does anyone here use an auto feeder system

[autopotking]

Also i use a 50/50 perlite vermiculite medium seems OK Craven have you tried this ?

 

[Craven_au]

I was talking to the Jim and he told me of a new cut to any length up to 3m of gutter style channel that you can cut any size hole in the top and have 1 x smart valve in the middle with no medium required or if you wish you can cut it big enough for a pot to go in there. It has its limitations of length of 3m due to ratios of the smart valve, it also has a channel in the bottom the same as the two pot system.

Will cheek it out thank u sound interesting.

I seen Jim last week nice guy. I only use perlite but will test all types of media soon will be growing in them reusable shopping bags made from the same material as the root control mats to easy.

 

[autopotking]

i asked him about bags for the new black bases as his green pots are for the green bases and he has nothing yet (he is making them) but the shopping bags sound great i am about to pull out and put in a new lot they are veg in the twin pots im just going to use them in the single bases as they are in them on there third transplant and i dont think root bound will be an issue, let me know how it turns out using the bags great substitution have you sized them up yet to see if they will fill the large bases.

 

[autopotking]

BTW thanks for the car window shade idea it worked a treat.

 

[autopotking]

next grow

next grow

the ones on the left are the new ones going in

 

[organizedcrime]

i would like to setup an automated coco dripper grow, 25 plants per 1k. is there anything to keep in mind when i buy the drip system parts (drippers, hose, etc.). i mean i heard i have to match up PSI, it all sounds complicated. im running salt nutes, should i use emitters or straight spaghetti into the medium? also, what size pots should i run? i have 1/2 gph emitters, if i use them, how long, how often? god im a noob THX

 

[autopotking]

why a dripper system and what type of drippers ?

 

[Craven_au]

i would like to setup an automated coco dripper grow, 25 plants per 1k. is there anything to keep in mind when i buy the drip system parts (drippers, hose, etc.). i mean i heard i have to match up PSI, it all sounds complicated. im running salt nutes, should i use emitters or straight spaghetti into the medium? also, what size pots should i run? i have 1/2 gph emitters, if i use them, how long, how often? god im a noob THX

Q what size is your grow room and what size plants do u want to grow.

Is that 25 plants under 1 1000hps? With that many plants you would be doing SOG try large rock wool cubes 3 or 4'' should do, no pots just sit them in a tray. watering can be tricky young plants don't need as much water as older plants and they can be over watered easily u can tell by the leavers they will look heavy and droop just don't let them dry out.

If u still would like to go coco with that many plants i would use small pots around 4'' and grow them Sog 12/12 from clones. If u have seeds
you will need to learn how to tell male from female.

The guys in the growroom designs page or indoor hydro will help u setup just give them all the info u can e.g lighting ventilation fans grow room size.

 

[organizedcrime]

Q what size is your grow room and what size plants do u want to grow.

Is that 25 plants under 1 1000hps? With that many plants you would be doing SOG try large rock wool cubes 3 or 4'' should do, no pots just sit them in a tray. watering can be tricky young plants don't need as much water as older plants and they can be over watered easily u can tell by the leavers they will look heavy and droop just don't let them dry out.

If u still would like to go coco with that many plants i would use small pots around 4'' and grow them Sog 12/12 from clones. If u have seeds
you will need to learn how to tell male from female.

The guys in the growroom designs page or indoor hydro will help u setup just give them all the info u can e.g lighting ventilation fans grow room size.

i made a thread in coco forum, but your idea on rockwool makes sense. i dont see why i didnt consider it. thanks i wll investigate it. its 25 per 1k btw. im doing it i soilless right now w/ 2 gallon grobags and handwater but its too much work to handwater that many especially since im always away.

 

[transplant]

Those cones would pay for themselves in a year

Those cones would pay for themselves in a year

Actually the Blumat site sells 50-packs of waterers for $214 I think, not too bad. They don't push water through the cones, the cones act as a wick to tell the valve on top of the cone when to open and let water/ferts drip through it. Verrry slick. Yes, gravity fed from the bottom of your res, just needs to be higher than your pots. No pump should be installed on these, just gravity feed. The only thing is the end of the little drip hose outlet will sometimes get crusty if you use organic hydro nutes, but it just crumbles with a fingertip squeeze. Part of monthly maintenance.

But look at the bright side, no failed pump/timer/power failure is ever gonna kill a crop or a plant again, whoohoo! Those cones would pay for themselves in a year with all the dead water pumps I don't have to replace.

Where do you get the cones?

 

[dodo5678]

just finished my first go-around with my cabinet using autopots. I'm sold - my big issue is that I have to leave home, often 4-6 days at a time. I was away probably 30 days total out of my 90 day grow & they worked flawlessly and efficiently. I found that 3 plants (that each yielded between 1 & 2 oz) mid flower could go about 7 days on a 3 gallon resevoir in my set-up. I tried just using the smartvalves in my own trays so I could pack more plants into each chamber, but I started fighting algae & I never did get a great way of keeping the smartvalves from floating up. Seems like they designed them to be difficult to use without their own trays. I like 'em enough that I'll be buying a few more trays to fill out the cabinet.

mayorofthdesert - hey man, i was thinking about your predicament with keeping your smartvalves down in your custom trays. I'm trying to figure out a way to keep down some some air stones in my autopot trays. Have you tried hot glue? I'm going to give it a try with these tube diffusers i just picked up the other day as soon as I find my glue gun. I'll try to post some pics when i get them glued down and we'll see how they turn out. Not sure how well they'll stay put, but the trays are pretty clean/dry right now, so i'll give it a shot.

You may also want to look into getting some right angle plastic stock and glue that down to the plastic tray on either side of the smart valve (with testors model cement or other plastic cement). Then maybe use some zip-ties to fasten the stationary part of the valve down. I kinda like the hot glue idea as it's relatively easy to pick the hot glue off between grows for cleaning.

hope that helps or maybe gives you some other ideas

-dodo

 

[bookbinder]

I run an r/o filter to a res with air stones and a submergible pump in it...that flows to a drip line system which waters all my pots when I flip a switch or can be set to a timer.

all materials can be bought at home depot for under a hundred bucks

I'll bet my 1st born that you can't find an R/O system alone for under a hundred bucks! aside from timers, pumps. And air stones and air pumps at home depot?

 

[Craven_au]

mayorofthdesert - hey man, i was thinking about your predicament with keeping your smartvalves down in your custom trays. I'm trying to figure out a way to keep down some some air stones in my autopot trays. Have you tried hot glue? I'm going to give it a try with these tube diffusers i just picked up the other day as soon as I find my glue gun. I'll try to post some pics when i get them glued down and we'll see how they turn out. Not sure how well they'll stay put, but the trays are pretty clean/dry right now, so i'll give it a shot.

You may also want to look into getting some right angle plastic stock and glue that down to the plastic tray on either side of the smart valve (with testors model cement or other plastic cement). Then maybe use some zip-ties to fasten the stationary part of the valve down. I kinda like the hot glue idea as it's relatively easy to pick the hot glue off between grows for cleaning.

hope that helps or maybe gives you some other ideas

-dodo

u guys may be able to buy there's smartvalves covers from there site. just sit something heavy on top no problems.

 

[autopotking]

Craven i have a mod for the new autopot bases, will post the pics as i do it spoke to the Jim and he said great idea he may even implement it.

 

[Craven_au]

sounds good love to see it.

 

[autopotking]

will post it next week as im away ATM and have left the babys to look after them selfs for 5 days without me AAHHHH gota love autopots. The mod is going to let a lot more stuff be used with the autopot.

 

[mayorofthdesert]

u guys may be able to buy there's smartvalves covers from there site. just sit something heavy on top no problems.

Unless they've changed designs since mine (my single pot systems are square & black, not round and green) the covers don't hold the valves down, on mine there are vertical tabs on the bases that the valves press down onto.
Setting something on top of the smartvalves is tricky - there's very little room & it's tough to stay out of the way of the upper float and arm. The best thing I came up with was epoxying some heavy bolts standing straight up in the middle and a couple nuts on the other available spots. That worked fine although both bolts eventually fell off - epoxy's problem. I found that for me there's just more that I like about the complete set-up verses any of my different pot & tray trials: Most importantly it's a tight design leaving little room for excess liquid - this means the cycles are quicker than they would be if there was a large tray. Tight also means evaporation is minimized, no light gets to the nute mix, also there's that channel on the tray that ensures a period of no standing liquid on the bottom of the pot each cycle & probably a few other things I'm not thinking of right now. But if someone did want to use the valves in their own tray it's definitely do-able, just a little tricky & there's more to think about than first apears.

 

[autopotking]

They are the copies not the original autopots.

 

[autopotking]

http://autopot.com.au/default.aspx?PageID=83e38d35-bdff-472c-b568-94a872187947

 

[autopotking]

these are the old ones he now has a newer version again but i am not at home to take a photo to show you and he does not have them on his web site yet..

I will be doing a mod on the new ones next week stay tuned.