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New member looking for tips and info on AutoPots

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(@maxvapor)
Posts: 8
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Back at it after about 30 year lay off and it has been a rocky start.

Started out with 20 seeds from ilgm of Durban Poison all sprouted in 24 hours and thought I was off to a great start but as i found out my ec was way too high due to high ec in base water and just about killed them, (so now using all ro water) went from starter tray to home made aeroponic set up and they took off nicely, I left them in there for a couple weeks and they developed a great root system and are were very healthy and happy. I then transplanted in autopots system with coco and geolite clay pebbles at about 50/50 mix and watered with light dyna grow foliage pro @ 0.02 ec and 5.8 ph until I had water running out, my concern is that the run off was about 1.0 ec and 7 ph so I know that either my pebbles or coco was not as stable as I thought but too late to turn back now. I have not put in the system yet and turned on the water so they can acclimate themselves and was going to top water at least one or two more times but they are looking happy and healthy at this point.

My question is how can I monitor my ec and ph in this system and will I need to worry about salts building up and will I need to flush them at some point? I plan on starting out with fairly low ec and bump up from there. 

Any and all help is much appreciated. 

 

 
Posted : May 25, 2021 11:27 am
Stootie, Chillbert, Woolie and 15 people reacted
monkeydo
(@monkeydo)
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Welcome to Percy’s mate. Your questions are unusual as most growers pick one medium and stay with it. It sounds like you started aeroponic and switched to a mixed media of coco and expanded clay. There are procedures for washing and stabilizing the clay balls to avoid ph swings and ways to pre-buffer coco to accomplish the same. That’s all done before you begin tho so that’s a no go this time. From your description, you need to run this 50/50 coco and clay balls as a coco grow. Don’t worry so much about the ph of the media but always ph the feed to 5.8-6.2 and monitor EC of the runoff to fine tune the run. On future runs I’d pick one system and just stay the course with that media. It will make your grow much simpler.

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Posted : May 25, 2021 2:02 pm
Stootie, Chillbert, Woolie and 9 people reacted
Moglo
(@moglo)
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@maxvapor hi mate welcome to percys.

First of all I love my autopots.

I personally have only used biobizz all mix in my autopots.

From my understanding cocco with added perlite gives the best results so your mix should work.

I hand water until the fan leaves reach the edge of the pot before I fill the reservoir.

I don't test monitor my ec. I do pH my water and start with very light nute mix when the plant says it's ready. 

I only do one plant at a time so I made a smaller res which is 6L,  with the smaller res I make a 1L full strength nute mix and add extra water by the L to adjust strength and gradually increase nute mix strength as I go along.

If I notice early nute burn I just add extra water to res to weaken nut mixture instead of flushing the plant, this seems to have worked for me so far.

I'm not sure how my method of feeding will work with your medium mix as I have no experience with cocco. But going light on the nutes has ment I have never had to flush salts out

I'm not sure where you are based but ecothrive has cocco with 2% charge nutrients in it. I plan on trying this on my next run.

Last thing is put a on off tap at you res so if you need to dry out the plants which you do time to time it's as simple as turning of the tap at the res.

Hope this helps and have a look at my fast berry grow diary . It was my third grow and it was a monster of a plant. I'm sure you will get better results if you already have growing experience.

Did you add the airdome?

 

pick it,pack it fire it up, hits from the Gong

 
Posted : May 25, 2021 2:29 pm
monkeydo, Stootie, Chillbert and 12 people reacted
(@maxvapor)
Posts: 8
Terpinolene Forum Member
Topic starter
 

@Moglo thanks for the reply and welcome 

So I am in the U.S. and this is my first try at using coco so I have no experience what so ever and the first I have heard of biobizz and not sure how available it is here, I chose the coco/pebble mix because it was one of the recommended mediums by Autopot. My last set up was aeroponic so this is a whole new concept for me. And yes I did opt for the air domes but replaced the junk tubing the provide with 1.6 inch air stone hoping it will do better, and am planning as you said starting off with low ec and see what happens from there. The res that came with the set up has shut off and filter on it along with valves at the end of main tubing to you can flush the system every so often. 

Much great info here and again thanks for your input hopefully it goes smooth as silk.

 

 
Posted : May 25, 2021 3:08 pm
monkeydo, Stootie, Zombie Nation and 15 people reacted
(@maxvapor)
Posts: 8
Terpinolene Forum Member
Topic starter
 

@monkeydo thanks for the reply and I agree about the media and luckily they didn't seem to mind the transition at all as they never showed signs of stress whatsoever so I guess I dodged a bullet there. I am planning on doing precisely as you suggest and just hope for the best.

thanks again  

 
Posted : May 25, 2021 3:17 pm
monkeydo, Stootie, Zombie Nation and 12 people reacted

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