walked in to my secret shop,
told the dude that a pump went down and lost my 12 hydro cheese with were doing ok bit leggy heatwave started on the very day i put them in and found that shoot to much and were over heating bad which wouldnt of happened so much with pot that i normally do,
then his eyes lit up! you need auto pots mate !!!!!! about 10 mins later 200 pound down i got a full 10 pot auto system ?????
didnt think to ask first the wise laptop ???
so has any one got the autopots (graverty feed) systems.
Click to view attachmentthanks for any reply's

lad i used to grow with has started using them and thinks theyre good , but hasnt done enough to prove anything.

Without wanting to kill your "new equipment" buzz to much, have you still got the receipt?

hb

I have 8 doubles and a 100 litre tank. I've used them now for 8 months thats 4 seperate grows, just coming to the end of the 4th. Same as you I had problems with other pump driven systems so I tried autopots. They are dead easy to use and very hard to go wrong, just fill up the tank every 5 days or so, adjust ph and forget for anther 5 days..the results are better than soil but maybe not quite as good as full blown hydro but as I have never managed to have a successfull grow with hydro then I can't really compare.

Anyway I reckon they are well worth it and would recomend them to anybody if only for the ease and consistancy of the grows.

tips: Place an airstone in the res..rinse those black squares that you put into the bottom of the pots in water, they tend to be non porous otherwise..clean the valves thoroughly after each grow. If you can flush the pipes through every week as sometimes a bit of residue gets stuck in there, just unplug the end and let it flow through for 30 secs

I use Ionic for coco. ec 15 to 18 and ph 6.0 all the way through, piece of piss.

and the yield is pretty good as well

Thanks trunip ,
that's great news,this seems to be the answer i need,
i have grown some very proud buds in my time,pots have always been the answer for me, and walking the hydro path has always been hard,
so this seems to be the thing for me,

but i have been a bizzy multi growing,
and have been hideing a small jungle ,well only what i thought was a old mother that was put out after a hard life cloneing and she wasn't looking good,
weather wasn't good well repotted here really badly,then used really shit soil to repot her from a pot that i dont remeber were it came from last year sometime?
this point shade leafs had only three fingers and she had been the driving force for a long time,so too releaf her of duty for under achiving was hard.
gave her a trim,once i noticed that she was recovering still didnt want to think a year old plant could come back to life ?

them more problems, had too move two more over achivers out ,due too lack of space in the small vegataive room.
this ment that the old mother started getting really healthy again,due to the more attenion and the pot i put out were monsterous too,
so i have started a cloning off some great plants just not my cheese but in away i think these will turn out to be great clones if they root.
this is going too be diaryed but not too much photos Click to view attachment

I know a fella who raves about these. I think he sent one to Stanky to try out.

He won't consider growing any other way now, so you may like them mate. Apparently, if he wanted, he could leave them alone for 3 weeks solid, go on holiday or whatever, and they would be ok. I quite like that. Not my style of growing cos I like to watch them grow, but a handy thing to have if you need it.

im seeing the guy i know tomorrow so i'll ask how its going, think it was 7.50 each he paid but that was off a guy who knows a guy not shop prices.

as blayz'd says im a guy who likes to watch them grow and get stuck in so its not really for me but on small scale commercial i'd give them a go

I am fully sold on autopots and there is no way I would go back to soil or full hydro, although I might give a small nft tray a go to compare results.

The beauty of them is that because they are so consistant you can try different methods of growing like scrog or sog or bending them, short or long veg times and using different strains knowing that each grow they all get the exactly the same treatment therefore maximising the efficiency of your growroom...well thats the theory anyway but I am slowly increasing my yields as I work out what is best.

Pics from the latest grow with another week to 10 days to go

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment


Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

The first one is under the canopy showing the autopots. Bit messy but that is because the leaves die off if they get no light, other than that there is very little yellowing which used to be normal towards the end of a grow.

looking good mate , what medium/nutes are you using?

Coco mixed with 25% perlite...Ionic grow, bloom and boost, no additives..EC15 to 17 ph 6.0 all the way through

Glad you like them

my m8 as been keeping a mother in a autopot for nearly 18months in soil now, and his mother is healthy as fuck.
personally i think they are pretty good systems.

mind you if i was to use them, i think i would go for the easy to grow kits instead of the bigger autopots, simply because the easy to grow use smaller pots.

They work really well, as long as you keep the valves clean. Do you find the two pot system too close? I use the single pot system - but I know people who have used just the valve in a large tray as emergency watering when away.

Been looking at these for my next grow possibly, how many of these (if at all) would be ideal in a 80cm x 80cm floorspace?

Been using the hempy bucket method for my first grow but the run off is a pain to deal with in the space I have.

at a guess probably a four plant kit m8.

Been eyeing a 6 pot myself as I find NFT a pain in the arse, and turnip's grow looks none too shabby.

Can you buy just those valves from anywhere?

I'm getting quite interested in these as well. I'm in pots at the mo having swapped from a couple of nft tables because I run a perpetual multi-strain grow and that's hard with NFT. These autopots mean I can move plants between rooms, and even have a couple of reservoirs for different stages.

I could see them working in a greenhouse or polytunnel as well.

I'm a bit confused about the medium, coco seems popular but you can use your regular compost if you want? It seems to me that one is soil and the other hydro Also, do Biobizz nutes clog the valves?

Another q - I've seen people recommend that a round airstone is put under the pot. Doesn't this mean that the pot base will be raised above the minimum level of the tank?

Cheers

yes you can use regular soil or coco, and no you cant put a airstone under the pot.
though you can put an airstone in the rez tank.

Thanks. Do you know if compost grows are more vigorous than hand watering, or is it just the coco that grows so well?

How about organic nutes eg Biobizz? Is it best to use non-organic to prevent clogging etc?

I'm intrigued, I'm currently pissing about with digital timers, pumps and adjustable drippers, very hard to deal with run off due to no catchment tray due to limited headroom.

Anybody elses feedback on these autopots would be greatly appreciated.

Woody

im only going by my m8's auto pot.
he uses soil and it seems to work very well for his mother plant.
he uses ionic grow for soil, and he said its never clogged up on him, but then he do clean out the nozzle every few months just to be on the safe side.
but i would imagine it would be easy to unblocked with a sowing needle.

Cheers mate

One thing I am uncertain about - in soil you pot up gradually, in coco you can put a cutting straight into the final pot and hand water until roots grow down.

How do you pot up in soil using autopots? Do you pot up normally then put in in an autopot for flowering?

Now thinking seriously about using coco.

Thread cleaned of spam

Thanks

Owd

I've used both soil and coco in autopots, the coco grows were a little better but I did mix both soil and coco with 25% perlite and both with an inch or 2 of clay pebbles at the bottom of the pot.

In both coco and soil I veg in a 1.5 ltr pot until there is a good root mass and then into the autopot and veg for a week to 10 days and then flip to 12/12. Been going like clockwork for 4 grows now with each grow almost the same, no hassle and the plants grow perfectly all the way through with little or no yellowing.

Because the grows are so consistant I can experiment with different methods, wether pruning once, twice or 3 times is better, or bending, supercropping or a scrog produces the best results.

Er....so far I've tried 3 of these methods and each time the yield has been exactly the same

That's really useful, thanks.

Sorry for all the questions, but what feeding programme do you use? Do you adjust pH and measure EC, or just measure out the nutes?

e2a. What size are your Autopots?

PS anyone fancy writing a guide to Autopots?

Sorry, just read your first post with most the answers in.

Cheers for the replies, done quite a bit of reading last night and my only real concern is the valve sticking open and the res emptying itself, not great in a loft grow!!

Looks like sitting them in a tray capable of holding the res amount is the only safe option.

Think I'll purchase just the one and see how it fairs.

WB

I have mine in the loft as well and I have made sure that if there is a flood (and it could be 100 litres) that I have 2 layers of heavy duty polythene to stop anything coming through.

I have had one flood though but not too bad, about half the res, I climbed up for the daily inspection to find a mini paddling pool, The polythene had held and not a drop went through...the fault was mine as I did not fix down one of the valves properly.
Apart from that the only problems I have had with the valves is them sticking shut and the plant not getting anything at all, some nutes tend to have minute particles floating around which havn't desolved and if they build up can block a valve. I now flush through the pipes every time I refill the res by openeing the end of the pipe and letting the liquid flow through.

I believe that autopots used to have a problem with the valves occasionally sticking open but their new valve (a blue one) seems to have sorted this. The only thing that might cause them to stick open is that if you allow the roots to grow in around the valve but if you use the copper mat and the black square in the bottom of the pot you should be OK though its always worth checking ocasionally.

It is also vitally important to thoroughly clean everything at the start of each grow

had autopot 2 years now good results going over to run to waste just to compare ? any tips ?

you know when you know you posted something but just couldnt find it?
WoW ???

thank you this look the shizinic !!, sorry i am not blessed with a meomory just found this post of mine thanks for the most best looking plants ,
auto pots ?

would you veg in the autopot striaght from propergator or veg for a week under250???

iv done four grows with the autopot.
i found the double trays to close together so changed um to the single and for me there faultless, wouldnt use anything else. had some crackin results and yeilds. i put and air stone in the res and and air stone in the bottom of each tray and it works wonders! coco with a couple of inch pebbles bottom of each pot. ph 5.8 ec 1.2-1.7

Autopots are a great system to grow in - i've used up to 5 doubles in a 1.2m tent before and had almost 450g dried which I consider a good yield - I now use just clay pebbles in my AP's and it works a charm - no leccy or timers, no soil mix, no noisy bubbling buckets and easy to clean out and re-use

If you have a big enough res you can leave them for very long periods of time - i've been away on hols for 3 weeks and left them and had no probs at all

l0l - whoever is saying to keep the receipts CANNOT possibly have used them!

Sound interesting - what nutes do you use with clay pebbles?

Also, how do you start them off? Rockwool blocks?

You can start from clones in 1 inch rockwool, then 3 inch then straight into the autopot,watering from the top for the first few days then sit back and relax

I use coco + 25% perlite with a 1 inch layer of clay pebbles at the bottom then Ionic nutes for coco

Cheers mate,

I keep going back and forth between soil/coco and 1-pot/2-pot systems and it's doing my head in a bit.

I guess the smaller 8.5L pots would work well with coco but 15L maybe better for soil?

Whichever system I plan to get an airdome for each pot and a decent airpump for up to 8 pots and 2 tanks. Again, just noticed the air compressor type and am wondering if they are worth the extra.


e2a. I still find it intriguing that one system can be used for soil/organic, coco or hydro.

I do exactly the same apart from using perlite and coco - I start my seeds or cuttings in 1" blocks and then they go into the AP's solely in hydroton about a week later - I use the hard water Ionic Grow, Bloom & Boost throughout the entire grow

another advantage of using AP's over a bubble bucket, nft or F&D system is the additional grow height you get back as the AP's sit on the ground and are less than a foot tall - so if height is a consideration then these can help

I do run to waste, it's easy enough. Full strength nutes, pH at 6.2 and 25% runoff. Less runoff will work (min 10%) but 25% will just about guarantee zero problems. Feed them every night and don't feel too guilty if you miss a night because having a life got in the way.

I use Fytocell now, gave a night and day improvement with early growth compared to straight perlite. I only feed once a night and young plants in an 11L pot of perlite no doubt need more frequent feedings until their roots are established. Either way, the Fytocell suits my style of maintenance better.

I'd like to try coco for a side by side with Fytocell but as I use the lucas formula it's difficult to plan a fair test.

i had probs with valves, good clean fixed it, great easy to use system