Cherry Gar See Ya Aeroponic

This is not my first grow, but it is my first attempt at hydro/aero. I am using a circulating system of my own design, albeit very similar to what others have done. I use 5 gal buckets as the containers with lids that already have net pots built in. My reservoir is 7 gal, with 2 pumps feeding the buckets. A 450 gph runs 4 sprayers on one, and an 800 gph runs a set of 8 sprayers on the other. Both buckets have drains built in to the bottoms and are on stands that allow the runoff to gravity feed back into the reservoir. My pumps are on a 1min on 5min off spray schedule. Right after germination when roots were becoming visible in the rockwool, I placed in the net pots with a small layer of clay pebbles under, around, and just enough on top to help support the weak seedling. Within a few days they had hardened off enough and gotten a bit taller so I added more clay pebbles. By the end of week 1 from germ the roots were starting to come through the net pot and the first true leaves were forming. This begins week 1 of established seedling. As a side note, my ppm was lower up until this point, probably 350-400ppm. Once they became established I fully cleaned the tank and raised the nute str. By the end of the first week they have fully developed 3's and the roots are now nearly at the bottom of the bucket. This is the point that I am no longer considering them seedlings and am transitioning to full veg. I am keeping the nute str at 500ppm for now, but I have increased the light from 5k to 7k lux, and will continue to adjust the lighting as they respond. Update: I have found conflicting info on appropriate lux levels, however my girls are growing well and can easily handle more. I have read that they can handle 15-20k even at the very beginning of veg and have even read that seedlings can handle that much. So far I have gotten to 10k, don't want to stress them with sudden and drastic light increase but am going to keep increasing daily until I reach 20k. By that time they should be able to handle more, as 40k seems to be normal for mid veg. What I will likely do is raise the level by a bit each day for the next 2 weeks until I reach 40k and leave it there for the following 2 weeks. Will likely switch to 12/12 then and put my flower lights in. Update 2: at 13k lux and they are loving it. Seeing noticable growth even over just 8 hrs. Will update pics at end of week. Update 3: end of week and we are at 15k lux. Changing the water and cleaning reservoir today, then adding new week tomorrow.

So far so good. The runt was a bit slower to germinate, but I have a feeling it will catch up. The roots are nearly as big, just a matter of time before that is reflected up top. I have just barely increased nutrient strength. I am not being very aggressive at a modest 550ppm but I may bump it up to 600 midway through the week. Wednesday update: I went ahead and upped the nute mix to 600 yesterday. The pH was raising day to day so I increased the strength and a bit of pH down as well, and this morning the pH was still in range. I will continue to monitor and adjust accordingly. In other news, I have already realized several design changes that would be beneficial. I need to decouple the lid from the sprayer hose so that I can lift the plant out without having to reset the sprayer positions each time. This would also reduce the gravity stress that pinches the line from the 180° bend, as well as increasing pressure for the same reason. Also, my roots are now so long that they are trying to grow into my drain hose haha. I need to place a screen inside the fitting to prevent the roots from clogging my drain. The 800gph pump pushes the sprayers way better than the 480, so I have another 800 on the way. The 480 will be saved for draining the tank during cleaning and to serve as a backup in case of pump failure. I am using FF microbe brew for mycos and as a stand in for hydroguard to protect my rhizosphere. Hg is not available in my area. I believe the mb is responsible for precipitate in my rez, and I have a product which is essentially a more concentrated version of hg that is labeled as a fungicide... Supposedly 100x more concentrated than hg and from what I've read can be used in hydro as a replacement for hg. I'm going to try using that for a week or two and see if the precipitation continues. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has experience using microbe brew in hydro and what your thoughts are. Otherwise they are looking happy and healthy. The taller one has gotten within 20" of the light and the meter is reading 15k lux. The shorter one is at nearly the same stage of growth, maybe a day or two behind. Both are working on their 7's, one is just getting taller faster

Seeing nice growth on both. The smaller one was a 2 days later to germinate, and took some nursing to get established as a hardened seedling. It likely will not reach the potential of the other, but should still yield plenty of bud. I will be topping the bigger one this week for sure. Will update. Replaced the pump for the smaller plant, it was using a 480gph before and now it is 850gph. As hydroguard is not available in my state, I had opted for FF microbe brew... For the first 2 weeks I had brown slime in my rez, on my submerged hoses, in my pumps, sprayers, etc. I believe this was from the FF. I have read somewhere before that using organic products in hydro can cause precipitate to form in the water, and sure enough the FF has worm castings, bat guano, etc. What I have replaced it with is Southern Ag Garden Friendly Fungicide. Available easily through Amazon. It has bacillus (the same type found in hydroguard) and is extremely concentrated. Sterling reviews and hydro safe from everything I've read, and is supposed to be a great preventative for root rot. Update: I defoliated the bottom leaves and branches at the first node, as they were touching the sub and those branches wouldn't amount to much come harvest time. The plants both dropped for a little while after (man they are sensitive) but perked back up after a while. I also added an oscillating fan. It is a bit powerful for this stage, so I have my exhaust fan running full time and the oscillating is on the timer with the pumps so they get a nice breeze every few mins. Wednesday update: I topped the tall girl today! It doesn't seem to have stressed it much thankfully. The smaller one is making good progress and will probably be getting topped as well in a few days. The new bacteria supplement seems to be working well, pH has been stable, and growth has been excellent. Sunday update: still seeing daily growth, now the smaller one is really starting to get bigger thankfully. Both have been topped from 7th to 5th, and both seem to have taken to it very well. I can definitely say that the brown slime was caused by the FF microbe brew. Since switching to southern Ag my rez has been nice and clean. Probably will veg for another week then flip.

Both have recovered nicely from topping. this will be the last week of veg, at the end of the week I will add the se7000 and put each on their own side of the tent for stretch. During the stretch I will be doing simple LST using garden twine to help maximize canopy width and light penetration. Also, can't stress this enough, FF microbe brew is terrible for hydro. I tried it hoping it would be a good alt for hydroguard, and it claims to be compatible with hydro. Please be aware that it contains organic matter such as worm castings and bat guano that will precipitate in your rez creating brown sludge in your water, pumps, all over your water lines, etc. The southern Ag Garden Friendly Fungicide has worked wonders, clean rez, clean roots. Hope that helps someone! Wednesday update: I have brought the SE7000 in and placed the plants in their final positions. I have begun simple LST to widen the bigger plant. I'm going to lst the other as well, however it's branches are much shorter in comparison so the effect won't be quite as dramatic. I'm seeing slight burn at the tips at a ppm of 630. As it is only slight I'm going to keep the solution as is and let the concentration naturally decrease through the week. pH has remained stable, temp has risen since adding the SE, however I will likely mount the ballast outside the tent today to mitigate that. The higher heat has prompted me to increase my exhaust fan for more circulation, as the room itself is climate controlled, however that creates its own problem of lowering humidity. Easiest/beat solution is to simply remove the ballast from the tent

So I'll start with the bad, I've gotten slight nute burn (very slight) but I've dialed the nute mix back a bit so that should be fine. I also broke a branch on the bigger one during lst, which I taped up and seems to be growing still so hopefully it heals fully this week. I decided to give them another week of veg, partly so the smaller one will get a bit bigger and partly to give the bigger time to heal from the broken branch. Toward the middle of this week I will be defoliating (lollipopping) and preparing to flip to 12/12. Sunday update: damn what a week it's been. Both good and bad, but I can say I'm happy with where the grow is currently. The twine I was using I will never use again. It has worked for me before, the genetic must have had more wood like stems... But these are soft. Too soft. And that's even with silica supplement.. this genetic has soft stalks and twine tied to a branch will absolutely cut through the branch. Even tied loosely as the pressure from the branch trying to lift upward is enough to completely cut through a stem over a period of about 2-3 days sometimes longer. Tldr, I lost 3 branches from the big girl this week. No worries as it has basically been accidentally topped in 3 places and has rebounded nicely. Better than I could have hoped for. I have also intentionally topped the mains again, which are now 4. I need a trellis net. Will be ordering one this week. The smaller plant has been growing consistently as well and is looking great, it's just very very short with extremely tight node spacing. I'll be interested to see how it develops throughout the stretch. I'm upping the nutes and switching to flower today/tomorrow.

Flipped to 12/12 yesterday, and have seen growth overnight. Increased feed and light and have defoliated lightly at the bottom for airflow. Both of them are growing nicely and I'm excited to see how they flower 🤘 Mid week; got me scrog net and stretched out the big girl. Going to order another for the small girl once she gets a bit more height. Both are showing daily growth and looking good. Gone to the beach till Sunday, plant sitter topping off the res. Can't wait to see the difference on Sunday! End of week: Back from the beach, the girls drank more than my sitter replenished, and the big girl was drooping a bit from not getting enough water. The pumps don't work as well when not fully submerged. Regardless, I went ahead and mixed a fresh batch of solution and cleaned the res. While the plant was tender and flexible I went ahead and spread the branches out more because they definitely have grown over the last few days, even with a little underwatering. The smaller one is actually big enough now that I'm wanting to get another net for it asap to level the canopy out.

As I noted yesterday, plant sitter let water levels get too low and big plant was droopy and sad. Fixed everything up and with some fresh nute solution, she's reaching for the sky. (Well not in the pic cause I just adjusted my ScrOG) Everything's going great, stable pH, consistent ppm. Topped the smaller girl in 3 places cause a few branches were well outpacing the others. Will be fine as the flowers haven't started to develop at all yet, still stretching. I have a second trellis net coming the day after tomorrow, as well as some upgrades for my hoses and a few things to make a little cloner with a spare pump I have. When I remove lower branches at the end of the week I'm going to throw a few in there in my 2x4 and see what happens... If that doesn't work out I'll just start a few more from seed. Mid week, the smaller one is recovering from the topping still but is still growing nicely. The larger one is still stretching as well and filling the space nicely. Currently big plant is filling roughly 7/8 of canopy space in it's area, and small is filling roughly 3/4. Really enjoying this grow, think I may stick with aero in the future.

Looking good! After the power outage, I almost fucked up by leaving my pumps unplugged a few hours after changing res... Things got a bit droopy but bounced back within an hour. These girls are making me proud, one is filling basically it's entire 4*4 with canopy, and the other is about 3/4. The stretch will end sometime this week, and I'm pretty happy with where they are at. Both started showing budsites overnight, and there are tons. Starting to get really excited looking forward to harvest. Update, everything's going well. Some leaf stems are reddening from the increased light, but they are otherwise not showing any signs of stress and are growing well. I have defoliated just a bit under the canopy to ensure air can move around. Also have been picking off lower budsites under the trellis net so that they focus energy on tops.

I used the last of my big bud making the first batch of nute solution for this week, which isn't a big deal because this is the last week it is supposed to be used anyways. For the rest of the week I will be making the same solution minus the big bud. Starting next week I will introduce overdrive. Everything is going well, and I am working on getting a rDWC tote set up in my 2*4 to veg 2 more while these finish. The idea will be to veg 2 at a time in the 2*4 and flower 4 at a time in the 4*8, on a 4-5 week cycle depending on plant maturation times. The terps are starting to come through a bit, I was cutting some lower budsites and got some nice aromas. Nice cherry limeade 🤘 Update: smelling better every day. Did a but more defol to get more light to budsites and improve airflow as I have been finding moisture between leaves. Last thing I need is wpm or budrot problems.

Smelling great! I'm not running a carbon filter or anything, but I can smell the girls from outside the room with door shut. When I pull lower buds they smell like cherry limeade. My lights are at nearly full power and these girls are taking it like champs. Nutrient solution is at 1100 ppm, going for 1200 next week. Did some light defoliation under and over canopy to open up airflow and budsites. Included a pic of the rdwc tote I built this week. Waiting on one part to ship because the original was too small. Already have seeds germinating though, so look forward to a pink kush diary soon!

Ran out of cal mag in the middle of last week, and seeing some rust colored spots in between the veins of the leaves as a result. May pick some up today. Otherwise, everything is going well. They smell great, hands get sticky just from defoliating. Speaking of, I have opened up airflow quite a bit and also removed several Leaves that were blocking bud sites.

Smelling like tropical fruit! Nice colors coming in and we can observe two very different phenos CGSY. One is turning purple much faster, it has purple on the leaves and in the buds. The leaves are very dark, while the purple in the buds is lighter with more red in it. This makes a nice high contrast backdrop for the glistening trichromes and looks awesome. The other is slowly turning purple around the sugar leaf edges. It however is developing larger buds overall and smells wonderful. My nutrient schedule has been too intense. Notably, as my water level decreases my tds increases along with a slight drop in ph. To fight this I've been topping off with regular tap water to bring the tds back down and stabilize ph. This week I will be going back to 1000ppm target to see how that reacts. Also, I ran out of calmag last week, but got some calimagic as a replacement for the rest of the grow. I believe the rust colored spots that are visible on some leaves to be a calcium deficiency as they started to appear a few days after I ran out. Updated for more accurate nutrient mix. I have learned that the southern ag is much more concentrated than I realized, so I am now using 0.5ml/gal instead of 2ml/gal. I'm also using Olympus ph up, and have been actually for the last few weeks because my nutrient mix for mid/late flower is more acidic. Last week I started at 1200ppm, and throughout the week my ppm raised all the way to 1500. This week I have dialed it back to 1100ppm, and seems to be stable.

For the last two weeks I've been pushing the nutes really hard, and the girls haven't been able to keep up. Ppm was raising along with ph lowering throughout the week, both weeks. This week, I have dialed back to around 900ppm after flushing the roots with tap water to get rid of any buildup. Hopefully the solution remains stable. Otherwise, I have my lights both at 100% and at a height that I'm getting anywhere between 50-70k lux throughout the canopies. The se is more consistent in the 60s, the sf is 70 in the middle and 50 near the edges. The buds look phenomenal, I'm hoping they continue to swell over the next two weeks before I chop em. Otherwise, things have gone very well and I'm still seeing growth and progress daily, can't wait for harvest time. Oh, and I replaced my 8" vivosun fan with a 6" ac infinity with the controler67. Much nicer having temp and humidity triggers that turn the fan up and down automatically and being able to track vpd and trends through the app. Probe was plenty accurate side by side with my hydrometer.

All good this week. Current ppm is around 750 and no major fluctuations. Added a pic of trichromes this week. As you can see they are mostly white, with a few clear and a few amber. Some may harvest at this point, but I'm giving another week for more amber to appear. The trich pic is of the smaller plant, but the larger one is about the same progress, even though you'd think it needed longer based on the pistils. At the end of this week I will reexamine them and make the call. Update, I'm seeing more amber trichromes at this point. Reduced light cycle to 11/13 and have brought temps down to mid/low 70s during day and mid/low 60s at night. Trying to simulate season change to encourage some final maturing. Next step is the endless night and the chop.

Got 285g from the smaller plant and 569g from the larger. 1.8lb in total. Smells better than anything I've ever had, even before cure.