Grow Mediums Starting an autopot grow for the first time, couple of questions.

[Pring]

Hello,

Did a couple of photo grow 25 years ago and last year get back to growing with autoflower. So this is my 4rd autoflower run. First one in soil, second with coco, and third one with coco hempy. I wanted to have less work to do with watering, so now I have an autopot system (2 tray) for my 3x3x6 tent.

Questions :

- for starting seeds, I've tried different germination method and presently I'm always end up soaking the seeds in water cup on heat mat for 18-24 hours and planting direct in final pot or in a net cup in a solo cup and transplant the net pot it in the final pot when roots coming out. So what would be your preferred method for autopot? If you plan direct in final pot, do you keep the coco dry and water only where the seedling is or you wet all the media before planting the seeds? I know that I have to hand water for maybe 2 weeks, but I always had problem with the watering when planting in final pot.

- For the coco, just straight coco with a layer of perlite at the bottom of the pot or a coco/perlite mix à 70/30 with a layer of perlite at the bottom?

- Do you use a kind of line cleaner in your mix with megacrop in order to prevent cloaking? I have presently Reno nutes dans Megacrop.

Thanks!

 

[BII]

...
- For the coco, just straight coco with a layer of perlite at the bottom of the pot or a coco/perlite mix à 70/30 with a layer of perlite at the bottom?

- Do you use a kind of line cleaner in your mix with megacrop in order to prevent cloaking? I have presently Reno nutes dans Megacrop.
...

Regarding mixing perlite or not, you'll find wide variation in this and other media/soil and bottom layering (or not) practices with AutoPots. All the options seem to work well, with even using pure coco with no layering reported to work well. Remember, AutoPots just involve automated feeding - no real reason to make major modifications to what you would normally use (as long as the medium doesn't get too saturated or dense, which is why adding a good amount of perlite can only help).

There is also wide variation on use or not of 'line cleaners,' which is a vague term - could include detergents, acids, bases to be run through the line for cleaning or even disinfection; or regular addition to reservoir water of chemical (such Drip Clean), microbial/enzyme (such as HydroGuard) or other supplements that help keep lines clean.

I never added or did anything special when I used AutoPots. Just blowing out the lines manually worked well enough for me. Also, I would presume quality base hydro nutes, such as MegaCrop and Remo, don't need 'line cleaning' additives. It's other 'organic' additives/supplements that cause clogging problems. For ex., adding carbs, molasses, etc. that turn the feed into microbial culture media would likely cause problems.

 

[Olderfart]

Lots of ways peeps set autopots up. My coco grow last year (see my sig for the journal) was 60/40 coco perlite in ~3gal fabric pots, no hydroton, no air dome. I had zero issues with plugging or flooding from the valves, and I did not use anything in the way of cleaner or the like to keep the lines and valves clear. I used salt nutes, no organics, and the last 2/3 or so of the grow was on Megacrop II. I did use more serious filtration than most setups, but do not know whether that made a difference.

As to germination, you will get even more opinions. FWIW, I now do the following:

1. shake the seed in a 220 grit sandpaper tube for 5 seconds or so to scarify the seed coat,
2. Soak the seed just barely covered in ~1.5% hydrogen peroxide for 2-4 hours on heat mat controlled to 30C. I do this in a piece of plastic egg carton cut to fit into a small lidded plastic container. The container is taped to keep it dark.
3. Germinate the seed until the tap root is ~10mm long. I do this between wet paper towel held vertically in another lidded small plastic container taped to keep it dark. Again, @30C.
3. Plant rooted seed in coco perlite mix (if using coco, peat mix otherwise) in a plastic cup, place it in domed tray on heat mat @30C.
4. Transplant to final pot after leaves a bit larger than the top of the cup or roots start emerging from the bottom of the pot.

Step 3 needs to be a well drained cup with holes in the bottom, and temperature is important. I make the cup into a transplant pot by cutting off the bottom, splitting the side from top to bottom, and covering the bottom with a nested bottom ~3cm or so high which I cut off another cup. The nested bottom holds the split sides together at the bottom, a piece of duct tap holds the top together. To transplant, I mold a hole in the medium in the final pot, slide off the nested bottom, place the plant with pot sides still on into the hole, and then remove the tape and split the pot wide enough to lift the sides, leaving the plant in the molded hole.

This much fuss is not everyone's cuppa, but I works well for me.

Good luck with the grow, you will love the autopots.