Auto-Pot Set Up Help Needed

Buds Buddy

Buds Buddy

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High there & Everywhere !!!
OK all, I've been growing in soil since the start 1.5 years ago. Seems like my average is about 2.5 oz. per plant & it doesn't seem to matter if I use 2, 3, 5 or 10 gallon pots. Same yield. I've more than doubled my lighting & I believe I'm over 1500 umol ( 2-Meizhi 600 watt LED's, 2-Vang 240 watt 4- light COB's, 4 - Kessil HB350 90 watt Cobs & 8 - 28 Watt LED Spotlights around the lower portion of my tent for side lighting). Tent is 4' x 8' x 7'.
Anyways, decided to give up on soil & go to Coco & Perlite in 5 gallon Auto-Pots. This is totally new to me so I need to know how to set it up correctly. I've heard others talking about Pre-Charging their grow medium. Is this something I need to do & if I do, how do I do it ?
I bought 2 - 5 kg. bricks of Triple Washed Coco with no additives. Do I still need to wash it more & if I do is there a way to tell when it's washed enough ? Will this be enough Coco for 4 - 5 gallon Auto Pots. I have a Lg. Bag of Perlite to mix with the Coco at 70 / 30.
What should the pH be for an Auto-Pot System (12.4 gal. Res.) ? With Soil I kept it 6.3 - 6.4. I've heard it needs to be lower for Auto-Pots but not sure what pH I'm trying to hit.
Now the thing I'm really puzzled about is how do I feed ? I can't possibly Feed, Water, Water like I do in soil if I'm adding nutes to a 12 gallon Res. Here are the Nutes I'll be using; All AN products. Sensi Grow & Bloom Coco Formula A & B, VooDoo Juice, B-52, Big Bud Coco, Overdrive, Piranha, Bud Candy, Sensi CalMag & Final Phase. Please fill me in on how to feed as I'm lost on this.
Well, these are my main concerns for the time being. Just want to get it right the 1st time if possible.

Looking forward to getting it all set up & testing it for a couple days to see about temps & humidity & Light PAR because I might add Co2 if all is good.

I'm convinced that in order to get the most out of your plants the roots have to get plenty of air & water along with proper nutes. I sure hope I'm on the right track as it's cost me over $500 so far to change my grow system. Switched to Advanced Nutrients from GH products & AN stuff costs double. 1/2 or more of what I've spent is on the Nutes alone.

Hope to get some good feedback on this stuff & thank you all for taking the time to read it.
 
Hdinkleman said:
your lighting has more to do with your yield than pot size is what ive learned.
those meizhis kind of suck if thats what your main lighting is, thats probably the reason your yield has only been what it is.
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I know the lights aren't top of the line. They're 1 step under Mars Hydro & 1 step above Viparspectar in my opinion. I consider them a Mid-Grade light but according to their charts it puts out something like 680 PAR per 2 sq. meters. If that's accurate my tent should be Up to PAR with the other lighting I have. Never the less, I plan on up-grading to 2 -Advanced Platinum P900's. But that's still a couple months away now that I invested in all the Auto-Pot stuff. The 90 watt Kessil COB's are probably my best lights or at least should be at $320 ea. All this takes time when you're not rich. I started out 1-1/2 years ago with CFL's in a cardboard box. Went to T-5's & CFL's in a closet. Bought a small tent & a 600 watt MH/HPS. Then bought several sets of cheapo LED's before buying the Meizhi's. Now I have 3 complete tents with all the accessories needed for each. All that being said I feel I've made quite a bit of improvement & now I'm up-grading again. My garage is so full of equipment that I'm thinking of putting some of it up for sale before I start a new grow. It would help out towards the P900's I want. Of course if I find a deal on KIND or Black Dog all that could change. I found someone with 2 P900's they will sell for $300 ea. so I'll probably end up with those. I have to call them tonight to make sure they still have them. If they do I'll make the 90 mile trip to get them.
 
Hdinkleman said:
i use airpots is that what youre talking about?
and fyi you want the CLOSED HOLES to go on the top not the bottom, noone tells you this and i ran the airpots upside down the first couple times i used them
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No, not Air-Pots. These are pots that sit in a dish of water with floats that control each pots watering. It's all conected to a 12.4 gallon reservoir. Similar to DWC in some ways. These just automatically feed your plants as needed. Seems a lot of people are switching to them. I've seen pics of monster plants in them. I learned about them on this site & have only heard good things about them so decided to try it out. You can check them out on Ebay. A 4 pot 5 gallon system runs about $240. They come in all sizes : 1,2,4,6 ... etc. pot systems.
 
Hdinkleman said:
your lighting has more to do with your yield than pot size is what ive learned.
those meizhis kind of suck if thats what your main lighting is, thats probably the reason your yield has only been what it is.
Click to expand...
Oh, & I think the lights are only 1/2 the equation. Growing Big Roots is the other. I think it takes the combination to get a really good yield. And if you're situations right for co2 .... you're living the high life. This is what I'm shooting for in the end.
 
you can have a
Buds Buddy said:
Oh, & I think the lights are only 1/2 the equation. Growing Big Roots is the other. I think it takes the combination to get a really good yield. And if you're situations right for co2 .... you're living the high life. This is what I'm shooting for in the end.
Click to expand...
you can have as much roots as you want, if you dont have lights its not going to produce
 
Buds Buddy said:
I know the lights aren't top of the line. They're 1 step under Mars Hydro & 1 step above Viparspectar in my opinion. I consider them a Mid-Grade light but according to their charts it puts out something like 680 PAR per 2 sq. meters. If that's accurate my tent should be Up to PAR
Click to expand...
I wouldn’t generally trust what led companies are putting out there for numbers. I’m willing to bet they are “600w” LEDs but only pull about 250w from the wall. I started with 2x1200w and 2x300w Viparspectra and they only pulled 550w a piece and the 300w pulled less than 150z Hate to say it but those blurple lights are old technology and are low grade lights. I upgraded to 4x600w hps and saw an extreme increase in yield and bud density. I started with led because I told that led gets better quality and they market the 1200w LEDs as comparable to 1000w how but it’s simply untrue and not even close.
 
@Buds Buddy , seems like you are doing something similar to me... i can't advise you on washing the coco as i bought a ready mix bag myself (tropic bat mix) i will advise doing what i do when adding to the res though.
Don't fill the thing up unless you are going away for a few days, i usualy add no more than 15 ltrs at a time so i if i need to adjust anything I'm not emptying and wasting expensive nutes.
One other thing... take a look at the airdomes for the autopot
Cheers and good luck
 
Buds Buddy said:
I learned about them on this site & have only heard good things about them so decided to try it out.
Click to expand...
Go back to some of those posts and tag a couple of members who you feel knew what they were talking about. Stick with the ones that have used the system already. Participate in those forums as well. My .02 cents :)
:goodluck:
 
MrSauga said:
Go back to some of those posts and tag a couple of members who you feel knew what they were talking about. Stick with the ones that have used the system already. Participate in those forums as well. My .02 cents :)
:goodluck:
Click to expand...

Good idea MrSauga,also if Buddy wants to keep an eye on my latest grow (link in my sig) then he can see how the smartpot performs and compare notes :thumb:
 
jodyhighrollr said:
I wouldn’t generally trust what led companies are putting out there for numbers. I’m willing to bet they are “600w” LEDs but only pull about 250w from the wall. I started with 2x1200w and 2x300w Viparspectra and they only pulled 550w a piece and the 300w pulled less than 150z Hate to say it but those blurple lights are old technology and are low grade lights. I upgraded to 4x600w hps and saw an extreme increase in yield and bud density. I started with led because I told that led gets better quality and they market the 1200w LEDs as comparable to 1000w how but it’s simply untrue and not even close.
Click to expand...
I've used MH/HPS before but cost is 5 times higher per month for electric so switched to LED.
 
Buds Buddy said:
I've used MH/HPS before but cost is 5 times higher per month for electric so switched to LED.
Click to expand...
Maybe you would be interested in a quantum board(s). I hear people get really good results with those. I am really interested in them myself but I figured I would get my moneys worth out of 4x$80 bulbs :) but in my opinion with my situation and what I yield and the density and size of the buds the extra electricity each month(more like 2x in my situation) is really worth it at harvest time.
 
Regards the questions though.

Yes, wash the Coco again. Always wash everything first. You can tell if it's clean by soaking some in a tub of water. Check the ppm and pH of the water first. If it rises when you put the Coco in then it needs cleaned.

Yes you want to precharge the Coco. Basically just saturate it with a really weak solution. 200- 300ppm . Just a little bit base nutes and some root boost.
Set the Res to 300ppm at pH 5.8. that strength will get you through the first couple weeks with no chance of toxicities.
If the bottoms start going yellow you up the base nutes.
Tops go yellow you up the micro nutes. Mids lose colour and go blotchy or you get rusty spots then you up the calmag . Some need calmag, some don't. Not sure why really. My tap water is only 50ppm and I only use it a few times during bloom.
You'll have to hand water for a week or 2 untill the roots hit the bottom and start drinking from the Res. You'll see it when they hit cos the plant will start growing like buggery.
Don't need to ever feed a Coco plant just water. In the event a flush is needed youd use a week solution. Not just water.
Think that covered all the questions there, if I missed any just ask mate. Always happy to help out :)
 
Barney86 said:
Regards the questions though.

Yes, wash the Coco again. Always wash everything first. You can tell if it's clean by soaking some in a tub of water. Check the ppm and pH of the water first. If it rises when you put the Coco in then it needs cleaned.

Yes you want to precharge the Coco. Basically just saturate it with a really weak solution. 200- 300ppm . Just a little bit base nutes and some root boost.
Set the Res to 300ppm at pH 5.8. that strength will get you through the first couple weeks with no chance of toxicities.
If the bottoms start going yellow you up the base nutes.
Tops go yellow you up the micro nutes. Mids lose colour and go blotchy or you get rusty spots then you up the calmag . Some need calmag, some don't. Not sure why really. My tap water is only 50ppm and I only use it a few times during bloom.
You'll have to hand water for a week or 2 untill the roots hit the bottom and start drinking from the Res. You'll see it when they hit cos the plant will start growing like buggery.
Don't need to ever feed a Coco plant just water. In the event a flush is needed youd use a week solution. Not just water.
Think that covered all the questions there, if I missed any just ask mate. Always happy to help out :)
Click to expand...
Very helpful Barney. Much appreciated info. Now to just wait till it's all delivered.
I think I finally got my tent in the right condition for Co2. Added a 6 gallon Humidifier (pretty much a small swamp cooler).
Temps now stay right around 88 F with exhaust OFF & all lights on with tent completely closed up. RH has stayed at 55%.
Been testing it for 2 days so far & it's stayed consistent so maybe the Humidifier was the answer for using Co2. Yes, I'm trying to maximize my grows using less plants. I'll be upgrading my lights in the next couple months to Advanced Platinum or Kind. One step at a time but I'll get there.
 
This autopot system looks very interesting
One of the things I hate most about growing is the daily mixing of nutes and watering
I grow in 100% coco, and wonder if the wicking system on the autopot would get enough moisture to the top
It would sure be nice to mix up a reservoir of nutes that might last a week, as opposed to daily watering
 
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