Was wondering if we could start an autopot section for threads?
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From what I have been reading lately… seems like a lot of growers are using them. Think it would be a big help to all to have the info in one place to look at. Still havent decided if I want to on next grow or not.
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They are so cheap… It’s worth it just to try it.
I will say I bought a 4 pot system and am using 2 of the trays but the reservoir reverts in 2 days so I want to get a bigger reservoir if I can’t figure out how to keep it more stable
I was thinking about making my own… some gal tote… small eco pump with some tubing split off in a couple sections and pumping the water up into air and onto one end… slowly… just enough to keep everything stirred… but idk if that would help or hurt trying to get everything stable. I only have two grows… one in ff dirt combo and this last time in coco loco… with only 450w Vipar lites… got a 280w Rspec for this grow… so everything will be different lights wise… was thinking may as well totally change up and just started reading on the autopots… so no expert at all… the more I read the more I find I need to read on here.
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A 4 kit combo is like 200$ from my local hydro store who marks things up… It’s not worth it to make your own
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Im sure your right… and talked me into it… sorta… but… lol. I only got one xl smartpot…
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Bought a four plant kit and just put smart pots inside them so I still have the plastic Incase I want it at they hold 6.6 gallons vs the 5 gallon smart pot due to their tapered height.
But I’m just using 2 right now… Plan to use 4 here soon
What are you using for medium in them?
Soil. Plug of happy frog along with mostly ocean forest around the plug but topped off with happy frog and then some DE on the top, mixed in is Mykos and 30% perlite.
These were not meant for autopots but seem to be working fine.
My next will be a 1" layer of clay pebbles, happy frog plug, and super soil by bluesky (richer than ocean forest) with 30% Perlitre and Mykos mixed in.
Going to see how long that runs me, I’m going to run them in the plastic pots to because it’s closer to a 7 gallon pot. I grow autos so doubtful they will get root bound, I want the plastic because it’s the largest container size you can put in an autopot. Or maybe I will do one fabric and one plastic. See how much longer the plastic lasts.
This is the issue with no area for us, I want to share resources and read others autopot ideas but it’s not setup to do that.
I really wish it was a topic and split into soil, coco and mixes because so many people run coco I want to focus on us running soil sharing resources / methods/ knowledge because there is so few of us but so many coco growers
I’ve been growing in autopots for a while & I really like them, an autopot section would be great
I just finished a grow using fabric smart pots in XL trays and it worked great, no root control disk and the smart pots pruned the roots just fine - no clogged aquavalves!
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Do you use soil or coco?
How do you keep your PH stable over more than 2 days?
50/50 coco/perlite
I have a 60 liter reservoir: fill it with RO water, 1ml/L CalMag, 50% strength AN pH perfect nutes and a weird propeller thing I found in the pet store for keep water moving in a fish tank. Every 5 days I rinse out the reservoir and repeat. I don’t even bother checking the pH anymore. Minimum effort, maximum win 
This a GSC I cut down a few days ago, dried the two big buds weighed over 30g
Edit: Top tip with autopots, put an inline valve in line with each tray, then if you pull a plant early you can isolate that site and it doesn’t add a lot of humidity (the empty tray lets a lot of water evaporate)
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nice…Gratz!! on grow.
getting ready to start just one XL with the smartpot… 10 gal reservoir in the plans. was thinking coco loco but may change to just coco and perlite as lots seems to have good success with that combo.
Did you monitor temps in reservoir… use any hydoguard or others to keep lines free? I have a couple of the inline filters coming too. do you get res out of the pot tanks too on reservoir changes… let it go low… or dont pay any attention to res/water in the pot pans?
These are mine thry run on the 10 gallon reservoir
The type of nutrients you use is important get something of good quality that is meant for hydro no organic stuff, put a valve right outside of your reservoir and mix it well when you do top up the reservoir, I PH to 6.5 and it lasts 2 days before its out if wack.
Bleed 1-2L out the end of the line once a week to mini flush the lines.
At flower switch I plan to clean the trays and make sure the little squishy is not salted up.
I don’t worry about temp, I don’t use a pump either I hear it’s not needed and it can heat your reservoir but with 1 plant your Res is going to go down slow… So mix it manually when you re PH every 2 days.
Yeah, go download the autopots brochure and it will show you the directions /medium guide here is a snapshot
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I use CANNA coco with 50% perlite. I used to put a couple of inches of hydroton clay balls in the bottom but I don’t bother doing that anymore - makes it easier to toss the coco/perlite/roots and stump into the compost at the end
No, I grow in my basement and temps stay pretty low anyway. If it starts to smell a bit “aquarium-y” or there’s stuff building up on the sides then I take the reservoir outside and wash it out.
Nope, never had any problems
Filters? for the nute lines?
I dont pay any attention to res/water in the pot pans 
I check at initial setup that the trays are filling up after that I don’t bother. I check my plants once a day so any wilting due to lack of water would get noticed but it’s never happened
[joking] With a spoon? Like some kind of caveman?
I have something similar to this:
Mine doesn’t have the sucker cup and I just toss it in the reservoir and let it do its thing. Does all your mixing and keeps stuff circulating
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If your able to check your Res everyday then a pumps fine, although people can have heat issues and it makes PH go out of wack faster.
I use one of those bamboo sticks as my mix stick.
I don’t think the autopots are to fussy, just don’t use organic stuff so the nutes dissolve well and don’t let the salt build up to much on your little silicone squishy on the aqua valve, bleed the line so it doesn’t have a salt buildup in the lines and it will grow.
Although paying attention to all the other little details like temp, PH, etc will boost your grow it’s not necessary to grow.
@PharmerBob don’t you agree we should have an autopot section?
Pretty please @latewood
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Completely agreed, I plan on making a whole room into autopots soon.
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I have the wife switched and now she loves them, it’s soooo much less work she finds.
No picking up plants or struggling to read run off, take a tray sample once a week and adjust feed as our soil gets used, no need to do any thing but add water and PH for the first 4-5 weeks.
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@Not2SureYet I wonder how we get this started?
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I will start a thread for it this afternoon.
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