Autopots & Soil, no nutrients possibility?

Grow Cycle Preparations
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So almost everyone here knows or is beginning to realize how much work growing can be, tie in a busy lifestyle or an unconventional one and it can be a real struggle.

So me and my wifey are always looking to cut out the amount of work yet try and keep decent yeilds. We grow autoflowers to keep things fast and easy and I just recently picked up a autopot system, of course I’m using fabric pots not the plastic ones it comes with.
We have chose to grow in soil because it’s more forgiving/ less maintenance.

The autopot watering system is a God send for our lifestyle but… As some know the salts and leftovers now rise to the top of the soil so you can never water from the top down after you turn it on without risking the health of your plant.

The crazy part of the system is that everyone seems to just toss feed into the reservoir that feeds multiple plants and then they just call it good, but again most growers I see are growing in coco unfortunately there are not alot of people out there growing cannabis in soil autopots with autoflowers. I refer to this as blind feeding because they are going by a scedule and not run off, scary and asking for trouble. Although you can read run off you just pick up the pots and take a sample but then if one plants eating alot and the others aren’t how can you feed it?

You could turn each plant off and water them once dry in their own trays their separate feed but then was that really enough? And you’ll have to do this a couple times thats for sure.

The only other way I see solving this issue is to run each plant off its own reservoir in order to control what plant gets how much food.

Between week 4-6 I have to start feeding bloom nutes depend on my soil mix.

I first tried 2/3 FFOF with 1/3 FFHF, mixed with perlite and Mykos but I was informed that a lighter core would be better to allow the tap root to sink deeper.

This grow I have tried the same but instead a center core, created by a bottle of vodka in place when packing soil in pots, filled with FFHF. I have noticed this mix to run out faster because there was less FFOF.

Ive been eyeing up Bluesky organics super soil as they are a local company but also some know them, I was thinking of doing a plug of happy frog followed by the whole outside full of super soil or 50/50 with ocean forest.
Unfortunately the autopots only go to 5gallon otherwise I would simply run a larger pot.

Looking to start a conversation and bounce ideas.

@TDubWilly
@Blasting
@Screwauger
@Not2SureYet
@Myfriendis410
@peachfuzz
@MrPeat
@HornHead
@Skydiver

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If anyone knows anyone who grows start to finish in soil with no nutes or grows in autopots please tag them!

@blackthumbbetty
@Drinkslinger
@KeystoneCops
@Bulldognuts
@DankGunslinger
@Gremmall
@PurpNGold74
@dbrn32
@AAA
@Cannabian

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@garrigan62

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@Nicky If you did my growing style, there isn’t much work to do. Just feed nutrients and water. The plant and or plants can get super big. But more than 1 plant is a jungle. 12/12 all the way.

My next crop will be a 23% CBD strain and 1 Auto for the s*** and giggles.

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I don’t want to feed nutrients that’s the whole point of the post mang…
Because I’m always at work and it makes my girlfriend do the work

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I know you don’t want to feed nutrients. I make it simple for my sister when I’m away so I understand all to well. I’ve never tried to grow a plant with no nutrients.

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Just realized the autopot XL system I have has a capacity of 6.6 gallons in their taller plastic pots vs the 5 gallon smart pots.
So that will give me a bit more feed and since I grow autos I doubt they will get root bound so fabrics may not hold a much larger advantage aside from maybe breathing better.

@MrPeat well it’s growing with soil and no supplemental nutrients but yeah me either.

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So far I haven’t considered any other way. Just wanted to get dialed in on current methods. So I’m going to watch this closely. I’ve seen so many different ways people are growing it’s amazing what people have done. You had mentioned on my journal that rather than just growing 4 I should consider going to something like autopots and keep tent filled up like I have now. Definitely would consider making a change if it would cut down on having to move plants around to water them. It’s a plus to have one place to see and hear how people are accomplishing what you want to do.

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I don’t think I’d attempt this until getting a run through the autopots with media like coco. Once you have worked out the kinks you might try it but I have to tell you this is a hydro system and I’d be wanting to provide everything metered through the solution instead of trying to hit a moving target as soil depletes, plants grow, etc.

THE easiest/low maintenance system would be a RDWC. IMO you can walk away from a properly set up hydro grow for a week or more.

Your concern about different plants demanding more or less than others in the same rez is valid but looking for fast turn around I’d also look at doing a SOG grow with a Mother plant. This is the fastest turn around possible: essentially harvesting your table every 2 1/2 months. In a 3 X 3 tent that would be 36 oz of flower in that interval.

Just a thought… @Not2SureYet just got two autopots in and I’ll be interested in seeing how he does. He’s going to run coco and hydroton I believe.

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Honestly I don’t see it being to big of a problem if I was home to hit a moving target, read run off twice a week and adjust the reservoir for each plant.

That being said…
that’s my backup plan what I would like to do is have a system I only have to feed water, now there is a soil called sohum or something on the market that is start to finish in autopots but I’ve never seen it.
I don’t really see how one soil without layering can be rich enough to last 3 months while cool enough not to burn young plants.

Autopots themselves say you can use soil and more and more people are using soil in them, to be honest I wish they came in like 10L fabric pots that would be ideal.

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Who here has grown autos in straight FFOF how long does it last in a 5gallon or 7gallon pot before the TDS drops below 1000?

Abyone grown in straight bluesky super soil?

@garrigan62 what’s the TDS of your super soil?
Havw you grown an auto start to finish in a 5 or 7 gallon pot? When did it show deficiencys or need nutes?

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My opinion is that you will probably have to build your own soil if you don’t want to feed anything.

Ive tried exactly what you want to do and the longest ive made it without feeding is just through the veg state and that was with soils that advertised that you didn’t have to feed for the entire grow.

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10 gallons of solution in the reservoir last me atleast a week for 4 plants.

Autopot xl - hydroton to cover air domes / happy frog mixed and light warrior mixed with 40-50% #2 perlite

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That’s exactly what I’m finding on current grow. While I have to admit that this wasn’t my original intention. With the mix I am currently running ppm’s stayed high all the way through veg. In the 2nd week of Flower they have dropped down to 700-800 range. Currently in the process of watering and testing runoff.

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@TDubWilly
I’m prepared to do that to be honest BUT
What have you ran? Did you run sohum?

90% ffof is not rich enough (using a happy frog plug)
Or even hotter than ffof is bluesky so I know I want to try bluesky I just don’t know if 90% bluesky will be to rich…

@Bulldognuts yeah your grow seems to be doing the same as my previous experience when I split ffof with ffhp just your using the coco loco Wich I think is a much better medium to be honest for autopots and planting in general as its nice and airy but it lacks nutrients.

@PharmerBob I feel, and someone please correct me if I’m wrong here, that if I do run nutrients in the reservoir I need all 4 plants the same strain and planted at the same time.
Feels like a bummer to plant all 4 strains the same… I mean I Geuss I could run 2 strains and 2 reservoirs (4 plants total)

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@Nicky yes your correct same time same strain unless your just running autos but same strain for each reservoir.

That way your not over doing one or under cutting the other.

That being said, autos shouldn’t have any issues with timing but I do like to scrub everything between cycles so I only do 3-4 month grows in each area

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The xls are doing a really good job at keeping the soil ones watered and less maintenance overall.

image
image866×1154 497 KB

They can quickly make a 4x4 area look small

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Sohum and coast of main.

Planted at the same time yes…

Same strain… no

I just pulled 20oz off of 4 plants in 5 gallon autopots. 2 plants per tent which were both 2x4’s and all run off the same reservoir.
3 different strains - 2 arcata ghost, 1 chemdog, and one NYC diesel. That’s 10oz per 2x4 tent

I don’t do run off test ever. I test the water in my reservoir and add and subtract nutrients based on what point it is in the grow combined with what the plants look like. They tell me If they want more or less fertilizer

With a 25 gallon reservoir I only have to check the plants every 3-4 days, even in flower

When I was working on the road I would check them only about every 5 days

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@PharmerBob Just look at my tent and it’s a 4x4.

@Nicky I haven’t used as much nutrients this round of growing. It’s definitely not as good as I would like the plants to be at. Sure they are loaded but they are not huge flowers.

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@MrPeat I’ve seen the jungle your working with.

Think I started these around same time as you
image

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