smart pot or air pot for soil

[littlegrow]

so i have only ever grown in plastic pots but today i come across 2 diffent kind of pots which both air prune which seems pretty decent i am curious whats the better type of pot to use. can air pots and smart pots be reused time and time again ?.

 

[Huckster79]

I'm using a blend... I'm in short ceiling area so I take em out really low and wide with heavy Lst... So I liked idea of cloth but would be tough for me to add on the cross members that I tie too... The rigid ones seemed narrow and tall- going wide seemed tippy...

So I bought some cloth bags that fit in a 5 gallon bucket and then drilled the hell out of the 5 gallon bucket... Now I have a wide stable solid price to attach cross members to but the breath ability of the cloth...

Girls are loving it...

 

[Guest]

My vote is for air-pots. They are reusable for years. They open and close very easily making transplanting a snap. They are rigid.
The downside is that they are a bit messy. I run coco and cram that stuff in there as much as I can to make sure no errant streams take place. It takes practice but you can master that in little time.
It is not unusual for me to get 6+oz from a 1 gallon.

 

[stoned-trout]

suckers...milk crates rule...yeehaw...

 

[chronosync]

What are those lined with plastic and holes punched in? What haven't you tried trout? Great idea BTW. Again, of course.

 

[Backwoodsman]

[URL=https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=65426&pictureid=1564348&thumb=1]View Image[/url] suckers...milk crates rule...yeehaw...

That's genius! I love it!

 

[stoned-trout]

lined with white colored weed block material...milk crates all found on beaches while kayaking...yeehaw..I was making similar using chicken wire long before the airpots and such came out...the crates are sturdy and can be moved easily also last long long time...there aint much I haven't tried ...got milk????...heck even the pallet they sit on was free...

 

[Tynehead Tom]

that's just simply a genius idea stoned-trout , I must have a dozen or more of those crates out in the barn, maybe more. I'm gonna try that for my late plant clones out in the greenhouse. four to a pallet, on castor wheels, perfect solution, thanx!

 

[Betterhaff]

Ingenious trout…how many plants are you placing per crate? Those look rectangular, the ones I have are square.

 

[chronosync]

If you ever need to fasten 2 milk crates together use zip ties. I know it's a small thing and seems obvious once you think about it but it works surprisingly well. No loose ends when you cut the excess. I wonder if roots would mind growing through the rungs?

 

[stoned-trout]

for this run there is 2 per crate,, except for the small square one ...for my summer run I will do 1 plant per crate...I have since acquired more milk crates and my search never ends .. I expect to find more kayaking ....yeehaw

 

[Robney]

Hey Outcold! Would you mind giving a couple details on how your running your 1 gal airpots to get 6+ oz?

 

[Guest]

Well, I believe that both smart/air-pots are capable of impressive feats. Its the air pruining that allows for the smaller amount of medium. One of the more higher yielding strains I ran in the 1 gallons was Chimeras Grapefruit x Blueberry; known for auto flower tendencies. Never happened in the air-pot. But did happen with my 2 gallon hempy...
Setting up vegging plant so that all of the medium is being used by the roots (longer veg times).
I also use Caps bennies, and occasional other root builders that complement the biological activity of my medium.
I grow vertical with PBP as my base. I don't use co2 and my environment is not perfect but pretty good.
OC

 

[FunkBomb]

Air-pots all the way. They are not all that messy if you water slowly. The growth rates are amazing.

-Funk

 

[Huckster79]

Trout I think my next run I'll try the milk crate- would give even a lower profile which is great for my short room... Plus sounds a lot easier than drilling fricken tons of holes in a bucket! How long do you veg when your one per milk crate?

You know what they say about guys with short grow rooms? They never place their light too far away from the plants!

 

[Huckster79]

Gotta make a confession.....

Pondering trouts crates I was wondering how volume wise they compared to the 5 gallon buckets I use and as I started to google it- realized they hold 4 1 gallon jugs - so prob a lil over 4 gallons.... Wow prob time to call it a nite

 

[Robney]

Thanks OC! If I had read this before I ordered some smart pots it would have been a different order, but I'm excited to try out these air pruning containers either way. I'm def going to look into Cap's bennies to see if it compliments LC's guano tea recipe. Thanks for the info!

 

[Mate Dave]

Neither for soil. Unless your growing in modular staggered grids.. You wan't beds Ideally. More is more.. Pots limit things too much IMHO

 

[stoned-trout]

Gotta make a confession.....

Pondering trouts crates I was wondering how volume wise they compared to the 5 gallon buckets I use and as I started to google it- realized they hold 4 1 gallon jugs - so prob a lil over 4 gallons.... Wow prob time to call it a nite

when filling them it was almost 9 gallons soil mixed uncompacted ...so prob like 8 gallons or more actual...I used 1,, 5 gal bucket full and then another almost full to fill them...yeehaw...I don't remember what the smaller square one holds as I only got one of em...I think atleast 5 gal

 

[Jhhnn]

Air-pots all the way. They are not all that messy if you water slowly. The growth rates are amazing.

-Funk

They're killer w/ blumats.

I germ seeds in paper towels, plant in the 3L airpots (orange bottom) w/ blumats. I flip to 12/12, sex 'em, then up pot the keepers to 5 gal fabric root pouches. Airpots make for easy transplanting & the blumat goes right along.

I couldn't justify the high price of larger airpots.

I like the idea of milk crates & landscaping fabric.