Grow Mediums Help me decide on AutoPot setup

[Hashash]

Don’t get me wrong about the lights. It sounds like a great setup and after doing the math 30 cob watts per square foot is pretty nice. Are they on a frame? Would love to see a picture.

The lights will be put on three frames each holding 5 cobs per row. I ordered the mega crop free sample. Do I follow their nutrition schedule and just add ph to the water from veg to flower or is there something else I need to purchase?

 

[HemiSync]

The lights will be put on three frames each holding 5 cobs per row. I ordered the mega crop free sample. Do I follow their nutrition schedule and just add ph to the water from veg to flower or is there something else I need to purchase?

It would depend on what you are growing in. With coco I have found you need to add cal/mag. For the most part you should be able to follow their schedule up to bloom. Then a few of us have had to back off the levels during flowering.

 

[Hashash]

It would depend on what you are growing in. With coco I have found you need to add cal/mag. For the most part you should be able to follow their schedule up to bloom. Then a few of us have had to back off the levels during flowering.

I will be growing in coco. I checked out the site schedule and I am not sure if I’m reading this right, but it looks like they recommend a feeding every week. I find that a bit strange. Calculations were based of a 47L reservoir.

 

[HemiSync]

I will be growing in coco. I checked out the site schedule and I am not sure if I’m reading this right, but it looks like they recommend a feeding every week. I find that a bit strange. Calculations were based of a 47L reservoir.

They recommend upping the dose every week which actually works with their product during veg. It’s only during bloom that you need to read your plants and adjust accordingly. i only put in enough solution in my reservoir for a week at a time unless I’m going to be out of town for longer. I’m normall start out with 15 liters and see how it goes. This makes it easy to adjust dose weekly. This is the first nutrients I have used that you can feed at their recommended dosage instead of starting at a 1/4 of what some other companies recommend.

If you are going to be using coco, I recommend pretreating it with some form of cal/mag. I’m going to be trying some dolomite lime mixed in my coco next run.

 

[Hashash]

They recommend upping the dose every week which actually works with their product during veg. It’s only during bloom that you need to read your plants and adjust accordingly. i only put in enough solution in my reservoir for a week at a time unless I’m going to be out of town for longer. I’m normall start out with 15 liters and see how it goes. This makes it easy to adjust dose weekly. This is the first nutrients I have used that you can feed at their recommended dosage instead of starting at a 1/4 of what some other companies recommend.

If you are going to be using coco, I recommend pretreating it with some form of cal/mag. I’m going to be trying some dolomite lime mixed in my coco next run.

Good to know. I will start around 15L and see how much water these 4 pots use on weekly basis. As plants grow, I am guessing they will be consuming more water. Do you recommend any photos/autos easy to start off with?

 

[HemiSync]

Good to know. I will start around 15L and see how much water these 4 pots use on weekly basis. As plants grow, I am guessing they will be consuming more water. Do you recommend any photos/autos easy to start off with?

Yes, as they get bigger they will consume more water. My current photos are at day 47 of flower and the four of them are consuming 1-2 inches of solution a day right now and they are on the small size. I have seen larger plants drinking double that with four trays.

I really enjoyed growing anything made by Fast Buds for autos. I have never grown any but Mephisto seeds has a loyal following here.

If you want to do photos and you do have 7 feet of height in that tent so you could easily do some big ones. Depending on your skill level I would probably stick to the more traditional white widow or northern lights as they are very stable strains and supposedly easier to grow than some strains.

Now if you want to SCROG a strain, I recommend a photo Dr. Krippling’s Red Leicester Tease. My buddy grew two of these out earlier this year and the first thing I thought of when I saw it’s structure was a SCROG. They have long branches of fairly equal length with lots of bud sites, perfect for weaving in and out of a net. I was lucky enough to get a couple cuts and now have a mother plant and the other being prepared for a SCROG via training until my current grow is harvested.

I hope this has been some help. I’m sure others will chime in with their favorite strains.

 

[Hashash]

Thanks for all the help and time you put in.

Yes, as they get bigger they will consume more water. My current photos are at day 47 of flower and the four of them are consuming 1-2 inches of solution a day right now and they are on the small size. I have seen larger plants drinking double that with four trays.

I really enjoyed growing anything made by Fast Buds for autos. I have never grown any but Mephisto seeds has a loyal following here.

If you want to do photos and you do have 7 feet of height in that tent so you could easily do some big ones. Depending on your skill level I would probably stick to the more traditional white widow or northern lights as they are very stable strains and supposedly easier to grow than some strains.

Now if you want to SCROG a strain, I recommend a photo Dr. Krippling’s Red Leicester Tease. My buddy grew two of these out earlier this year and the first thing I thought of when I saw it’s structure was a SCROG. They have long branches of fairly equal length with lots of bud sites, perfect for weaving in and out of a net. I was lucky enough to get a couple cuts and now have a mother plant and the other being prepared for a SCROG via training until my current grow is harvested.

I hope this has been some help. I’m sure others will chime in with their favorite strains.

 

[lunarman]

not much to add really as you got all the right info from the boys already. once you do get all your gear in and start to setup, read the how to setup autopots guide sticky at the top of this forum for autopots. And get an air pump even if you opt out of airdomes and use it along with a syringe of hot water to flush your lines one a week or maybe two weeks. If you haven't ordered your gear yet, make sure you get the one pot kit of 4 pots, aquavalves, reservoir and all the fittings and irrigation lines. It's a kit that is packaged by autopots in to one box and is perfect for shipping and keeping freight charges down. And the price for that kit is good. I would recommend not doing perpetual grows where you stagger. if you're growing 2 or 3 or 4, start and end all of them at the same time. It's way easier to manage feeding, irrigation lines and fittings and lighting etc. One more thing. I would clean the aquavalves at least once thru the grow. Especially on the inside of the valve where there is a small hole that the water goes thru. And be careful with the little silicon tabs when you work on the valves. They are not a perm mount to the valves. You put saliva on them and stick them to the valves and you can lose them if you're not careful. I ordered spares and sure enough I had to use one of them so far.

 

[lunarman]

One last final, final thing. Get in to the habit of the doing the following daily if you can.

1. Measure the water level in the res and record it and make sure it's going down each day.
2. Look in the trays every day to make sure you see liquid in them.
3. Pick up the pots just a bit out of the try and make sure they feel as heavy as the day before.
4. Or any combination of the above steps. After a while you will develop your own way of checking.

There are a multitude of reasons why you could have an issue with autopots not feeding the plants. You might have forgotten to turn a valve back on when it was off for maintenance. Or maybe a clog. As unlikely as you would think these things could happen, something certainly can happen. And after you get used to them you might get lazy or lax because the system is so automated and you just assume all is well.

 

[Hashash]

One last final, final thing. Get in to the habit of the doing the following daily if you can.

1. Measure the water level in the res and record it and make sure it's going down each day.
2. Look in the trays every day to make sure you see liquid in them.
3. Pick up the pots just a bit out of the try and make sure they feel as heavy as the day before.
4. Or any combination of the above steps. After a while you will develop your own way of checking.

There are a multitude of reasons why you could have an issue with autopots not feeding the plants. You might have forgotten to turn a valve back on when it was off for maintenance. Or maybe a clog. As unlikely as you would think these things could happen, something certainly can happen. And after you get used to them you might get lazy or lax because the system is so automated and you just assume all is well.

Thank you so much. I’m going to make the order for the AutoPot 4pot 15L pits with 47 res with 4x air domes and one pump. What size a air pump do you use? How long do you run it for? And could you briefly describe the spare parts I should have as backup so I have a quick fix in the event something was to go wrong? Great advice above. I will be attending to my system on daily basis. Also, I read a lot online on CFM based on lights, space. I’m thinking to get a 6 inch duct fan in the 400CFM range. Please advise if that’s an acceptable size. I wonder if I should get one with a speed controller and humidity controller to have it kick in once the humidity is at a certain level. Planning to use the fan with a carbon filter hung at the top of the tent with two oscillating fans and a small dehumidifier to use during flower season