Speaking of 'ol yeller. I hope it’s gonna be crying with happiness over the tremendous buzz I’ll have goin! 
2 Likes
I am going to have to youtube those autopots. I glance and see it alot mentioned here. They seem pretty popular.
Does that basically keep you from adding fluid by hand yourself all the way to cut down once you have the halo rings on them? I am assuming you are just changing the source bucket periodically?
Finally…Are you happy you have moved over to CoCo and did you find yourself buying a bunch of stuff to get going with the new medium? I am just assuming you started growing in dirt which may be incorrect.
yeah, my original grow was soil, fox farms ocean forest. The halo rings were going to be my mainstay on the watering system. It actually wouldn’t be that much more work to just finish the setup and use it full time. I am finding the hoses a bit tedious in a tent setup although with more thought it could probably be much more accommodating. After looking at cygnusx1’s grow journal and looking at others using the autopots I just decided to go that way with it. Looks to be easier to handle if you need to leave it unattended for a few days. But you can still hand water all the way.
Costs for the coco are not very much different than getting set up in soil. Coco can be a little more work with the flushing and buffering. Actually, it’s probably cheaper. I am going from a 2 plant grow to hopefully an 8 plant grow so the cost was more of a layout anyway just from the size difference in the grow.
I don’t know if I am going to be happier with coco, but it already seems easier and the switch over to the jacks 321 line was a dang good choice also I think. It’s easier to use and the results you get from it are much more reliable. In other words, you mix it the way they say and you get what they say you will get. Seems like I rarely ever got what I was supposed to using fftrio. Plus, the only nutes the plants are getting is what you are putting in. Stuff (salts) aren’t building up in the coco.
1 Like
My water source is a NoGo from city tap. I must use Reverse Osmosis water for sure. I think those connector tips to connect hoses would plug up over time if I used those here where I live?
How big Gallon wise is your source / Feed Auto bucket? Are you mixing the Jack’s in it and what is the pump? Can you post a pic of the thing?
Now that you’ve bought it, could you have done it as a DIY?
I’m thinking pumps for those landscape fountains and a timer? Place it correct and gravity could help run off back downhill.
I am on well water here but as I understand it r/o water is just as pure. The hoses on the halo rings and associated hardware are all 1/2". I don’t think you are gonna worry about clogging that anytime soon. The nute barrel is basically a 12 gallon square trash can with a hole cut at the bottom and the feed hose and grommet made to match to keep water from leaking out at the bottom. Other than that it is gravity fed. I will have to set the nute bin on something to get it above the plants. I do have an electric stirrer pump in it to keep the nutes stirred up. The most complicated part of the system is the bases the buckets set in. That’s why they get for autopots what they do. It has a float valve built in that just floods the base with your pot setting in it and shuts off the water flow when the water level gets to a set position in the base. I suppose you could jury rig a setup using water feeder valves for poulty/livestock but autopot makes it easy peasy and built for what you are wanting to do with it.
The halo drip system is/was a diy. Just a matter of a couple of pumps, timer, hose, fittings and the halo rings, also the container for the nutes.
1 Like
the kicker with the halo system is that you need a way to drain your pans after watering. You can drill holes in the drain pans and connect drain lines that feed into something larger. But all of that needs to be elevated and as I said, just a bit tedious in a limited size tent. I still have to move the plant off of the drain pans to dump them in the mornings after feeding.
1 Like
you can’t really see anything. there are 2 pumps in there. one is just a bubbler. it sucks water in at the bottom and spits it out at the top. thats keeps things stirred up really nice. The other pump is the one on a timer. it’s like a 400 gal per hour pump that pumps to the halos.
if you’re interested in the halo system as a diy project, just google DIY Automatic Watering System for Indoor Cannabis. the website I used even had links for all of the parts you need and diagrams. I think you can probably by something like that as a kit also.
Nothing much goin on right now. Placed the first 2 autopots into there watering trays with these 2 plants at 26 days old.
Another 2 getting close to going into there watering trays. I suspect another 2 or 3 days.
1 Like
Looks Like you got “Old Yeller” trying to Green up for you. 
LOL! I have been spraying that rascal with a foliar spray 3 times a day for about a week now and it just ain’t wantin to budge off of the yellow much at all. Only a small amount. Guess time will tell. I’m not going to fight her much longer on it. She’s been bein happy a banana colored girl so far so may just let her do what she’s gonna do if it don’t get any greener than that in the next few short days.
1 Like
Just an update and a few pics. All of the plants here are 30 days old today with the exception of 2 of them. I’ll explain when I get to the picture of the particular plants. A total of 8 plants I hope to grow with this cycle in the one tent and 2 plants in the smaller tent which I hope will be my first photoperiods.
The inside of the tent!
First several plants and all in there autopot trays being bottom fed:
These 2 plants were from the seeds that I replanted in the same cup after the original seeds popped and then stalled so they are at least a week or 2 behind everything else.
And last and the least are these 2. These were the 2 that stalled after popping there heads above soil. I had already removed them and chunked them. After I thought about it for a bit, I went and retrieved them from the trash can, placed them in a small jar with some nutrients in it and let 'em ride like that for a couple of days. They seemed to like that to some degree so I filled2 3 gallon containers with coco, set 'em in and gonna see if they will do anything now. No loss if they don’t and that much to gain if they do revive and make a go out of it.
These won’t get the autopots even if they do take off. They will be manual water from the top
2 Likes
Those 2 solo cups have the last 2 of my photoperiod seeds in them. The solo cup at the top of the pic was planted 3 weeks ago with every thing else. That one and it’s sister cup never popped. I actually took both cups and put 'em away with the intention of throwing them away. After about a week of sitting I was grabbing the cups yesterday to throw them away and the one seed had popped and dearly hanging on for life. So I gave a little water and she is showing some good signs this morning. So I planted my last photoperiod seed yesterday and maybe I can end up with 2 photoperiods in my other tent anyway.
3 Likes
Also a lot of defoliation on the top 4 plants. Three of those plants have been fimmed and wating on the 4th in that group to catch up to that point.
1 Like
nothing going on. just a picture update. plants are 41 days above soil. tent has been rearranged to get plant heights more evenly placed under the lights. I have one photoperiod, the one in the solo cup that will go into a separate tent when it gets big enough. the one in the solo cup is a chocolope and my first try at photoperiods. we’ll see how that goes. everything has been on the reservoir for several weeks and so far they drink about a gallon a day, maybe a bit more. i am refilling the reservoir 3 gallons at a time. 'ol yeller is still being 'ol yeller.
while loving the autopot simplicity I am figuring out that maybe I should have purchased the single pots instead of the trays which hold 2 plants a piece. You can’t separate them with the dual pot set ups. probably going to purchase some single pots and get my plants out of the dual pot setup.
still using jacks 321 with silica, fish!it and hydrogaurd for supplements.
Looking good
Thank you sir! Hard to believe all of these seeds were planted at the same time and the differences in them. Making a bit more of a challenge to get the right light height for them. "ol yeller, I had to put her in the center so I could get about the right height for the other 2. That is also another problem with the dual tray autopots vs the single pots. I guess as long as they mature at the same time it’s not going to be a problem but separating them if one matures before the other may be problematic.
Just mean they want some training
just a pic update. most of these plants are at 53 days above coco today. all plants looking healthy. 'ol yeller is still being 'ol yeller. she’s even got flower on her. still feeding jacks 321 with an mkp modification for about a week now. and will continue to do that for a few more weeks. absolutely liking the autopots. all i do now is make nutrients every couple of days and dump it in the reservoir. the tent is as automated as I can make it at this point. right now my only intervention is checking DLI and defoliating. oh, and watching them grow 
. not a single burnt tip anywhere to be seen. so much different than the last/first grow. my one photoperiod that i managed to get above soil is doing really good. growing fast and liking life! looking forward to getting her into her own tent when it’s time to start reducing light hours. so here are a few pics:
1 Like