with them but let me expand a little on my experience. Since my heater is on and will be all through this grow I have been struggling to keep my humidity up. When you are running a humidifier all the time you will find some new problems such as mineral content in the water that will end up leaving a white powder (all the Calcium and minerals) on everything and not only does it suck to have to clean that up but it will cover your plants leaves so I have been using distilled water to solve that problem. Guess what? Distilled water is expensive! Almost as much as gasoline here in MO and I was going through 3-4 gallons of distilled water a day. It does not take long for that to add up so I would have known this if I left my data logger in that location and performed some recon first.

This is just one example of unforeseen issues that come up and every location will host a completely different set of environmental parameters that may need to be modified so do you homework before you begin.

Now, assuming you have a good idea of the environment you will be growing in you will need some basic measurement devices, thermometer's, hygrometers, light meter, TDS meters, pH meters, etc... It is incredible how many things you will need to keep track of but the thing i found most challenging was the instruments themselves. An Aeroponic solution will already be the most expensive way to grow but accurate measurements will be critical to your success so don't go cheap on your instruments. I started with a cheap garden center thermometer/hygrometer and wondered how accurate it was so I bought another one as a reference. The second unit I bought was so far away from the numbers I got from the first one that I had to buy a third one and guess what, it was nowhere close to the other two.

The bottom line here is that your grow is going to live, die or thrive based on your measurements so don't do what I did and skimp on instrument quality because you have already spent a ton of money getting started (this is why I have including a list of all my hardware and costs so you can plan accordingly. I finally ended up abandoning all those temp/hygrometers and purchased my Ubibot monitor and yes, even that had different values than all the others so at some point you just have to have a good quality device you can believe in for your measurements and since we are on this topic do yourself a favor and get a smart solution that is web-based so can monitor it while you are away and setup custom text alerts or emails for critical ranges. I wish I had done this first but once I did I stopped pulling my hair out trying to figure out if my numbers were accurate.

Last thing; I see this a lot too - if you are planning to start a grow (let alone try it for the first time) it is recommended to not travel. If you are in a role that requires you to be away a lot you are likely to experience some failures so plan things well and have a backup resource to keep and eye on things while you are away. This is where some of the smart web-based monitors and worth their weight in gold. When I first started this grow, it was like taking care of an infant; I was constantly checking it and trying to correct problems along the way.

...with all that out of the way, lets begin the grow...

 

[lvumlow]

I germinated this grow on 10/29/20 and didn't see my first sprout until 11/4/20 which seems to be normal. There is another thread on this forum titled "Timings for nutrients with Aeroponic set up?" where I am hoping to revive some good discussions about feeding and cycle times but I started mine at a relatively aggressive pace initially (5s on and 30s off). I try to avoid having any of my sprayers contacting the root structure (at this stage i cannot even see the roots yet and the mist will need to travel a long way up until the net pot cage and reach the tap root. If you search for that post, I uploaded pictures of my roots along the way to see how they develop and I will try to post more in here.

Here are the first 2 weeks of growth:

Day 1

Day 5

Day 9

Day 13

Day 17

There were no visible root structures because this is in a 10" net pot and I left the cage in place to help with stability. I did not actually get to see any roots until about day 20.

 

[lvumlow]

By the third week, I started to decrease my cycle feeding times from 5s on / 30s off to 5s on /100s off and here are another two weeks of progress...

Day 18

Day 25: I started my LST training on day 25. I did not have a plan on how I was going to achieve this so what you see is a simple hanger with a wood block on the end for weight. I am not growing in a pot that has an easy way to secure straps but I will share the solution i found once we get there. This is another example of me not being ready for what was the come so plan ahead. The plant is extremely dense? Not sure what is going on and actually everything about this plan is different that anything I have seen in the past.

Day 30

I started to see my root structure penetrate the net pot cage on day 25. Remember, this is a 10" net pot so the cage is really deep but I wanted to start this plant in it final location so no transplanting. Here are some of the roots at day 25

 

[lvumlow]

Day 35: You will see that because I am growing from a tote, there is no place to secure LST anchors so I remembered that the paintless dent repair industry utilizes hot glue for repairs and with a drop of alcohol it comes right off so I tried that here and it works great. I bought a spool of wire ties from the garden center and simply cut the wire to length and placed a drop of hot glue on the rim of the net pot and continued with my LST training. When I am done, a simple drop of alcohol will release them...

Note: when I was using that hanger with the weight on the end I accidently topped my girl (didnt realize it was so close to the top). I had planned on not topping because of the autoflower cycle but it looks like I am all-in now...lol

On 12/1/20, I changed my feeding cycle times to 5s on / 3m off and monitored my roots; they looked to be a little moist for my taste so I backed it off again on 12/4/20 to 5s on / 5m off...

Day 40: This is where I encountered my first failure. I had purchased an IceProbe aquarium chiller for the reservoir and the power supply appears to have failed. My reservoir got on the warm side (enough I could noticeably smell the nutrients so I contacted the company for a warranty replacement and never heard back from them, sent emails, called - no reply so be careful with that company. Fortunately I have a second IceProbe for my DIY CO2 project (that we will discuss later) so I was able to dump my nuts and start fresh. I was ultimately able to take the specs off the failed power supply and procured a universal one to replace it. I did have to rewire the pins so they were correct but I was back up and running in no time.

Day 45: I found another problem today; I wanted my light schedule to be 18/6 but for some strange reason I found that it was set at 16/8 for the first 6 weeks of this grow and I have always felt like it was small and maybe this explains it but the lesson here is even if you think you set things properly - go back and double check things once in awhile...

The root structure is now starting to get some traction and i am feeling pretty good at the progress. This is one area where I see a lot of variation. If your roots look long and stringy, I believe this is an indication they are getting either too much water or your nozzle and not atomizing the droplets to the levels you want in an aeroponic grow. This is just my observation and I may be wrong but I think you will see the difference I am talking about...

Roots Day 31

Roots Day 36

Roots Day 41

Roots Day 45: I try to keep an eye on them but also want to avoid too much light getting into the root chamber.
NOTE: you may notice that I have a yellow lid on my tote - never use those unless you make arrangements to ensure it is completely opaque. What you cannot see here is that I have two lids hot glued together (to act as a temp. insulator) with aluminum foil in between them. This also provided must needed stability to the net pot as it is hot glued to both lids. There is no light penetrating through my lid.

 

[lvumlow]

Day 50

Day 56: starting to see signs of flower...

Day 62

Day 67

 

[lvumlow]

This is probably a good time to talk about CO2. I have literally tried everything from Exhale bags, Sugar/Yeast buckets, Sodium Bicarbonate/folic Acid Buckets and let me share my experience along the way.

I bought the CO2 sensor for my Ubibot monitor and it works great so I can at lease see where my levels are now. Now my only problem is how to supply an effective level of CO2? I tried all the things above with terrible luck. Dont waste your time with exhale bags, they are literally worthless and a waste of money. The other chemical solutions either produce odors and/or do not produce a regular consistent supply of CO2. Then one day I get a work call while I am working in the garden and the call ran on for about an hour and a half, but when I got back to my desk I see this huge spike of CO2 in my logs and low and behold it is during the time that I was on the call. For a long time I was playing with all the mentioned items above and could barely move the needle but I get one call and my own breathe sent me over 1000ppms just by talking so at least I know my monitors are working properly.

Now, I start looking at the other main options: CO2 bottle (which requires a regulator and controller) .vs some of the other propane generators and because I am in a really tight area, heat is an issue so the propane is not looking like a good option. CO2 bottles are not easily filled as I live in a rural town that is really small. I did see a water cooled CO2 generator that looked promising so I bought it only to find out weeks later is has been discontinued and no longer available which is a bummer because the solution looked perfect. The problem now is that it is not available anywhere and while I was looking at the comments section of it I see a post from someone who recommended to avoid that product anyway because it was unreliable and to simply look into a camping tankless water heater. Interesting?

Funny thing is, I didn't even know there was such a thing. I have to laugh a little but come on; camping and hot showers don't really associate with each other right? Anyway, I understand the basic concept which is the release CO2 as a byproduct of the propane burner in the water heater so I performed a quick little test with a Coleman 10,000 BTU propane heater. I lit it for a few minutes and wow, my CO2 levels sky rocketed so I decided to dig a little deeper and eventually ended up getting a CampLux portable tankless water heater along with a 7.5gal bucket and hoped I could simply recirculate the water (hoping the bucket of water would serve to buffer the heat). Well, let me save you some time if you are thinking about some crazy solution like this; it can work (I have it working properly) but it was a rabbit hole that (like many others) made me wish I had just spent the money on a CO2 tank, regulator and controller. I thought I was going to save money and ultimately it ended up costing me about the same in the long run plus all the engineering hassle but it does provide one valuable option; you can route the hot water to a different room to be cooled so i may have some value for the right situation. The problem now is that the water heater works really well and the output temperature from it easily exceeds 160 degrees and that simply is never going to cool off in time if you are recirculating it in a 7 gal bucket. Unfortunately, I was already invested in this hair-brained scheme so I wanted to share the awful experience with you so you can learn from my challenges. I tried to use a fountain pump to recirculate my water and you will find that most fountain pumps do not have a high pressure or volume spec so I spent $80 to get a high power fountain pump that would hopefully solve the pressure/volume problem only to find out that none of them will tolerate the high temps that come from the water heater. Ultimately, I tried purchasing a pump for home beer brewing and this seemed to solve the heat problem but then I found out that the water heater itself will over heat if you cannot get water cooled enough so more money wasted... This was a classic case of terrible research but I was looking for answers any place i could find them and everything was hypothetical anyway (I did not find anyone with this configuration actually working) tried to make it work. In the end, I ended up purchasing some inexpensive water radiators designed for cooling CPU's on amazon to cool off the water and the final modification was to purchase a 5v power supply so I can change this unit from battery power to AC and I have to say that as ugly of a solution that it is - it does work flawlessly now but it was a drag working through all the challenges along the way.

Bottom line: if you want to utilize something similar, I would recommend you have a good cooling solution or get a lower BTU heater or possibly both? Mine is a CampLux 65000 BTU portable camping heater and it is way over-powered in terms of CO2. I have it controlled by a CO2 controller and it kicks on for about 3 min every 30 min or so and keeps my room at 1500ppm when the light is on. a propane tank lasts a pretty good amount of time (over a week) .

Here are some pics (like i said, it is an ugly solution but there is something to learn along the way so I figured I would share it even though I am slightly embarrassed by the scope creep).

 

[lvumlow]

OK, now that we are starting to see signs of flower I want to be a little more careful about things so all the LST came of and she can run brawless from now on. I will still tuck a branch or two to keep the canopy relatively level but trying to avoid any undo stress from this point and hope I dont make any mistakes.

Day 73. You can see all the water dripping from the roots when I pulled her out so I am wondering if I can get any more efficiency out of her by getting that root mass a little more dry?

Day 77: I have been pretty fortunate in terms of deficiencies although I did notice what appeared to be a Ca deficiency a while ago but seems to be fixed by raising my pH a little and topping off with tap water instead of RO.

Day 84: she is starting to stack nicely. I wish they were more gearthy but we still have time to fatten up and overall I am pleased with the tight density. This is really what this entire grow is all about; maximizing quality/yield in a small area so hopefully things will continue to mature with no problems.

Day 86:

This pretty much catches me up to the current state. I will try to post up as we progress...

 

[lvumlow]

Day 89

Now that I am approaching the last phase I wanted to get ready for harvest. Like many of you, I have put in a lot of time and investment in my grow and want to be sure I stay on my game for the important process of harvest, drying and curing.

It is always fun when I see the UPS man driving up the driveway. Look what we have:

These are the CVault storage solutions. They are a little on the pricy side but I am trying to up my efficiency game and these will help ensure I get the best cure/storage possible. If you have not seen them, do a quick search - they are definitely worth looking at...

Here is the kit I got that is linked to the vendor for anyone interested:

 

[lvumlow]

I had a crazy day today. The Chiefs lost and every instrument in my garden went ape-shit today. Temp, Humidity, pH, EC; they were all going crazy. I have another thread going about root chamber maintenance and this is something I will have to try and figure out. I have no idea what happened. I have an automatic pH doser running and it ate through both my pH+ and pH- bottles overnight. I guess this is one of the con's of automation, if something goes wrong and the system is unattended it can wreak havoc for your system. Anyway, I flushed the whole system again (took many cycles to get my return lines pH and ppms down to normal levels. I am definitely going to have to make some changes for the next grow, just not sure what to do yet. I did notice it and get it fixed quickly but if I was not around, she would likely be dead now (had the humidity drop below 35%, my EC went over 2.5 and my pH topped 6.5. The whole system went wacky, maybe we had a solar flare today, who knows... More pics soon.

 

[lvumlow]

I have some idea of what happened yesterday. It looks like we hit near zero temperatures yesterday and it looks like a door was not closed all the way (overnight) and that triggered our HVAC to blast the furnace overtime all night straight. I mentioned earlier that I chose a poor location for my grow (in the basement, right next to the HVAC system) so that dried out the room, such that it overpowered both my humidifiers which can explain the temp/hum swing but I am still not sure what caused the EC/pH swing but after flushing everything thoroughly, I can see the system is nice and stabile again. That was pretty scary considering I am in week 5 of flower. I was hoping to have all parameters dialed and stabile during this critical time but I guess this is another lesson learned. I have two humidifiers (one in my lung room and one in the tent itself and with both max'd out, the highest I could get the humidity was 40% so I was working with some extremes. It is supposed to drop to -10F by next week so I will be in for a ride until things warm up.

I did have some luck here in that my crazy DIY CO2 generator utilizes a camping hot water heater and I use a small 7 gal. bucket to recirculate the water in my lung room (this reservoir averages about 100-110F so I popped the lid and that helped get my humidity back up to 50% but that appears to be my limit with the weather we have right now.

It was a crazy day, oh - I forgot to mention I found my first clogged nozzle also so it was a series of failures but I was able to correct everything in a relatively short timeframe so the plant still looks good. I had things running so smoothly that I was starting to get lazy about checking on her so don't drop your guard if you are running a system like this. It will fail just when you least expect it...

One a side note, this is the first grow for me inside (from seed) so with the extreme cold outside I have not had one pest for the entire grow and that aspect alone makes all the other work totally worth it. I will get some updated pics up soon. Not much has changed recently, my growth seems to have slowed. I wish the buds were fattening up more, they seem to be relatively the same thickness but stacking and filling in. I look at it 10 times a day so it seems that it is not changing much lately. She is drinking over a gallon a day and getting frosty. I believe the smell is starting to sweeten up but I could be going crazy, for a long time the smell was making my nauseous whereas now it smells sweeter to me?

That's it for for now, more updates to come...

 

[lvumlow]

 

[BirdieNumNum]

One insane grow ! Well done !

You do realise you are going to have to smoke this lot in under a week or the challenge will not be complete...

 

[lvumlow]

Any guesses on yield?

 

[BirdieNumNum]

I am new grower and like you am growing for personal use.

I was trying to do as good a scientific job as I could (within my budget and available time etc) but I have been happy enough to just get the plants to harvest, dried and cured over beating myself up over yields.

Obviously anyones level of motivation, priority, time and other resources change over time and i am no different..

I have had untrained Autos producing more than trained non auto strains, neglected autos producing more than heavily tended plants, used flower boosters, bottled CO2, light movers, Ozone generator, aquarium chillers, heaters - but all in DWC.

The biggest yield i have had from one plant was a Gorilla based Auto with CO2 that I pretty much left alone. It had huge colas and i ended up with over a lb of wet trimmed bud. Turned out not to be the best smoke for my taste - possibly went over ideal harvesting date - as it is a send you off to sleep smoke...

Now I am focussed more on building up a collection of different strains and my set up is sufficiently understood by me to get a harvest more times than not and with relatively little time input from me - i can leave the grow for a week without looking in on it.

I would say you will close to a maximum possible yield looking at that plant but if you had more plants in there and did less training etc it seems to me entirely possible if not likely that you would get a higher yield.

I have messed around with defoliation and super cropping and mainlining but I havent done basic training as you have - mainly for similar reasons you mention - not having anything to attach the tie downs to but I will definitely be trying your glue method.

It isnt legal to grow here in the UK and I am not in house that I own, so i have to be a little more careful than i would like but I love all the automation options that are available and coming on line. I am going Coco on my next grow - because I may need to hide my plants in the garden and pulling them out of 100l DWC reservoirs - is messy ! Much easier to pick up some plants in pots and hide them in the "jungle" section of my garden...


As more kit comes on board at a better price ( I am no electrical engineer) set ups like yours will become more accessible and reliable but on my journey it seems to me that it is pretty easy to learn to grow some smoke and prioritising a high quality sufficient and efficient light source along with ph and ppm/EC meters and a fan is where most people should start...

I have found this guys attempts to produce a commercial product very funny and informative..

 

[lvumlow]

Everything is fattening up daily; starting to get some droop. She's drinking over a gallon a day so looking forward to a bulk-up...

 

[lvumlow]

... been on a roller coaster lately with this grow; we have been under a crazy freeze lately that has wreaked havoc with my environmental conditions. A door got left open and resulted in my heater running all night and completely dried out the whole room. I have two humidifiers and they couldn't keep up.

My DIY (hillbilly) CO2 generator failed. I wasted tons of time by mis-diagnosing the problem. My girlfriend figured it out; turned out to be a screen filter in the inlet line was clogged which reduced the pressure to the point that the unit would not turn on.

Anyway, all else is good. This phase of the grow seems to be slowing (difficult to see to much change) but she is drinking almost 2 gal a day so I hope the buds continue to fatten up...

 

[leblanca]

The plants seems to grow very well, and is quiet dense, its very nice.
One advice that i noticed, humidity doesnt make a huge difference, i grew my previous harvest way under optimal VPD the whole harvest, between 20-30% humidity and pulled out almost 3 pounds of 3 plants.
CO2 is probably not needed for your case, from what i understand CO2 enrichment is usefull when growing under very intense light AND high temperature AND high dose of fertilizer. If all the parameter are not there the Extra co2 is not absorbed by the plant.
I would also recommend to seal the grow room if you really want to use CO2, using a full bottle of propane per month means you are losing most of your CO2 by leaks, i read on a guy who had a sealed closet for co2 and 1 bottle of propane lasted him 3 grow.
But things are looking good, keep it up.

 

[lvumlow]

I was pushing my temps to the mid 80's and close to 1000 micro moles per s/m² so I wanted to provide the CO2 in case I get things running close to optimal values. I have my room relatively sealed but I'm sure it leaks some (just nothing terrible). I only get about 2 weeks out of a 20# bottle of propane. The unit only runs for about 6 min/hr and during daylight only (18hrs). I wish I had a way of quantifying any of my efforts? My main goal was to try and provide as many optimal parameters as possible there is no real way to tell what it would look like if I did nothing...

Thanks for the advice, I have some new design changes in the works for 2.0. This was my pilot run and a proof of concept. I really did not expect the plant to make it though the whole grow since I have never attempted an indoor grow let alone introducing the Aero technology.

I am hoping for a good yield and with decent quality that will set the pace to beat for the next grow now that I have a little experience under my belt.