Building your own ultrasonic fogger add-on for your cloning machine!
By Eric McIntyre, Editor – TechnologyGarden.net
4-10-2009

Our last tutorial showed you how to create your own aeroponic cloning machine to clone your plants quickly and easily with amazing results.  We’ve had a number of great comments about our DIY cloner so we started thinking about some fresh content to celebrate the start of the 2009 growing season!

My DIY Cloning Machine already works great, why add Fog??
It’s a well known fact that growing with Hydroponic and Aeroponic systems can make your plants grow faster, bigger and provide you with a larger harvest.   Adding a fogger which creates a nutrient-rich “FOG” can boost your root surface area with many ultra fine root hairs and significantly boost your propagation efforts when cloning or growing.  The “Fog” created by an ultrasonic fogger can be a little as a few micron’s in size where if you use a standard pressure mister, you can get water droplets as big as 200 Microns!  The smaller droplets created by the fogger help saturate the surrounding chamber with humidity, water vaopr and nutrients.    Adding fog can help your clones take faster and grow a better root systems.  Adding a fogger can help you get more bang for your buck when growing/cloning with aeroponics or hydroponics.

Parts list for a the fogger add-on:
Below is a basic parts list, I’m not going into measurements but will explain what I used to build mine and how I use it. Pics of some of the parts are shown below so you can understand what I mean

(1) 3/8″ Drill Bit and one utility knife with a fresh sharp blade or 1 1/8″ – 1 1/4″ hole saw

(1) 1/4″ Compression Grommet

(1) Rubbermaid food storage container, 1.2L in size.  Hard clear plastic used for food storage, microwaving, etc.

(1) pack of 0-10gph adjustable dripper nozzles as shown below:

(1) Mister Landscaper – Mister “riser” as shown below

(1) Ultrasonic fogger with external transformer as shown below

(1) 1/2″ or larger bulkhead fitting as shown below

Building the fogger add-on
The first step is to clean your rubbermaid container – wash it out thoroughly to remove any trace of chemicals, adhesives, etc.  Let the rubbermaid container dry while you work on the modifications to the DIY Cloning machine you built earlier.

Take the top off the cloning machine and remove on of the sprayers on the very end of the spray bar.   Now take the MISTER LANDSCAPER riser tube and remove the top half.  This requires you to unscrew the part above the yellow label so there are 2 parts.  Take the bottom part (as shown here) and thread the purple threaded end into the spray bar where you removed a sprayer nozzle.  You should now have the black tube rising up from the cloning chamber as shown in the picture below. This “riser” tube will act as the “feed tube” up to the fog chamber to replace the water that it turned into fog in the chamber above.

Now that your riser tube is connected, you need to cut a 3/8″ hole into the top of the cloner so the feed tube pops out above the cover an inch or two.   This holes doesn’t have to be perfect, the tube needs to feed through and it can have a slight bend to it if it’s not directly centered under the spray hole.  Once you have drilled the hole in the top of the cloning machine top, latch the top onto the cloner so the black riser tube is sticking out of the top as shown.

You now want to grab your rubbermaid container and drill a 3/8″ hole in one corner through the bottom.  Make this hole as clean as possible since once it’s done, we will insert the compression grommet as shown in the picture below. The riser tube will go through this grommet to feed the rubbermaid fogging chamber. Use some dishsoap and slightly dab the grommet and slide the tube through the compression grommet.  You want to do this to line up the hole you cut to fit closely over one of the holes already in the top of your cloning chamber.  Line up the hole with the rubbermaid and trace the hole on the inside of the container with a sharpie.  Remove the tube and flip the container so the bottom is closest and you can see the hole you traced.

Take your bulkhead fitting and cut or drill a hole in the bottom according to the size that the bulkhead requires.  My fitting was a 1/2″ size on my bulkhead and required a hole that was 1 1/8″.  I used a utility knife to slowly carve out the hard plastic since using a hole saw may shatter it.  Make this cut as smooth as possible since a nice surface will be required for the bulkhead fitting to seal.  Insert the bulkhead fitting and the bottom of your container should look like the shot to the left.

I drilled a hole in the side of my container to run the fogger power cord through, but you could probably cut out a small but out of the top rim and still get the top on loosely. Once you get the fogger inserted, it’s time for some final assembly and testing.   Put the riser tube back through the bottom and if you use dish soap be sure to wash the unit thoroughly before using with plants.   You should now have a unit that looks similar to the one shown below.

The riser tube is poking out from the bottom of the fogging chamber and we’ve aligned the bulkhead to sit over one of the open holes in the top of the cloning chamber.  Attach the top of the riser tube as shown on the picture below. Attach a dripper nozzle and thread it onto the tube. Make sure the nozzle is turned on, but at a low drip rate.

Time to Test! First make sure your fogger is unplugged and then fill up your fogging chamber with water until it just starts to flow over the bulkhead fitting.  Lay the top on but don’t snap it tight and plug in your fogger.  If your fogger is too big/tall and won’t activate due to the water level, you can connect a threaded PVC pipe and cut that at the desired level.  You want to have the excess water drop down the bulkhead into the spraying chamber, and the fog will follow since it’s heavier than air.  See the picture gallery for some great shots of the fog flowing into the chamber

Once you have it working, it’s time to test the delivery of the nutrients up to the fogging chamber.  Turn OFF your fogger so you can see, and then fill up your cloner with water and be sure all of your cloning holes are plugged with your neoprene plugs so you don’t flood the floor!  You can now start up your pump in the cloner and watch the dripper in the fogging chamber.  You want a nice steady flow but not too much that it floods the fogger.   It’s best to have the water level stay right above the fogger activation level.   It’s tricky but make your adjustments and keep an eye on it for a few hours.   You’ll be happy to see fog litterally FLOWING into your cloning chamber.  Once you get your nutrients in the water, these tiny little droplets of fog are all over, giving the plant and roots a bath in nutrients at the finest level.  Happy Fogging!

The fogger operating. Notice the block of wood to keep the fogger unit level due to the bulkhead fitting. Just leave the cover on loosely, this lets air in and let’s the fog flow down easier.

The fogger operating, check out the stream of fog coming into the chamber.  You can also see the riser/delivery tube that provides the nutrient water to the fogger.  INext time I’m going to put in a bigger bullkhead fitting so I can get a better flow of fog into the chamber.

Need Parts?
Purchase your own Ultrasonic Fogger from Ebay
Mister’s, drippers and irrigation parts can be found at Home Depot or Lowes
Bulkhead fittings can be found at your local specialized hardware store

Stay tuned for our next tutorial coming soon!