Aeroponics trial # 2

[bigbubbacain]

This thread is a follow up from my previous thread.
(Aeroponics: Worthwhile, or waste of time? )

Well, my first little adventure with a homemade aeroponics unit went well, up until the point when the nutrients began to clog the fountain spray head. I looked in the bucket and noticed that the root growth favored the side that was getting more of the spray. The plant had gotten so rangey I went ahead and put it in the dirt.

On to trial #2.... I decided to take my homemade single bucket system and try to make a true propogation using the fog device. I had no intention of paying hundreds of dollars for the systems, epsecially when they appeared to be made mostly of items that are available for much less.

Pictured here is the ultrasonic fogger. Some of these are pricey, I shopped around and found one for around $30.
(www.mainlandmart.com)

[bigbubbacain]

Here is the fogger in action

[bigbubbacain]

Here's the subject: A very mangy looking 'Husky Cherry Red'. It actually sat in a peat pot for about a month before I got around to doing something with it.

[bigbubbacain]

I cut the stem up to the next leaf node. It was dried out, so I cut away the dry area and dipped it in rooting powder before installing in the net pot. Aeroponic net pots actually use a neoprene collar to hold the plant stem in place and allow the net area to remain open.

[bigbubbacain]

I used a hole-saw attachment for my drill to cut a 2 1/2 inch hole for this pot. I placed it under my grow light with the fogger and airstones in the nutrient solution, and then I had to leave town, once again. When I returned last night, I didn't even unpack until I went to see the results. The plant showed a marked improvement in top growth.

[bigbubbacain]

The root growth just blew me away! Look at those root hairs!

Sorry for all the posts. I just realized that I can attach more than one photo on the same post.

Anyway, this excites me to no end. There are so many possibilities here for germinating seed, propagating cuttings, or even growing a plant to term. One observation I made is that while the fogger produces "cold fog", the device itself will give off heat. I obtained these results by keeping the device timed one hour on, 30 minutes off. The temperature never got out of hand. The airstone may not be necessary for adding oxygen, as the proponents of these foggers say that the device will ionize and oxygenate the air. However, I've noticed that the airstones help move the fog througout the bucket and towards the top. In my next trial, I'm going to try and germinate seeds.

[ReaverG]

That picture of the roots shows awesome growth. Have you ever thought of using that setup for grafting?

[bigbubbacain]

ReaverG,

I wouldn't know where to begin! I know nothing about grafting, but I'd sure like to know more. I daydream about growing rootstock of "MaxFort" ever since I saw the seeds for it in Johnny's Seed catalog. I'd love to graft it to Golden Ponderosa. It's my very favorite, yet it falls prey to every soilborne disease in my USDA zone.

I sorta thought grafting was a "cut & dried" issue. I wouldn't know where or how to make Aeroponics work for it, but I'm open to suggestions. From what I've seen so far, aeroponics tends to be of the greatest advantage in the situations which allow the propagation site to be bare and exposed. Grafting usually involves fitting the root stock host to the desired species as the outcome. Matching up the "pieces of a puzzle", so to speak. Let's brainstorm on this. You apparently know more about grafting than I do. If you think there's any way we can use this aeroponic fog concept to help the grafts take hold, I'm open to suggestion. I have felt for a long time now that if I could ever master grafting, everything else would be all down hill.

[dice]

Maxifort is doubtless a strong root stock, but you could also
try grafting with Texas Wild, Matt's Wild Cherry, or roots of
some hybrid that typically grows a huge plant for you and has
multiple known disease tolerances. In east Asia, they seem to
prefer grafting to eggplant roots (survives nematodes and
week-long flooding in the rainy season in mid-summer).

[bigbubbacain]

Thanks Dice!

Are there any problems with grafting to Eggplant? Funny you'd mention Texas Wild and Matt's Wild Cherry. They're two of my favorites, and they do have disease problems in my area.

[dice]

Grafting with eggplants has variable results. One paper I read
studied grafts with an eggplant cultivar and a disease-tolerant
tomato cultivar for roots and two different tomato cultivars
for the scions. With one tomato cultivar, they got more
production from the eggplant graft than from either the
tomato-tomato graft or the ungrafted plant of the scion.
With the other tomato scion they got less production
from the eggplant graft than from the ungrafted plant.

So no guarantee, but if the problems are typically root knot
nematodes or bacterial wilt, it is worth a try with your favorite
heirloom tomato, since those are two problems that eggplants
in Asia seem to be immune to.

You might be able to find some fast growing F1 tomato
with the necessary disease tolerance (that you normally
would not bother with due to lack of flavor) to try, too.

Edit:
The tomato cultivars that they used in the study just had numbers
rather than names. I got the impression that they were commercial
cultivars supplied in bulk by some seed company to farmers in Taiwan
and elsewhere around Asia.

[bigbubbacain]

I decided to expand my little idea here and see how this works for germinating seed, since those Aero Garden units claim to do it. I bought a Rubbermaid 16 gallon tub with lid. I added the same air pump, same air stones, and still only one ultrasonic fogger. I used some disposable plastic wine glasses to act as Bell jars over the seeds.

Anyway, it's now day five and 15 out of 24 have sprouted.

This may not seem like a big deal, but it is for me because I have a great deal of trouble getting seeds to sprout and keeping them healthy until they get to the garden. Anyway, here's a what it looks like:

[karpes]

Bigbubbacain I lost interest in building the aeroponics system last year because of the pricey equipment. I may build one now that you have found the parts so cheap. A couple of weeks ago on the Science channel, I saw a program that discussed how they work by not heating the water but actually vibrating or bouncing the molecules into fog. That’s why I am puzzled about the heat build up in the nutrient solution. Do you think it is the transformer heating up? What’s the wattage on the unit? karpes

[bigbubbacain]

Karpes:

I'm afraid that some of these manufacturers of the foggers aren't entirely truthful. There is a potential for heat to develop, but that is related more to the size of the container and the amount of liquid being used for the nutrient solution. I originally used a 5 gallon pail, and that only gave me enough room for 2 gallons of liquid because it's also important to have enough headspace for the fog to build up. It's easier to maintain the temperature with a larger container.

The wattage on the transformer says 29W. The output is rated at 900 mA. The heat issue I had before was because I let the fogger run constantly. I now have it on a timer: 1 hour on, 30 minutes off, and the airstones run constantly. I've used a probe type thermometer to check the temp of the seeds in the rockwool - both covered and uncovered. The temp has never exceeded the mid 70's, so everything seems to be good for me so far. There's nothing quite like a "trial by fire" and as usual, I'm leaving town in a few days. I only hope there's something I want to see when I return.

[Mischka]

Any updates yet?