Indoor Autopot issues

[Muskegman]

What’s up everyone ,
This is my first post. I’m growing in the easy pot system which has two pots controlled by one valve and there are three of these. I’m growing in coco mixed with clay pebbles, along with the air dome at the bottom. I have an inch of clay pebbles above the air dome. I’m growing auto Girl Scout cookies, LSD, and gorilla glue. I am new to auto flowers and the Autopot system. This whole grow is a learning experience no doubt. I’ve already learned that the easy pot system is pretty much worthers for growing 6 plants because the pots are so close together. Also, growing three different strains is difficult using one reservoir since one strain wants more food while others don’t. I topped all of these autos, and then topped them again so that I would have four main colas. I didn’t know how they would react but I know now. Both LSD didn’t react well. Girl Scout cookies seem to be stunted pretty bad, but the gorilla glue seems to be the only one that’s doing good with the topping early on. The others seem like they are stunted hard core as they haven’t really formed buds. They have plenty of light, I’m using timber grow lights with 6 Vero 29’s. Also, I’ve noticed that ever since I stopped hand feeding them and hooked the reservoir up, they seem droopy like they’re over watered . They use to be praying to the gods and now they look sad. I’ve double checked all the little rubber grommets to ensure they seal and allow the valves to work properly, but it seems like there is always a lot of water in the bottoms of the trays. So, at this point to make sure, I’ve taken the res down and letting them dry a little bit and hand feeding again to
See what happens. Any input would be greatly appreciated. I’m using AN coco so no build up in lines or anything, and PH is always at 5.8.
Attached are some pics. The dark purple is the LSD, the one covered in trichomes is GSC, and the gorilla glue is the one that looks like it’s still early on in flower. Anyways, like I said I am new to autos and AutoPots , next grow I know better. Should have bought the single bucket Autopot system and just grown one strain in these.

 

[Mr Green Fingers]

I grow in DWC and I've been looking into Autopots but the one thing which puts me off is the shared res when feeding different strains! Don't think your pics uploaded either mate!
@St. Tom has stellar results with Autopots so hopefully he can shed some light on your issues

 

[St. Tom]

Hi pal I use a shared res on most grows with not many issues mine are the 15 ltr single pots your always better underfeeding slightly than over doing that you will save yourself countless issues also they take a couple of days to bed in how long have they been in the pots and connected to the res I leave mine sometimes 2 weeks to make sure the roots touch the bottoms plus you will always have food in your res it will never be dry I would stick with them I grow monsters in them also tag me any time and thanks @ChroToker i cant see your pics either pal

 

[Simplicio]

I grow in DWC and I've been looking into Autopots but the one thing which puts me off is the shared res when feeding different strains! Don't think your pics uploaded either mate!
@St. Tom has stellar results with Autopots so hopefully he can shed some light on your issues

I had been considering autopots too, but finally decided staying with DWC is easier, especially if hooked up to a master reservoir with a float valve to keep reservoirs topped off.
When you consider that many (most?) autopot growers are using air domes and airstones, while mixing together 2 or more media, autopots are not simple.

I actually prefer having multiple stains in the same reservoir.
It's less work, and I believe that the most voracious eater can still thrive on what the most finicky eater wants.
I certainly can be wrong about this, and if so I'd welcome different opinions.

I bought a 4-6 plant rdwc system with individual buckets for each plant, but decided not to use it because I didn't like the look of all the hoses that can get in the way, and leak.
Instead, I'll be hooking a top-off res with float valve to two 2 plant reservoirs in different tents, which means only 2 hoses that can leak and get in the way.
I bought part of the General Hydroponics Water Farm, the master reservoir with float valve, to do this.
When the master res fluid level is lowered by partially emptying, then gravity will reduce each res's level to match.
When more water flows into the master res, all the water levels will rise to match it, so all reservoirs can be controlled by 1 master reservoir.
At least that's the hope.

 

[Muskegman]

Thanks for responses ! It seems like my LSD strain was always needing more food while others weren’t. Anyhow, I guess the auto pots aren’t as simple as I thought. I hand watered them for a month before switching to the res, so my girls were pretty big at that point . Last night I took them out of the tray they sit in and there’s all kinds of little build up in them. It looks like it’s the AN big bud coco edition that could be causing issues with the valves. The stuff is super thick and may not be good for this type of growing. Maybe just stick with the normal Big Bud. Anyways, hope these pictures loaded this time.

 

[DABaracuss]

I am on my first grow with the autopots and I find it simple uber simple. I think you can use the pots you have just with some creative bending them apart to grow to the left or tight of each other for more room . Also if you do photos they are great for mother plants. If you get a plant that likes a little less nutes then the rest I just top feed with plain water to dilute the nutes in the tray.Seems to work fine..Its a small learning curve but If you can run DWC you can do autopots.

 

[puffer1958]

I had been considering autopots too, but finally decided staying with DWC is easier, especially if hooked up to a master reservoir with a float valve to keep reservoirs topped off.
When you consider that many (most?) autopot growers are using air domes and airstones, while mixing together 2 or more media, autopots are not simple.

I actually prefer having multiple stains in the same reservoir.
It's less work, and I believe that the most voracious eater can still thrive on what the most finicky eater wants.
I certainly can be wrong about this, and if so I'd welcome different opinions.

I bought a 4-6 plant rdwc system with individual buckets for each plant, but decided not to use it because I didn't like the look of all the hoses that can get in the way, and leak.
Instead, I'll be hooking a top-off res with float valve to two 2 plant reservoirs in different tents, which means only 2 hoses that can leak and get in the way.
I bought part of the General Hydroponics Water Farm, the master reservoir with float valve, to do this.
When the master res fluid level is lowered by partially emptying, then gravity will reduce each res's level to match.
When more water flows into the master res, all the water levels will rise to match it, so all reservoirs can be controlled by 1 master reservoir.
At least that's the hope.

Just for your consideration. Another autopot grower here said that sometimes when he has different strains that start flowering earlier/later than some others, so the nutrient needs can vary veg/bloom between the strains, so he has 2 rez giving him the flexibility to deal with such needs.
I right now have strains that finish times vary from 60 days for one strain and 90 days for another so they go into flower at times that vary quite a bit.

 

[pop22]

Those plants are OVER fed, not under fed! The giveaway is the clawing of the leaves, that's a sure sign. I've run multple strains in my auto pots many times with never an issue. Most people overfeed their plants thinking they can force feed them into taking in more nutes. NO! what your doing is making them toxic. If your plant is not turning yellow, its not under fed. Color can also be strain specific, some strains normal color ID light green especially Sativa and Sativa dominant plants so judging by color can be very misleading.

Thanks for responses ! It seems like my LSD strain was always needing more food while others weren’t. Anyhow, I guess the auto pots aren’t as simple as I thought. I hand watered them for a month before switching to the res, so my girls were pretty big at that point . Last night I took them out of the tray they sit in and there’s all kinds of little build up in them. It looks like it’s the AN big bud coco edition that could be causing issues with the valves. The stuff is super thick and may not be good for this type of growing. Maybe just stick with the normal Big Bud. Anyways, hope these pictures loaded this time. View attachment 988173View attachment 988174View attachment 988175View attachment 988176View attachment 988177

 

[Muskegman]

You may be right about the over feeding. I chopped them down and I’m gonna start a new grow soon. Hope it goes better.