Minty - AutoPot Grow - Assisted by 2-Scoops

[Hydro]

Only my first go in coco so still learning but I got 9 ... I’m planning on double that a month with my new space

[Hydro]

[Josh]

So when are the plans to get them in your autopot system ?

See how they go but looking at potting them up on Friday as I have a day off. Might be before then depending on how they look over the next couple of days.

The problem I have is that the AutPot Res will not have a chiller cooling it so not sure how that is going to work with the current heat in the loft. Is water temperature still a concern when growing in Coco/AutoPots?

Yes plants need dissolved oxygen to survive, i would say it`s another nutrient. Theirs quite possibly more than a few problems could arise by it. So roots uptake dissolved oxygen through drinking oxygenated water. Not only that iff theirs lack of oxygen in your water it`s gonna cause ideal conditions for water born pathogens for roots to drink from.

Ive not gotta clue what you can do really possibly add hydrogen peroxide (h202) on a daily basis at lights on and add a great big airstone. Be a shame if they fucked up when you are just gearing up to grow you some real crackers, theirs nowt down risking growing shit plants at end of shift when you could have some real bangers Minty is their. Another option would be to add a great big airstone into your other grow which int performing too good anyhow and add h202 to that daily. Problem using airstones in hot rooms is that the stone is only adding air from the hot enviroment so theirs still gonna be lesser oxygen in that air the stones creates, although yes still some or you`d be dead when you went in loft after a few minutes lol, but theirs lesser oxygen in hotter temps generally basically.

https://cannabisindustryjournal.com/fea ... ltivation/

This guy is obviously loads smarter than me, but I don't run air stones To the Video app.php/vblog/integrajosh/25/345
Maybe I should be on the lookout for root rot lol

I can see how when running dwc it's absolutely crucial to add air, maybe even rockwool.
But I feel like when you water coco it's actually pulling oxygen to the roots through capillary action, the constant wet/dry cycles is what gives us our oxygen

Imo, cool, well circulated water is fine when running dtw coco. If you were to use any kind of organic additive for some reason, then you'd need to aerate it. But honestly just keep it simple minty, gh trio with some pk does great. Mixes well and lasts a long time also




Sent from my LGMP260 using Tapatalk

[Minty]

Ive not gotta clue what you can do really possibly add hydrogen peroxide (h202) on a daily basis at lights on and add a great big airstone.

Add a big airstone where mate? You mean into the Auto-pot RES or replace the Air Dome with Air Stones? I was going to add one to the res as I already run an Air-pump that has loads off spare outlets so tend to drop air-stones into anything with stagnant water just to keep it moving.

I have H202 I think (OxyPlus is the same as this no?) - also have the Pythoff now as a backup if needed. I have been adding Hydro Guard and OxyPlus to the feed from the start at small amounts (and some HygroZyme just because I have it and it's on the schedule I use for the Hydro grow which I am still following for now). They are currently on the following week 2 schedule mixed at 1 litre then diluted down to 2 litre to achieve the 700ec target:-

Imo, cool, well circulated water is fine when running dtw coco. If you were to use any kind of organic additive for some reason, then you'd need to aerate it. But honestly just keep it simple minty, gh trio with some pk does great. Mixes well and lasts a long time also

Thanks Josh,

Loving your setup. See what you mean about the box fan now. Blowing cold air upwards rather than like my setup which is blowing the hot air downwards. I need to re-route the short cables on the fans or extend them. The box fan I just got is currently outside the tent trying to cool the water chiller and air pump ;o)

I like it! It might be possible that you may have to top water a time or two until the roots get down deeper into the pots, but you may not have to, just watch for the plants to droop, they will let you know if they haven't found the water yet.

Thanks Spartan, all advice is very welcome here especially yours. Am I correct in thinking that you
have used some AutoPots in the past or still do? Seem to remember reading that or hearing it on the Podcast?

I run autopots m8nty and I gotta say I was worried about the temps but because it bottom fed the water temps of 28 made no major difference .. it’s a big part of why I moved from dwc

Yea, still worried mate. Already lost one plant to root rot and the temps in my loft get into the 40's

[Minty]

Anyone know why there are different mats for use within the UK and USA?

• UK = a black mat that goes inside the Auto Pot with a copper mat that sits underneath the Auto Pot
• US = a copper mat that sits inside the Auto Pot

Why would there be a difference and which approach is better?

I was planning on using the copper mat inside the Auto Pot but continuing up the sides a little as suggested by 2-Scoops and might as well put the square copper mat that came supplied with the kit underneath the Auto Pots as don't see how that would hurt but just wondered about the additional non copper mat that seems to be supplied with UK kits.

[Josh]

My bad minty, I should read the whole thread from now on since these are bottom fed I agree with jimmy, air stones in the reservoir would prbly be a good idea



Sent from my LGMP260 using Tapatalk

[Hydro]

I used the black mat as a retainer for my bottom media .. in my case Pearlite then the copper in the bottom tray to stunt outgrowing roots as I know the copper covering wears off and was worried about it contaminating the coco and hoped by keeping it away from the plant so what I’d have a slightly bigger root mass too... an air stone can change your ph ..I use a small pump

[Minty]

My bad minty, I should read the whole thread from now on since these are bottom fed I agree with jimmy, air stones in the reservoir would prbly be a good idea

No worries mate. Thanks for clarifying where the air stones go ;o) To be honest mate, I chuck em everywhere, they are a 99p each for large ones so I got 10 ;o)

I do plan on running some copper coiled tubing within the current chilled RES and pumping the nutrient solution from the AutoPot RES through that copper coil to maintain a certain level of temperature. While not ideal it should give me a enough room to cope. Won't know until I try but it seems like a sensible approach to using the same water chiller to cool two separate nutrient tanks.

Once the current Hydro run has finished I think I will be removing it as the water pump is too much constant noise for my liking and the Coco approach seems to be working so much better for at least half the hassle. This will free up the water chiller to be used for the Auto-Pots or whatever solution I then decide to try ;o)

[Minty]

OK, so I potted them up into the AutoPot Pots - I did one with the manufactures recommended approach of the plain black mesh inside the AutoPot with the copper mat underneath (personally not liking this approach but doing it for Science):-



for the other two I went with copper matting inside and up into the side walls of the pebbles:-





I then filled the pots slightly above the top of the Air Domes with expanded clay pebbles as per the first picture with the standard matting (these clay pebbles were free after they were 'sold as' seramis clay granulate and the spammer on Amazon 'agreed' with my non willingness to pay the postage to return them).

After covering the AirDomes with the clay pebbles I added a couple of layers of Coco / Pebble mix and added the plants after removing them from the previous pots and freeing the roots gently with my hands which was actually very easy with the pebble mix, the pebbles just kinda fell outta the mix and left a nice root mesh to be buried.



I did drop one trying to take the 2nd photo so only managed to get a picture of one of them but the others where 'a little less' and 'a little more' root mass than the one shown - the dropping helped free the roots from the medium for sure ;o)



After putting them in the pots I filled the container to about the position of the original little seed leaves as overall height is an issue for me in a loft grow so wanted to keep them as low as possible for now:-



Once all the re-potting was complete I removed all the lower leaves and small branches from the plants to keep them away from the medium and to promote air flow. I also removed another shelf from my airing cupboard along with all the crap that is usually stored in said airing cupboard which is now in the bedroom (luckily - sometimes - I don't have a wife or GF to moan about such things):-

Gonna feed them again tomorrow as the 1 litre I had mixed up didn't go very far but should see them through the night.

[Minty]

Jobs a good en that looks good mate. Sound for feeding daily too.

So when are the plans to get them in your autopot system ?

Babies are in the AutoPots mate will grab you another couple of pics or a video tomorrow to show how they are taking but I think they will be fine.

In terms of the topping, etc. Are we planning on doing this again? I have been doing a little reading and the difference between FIMing and Topping seems interesting to me so I would like to have a go at FIMing at least one for Science as a test if your cool with that mate?

From my understanding the topping is like you say and remove the complete node where as FIMing (Fuck I Missed) is kinda like just cutting that node in half. With the topping producing 2 branches and the FIMing producing 4 branches.

Just wondered what your (and anyone else who wants to chip in) thoughts are about the different approaches and even the idea of even topping or fimming for a second time. Obviously this is not an Auto so time is not so critical but end of the day my tent height is limited so that has to be considered in terms of how much training etc can be done before flipping into a stretch.

Thanks mate, and thanks to all of you that have contributed so much valuable information to my cause and to just sharing on the forums.
You have to admire that a forum like this is so much more friendly than say a Battlefield 4 Forum which are usually full of Trolls and people just waiting to stomp on all your comments