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Aeroponic Peppers 2017

Heey guys my name's Alex I'm new here and thought I'd Chuck up my chilli grow so far!!


I had a few chilli seeds and wanted to see how they would go. I had never grown anything from seed before but wanted to get to it. I used 20 wee Coco discs and put them in the hot water cupboard. It didn't quite go to plan tho as they grew mould. I managed to save just 6. I realised I was a bit premature though as its just gone winter here, I thought I'd give hydro a go. I researched lots of different techniques but aeroponics tickled my fancy. I like how it's technical and efficient. From day 1 I've used eggmont neutrients a & b as seedlings. I know people say you shouldn't but they loved it.

So I started to make a design and source parts.

The root chamber and the reservoir are 57L storage containers. In the bottom of the root chamber are two drains which go back into the reservoir to reuse. Also inside the reservoir is an air stone. (I change neutrients every 7-10days). I used 3inch net pots as I knew the roots would grow though the nets so big pots aren't really required. Clay balls as grow medium.

As for sprayers, I used some misters I had for outdoor irrigation. I drilled 12 holes around the outside of the container and pushed the fittings though nice and snug, hose them up with 4mm tube and plugged the sprayers on inside.

I found an 80psi 12volt dc water pump on trademe for cheap. As I'm an auto electrician I had lots of ideas for wiring it up (the fun part for me).

To power the unit I have a 12 volt 30 amp power supply which runs a timer unit. The timer is an infinity cycle timer. Which is really easy to program your on and off times. I use 3 sec on and 5min off and so on and so forth.


For lighting I have a 250w clf on 18/6 light cycles.

I added cardboard to the top of the netpots to stop light leakage I to the root chamber.

I think I've covered everything haha please feel free to ask questions :)
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a.d.proctor21 said:
I found an 80psi 12volt dc water pump on trademe for cheap. As I'm an auto electrician I had lots of ideas for wiring it up (the fun part for me).

To power the unit I have a 12 volt 30 amp power supply which runs a timer unit. The timer is an infinity cycle timer. Which is really easy to program your on and off times. I use 3 sec on and 5min off and so on and so forth.
cd9e4edd47895c26b6628232f997f482.jpg
4834ece71b8549fadeea9f32b18121c5.jpg
 
 
This is the craziest part to me. I'd love to see a DIY video about this process sometime, I wouldnt know where to begin
 
What nutrients are you using and what's the pH like? My aeroponics system is disassembled and waiting for an easier means to do maintenance on it.
 
Gorizza said:
 
 
This is the craziest part to me. I'd love to see a DIY video about this process sometime, I wouldnt know where to begin
Hey gorizza, what part do you want to know more about?

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cruzzfish said:
What nutrients are you using and what's the pH like? My aeroponics system is disassembled and waiting for an easier means to do maintenance on it.
I'm just using eggmont neutrients untill they run out. pH is good as I change every week. Seems to be a stable 6.1ph throughout the week as the reservoir is large. I'll post more photos of the maintenance stages. Basically for a reservior change I just unplug the drains, turn the tap off on the supply and unplug that. Disconnect air hose from pump and slide the reservoir out. The cunning part is I have made two reservoirs so I just slide the other straight in and plug it up. Done. I don't even miss a cycle.

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:welcome:  to the THP blog, Alex. Always fun to see what's
going on in the Southern Hemisphere!
 
That's a pretty pro-looking set-up for a first time grower!
You are getting some good results.  Good luck going forward.
 
PaulG said:
:welcome:  to the THP blog, Alex. Always fun to see what's
going on in the Southern Hemisphere!
 
That's a pretty pro-looking set-up for a first time grower!
You are getting some good results.  Good luck going forward.
Haha thanks! It's my first time growing from seed. I normally just buy seedlings and keep in season haha.

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Just a wee update. Have grown a bit since last post. Lots of flowers coming through now. Roots are going nuts!!

Had my first complication when I got home from work the other day, I heard my pump go and then it stopped really quickly. Did the same the next time it went too. Took the root chamber lid off and put it on another container I had and noticed all this build up in the bottom, turned the pump on and only 6 of the 12 misters wer working and the pump kept kitting the pressure switch and cutting out. Luckily I had spares so swapped them out for fresh ones. They were completely blocked. Is this a build up of salts? I'm getting some "house and garden drip clean" from the local hydro store today to help desolve the build up but would like to know what's causing it.

Any ideas would be much appreciated

Cheers Alex
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