Indoor Testing the eazyplug pyramid mini.

[The Iconoclast]

I've been using the eazyplug 1" cubes for a while and they are reliable and work with a dry bean. The plug itself sort of disintegrates after a while but I've never paid too much attention to this because whatever it was made of was going to get burst apart anyway. So when I saw the slightly larger cube that could hold one of the tiny eazyplugs I did not pay much attention to what it was made of, I cold feel it was a little more rigid but I saw that as a bit of a fault and I never used them much as they were redundant in my hydro, although I did put one in and it did do well. I may try that again, but now I realise that that cube is meant to work with the larger Pyramid.

The eazyplug pyramid has a base of 10 inches by 10 inches and one of the larger cubes is supposed to go on top and it grows through. The plant is supposed to get air pruned and hold the perfect quantity of solution only so it's impossible to overwater at any time. But I never really bothered paying much attention. Until I discovered that I could not grow in soil to save my life, so I had another look at the pyramid. I felt that I didn't want to go from hydro to coco as that just seemed like a change for no reason. But I did want to use pots sometime, I tried one of those fabric bags, but I used soil so I sucked at that, and again it just seems like more bother than it's worth.

While looking at the exorbitant prices for the Eazyplug Pyramid I saw that they have a new Mini Pyramid which is about 5 inches x 5 inches at the bottom, the large one the 10 x 10 is supposed to be the equivalent of a 3.5 gal pot and so the mini would be about a quarter of that perhaps a bit more so maybe a 0.9 gal pot. I started a bean off in my normal plug and then placed it into the new mini Pyramid, and this thread is going to be the story of this bean, because she is 17 days old and even though every other pot grow I've done has been crap this one at the moment anyway, looks perfect so I'm hoping this could be the answer to growing more but smaller plants. The larger Pyramid has a 2 inch cube sit on top, but the mini Pyramid, just has a small eazyplug that sits inside, the mini pyramid.

What I've found so far is that even without using any fertiliser for the first nearly two weeks she looked perfect the entire time. I soaked the pot in plain water to start and just put the plug in, and put it on a saucer. Now roots are poking out all around and air pruning. Because I cannot over water this bean, I guess I just have to be careful not to over fertiliser which I'm hoping would be easy to spot and easy to flush as well.

I haven't been paying much attention to nutes, I mixed up a balance solution with a ppm of about 500, and I've given her some of that and some water, and today I gave her a soak in the nutrient, just dipped her in the buck and took her out, hold so much liquid but nothing was dripping, it drains almost instantly to the correct amount. I decided to top at day 17 at the forth node because she seemed healthy plus I'm not really going to be able to tie her down so topping seemed like the best option.

The point of this thread is that I am really crap at growing in a pot, so if I end up bringing this plant to it's conclusion that means that anyone can do it. I'm not fussing around with nutrients, close enough is good enough, and the same with pH, I'm not really going to bother as they are generally right out of the bottle. I'm expecting them to get a coating of algae on them eventually, not sure is that ultimately is going to be a problem. I'm going to start another one soon which I will also put in here. If they work out well I may give the 10 x 10 Pyramid a shot, but they are 25 bucks each, however it would be worth it to me if they work well.


In the shot below you can see the one inch cube with it's different looser texture for germinating, and it is sitting in a square hole precut into the mini cube which is about 3 inches square at the top and 5 inches square at the bottom and about 4 inches high.

Hopefully this can finish without some disastrous insect attack or some sort of terrible nutrient miscalculation.

 

[hope2grow]

I've been using the eazyplug 1" cubes for a while and they are reliable and work with a dry bean. The plug itself sort of disintegrates after a while but I've never paid too much attention to this because whatever it was made of was going to get burst apart anyway. So when I saw the slightly larger cube that could hold one of the tiny eazyplugs I did not pay much attention to what it was made of, I cold feel it was a little more rigid but I saw that as a bit of a fault and I never used them much as they were redundant in my hydro, although I did put one in and it did do well. I may try that again, but now I realise that that cube is meant to work with the larger Pyramid.

The eazyplug pyramid has a base of 10 inches by 10 inches and one of the larger cubes is supposed to go on top and it grows through. The plant is supposed to get air pruned and hold the perfect quantity of solution only so it's impossible to overwater at any time. But I never really bothered paying much attention. Until I discovered that I could not grow in soil to save my life, so I had another look at the pyramid. I felt that I didn't want to go from hydro to coco as that just seemed like a change for no reason. But I did want to use pots sometime, I tried one of those fabric bags, but I used soil so I sucked at that, and again it just seems like more bother than it's worth.

While looking at the exorbitant prices for the Eazyplug Pyramid I saw that they have a new Mini Pyramid which is about 5 inches x 5 inches at the bottom, the large one the 10 x 10 is supposed to be the equivalent of a 3.5 gal pot and so the mini would be about a quarter of that perhaps a bit more so maybe a 0.9 gal pot. I started a bean off in my normal plug and then placed it into the new mini Pyramid, and this thread is going to be the story of this bean, because she is 17 days old and even though every other pot grow I've done has been crap this one at the moment anyway, looks perfect so I'm hoping this could be the answer to growing more but smaller plants. The larger Pyramid has a 2 inch cube sit on top, but the mini Pyramid, just has a small eazyplug that sits inside, the mini pyramid.

What I've found so far is that even without using any fertiliser for the first nearly two weeks she looked perfect the entire time. I soaked the pot in plain water to start and just put the plug in, and put it on a saucer. Now roots are poking out all around and air pruning. Because I cannot over water this bean, I guess I just have to be careful not to over fertiliser which I'm hoping would be easy to spot and easy to flush as well.

I haven't been paying much attention to nutes, I mixed up a balance solution with a ppm of about 500, and I've given her some of that and some water, and today I gave her a soak in the nutrient, just dipped her in the buck and took her out, hold so much liquid but nothing was dripping, it drains almost instantly to the correct amount. I decided to top at day 17 at the forth node because she seemed healthy plus I'm not really going to be able to tie her down so topping seemed like the best option. View attachment 1429413

The point of this thread is that I am really crap at growing in a pot, so if I end up bringing this plant to it's conclusion that means that anyone can do it. I'm not fussing around with nutrients, close enough is good enough, and the same with pH, I'm not really going to bother as they are generally right out of the bottle. I'm expecting them to get a coating of algae on them eventually, not sure is that ultimately is going to be a problem. I'm going to start another one soon which I will also put in here. If they work out well I may give the 10 x 10 Pyramid a shot, but they are 25 bucks each, however it would be worth it to me if they work well.


In the shot below you can see the one inch cube with it's different looser texture for germinating, and it is sitting in a square hole precut into the mini cube which is about 3 inches square at the top and 5 inches square at the bottom and about 4 inches high.

Hopefully this can finish without some disastrous insect attack or some sort of terrible nutrient miscalculation.


View attachment 1429403

Never heard of these.. ingenious though and perfect for your needs by the looks of it.. that wee plant looks super healthy.. so.. excuse my ignorance.. does this eventually go in soil or grow its whole life in the cubes??

 

[The Iconoclast]

@hope2grow, greetings. I'm surprised I don't see them more, maybe I'll find out why later on :¬(

There's not a lot of information about them, but the pyramids large and small are meant to be stand alone and because they cannot be overwatered can have a continual drip feed, but they also soak up water like a super sponge so and ebb and flow would work. However there's nothing to stop one of these mini pyramids being planted out eventually one the rootball is fully formed.

I'm hoping that if the air pruning works as advertised and the whole mass fills with fine roots that I can get enough of a crop to make it worthwhile. I was going to plant something in the garden where I am but the ground is really hard and crap but the sun is good so next summer, I might try a large 10 x 10 pyramid just sitting on the dirt.

 

[The Iconoclast]

Here's some shots of the roots at the bottom and you can see some poking out the side as well as a bit of algae staining.

 

[DCLXVI]

Neat! I remember coming across these once but not knowing what they were for. So you can just grow straight in the block?

 

[The Iconoclast]

Neat! I remember coming across these once but not knowing what they were for. So you can just grow straight in the block?

Absolutely, this mini block appear to be about the same size as a 5" pot, but because the root structure will grow all through the pyramid it effectively has a much larger area. Only the 1" cube is really meant to be planted out as it dissolves eventually, great for stabilising the roots in soil, but the Pyramids are meant to be stand alone.

Usually these appear to be watered in a similar way to coco, they can be flood and drain or continuous drip or fully manual. The expense of the large pyramids was a bit off putting to me at $25 each but after seeing how this one is growing in the 5" mini pyramid, $25 might not be that much when you consider that it doesn't require a bag or soil and then include the extra pleasure of how easy it is to work with.

Today the plant was slightly wilted this morning although it was fine last night and what I like is that unlike a dry soil that is hard to water, this thing just rehydrates almost instantly but the proof of the pudding is how it's growing and so far after three weeks and paying no attention at all to nutrients basically just slopping some in and chasing it with some extra water, and she is growing at the same speed as my hydro plants but looks less stressed.

Here's my soil grow in the 5" pot which I am on the verge of throwing away and probably will soon, the roots don't look bad but it's not enjoying itself that's for sure.

I was expecting the roots at the bottom of the Pyramid to form a bit of a tangle underneath it, but so far it seems that the roots coming out the bottom are also self pruning like the roots coming out the side and the structure of the plant is thick, strong and vigorous.

 

[The Iconoclast]

It's sometimes hard to see the scale, I'm just using the mini pyramid plus eazyplug. Good info here,(eazyplug pdf)

 

[The Iconoclast]

btw this is a Purple Haze in the mini pyramid, not too branchy. Same with the DP Blackberry Kush I have started today because it's also not too busy plus it's a difficult plant to grow and she should look very pretty in her pyramid.

There is a little bit of tip yellowing on a few younger leaves. I'm just playing it by ear at the moment where I'll give her a quick soak in some 500ppm nute then I'll just apply water for a couple of days. It looks like manually watering these small pyramids will be a full time especially as there seems to be a good growth structure. Remember this pot is only 4" inches tall, 3" square at the top and 5" square at the bottom.

 

[DCLXVI]

I am interested to see how they turn out. Will it be stable enough on it's own if the plant gets big and tall. Looks to be working good at the moment.

 

[The Iconoclast]

@DCLXVI I can say that she has moved into flowering at least 2 weeks earlier than expected. Structure is very balanced and she is 8.5 inches tall so she is looking more like a miniature version of a larger plant so it looks like the pyramid will not topple over. I am amazed at how controlling the root structure seems to also control flowering onset. Also I am now expecting that the larger 10" square pots could very likely give a totally different response.

This is like a solo cup that doesn't require any skill to water, but I would be interested to see what a talented solo cup grower could do in one of these. Also it appears that it could make a very interesting experimentation bed for nutrients, because you can eliminate other variables.

Here's a shot of the one day old Blackberry Kush in the new pyramid.