Grow Mediums Growpito + AutoPots

[Growpito_Aleks]

I harvested the burned RocBud Purple Scoops today after 9.5 weeks.
It yielded 7.5 oz wet, which will be about 1.5 oz dry.
My burning of this plant led to my cutting off a lot of crispy bud fan leaves, which probably reduced yield significantly.

I've got 1 oz wet drying at room temp with a fan blowing on it, hoping to dry it completely in about 6 hrs, then some cannacaps.

The Passion Punch looks much better than Scoops, and looks like it will yield at least twice as much.
It will get harvested this weekend or mid week next week at about 10 or 10.5 weeks.

Here are some observations on Growpito + Autopots so far:
It could be that the 2.2 pots finish noticeably quicker than my 2-plant 15 gallon hydro setups, but it's just a suspicion at this point.
I've rarely had an auto finish this fast.
The growth was only about 75% as vigorous as hydro, but that's still plenty good enough for me.
In fact, this amount of plant growth is exactly what I wanted.
Normally the autos grown in this space would yield 3-5 oz each, but sometimes as much as 8 oz.
Following the Vapor Pressure Deficit chart might need less fertilizer.
600 ppm plus close lights for 1 week severely burned one plant, and burned the other slightly, and even 500 ppm is partly responsible for the burn.
Next time I'll try 400-450 ppm. (500 scale).
I don't like having to hand water sprouts, and there has to be an easier way. Maybe turning pots on with very low ppm to start?
In fact I'm going to try that unless someone talks me out of it.
But maybe the most important thing of all is that Growpito + Autopots is very, very easy.

Imo, 1.0EC is a nice general feed strength but I believe between .5 and 1.0 does well for most especially with a strong microbiology. I pull back on the main feed to supplement more P/K

When I germinate I soak the entire pot in a .5EC and place my seeds. They may not be watered for a week or two but another facet I take into consideration is the 4 inch capillary action of the Growpito. The hand watering is something we've discussed among ourselves but top watering comes with it's own issues like algae and uneven distribution.

I'm glad it was simple for you. How was water/nutrient usage compared to other methods for you?

 

[Simplicio]

Imo, 1.0EC is a nice general feed strength but I believe between .5 and 1.0 does well for most especially with a strong microbiology. I pull back on the main feed to supplement more P/K

When I germinate I soak the entire pot in a .5EC and place my seeds. They may not be watered for a week or two but another facet I take into consideration is the 4 inch capillary action of the Growpito. The hand watering is something we've discussed among ourselves but top watering comes with it's own issues like algae and uneven distribution.

I'm glad it was simple for you. How was water/nutrient usage compared to other methods for you?

The plants used very little water and fertilizer.
I spent much more time filling humidifiers than filling the autopot reservoir.
Not considering the water and fertilizer that will be wasted at final harvest, the plants used these amounts:
Water = 23.5 gallons ~ 2 full storage reservoirs
Megacrop ~ 110 grams
My numbers are a bit off, because the average ppm those values would produce is about 610, but I'd guess the real average was closer to 500.

I'm trying to avoid hand watering altogether, and your description of your procedure helps.

 

[Simplicio]

I harvested the RocBud PassionPunch last weekend after 11 weeks.
I had cut off, fast dried, and tried the main cola, which yielded about 1 1/4 oz dry, one week ago.
Altogether it looks to be about 3.5 oz dry.
Both RocBud PurpleScoops and PassionPunch are some of the strongest strains I've grown.
PassionPunch looks like it will fullfill my sleepy herb needs.
PurpleScoops is just as potent, but not as sleepy for me.
Here's PassionPunch, minus its main cola, just before harvest.

 

[Simplicio]

I'm starting a new AutoPot + Growpito grow using GreenGrass zKittlesSkunk and FruityPetootie.
This time I'll be playing around with things differently.
The sprouts in RapidRooters were placed in the pots a couple days after sprouting.
The medium was soaked to about 130 ppm, pH~6, and the sprouts were hand watered for the next 2 days with increasing pH, and now the base is turned on with 300 ppm solution. I'll hand water as needed, and slowly increase ppm up to about 400 where it will stay unless/until under-feeding happens.
With the 2.2 gallon pots there isn't much distance for roots to go to reach the reservoir, and they'll probably get there in a week.

My least favorite thing about Growpito is that it will continue to pick up root matter.
Maybe I should've looked more into how to clean it, but unremovable small roots seem to be everywhere.
I fear that it might eventually turn to root dirt.
I still have one un-cleaned bucket with roots, so I'll try something better with that.

As I said above, I'm also testing some small, 2-plant dwc reservoirs to compare with autopots, while treating them almost exactly like autopots.
So far they seem to be behaving themselves.
If they continue to do so, that will be my grow method.
I am having some problems getting food and light right. Reservoir size might affect those.
Two of these dwc setups are thriving as expected at the end of 5 weeks, but a 9 week operation got light and/or nute burn.
Or the roots don't like being cooped up. Or something else I haven't considered.
I'll know what's going on after watching the other setups.

Water is the simplest medium.

 

[Growpito_Aleks]

I'm starting a new AutoPot + Growpito grow using GreenGrass zKittlesSkunk and FruityPetootie.
This time I'll be playing around with things differently.
The sprouts in RapidRooters were placed in the pots a couple days after sprouting.
The medium was soaked to about 130 ppm, pH~6, and the sprouts were hand watered for the next 2 days with increasing pH, and now the base is turned on with 300 ppm solution. I'll hand water as needed, and slowly increase ppm up to about 400 where it will stay unless/until under-feeding happens.
With the 2.2 gallon pots there isn't much distance for roots to go to reach the reservoir, and they'll probably get there in a week.

My least favorite thing about Growpito is that it will continue to pick up root matter.
Maybe I should've looked more into how to clean it, but unremovable small roots seem to be everywhere.
I fear that it might eventually turn to root dirt.
I still have one un-cleaned bucket with roots, so I'll try something better with that.

As I said above, I'm also testing some small, 2-plant dwc reservoirs to compare with autopots, while treating them almost exactly like autopots.
So far they seem to be behaving themselves.
If they continue to do so, that will be my grow method.
I am having some problems getting food and light right. Reservoir size might affect those.
Two of these dwc setups are thriving as expected at the end of 5 weeks, but a 9 week operation got light and/or nute burn.
Or the roots don't like being cooped up. Or something else I haven't considered.
I'll know what's going on after watching the other setups.

Water is the simplest medium.

There's no need to remove old roots. My personal batch has over a year worth of roots that have broken down and I have had no issues. If your microbiology is strong you should be seeing quick decomposition and signs of life within the medium.
I cut my plants at the base and transplant new clones rather than process the substrate every grow. Stems take longer to break down but I tend to stuff mine further in the pot and let them continue to decompose. The Growpito used in the demo grow had been through three cycles prior to transplanting the clones without 'cleaning' the medium.

Hope that helps.

 

[Mizzo81]

There's no need to remove old roots. My personal batch has over a year worth of roots that have broken down and I have had no issues. If your microbiology is strong you should be seeing quick decomposition and signs of life within the medium.
I cut my plants at the base and transplant new clones rather than process the substrate every grow. Stems take longer to break down but I tend to stuff mine further in the pot and let them continue to decompose. The Growpito used in the demo grow had been through three cycles prior to transplanting the clones without 'cleaning' the medium.

Hope that helps.

This is one reason I decided to go with growpito. Can’t wait for the second round

 

[Mizzo81]

I harvested the RocBud PassionPunch last weekend after 11 weeks.
I had cut off, fast dried, and tried the main cola, which yielded about 1 1/4 oz dry, one week ago.
Altogether it looks to be about 3.5 oz dry.
Both RocBud PurpleScoops and PassionPunch are some of the strongest strains I've grown.
PassionPunch looks like it will fullfill my sleepy herb needs.
PurpleScoops is just as potent, but not as sleepy for me.
Here's PassionPunch, minus its main cola, just before harvest.
View attachment 1207912

Nice lady plus the top

 

[Simplicio]

There's no need to remove old roots. My personal batch has over a year worth of roots that have broken down and I have had no issues. If your microbiology is strong you should be seeing quick decomposition and signs of life within the medium.
I cut my plants at the base and transplant new clones rather than process the substrate every grow. Stems take longer to break down but I tend to stuff mine further in the pot and let them continue to decompose. The Growpito used in the demo grow had been through three cycles prior to transplanting the clones without 'cleaning' the medium.

Hope that helps.

That sound good, but I worry about microbes, insects, etc invading my basement to get at those dead roots.
I'm a sterile guy, and have no idea whether my microbiology is strong.
If it is, it's not because of anything I've done purposely.
Next time I'll not process mine either.

 

[Growpito_Aleks]

That sound good, but I worry about microbes, insects, etc invading my basement to get at those dead roots.
I'm a sterile guy, and have no idea whether my microbiology is strong.
If it is, it's not because of anything I've done purposely.
Next time I'll not process mine either.

We have commercial growers that require sterile conditions per regulation and that is perfectly acceptable through various means like ozone.

I think that if you running cycles back to back and using microbes you won't have a problem as insects have a hard time in the substrate. The top layer can be susceptible to fungus gnats if it remains too moist but drying it out or covering it with a good layer of dry Sim mix works well.

Another option for storage if you aren't running back to back is to prepare a solution as you would for preparing the mix with Enzymes. This will cause breakdown as well as I have stored wet growpito in covered containers for months with no issues. So you can just throw several gallons in to a tote and let it be for months and even years.

We have microbe products for nitrogen/phosphorus fixing but anything like recharge works well in the medium. It's an odd medium for hydro but the cubes provide surface area for colonization and do not impart any chemicals or toxins into the plant. On several occasions roots have destroyed the cubes in my grow.

We just want it to be simple for our growers but it's a matter of preference.

 

[Simplicio]

I'm ending my AutoPot+Growpito experiment.
I've done 1.5 grows with the style so far.
My first grow gave unhealthy plants due to AutoPot inexperience and light burn.
My second, present grow has very unhealthy plants, and I'm not sure why.
It could be genetics, medium, or me.
But I'm unhappy enough to abandon this.
I would like to emphasize that I consider this failure to be due at least partly to personal incompatibility with solid media, and inexperience.

In any case, I almost always have happy healthy hydro plants, so I'm going back to that with the AutoPot test tent.
I'll be killing off the the unhealthy Autopot plants and replacing them with hydro plants.

Tentatively, the 3 usable gallon, 2-plant DWC reservoirs with float valve and external storage tank I'm using are working well.
Plant root interference with the float valve hasn't happened, but I'm still trying to figure out how to keep pH stable and the reservoir well mixed.
Until I do that, these setups will require extra work.
Plant size and yield are exactly what I'm looking for, about 4 ft tall plants that yield around 4 oz dry each in a 4 sq ft area each.
I'm not there yet, but eventually I'll make them as easy as Autopots, possibly by scheduling ppm in the storage reservoir just right.