Autopots and Coco

[PeaceLove&Buds]

6 days self feeding and looking good. EC in res holding steady at 1.6 and ph is 5.8

When I go to the store for more coco I’m going to look into some side lighting. Clueless about what’s out there but I’m thinking a small strip on each corner pole? Every employee at the store is a grower so I’m sure they’ll set me straight.

 

[Olderfart]

@JP1 I have read many people saying the same thing. That will be something new to me because I’ve never had a problem with a plant before, not even a spot on a leaf that wasn’t from splashing nutes. So troubleshooting could be a bitch Maybe I’ll get lucky and coast through it

I too grew in coco-perlite/autopots for a few years, and always had issues which required flushing late in the grow. I still got decent yields, but got fed up trying to keep the plants happy through the whole grow. I have since gone to automated top watering with coco/perlite, and the autopots are now used outdoors only for veggies or herbs in soil. There are growers on here that find them good, but even the best of them have late grow issues once in a while. Automated top watering has been far more consistent for me.

One bit of advice is to keep your nutes EC at the low end of the spectrum. Bottom fertigation tends to cause nutes to build up in the medium, so EC's needed are typically lower than with top watering with runoff. Good luck with it.

 

[PeaceLove&Buds]

@Olderfart and @throxic it seems to be a general consensus that problems will arise so im expecting it at this point. I’m holding out hope that I can be successful like a friend of mine has been for a few grows now, but my guess is the odds are against me. I wanted to try because I liked the idea of the plant feeding itself when it’s hungry, not for the convenience aspect. In fact I just dropped 2 beans yesterday, and because I don’t know if the autopot will work, these beans will be grown old school lol.

They’re 34 days old and still appear healthy. 36 and 32 inches tall and as expected they loved the autopot through the veg phase.

Together they drank 7 gallons in 6 days. And the res EC dropped from 1.6 to 1.4 over that time. I think this is encouraging because I would assume it means the plant is getting the nutes instead of the nutes sitting in the tank. I set the ph doser to not control the ph at 5.8 and to just monitor for 72 hours so I could actually see any rise/drop and it rose to 5.9. Now it’s all about crossing fingers and toes each day when I open the tent!

 

[PeaceLove&Buds]

Thanks @Lil Dab and happy belated birthday!

 

[PeaceLove&Buds]

Started week 5 feed a day early. EC/ppm 1.5 / 750. Some alligator teeth on the top leaves and I think that’s light stress so I may have to dim a bit since I can’t increase the distance between them. Hate to dim in early flower so I’m gonna research a bit and see what else it could be. Some tiny yellow tips on the upper leaves which should be a sign of nutrient burn, I’ve had them on pretty much every grow so I’m not concerned at this point. I’ll dilute my feed if I see the yellow travel elsewhere on the leaf but I don’t anticipate it. Took the girls outside for an eye level pic.

 

[PeaceLove&Buds]

I started questioning my hold off approach to the nute burn and went ahead and added about a gallon and a half ro water to the 8 gallons in the res while the pump was running and let it mix for 30 minutes. I realized that I probably shouldn’t compare some tiny yellow tips while top feeding with runoff to bottom feeding and should perhaps err on the side of caution. The ec/ppm is now 1.3 / 650.

 

[The Iconoclast]

apologies in advance for mini thread incursion.

You think the ez plugs would be a good candidate for autopots? I've considered trying one of them myself but I can't commit to watering multiple times a day by hand.

I'm not familiar with the auto pots, but I can confirm that whether it's watered by man or machine, the plugs seem to do best by being treated like any inert media which is plenty of nutrient flow, these are my latest findings so far. Otherwise they can easily build up large ppm readings. I'm basing this on how I hand feed. I'm not reading the run off, I just monitor the res and top it up as needed. Is working well at halfway through my current run.

I'm a bit tight for space but I'm thinking of giving the set up below a go. Imagine the pyramid sits in the wire rack, you have a hole in the bottom or up the side a bit in the green tub, then all you need is a 6W aquarium pump from the black tub feeding the top of the plug and you're done. Wouldn't even need a timer just leave it on permanently. There are no areas that can leak and it still maintains the flexibility of easily being able to be repositioned.

 

[PeaceLove&Buds]

I’ve ditched the ro water and have gone back to just a pet and plant dechlorinator filter on my hose bib. I’ve also stopped trying different ratios of feed and/or diluting the feed. I’m going back to how I’ve always fed my plants and if that schedule doesn’t work with an autopot then fuck it I don’t need it. Because of changes I’ve made to accommodate the ro water and the supposed sensitivity that comes with the the system, I’m having to think waaaaay too much about growing a weed. I haven’t even given the system a chance yet to fail with my normal feeding which is what I originally wanted to do before I got caught up in the ro/ec/ppm nonsense. It’s been almost a week with the tap feed and they’re looking good.

Just set up a new 5x5 and have two new sprouts who will be top fed the old school way. I have some Appletizer seeds on the way and in a few weeks I’ll drop 2 with the intent to complete an autopot grow with my original feed schedule.

 

[PeaceLove&Buds]

Day 54 and moving right along. Different structure between these sisters, one more thick golf ball buds spaced apart like the usual GrapeWalkerKush and one with smaller buds that are closer stacked with more leaves like a Skywalker. Her leaves tell me that the Skywalker wannabe is also more sensitive to the feed or the ph or both but is still rolling along. I’m feeling very encouraged about using this system for my next drop which will be 3 or 4 beans. I just got some Mephisto Appletizer and Dark Owl Midnight Mass that I’m excited about. Ive heard great things about Marathon OG and can’t wait to get a couple going! (The midnight mass is a MOG x MOG purple pheno)

So here’s the girls, their feed is currently about 1.6/800 and I upped the dimmer from 80% to 100% to make up for the extra square footage in the new 5x5.

Edit— I didn’t realize I posted a pic of my security system in the grow room they were on defol patrol lmao when I defol they sit right next to me hoping I’ll drop a leaf like a crumb at the dinner table