Dinafem White Widow and Critical + 2.0 in 1 gal pots of Coco with Automated feeding and Airdomes.

[slowandeasy]

Why you don't like them? What are pros and cons with drip fed, not with autopots?

The pots are too big, I prefer smaller pots. I like top feed better with 100% Coco, I get a chance to produce runoff... instead of sitting in nutrient water. As stated before, I have grown hundreds upon hundreds of plants in Coco. Any pots larger than 2 gal is a waste of medium, especially with Autos. The plants in smaller pots grow faster, finish faster, flush faster...but dry out much faster. Automated feeding with Airdomes is a must, your roots will die if the medium drys out too much.
I also like drippers because I can adjust each plants drippers to it's growth/needs. Some strains, like Sour Crack won't get huge. They don't need as much medium or space. So Autopots take up too much space for certain strains. Especially the double Autopots. Flushing with Coco is something I have personally studied and ran countless experiments on. Coco holds salts, measure your runoff during flush. The EC/PPM will be off the charts. I like my plants to fade, and flush properly in a reasonable amount of time. Flushing an Autopot plant will take 14 days, or more to really flush.

That being said, Autopots work well...and will grow big plants. However, it takes 3x as long to turn on the Airdomes as my way. They use a lot of medium, too much for my preference. They are expensive. They can flood, mine did once. Honestly I bought Autopots to try using Biotabs with. I had a Total Hip replacement and wanted to try something that required just filling a Rez with water. But I prefer my way better. I just get better results, really that's what matters to me the most.

 

[lunarman]

If you were set on using autopots/aquavalves like I am (just bought them) but you still wanted to get in to the high O2 injection small pot game, would it be alright to just use less coco in the autopots? They are about 4 gallons. If one were to fill 1/3 of the way, would that present a problem? Might mean less light and circulation early on right? Might be better to just cut the pots down maybe? Its not like I'm worried about resale value or warranty.

I have $1,000 worth of AutoPots sitting around collecting dust. I don't like them, I prefer smaller pots and top feeding vs bottom the whole grow. The Airdomes are the only thing I use from them now. If you use Airdomes Automated feeding is a must. The medium drys out really fast.

 

[lunarman]

@slowandeasy

Great journal. Appreciate you sharing it publicly. Definitely learned a lot reading this and the Mephisto thread too. I'm just getting geared up with autopots now. And this puts a new spin on what I was thinking of doing.

 

[lunarman]

@slowandeasy

one more question. obviously with the small pots the coco is right on top of the domes. But the company recommends putting something like gravel on the domes.

And others have found that you should not cover the dome entirely with the gravel.

It's almost like the best technique is to just load up with coco.

 

[slowandeasy]

I use 100% Char Coir Coco. One of The reasons for Autopots recommendation is to avoid roots growth in the Autovalve area... causing a flood. What medium do you use? What Strains? I wouldn't cut those pots. You can buy smaller ones from Autopots...but I prefer very small pots. I have never run these strains, they are bigger than I anticipated, luckily I have the space.

 

[slowandeasy]

Day 38 from seed. I bent over Critical+ [HASHTAG]#2[/HASHTAG] main stem,bit decided to suppercrop itself and creased itself last night. It is fine, I just wanted to tame it, but...snap! I hope that they are done stretching Soon. I started adding Big Bud to my mix. I have put 6 gal in the Rez in 2 days. So 3 gal per day, I will add 6 more gal tomorrow. Then it will last a couple days. They are eating more, definitely budding now, the littlest White Widow is starting to finally. It was unknowingly unhooked from the air pump for a while, so it is a little behind.

I know the air increases the growth a alot. I think it makes them stretch a little more due to rapid growth. I will know for sure if my theory is right when I run the Sour Cracks, will be starting up the pump next week. That strain has been done alot by myself. I will be able to see any difference the high Oxygen makes to that strain for sure. It is the smallest/fastest strain I have ever done. I have 5 ready for air next week. I'm Gonna hook up the drippers and they will also be heavily Defoliated. Which I am Defoliating 2 others right now, they seem to stretch more when Defoliated. We shall see how they end up. I j also want to see how much I can squeeze out of my mini tent of Sour Cracks with Airdomes, 5 is alot in that space, Defoliating seems to make the structure grow more narrow... without Airdomes at least. These White Widows are medium large plants, the Critical+ 2.0 are large plants. I will do less of each next time, thyy take up a lot of space. However, they look nice and should yield decent. The Citical+ 2.0 plants are budding faster. But they are bigger plants, I have them in a 6.5ft x 6.5ft tent. I could easily let them take up the whole space. I have a few Sour Cracks in the back, I may remove them and let 6 plants take the whole space.. I need to prune a little more from the lowers of each. And spread them out a little more to get them a little more evenly spaced.

 

[lunarman]

Was not expecting you to say no to cutting the pots given your preference for smaller pots of coco and air. You have me curios now. Why not cut the pots? Do you see some risk there like clogging the aquavalve and a flood? I was thinking of cutting them and perforating them with holes on the sides. And bonus of cutting down the pot dramatically is it will take less time for the roots to get in the zone so I can turn on the automated water system and domes and get the rapid growth started faster. I don't think I can get the smaller pots in my country. If the plants get big, I'd like that and I have tons of space.

I will be using coco. Prob 100% but i do have perlite and hydroton if I wanted to add. But that is doubtful.

What caused the aquavalves to clog up and flood? I'm surprised that happened given the way the valves only flood when the try is dry.

I use 100% Char Coir Coco. One of The reasons for Autopots recommendation is to avoid roots growth in the Autovalve area... causing a flood. What medium do you use? What Strains? I wouldn't cut those pots. You can buy smaller ones from Autopots...but I prefer very small pots. I have never run these strains, they are bigger than I anticipated, luckily I have the space.

 

[lunarman]

Ok, when you say they are eating faster with the small medium pots you use and the airdomes, do you mean you they are just drinking more of your regular blend of water/nutes?

I'm curious with this rapid growth way you have and what that means in the way of what is changing from a more traditional grow in terms of feeding. I get that there is a lot of evaporation happening and the coco in those pots is drying out very fast.

Been a few days, they are getting bigger and bigger. Definitely eating a lot faster. I will update pics in a couple days.

 

[slowandeasy]

Ok, when you say they are eating faster with the small medium pots you use and the airdomes, do you mean you they are just drinking more of your regular blend of water/nutes?

I'm curious with this rapid growth way you have and what that means in the way of what is changing from a more traditional grow in terms of feeding. I get that there is a lot of evaporation happening and the coco in those pots is drying out very fast.

They are drying out faster, so my flood time has increased. Same nute/water mix, they just drink more now vs a week ago. You can try to cut the pots down if you like. The big pots will work fine, I just personally think it is a waste of medium. I have found that most Autos grow so much faster than photo plants that they don't have time to fill the pots with roots.

 

[lunarman]

I just personally think it is a waste of medium.

Why do you care about the waste of coco which is not that expensive to me anyway? Or you don't mean its a waste of cost/money, but it's just a waste maintaining and growing in more coco instead of less?

I thought the idea of this approach of small pots and air domes was all about a thirstier medium and faster uptake and therefore a really rapid growth. It was an experiment for you. Quote "The real reason the size difference is the Airdomes and small pots.". I kind of keyed in on that..

I have an autopot all ready to cut down and perforate. And I have two Critical 2.0 germinating right now. I"m thinking of doing a two pot autopot grow on one res with a regular sized autopot and a modified cutdown/perforated autopot with these two Crititcal's. In theory the smaller pot should reach the bottom of the pot faster and I'll have to get it on the res and air sooner than the big pot. And then from there it will be interesting to see how they both finish. If this is legit stuff, the smaller pot should be better.