My No-Touch Autoflower System – Earth, Autopots & Biology

[HumbleSparrow10]

What’s up AFN!

I wanted to finally share the way I grow autos, because over time it turned into something quite different from the usual approach.

I call it my No-Touch Earth Hydro System.

The basic idea is simple: organic soil, Autopots, BioTabs, fungi and bacteria, lots of air in the root zone — and then I leave the plants alone.

No topping.
No LST.
No defoliation.
No pruning.

Once the plants are established in their final pots, there is very little work left besides keeping an eye on climate and filling the reservoir.

The strange part is that the wetter the soil stays, the better the plants seem to perform. The pots are really wet, almost hydro-like, but the roots stay healthy and the plants can become huge.

My main goal is not maximum grams per square meter.

I’m after maximum yield per plant, very little work, and an efficient rotation throughout the year.

I’ve been running this system for quite a while now with the same general genetics and setup, and the results kept surprising me enough that I eventually started documenting it more seriously.

I’m posting this mainly as inspiration and to see if anyone here is interested in the method.

If there’s interest, I’ll add much more over time: soil mix, Autopot setup, pot sizes, lighting/DLI, temperature, humidity, water use, rotation, plant size, results, and some of the mistakes we made along the way.

[EyesOnFire-1]

[Atulip]

Got any photos? We love photos.

[HumbleSparrow10]

Yes — there are already photos in my other thread:

“290g+ Organic Auto in 70 Days: Zero Training…”

That thread shows the plants and some of the results. This new thread is meant more as a general introduction to the system itself.

[Atulip]

Ah sorry I’m terrible at navigating the new forums.

Oh right, I was suggesting seed banks for you lol.

[HumbleSparrow10]

yeah, check it out! easy to do, maximum joy to gain

[HumbleSparrow10]

you did and we re so happy about…thx again

[Atulip]

I watched part of a build a soil series where they do a mostly hands off autopot autoflower grow.

BuildASoil: New Autoflower Soil Test // Time Capsule Tent Setup // (Episode 01)

[Kspun]

Definitely seen some big plants online using autopots and zero training…(autopotamus) wonder if you can get the same results hand watering

[Atulip]

I think it’s just about keeping the soil the right moisture rather than the traditional wet/dry cycle.

[KingRatt]

Im really interested in your lighting setup, you seem to be using less electricity than most , and still getting great results. Is your lighting, the tilted lights giving them photos from the side, are those coming from 360° or just two side and over head? I’m curious I want to use that light setup in my micro tents that I SOG in. Here’s a basic sketch of what I have in mind.

As opposed to a traditional setup like this below

[HumbleSparrow10]

Our average large plant is around 1.85 m tall including the pot, while our tent is only 2 m high. That leaves no practical room for a lamp above the plant.

So we turned that limitation into an advantage.

With a normal top-light setup, the lamp usually sits about 45–50 cm above the canopy, and the really effective light penetration is only around 60 cm. That is why people often remove lower branches — the light simply does not reach much deeper.

We do it differently. Each plant is mainly lit from two sides. Our plants can be around 1.2 m wide, so the LEDs are mounted along the tent walls and between the plants, slightly angled toward the canopy. The lights between the plants sit roughly at the height of the top branches.

This means the light does not have to penetrate through the entire canopy from above. It enters from the sides and can illuminate almost the full height of the plant.

By eliminating the usual 45–50 cm lamp clearance above the canopy and combining that with roughly 60 cm of effective light penetration, we can illuminate around 1.1–1.2 m of plant depth. In practice, that allows us to fully light a plant of about 1.5 m actual plant height without removing lower branches.

That is basically the whole principle: instead of lighting the plant from above, we light the complete plant from the sides.

[HumbleSparrow10]

These are two rel big ones I found in my Foto diary. They re about 185 high and 120 wide. In our tent with 2.40x2.40 we had in average three of those ones and three smaller ones…tent was full.

They are seconds before dry room…bigger one is 440 g

[HumbleSparrow10]

it s working in the combination of autopots and biotabs…biotabs represent the easiest way to prepare the soil. we take plagron, fine organic soil with lets say almost everything inbside plus 15% of prelite…we add to 33% of perlite, we put 250g of startrex, 250g of silicium flash and 30g we call dolomitcalc for better gaining calcium and magnesium. we mix it when adding our small plats like 10 days old they get mycoryzzas and some bacterias…finish!!

nohing more to add for next 10 weeks!

and then ..yes, it s very wet inside the pots…hydro/soil i call it and no rotten roots to my own surprise..

[HumbleSparrow10]

hahahahaha…sometimes my brain is short…what a nice pic! thanks man! how nice and fitting…made my day

[HumbleSparrow10]

what is the size of your tent?

[KingRatt]

I run a few tents but my plan is for a 2x2x4 tent. Very small. I currently run 9 plants in 1gal fabric pots, will be switching to 2gal next run, I have more experience with them I like the yield that root base provides. I’ll get some pics when I get off work.

[Atulip]

I haven’t used biotabs before, but I used to just run coots recipe water only soil. I ran it on a bed of perlite for a wick watering hands off method. I also needed to amend about 15-20% more perlite than the recipe calls for.

This was pre- auto pots / earthbox days. Just some pond liner stapled to a 2x4 wood frame for a makeshift wick bed.

I’d be curious to try auto pots they’re just a little out of my budget. I grabbed some thirsty earth ollas and am using that to maintain moisture in the soil in my 2’x4’ bed. I thought about the Tray 2 grow, but it hold’s 1/3rd the amount of soil, and I figured I’d need to cram 2 in my tent to run 4+ plants comfortably.

What size auto pots do you use?

[EyesOnFire-1]

Love BioTabs..ran them for yrs and still use them a bit here n there. Excellent product especially paired with an auto system like that too..nice. can’t wait to see it going n growing

[KingRatt]

You should really start a seed to harvest thread when you start some seeds next, it would be awesome for the community to see it all going down in real time! I think it would be great! And an awesome learning experience for all of us! We’d be able to ask the questions that matter when they arise!