The Growers Guide to Cannabis
The Growers Guide to Cannabis -
How to use an aeroponic system for growing weed.
Clones in an aeroponic system:
The best start to an aeroponic garden is by growing cannabis cuttings in a specialist aeroponic cloner. These enable you to establish a large number of clones within a small area – thereby being space and light efficient. Aeroponics stimulates such fast strong growth that I would really recommend using a sea of green style: i.e. flower lots of small clones without a prolonged vegetative stage. I once met a grower who was fairly new to indoor growing (although he had grown marijuana outdoors all his adult life): eager to prove his “ability” as a cannabis grower, he was easily persuaded by the non-scrupulous grow shop salesman to invest in a large site aeroponics set up. Yep it was probably one of the best aeroponic grow rooms I have ever seen – except for the plants themselves. Used to growing outdoors where nature naturally flips the plants into flower (and somewhere along the line this poor chap had missed that essential piece of indoor grow room information) .. a hugely long veg stage combined with super aeroponic efficiency had led to a triffid like explosion in the grow room. Anyway the point of that anecdote was to highlight my suggestion that in any aeroponics setup its best to start off with newly rooted cuttings and go for a sea of green … especially with any sativa based strain you will find that the enhanced pre-flower stretch will lead to too big plants: at maximum I would recommend vegging for 3 weeks from an established cutting.
The biggest way to exploit the benefits of an aeroponic system is fast turnover.
Because there is such accelerated growth using an aeroponic system, you can flower off rooted clones pretty much straight away, meaning that judicious use of a mother tent, cloning propagator and aeroponic set up lead to an 8-9 week maxed out yield cycle. Your grow room can be on constantly flowering!
Quick Questions and Answers about using any aeroponic system:
Do I need a PPM / EC meter?
Yes! One of these is essential to make sure your nutrient and pH levels are correct.
How often should I change the tank?
That depends on the age of the plants. When they are young, every 3 weeks will probably be enough. As the plants get bigger you will need to change the tank more frequently. In between tank changes, you will need to “top up” the tank, and use your EEC meter to adjust the nutrient and pH levels again.
How high should the overflow pipes be?
When the plants are young with small roots, pitch the pipes at the maximum height in order that the nutrient solution reaches the bottom of the pots. As they get older and with more root development, lower the tubes so that there is more oxygen mix.
Water temps
Ideal water temperatures in the tank should be between 65F and 75F. Read our guide to water temperatures in a hydroponic system for more explanation
As with any hydroponic system, care and regular maintenance is essential, but this is even more so the case with an aeroponic system. There are two main areas where special vigilence is required:
-
Aeroponic nozzles/misters
Always have a spare set and all nozzles should be replaced and cleaned in between cropping cycles as they can get blocked up by cal or salts.
-
2. The timing system is critical.
- A good rate to keep the system simple is 1 minute on 5 minutes off: in that way there is time for the roots to drag in the greatly desired o2 whilst not letting them dry out. These timers are not cheap but you really cant afford to skimp on this piece of kit. If your timer fails your roots will dry and die before you notice it ..
If you have a lot of power cuts, it may be an idea to consider an emergency back up too
You may also want to read: What is an aeroponic system?
The post How to use an aeroponic system for growing weed. appeared first on The Growers Guide to Cannabis.