Superoots Air Pots -An Evolution in Containers

[aphoric]

Ordered some of various sizes for testing from the place in Oregon. Should arrive tomorrow, So 4 days from order to arrival. Calgrowers uses paypal, so they missed out on my business. Snowing today, so I guess I'll be doing some transplanting rather than getting out on my mountain bike.

 

[newbie2010]

I've heard that many manufacturers will try to duplicate the Air-Pot.

Good thing orangeblood is testing them all for me)

 

[NorCaliwood]

Hello drive bye duck. Those air pots are like same wave length as smart pots. All same idea, just smart pots are soft all around. I tried acouple the other day, I wonder how these are going to stand up to abuse. Looking good Orange I'll look in here there. I have another friend with same as your pic's OMM. I wonder it makes sense to top roots, even more than to top plantage. GL

 

[Bandit420]

Update time for the test!
Once again the method to my madness has changed due to the test plant's reaction to the Air Pot.
The test plant is feeding at twice the rate of her sister next to her and has nearly doubled up her sister in size. For that she has become my new Mother Plant.
As you can see in the pic she is ripe with potential clones. She is rapidly outgrowing her space and will most likely be transfered to grow outdoors this Summer once the weather stabilizes outside. She keeps telling me she wants to be a monster so I'll try to accomodate her wishes.
I've quit feeding her Grow Big and have only been giving her humic acid and molasses for the past week. Her nute program is being changed to the General Organics line next week.
Her clones will be taken next week and they too will be on GO and will be transplanted into 3 liter Air Pots to veg.
I've also made a change in soil. Same brand(Fox Farm) but different blend. The new mix is 1 full bag of Ocean Forest + 1/2 bag of Happy Frog + 1 full bag of Light Warrior.

 

[Bandit420]

Hey Orangeblood,

I’m curious if you transfer from the 3-liter air-pot to a bigger one for flowering. I was thinking about using the 12.5l for veg thru flower. I’m just curious on your thoughts for a container size to be able to use one pot from clone to bloom.
Thanks

My usual method is a veg in a 1 gallon pot for about ten days and then transplant to a 5 gallon pot for flower. If I'm growing a large plant and veg for three weeks I mix in a 2 gallon pot in between the 1 & 5.
For the Air Pot the plan is to veg in the 3 liter for 10 days and transplant to the 3.4 gallon Air Pot for bloom.
I already have two plants in 3 liter air pots so I can get a handle on how to veg and transplant out of the pots before I run a full crop.

I have put clones directly into large pots before with no problem. You just have be more cautious when it comes to overwatering because you dont have the large root ball to suck the water off the bottom area of the container.
One of the big advantages to transplanting is the abilty to give the roots a good inspection and untangle any that may be bunching or coiling.

 

[Bandit420]

1 liter and 1.5 gallon Air Pots are now available on Ebay along with the 3 liter and 2 gallon

 

[OldMedMan]

1 liter and 1.5 gallon Air Pots are now available on Ebay along with the 3 liter and 2 gallon

Nice tread OB Glad to see someone championing these great pots.
So far I couldn't be happier with mine. Looks like I'll have 4 more filled within a week. I watered my one girl today and the water ran right through her.
I think, your right, this is about as close to Hydro in soil as you can get. Lets see what we can do with these beautiful pots.

 

[Bandit420]

What medium is recommended for the air-pot? I usually use Sun Gro's Sunshine #4.

Great question!

There is no one specific brand or type of soil that Superoots recommends. My guess is as long as it's a good potting mix like the Sunshine #4 it should perform good. I dont think any added perlite would be needed either.

In the test plant I'm using straight Fox Farm Ocean Forest undiluted.

For the next crop I run I'm trying a blend of 1 bag OF, 1/2 bag of Happy Frog and 1 full bag of Light Warrior

 

[aphoric]

Just put one of mine together. I'll pot later, but I just had to say how impressed I am already. The plastic is thicker and stiffer than any of the round or square pots I have. The design makes it even stronger. I would go so far as to call them beautiful in their design. I think washing these will be easy, as you just unroll them, storing is simple as well.

Question: the cup in the center of the grid goes up or down?

 

[Bandit420]

Just put one of mine together. I'll pot later, but I just had to say how impressed I am already. The plastic is thicker and stiffer than any of the round or square pots I have. The design makes it even stronger. I would go so far as to call them beautiful in their design. I think washing these will be easy, as you just unroll them, storing is simple as well.

Question: the cup in the center of the grid goes up or down?

On the screen you will see superoots.com stamped in the plastic. My instructions say that logo faces downward.
They are quite the attractive pot. They make a garden look totaly pimp as opposed to using buckets with logos or regular bland black plastic pots. The quality of materials is also nice but the performance of these bad boys is something else. Even though they are pricey, I'm starting to think they may in fact be a bargain for what they're doing in my garden.

 

[aphoric]

It seems like it would be ok to put these so close together that they interlock. The air holes will hit blocked cones, somewhat restricting airlow. But these seem more scape efficient since there is no rim. I put a rooted clone in a 4" pot today, I really expected the water to totally flush out the soil, but it didn't. I wonder if watering by immersion would be a good technique with these smaller pots.

 

[Bandit420]

It seems like it would be ok to put these so close together that they interlock. The air holes will hit blocked cones, somewhat restricting airlow. But these seem more scape efficient since there is no rim. I put a rooted clone in a 4" pot today, I really expected the water to totally flush out the soil, but it didn't. I wonder if watering by immersion would be a good technique with these smaller pots.

I've been pondering the same things Brother! I think that since these pots are such an outside the box concept that we'll need to think outside the box on using them. I suggest try anything and everything that seems within logic and your capabilities with these pots. Feel free to post pics of what your doing with them here!

 

[aphoric]

Another question I have about these pots; how do you size them? The 5g just looks huge, and with the air pruning, will they handle a smaller pot longer than solid pots?

 

[newbie2010]

Great Stuff -

Thanks guys

 

[Bandit420]

The 5 gallon is massive. I think it could easily support a 6 foot+ plant.
I normally always flower in a 5 gallon pot but I'm downsizing to the 3.4 gallon Air Pots. I could probaly go down to the 2 gallon Air Pot and be fine but I've always liked having a slightly larger pot than what is needed.

 

[OldMedMan]

Hey OB I'll try to post a picture of the first girl I put into an AirPot a few say ago. I swear she's almost doubled in size.

 

[aphoric]

The 5 gallon is massive. I think it could easily support a 6 foot+ plant.
I normally always flower in a 5 gallon pot but I'm downsizing to the 3.4 gallon Air Pots. I could probaly go down to the 2 gallon Air Pot and be fine but I've always liked having a slightly larger pot than what is needed.

I got 4", 2g and 5g. I definitely don't need the 5 gallon, had to swap out a tray to fit those monsters. I might post pics later, but my setup is not a good test, clones are staggered, but I do have two Jilly Bean a week apart, and 2 purchased bubblegum clones, which I assume are same mother+age. Those 5 gallon (5.5 actually?) might be enough for keeping a mother long term, but I don't keep mothers.

 

[Bandit420]

Finally got the shipment in from Terra Hydro today. Now I'm working with 12 4x6, 10 3.4 gallon, 12 3 liter, 6 2 gallon, and 2 5.2 gallon Air Pots.

The plan is to run the 4x6 for clones and then pot up to the 2 gallon for one garden and run the 3 liter for clones and pot up to the 3.4 gallon for my main garden. The 5.2 gallon Air Pots will be for Mothers.

I noticed on the screen how they're not doing the superoot stamp anymore so the general rule is if there's a cup in the screen it faces down so water will not accumulate in it.

Here you can see the size difference among the various pots.

 

[Bandit420]

Here's another weekly update on the transition to Air Pots in my garden.

The 1st pic is of the Mother in one the most aggressive growth patterns I've ever seen a plant do. It's time to prune and take clones!

The next pic is of my most recent batch of clones. It's hard to tell from the angle but the two clones in the Air Pots have more bio mass and are ahead one whole new set of leaves compared to their sisters in standard pots. The two clones in the air pots were also the runts of the batch.

 

[newbie2010]

Fantastic results guys!!

So is the verdict the 5 gallon size for flowering?