Grow Mediums Can you top dress organic nutrients into autopots?

[the123321]

Thanks. I plan to use drip clean in the reservoir which I read cleans extra salts out of the pot. That is an interesting idea to try to put teas directly in the tray with the pot but I do not want to do that every day.

 

[BubbaGrows]

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.

Oh you're using Mr Canuck method but with Dr earth instead of Gaia Green. Just remember, in his vids it doesn't show him watering alit. Coco needs water everyday. Think of Coco as water. You need to add everything to it because it contains NOTHING. Topdress twice, you're good. I like going heavier on bloom than anyone else though.

 

[BubbaGrows]

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.

Hey bud, using Coco and amending it at the beginning with 444 and 284 some worm castings then planting seeds directly into it works AMAZING!!!!! Then 3 weeks in topdress again the 6 weeks in topdress again,. It WORKS!!!!!!!!! IT WIRKS GREAT!!!!! I'm surprised anyone has anything against Coco with organic dry amendments. It's literally the easiest n best fastest way to grow autos.

 

[BII]

Hey bud, using Coco and amending it at the beginning with 444 and 284 some worm castings then planting seeds directly into it works AMAZING!!!!! Then 3 weeks in topdress again the 6 weeks in topdress again,. It WORKS!!!!!!!!! IT WIRKS GREAT!!!!! I'm surprised anyone has anything against Coco with organic dry amendments. It's literally the easiest n best fastest way to grow autos.

I have nothing against coco or organic dry amendments, particularly where it works GREAT for people. It's just that based on problems I've seen here on AFN, amending a coco base to act/be like soil can be inherently risky. For example, do you feed at coco or soil pH?

 

[JP1]

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?

Valves for each line are super helpful. Especially when all the plants don't finish at the same time. Highly recommend

 

[BubbaGrows]

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.

By this you mean watering to run off and letting the pots soak back up??? I water to zero run off....I have the time to water more frequently. I like keeping my pots on the dry side vs the wet side. ESPECIALLY at night

 

[stickywicky_]

I'm surprised how many people are discouraging you. I run autopots with a water only res, no phing, just really good soil, dry amendments and worm teas with a lot of different good ingredients.

Everything's going great. Just because some people have dry tops in their Autopots doesn't mean that you will ... it just means that the soil isn't wicking in the way that you want it to. Take some playing around with different soils and aeration to get that right. This isn't something you just buy at the store and it works the first time automatically you have to spend some time learning the system. Good luck!