Hi, I’ve been growing on and off for about 20 years. The last 2 years I have gotten serious and have a low pressure aero setup. I know its not a ‘true’ aero setup but works well none the less. I have a couple of laundry tubs that houses plants, and another tub for a reservoir. The res pumps nutes into the 2 tub via sprayers and they drain back into res. I only grow a few plants at a time (enough for 2 peoples useage).
I must be lucky because Ive only ran into problems a couple of times and I was to blame each time.
salt buildup- i was always adding nute solution to top up. Later realized that i should only top up with ph’d h2o (now I can fully understand what my girls are doing based on ppm)
waited too long to flower and had issues with the lights too close because I ran out of height. Had an awesome yield but a couple colas foxtailed on me slightly.
turned off system to make adjustments and forgot to turn back on! Haha…the plants literally had no water pumped for over 12 hrs and I still managed to save them! Oh boy
Hey what’s up bgjazz ? Glad to see another lpa grower. I have been growing that way for about 6-7 years now. It’s so easy.
I started the same way you did with 2 grow champers and 1 res. Also like you I have height limits.
What I did to combat this problem was a got 3x3x7 grow trays. I then put 50 grow sites, 5" on center.
Then I started putting my clones straight to 12/12 from the cloners. No veg. And the units still get 24" to 30" tall and I’m still pushing my height limit.
Years ago I built a barn type 2 story garage and I grow upstairs. When I built it I screwed up and only made the roof of the second story 6’2" tall. So by the time I hang my lights there isn’t much room to grow up.
That Sledge Hammer that tdubwilly is showing you is what I use. I only use it for my finale flush. What I do is with a week till harvest I flush with the S.H. for about a hour. Then I drain that and run water for the rest of the week and then the last day I flush again with the S.H… The stuff works good.
Also (like a dork) I have forgot to plug my pumps back in, countless times. And cause I don’t live where I grow my pumps are off for 24 hours or more. And I’ve never lost one. Yes they go into shock and yield suffers but never lost any.
Anyway I’m glad to see someone else having fun growing this way.
Take care…ASSOG…
Maybe salt buildup was not the right description for the issues I was having. When I first started, my res was 10gallons and when I would make new nute baths, I would make lets say 14 gallons worth. I would change the nutes and only use 10gallons and use the rest for top up.
The plants started showing signs of overdose (in my non professional opinion) and I finally realized that I should only add ph’d water in between nute changes. This way I actually started to understand how my ppm was moving and understood how much nutes/water were being consumed.
Haha right on…Ive been having fun making my grows easier and easier. My first lpa grow I tried scrogging but found the big screens cumbersome and restricted me from looking inside the bins etc…I had a decent yield but thought it was a lot of work. I have progressed to manifolding (main lining ). I create 8 colas in each plant in 2 steps (as opposed to 3 that most mainliners do)…i save a week of growth this way. I really like the outcome.
Many growers only “feed” every other watering or sometimes every two watering.
Part of how much and how often you “feed” will be determined by how much water you run through the medium. If you never water till run off the it definitely makes sense to “feed” less.
When you make a batch of nutrient water you want to use it within a day or two of making it
Just to clarify, I have a reservoir and recirculate it into 2 grow bins so the ‘feeding’ you are referring to is more for soil or drain to waste (I think)
Right on bgjazz. Glad to here you are having fun. I never tried scrogging. It just seemed like a lot of work. Plus a noticed when I was growing in soil that the on the lower branch’s the cola’s wouldn’t get as big as the main top. Even though they were at the same height as the main top. That’s one of the reasons I started growing in the sog. This way every unit is a main top.
I did main line once in soil. And like a idiot I did 32 at once. It was a lot of work. And it took like 6 to 7 months. But man the yield was crazy I never seen anything like it. Once they went to 12/12 they just went nuts. I got 18" colas off some of them. It was crazy. But it took way to long for me. I never thought of trying it in lpa. You know I might give it a try, come to think about it.
Oh I wanted to ask you, do you have your pump on a timer ? Or do you let it run all the time like in a areo cloner. I do all my cloning in areo cloners and they run all the time. But in my grow areo’s I have all of them on timers. They get sprayed for 15 seconds every 10 mins.
Anyway have a good one… ASSOG…
Awesome! Yes I have them on timers…when I clobe or have seedlings, I change the lid of 1 bin and have it set up with bubblers (running all the time)…once the roots are out the bottom of net pot I switch to lpa and run about 40sec on and 10 min off (i tried it this way and it worked so i kept it)…if I run any longer I risk the water level getting too low and the pump sucking a bit of air.
I have a batch hanging and Im planning on final trim tonight. Ill let you know what kind of yield i get from these (only 4) plants…
I agree, lpa is very easy and sometimes I feel bored because theres nothing to do (as opposed to soil, scrog dwc…)
My name is Kidete from Nairobi, Kenya. When I’m not working my day job, I love travelling to Western Kenya because they have amazing strains to smoke. I hope to make friends here and learn alot
. I run ebb@flow and will be doing aeroponic table soon.