Smart pot Aeration containers test

newbie2010 said:
I have a White Widow mother in a 15 gallon Smart Pot and wanted to put a White Rhino mother in a larger Air-Pot.

Why is the Air-Pot so much more expensive? And so hard to find in the US in the larger size?

Please update after you compare the yields with the Air-Pot vs the Smart Pot.

I do love the Smart Pot and the improved engineering with handles in the Gro Pot is awesome. Just wondering if the final product/yields justifies the cost of the Air-Pot.

I have been training four WWs in the 5 gallon Smart Pots, inside milk crates, and they are things of beauty. They are 33 days old from seed and day 13 into LSTing. Finally, they are starting to take off.
Click to expand...

The Air Pots arrived on Wednesday and I transplanted the WW I had in the 5 gallon grow pot into one of the 5.2 gallon Air Pot.
The Gro Pot made it very difficult to do the transplant. I could not roll down the bag or try to slide the root ball out so I had to cut the bag off the root ball. It looked like the roots were infact starting to penetrate the bottom of the bag. Part of the root system broke away and sent the plant into shock but it should be recovered by today.
I'm starting a new thread today on the Air Pots so any info on purchasing, use, etc will be over there.
I still have the runt in her 3 gallon gro pot. She's in preflower right now so when she starts building her cola I'll post a pic and I'll continue to update her on this thread.:goodluck:
 
When I transferred from the #1 Smart Pot to the #5, it was very easy to roll the #1 Smart Pot down to maybe 3" above ground.

The roots did snap a bit, but recovery was a few hours.

Maybe the Gro Pot is made of more inflexible material? to prevent easier transfer...

I also think I was over feeding the WWs. Only water yesterday and they look happier then EVER. I'll let them dry out a bit more today before watering again. WOOHOO if i can save $$ on the nutrients!!
 
newbie2010 said:
When I transferred from the #1 Smart Pot to the #5, it was very easy to roll the #1 Smart Pot down to maybe 3" above ground.

The roots did snap a bit, but recovery was a few hours.

Maybe the Gro Pot is made of more inflexible material? to prevent easier transfer...

I also think I was over feeding the WWs. Only water yesterday and they look happier then EVER. I'll let them dry out a bit more today before watering again. WOOHOO if i can save $$ on the nutrients!!
Click to expand...

The problem I had with the Gro Pot was that the soil had compacted and the material had expanded making the body of the root ball swell larger than the opening at the top. I could roll the bag down about a third of the way but if I were to continue, I would have abused the roots severely so I broke out the scissors.
 
Update time on the Gro Pot test plant!
The runt has come out of her runtyness during preflower and is now a solid little plant. She is about 14" tall and 10" wide and it looks like she'll have a decent yield for a runt.
I have confirmation that the roots have penetrated the bottom of the bag and are air pruning themselves.
Since she is feeding heavily I'm having to water her nearly every day to prevent the bag from getting too dry.
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:yummy:
 
Glad I found this thread, a bit too late. The hydro shop sold me 2 brand name smart pots and a useless 150W HPS, back before I knew of forums or MJ books. Those darn pots would not drain when I tried to flush the plants of nutes!!! They ended up drowning the seedlings I put in there, then boiling the wet soil in the baking hot CA sun. I wrote the Smart pot company an email about this. They never wrote back. I ended up poking holes with a nail all over the pots. Still no good, they remained saturated despite the heat and dry climate. I finally transplanted into regular terracotta pots, which was all I had. The plants were then happy, but the roots never recovered, even after several months.

I tried to wash these things in the washing machine. It seemed to help as they now drain well. I put new plants in them and they did OK. When I went to transplant up to a larger size, the roots had grown through the lower sides and bottoms and peeling the pots off the root ball became a big chore... same problem you had. I ordered some cheaper pots like those above from HTG. 2 3gallons and 1 5 gallon. So far these are doing better than the actual brand smart pot. I like the handles.

I'm 100% new and can't contribute much here. I do have photos of 4 plants, my first 4, 2 in those smart pots (before holes and washing) and 2 in the same size gallon nursery pots. The nursery pots had the 2 best plants with the largest root systems. The HTG pots still have no problems.

How did your experiment end????? I need to buy some new pots. Would love to hear how the little runted gal (by far nicer than any of mine) fared in the end.

Forgot, I did try to double pot these cloth pots into a larger terracotta, just to keep the heat off and still have air flow. That failed and the roots went wild growing out of the smart pot, then baking on the terracotta.

I saw your thread on air pots, dang those are expensive!!!! I'm wondering if I should wait on these, perhaps the prices will come down. I can try nursery pots again meanwhile. Too bad coco pots don't come in mega sizes!

If you have a pic of this little gals root ball after harvest, I'd deary love to see it.

TY for the helpful thread!!!!

Lusi
 
Who ever was looking for something to put your mother smart pot in i would suggest not a container but like an H frame dolly that way if you veg your mother in one place and your clones in another you can simply wheel the mother over to your cloning station and clip clip clip and then when your done wheel your mother back. I actually find this to be a very nice thing a buddy of mine uses H frame dollies in his flowering room and he has some some big 25 gallon pots in there its really nice when he needs to move those big ladies around we just roll them to where they need to be and we are good to work.
 
I use the smart pots in hydro and will have a hard time switching to anything else. The Aurora innovations pots aren't even close to quality and design. For one the AI pots are taller and narrower which means if you flood you will have to plant lower in the pot and you loose space for expansion of the root ball. They are made out of recycled moving blankets so the material is a little more restrictive so the air pruning isn't as effective because the roots aren't able to penetrate the fabric easily. With the smart pots the design is more beneficial to the process. The pots are constructed of a finely spun plastic fiber which helps in pliability and air saturation as well as letting the roots penetrate the fabric and allow the air pruning process to work at it's best capability. I water cycle is three times a day in a flood system. The best thing is after your cycle is done let the pots dry out and then clean the loose stuff out and then take to laundry mat and wash in a commercial machine with a chlorine free mild soap. Now your ready for your next run. They can also be used in soil and all other growing mediums.:smokin:
 
Gro Pots This is another option for those looking to grow in a fabric pot. You can buy them in lots of 10ea on this site. I'm looking to get into these pots. Just looking for the best option for the money. I know that all that counts is the bottom line though (yield).
 
The first I have seen of these I like the handles as well. I haven't use these pot styles in soil applications but after seeing the pic I think I will get a couple of 10gal and give it a shot. I really like the results I am getting in Hydro with the smart pot philosophy am excited to see how they work with the soil application in my room. The best part of the pots I like is the atmosphere saturation that the roots are able to get so you have no oxygen deficiency in your root mass.
:smokin:
 
Smart pots are great but I did a little experiment facing them off against Air Pots. The plants tend to grow faster and more vegetation and bushier in the Air Pots. I made a little video series on youtube to watch the progress and the final weight of each will be coming soon!
Peace,
GT
 
I live in nothern california and have been growing for the last 8 years. This year I am tryng some thing new and I am growing in 100 gallon smart pots. I will post foto's soon when they start taking off/
 
morning 420

I just came across this interesting thread about the air pots /smart pots and I had already known about this type of planting/growing in what is explained as ''air pruning '' the roots, but , I didn't know about fabric pots w/handles great idea. this year I tried something different, I came across a bunch of 4 gallon milk crates and I lined them with landscape cloth and put in the dirt, they worked great and I paid $2.oo apiece and the fabric is 4-5 bucks a roll (36''x 50')...cheeeeap....lol this is just another idea to throw out there and try. it did work well for me, heck if ya want you could probably cut the both out and zip tie them together have a tall 8 gallon growing container. just a thought is all .

we well


fringe50
 
does anyone have any experience using the tan smart pots or black outdoors? is there a temperature difference between the colors? i was reading there is only a very small difference in temps between them.
 
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