Grow Mediums Mom's Autocob, Autoflower, Autopot Grow

[MassMom]

Jeez Mom I'd he happy and joyful if I had a plant last 3 days. Or the full 12 days of Christmas. Or if one of my 90 day plants actually flowered. That's my reality. And I love it. Good thing my first crop yielded lots of smoke. :smoking:

Hang in there sweetie, thats all we can do! Dont you hate it when you see someone grow a 1lb auto monster and they make it look so easy? LOL That is what keeps me going,my first grow. I got 3oz dry off her. So I know I can do it.

https://www.autoflower.org/threads/...viable-alternative.59773/page-10#post-1646947

Heres one thread

Thank you hon!!

 

[SPZ]

I didnt bother to check the PH in my res either, until for giggles I did one day. It was up near 7~! freaked the crap out of me. for some reason my PH always creeps up. So the next grow I am going to test the res water periodically and keep a chart. Im not even to worried about that because every 4 days I pull off the res, clean it, and fill it up with fresh nutes and water ph to 5.8ish anyways. I couldnt see myself using the same res and just adding to it the whole grow.

I think you will find if you chart it that the pH goes up over time. Adding an airstone to the res makes it go up quicker. I recorded the readings and made a chart on my last grow:

I studied the shit out of this and I don't think I will be worrying about this as much in my next grow. The AN pH perfect line is supposed to stabilize and buffer your solution and make the nutrients available at a wider pH range. Recharge also helps your plants absorb nutrients in a wider ph range. As you can see my pH also went up, even past seven, and I never saw pH problems and I got a pound from my 4x4 tent regardless. Plus Hans doesn't bother with it once he starts with the AN nutes and he gets big results so I'm following his lead.

 

[SPZ]

No journal SPZ. I am documenting an autopot grow with two different pots. One stock and one "heavily" modified. Its on this same Autopots board, down below. But they were not germinated or done this way. I did them in paper towels until tap root and then put in solo cups and then totally transplanted from solo to autopots. It actually worked out well but I did not like all the handling. It's risky.

I just came up with this procedure in the last day. And I do have two Sweet Seeds Creme Mandarine that I just started yesterday in root riot plugs (actually rapid rooters) and will be done using this procedure. I could maybe journal them. Let me see how they do with the germ phase over the next day. That is critical.

Sounds good! I do encourage journaling, win or lose you will record what you did and it is useful to be able to go back and look at it for your own sake! I killed a whole batch of seeds my first attempt, journaled the shit out of it, and it was really rewarding and I got lots of good advice and encouragement from the good folks here at AFN.

Couldn't agree with you more about the germinating. I am not doing the paper towel technique anymore, mostly because I don't want to mess up the roots, but also because I'm not getting any younger, my eyes aren't getting better, my hands aren't getting steadier. I'm sure that mother nature did not intend for me to be handling such small delicate things that are supposed to be planted in the ground!

 

[SPZ]

I was looking at these 1/4" shut off valves they look to be the same and cheaper then the ones from the drip irrigation section. Plus it's always nice to have spares.
www.amazon.com/HIPA-Stratton-AM36141-AM107340-1-603770/dp/B015HJFXI2/ref=sr_1_20?ie=UTF8&qid=1513052079&sr=8-20&keywords=1%2F4+shut+off+valve
www.amazon.com/KORAM-Irrigation-Barbed-Shut-off-Tubing/dp/B01JUO0A56/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&qid=1513051989&sr=8-18&keywords=1%2F4+shut+off+valve

I got some third party valves off amazon. Haven't installed them yet but don't see why they wouldn't work. The autopot setup only came with enough valves to turn off the res, I want to be able to turn off each pot individually which was an issue in my last grow.

 

[MassMom]

I think you will find if you chart it that the pH goes up over time. Adding an airstone to the res makes it go up quicker. I recorded the readings and made a chart on my last grow:


View attachment 839107
I studied the shit out of this and I don't think I will be worrying about this as much in my next grow. The AN pH perfect line is supposed to stabilize and buffer your solution and make the nutrients available at a wider pH range. Recharge also helps your plants absorb nutrients in a wider ph range. As you can see my pH also went up, even past seven, and I never saw pH problems and I got a pound from my 4x4 tent regardless. Plus Hans doesn't bother with it once he starts with the AN nutes and he gets big results so I'm following his lead.

I am just going to make sure that when I mix up my nutes/additives I have 5.8 to 6.0. If the ph goes upwards in the res after a few days I am not going to worry. Number one, calcium and magnesium are better absorbed at a little higher range, and I completely clean and change out my res every 5 days anyways. This grow I am going to check PPM too. Nothing to heavy, I just want to know that I am in the appropriate ranges for their age and growth.
a pound your last grow....

 

[MassMom]

Sounds good! I do encourage journaling, win or lose you will record what you did and it is useful to be able to go back and look at it for your own sake! I killed a whole batch of seeds my first attempt, journaled the shit out of it, and it was really rewarding and I got lots of good advice and encouragement from the good folks here at AFN.

Couldn't agree with you more about the germinating. I am not doing the paper towel technique anymore, mostly because I don't want to mess up the roots, but also because I'm not getting any younger, my eyes aren't getting better, my hands aren't getting steadier. I'm sure that mother nature did not intend for me to be handling such small delicate things that are supposed to be planted in the ground!

Im with you on that one! I stopped being able to thread a needle years ago, and now I have to put on (2) pairs of reading glasses when dealing with the seeds! I think i might just soak them for 24 hours then PLOP right into their home.

 

[MassMom]

I got some third party valves off amazon. Haven't installed them yet but don't see why they wouldn't work. The autopot setup only came with enough valves to turn off the res, I want to be able to turn off each pot individually which was an issue in my last grow.

that is exactly what i want to do also. Each pot have its own shut off valve. I got some third party tubing at my local hydro store, and figured I would clean all my stuff and give it a test run before my babies get transplanted. Im so pissed. It took me an act of god to get their damn tubing on, then once I got it on i couldnt get it off and broke (2) "t" connectors. it is SO FREAKING TIGHT. just doesnt feel like the stuff that CAME with the autopots. its a hair smaller and rather rigid. I think I will just stick with my aquarium tubing. The last thing I need is tubing that is going to give me a hard time during a grow~
If you purchase anything 3rd party for the autopots just make sure you test it before its in your tent

Actually what I did this evening was a test run of the autopot and the aquavalves with no plants. I tested all (4). I watched how the water went into the tray and how the valve reacted. then I dumped out some water and watched how the valves worked to fill up the base again. I cleaned and took apart the valves then put them back together again. I figure if I ever have an issue it is best to know what I am working with...and how IT works. Especially the little yellow stoppers. All (4) aquavalves worked fine, but I did notice that 2 of them allowed more water into the base than the other 2. (the water ALMOST covered the little black twist on thingie.)
ha ha

 

[SPZ]

I am just going to make sure that when I mix up my nutes/additives I have 5.8 to 6.0. If the ph goes upwards in the res after a few days I am not going to worry. Number one, calcium and magnesium are better absorbed at a little higher range, and I change out my res every 5 days anyways. This grow I am going to check PPM too. Nothing to heavy, I just want to know that I am in the appropriate ranges for their age and growth.
a pound your last grow....

Professional hydroponic outfits can automate their nutrient mixing completely by measuring EC/PPM, so that makes a ton of sense.

LOL, for all the things we worry about stress out about, I think there is one simple reason I got a good yield, and that is that I have six cobs! More light=more bud! If you look at how many watts you are pushing you are probably getting a similar weight per watt of cob. The main thing that impacted my yield was fungus gnats. One plant got heavily infested and I moved it outside--and it had the lowest yield by far.

 

[MassMom]

Professional hydroponic outfits can automate their nutrient mixing completely by measuring EC/PPM, so that makes a ton of sense.

LOL, for all the things we worry about stress out about, I think there is one simple reason I got a good yield, and that is that I have six cobs! More light=more bud! If you look at how many watts you are pushing you are probably getting a similar weight per watt of cob. The main thing that impacted my yield was fungus gnats. One plant got heavily infested and I moved it outside--and it had the lowest yield by far.

That is why it is so hard to compare your own grows to others. there are SO many variables~ lighting, water quality, even the atmosphere. (someone once posted that Hans must sing to his plants in french)


Trust me...If I could order 4 more COB's from BigSmo I would right now. Moms pocketbook says otherwise however.

I had fungus gnats once. Damn little pests. I have neem spray handy, and I also spray and clean my tent down with vinegar/tea tree oil every time I move the girls out to vacume. I also have a handy pack of yellow square bug stickies here. God I hate those though, they stick to EVERYTHING. I will not share the story of when I went into my tent once and got one stuck in my hair!!

 

[lunarman]

that is exactly what i want to do also. Each pot have its own shut off valve. I got some third party tubing at my local hydro store, and figured I would clean all my stuff and give it a test run before my babies get transplanted. Im so pissed. It took me an act of god to get their damn tubing on, then once I got it on i couldnt get it off and broke (2) "t" connectors. it is SO FREAKING TIGHT. just doesnt feel like the stuff that CAME with the autopots. its a hair smaller and rather rigid. I think I will just stick with my aquarium tubing. The last thing I need is tubing that is going to give me a hard time during a grow~
If you purchase anything 3rd party for the autopots just make sure you test it before its in your tent

Actually what I did this evening was a test run of the autopot and the aquavalves with no plants. I tested all (4). I watched how the water went into the tray and how the valve reacted. then I dumped out some water and watched how the valves worked to fill up the base again. I cleaned and took apart the valves then put them back together again. I figure if I ever have an issue it is best to know what I am working with...and how IT works. Especially the little yellow stoppers. All (4) aquavalves worked fine, but I did notice that 2 of them allowed more water into the base than the other 2. (the water ALMOST covered the little black twist on thingie.)
ha ha

View attachment 839136

Mom, I bought some tubing that was not right on either. For the air lines. Couldn't even use it.

So I contacted autopots and said I wanted to build backup redundant lines and asked what the spec is for the tubing. This is what you want. You can maybe even find shutoff valves that are the same spec. I bought some cheap ones that look cheap but they work. I love being able to shut of each valve. Totally worth doing.

And I recommend emailing Jason at autopots for any info you want. Like the tube specs. He and the other guys are really nice peeps.

The pipe we use is 6.2mm OD and 4.2mm ID.