Ultrasonic foggers

[Bugger]

I ordered some ultrasonic foggers from Sunflower supplies http://www.sunflowersupplies.com/products/AEROMIST-1-HEAD-FOGGER-KIT-WITH-FOGGER%2C-FLOAT-AND--EXTRA-DISC-110V-or-220V-European.html. These are actually build for aeroponic growing, the transducer discs are teflon coated to prevent nutrient build-up. The set was complete, with powersupply, rubber fitting to run the cord to the pot, floater and spare disc. The unit itself has a waterlevel sensor on it, so if the water runs out, it will stop.

The mist these produce is incredibly fine, just like smoke. The nutrients must go right into roots, no wonder they get so incredible results with these. Like on the Finnish forum, 10 weeks from seeds to harvest!

Can´t wait to start testing these. I have some lighting issues to solve first, but I´ll post some pictures once I`ll put the system together.

[Bugger]

Lighting is solved now, I ended up with a couple of 150w led lights from Welthink. First short test with the fogger has been done, I tryed one for five days when I was producing seedlings for others. I just lifted the fogger on my ebb, it was simple as there was enough space for it. This fogger also has a bubbler, so it´s kind of combination system.



The rest of the seedlings were on a tray, under fluorescent light, fed with the same mild fertilizer solution as the ones on the fogger.



Results were quite promising...



As mentioned earlier, the foggers are build for aeroponic growing, and come as a complete unit, fittings and all. Here is one fogger on the floater.



And same fogger turned on.. The fog is really fine, just like smoke, but there is a lot of it!



Now here is the next setup, already running. There is now one fogger+bubbler system, bubbler is on all the time and the fogger is running 15 minutes, and 15 off. The other fogger is continuously on, thou I might put all foggers behing clock switch later. There will be one more fogger, and one bubbler later, so there will be four units total.



It will be interesting to see how they grow, if I wont kill them with wrong Ph. I have a Hanna digital Ph meter, and it´s giving me hard time. Seems like I should calibrate it before every use...

[Ryhis]

"the transducer discs are teflon coated to prevent nutrient build-up."

How long does one disc perform? Will it just stop making the fog or make less fog?

Is it possible to clean those discs manually? Or using a ultrasonic washer?

[Miksaa]

CLEANING

Fill the torch with distilled white vinegar (6% solutions are available at your local grocery store). Fill to the top of the viewing window. Let soak for 10-30 minutes, then shake and drain. Inspect the sensor, walls, and the EBU through the viewing window. A flashlight may help. Make sure all salts and deposits are gone. Repeat the above steps if necessary.

Frequency of cleaning is determined by the nutrients and solution(s) used in the fogging machine. Example: Foggers using de-ionized water only, will not need to be cleaned very often; while those using fertilizers, will need to be cleaned more frequently. We recommend cleaning your fogger every 2-4 weeks or as needed.

NOTE: Effectiveness of your fogger may be reduced when using materials, such as fertilizer and supplements, that are not fully soluble. Your fogger will need cleaning more often.

[Bugger]

I obviously don´t have any experience in these foggers yet, so all I can tell is hear say so far. If there will be need for cleaning the discs, I´ll try something and post the results then.

The disc life is promised to be over 5000 hours of continuous use, and the set comes with a spare disc and a tool for changing it. Spare discs are also available, and cost $9 a piece. There are no instructions on cleaning the disc, I suppose with the teflon coating it shouldn´t need it.

Instructions that Miksa wrote, are for a different fogger, older and more complex model, or rather a system made by Shira Frapa. I don´t think that one is on the market anymore? (http://www.greenair.com/old/fogger.htm). The method described might still work of course!

The link to the Sunflower supplies I posted doesn´t seem to work, so here is another try: http://www.sunflowersupplies.com/

[Bugger]

Time for an update. I´ve been lazy, and the plants are still living on the old solutions, the oldes being the one from the first test run, that makes it about seven weeks old now... The solution is quite mild, made from Kemira hydrolannos, EC was around 1.2. The plants seem to grow fast even with this, so I have left it alone.

Here is the oldest set.


And here is the root growth.


All three sets.


The cuttings on the last set are beginning to root. It seems they root better, if you just stick in a net pot, without rockwool.


Overall, the plants seem to enjoy the fog, they grow incredibly fast. So fast that I´m going to have problems where to fit them all, there´s still over two months to go before I can get them outside.. 

[Fatalii]

Nice looking stuff.

Too fast growing plants indoors... now that's a common problem for me.
I actually have to slow down the growth indoors almost every year to make all of the plants fit.

But still, I think it's safer to start early.

[Bugger]

It seems I haven`t updated this for a while..  Would it be about time now? 

Seriously, people keep bugging me about the foggers and LED-lights, how they work and am I satisfied with them. Lazy as I am, it´s likely easier to write here, for everyone to read, rather than individually for all those curious people..  So here, my experiences with these systems:

On the second run, seedlings were put to the fogger system on 27.02.-10. Here are some pictures of how they developed.


This is taken 11.04.-10.


And this is taken 09.05.-10.


Here is Trinidad Bush on 09.05.-10.


And jalapeño Early on the same day.


Hungarian Wax, same day.


And Super Red, still the same day.

Those were the last pics I took, ok, so Im a bit lazy..  But this is how they grew, is that fast enough?


As for the EBB system, I have even fewer pics, but here´s few.


Aji Benito, after being under the 150w led for about 20 days.


Lower parts of the same plant. Notice how dense the foliage is, this light really penetrates deep.


Here is the whole EBB 05.04.-10. The thing to notice here is how the plants avoid the light. It´s not because of heat, the lamp is not hot, but the light is likely too intense. Anyway, if I wont raise the light, plants won´t grow taller, exept the ones who have room to go around it. The UFO-system was used with florescent lights, to keep temperatures down.  After switching to leds, it´s been useless. Temperatures stay at 22-25C without any air circulation.


Here the light is on, 6 days later. I put a florescent light on the roof of the tent, it makes the led light easier for the eyes when working on the plants, pure grow led light is nasty..


Here is one more close up on the Aji Benito. There should be a lot more pods, but my friends kept raiding the plants...


What have I learned from the foggers so far? They are really fast, likely the fastest way to grow plants today. I´m thinking it might be even faster, if one would use one of those reptile foggers for additional foliar feeding? Who´s gonna test that?

The new reservoirs were made from storage boxes made to fit under bed. I cut holes to the cover, cut the top part of netpots and hotglued them to the cover. That provided good staple hold for netpots, so even bigger plants wont fall over. I keep them half full, so it´s 20 liters of solution. Roots will grow into the solution as the plants grow, but that´s fine.

The foggers I bought from sunflower supplies have been running for approximately 6 months, and work ok still. I have washed the outside of the discs with old toothbrush every now and again, spare discs remain unneeded.

I use an air pump and a air stone on the reservoirs, to feed new oxygen to the system. If there is no other benefits, at least the plants will stay ok even if the pump/fogger breaks.

Foggers are hot, and they heat the water too much, at least on my reservoirs, so I have them on a timer, running 15 minutes on, 15 minutes off, 24/7.

If there is too much air in the water, foggers won´t produce fog, so also the air pump needs to be on a timer, mine is running 30 minutes on, 30 minutes off, 24/7. Off course this depends on the pump and reservoir. On this timer I also have a air fan circulating air.

Plants react to different nutrient levels and Ph's really fast, especially the wrong ones.. So this takes more monitoring than the other systems. My EBB´s reservoir is 300 liters,  I can leave it be for 4 months, and no harm done. Not so with the foggers. This might not be the best system for beginners like me! 

IMO, this is good system for pre growing plants for other systems, and even producing yields, not to mention experimenting, because of the fast feedback it gives. The price of the system is affordable, actually I can think of only two downsides to this system. It´s very sensitive for the nutrient solution, and it´s not so good looking..


From the led lights.. The light is nasty...really nasty. Looking at that for few minutes makes you see everything green for a while. But other than that, they work great! And adding a fluorescent light eases the light color problem significantly.

Led light seems to be a bit too much for seedlings, it needs to be kept extremely high on small plants. Even bigger plants wont grow up to it, they keep at least 15-20 cm. distance.

The light penetrates really well. The foliage is extremely dense, but there are still leaves deep in the bushes, and even pods!

No heating issues. I have had both HPS lights and fluorescent tubes, both produced so much heat, that extra air-conditioning was needed.

There has been constant argument about how the led´s perform against hps lights. Apparently it´s about weather a 100w led light is equal to 400w hps? Now shouldn't it be 100w led against a 100w hps or 400w of leds agains 400w hps? So they consume about as much energy? On this comparison, the hps has no change, the leds are way more efficient. It´s just my estimate, but I think that my 150w led is about even with 400w hps on growing foliage and producing pods.

There seems to be a lot of low quality led lights on the market, I think that on the long run it would be cheaper to buy quality lights in the beginning. These last for several years, and during that time, better leds will produce better yields with less energy consumption, compared to the lower quality leds.

The only downside to these lights is the noise of the cooling fans, it can be quite irritating. The fans can be switched to less noisy computer cooling fans, but that might effect the warranty.

So, am I happy with these gizmos? Yes, I am. Especially the combination of both foggers and the EBB fits my needs perfectly, and I see no other lighting for my plants in the future either.

Hopefully this answers most of Your questions, so You can stop bugging me!    (just kidding)

Edit. for some reason, the picture of jalapeño Early wont upload?

[Rusakko]

jalapeno image does not load because you have named it with out ~-mark and forum software adds it automatically, and that is annoying

[Bugger]

Ok, I renamed it, now it works. Thanks!