Grow Mediums AutoPots. I'd like opinions on my possible purchase.

[ThaPollinator!]

I have two tents I want to install self watering systems for both. I plan to use nutrients that I haven't used before but the AN line I am using now isn't intended for use in a reservoir and I have wanted to go back to organics for awhile anyway. I have the 2 part organic dry amendments Earth Dust coming on Monday and will cook it for 2 weeks with Roots Organic which is at a fair price for me locally and they claim 2 weeks is all that is needed. We'll see.

I have a 5' x 5' x 6.6' (1.5m x 1.5m x 2m) tent - looking at the Spring Pot 6 with 25 gal reservoir. I was thinking I could reduce the pot size for more plants or reduce number of reservoirs/aquavalves and use 5 gal pots for larger plants.

I also have a 3' x 3' x 6' (0.9m x 0.9m x 1.8m) tent that I want to do small breeding projects in. So I may use 1, .5 gal or less size pots. Maybe even solo cups. I want to experiment and the single pot systems and the double 2.2 gal systems don't seem appealing for this tent and purpose. I'm looking at the - easy2GO kit with a 2.5' x 2.5' tray and a 12.4 gal reservoir and lid. Then top it off with back up tubing for mid-grow cleaning and I should be all set.

Or am I?

What do you guys think? I was looking at blumats not long ago but @Ryno_nuggs warned me he had read quite a few horror stories of flooding from carrot failure when he was looking to upgrade. I see @pop22 gives organic runs with plane water a thumbs up. Have I forgotten anything? AirDomes? Is this over doing it? I'm shooting for mid-summer so I can take some extended trips.

Thanks!

 

[pop22]

I don't know if the air domes would benefit an organic grow or not. I suspect not as it may over oxygenate the environment of the micro life. Two weeks is a little quick but as long as the soil is not generating heat you should be ok, I've done it to no ill effect.
I've not used them and yet I was pleased with my grows.
And the tray idea works very well. I'm doing an organic grow in a 30 gallon cloth pot in a 4x4 tray that with be watered via Aqua Valves. Notice the valves in the pic.

I have two tents I want to install self watering systems for both. I plan to use nutrients that I haven't used before but the AN line I am using now isn't intended for use in a reservoir and I have wanted to go back to organics for awhile anyway. I have the 2 part organic dry amendments Earth Dust coming on Monday and will cook it for 2 weeks with Roots Organic which is at a fair price for me locally and they claim 2 weeks is all that is needed. We'll see.

I have a 5' x 5' x 6.6' (1.5m x 1.5m x 2m) tent - looking at the Spring Pot 6 with 25 gal reservoir. I was thinking I could reduce the pot size for more plants or reduce number of reservoirs/aquavalves and use 5 gal pots for larger plants.

I also have a 3' x 3' x 6' (0.9m x 0.9m x 1.8m) tent that I want to do small breeding projects in. So I may use 1, .5 gal or less size pots. Maybe even solo cups. I want to experiment and the single pot systems and the double 2.2 gal systems don't seem appealing for this tent and purpose. I'm looking at the - easy2GO kit with a 2.5' x 2.5' tray and a 12.4 gal reservoir and lid. Then top it off with back up tubing for mid-grow cleaning and I should be all set.

Or am I?

What do you guys think? I was looking at blumats not long ago but @Ryno_nuggs warned me he had read quite a few horror stories of flooding from carrot failure when he was looking to upgrade. I see @pop22 gives organic runs with plane water a thumbs up. Have I forgotten anything? AirDomes? Is this over doing it? I'm shooting for mid-summer so I can take some extended trips.

Thanks!

 

[Olderfart]

I have two tents I want to install self watering systems for both. I plan to use nutrients that I haven't used before but the AN line I am using now isn't intended for use in a reservoir and I have wanted to go back to organics for awhile anyway. I have the 2 part organic dry amendments Earth Dust coming on Monday and will cook it for 2 weeks with Roots Organic which is at a fair price for me locally and they claim 2 weeks is all that is needed. We'll see.

I have a 5' x 5' x 6.6' (1.5m x 1.5m x 2m) tent - looking at the Spring Pot 6 with 25 gal reservoir. I was thinking I could reduce the pot size for more plants or reduce number of reservoirs/aquavalves and use 5 gal pots for larger plants.

I also have a 3' x 3' x 6' (0.9m x 0.9m x 1.8m) tent that I want to do small breeding projects in. So I may use 1, .5 gal or less size pots. Maybe even solo cups. I want to experiment and the single pot systems and the double 2.2 gal systems don't seem appealing for this tent and purpose. I'm looking at the - easy2GO kit with a 2.5' x 2.5' tray and a 12.4 gal reservoir and lid. Then top it off with back up tubing for mid-grow cleaning and I should be all set.

Or am I?

What do you guys think? I was looking at blumats not long ago but @Ryno_nuggs warned me he had read quite a few horror stories of flooding from carrot failure when he was looking to upgrade. I see @pop22 gives organic runs with plane water a thumbs up. Have I forgotten anything? AirDomes? Is this over doing it? I'm shooting for mid-summer so I can take some extended trips.

Thanks!

Can't help you with your medium/nutes, but if you can set up a water only grow, autopots will be golden. I have yet to have an autovalve do anything other than what it should, and I have been using nutes in the reservoir. Mind you, I use better filtration than standard.

With clean setup and plain water, they will be spectacularly effective. Good luck with it.

 

[ThaPollinator!]

I don't know if the air domes would benefit an organic grow or not. I suspect not as it may over oxygenate the environment of the micro life. Two weeks is a little quick but as long as the soil is not generating heat you should be ok, I've done it to no ill effect.
I've not used them and yet I was pleased with my grows.
And the tray idea works very well. I'm doing an organic grow in a 30 gallon cloth pot in a 4x4 tray that with be watered via Aqua Valves. Notice the valves in the pic.

View attachment 1329503

Oh yeah. I remember that pic. Didn't noticed the aquavalves before. Great! More confirmation this isn't a pointless effort. I saw the pic houseplants on their website and second guessed myself. haha! I'm a little skeptical about the 2 weeks claim from Earth Dust as well but I do see other folks getting great results quickly with gaia green dry amendments so willing to test the claim. It's not that expensive to experiment. Will look to mixing a super soil later this year but wanted to get going with water only before the end of summer. I know we can't rush nature but maybe we can nudge her a bit. I can hope. :smoking:

 

[ThaPollinator!]

Can't help you with your medium/nutes, but if you can set up a water only grow, autopots will be golden. I have yet to have an autovalve do anything other than what it should, and I have been using nutes in the reservoir. Mind you, I use better filtration than standard.

With clean setup and plain water, they will be spectacularly effective. Good luck with it.

I'm sure I'm no different than anyone else and have been obsessing about a system for watering for awhile now. The autopots are recent but I like the idea of less parts that can fail and this seems really logical. It's all the success from the growers on here that convinced me this is a good way to go. Thanks!

 

[pop22]

Damn that's expensive! I bought a 36 pound bag of Epsoma Garden Tone for $42 shipped! I've been feeding both indoor plants and my raised beds for 2 years now on it and still have more than half a bag! Organics should not be expensive. Yeah they claim to add lot of microbes, I did the same by adding fresh worm castings. But I'll be interested to see how it works for you.

Oh yeah. I remember that pic. Didn't noticed the aquavalves before. Great! More confirmation this isn't a pointless effort. I saw the pic houseplants on their website and second guessed myself. haha! I'm a little skeptical about the 2 weeks claim from Earth Dust as well but I do see other folks getting great results quickly with gaia green dry amendments so willing to test the claim. It's not that expensive to experiment. Will look to mixing a super soil later this year but wanted to get going with water only before the end of summer. I know we can't rush nature but maybe we can nudge her a bit. I can hope. :smoking:

 

[Olderfart]

I'm sure I'm no different than anyone else and have been obsessing about a system for watering for awhile now. The autopots are recent but I like the idea of less parts that can fail and this seems really logical. It's all the success from the growers on here that convinced me this is a good way to go. Thanks!

Forgot to mention, I would not bother with air domes, just make sure that your medium is well aerated with some perlite and/or vermiculite. My experience is all with fabric pots though, and not with soil, so consider my opinion in that context.

 

[pop22]

I used about a 1/2 gallon of perlite and a 1/2 gallon of coco cir to each 5 gallons of of soil, so about 20% of volume total. I have ran in the auro pots with just soil ammended with coco to 20-30% with no issues. But the perlite is a good idea just the same.

Forgot to mention, I would not bother with air domes, just make sure that your medium is well aerated with some perlite and/or vermiculite. My experience is all with fabric pots though, and not with soil, so consider my opinion in that context.

 

[ThaPollinator!]

Damn that's expensive! I bought a 36 pound bag of Epsoma Garden Tone for $42 shipped! I've been feeding both indoor plants and my raised beds for 2 years now on it and still have more than half a bag! Organics should not be expensive. Yeah they claim to add lot of microbes, I did the same by adding fresh worm castings. But I'll be interested to see how it works for you.

I'm with ya on that lol. I moved recently and had to stop growing for the last few months of last year when we started showing off the house. By the time we sold and were moving 1200 miles away, I was out of much of my stash so I've was back to buying after I got to my new place. I started back up using AN Sensi Bloom which is more expensive than this so I'm making my slowish revert back to organic soil but with 3 months cook time I wanted to get back in the swing sooner. I hope it pans out. If not I still have quite a bit of AN to keep me in flower till I get that going. Cheers!

 

[ThaPollinator!]

Forgot to mention, I would not bother with air domes, just make sure that your medium is well aerated with some perlite and/or vermiculite. My experience is all with fabric pots though, and not with soil, so consider my opinion in that context.

I think I'll be using fabric pots as well. There have been a few comments pop22 was making about hydrolysis in relation to other asking about using hydroton clay pebbles and I can see how that might create issues with wicking in the wrong medium. Either way, I take the advice. I can always throw one in a pot later to see how it performs. Plenty of time for that.