Indoor Growing Autos in SIPs with living soil~~> Bloody Skunk, Red Poison, Zkittles, GDP, and Blue Dream

Zer0 · Aug 25, 2021

Well 7 days have passed and they look healthy to me. i pulled the covers back (which was EASY) when i woke up and gave the citypickers 2 liters of water and each small tote 1 liter each of water and replaced the covers, i don't feel i need to swap the black covers to trashbags just yet but who knows i lowered the lights from 43 inches down to 32 inches so i will monitor the temps on the black covers and see if they will be ok.

I noticed 5-10 gnats in the whole tent so i went ahead and added sticky traps and i have some mosquito bits i will mix into water and drench the soil if it becomes a problem, i bought it to add to the res in case gnats thought it was a good idea to thrive in there.

Lights:
bp3000 , bp1500 100%
Light height: 32-34"

Environment:
Temp ~ 68.4°F - 83.7°F Avg 76.6°F (my new portable ac is amazing no more 90+ temps and i sleep better in the room)
RH ~ 49.7% - 95.4% Avg 70% (working on getting the avg down to 60-65%)

Olderfart · Aug 25, 2021

Zeromitch said:
I seen that with the auto valve you can do all kinds of things, hell i seen dudes make their own float valves for tote sips and diy autopots using auto watering bowls for dogs, cool stuff! :smoking:

My mother bought me a single autopot XL with res for my birthday, it should be at my house in 3 days or so, i'm excited to test things with it but for my 1st few grows with the autopot i will use coco or promix and use megacrop, once i buy some more autopots i'll start my testing, i was thinking of buying 2 more single autopots with res so i can test 3 different grows 1 being living soil/water only, 1 being coco/promix w/maxibloom, 1 being coco/promix w/megacrop and see what happens, which is easier and most effective.
So far i love living soil and anything related to it so i may adopt living soil into every type of grow i want to try minus DWC lol.

Thanks for following along and giving some advice

The autovalves do a really fine job, but the job they do can't be done by any other type of float valve that I am aware of. The key is that once the irrigation tray (either an autopot one, or whatever you set up) is filled to about an inch deep, the valve closes, and, this is really, really important, will not open again until virtually all the water is used up by the plant(s). This ensures that the ~1inch deep flood zone is aerated during each flood cycle. Maintenance of constant flooding such as by using a dog watering float valve will let the flooded soil go anaerobic and cause root rot or other issues. If you use your own pots, tray, and reservoir, the only things you need from Autopots, are a valve, some extra silicones, and the blue lid that protects the valve and holds it down in a DIY tray. You will need tubing/hose and fittings, but which ones will depend on your setup.

Using the XL pots with living soil can work, but the limited size could mean plants running out of nutes before the end of the grow, which is why I will be doing my soil grow this winter in 10 gallon pots in a diy tray setup. As long as you have nutes available to help out later in flowering, you can always supplement as needed. You are correct to order the single trays - with the double trays, growers often find that the pots are too close together for two decent sized pot plants. The single trays are the better bet, and the XL trays with fabric pots are what I have used quite happily other than my difficulty with nute buildup/balance later in the grow. The XL trays with fabric pots also ship in smaller boxes for less shipping costs.

If you want to set up multiple reservoirs, you could just use plastic totes from the local department store rather than paying to have reservoirs shipped.

Good luck with it, if you need any further ideas just give me a shout. :goodluck:

Olderfart · Aug 25, 2021

Zeromitch said:
Well 7 days have passed and they look healthy to me. i pulled the covers back (which was EASY) when i woke up and gave the citypickers 2 liters of water and each small tote 1 liter each of water and replaced the covers, i don't feel i need to swap the black covers to trashbags just yet but who knows i lowered the lights from 43 inches down to 32 inches so i will monitor the temps on the black covers and see if they will be ok.

I noticed 5-10 gnats in the whole tent so i went ahead and added sticky traps and i have some mosquito bits i will mix into water and drench the soil if it becomes a problem, i bought it to add to the res in case gnats thought it was a good idea to thrive in there.
View attachment 1359480 View attachment 1359481 View attachment 1359482 View attachment 1359483
Lights:
bp3000 , bp1500 100%
Light height: 32-34"

Environment:
Temp ~ 68.4°F - 83.7°F Avg 76.6°F (my new portable ac is amazing no more 90+ temps and i sleep better in the room)
RH ~ 49.7% - 95.4% Avg 70% (working on getting the avg down to 60-65%)

Your RH's are great for now, but you are going to want to get rid of that nasty peak into the 90's once flowering gets underway. RH that high could cause mold even if your average RH seems ok.

Zer0 · Aug 25, 2021

Olderfart said:
The autovalves do a really fine job, but the job they do can't be done by any other type of float valve that I am aware of. The key is that once the irrigation tray (either an autopot one, or whatever you set up) is filled to about an inch deep, the valve closes, and, this is really, really important, will not open again until virtually all the water is used up by the plant(s). This ensures that the ~1inch deep flood zone is aerated during each flood cycle. Maintenance of constant flooding such as by using a dog watering float valve will let the flooded soil go anaerobic and cause root rot or other issues. If you use your own pots, tray, and reservoir, the only things you need from Autopots, are a valve, some extra silicones, and the blue lid that protects the valve and holds it down in a DIY tray. You will need tubing/hose and fittings, but which ones will depend on your setup.

Using the XL pots with living soil can work, but the limited size could mean plants running out of nutes before the end of the grow, which is why I will be doing my soil grow this winter in 10 gallon pots in a diy tray setup. As long as you have nutes available to help out later in flowering, you can always supplement as needed. You are correct to order the single trays - with the double trays, growers often find that the pots are too close together for two decent sized pot plants. The single trays are the better bet, and the XL trays with fabric pots are what I have used quite happily other than my difficulty with nute buildup/balance later in the grow. The XL trays with fabric pots also ship in smaller boxes for less shipping costs.

If you want to set up multiple reservoirs, you could just use plastic totes from the local department store rather than paying to have reservoirs shipped.

Good luck with it, if you need any further ideas just give me a shout.

Damn now i know to order the fabric autopot XL i wanted the plastic pot version so i could use that or a my own fabrics but now that i know shipping is cheaper i'll just get the fabric versions and as for the res, i wanted to make my own out of a trashcan or a tote as you suggested, all i need is the right size bulkhead and adapter for 3/8 tubing maybe a shut off valve?

Yeah until i figure out how to make something like you did i will avoid living soil in autopots i forget they need 10 gallons or so to be happy, i'm pushing it with my 4-5 gallon of soil totes i made, the citypickers are 1.5 cu of soil so i know they are good.

Zer0 · Aug 25, 2021

Olderfart said:
Your RH's are great for now, but you are going to want to get rid of that nasty peak into the 90's once flowering gets underway. RH that high could cause mold even if your average RH seems ok.

That spike is lights off

, maybe if i lower it by 5% the spike might go down which is all i can do and it feels very off more like 10% adjustments, i need a better humidifier but i don't want to buy the topfill model just yet until ican afford the inkbirds and the unit.

Olderfart · Aug 26, 2021

Zeromitch said:
Damn now i know to order the fabric autopot XL i wanted the plastic pot version so i could use that or a my own fabrics but now that i know shipping is cheaper i'll just get the fabric versions and as for the res, i wanted to make my own out of a trashcan or a tote as you suggested, all i need is the right size bulkhead and adapter for 3/8 tubing maybe a shut off valve?

Yeah until i figure out how to make something like you did i will avoid living soil in autopots i forget they need 10 gallons or so to be happy, i'm pushing it with my 4-5 gallon of soil totes i made, the citypickers are 1.5 cu of soil so i know they are good.

Different suppliers might not always charge more shipping for the plastic pots, so I you really wanted them, it would be good to check before ordering. :pighug:

Zer0 · Aug 26, 2021

Olderfart said:
The autovalves do a really fine job, but the job they do can't be done by any other type of float valve that I am aware of. The key is that once the irrigation tray (either an autopot one, or whatever you set up) is filled to about an inch deep, the valve closes, and, this is really, really important, will not open again until virtually all the water is used up by the plant(s). This ensures that the ~1inch deep flood zone is aerated during each flood cycle. Maintenance of constant flooding such as by using a dog watering float valve will let the flooded soil go anaerobic and cause root rot or other issues. If you use your own pots, tray, and reservoir, the only things you need from Autopots, are a valve, some extra silicones, and the blue lid that protects the valve and holds it down in a DIY tray. You will need tubing/hose and fittings, but which ones will depend on your setup.

Using the XL pots with living soil can work, but the limited size could mean plants running out of nutes before the end of the grow, which is why I will be doing my soil grow this winter in 10 gallon pots in a diy tray setup. As long as you have nutes available to help out later in flowering, you can always supplement as needed. You are correct to order the single trays - with the double trays, growers often find that the pots are too close together for two decent sized pot plants. The single trays are the better bet, and the XL trays with fabric pots are what I have used quite happily other than my difficulty with nute buildup/balance later in the grow. The XL trays with fabric pots also ship in smaller boxes for less shipping costs.

If you want to set up multiple reservoirs, you could just use plastic totes from the local department store rather than paying to have reservoirs shipped.

Good luck with it, if you need any further ideas just give me a shout.

I got my autopot in today and damn its a LOT bigger than i thought

. while putting it together i seen their paper work showing they have tub/tray style setups, i put the paper in the picture so you could see :smoking:it seems they don't want to lose out on the cash seeing other people diy using their valves. connects 9 xl pots in 1 tray

Zer0 · Aug 26, 2021

Thanks for the rep @UHF and welcome to the grow :toke:

any advice or tips is most welcome :pass:

Zer0 · Aug 30, 2021

Day 12 and looking good, almost to good :smoking: I'm thinking of adding water to all their reservoirs on their 2 week birthday (in 2 days).

What do you guys think? Go for it or wait until day 20 or so?

Tom Bombadil · Aug 31, 2021

Youre gonna need another tent

Indoor Growing Autos in SIPs with living soil~~> Bloody Skunk, Red Poison, Zkittles, GDP, and Blue Dream

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