Last piece of the puzzle

[Ecto]

Hey, any recommendations on what I should use for my 1st medium? I’m using Autos in a tent, heard a lot about plant magic and like the idea of just getting one brands nutes/soil etc, also can I just go straight in with the seed into final pot size 

[Gaijin]

I see some folks on here recommend final pot from the get go with autos. Others pot up once, others more. You have to be more careful with watering when you start out in the final pot. That's a lot of medium with no roots in it. 

[SkyRider]

I used to use PM soil and it always performed well. I like their nute range too.

I do paper towels to crack seeds and then straight into finals. Autos get as big as their pot, so if you don't go straight into finals, then you need to be very on the ball with potting them before their roots get restricted by the pot.

Watering them isn't hard, just take the less is more approach. When they first come above ground I make sure they get a bit of water in the soil directly around them. Then as they get older they progress on to getting half a litre of water across the top of the pot, then one litre, then when they finally root out - two litres. But then I've also gone the other way in the past and just chucked two litres of water straight at a new seedling and let it do it's thing for a week or two   I'd still do this now if I had to leave them for a few days on their own, otherwise I like to get into the cycle of watering plants about every two days in soil.

[Ecto]

13 hours ago, SkyRider said:

I used to use PM soil and it always performed well. I like their nute range too.

I do paper towels to crack seeds and then straight into finals. Autos get as big as their pot, so if you don't go straight into finals, then you need to be very on the ball with potting them before their roots get restricted by the pot.

Watering them isn't hard, just take the less is more approach. When they first come above ground I make sure they get a bit of water in the soil directly around them. Then as they get older they progress on to getting half a litre of water across the top of the pot, then one litre, then when they finally root out - two litres. But then I've also gone the other way in the past and just chucked two litres of water straight at a new seedling and let it do it's thing for a week or two   I'd still do this now if I had to leave them for a few days on their own, otherwise I like to get into the cycle of watering plants about every two days in soil.

Super info thanks mate, think I will go for the PM soil and nutes, what sort of final pot size? And are these fabric pots any good? 

[Jams67]

Trying to decide what to go for myself, so following along with interest 

[SkyRider]

1 hour ago, Ecto said:

Super info thanks mate, think I will go for the PM soil and nutes, what sort of final pot size? And are these fabric pots any good? 

Pot size depends on space and number of plants you want to run. I have around about 1.5 x 1.5m floor space. 9 plants in 18Ls would be perfect in there...Because I run a perpetual cycle, I manage to cram 12 x 18L pots in there.
If I wanted to run more plants, I'd choose smaller pots and they'd have a slightly shorter veg time. If I wanted less hassle, I'd go for fewer plants, bigger pots.
Another consideration for pot size is watering time. I use 18Ls as sometimes I have to go 3-4 days without seeing my plants. I can load up the bigger pots with enough water to do that, but the smaller pots haven't got a chance.

As for fabric pots - they are very popular. For me I like to reuse and clean my pots between plants, fabric pots aren't particularly easy to do that with compared to plastic pots so after one or two uses, I switched back to plastic. Others love them though. Worth a shot and see how you get on

 

[Ecto]

1 hour ago, SkyRider said:

Pot size depends on space and number of plants you want to run. I have around about 1.5 x 1.5m floor space. 9 plants in 18Ls would be perfect in there...Because I run a perpetual cycle, I manage to cram 12 x 18L pots in there.
If I wanted to run more plants, I'd choose smaller pots and they'd have a slightly shorter veg time. If I wanted less hassle, I'd go for fewer plants, bigger pots.
Another consideration for pot size is watering time. I use 18Ls as sometimes I have to go 3-4 days without seeing my plants. I can load up the bigger pots with enough water to do that, but the smaller pots haven't got a chance.

As for fabric pots - they are very popular. For me I like to reuse and clean my pots between plants, fabric pots aren't particularly easy to do that with compared to plastic pots so after one or two uses, I switched back to plastic. Others love them though. Worth a shot and see how you get on

 

I have half that space and will attempt 2 plants to start with, and maybe go with 18l pots although I will be able to check regular on them so could go smaller 

[SkyRider]

Just now, Ecto said:

I have half that space and will attempt 2 plants to start with, and maybe go with 18l pots although I will be able to check regular on them so could go smaller 

 
Sometimes smaller is better. The problem with doing two plants is, if you don't know the strains then you are taking a gamble on whether or not you'll like them. So sometimes more plants in smaller pots negates that risk a bit.
I could tell you to grow Sweet Seed Gelato because I think it's an amazing plant and then you smoke it and hate the taste and are stuck with a couple oz to smoke of it It happens to me frequently as I like to try new things. Always makes me smile when someone recommends a strain I absolutely hate (say, Sweet Seeds Ice Cool). Just shows how different everybodys tastes are in weed

[Ecto]

8 hours ago, SkyRider said:

 
Sometimes smaller is better. The problem with doing two plants is, if you don't know the strains then you are taking a gamble on whether or not you'll like them. So sometimes more plants in smaller pots negates that risk a bit.
I could tell you to grow Sweet Seed Gelato because I think it's an amazing plant and then you smoke it and hate the taste and are stuck with a couple oz to smoke of it It happens to me frequently as I like to try new things. Always makes me smile when someone recommends a strain I absolutely hate (say, Sweet Seeds Ice Cool). Just shows how different everybodys tastes are in weed

Very True, I have a few seeds to try and hopefully get a nice one! Could I do 3 plants in the space? 

[Guest]

11 hours ago, SkyRider said:

 I have around about 1.5 x 1.5m floor space. I manage to cram 12 x 18L pots in there.

Another consideration for pot size is watering time. I use 18Ls as sometimes I have to go 3-4 days

Can I ask what yield you get from each pot?  216L of medium in that space is mental, unless no-tilling. 

I get the less watering thing, but that is just such a waste of medium, maybe try drippers?  The space is capable of 50zips and you can pull that with 50L.

Edited April 25, 2022 by fatboy77

[SkyRider]

19 minutes ago, fatboy77 said:

Can I ask what yield you get from each pot?  216L of medium in that space is mental, unless no-tilling. 

I get the less watering thing, but that is just such a waste of medium, maybe try drippers?  The space is capable of 50zips and you can pull that with 50L.

Did you read above where I say why I use large pots or the method I use to grow?

You ain't pulling 50 ounches with 50Ls of soil bud. That's 10 x 5L pots and they ain't going to yield 5 ounches each in soil, perhaps in coco you'll get that, but not in soil and especially not when running autos...

[Guest]

Just now, SkyRider said:

Did you read above where I say why I use large pots or the method I use to grow?

You ain't pulling 50 ounches with 50Ls of soil bud. That's 10 x 5L pots and they ain't going to yield 5 ounches each in soil, perhaps in coco you'll get that, but not in soil and especially not when running autos...

Did you read the bit where I quoted why you use big pots, then suggested drippers? 

I'm currently about to pull 40+ zips from 4x10L.  There's no need to tell the man that's doing it that it can't be done. 

If you want to get all dick swingy about it then keep doing you pal, just trying to help you out.  Won't try that again. 

[SkyRider]

Just now, fatboy77 said:

Did you read the bit where I quoted why you use big pots, then suggested drippers? 

I'm currently about to pull 40+ zips from 4x10L.  There's no need to tell the man that's doing it that it can't be done. 

If you want to get all dick swingy about it then keep doing you pal, just trying to help you out.  Won't try that again. 

And you missed the bit where I said I run a perpetual harvest bud. Been down the route of drippers and it means I can't move the pots around. Also not very easy to feed organic nutes via drippers without going to a lot more effort.

Not dick swinging bud, but growing 50 ounces in 50 lites of soil is not normal. Or rather, growing 50 ounces of decent weed like that is not normal. Some strains yeild more, some yield less. But if all you're interested in is purely yeild, I'm sure I can put a single plant in fuck all soil and get a massive yield out of it, but I still ain't going to be pulling 50 ounces with 50Ls of soil in my room normally. You're the one that started the dick swinging by bringing those numbers up

I've grown in 11L pots like you do and get a very similar yeild to now, only slightly less. But like I said above, the pots don't hold the water to last me 4 days away. Trust me, the pot size I grow in isn't random, I've arrived at it with much experimentation on my end.

[Guest]

@SkyRider fair one, hope you reuse all that unused compost.  Save you a ton of dough. 

[inceywinceyspider]

I think this is really fuckin interesting, I've been thinking for a while that I seem to use less soil than other growers, looking at various grows I can see that they flip not long after roots are at the holes where I would just continue rooting for a whole lot longer.

This latest grow, I've 4 18l in almost 1.5x1.5m and I dont know if I'll make over 20z. If I was doing it again the same I'd use 6 or probably 8x 18l.

But I'm planning on changing things around and using 12x 7.5L with 720w led over approx. 1.2x 1.5 ish. I'm not sure it's enough soil really.

 

I've used the blumats and they're great I could see growth rates getting like coco but not for me in my shed, they're too delicate, I need a pumped system with the res on the floor if I go that way.