Grow Mediums Autopot & Autoflower question

[Ayech]

Hey guys long time dwc grower here. Needed to make a move to something slightly more automated so I went and got myself a GH waterfarm (with drip system) and one of the 4 bucket auto pot systems (that use the aqua valve tech) https://autopot.co.uk

Iv has a fear about growing my autos in the auto pot system because i'm still reeling from a failed grow due to my auto flowers stunting and flowering at 1 inch high. The issue I had was that with my dwcs my roots usually established and got into the water very quickly, so I never really had to supplement them with nutes manually (watering from the top). The roots usually would be in a week before I usually planned on nuting so there was less chance of issues.

With my autopot system though, the buckets are larger and what happened was that my roots were not at water level come nute time. So I was forced to manually nute them. Which as you can imagine failed miserably. I have never had to supplement my plants until the roots established, so timings, frequency of using nute water vs normal water, all these factors are kinda alien to me.

Im using a coco coir and clay ball media. Could you guys give me an idea how I can keep my autos growing normally and incident free? until the roots finally make it to the water source and I can switch to auto pilot.

I usually start nuting my autos 2 weeks in with dwc. I gotta do the same with my autopot plants, have to "water them through" until the roots establish. What kind of feeding a nuting schedule should I use until those lil suckers reach the water??

Sorry for the crappy English

 

[Dudeski]

Hey guys long time dwc grower here. Needed to make a move to something slightly more automated so I went and got myself a GH waterfarm (with drip system) and one of the 4 bucket auto pot systems (that use the aqua valve tech) https://autopot.co.uk

Iv has a fear about growing my autos in the auto pot system because i'm still reeling from a failed grow due to my auto flowers stunting and flowering at 1 inch high. The issue I had was that with my dwcs my roots usually established and got into the water very quickly, so I never really had to supplement them with nutes manually (watering from the top). The roots usually would be in a week before I usually planned on nuting so there was less chance of issues.

With my autopot system though, the buckets are larger and what happened was that my roots were not at water level come nute time. So I was forced to manually nute them. Which as you can imagine failed miserably. I have never had to supplement my plants until the roots established, so timings, frequency of using nute water vs normal water, all these factors are kinda alien to me.

Im using a coco coir and clay ball media. Could you guys give me an idea how I can keep my autos growing normally and incident free? until the roots finally make it to the water source and I can switch to auto pilot.

I usually start nuting my autos 2 weeks in with dwc. I gotta do the same with my autopot plants, have to "water them through" until the roots establish. What kind of feeding a nuting schedule should I use until those lil suckers reach the water??

Sorry for the crappy English

Have you read the section here with autobot grows?

 

[HemiSync]

This grow is stickied here for a reason, it’s a textbook autopot grow with all you need to know about timings of hand feedings. @Hansbricks is a master at this system.
https://www.autoflower.org/threads/hans-autopot-grow-and-show-gorilla-glue-red-poison.55181/

 

[lunarman]

Hey guys long time dwc grower here. Needed to make a move to something slightly more automated so I went and got myself a GH waterfarm (with drip system) and one of the 4 bucket auto pot systems (that use the aqua valve tech) https://autopot.co.uk

Iv has a fear about growing my autos in the auto pot system because i'm still reeling from a failed grow due to my auto flowers stunting and flowering at 1 inch high. The issue I had was that with my dwcs my roots usually established and got into the water very quickly, so I never really had to supplement them with nutes manually (watering from the top). The roots usually would be in a week before I usually planned on nuting so there was less chance of issues.

With my autopot system though, the buckets are larger and what happened was that my roots were not at water level come nute time. So I was forced to manually nute them. Which as you can imagine failed miserably. I have never had to supplement my plants until the roots established, so timings, frequency of using nute water vs normal water, all these factors are kinda alien to me.

Im using a coco coir and clay ball media. Could you guys give me an idea how I can keep my autos growing normally and incident free? until the roots finally make it to the water source and I can switch to auto pilot.

I usually start nuting my autos 2 weeks in with dwc. I gotta do the same with my autopot plants, have to "water them through" until the roots establish. What kind of feeding a nuting schedule should I use until those lil suckers reach the water??

Sorry for the crappy English

I'd strongly recommend mixing in at least 30% perlite with the coco. And I would not put in much of the clay balls in the pots and DO NOT layer them in the bottom of the pot and then put coco on top - must mix coco, clay and perlite together. And read the above mentioned threads like Hansbricks. And get airdomes if you don't have them yet. And dont put any thick gooey sticky nutes in your res because it will likely clog up the small 1/4 inch lines or the aquavalves which have a very small pinhole that your feed water has to flow thru to get to the tray. And lift your pots daily if you can so make sure they are uptaking. Monitor the level in the res too as another way to make sure you have good uptake/wicking. Also recommend you do a test of the system using just water and keep the trays open so you can see them fill up before you switch to using nutes for real.

as for hand watering, long story short you hand water from the top for at least 20 days (which is about when the leaves have grown enough to reach the edge of the pots) and just use your finger up to the second knuckle to determine if you need to water or not. Your environment (relative humidity, air movement) may be different than others so you have to really judge yourself along with knowing what people like Hansbrick have found to work as your baseline. And get very familiar with the the weight of a pot that has enough moisture in it compared to a pot that is dry.

I love autopots and you made a good choice if you need some hands off automation. But follow the best practices to start with so you reduce the chance of issues. And I would not go away for a week after you first turn them on and think the automation has you covered == monitor them for a while at first to make sure they are working well.

 

[Ayech]

Have you read the section here with autobot grows?

Yes, well I tried, 32 pages worth of 98% irrelevant information in regards to my particular question. Was very difficult to actually find what I was looking for. Far too much clutter

 

[Ayech]

This grow is stickied here for a reason, it’s a textbook autopot grow with all you need to know about timings of hand feedings. @Hansbricks is a master at this system.
https://www.autoflower.org/threads/hans-autopot-grow-and-show-gorilla-glue-red-poison.55181/

I tried going through it. 32 pages, and I couldn't really find an answer to my question. Felt like a needle in a haystack situation.

 

[Ayech]

I'd strongly recommend mixing in at least 30% perlite with the coco. And I would not put in much of the clay balls in the pots and DO NOT layer them in the bottom of the pot and then put coco on top - must mix coco, clay and perlite together. And read the above mentioned threads like Hansbricks. And get airdomes if you don't have them yet. And dont put any thick gooey sticky nutes in your res because it will likely clog up the small 1/4 inch lines or the aquavalves which have a very small pinhole that your feed water has to flow thru to get to the tray. And lift your pots daily if you can so make sure they are uptaking. Monitor the level in the res too as another way to make sure you have good uptake/wicking. Also recommend you do a test of the system using just water and keep the trays open so you can see them fill up before you switch to using nutes for real.

as for hand watering, long story short you hand water from the top for at least 20 days (which is about when the leaves have grown enough to reach the edge of the pots) and just use your finger up to the second knuckle to determine if you need to water or not. Your environment (relative humidity, air movement) may be different than others so you have to really judge yourself along with knowing what people like Hansbrick have found to work as your baseline. And get very familiar with the the weight of a pot that has enough moisture in it compared to a pot that is dry.

I love autopots and you made a good choice if you need some hands off automation. But follow the best practices to start with so you reduce the chance of issues. And I would not go away for a week after you first turn them on and think the automation has you covered == monitor them for a while at first to make sure they are working well.

Thank you for the detailed response. Am I handwatering at 1/4 nutes for my autos just like I would mix in a hydro solution?

Finger test for dryness and then water like you said?

 

[lunarman]

Thank you for the detailed response. Am I handwatering at 1/4 nutes for my autos just like I would mix in a hydro solution?

Finger test for dryness and then water like you said?

Nute strength would be the same as far as I know.

Since you had issues with establishing roots I would suggest you start in a solo cup that has been setup for the instatranasplant (see the tutorial section for what that looks like - there is a short simple easy to read thread by @912GreenSkell - see link below) where you cut out windows in the side of the cup for the roots to go out eventually. Holes in the bottom too. Then put that cup inside a cup that just has holes in the bottom. Once sprouted keep it there for about 10 days. I like clear 16 oz cups so I can see the moisture level (trick I learned from someone here). You don't want to over water when in the cups That will establish roots nicely and you'll be able to see them thru the cups. I think this is better than going straight in the big autopots. I cut my autopots down to half their height and I still start in cups to establish roots better. And I believe its easier to manage watering when in a smaller transparent pot/cup at first. You can easily tell when getting dry or if too wet.

Then make a crater in the autopot coco the same size as the cup and pull that inside cup out of the outer cup and drop it in the autopot crater. The roots will go thru the sides of the cup thru the windows you cut and make their way in to the autopot coco. And you are not doing a transplant in the traditional sense where you flip the cup upside down and pop out the dirt ball and possibly fuck up your seedling. Adjust your nute strength up as per whatever schedule you are using thru this whole period. Continue to hand water for another 10 days or longer until the leaves have reached the outer edge. Then you can turn on the res and go with the autofeeding.

https://www.autoflower.org/threads/...ictorial-and-root-restriction-stunting.64509/

And if you are not comfortable with coco blend it with HP Pro Mix. That's what I do. I have like 35% coco and 35% HP Promix and 30% perlite and then some amendments like mycos, earth worm castings.

 

[HemiSync]

Yes, well I tried, 32 pages worth of 98% irrelevant information in regards to my particular question. Was very difficult to actually find what I was looking for. Far too much clutter

I tried going through it. 32 pages, and I couldn't really find an answer to my question. Felt like a needle in a haystack situation.

Well I can tell you since I have contributed a fair amount of the data in the autopot forum. Most would not consider it 98% irrelevant and being one that has read every post in this section I can verify it’s all helpful.

A lot of your watering is going to depend on what medium you are using, how it is mixed up, and how well you can read your plants. Just a few minutes of going through Hansbricks posts and I pulled up this info on watering when using coco.

I add cal/mag supplement to every watering since I use RO water.
Which I start at 1ml/L and get up to 2-3ml by full end of flower.
I watered both pots initially with about 500ml of 5.7 pH water with a bit of voodoo juice (1ml/L).
Day 5 I gave them their first good watering (about 1.5L each) with 1/8th strength nutes plus voodoo juice.
Day 11 they got just a light watering with 1/6th strength nutes + voodoo.
Day 14 they received another 1.5L each with 1/4 strength nutes + voodoo.
Day 19 they got a full watering till runoff with nutes at 1.5ml/L.
Day 25 onto the reservoir if the girls are big enough.

I do about this same feeding schedule although sometimes it’s 6 days not 5, but at least once a week they get hand watered until they fill the pot side to side. I, as do several other growers, have stopped using perlite, hydroton, or any other added product and just use straight coco with great success. Yes autopots recommends these things, but we were the one using them for cannabis, they were growing vegetables. And we discovered straight coco is easier to use and to reuse in another grow. Take a look a my current grow and you will not see any signs of being water logged from using straight coco.

Please don’t take us the wrong way, we want to help out as much as possible but there is a lot of relevant information in these threads, including experimentation and tip sharing of all kinds, that you will miss if you don’t take the time to study the many grows here. In addition, it much easier for us to help and bring attention to issues you might be missing, by you starting a grow journal here. It doesn’t have to be multiple days a week like I do, but could be once a week with your most recent reservoir change and a couple pics so we can see your babies. Then people will crawl out of the woodwork here to help out and offer opinions. Even if you don’t want them. I mainly journal because it’s easier than writing my logs down at home. Plus, gives one less piece of physical evidence for the man to confiscate when they serve me my search warrant.

If you start a journal tag me in it and I will come subscribe.
&

 

[G.Leave]

Well I can tell you since I have contributed a fair amount of the data in the autopot forum. Most would not consider it 98% irrelevant and being one that has read every post in this section I can verify it’s all helpful.

A lot of your watering is going to depend on what medium you are using, how it is mixed up, and how well you can read your plants. Just a few minutes of going through Hansbricks posts and I pulled up this info on watering when using coco.

I add cal/mag supplement to every watering since I use RO water.
Which I start at 1ml/L and get up to 2-3ml by full end of flower.
I watered both pots initially with about 500ml of 5.7 pH water with a bit of voodoo juice (1ml/L).
Day 5 I gave them their first good watering (about 1.5L each) with 1/8th strength nutes plus voodoo juice.
Day 11 they got just a light watering with 1/6th strength nutes + voodoo.
Day 14 they received another 1.5L each with 1/4 strength nutes + voodoo.
Day 19 they got a full watering till runoff with nutes at 1.5ml/L.
Day 25 onto the reservoir if the girls are big enough.

I do about this same feeding schedule although sometimes it’s 6 days not 5, but at least once a week they get hand watered until they fill the pot side to side. I, as do several other growers, have stopped using perlite, hydroton, or any other added product and just use straight coco with great success. Yes autopots recommends these things, but we were the one using them for cannabis, they were growing vegetables. And we discovered straight coco is easier to use and to reuse in another grow. Take a look a my current grow and you will not see any signs of being water logged from using straight coco.

Please don’t take us the wrong way, we want to help out as much as possible but there is a lot of relevant information in these threads, including experimentation and tip sharing of all kinds, that you will miss if you don’t take the time to study the many grows here. In addition, it much easier for us to help and bring attention to issues you might be missing, by you starting a grow journal here. It doesn’t have to be multiple days a week like I do, but could be once a week with your most recent reservoir change and a couple pics so we can see your babies. Then people will crawl out of the woodwork here to help out and offer opinions. Even if you don’t want them. I mainly journal because it’s easier than writing my logs down at home. Plus, gives one less piece of physical evidence for the man to confiscate when they serve me my search warrant.

If you start a journal tag me in it and I will come subscribe.
&

repped