Grow Mediums Standard autopot versus modified autopot

[lunarman]

Inspired by @slowandeasy and a couple of journals he has where he grows really effectively with small aerated pots, coco and lots of air to the domes.

The idea being that some plants anyway, like most autos generally speaking, don't have big root systems so a smaller pot is better. And with a smaller volume of substrate the air domes get more (almost like higher PSI) air to more of the root structure. And with coco and aeration the system drys faster, is more thirsty and therefore can uptake more nutrients. This is just theory to me at this point. @slowandeasy can explain the benefits of this better than I can. I just saw what he did and wanted to try it out in an experiment.

Growing Dinafem Critical 2.0 autos in autopots with 70% coco and 30% perlite.
Nutes are full line of Remo.
Home and Garden Drip Clean
My setup is an 8x8 tent with high CFM inline fans in and exhaust out and I get that nice negative pressure tent wall suck-in. I find this is important and when one of the fans is off I can see the affect on the plants.
Seedling and early veg growth is under a 200 watt T5HO fixture with 8 bulbs.
Then late veg, pre-flower and flower is under 2 air cooled 600 watt HPS lights along with 4 3500K autocobs.

For autopots I decided to run them 2 per reservoir. With a maximum of 6 total in my tent. Each pair has their own res so I can have plants using different nutes at the same time.

And airdomes of course with a commercial grade hydrofarm air pump.
and I did not put pebbles on the dome. Just dumped in the coco/perlite on top. Mom's issues getting the flow to work and pop's advise won me over.

That's about it for the setup.

THIS IS MY FIRST AUTOPOT GROW.

This experiment might show a difference in yield between the two pots but I don't think it will. What I'm expecting to see is the smaller pot growing plants faster. Faster is a good thing to me because they finish quick and over time I get more grows this way, therefore really more yield over time too, for the same amount of energy I use in the tent. The smaller pot should end up on the reservoir sooner than the big plant just because of the size of it and the roots will get to the bottom faster. And it will get on the airdomes sooner. And it should grow pretty aggressively. And maybe the plant in the big pot will end up at the same spot but later on. And maybe the plant in the big pot will be bigger too. We'll have to see.

If the smaller pot flowers sooner I can put it on another res with bloom nutes. Hoping to keep this an experiment where the conditions are equal across the board except for the pots. Probably will top them too.

 

[KonopCh]

So... what size are pots?
What size is airpump?
Only these two pots for test? You can get different phenos, better would be two more? :smoking:

 

[lunarman]

So... what size are pots?
What size is airpump?
Only these two pots for test? You can get different phenos, better would be two more? :smoking:

Hydrofarm AAPA45L 20-Watt 45-LPM (700 GPH).

I have the standard 1pot's. I think they around 4 gallon or 16 liter. The modified one is basically half that size. I cut it down with a fine tooth jig saw. Drilling all the holes was a lot of work though.

Actually I am thinking of doing another experiment with 2 more from Sweet Seeds. Maybe Red Poison. But I want to see how these two go for a week or two in case I want to make any changes if I do a second experiment. Like change the drilled perf's or the coco/perlite ratio.

 

[Nonpoint]

I have been chewing on this myself. I messed up and got xl pots. I was going to cut a pair of 5 gallon buckets down to 2 gallons and see what it did.

 

[Rapha El]

Raising the smaller pot up to level would eliminate a possible source of growth difference.

 

[lunarman]

Raising the smaller pot up to level would eliminate a possible source of growth difference.

Excellent point. My T5HO is angled so they are both getting the same light right now. And when I go to autocobs I dangle a dedicated pendant light directly over each plant at whatever height I want so they can always be even. But it's an option to raise the little one.Thanks for mentioning.

 

[lunarman]

Well the Dinafem Critical 2.0 are taking forever to grow. They must be rooting down below. I have nothing to show picture wise from this experiment so far but hopefully we'll see something in the next few days that amounts to a difference in the two pots just based on size alone. I am wanting the smaller pot to go faster but it's not happening that way however it's probably too early. I moved them from under the T5HO fixture to their own dedicated autocobs distance about 30 inches each.

I also cut down another pot and drilled out holes and have 2 SweetSeeds Red Poison germinating and already showing a stub of a tail. I'll drop them in to the two different autopots as well in a bit. Thought it would be good to do this test twice.

I also picked up a Hydrofarm Active Air 1750 GPH/110 LPM air pump today. Could be overkill but people say more is better.

 

[MassMom]

update? how is it going sweetie?

 

[lunarman]

update? how is it going sweetie?

Its not that much of an update. And I think I pooched the experiment because I accidentally spilled a watered down nute solution on the seedling in the big pot. I am not sure if I stressed it or what. But it's not looking as good as the one in the small pot that's for sure.

I do have another experiment going that's exactly the same so all is not lost in looking at the modified autopot. I have 2 Red Poison's in solo cups right now and will move them to the autopots next week.

The smaller modified pot and Dinafem Critical 2.0 auto.


The standard pot. You can see the nute stain on the leaves. Arggg! My bad.

 

[lunarman]

BTW, I'm still going to keep this experiment going. Hopefully the nute stain will not make a difference. I'm about 10 days away from turning on the res and air. That's when things might really show a difference. But in the mean time I'm pretty sure the one in the small pot is rooting faster than the big one. And will grow faster in the end.