Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Shit, now ammonia and nitrates are going to have an excise put on them.

I used to have a lawn mowing round, and NEVER did cash jobs incase he had his agents dispersed through my client base!!

There is no cash economy.... especially not around here............

Bought myself 3 foggers. Will have some fun with them when I get them. Hope they work .

Have been thinking I might try and set something up to have the foggers in a seperate unit that then blows the fog into, for instance, a pvc pipe (which wiull house the plants, and then have any condensation return to the fogger unit.

Woops - found an Australian webpage with some info regarding ultrasonic foggers before I bought my foggers. Seems I did not read it properly. The following quote is not very postive in relation to the use of these foggers:

"Aeroponic units are readily available everywhere. Our units are fairly inexpensive. Since Australia is generally about 5 years ahead of the rest of the world in Hydroponics we discarded ultrasonic technology a while ago for the reasons that it demineralised the nutrients, especially iron, was prone to overheat the nutrient, was very unreliable and failures were way too common. there are some simple points to note 1. There is no advantage over size of droplet from mist to spray 2. High pressure systems are more prone to fail than low pressure sprayers 3. low pressure systems are cheap and easy. 4. each plant should have two sprinklers that service it, e.g. a 3x6 plan system could have 4 sprinklers in a pattern to cover all plants with at least two sprinklers. This will stop any plant damage due to sprinkler blockage 5. a $5 filter will filter out everything above 50 micron Anything else you read indicates these are problems with spray type systems."

This should not stop me using them for propagation, but they may not be particularly useful for a pure growing application (bugger).

Comments anybody. Slow as here tonight - you guys having a party I wasn't invited to?

VB, i was thinking the same thing about the slowness..........I hope a breakaway aquaponics website hasn't started

Can you post me the website that you got that info from VB? It seems to go against everything else i have read. Interesting to get another viewpoint. For example i have read that there is much research that large droplet size actually damages plant roots.................

Steve have done more reading tonight on various international drugy type hydro sites. It seems that the main issue with untrasonic fogging is that minerals and the like (including iron) do not end up in the fog. This creates PH issues but also (and most importantly from my perspective) means that the plants will not get the nutrients they need. This is why nozzles are now accepted as being the better option. The druggos seem to agree that these foggers are great for cloning but not for growing. 1 guy did quite a long trial and he ended up growing his dope in fog for first 3-4 weeks and then transferred to DWC for proper growth.

You can look at the site if you like (it is the site of a Hydro place at nerang gold coast), just put +"aeroponics" +"fogger" into google and search on australia only. You will find it. However I think the international reading I have done is probably more explanatory as to the issues. I tend to believe it.

I still have high hopes for using them to propagate

Great info VB. Not all is lost.......... by far the quickest way to grow some plants is by "cloning". Take a cutting (or 10 ) get it rooted and stick it in the grow bed. faster than seed and cheaper than buying seedlings.

I'm just making myself feel better about having bought a fogger

I wonder if the lack of mineral carrying cpability is becasue the water particle size is so fine.

At least as a propogating tool the 3000hr life would go a long way

Steve

the propogateing intrests me - this is because I know where I can "borrow" some cuttings from a miricxal ruit shrub and want to grow my own from them cuttings!
Keep these posts comming!

Yeah, very interesting VB, thanks for that... Perhaps I won't bother setting one of those up... AT least not yet anyway... I'll have to give it a go eventually..

Was it slow in here? Yes I did have a party to go to, all over now though.

it dose sound interesting... on my 'gunna do' list

Steve - easier for you to justify the purchase of your 1 than my 3

VB,

Don't get into a pissing contest about buying 3X quantity of something i didn't really need anyway just 'cause i wanted to experiment and play.........Trust me, i'll win lol.

Hey, seriously, get a 60LT container wtih a lid, drill some holes in it propogate a load of cuttings with pics every 3 days, and then post them on ebay as a setup. double your money easy

I'm just kidding actually. I am happy with my purchase. $40 bucks for 3 units, including postage and handling is a pretty good deal.

Wow, didn't think you got them that cheap. very good! Mine cost me $27 shipped.