Grow Mediums Megacrop / Autopot clogged lines solution - or use Jacks 3 2 1

[jokgga]

Hi all,

I am planning to use Megacrop with my autopot set up but heard that they clog lines. Has anyone had experience with this and how did you battle clogged lines? I would be cleaning the res once a week but do not want to be constantly battling clogged lines. Here are my thoughts:

1.) Get a waterpump to be constantly mixing nutes in the res? Would this prevent anything from being clogged?
2.) Get a larger water line than the 1/4 inch. Can this be done with my system? (4 Gallon pot and 13 Gallon res).
3.) Switch to Jacks 3 2 1, which is more synthetic and be easier.

I have been top feeding Megacrop.. would a switch to Jacks 3 2 1 in the res affect this?

Thanks all and happy growing!

Will

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Mega Crop 2 part and Jacks are nearly identical! You can use Yucca powder - a surfactant - to keep your lines and drippers clean. I do not understand How the MC can clog lines it is totally soluble?

 

[jokgga]

Thanks.. Great advice as always! I was reading that some folks have had trouble with MC (I have part 1) with it clogging their lines. That said, feel like a few of them did not clean for a couple weeks.

 

[Simplicio]

I use 12 or 13 gallon storage reservoirs to feed small plant reservoirs equipped with float valves.
The storage reservoirs always have sediment using Megacrop 1.0
I've had a float valve clog twice.
It's nearly impossible to get purity greater than 99.9%, and over time that 0.1% adds up.

I think this is a real problem for those of us susceptible to clogging.
My fix has been to mix up a 5 gallon pail with ~3200 ppm MC, then after everything dissolves/mixes/settles, pour it through a strainer (like kief screens) into a second bucket.
There is always a tiny amount of sediment captured by the filter.

At that particular strength, 1 cup supplies 200 ppm.
I actually like dosing by the cup more than weighing out solid MC, or using tsp/Tbs of concentrated liquid nutes.
I just started doing this, so I might change my mind.

 

[LordRandall420]

I use 12 or 13 gallon storage reservoirs to feed small plant reservoirs equipped with float valves.
The storage reservoirs always have sediment using Megacrop 1.0
I've had a float valve clog twice.
It's nearly impossible to get purity greater than 99.9%, and over time that 0.1% adds up.

I think this is a real problem for those of us susceptible to clogging.
My fix has been to mix up a 5 gallon pail with ~3200 ppm MC, then after everything dissolves/mixes/settles, pour it through a strainer (like kief screens) into a second bucket.
There is always a tiny amount of sediment captured by the filter.

At that particular strength, 1 cup supplies 200 ppm.
I actually like dosing by the cup more than weighing out solid MC, or using tsp/Tbs of concentrated liquid nutes.
I just started doing this, so I might change my mind.

Stupid question incoming, once your res is close to empty like 3 gallons or less. How do you "refresh" the res, do you start fresh and add the gallon + feed amount and rock on? or do you "Top off" the res to a certain amount, adjust PPM/EC and PH again and rock on? How do you maintain your res to always have the correct EC and PH Balanced water in it at all times?

 

[Highway 61]

Stupid question incoming, once your res is close to empty like 3 gallons or less. How do you "refresh" the res, do you start fresh and add the gallon + feed amount and rock on? or do you "Top off" the res to a certain amount, adjust PPM/EC and PH again and rock on? How do you maintain your res to always have the correct EC and PH Balanced water in it at all times?

I just mix a new batch of nutes in a five gallon bucket and pour it in the res with what remains of the old nutes. I ph the new nutes in the bucket before they go in the res. I also check the ph in the res periodically as it has a tendency to drift upward a little bit so I add ph down periodically to the res to get it back to where I want it.

 

[Olderfart]

Hi all,

I am planning to use Megacrop with my autopot set up but heard that they clog lines. Has anyone had experience with this and how did you battle clogged lines? I would be cleaning the res once a week but do not want to be constantly battling clogged lines. Here are my thoughts:

1.) Get a waterpump to be constantly mixing nutes in the res? Would this prevent anything from being clogged?
2.) Get a larger water line than the 1/4 inch. Can this be done with my system? (4 Gallon pot and 13 Gallon res).
3.) Switch to Jacks 3 2 1, which is more synthetic and be easier.

I have been top feeding Megacrop.. would a switch to Jacks 3 2 1 in the res affect this?

Thanks all and happy growing!

Will

FWIW, I had no clogging at all with MC, either in my grow last winter, or my 12 week vegie grow this summer. I use a different filter system though, a pleated household filter mounted inside the reservoir. The standard filters provided by Autopot are in my opinion inadequate. I used Yucca, but have no idea whether it helped keep things clear.

My advice is set up good filtration, and stick with MC. No mixing pump is needed, just give the res a manual stir once in a while.

 

[Simplicio]

Stupid question incoming, once your res is close to empty like 3 gallons or less. How do you "refresh" the res, do you start fresh and add the gallon + feed amount and rock on? or do you "Top off" the res to a certain amount, adjust PPM/EC and PH again and rock on? How do you maintain your res to always have the correct EC and PH Balanced water in it at all times?

I try to estimate what ppm the storage reservoir should be by how the plant vessel ppm's change from day to day.
While following the VPD chart with Greenleaf Megacrop 1.0, the plants seem to prefer about 450 ppm (ec=0.9) or less in the growth vessels.
I'm still trying to figure this out, but so far keeping the storage reservoir around 600 ppm seems to work best.
But this probably depends on many factors.

 

[jokgga]

FWIW, I had no clogging at all with MC, either in my grow last winter, or my 12 week vegie grow this summer. I use a different filter system though, a pleated household filter mounted inside the reservoir. The standard filters provided by Autopot are in my opinion inadequate. I used Yucca, but have no idea whether it helped keep things clear.

My advice is set up good filtration, and stick with MC. No mixing pump is needed, just give the res a manual stir once in a while.

Thanks @Olderfart ! Sounds like a great idea.

Is this a normal pleated filter that you retrofitted? Do you have an example?

 

[Olderfart]

Thanks @Olderfart ! Sounds like a great idea.

Is this a normal pleated filter that you retrofitted? Do you have an example?

These are the ones I ordered from Amazon.

I've put them in the reservoir a couple of ways. The one in my 45gallon reservoir outside this summer was rigged up so it screwed into the inside thread on the bulkhead fitting used to mount a tap and the hose to the autovalves. The one in my 10 gallon reservoir last winter was just wedged with plastic foam over the exit hole leading to the tap.

I don't have pics of the 45 gallon setup, but you get the idea. Both setups worked perfectly. Bottom line is just get the filters inside the reservoir so that water has no way into your irrigation lines without going through the filter first. Installing them in a soft sided reservoir like the ones supplied by Autopot would be a bit different, but something should work.

The filters are far finer than the ones provided by autopot, and they last pretty much indefinitely. You could also mount them inline in your exit hose by using the standard filter housing, but I elected for simple and cheap.

Other members here noted that brass taps and fittings can be a problem in irrigation setups, so use plastic if you go this way.