Grow Mediums Draining your system

[bboyfromwayback]

Drain The Solution From Your System
During the growing process and the use of the system there is a chance that sediment will settle in. The best way to prevent this is to drain the solution away. If you do not commit to draining your plants you will see a buildup of salt. Salt can stop solution passing to plants and also affect the pH levels of your system.

I was doing some research on AutoPots and I keep coming across this ‘pointer’ but nothing in detail. I’m assuming they’re stating you should occasionally turn your system off and allow the plants to consume all of the water until the medium is dry then turn the system back on. But I hate to assume anything so….does anyone who’s been running AutoPots for a while practice this?

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Hey Bro,

What do you mean by sediment?

During the growing process and the use of the system there is a chance that sediment will settle in.

If you do not commit to draining your plants you will see a buildup of salt.

The system is designed to wait with the refill until almost all nutrient solution is consumed.

I’m assuming they’re stating you should occasionally turn your system off and allow the plants to consume all of the water until the medium is dry then turn the system back on.

From what I've read you shouldn't have to turn the system off. The more you keep everything wet the better it will wick the nutrient solution up to the roots.


Regards,

Bob

 

[bboyfromwayback]

Hey Bro,

What do you mean by sediment?



The system is designed to wait with the refill until almost all nutrient solution is consumed.


From what I've read you shouldn't have to turn the system off. The more you keep everything wet the better it will wick the nutrient solution up to the roots.


Regards,

Bob

That’s what I thought so I posted a quote from a article I read, not something I do or recommend (on my first AutoPot grow) I’ve actually read several articles that mention this practice but that’s about as clear as any of them get as to what exactly is meant by ‘draining your solution’ That’s why I’m asking if any AutoPot regulars do something like this or even know exactly what they’re referring to.
My training of thought is, if this is something the system does automatically, then there would be no need to mention it as a useful step in having a successful AutoPot grow but almost every article on AutoPot tips mentions this only they don’t explain the practice

 

[JP1]

I get sediment from megacrop in my rez and even in my autopots sometimes. Also salt buildup. What I do to remedy is every weekend suck the rest of the solution out of the rez and pots and water the lawn with it, take out plants and flush plants with a gallon of 25% strength solution with recharge added. Basically a whole gallon will drain out. Then plants back in and fresh solution in rez. Flush out the main line with fresh solution to flush the gunk out

 

[St. Tom]

I get sediment from megacrop in my rez and even in my autopots sometimes. Also salt buildup. What I do to remedy is every weekend suck the rest of the solution out of the rez and pots and water the lawn with it, take out plants and flush plants with a gallon of 25% strength solution with recharge added. Basically a whole gallon will drain out. Then plants back in and fresh solution in rez. Flush out the main line with fresh solution to flush the gunk out

Once my plants are established i make about 30 litres up at a time and once im getting down close to the bottom of the res i just refill it or top it up close to the top so i will always have some food in my res i never let it dry out and i stir my res twice a day with a big stick so my nutes never settle

 

[BII]

Yes, at least in my experience, you can "occasionally turn your system off and allow the plants to consume all of the water until the medium is dry then turn the system back on." [Note, 'dry' here just means much less wet/damp, not really 'dry'] In fact, I've done multiple grows and currently have 2 pots going where I simply use the AutoPots fully manually. I don't bother with the valves and plumbing, just manually fill each pot, feeding 1x daily or less. This allows the grower to fully control and have longer wet-dry (or rather wet to less-wet) cycles.

 

[bboyfromwayback]

Once my plants are established i make about 30 litres up at a time and once im getting down close to the bottom of the res i just refill it or top it up close to the top so i will always have some food in my res i never let it dry out and i stir my res twice a day with a big stick so my nutes never settle

Throughout the grow do you occasionally top off with just water or are you always adding nutes with the 30 liters? Throughout veg I’ve been adding nutes every other time I refill the res. Gorilla Glue is happy but the White Widow has slight deficiency. Just switching them to flower this weekend

 

[St. Tom]

Throughout the grow do you occasionally top off with just water or are you always adding nutes with the 30 liters? Throughout veg I’ve been adding nutes every other time I refill the res. Gorilla Glue is happy but the White Widow has slight deficiency. Just switching them to flower this weekend

i add feed every time but i just make sure my ph and ec in the res are were it needs to if it's 2 high i add water plus I've been using autopots in 1 way or another since 2016.

 

[Olderfart]

Compared to some here, I am new with the autopots, so take my opinion accordingly.

I keep nutrient solution in the reservoir at all times once it is turned on. I choose the pH and EC, and keep the rez in that state until/unless I think a change is needed.

So far, I have not run into the valves keeping the pots too wet, at least not that I noticed. I certainly have never run into obvious root problems or symptoms of overwatering. As long as the valves are working properly, they seem to get it right. The key here in my opinion is to make sure the outer air valve is operating properly. If it does not seal, it will result in the pot flooding before the liquid is all used up, and could result in overwatering problems. As @BII noted, if you do happen to run into overwatering issues, due perhaps to strain sensitivity or other variations, that can be cured by turning the system off until pots lighten up as much as you like.

I ignore the minor sediment that develops from Megacrop until the grow is done, at which point, I clean and sterilize the whole shebang including tubing, valves, trays, and pots.

I have often (more like usually) run into what seems to be salt buildup which results in lockout or nute imbalance. That issue is the nature of sub-irrigation with no runoff, you just need to manage EC accordingly, which it seems I am not that good at yet. My cure for the problem if it develops is to flush the plant with nute solution at the pH and EC that I want to operate at until the runoff pretty much matches the input. Once that happens, I know that the medium is back where I want it to be, and I put the pot back on the reservoir. Flushing until the runoff is in spec is really important. Whether nute symptoms develop or not, the upper part of the medium will have excess salts in it due to surface evaporation, and you need to make sure that this stuff gets pushed all the way out of the pot. This takes a lot of solution, multiple times the volume of the pot. The last time I did this, I used most of a laundry tub of nute solution for two ~3 gallon fabric pots. If you save the runoff, you can use it elsewhere, but not on your girls.

All my relatively noob two cents of course. Good luck autopotting peeps.

 

[JP1]

Compared to some here, I am new with the autopots, so take my opinion accordingly.

I keep nutrient solution in the reservoir at all times once it is turned on. I choose the pH and EC, and keep the rez in that state until/unless I think a change is needed.

So far, I have not run into the valves keeping the pots too wet, at least not that I noticed. I certainly have never run into obvious root problems or symptoms of overwatering. As long as the valves are working properly, they seem to get it right. The key here in my opinion is to make sure the outer air valve is operating properly. If it does not seal, it will result in the pot flooding before the liquid is all used up, and could result in overwatering problems. As @BII noted, if you do happen to run into overwatering issues, due perhaps to strain sensitivity or other variations, that can be cured by turning the system off until pots lighten up as much as you like.

I ignore the minor sediment that develops from Megacrop until the grow is done, at which point, I clean and sterilize the whole shebang including tubing, valves, trays, and pots.

I have often (more like usually) run into what seems to be salt buildup which results in lockout or nute imbalance. That issue is the nature of sub-irrigation with no runoff, you just need to manage EC accordingly, which it seems I am not that good at yet. My cure for the problem if it develops is to flush the plant with nute solution at the pH and EC that I want to operate at until the runoff pretty much matches the input. Once that happens, I know that the medium is back where I want it to be, and I put the pot back on the reservoir. Flushing until the runoff is in spec is really important. Whether nute symptoms develop or not, the upper part of the medium will have excess salts in it due to surface evaporation, and you need to make sure that this stuff gets pushed all the way out of the pot. This takes a lot of solution, multiple times the volume of the pot. The last time I did this, I used most of a laundry tub of nute solution for two ~3 gallon fabric pots. If you save the runoff, you can use it elsewhere, but not on your girls.

All my relatively noob two cents of course. Good luck autopotting peeps.

Weekly flushing with just 1 gallon through the top will keep the buildup/lockout away from 5 gallon pots of Coco. Taking the plants out gets to be a pain in the ass when the plants get big but it'll keep lockout from buildup away from an auto grow if you do it up to week 10 or so