Hey,
I’m having a kid in October and need to transition to a more automated system with living organic soil, top dressing and water only feeding!
What would you all chose?
Auto Pots XL or Earth Boxes?
probably going to grow autos only to further simplify things but still would like the flexibility to go back to photoperiods too…
Thinking about BAS Lite and Pomice, with armaments.
thank you in advanced for your input!
I use AutoPots successfully and can highly recommend them.
I was unfamiliar with Earth Boxes so I looked them up. The earth boxes appear to be oriented toward several plants per box and I can’t begin to tell you what a bad idea that would be when growing cannabis. You could grow one plant per pot, but with a 2 gallon reservoir you would be limited on the number of days you could go between feedings, with an AutoPot you can get a reservoir big enough to last for weeks if necessary.
right but then so would need a reservoir chiller I would imagine?
Build a Soil actually has a segment on a youtube where they grow 2 autos in an Earth box and they are very successful.
I havent heard of anyone using autopots using a res chiller. I mean if you were outdoors in the heat then yeah but if your running an autopot system odds are your indoors. You should only need a recirculating pump on the bottom and a wave maker on the side to stir it up for you as you dont want it to sit undisturbed. I have yet to turn on my autopots but besides the actual system itself you shouldnt need any other additives to make it a fully functioning system
thanks for the input.
Wish they weren’t so expensive. Large Reservoirs is nice though.
Anyone with earth box experience?
I recently started two photoperiod plants in a 2x4 tent and quickly outgrew the space. I moved one of them to its own tent. You can’t do that if you grow multiple plants in one pot.
If you start with grow box I think long term you will be disappointed if you decide you want to grow bigger photoperiod plants.
To me, the optimum tent size is a 3x3. It’s perfect for growing one plant. I only need one seed, one pot, enough growing medium for one pot, and other disposables such as fertilizers, water and plant care products for one plant. Others will try to fill a tent with pots and say you can grow multiple plants in that space, but that means multiple seeds, pots and everything else. Vegging a plant an extra 3 weeks or so I can get just as big of harvest out of one plant than others can get growing in same space with multiple plants.
Try one of each and give them a try. You can become the expert forum members go to for an informed opinion.
AutoPots really aren’t compatible with organic soil, top dressing and water only feeding.
They can be very easy however. I use coco and perlite as growing medium. I fill the reservoir with enough water for a week, add cal-mag at about 6ml/gallon, and either a veg nutrient or a flower nutrient at 20ml/gallon. I no longer check ppm or pH since I know they will be in acceptable range, just add the two nutrients and that’s it, done for the week. Takes far longer to prune the plants every weekend then anything else.
You can build a bigger earth box on your own, to fit your tent size best. You get the best of both worlds. Now you have a living soil bed, so a single ‘pot’ in your tent. You also have a sub-irrigated planter (earth box) style for watering.
I built my own with a tote from HD, weeping tile, landscaping fabric, nylon rope (wick) and a PVC pipe. I made my first one to have a large water reservoir at the bottom so I don’t have to water often. I’ve done 2 plants at time, and 4 at a time, without problems. I treat it as no-till. I top dress with Gaia green nutrients and worm castings.
It was much cheaper to DIY than buy an earth box and I got to make my water reservoir my own size. I got 2 young kids, we’re away a lot, and I can leave this thing for a week without any automated watering system. Although I think a week with 4 plants in full flower would get too dry.
