Autopot guide indoor & outdoor

Great write up. I was just looking at auto pots today. Thinking of trying a soil grow.
I’m set to watch.

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From experience I can tell you don’t waste your time with soil and autopots, I’ve done it and it’s better than hand watering for sure but it doesn’t work well once you need to feed nutrients.
The plants all consume their soil nutrients at different rates and that means when it comes time to feed you need to feed the lightest amount for the one that is not eating even as others starve. Also you need to pull “run off” samples with a syringe out of the trays… It’s a pain and not worth it unless autopot selld like a 20g autopot system for like outdoor soil grows that you just add water for the whole grow.

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I will be following if I can get on here lol Just a FYI, all tha auto pot brands use the same tray. So all the pots are interchangeable in them. Their 6.6 pot will work with the 4.9 trays. A 3 gallon soft pot will fit in a autopot tray. I plan on trying a grow in one of those. For the go grow brand, they have a smaller base. I haven’t found a soft pot to fit them yet. Can you tag me with up dates if you think of it Nicky. There is no button to check so I can follow.

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So yesterday I went to my hydro store to get some drip clean, this is meant to clean all your lines and valves rather than replacing them or waiting for a salt build up plug to cause havoc.
Turns out the product they have is meant to be put into your Res during the grow and it says you will no longer have build up… So I Geuss we will be trying it this grow!
I did however put about 10x the recommended dose into a 5 gallon bucket and soak all my lijes/valves for 24hr in order to clean them from the salt build up over the last two grows.
A bunch of flakes came out and other stuff.
So now it will be time to rinse it and set up my outdoor system.
As normally you would clean your trays/valves every month or so and then some just replace the fittings/lines rather than deal with cleaning them but if this product works then its a best of both worlds. Review to follow

Glitch? Can’t set to watch?
I will tag you @Not2SureYet as I feel as if there are only 4 of us on the AP’s currently.

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Ok, now I can. I am hit and miss for what will work when I get on here. I will be watching to see how you like that stuff. I haven’t had to clean a line yet. But in the lab. A fiend has his clog up almost every other week. I can’t add pictures still. But my TXL comes down next week. They tray is now full of roots. I think this system is working over time lol

Cut those roots in the tray! Lol.

I never had an issue but two grows in I figure best be safe rather than sorry, I’m hoping it works so well I never have to clean lol. We will see!
My TXL didn’t come in time and still hasn’t showed… So the show goes on

Tag me when you upload photos of your TXL! It W’s planned to be one of my outdoor strains.

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Following

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I can’t post pictures over here still. They haven’t even sent my new seeds out yet. I had to contact them before any one over there noticed. I doubt I will be ordering there again. Hopefully you will get yours sooner. I plan on doing another pair of these for the next grow. Less than a week left before I chop

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Okay so I wanted to inform everyone about a little discovery I just made today on the aqua valves.
They sell two different types of aqua valves, blue and black, before I had no idea what the difference was and assumed it was just manufacturing process changed plastics for cost reasons.
Well it may not seem noticeable on these pictures but there is a clear size difference in the diameter of the intake hole. Blue valves have a smaller hole and thus they will fill smaller and are more prone to plugging. Black is the way to go.
Minor but noticeable.

@Not2SureYet I contacted them twice and they said be patient due to covid. Just emailed them a 3rd time no reply since its the weekend I Geuss?
May have to dispute the charge on my credit card, shouldn’t be an issue just a hassle.

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That is a nice find. I have the black. I will see what color my friend has that he has problems with

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This is the spot for the four outdoor, south facing.
I will keep them against the house so I can pull my chairs forward and still have use of my deck.
Sun starts on the left side of the yard mud fence and goes all the way to where I’m taking a picture from. So I will keep plants in the middle.

I have hardened off all but one of the outdoor plants, still to young, and getting ready to pot the last successful germination with one unsuccessful just hanging out I’ll give it a bit more before I toss it.
So been top feeding all plants 5.7-5.9 PH water with a tds of 400-500 of my 3 part full nutrient.

Waiting game as we wait for the leafs to reach the edge of the pots so they can bottom feed with confidence.
I do need to clean the tents but waiting for drying to finish in my second tent.
I build the shed last year was going to side it this year but covid has hurt all of our incomes…
On a lighter note you cam see the wifeys new peach hair!

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Half her face is missing! What happened to it! ?That will be a fun grow @Nicky. Nice spot too.

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So here is the tent I have a total of 10 plants but ones a photo that is beside the point and one is going to be culled we just don’t know which one yet.

Fim’d two of the larger outdoor autos, as the photo is already Fim’d but I will leave the photo plant out of discussion for the most part due to it won’t be in the AP’s and its a photo I will be gifting away.

Tuesday the weather looks good so I was thinking about setting up the system outside but the plants are still young and small, thus according to the directions the system won’t work well. Ideally you want the plant leafs to touch the edge of the pot before turning on.

That all being said I have to leave for up to two weeks to go to my dads 80th birthday at his ranch come Friday or Saturday…
So I’m starting to think about what my plan is for things to survive two weeks with minimal input from a 3rd party, ie a friend that lives 15min away.
Right now the best plan is looking like keep everything inside the tent, hook up the system and let it run. With a friend showing up to PH pre mixed 5gallon buckets of feed before tossing in the reservoir.
Once I get home they would all be more than ready to go outside. I feel like this is more of a what works for me while still showing everyone how it works inside/outside that I’m not taking away from the true guide, if anything I’m showing how flexible this system is.

So right now we are waiting for two thungs
First, the other tent to finish drying last harvest so we can deep clean it and setup half the system in it before turning the lights back on.
Secondly, for the plants to grow to the size the system will work on them.

While I do feel the system will be close come Friday I don’t want to risk it nor do I trust the weather 100% right now.
Saying that the more they are inside the more they lose their hardiness.


@Cannabian had to make an edit

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This is going to be fun to watch. Thanks for explaining your thought process as it is very helpful to see what goes into your decisions. Have a great time at your Dad’s. Tell him happy birthday from all your weed friends. :beers:

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The guard cat looks fierce! Grrrrow dammit!

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Sounds like a good plan. Can’t wait to watch.!!

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Update!
Set up 3 of the 4 autopots outside just now,i already want my reservoir higher but i have a 10 day vacation coming up so I’ll deal with that after.


The one plant in the picture that is not hooked up to the system is the Purple Afghani Photo, that will be going to my dads on Saturday.

The indoor plants are shown below, with the exception of the bottom left Northern lights Auto (going to my dad’s Saturday) and the Island sweet skunk on the bottom right that will be going outside in the autopots once its large enough.

If you are wondering how the system works the reservoir gravity feeds into the trays through the double float system, again need to raise it more for more water pressure to avoid clogs long term.
This is an image of the tray starting to fill.

This is an image of the tray full, which it will not top up until almost all the water has been used by the plant.

In btoh imahes you can see the fabric pots fit into the trays nicely even though they are not Smartpot brand pots but yet are sized correctly.
Another point is that the autopot XL root socks are used on them and fit to the fabric pots nicely.
It’s important to get the sizing correct, my photo is a prime example of a pot I bought from my hydro store that simply was different dimensions and thus I have no use for it other than to give it away lol.

As said Saturday I leave for 10 days or so, this is a challenge to be honest this early in the grow because some plants have not yet grown into the pots enough to be turned on. Fingers crossed they will by the time Saturday comes, I have my DLI dailed in and my VPD dialed in so I’m hoping to get good enough growth by Saturday that I won’t have to ask the girlfriends mom to come over once a day and water =p

I have decided I’m going to get a 25 gallon flexie tank for my outdoor plants as well, so I am able to go for a longer period of time without worrying about people needing to top up the reservoir.

So things are starting to roll now as the indoor plants get big enough that soon I will hook their system up after cleaning the tents.

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Had to FIM one of the outdoor plants, the NLA, so made a video on a FIM.
Although I meant to say, cut 80% of the leafy material leaving 20% of leafy material and 100% of the stems.

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I’m on the road today and gone for 10 days roughly.
The plants are all in their trays but two are still to small, thus I have a friend too watering until he can turn the valves on to those to plants which I installed temporary.

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Safe travels, you got this!

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