Grow Mediums Can you top dress organic nutrients into autopots?

[the123321]

I am looking at growing auto plants in coco coir with perlite in 3 gallon fabric pots in autopots with 2 plants in veg and 2 plants in flowering in the tent that I want to have all on one reservoir so I want mostly only water in the reservoir. I am looking at the dr earth dry amendments with the dr earth veg/tomato and flower girl 2-9-4 then have calmag with silicon liquid nutrients and drip clean in the reservoir to bottom feed the plants with the autopots on there.

The plan is to do like 70% of the 4-6-3 to 30% of the 2-9-4 in the pot to start the grow then in 3 weeks top dress with 50-50 of the 4-6-3 and 2-9-4 then in 3 weeks top dress with 30-70 of the 4-6-3 and 2-9-4 on there.

Can you top dress in autopots? Would that work when I need to put more nutrients into the pots with the plants? I would rather not have to do teas on there.

 

[Mary Djayne]

In my experience top dressing does not work with autopots. As the autopots bottom water, the top two inches of medium stays fairly dry. Without being watered downwards, top dressing will be of no effect to the plant. I don't see how you will get around this without turning the valve off at the bottom and top watering with additional nutrient supplements. I know this is not what you wanted but I fear there is no other way. Maybe someone with prior experience top dressing in autopots may have a way around this. Good luck!!!!

 

[the123321]

Thanks. I am looking at dry amendments that I would mix into the top few inches of the coco every few weeks then hand water to soak it down into the coco then cover with a layer of perlite. I was hoping that there were some organic soil growers that use autopots that may post how they top dress when they need to add extra nutrients to the soil in the autopot every few weeks on there.

 

[MMMi]

I'm top dressing autopots in organics, but it's my 1st run so I can't say for sure. I do have a thick mulch layer which keeps the top layer of soil moist. I'm also using worms in the pots, so they help move stuff around a bit.

I have overflowed the pots a couple times while watering in the top dress. So I'll either top water less, or figure out a way to turn individual pots off the day prior (I have plants in all stages so I can't really turn the whole thing off, but if I were doing a run with all the same stage I'd just shut off the main valve the day before or something).

Might try adding some food to the pots themselves at some point. Maybe some FPJ or kelp.

I've seen more failures than successes with the Mr Canuck style coco/organic grows. And that's without autopots.

 

[the123321]

Thanks. The plan would be to mix in the 4-6-3 and 2-9-4 when I plant it then top dress every few weeks with the dry amendments then hand water. I wonder if it would be good to put a valve at the line to each autopot then I could turn it off the day before I top dress it then hand water it in on there. I do not know much about teas but I read that you could use a tea instead of top dressing. Do you think that would work on there?

 

[MMMi]

I'm still fumbling forward myself, but teas was my 1st plan before I added worms. Now I'm hoping they do some of the work for me.

 

[the123321]

Thanks. Then the main problem with the coco and perlite is that it would not hold in the nutrients the dry amendments let out with watering? What if I mix in something with the coco? Is there anything non soil that you can mix in to help the coco hold on to some of those nutrients for the plants? Would biochar work for that on there?

 

[Hypathetical Gardener]

I am looking at growing auto plants in coco coir with perlite in 3 gallon fabric pots in autopots with 2 plants in veg and 2 plants in flowering in the tent that I want to have all on one reservoir so I want mostly only water in the reservoir. I am looking at the dr earth dry amendments with the dr earth veg/tomato and flower girl 2-9-4 then have calmag with silicon liquid nutrients and drip clean in the reservoir to bottom feed the plants with the autopots on there.

The plan is to do like 70% of the 4-6-3 to 30% of the 2-9-4 in the pot to start the grow then in 3 weeks top dress with 50-50 of the 4-6-3 and 2-9-4 then in 3 weeks top dress with 30-70 of the 4-6-3 and 2-9-4 on there.

Can you top dress in autopots? Would that work when I need to put more nutrients into the pots with the plants? I would rather not have to do teas on there.

I have recently done something close to this.
I used about 20% fox farm ocean forest in coco/perlite but kept it in the "middle" of the pot. So i layered cocopearl, the ffof/cocopearl, then finished with cocopearl.
I used megacrop amd be in the res but i was also topdressing seabird guano for a p boost and top watering with microbes, sugar, and some calmag of course. Id water from top 2 to 3x a week. But the non-amended watering was just a 1/2 liter on the top to push some guano down, so i didnt turn off the valve.
I suggest installing valves similar to the main on each plants line so you can turn it off 1/2 day or a day before you topwater. That way when you runoff on amending day, you dont overflow the tray.
I know its not EXACTLY the same, but gives you the general idea.

 

[the123321]

Thanks for the information. I think it is an interesting way to do it. I may order the valves for each plant like you detailed. I may try 1 plant like that with 1 plant on h3ads formula with liquid nutrients feeding it.

 

[BII]

Top dressing with dry organic amendments in coco with bottom-feeding AutoPots as you propose just sounds dangerous. It will be unpredictable and you'll have little/no control over release of the nutrients. It may work, but that will likely just be a matter of luck.

Also, with AutoPots soluble salts are deposited rather harmlessly in the top layers. Top dressing will dissolve the salts and likely cause problems, unless you 'flush' the coco more often. But I presume that is the kind of work you're seeking to avoid.

If you must use the amendments (vs. using some 'organic' cannabis-designed nutes, either in the reservoir or top dressing), why not just add the powders manually to each AutoPot's reservoir and let the nutes leach-out into the feed? You will likely have to manually mix the reservoirs daily, and clean them more often, but at least you'll be able to stop the supplemental feeding at any time, Otherwise, you're stuck with likely too much or too little if mixing into top layers.