Hey everyone, I’m new to the forum and also to soil grows so I have a question for anyone who has experiential knowledge on these self watering systems that are much less expensive than auto pots but might still provide the same advantages as an auto pot.
Obviously it’ll be more work because self feeders don’t have a large res. but I’m wondering if there are any other issues or setbacks? I like the price point of the self feeders but I also follow the old rule of “buy once, cry once” which is why I’m leaning towards autopots.
What do you all think? Thanks for the input and I’ll add a couple pics of the chocolate kush I just pulled today. It’s a strain I loved to smoke back in the early aughts so I made it my first grow in over a decade! You guys rule!
I just got my self watering system, and set up today so I can’t say much yet. But buddy I tagged above he has them also he can give you some input, if he doesn’t mind.
I am on my first auto pot run in coco and love them. I like having a reservoir that I can leave alone for a few days if need be. I think self watering bases are fine for watering, but I have heard of issues with the wicks when you add nutes to the base. For just watering they seem to work well. I know some do feed thru them with success too.
I think the main differences is one uses wicking the other wickless but both are SIP systems (bottom watering). Autopots also have an external reservoir. Spider famers just came out with their own version. I have ac infinity’s wicked self-watering pots but haven’t used them yet. Plan to use them for veggies not sure about cannabis yet.
I would research nutes and self watering bases. I never tried, but in my reading I remember something about it. I use mega crop mix into water and into res.
I wonder about spider farmer and similar brands, they seem to bulk buy way to many items like heaters and fans and dehums and slap a spider sticker on it to make me think they actually make anything specifically for growing. Am I crazy to think that?
I could be mistaken honestly. But I think that was one of the things I heard about it. The bucket sits directly in the water with a layer of hydroton (expanded clay pebbles) at the bottom of the bucket then your soil/medium over that. Only the clay gets submerged.
That is one way, I use their air bases which sits up off the pot some. It has holes in it, you fill all the holes with coco and fill the pot. No wicks needed, just have to wait til the roots are in range before turning on the system, about 21 days. Hand water til then.
I have the ACI self watering bases and yup still sitting in the Amazon box unopened lol. Have worked up the courage to try yet. And sitting there watering is therapeutic for me lol.
@johnnywabash , type auto pots into the search at top of the page & tons of threads pop up, same for self watering. It might take a bit to go through them all but it’s loaded with first hand info from growers using both of these systems.
