Grow Mediums 1st Autopot/Autoflower Run: Come help a newbie out!

[Saven]

Strains:
- (2) Toof Decay by Mephisto Genetics

Tent/Fans:
- 36″X20″X62″ Grow Tent from Apollo Horticulture
- iPower 4 Inch 118 CFM Inline Duct Fan
- VIVOSUN 4 Inch Air Carbon Filter
- Genesis 6-Inch Clip Convertible Table-Top & Clip Fan
- Hurricane 6-Inch Classic Series Clip Fan

Light:
- Meijiu 240W QB LM301B 3500k + Osram 660 w/ dimmer (Similar Light)

Schedule:
- 20/4 or 24/0

Medium:
- Hydro Crunch Expanded Clay
- Hydro Crunch Coco Coir Perlite (70/30)

Nutrients:
- Mega Crop 2 Part A 5-12-26 Hydroponic Professional 1000g
- Mega Crop 2 Part B 15.5-0-0 Hydroponic Professional 1000g
- Advanced Nutrients 6360-14 Sensi Cal Mag Xtra 1L

Extras:
- Real Growers Recharge
- Great White Premium Mycorrhizae® - with Beneficial Bacteria and Trichoderma SAMPLE
- Orca® Liquid Mycorrhizae - with Beneficial Bacteria SAMPLE

Pots:
- General Hydroponics HGC714135 Rapid Rooter Plant Starters, 50 Plugs, Black
- (2) 3.9 Gallon Autopots
- (2) Clear Propagation Lids for 3.9 gal Pots
- Eagle 1677B Containment Utility Tray, 36" Length x 18" Width x 2" Height, Black

Meters:
- VIVOSUN Digital Indoor Thermometer and Hygrometer with Humidity Gauge
- Apera Instruments AI209 Value Series PH20 Waterproof pH Tester Kit, ±0.1 pH Accuracy
- VIVOSUN pH and TDS Meter Combo, TDS-EC-Temperature Meter.

Summary:
New grower who's done 2 soil grows so far. I've grown Toof Decay twice already and I really enjoy it. I've never done an autopot run before, so I decided to join the Autoflower.net community and get help from the best around. If you see any red flags, or just want to chime in with some tips then please do. I'd love to learn a thing or two. Thanks again.

 

[Death The Cultivator]

Strains: (Not sure yet but they will be autoflower)
- Toof Decay
- Double Grape x 3 Bears OG

Tent:
36″X20″X62″ Tent from Apollo Horticulture

Light:
Meijiu 240W QB LM301B 3500k + Osram 660 w/ dimmer

Schedule: (Either going to be 20/4 or 24/0)
20/4

Medium:
- Hydro Crunch Expanded Clay
- Hydro Crunch Coco Coir Perlite (70/30)

Nutrients: (I need some recommendations?)
- Megacrop line?
- Great White Mycorrhizae?

- I have some leftover Advanced Nutrients. Full 1L of Micro and CalMag from AN, and 250mL of Grow and Bloom from their line. (Probably not enough?)

Pots:
- (2) 3.9 Gallon Autopots

Summary:
I'm a new grower who's going to be on my 3rd ever grow, but this will be my first ever grow in autopots. Just looking for some suggestions for nutrients and products that might aid me in growing. Not sure how much Great White Mycorrhizae will help, so hopefully someone can chime in. Also maybe looking for a decently priced pH pen because my Vivosun one seemed to die on me..

Anyways, I'm glad to be a part of the autoflower forum.

Mega Crop by Greenleaf nutrients in either the one part or two part powder is an affordable solution.

Jack's hydro has RO/tap water formulas and a large variety in general that is affordable as well.

Real Growers Recharge is an alternative to great white. Great white will work though

HM has affordable, $40 range, ph/EC meters that are reliable. Be sure to grab an Atlas ph solution kit as well.

I'd try an 18/6 light schedule to start with. I think you're going to see less water usage with autopots but @Olderfart uses Coco with them and does well

 

[420Forever]

Strains: (Not sure yet but they will be autoflower)
- Toof Decay
- Double Grape x 3 Bears OG

Tent:
36″X20″X62″ Tent from Apollo Horticulture

Light:
Meijiu 240W QB LM301B 3500k + Osram 660 w/ dimmer

Schedule: (Either going to be 20/4 or 24/0)
20/4

Medium:
- Hydro Crunch Expanded Clay
- Hydro Crunch Coco Coir Perlite (70/30)

Nutrients: (I need some recommendations?)
- Megacrop line?
- Great White Mycorrhizae?

- I have some leftover Advanced Nutrients. Full 1L of Micro and CalMag from AN, and 250mL of Grow and Bloom from their line. (Probably not enough?)

Pots:
- (2) 3.9 Gallon Autopots

Summary:
I'm a new grower who's going to be on my 3rd ever grow, but this will be my first ever grow in autopots. Just looking for some suggestions for nutrients and products that might aid me in growing. Not sure how much Great White Mycorrhizae will help, so hopefully someone can chime in. Also maybe looking for a decently priced pH pen because my Vivosun one seemed to die on me..

Anyways, I'm glad to be a part of the autoflower forum.

heya @Saven and to afn! i'm an organic soil grower, not a coconut, so can't help ya much, lol but otherz will chime in & anything else u need, jus give a holler

ppp &

 

[Olderfart]

Strains: (Not sure yet but they will be autoflower)
- Toof Decay
- Double Grape x 3 Bears OG

Tent:
36″X20″X62″ Tent from Apollo Horticulture

Light:
Meijiu 240W QB LM301B 3500k + Osram 660 w/ dimmer

Schedule: (Either going to be 20/4 or 24/0)
20/4

Medium:
- Hydro Crunch Expanded Clay
- Hydro Crunch Coco Coir Perlite (70/30)

Nutrients: (I need some recommendations?)
- Megacrop line?
- Great White Mycorrhizae?

- I have some leftover Advanced Nutrients. Full 1L of Micro and CalMag from AN, and 250mL of Grow and Bloom from their line. (Probably not enough?)

Pots:
- (2) 3.9 Gallon Autopots

Summary:
I'm a new grower who's going to be on my 3rd ever grow, but this will be my first ever grow in autopots. Just looking for some suggestions for nutrients and products that might aid me in growing. Not sure how much Great White Mycorrhizae will help, so hopefully someone can chime in. Also maybe looking for a decently priced pH pen because my Vivosun one seemed to die on me..

Anyways, I'm glad to be a part of the autoflower forum.

I can vouch for the coco and ~3 gallon autopots, they will grow monsters with Megacrop and some bennies. I now use the Raw grow and bloom micros, but mostly due to availability, not expectation that they are any better than the alternatives. I know nothing about the expanded clay stuff though, but if you are talking about a product like hydroton in the bottom of your pots, it is not necessary, and could cause more mischief than good. Have a look at the autopot review in my sig before you set things up.

As for a pH pen, I went for an Apera after my cheapie died in less than a week. It may be a bit pricier than the unit @damien50 mentions, but not by a lot, and it has sure worked a treat for me.

The only problem with the Mephisto seeds is that they might spoil you - that company produces excellent genetics. With your setup and a little care, you should produce some really nice bud.

I will venture one additional thought, with the proviso that this is just thinking on my part at this point, not absolute fact. With synthetic nutes and autopots, there is a possibility of nute buildup in the medium because, unlike with manual watering with runoff, what goes into the medium stays in, and what stays in can build up to concentrations or become sufficiently unbalanced to cause lockout. I think this may mean a couple things for us autopotters. First, keep the EC in the low range unless the plants ask for more. And second, at the first sign of unexplained mischief, turn off the reservoir, and flush the pot with nute mix at your intended EC and pH level (NOT plain water), and continue flushing with nute mix until the runoff EC and pH is the same as the input. This will re-set both ph and ec level in your medium to what you want. To do this, I just put the pot and tray onto a support that will allow runoff to pour into a tote or the like, and measure the runoff in the valve area of the tray to see how the runoff is moving to target. Once the runoff is on target, empty the tray and let the pot dry out for at least several hours before turning on the reservoir again. The really nice thing about coco is that it permits this with little or no risk of causing overwatering problems.

Good luck with your grow, and don't hesitate to ask for help or ideas.

 

[idiopathic neuropathy]

All great advice from the above posters.

Just want to add my experiences....I use autopots, 50/50 coco/perlite,(have used 100%coco, and all various ratios of coco/perlite). I have never used clay, airdomes. 50/50 has worked best for me.

I have bought the cheap China ph and tds meters and have encountered-"you get what you pay for". Although it appears expensive at first, my Hanna meter has been well worth it. Three years ago I bought Hanna HI9813-6 portable pH/EC/TDS/Temperature Meter with CAL Check and never have had a problem with it. The key i believe is using storage solution when not in use And calibrating it once a month.

I started with gh trio nutrients for a couple of my first grows and they turned out well.
I switched to Megacrop v1 and had troubles, then bought v2 and still had troubles----had gunk in my lines and at the bottom of the resevoir, so I had to clean the autopot system more often. So, I went back to GH trio, and Botanicare Calmag, and haven't looked back. Further, I have used stimulators, enhancers, explosions-pk boosters and have found for me personally it wasn't worth the money and made things more complicated for my simple mind. But, others who know how to use these can produce great results. My suggestion for newbs-keep it simple.
I take full responsibility of not being able to "dial in" Megacrop, because there are many good growers on afn that can make it work for them. I just didn't want to hassle with it.
Have fun and good luck!

 

[Saven]

Thank you everyone.

@Olderfart , I think I will spend a little bit more and get a device that'll last me awhile. Could you go into detail about the Hydroton and why it could be detrimental? (The clay things I was talking about are Hydroton but a different brand, but same same )

@idiopathic neuropathy & @damien50 , I think I'm just gonna go with whatever is closest to me or whatever can get here the fastest. I know a lot of people love megacrop, but I noticed in some places on the internet they're not liking the new version of it. I have no idea about any of that though, haven't tried it (yet).

 

[Olderfart]

Thank you everyone.

@Olderfart , I think I will spend a little bit more and get a device that'll last me awhile. Could you go into detail about the Hydroton and why it could be detrimental? (The clay things I was talking about are Hydroton but a different brand, but same same )

@idiopathic neuropathy & @damien50 , I think I'm just gonna go with whatever is closest to me or whatever can get here the fastest. I know a lot of people love megacrop, but I noticed in some places on the internet they're not liking the new version of it. I have no idea about any of that though, haven't tried it (yet).

The issue with the hydroton is that when water wicks through a medium, a sudden major change in particle size can impede water movement across the boundary. That much is at correct in theory. OTOH, lots of people use it with no problem. My suspicion is that it works at least in part because some of the medium sifts down into the hydroton to assist with wicking. Whatever.

The point I made in my review of my autopot run is that hydroton or the like, or an air dome in the bottom of the pot are not necessary. At least in coco with perlite, root growth is healthy right to the bottom of the medium without additional aeration material or devices. It is possible that fabric pots help here, but I have no experience with the solid wall pots, so I would not know whether there is a difference.

Anyway for your grow, adding some hydroton to the bottom of your medium is unlikely to hurt as long as you let coco into the layer as well. The one risk you add by using the balls is that the odd grower on here has experienced pH or nute problems with improperly manufactured balls. I'm not sure exactly what the chemical issue was, but if you ran into this, it would be difficult to fix. If you are confident in the quality of your clay product, use it if you wish. If not, and you want a bit more aeration in the bottom of your pot, just use some extra perlite in the lower inch or two.

 

[Olderfart]

Strains: (Not sure yet but they will be autoflower)
- Toof Decay
- Double Grape x 3 Bears OG

Tent:
36″X20″X62″ Tent from Apollo Horticulture

Light:
Meijiu 240W QB LM301B 3500k + Osram 660 w/ dimmer

Schedule: (Either going to be 20/4 or 24/0)
20/4

Medium:
- Hydro Crunch Expanded Clay
- Hydro Crunch Coco Coir Perlite (70/30)

Nutrients: (I need some recommendations?)
- Megacrop line?
- Great White Mycorrhizae?

- I have some leftover Advanced Nutrients. Full 1L of Micro and CalMag from AN, and 250mL of Grow and Bloom from their line. (Probably not enough?)

Pots:
- (2) 3.9 Gallon Autopots

Summary:
I'm a new grower who's going to be on my 3rd ever grow, but this will be my first ever grow in autopots. Just looking for some suggestions for nutrients and products that might aid me in growing. Not sure how much Great White Mycorrhizae will help, so hopefully someone can chime in. Also maybe looking for a decently priced pH pen because my Vivosun one seemed to die on me..

Anyways, I'm glad to be a part of the autoflower forum.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I would go with 20/4 or 18/6 rather than 24/0. I went with 24 hour light in my grow last winter, and now believe that I was hitting my plants with too much light, perhaps for too many hours. Once my seedlings are well established in my current grow, I will gradually crank back at least to 20/4, maybe 18/6. The reason that I stuck with 24/0 last winter was that my temperature and humidity needed the heat from the lights to stay reasonable. I now have a small space heater to keep temps exactly where I want them regardless of the lights.

Good luck with it!

 

[Saven]

I'm going to be using the included plastic pots so no fabrics this run and also already have the Coco Coir/Perlite mix and Hydrotons coming so I might as well give it a go. Thank you for taking time and explaining that @Olderfart. I'm sure you're right, and I'll make sure coco gets down to where the Hydroton is at the bottom of the pot. (Oh, and pray it doesn't cause pH problems.)

 

[Death The Cultivator]

I think most nutrients are going to work well enough. Dry salts are less expensive. You might check out @Prescription Blend their nutrients are very intelligently formulated. I've used them several times.