Do any of you use biotabs for the nutrient?

[the123321]

I am looking at using the biotabs with autopots. I am going to try the just add water method with 50 50 coco perlite like they recommend and I am using silicium flash instead of orgatrex where you water with only tap water. I am using the stuff that comes in the starter kit on there.

I am wondering if anyone else does this and how it has worked for you. With using the tap water have you needed to add extra calmag to it on there?

 

[slowandeasy]

I am looking at using the biotabs with autopots. I am going to try the just add water method with 50 50 coco perlite like they recommend and I am using silicium flash instead of orgatrex where you water with only tap water. I am using the stuff that comes in the starter kit on there.

I am wondering if anyone else does this and how it has worked for you. With using the tap water have you needed to add extra calmag to it on there?

I will give you my honest opinion from experience. Dont use Biotabs with Coco and perlite with Autopots. Do you already have the Autopots? Biotabs do NOT work well in Coco. If u want to use Biotabs, use a High Quality soil vs Coco. There is not enough Organic material in Coco to use Biotabs and have good results. Do you use Coco now? If so, what do you use? Coco is meant to be treated like Hydro, not like Organic Soil. I have been doing this a very long time and grow in Coco on some plants and I also do Organics on others. But they are treated and fed completely differently. Let me know your goals out of growing. What you have and what you want to use. But dont wadte your time and money on Biotabs and Coco, you will be highly disaapointed in the growth and results. I can help you figure out what is best for you, based on your answers to my questions. Dont buy anything and if you have equiptment, please let me know. Including your lighting and grow space size. It is all important. Peace, slow

 

[the123321]

Thanks for the information and the offer to help with it. Here is the equipment list

• 32x32 tent with ac infinity 6" fan with 6" carbon filter with 2 clip on fans
• 240w kingbrite led quantum board 3500k at about 32" from the plant when it started and letting the plants grow up to the light which has it about 28" from the plant now in late veg. It has cree 660nm red led on it that I have turned off now that I plant to turn on in flowering
• The current grow is 2 autos in 3 gallon fabric pots in coco coir with around 25% perlite
• The current grow I used Dr. Earth Organic Tomato, Vegetable & Herb Fertilizer 4-6-3 and Dr. Earth Bud & Bloom Flower Girl Fertilizer 3-9-4 mixed at 75% 4-6-3 with 25% 3-9-4 with about 1/8 cup total of the fertilizer in the 1 plant then in the different plant I did that same mixture but half of that and broke up 2 jobes 4-4-4 fertilizer stakes and put those in there. The idea was to try half level of the dr earth and half level of the jobes stakes in that 1 plant to see how it would do.
• I have been feeding tap water with around 4-5ml per gallon of calmag with 1ml per gallon of silicon every day on there.
• I had planned to hand water for like 3 weeks then put the plants on the autopots so I have not watering to runoff and draining the runoff I have been letting it wick back into the pot on there.

The first grow is not going as easy as I had hoped it would. The idea for this was from this youtuber mr canuck does with dry amendment slow release fertilizer mixed into coco. I think most of my problems were from not using ph tested water the first few days and not putting calmag in with the water the first few days.

I am thinking that maybe 1 reason that organic fertilizer does not work well with coco is that you water it more often and the coco does not hold on to those nutrients that it gets with the watering so maybe since you water coco like 2-3 times more often than you do soil then maybe you should try it with 2-3 times less fertilizer mixed in and then top dress more often with like 1/3 or 1/2 the recommended level. The levels of it that I did from what was recommended on the dr earth bag I went from having what looked like calmag deficiency early on to now what looks like more nitrogen in the pot than is needed.

I have learned my lesson from this first grow and have bought the biotabs to try for the next grow. They have a manual that lists that you can do either 50 50 soil perlite or 50 50 coco perlite with it.

https://biotabs.nl/pdfs/organic-growing-manual-en.pdf

I have ordered the biotabs and when I get them I plan to add 2 plants in and I plan to follow the recommended guide to take out a lot of the unknowns that I had with the first grow where I am pretty much winging it right now with the dr earth in coco. I originally wanted to do coco due to reading that it has less problems with pests and while I have read that coco does have problems with pests it does not have as many problems as soil does. I just want to do coco. I use canna coco in the brick that is prewashed and buffered on there.

I have 1 tent and I want to have a perpetual grow in the tent with 4 total plants with 2 plants that I put in every like 6 weeks and with the autos you could then harvest 2 plants every like 6 weeks then you have 2 plants in veg and 2 plants in flowering at a time in the tent. I only have room in the tent for 1 reservoir so I needed to have it to where I could have all 4 plants on 1 reservoir which is 1 main reason I looked into dry amendments in the pot so I could then do mostly water only in the reservoir and have the same 1 reservoir watering the 4 plants that were planted at different times.

I have read many people that have made the biotabs work with coco. The biotabs people even recommend it in the guide so I hope that I would have an easier grow with the biotabs on there.

 

[slowandeasy]

Thanks for the information and the offer to help with it. Here is the equipment list

• 32x32 tent with ac infinity 6" fan with 6" carbon filter with 2 clip on fans
• 240w kingbrite led quantum board 3500k at about 32" from the plant when it started and letting the plants grow up to the light which has it about 28" from the plant now in late veg. It has cree 660nm red led on it that I have turned off now that I plant to turn on in flowering
• The current grow is 2 autos in 3 gallon fabric pots in coco coir with around 25% perlite
• The current grow I used Dr. Earth Organic Tomato, Vegetable & Herb Fertilizer 4-6-3 and Dr. Earth Bud & Bloom Flower Girl Fertilizer 3-9-4 mixed at 75% 4-6-3 with 25% 3-9-4 with about 1/8 cup total of the fertilizer in the 1 plant then in the different plant I did that same mixture but half of that and broke up 2 jobes 4-4-4 fertilizer stakes and put those in there. The idea was to try half level of the dr earth and half level of the jobes stakes in that 1 plant to see how it would do.
• I have been feeding tap water with around 4-5ml per gallon of calmag with 1ml per gallon of silicon every day on there.
• I had planned to hand water for like 3 weeks then put the plants on the autopots so I have not watering to runoff and draining the runoff I have been letting it wick back into the pot on there.

The first grow is not going as easy as I had hoped it would. The idea for this was from this youtuber mr canuck does with dry amendment slow release fertilizer mixed into coco. I think most of my problems were from not using ph tested water the first few days and not putting calmag in with the water the first few days.

I am thinking that maybe 1 reason that organic fertilizer does not work well with coco is that you water it more often and the coco does not hold on to those nutrients that it gets with the watering so maybe since you water coco like 2-3 times more often than you do soil then maybe you should try it with 2-3 times less fertilizer mixed in and then top dress more often with like 1/3 or 1/2 the recommended level. The levels of it that I did from what was recommended on the dr earth bag I went from having what looked like calmag deficiency early on to now what looks like more nitrogen in the pot than is needed.

I have learned my lesson from this first grow and have bought the biotabs to try for the next grow. They have a manual that lists that you can do either 50 50 soil perlite or 50 50 coco perlite with it.

https://biotabs.nl/pdfs/organic-growing-manual-en.pdf

I have ordered the biotabs and when I get them I plan to add 2 plants in and I plan to follow the recommended guide to take out a lot of the unknowns that I had with the first grow where I am pretty much winging it right now with the dr earth in coco. I originally wanted to do coco due to reading that it has less problems with pests and while I have read that coco does have problems with pests it does not have as many problems as soil does. I just want to do coco. I use canna coco in the brick that is prewashed and buffered on there.

I have 1 tent and I want to have a perpetual grow in the tent with 4 total plants with 2 plants that I put in every like 6 weeks and with the autos you could then harvest 2 plants every like 6 weeks then you have 2 plants in veg and 2 plants in flowering at a time in the tent. I only have room in the tent for 1 reservoir so I needed to have it to where I could have all 4 plants on 1 reservoir which is 1 main reason I looked into dry amendments in the pot so I could then do mostly water only in the reservoir and have the same 1 reservoir watering the 4 plants that were planted at different times.

I have read many people that have made the biotabs work with coco. The biotabs people even recommend it in the guide so I hope that I would have an easier grow with the biotabs on there.

I remember responding to you a long time ago. I warned you about even trying it, months ago. You were stuck on trying Orgsnics with Coco and I told you it doesnt work, but you wanted to give it a try. I was honest with you then and I will be honest with you now. I hate to see people waste time! That Mr. Canunk youtube is one of the most pathetic grows I have ever seen! His Coco plants are absolutely worthless looking in that video I saw and he was running some insane amount of lighting. Dont use him as an example for anything grow related, seriously. He sounds like a DJ at a very dirty Strip Club if I remember corrctly.

I have been growing for a very long time, and thousands of plants in Coco specifically. Biotabs will claim that they work in Coco. Maybe non cannabis. You can technically grow a plant from start to finish using theiir line up, but it wont look pretty. It will take longer and yield a fraction of what Coco should. Complete waste of time, money, energy, water, and Biotabs. Im not ragging on Biotabs. Biotabs are high quality Inhave used their line up once, the whole thing.

The demands of Coco are daily nutrients, with Calmag on Autos with LEDs. Your problem is simple and so is the solution. Water only Coco is not gonna happen, even with Calmag. Coco is Hydro with a medium and needs to be treated as such. You have 2 Options for sucess moving forward. Use a High Quality Soil with Biotabs...or Use Coco with Nutrients and feed them DAILY. Since you already bought Biotabs, I would suggest going with a high quality Organic Soil with Biotabs.
I understand your concerns with pests, which is why I said High Quality Orgsnic soil. Not Fox Farm or some potting soil from Lowes. The quality of properly grown Organics is top notch IMO, hard to beat the quality. You can get pests in any medium. Some brands are notorious for free gnats. But any hydro store can store quality products poorly and get pests that way too! I quit using a Hydro store because they stored their Coco outside when they ordered it. Bugs can crawl in holes in bags. IPM should be a part of growing, as prevention at a minimum.

Now you have a 32 x 32 tent. Doing 4 plants in Coco is not gonna happen if you do them correctly. 2 plants in Coco MAX to flower in that space. The only reason you can fit 4 is because you are doing Organic Coco. A single healtjy plant could easily fill a 32x32 on its own, especislly in Coco! So if you are really wanting to do Coco and not Soil, you cannot use Biotabs and have the results you are seeking. It wont happen. So once you decide if you would rather use Soil with Biotabs or Coco with Nutrients? Either way you can use Autopots if you so choose. But Autopots/Coco/Biotabs is not gonna pass the test. Btw, what sized Autopots do you have? Start to think 2 plants if thst is your ONLY grow space. If you want perpetual, another tent would be ideal. Or do 1 plant and add 1 more in a month or 6 weeks. But 4 plants in a 32x32 is not going to happen if you do them correctly. Overcrowding is the worst thing you can do. Especially as a new grower. You can always expand. So once you figure out Soil or Coco I can then help u button your plans up. I respect either choice, and will.get you going the right way whichever method you choose. Peacex slow

 

[slowandeasy]

Also, Insee that you are currntly using 3 gal Fabric pots. Do you have any picture of Current plants? Pictures tell me a lot more than words alone. Also, I have plenty of Autopots and know how they work. Good luck, slow

 

[Chronic_passion]

Slow has it nailed down and has given sound advice. When I swapped over to BioTabs I also had to swap medium to BioBizz lightmix. You can check out my journal and see what you can do with BioTabs using only water but like slow says, you'll need to go soil. Please also note I usually run 6 in a 4x4 and it's crowded. I've had 1 plant take up the entire 16'²!
One thing I picked up on... you mentioned you have your res inside the tent? There's no need. It takes up too much space. Place it outside with the hose running in.
You also mentioned a perpetual grow. Personally I think you'll struggle in that space. Once you're first plant has reached flower and you start your second, the canopy of the first will shade the 2nd too much, making it stretch out. Just food for thought. Perpetual grows are better in two or three separate spaces.
I thoroughly recommend both AutoPots and BioTabs but you really will have to swap to a good soil.

 

[the123321]

Thanks for the information. I am using the fabric pot version of the autopots with 5 gallon fabric pots that I cut down to half height to make into about 2.5 - 3 gallon with the coco in it. If the biotabs in coco does not work I may try a different mix in the medium. Do you know of anything that is not soil or peat that I can mix in with the coco to help the biotabs work better in it? I know that it is a lot of plants in the 32x32 tent but I thought it would only have 2 big plants and 2 small plants and the 2 small plants would not really take much more room than the width of the pot and would then fit in the tent. If it does not work I may try 3 plants that I plant like 4 weeks apart. I only have the room for 1 tent and I do not have room to put the reservoir outside the tent and I do not want to wait 3 months between the harvest on there.

 

[the123321]

Slow has it nailed down and has given sound advice. When I swapped over to BioTabs I also had to swap medium to BioBizz lightmix. You can check out my journal and see what you can do with BioTabs using only water but like slow says, you'll need to go soil. Please also note I usually run 6 in a 4x4 and it's crowded. I've had 1 plant take up the entire 16'²!
One thing I picked up on... you mentioned you have your res inside the tent? There's no need. It takes up too much space. Place it outside with the hose running in.
You also mentioned a perpetual grow. Personally I think you'll struggle in that space. Once you're first plant has reached flower and you start your second, the canopy of the first will shade the 2nd too much, making it stretch out. Just food for thought. Perpetual grows are better in two or three separate spaces.
I thoroughly recommend both AutoPots and BioTabs but you really will have to swap to a good soil.

Thanks. I have looked through your posts. Why do you think the biotabs people have that you can use coco in the guide if you are not able to use it? Did you try biotabs in coco that it did not work? I have read many posts on the forums that people have done biotabs in coco that worked. I do not want to use soil. I looked at that biobizz lite and read reviews of people having bugs in the bag. I do not want any bugs and while I have read that coco does have some pest problems it is a lot less using a rehydrated brick of it than bags of soil that bugs get in. Is there anything that you know of that I can mix into the coco to help with the biotabs that is not soil or peat? I was thinking of putting biochar in the coco mix. What do you think of that? Do you know of anything else I can mix in that would help it on there?

 

[the123321]

Thanks. I will post images of it tomorrow. I was a little heavy handed with the lst today and the plants do not look very good right now and want to wait for the plants to perk up after today to take new images of it to post on there.

 

[Chronic_passion]

Why do you think the biotabs people have that you can use coco in the guide if you are not able to use it?

Like slow mentioned, it's probably for veg or other plants that aren't quite as temperamental.

I have read many posts on the forums that people have done biotabs in coco that worked. I do not want to use soil. I looked at that biobizz lite and read reviews of people having bugs in the bag.

Wouldn't believe everything you read. There's risk no matter what. I get my BioBizz from the same hydro shop I got my coco from and I've never had bugs. Again like slow said, it's probably more to do with HOW it's stored.

Did you try biotabs in coco that it did not work?

Yeah my first run was short lived. I realised after only 3 weeks they weren't compatible and started over.

Is there anything that you know of that I can mix into the coco to help with the biotabs that is not soil or peat?

No idea.

was thinking of putting biochar in the coco mix. What do you think of that?

I couldn't comment, I've never used it.

Do you know of anything else I can mix in that would help it on there?

I really think you're too fixed on bugs in soil. If you want to use BioTabs you really should look into a soil. I thoroughly recommend you do. You won't regret it. The idea of AutoPots and BioTabs combined is simplicity and ease. By adding other supplements you could end up with more issues or even deficiencies.