Bottomfeeding: no drain, no waste

[cyat]

hey sloppy, yeah i just got a double pot unit to test em out( made it bigger by inserting 5gal pots into the green ones). heard you just gotta clean the valve sometimes and not use gunky nutes , we'll see. gonna use some 90 with pbp and some occasional em1 to keep it clean. might put a small pump to spray in the res, to keep it mixed up.
i love to see roots grow at the top from bottom feeding, just started mulching with cedar too

 

[thesloppy]

just started mulching with cedar too

How are you doing that, just a layer of cedar chips on top of your pots? Sounds simple enough.

 

[cyat]

yeah shreds and chips, cheaper than hydroton at 7$ a 2 cu ft bag. if I do water from the top its spongy and spreads the water nicely doesnt move around either.

 

[John Deere]

I've used autopots in the past with peppers and they work great. I ran an airstone in the res to keep it fresh. I think they'd be hugely popular if they were more affordable. I mean, they work great and it's an ingenious design but they're basically just some molded plastic pieces. 2¢

But I'm more drawn to blumats for MJ for the flexibility.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to trying bottom feeding. I seriously can't believe I haven't thought about trying this before. Hope it works as well as I think it's going to.

 

[cyat]

hey john the autopots have the smart valves too. was gonna buy blumats but got talked out of gettin em by the guy who was sellin em, said my hardwater would clog em and nutes would too.kinda discouraged me.

 

[John Deere]

hey john the autopots have the smart valves too. was gonna buy blumats but got talked out of gettin em by the guy who was sellin em, said my hardwater would clog em and nutes would too.kinda discouraged me.

Yeah, I know they have smart valves. I was just saying that I've used them and they work well but I think they're too expensive.

Looks like there's a couple people having trouble over in the big blumat thread now, too.

My bottom fed gal looks good this morning. Still about an inch of water in the tray.

 

[Bob-Hope]

Yep still bottom feeding hear as well, moved up to 10ltr AirPots from 3ltr after some advice of Strainhunter.

Canna A + B and for the first 3 weeks they had some rhizotonic, but now its just A+B

Theres 3 exodus cheese on the left, and 3 casey jones s1,s on the right, and between them they drink around 45ltrs every 3 days, are on an E.C of 0.9 ph 5.7 and in 25 days time they go 12/12 vert.

BoB

 

[John Deere]

Well alright! Almost dry already. That's 1/2 G in 24 hours. No wonder she was looking a bit thirsty when I was only watering once a day. This can only mean good things for the yield. Can't wait to see how this goes!

 

[rabid]

NorCal--I understand using the 5" peat pots for a few weeks veg for cuttings. Do you think the emerging roots are "air-pruned" like the much more expensive SmartPots accomplish? I'm asking because I have access to an unlimited (and free) supply of one, two and three gallon peat pots.

In your opinion would the peat pots deteriorate if used for more than a month or so using the bottom feeding method? Say a 3 gallon peat pot bottom-fed for a 10-week flowering period? The pots I can use seem a bit flimsy but I don't have any other (peat) pots to compare them to. I'm thinking maybe placing one peat pot inside another to strengthen it somewhat. Or putting the peat pot inside a snug-fitting cheapo plastic pot.

Sorry for all the questions but seeing the roots emerging from your peat pots might be an alternative to using the SmartPots. Thanks

 

[Guido Sarducci]

I have the same question. The smart pots have become prohibitively expensive these days

 

[Midnight Rudy]

NorCal--I understand using the 5" peat pots for a few weeks veg for cuttings. Do you think the emerging roots are "air-pruned" like the much more expensive SmartPots accomplish? I'm asking because I have access to an unlimited (and free) supply of one, two and three gallon peat pots.

In your opinion would the peat pots deteriorate if used for more than a month or so using the bottom feeding method? Say a 3 gallon peat pot bottom-fed for a 10-week flowering period? The pots I can use seem a bit flimsy but I don't have any other (peat) pots to compare them to. I'm thinking maybe placing one peat pot inside another to strengthen it somewhat. Or putting the peat pot inside a snug-fitting cheapo plastic pot.

Sorry for all the questions but seeing the roots emerging from your peat pots might be an alternative to using the SmartPots. Thanks

don't worry about air pots unless you are getting rootbound. That is their only advantage. These pots were designed for trees to be able to sit in the same pot for a long time while waiting to be sold without being rootbound. To some they are the bees knees, but if you are just starting a grow there are better places to put your money. Since in reality any old plastic repurposed container will do. I was unaware of 2-3 gallon peat pots but they are made to disintegrate and I would not put 10-20lbs of soil in a biodegradable pot sitting in a pool of solution... Just saying.

 

[cyat]

I used the green reusable bags from the dollar store.they hold about 7 gallons of soil.
I got bout 6 zips from a superskunk in one.

 

[thesloppy]

I used the green reusable bags from the dollar store.they hold about 7 gallons of soil.
I got bout 6 zips from a superskunk in one.

I tried using the black cloth shopping bags from a local supermarket, and I was impressed at the amount of soil they held, and they certainly bottomfeed well enough. I was hoping for some sort of miraculous air-pruning benefits but, as Rudy alluded, it turned out my plants were nowhere near big enough, or that long-growing, to get to the point that they needed that kind of training (and they were never going to get there), so it really didn't do much for me, and the plants' roots pretty much just grew as normal. Good, cheap pots though! I ended up going back to 2-liter bottles just because they fit the footprint of my cab better.

 

[Midnight Rudy]

I ended up going back to 2-liter bottles just because they fit the footprint of my cab better.

#1 most important factor when picking a pot to use IMHO. ESPECIALLY true with a SOG or with a small area. How many pots can you fit into your footprint.

I wanted to make a comment here on the KISS method or basically "the method of using General Hydroponics Maxi Bloom from start to finish". I just recently tried using the maxi grow for my plants in veg and they look a TON better than with just the maxibloom. the maxi bloom works for sure but there was always a little bit of discoloration in the larger fans for me. Now with the maxigrow everything is just a vibrant green and beautiful . My lacking in the kiss method may be because I bottom feed, or because I grow tiny plantlets, or it may be only visual, or it may have something to do with my water or my environment, but for me it is now well worth the time to mix 2 different solutions for flower and grow. I'm not counting on seeing a major increase in yield or vigor but who knows. Plants love the maxigrow and that is for sure.

I also wanted to make a comment to someone who early on in this thread made the comment that you don't need to flush coco. You don't need to flush coco but if you don't you are smoking fertilizer and it tastes like shit. So far, fme, flusing is important regardless of media if you are using chemical ferts and have tastebuds. Prior to this I was using amended organic soil and it worked pretty well. as my plant counts got higher and my soil per plant got lower I found it was hard to get the soil hot enough to make it through the entire grow. When I did find that point that wouldn't burn them early but had enough juice to finish, I got some shitty tasting weed then too because the soil was still carrying so much nutrients. You can't flush amended soil so for my tiny little garden made up of 1 ltr pots, this method of passive hydroponics produces better tasting weed than any other method I have tried as long as I flush and stop feeding about 2 weeks before harvest.

 

[cyat]

here's some dirty bottom feeders in a supersoil with the cedar mulch. fed liquid organics too.
2 mystery crosses(that grew wild from cleaning my vacuum outside), lvpk x marley wreck(lambsbread x trainwreck), and super skunk

 

[supermanlives]

i need me another kiddie pool too. lol great pics all. bottom feeding rules

 

[Crusader Rabbit]

Yeah, I've been tempted by the autopot's many times before. Ironically the thing that most attracts me is the thing that also scares me off: I love the idea of a big reservoir and autofeeding, but I'm terrified of it failing and flooding.

I shelled out $75 for three Smart Valves and had problems. I'd come back from a week away at work and find that one had flooded its tub, draining the reservoir. The result would be a tub of waterlogged plants suffering terrible lockout, and two tubs of dried withering plants. I finally gave up and went to an ebb & flow system on a timer, which is automated bottom feeding, and works great.

 

[thesloppy]

Those are some lovely plants, cyat.

 

[cyat]

thanks guys, the kiddee pools make watering so easy!
still waiting for space to hook up the autopots and for the roots to hit the bottom.
still considering blumats and a titan flo n grow, in my quest to make life easier.

 

[Midnight Rudy]

thanks guys, the kiddee pools make watering so easy!
still waiting for space to hook up the autopots and for the roots to hit the bottom.
still considering blumats and a titan flo n grow, in my quest to make life easier.

If the kiddie pool is working for you, I think that is about as easy as it gets. I know a few people who I question if they could actually pour water out of a bucket into said kiddie pool, but if I put the directions on the bottom of the bucket I'm sure even they would be good to go.