Grow Mediums autopots vs non-autopots comparison

[lunarman]

Which is exactly what autopots are all about

Not necessarily growing the bigger or better plant, although that does seem to be a side effect for many, but more so a means to keep the plants fed when you may not have the time to tend to them and their needs as often.

I know all that stuff for sure. And I wasnt even going to mention these types of benefits in the comparison I'm doing because it wasn't about that for me. I was hoping to see some differences in plant quality or growth or something when using them compared to not. I still might see something too as Hemi said.

When I read the parts on multi feeding (in coco) in this thread I thought that might be what autopots do and do very well. I even purposely only feed the non-auto pots once per day and letting them get a little dry before watering just to see some difference.

 

[Auto-Bud-Man]

Which is exactly what autopots are all about

Not necessarily growing the bigger or better plant, although that does seem to be a side effect for many, but more so a means to keep the plants fed when you may not have the time to tend to them and their needs as often.

It's almost boring. lol.
Once you get the amount of nutes down, it's almost autopilot.


I found that dialing in nutes is easier too...if you are a bit heavy...you just thin out the reservoir with plain PH water...no flushing or run off or whatever.
On my last grow with the octopot, I found the perfect nute amount and never deviated the entire grow; 2gms MC until flower, then 1gm along with .5gm PK boost, and .7gm Sweet Candy. No thinking, just the same mix over and over a gallon at a time.

 

[Tiny Bubbles]

It's almost boring. lol.
Once you get the amount of nutes down, it's almost autopilot.


I found that dialing in nutes is easier too...if you are a bit heavy...you just thin out the reservoir with plain PH water...no flushing or run off or whatever.
On my last grow with the octopot, I found the perfect nute amount and never deviated the entire grow; 2gms MC until flower, then 1gm along with .5gm PK boost, and .7gm Sweet Candy. No thinking, just the same mix over and over a gallon at a time.

That feeding sounds a lot lighter than most are using. Were you using soil?

(Sorry to hijack @lunarman but I had to ask)

 

[lunarman]

That feeding sounds a lot lighter than most are using. Were you using soil?

(Sorry to hijack @lunarman but I had to ask)

No worries. All part of the big picture. That is lighter than I use too. Currently using 4.5g/g of MC plus 1g each of CMP and SC with 10 plants of various genetics and two autopot reservoirs. Been using that amount since about day 10 I think. Will back it down in flower though. And probably look at another calmag sup that has lower N than the GL CMP.

 

[Auto-Bud-Man]

That feeding sounds a lot lighter than most are using. Were you using soil?

(Sorry to hijack @lunarman but I had to ask)

It is lighter..by design. Since there is no runoff, then according to Octopot, you should use about 1/2 strength as a base amount and then adjust from there. I found that to be the case.

I was using a mix of 35% OF + 35% ProMix HP+ 30% perlite.

 

[lunarman]

I put a link in my post to another site and it was removed by a moderator, which is weird because I got the link from another post here on AFN that was not edited/removed so I assumed it was ok for me to do the same thing. Apologies to all for that. If anyone wants the link let me know and I'll PM it to you. It was related to uptaking nutes, coco, multi feeding, and was somewhat relevant to this autopot comparison thread. And it was interesting reading in general.

 

[Waira]

hey Lunar, somebody beat me to it... Yeah, TOS rules state no linking please to the Dark Side forums! ..... must have been missed before, it happens.... Carry on....

 

[lunarman]

hey Lunar, somebody beat me to it... Yeah, TOS rules state no linking please to the Dark Side forums! ..... must have been missed before, it happens.... Carry on....

No worries Waira. Appreciate your reply to explain. Carrying on ovah here.

 

[Mizzo81]

How’s this comparison going.

 

[lunarman]

well one of the plants in the compare was culled out. I had two Mephist Forgotten Strawberries. One hand watered and one autopot watered. The one in the autopots had to be culled out. So I kept the one that was hand watered and put it to an autopot tray so its not hand watered now. So I can't really compare using that strain.

The other compare is Sweet Seeds Sweet Nurse CBD. The one that is hand watered is by far so much better than the autopot one. But I don't think its better because hand watering is superior to autopots. I'll look to get a couple of pictures up later today. But the autopots one just looks bad. Light green leaves. Small buds. The hand watered one is looking like a nice beast of a CBD plant. Just need to bring her home over the next two weeks or so. Everything else was the same for both plants. Sitting in the same area of the tent, same environmental factors, same nutes etc. Just different beans and different watering system used.

I'm going to repeat this compare again with the next grow. Will do 10 plants instead of only 8 and the extra 2 will be in 2 gallon autopot pots without airdomes again and will be hand watered. The strains will likely be Mephisto GWK and CDLC.