New Grower Pot vs Pot

[Joedirt]

Air pots work great!
Smart pots work great!
it all depends on your grow. if your plants are in and out of your room/tent and your always messin with them, I would go with the air pot.
But both ARE swell!

 

[Alex Delarge]

Are all of you using coco in air/smart pots???

Starting experiment, smart VS. air VS. flood and drain hydroton.

Have 5 gallon smart pots, 3 gallon air-pots, and half gallon flood and drain. Will try parallel experiment. Might also try indoor/outdoor.

 

[medic1]

First, let me thank everyone for their opinions on which pots are best and yes there are benefits to each type. Just to give you an idea of what I am doing I have attached a picture of the five I started on May 18th, it was taken on day 15. The light is a 4' eight light T-5 that I started out at about 16" from the plants for the first two weeks and since have lowered to about 6", I have a thermometer in one of the pots to tell me the temp. Also have a 16" fan oscillating for ventilation. I test the soil moisture with a meter and can see the moisture on the outside of the pots. As you can see I have 12" trays under the posts to catch any overflow. I will be moving them to a new lighted area with 400 watt MH (4200K) for the next few weeks depending on the growth and then to my greenhouse to finish. Starting another 6 in 9 Ltr square pots that I plan to finish inside under 2 600 watt MH (4200 K) and start at 50% and increase as they grow. Using 18-6 at this time since I am on a time of use program with my power company. Has anyone ever tried a split lighting schedual 11 on 5 off, 4 on 4 off ? or anything like that.
These are day 15 pics, I started the seeds in seed trays and transplanted at about day 6 I think, won't start then that way again, really hard transplanting when they are that young. I may have set them back by doing it that way. Anyway, learning fast. Have them in Rev's Quick NO COOK, mix with layers top, mid, bottom. No spikes yet, still thinking on that one, any suggestions?

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I prefer the air pot but if I already had the Smart pots I'd use them ... I find the fabric pots let the soil pack in a little deeper as they expand during a grow ... leaves the top of the soil low but that can be compensated for by filling it to the rim when planting. Smart pots are great for plunging into the ground and avoiding almost all transplant shock ... Air pots are more solid and I think the Smart pots let the roots get 'shook-up' when moving the pot more than air pot would ... So I guess it depends on how you use them ...

Chester, your right about the soil sinking in the pots as you can see in my post with the pics but that is the case in most pots when using light soil mixes. IMO

 

[Eyes on Fire]

looking good dude!! looks like 3(2.2 true gallon)trade gallon dirt pots or something similar.should do real nice for ya.and imo dont mess with yer light schedule that drastic,yer just askin for major issues and odd growth n circling and shocking n stunting,all kinds of wierdness.with autos Id imagine they'd be able to handle that to a point,but that far of a period in between longer cycles,yeah not a good idea imo. if you have your T-5's that close with any sinking in the pots n all that just keep that air flow between the light n canopy.not really on the plants.they are at that perfect age where a mellow constant breeze over the tops will hook em right up as long they bounce here n there in the breeze.ya running CO2?"AFN smoke out"

 

[medic1]

T-5 vs MH (4200K)

No CO2 at this point. Have the equipment but not sure I need it at this early stage? Got a nice breeze going, and just fired up my MH (4200K) in the box next to the T-5, you can really see the difference in color MH on left T-5 (6400K) on right. Not as apparent as in real life but you can get the idea.

 

[Eyes on Fire]

several ways to look at CO2 man.it helps the vigor of growth,helps stave off and endure stress and pests and makes for an overall healthier plant when used throughout.but in stages is often more common.flowering is one,and early Veg is another.it'll help lessen any heatstress,nute burns n things,all kinds of helpful things.and when they are small it'll also help grow em larger a bit quicker and most important it'll help max out the usefulness of your light(max Photosynthesis) and just make it a happier plant,so it is wise to use now yes,can you afford a little extra size ,Totally use it,if not dont run it,cuz it'll increase yer size.but you can use it in stages when you think yer havin an issue or its hot or whatever. "My 2 cents""AFN smoke out""AFN smoke out"

 

[medic1]

several ways to look at CO2 man.it helps the vigor of growth,helps stave off and endure stress and pests and makes for an overall healthier plant when used throughout.but in stages is often more common.flowering is one,and early Veg is another.it'll help lessen any heatstress,nute burns n things,all kinds of helpful things.and when they are small it'll also help grow em larger a bit quicker and most important it'll help max out the usefulness of your light(max Photosynthesis) and just make it a happier plant,so it is wise to use now yes,can you afford a little extra size ,Totally use it,if not dont run it,cuz it'll increase yer size.but you can use it in stages when you think yer havin an issue or its hot or whatever. "My 2 cents""AFN smoke out""AFN smoke out"

By golly I think you convinced me to go ahead and give um some, good advice, thanks:clap:

 

[Torched]

My "My 2 cents"

I have used both and both are great.They both do the air pruning which promotes feeder roots.

Air Pots
Pros
-They are rigid and easy to move the plants.
- They are easy to clean
- Easy to check root health

Cons
-Watering is a total pain and slow
- stuff spills out
-There are separate parts to loose
-Some times the little bumps get caught on stuff when trying to turn the pots.

Fabric Pots
Pros
-Watering is like normal
- Works just like a normal pot we are all use to
-Keeps soil/media contained
-stores totally flat

Cons
-Watering problems
- Can disturb root ball while moving them around
-Not always stable/level
-Harder to clean

I listed watering as both a pro and con for fabric. I like the fabric pots that are made from synthetic materials (with a square bottom). Sometime when you water the felt type pots all your water runs through the fabric before actually soaking into the soil. The synthetic materials don't have that problem and last longer, I've seen ones where they put some coating on the top 1/3rd of the pot to prevent this.

Both work great I personally like the cloth pots better.

 

[Trapper]

Are all of you using coco in air/smart pots???

Starting experiment, smart VS. air VS. flood and drain hydroton.

Have 5 gallon smart pots, 3 gallon air-pots, and half gallon flood and drain. Will try parallel experiment. Might also try indoor/outdoor.

Not really parallel if you're using different volumes....

 

[Alex Delarge]

Never got around to all three. Did Auto Mazar, in flood and drain, and coco, both half gallon pots. The flood and drain is cranking. Will post soon. All moved to rockwool, one month ago.

Will probably cull the coco, or put outside. This was experiment to tune up, for growing the most potent photo's I can get my hands on. Then cross with AM.

Can not afford, but want to get cannalyse, chromatography test. Can not understand why more people do not test, especially for selecting mating pairs. Male thc levels are less, but higher level males are superior to lower thc. Also takes the subjectivity out of it.

I have nothing to do with, and do not know anyone from there. About 125 dollars for 20-25 tests, at four or five at a time.





First 2 pic's are AutoMazar. The close and far, with coco, are puny. The others are flood and drain. They hit rockwool 5/6.

Flood and drain also allows central control, and automation. Check PH, and PPM once a day. If PPM goes down, add fertilizer, if it goes up, dilute.

The aero seeds are, from front to back THC Bomb, 1024, THC Bomb, Barney's Pineapple chunk, Barney's critical kush, and Adub X GDPS (started 5 days ago). Other seeds hit rockwool 5/29.