First Grow! - Aerogarden Ultra With Mars Reflector 48 Using CK Dwarf Low Flyer

[Renegade69]

Haven't popped in here in a while. Things are looking good. Those babies are about to blast off.

I went back to check out renegade's journal and realized it was what I based my aerogarden grow on. It's a must read for sure.

Wow....you braved that storm...LOL.

Checkin in, checkin out....

 

[CMJJMC2000]

Day 7: 7AM temp 72F with humidity of 50%, 8PM temp 76F with humidity of 50%. One week since I started germinating seeds. I'm now left with 2 very health specimens of Crop King Dwarf Low Flyer. Leaves seem to be doubling in size daily. The diameter of the plant now exceeds the diameter of the growing cup and shroud. I may start up the directional fan tomorrow night on a very very low setting. They're getting a small amount of air circulation through the closet + office with the ceiling fan on low setting.
I did what may be (hopefully) the last mod of the aerogarden by cutting out a good bit of the plastic near the top of the front left area, underneath the flap that comes out for water fills. I left just enough of the bar on the right to see where the fill line is. The opening underneath the flap is now less obstructed and I can get my PH and PPM pens easily into the reservoir for more accurate readings.

PH in the reservoir read 6.2 so I dropped it back to 5.6. No PPM spike today, replacing the water in the aerovoir with 1/4 strength cal-mag made a big difference.

I'm going to get the Mars Hydro hung back up tomorrow and am hoping to be able to start using that next week. Root growth is tremendous right now, the grow sponges are sprouting roots everywhere! The taproot that's been dangling from #2 (rear left) has sent off a lot of runners into the water, very exciting to see this much change on a daily basis. I'm not used to seeing any of the below ground activity on plants and this is truly fascinating. I dropped temp on the ice probe chiller to 69F tonight. It's handling the heat from the 24/7 pump with ease.

Pics attached below............
#1 (rear right) above ground and below ground....

#2 (rear left) above ground and below ground....

And for scale......

 

[420forsure]

Looking great!

 

[CMJJMC2000]

Day 8: Morning and Night temp and humidity was 75F and 48% humidity. PH is at 5.9 and PPM is 245. Did another 1/4 dose of voodoo juice and roots are exploding. Second set of leaves on #1 are fully out and getting bigger. Both plants are looking quite healthy, leaves pointed slightly up. Reservoir temp has stayed at 69F all day thanks to the chiller. It seems quite efficient, only clicking on for about 2-3 minutes and then off for 10 or more until the heat creeps up to 69.5F. If growth keeps up at the current pace I'll be switching over to the Vegging lights on Monday night. The Mars Hydro will be about 18" above the tops of the plants and I'll only have the "growth" portion of that panel turned on. Going to only use that light for another week and then once the plant is hardened up, I'll throw the supplemental lighting in.

I don't want to jinx anything, but I'm quite pleased with how the Aerogarden is doing. If I can keep up current level of care/maintenance (which is really only about 20 minutes per day) then I'm optimistic that these will be two real beauties.
CK's website says only about 11% THC, which is quite low in my opinion, so they may not be a big hitter like some other strains. However, I'm hoping the advanced nutrients can maximize the plants potential.

Pics of #1 below ground and above

Pics of #2 below ground and above

and for scale....

 

[CMJJMC2000]

A little bit of a last minute decision, but I went ahead and removed the stock aerogarden LED hood and now have the seedlings under the MarsHydro 48 reflector using the "grow" setting. I've got it set for 17 hours of run right now. I figure that I'll be able to observe it closer this weekend than I would on a workday, so if this light proves to be too much I can always toss the stock hood back on for a few more days. It's about 24" above the top of the seedlings.

 

[CMJJMC2000]

Day 9: Morning temp 73F with 49% humidity. Plants seem to be doing well under the Mars Hydro Reflector 48 (102 true watts). I'm attaching an image of a weird leaf deformation that I'm seeing on plant #2. The leaf is sort of bowing down in a small section. Please see attached - anything I should worry about? It's on the right part of the leaf in this image.

 

[Heraldo]

Doesn't seem like a problem. In my experience those leaves tend to be kind of weirdos and will probably end up drying up and falling off when she's bigger anyway. Looks like they're liking the new lamp.

 

[CMJJMC2000]

Awesome, thank you for the input!

 

[420forsure]

Yeah iv had thoughs leaves do that a many number of times.

 

[CMJJMC2000]

Thanks for the reassurance, folks. I was hoping it wasn't a sign of something serious. I'll get more pics of the daily progress tonight. 3rd set of leaves is visible on #1 and barely visible on #2. I added in a 1/4 dose of sensi grow A + B this morning and PPM's are at 330. PH steady at 5.7. Temp at 77F and humidity at 50%.

 

[Ferboldt]

Nice grow.

I'm an AeroGarden grower too. Check also my grow journey with Lemon OG Haze Auto Fem.

Now I have a second grow with AK48 and AeroGarden Bounty

 

[CMJJMC2000]

Aerogarden growers seem few and far between here, which is understandable given the constrains that exist with the stock unit. If they made a version with a 2 or 3 gallon reservoir it would be phenomenal. Good luck with your grows, I checked them both out. The root ball on that Lemon is impressive. It should flower up nicely!

Day 9: Night temp is 77F and humidity is at 47%. The air is exceptionally dry this weekend so I'm not going to push it go above 50%. It's been 24 hours now under after removing the stock hood. Plants seem to be loving the Mars Hydro reflector series. Leaves are looking great and filling out nicely - as are the roots. Hope to see the plants start absorbing some nutes soon, but they're still quite young. This marks the 7th day that the plants have popped up above ground and I'm pleased with the progress so far. I've attached pics below of the current state of things....

Plant #1

Plant #2

And the whole sha-bang for scale...

 

[CMJJMC2000]

Day 10: 10 days from seed and about 7.5 days since breaking the surface. Very pleased with the continued growth. Morning temp was 71F and humidity of 40%, tonight's temp was 73F with 50% humidity. PH of reservoir was 5.9 and PPM of 330 when I started maintenance tonight. I rigged up a hand pump and drained the Aerogarden reservoir along with the Aerovoir 1 gallon top off jug. I topped off a little over a gallon in the Aerogarden reservoir with 1/2 dose calimagic, 1/3 dose of grow A, 1/3 dose of grow B and 2/3 dose of voodoo juice. PH of this was 5.6 and PPM at 235. I used 7PPM RO water that I PH'd to 5.5 for the Aerovoir refill with no nutrients added. I hope that by doing this I can determine if/when the plants are absorbing nutes from the water. I brewed up 5 gallons of the nute water, using the dosages above so I have a good bit left and can add to the existing nute levels if the plants tell me to do so.
I took a peek at the roots while the reservoir was empty - very cool! It's starting to really take off below the water.
My next modification will be to rig some pantyhose over the pump, in hopes to keep future root growth away from the impeller. Best solution for now, maybe I can think of something better.

Anyhow, here are some pics!
Plant #1

Plant #2

And for scale....

 

[420forsure]

I have a buddy with some dwarfs. After seeing his today. I almost think you could of pulled off 2 more.

 

[CMJJMC2000]

I have a buddy with some dwarfs. After seeing his today. I almost think you could of pulled off 2 more.

Same strain or a different dwarf? From the grow I saw on youtube - which was done in soil - I think 2 will probably be pushing this 1.2 gallon res to the limits. I hope I'm right, because I'm optimistically aiming for 20g per plant, dried. Looking at the plants structure forming, I'm thinking these will look like 2 tiny Christmas trees. I know I'm thinking a bit far into the future, but I feel like I'm doing an OK job of this! Parameters are staying in a tight range, chiller is holding the res temp at 69F, and I haven't made any major errors yet. I hope I can keep it on track.

The knowledge I've gained from reading all of these other grow journals and nute threads has been so helpful. I hope that, once completed, this journal will help someone else along their path.

 

[arteekay]

Grabbing a seat, just a spectator though, won't have much to offer other than moral support.

 

[CMJJMC2000]

Grabbing a seat, just a spectator though, won't have much to offer other than moral support.

Thanks for stopping by, I've read your Autoflower grow - looks like we got started for the same reasons! Hope you enjoy the stay, I keep twice daily logs of all my metrics and update daily with pictures.

 

[420forsure]

Yeah. Difdetent strain. And yes your doing perfect. And it will be interesting to see what you come up with. I am thinking you can probably push past the max thc level as well that is stated on their site.

 

[CMJJMC2000]

Yeah. Difdetent strain. And yes your doing perfect. And it will be interesting to see what you come up with. I am thinking you can probably push past the max thc level as well that is stated on their site.

420, thanks for the vote on confidence! If it comes out similar to the youtube dwarf low flyer grow/harvest, I'm going to be very pleased.

 

[CMJJMC2000]

Day 11: 11 days from seed and 8.5 days above ground. They're looking good and growing daily. Morning temp was 71F with 43% humidity, night temp was 75F with 54% humidity. Reservoir temp at 69F. Somewhat surprising, the PH of the reservoir was up to 6.2 when I got home this afternoon vs 5.7 this morning. I thought this may be a sign that the plants are eating some of the nutes, but PPM is 260. Thinking that maybe the nutes weren't fully dispersed last night during my water brew? Little bit of a mystery there. Seems like things are kind of on autopilot right now while the plant starts getting into veg mode. I noticed a small ammount of height increase today, maybe 1/4". I'm hoping to start seeing the main stem swell up soon and thicken up. Roots are looking great on #1, the sponge is penetrated by roots all over the surface while #2 does more impressive things below the water surface. #1 is a full day older than #2, crazy how much of a difference 1 day makes in this growth stage.

I'm including some pictures, tonight, that will probably help to better illuminate my setup of the Aerogarden - including the chiller mounting and makeshift stand as well how I have my aerovoir, 2 air hoses for the stones and the ice probe set up with the Aerogarden.

From left to right......Aerovoir top off hose, airline to the cylindrical airstone, temperature probe for chiller, airline to 4" circular airstone. I got the circular airstone to fit by cutting off the suction cup mounting tabs. The other circular airstone wouldn't fit after installing the iceprobe chiller, so I had to go with cylindrical for that side.

Modification to the "fill to here" plastic bar that's molder into the top panel. Slice! Now I have ample room for the digital PH and PPM meters.

Now, plant #1 above ground and below ground

Aaaand #2 above and below ground