Post by Mightywhite on Jan 14, 2018 17:44:31 GMT -5
I got tired of plants dying off in the winter so looked around online and stumbled on the Aerogarden Farm Plus on sale for the holiday with a free Harvest model as well. I'm about 2 weeks in on growing Habanero and Bhut Jolokia (Ghost) peppers. After looking around quite a bit I realized this model is quite new and there are not many mentions of this on the web. Luckily I found this forum and see others have similar setups. So I'd like to share my experiences with the equipment and peppers, nutrients and various setup ideas and tips/tricks I've encountered along the way.
The left side is filled with the Habanero's, the right side the Ghost's. I have an Aerovior for each side without the elevation adapter, It over filled the tanks with the stands on. However I find it's still a little overfilled as the water is visible in the fill ports, and I'm already having problems with algae in these ports. I cut out some foam board to make covers for these to keep the light out. I tried covering cardboard with one of those emergency blankets for a reflective surround, but hated the way it looked. So I ordered some 2mil Mylar with a 5mil plastic layer and held it on the farm with some rare earth magnets I got from Amazon, looks better for the time being and drastically increases light level and heat. I am also aware that I can't keep all of these plants in the farm the whole time, so I also have a 4' X 2' Mylar grow tent in the back room to transfer my plants to soil when the time is right... It will hold 6-seven gallon pots and is 7' tall with a 270W 7 spectrum LED grow lamp. I do plan to keep 2 pepper plants per side in the Aerogarden Farm Plus and try to keep them trimmed to below the 24" maximum height, we'll see how that works out... I have also read that additional aeration in the tanks does nothing but good for the plants once roots are visible in the tank, also read the plants directly next to the air stones grow even faster. So I added two 10" bubble walls to each tank to equally bubble every pod, is this too much? I don't think it will hurt and only add some extra noise.
I am keeping all my extra sprouts in solo cups with the bottom opened up to allow roots into the outer cup to soak them in some hydroponic solution, a method I learned from Khang Starr on YouTube. To germinate and feed the sprouts I used the recommended Miracle-Gro nutes, but here at the 2 week mark I'm switching to the 3 part General Hydroponics Flora nutes with a solution of 5ml/gal of each one(micro, gro, and bloom). If anyone has experience with pepper growing with GH Flora please recommend a dosage for my adults once they get there. My ppm with the current dose is 500ppm. I read somewhere that peppers are generally light feeders and 700-800ppm is plenty with the adults, I would love to hear more opinions.
I also got a free Harvest model and planted some lettuce in it because why not lol
I'm happy to join this community and look forward to seeing more Farm Plus pictures and success stories! I'm also doing my first time lapse video with an old iPhone I had lying around, I'll add that to this post when the time comes as well. I'll update my progress and or failures as this all unfolds. I linked the Khang Starr vid below, this guy is full of great advice. Good luck to all of you...
The left side is filled with the Habanero's, the right side the Ghost's. I have an Aerovior for each side without the elevation adapter, It over filled the tanks with the stands on. However I find it's still a little overfilled as the water is visible in the fill ports, and I'm already having problems with algae in these ports. I cut out some foam board to make covers for these to keep the light out. I tried covering cardboard with one of those emergency blankets for a reflective surround, but hated the way it looked. So I ordered some 2mil Mylar with a 5mil plastic layer and held it on the farm with some rare earth magnets I got from Amazon, looks better for the time being and drastically increases light level and heat. I am also aware that I can't keep all of these plants in the farm the whole time, so I also have a 4' X 2' Mylar grow tent in the back room to transfer my plants to soil when the time is right... It will hold 6-seven gallon pots and is 7' tall with a 270W 7 spectrum LED grow lamp. I do plan to keep 2 pepper plants per side in the Aerogarden Farm Plus and try to keep them trimmed to below the 24" maximum height, we'll see how that works out... I have also read that additional aeration in the tanks does nothing but good for the plants once roots are visible in the tank, also read the plants directly next to the air stones grow even faster. So I added two 10" bubble walls to each tank to equally bubble every pod, is this too much? I don't think it will hurt and only add some extra noise.
I am keeping all my extra sprouts in solo cups with the bottom opened up to allow roots into the outer cup to soak them in some hydroponic solution, a method I learned from Khang Starr on YouTube. To germinate and feed the sprouts I used the recommended Miracle-Gro nutes, but here at the 2 week mark I'm switching to the 3 part General Hydroponics Flora nutes with a solution of 5ml/gal of each one(micro, gro, and bloom). If anyone has experience with pepper growing with GH Flora please recommend a dosage for my adults once they get there. My ppm with the current dose is 500ppm. I read somewhere that peppers are generally light feeders and 700-800ppm is plenty with the adults, I would love to hear more opinions.
I also got a free Harvest model and planted some lettuce in it because why not lol
I'm happy to join this community and look forward to seeing more Farm Plus pictures and success stories! I'm also doing my first time lapse video with an old iPhone I had lying around, I'll add that to this post when the time comes as well. I'll update my progress and or failures as this all unfolds. I linked the Khang Starr vid below, this guy is full of great advice. Good luck to all of you...
Oh my, 
