Grow Mediums AFN Communal Autopot Test Summer 2018

[bushmasterar15]

Looking good @Ripper

 

[Ripper]

Looking good @Ripper

Thanks bud.

 

[HemiSync]

flooding,clogs the unexpected, to put things in prospective on average, how often do you have fix things that come up? like make adjustments,things like that? how many times you had a flood, more then once? what are the chances everything will run automatically without any assistance? I just know if anything comes up or happens what is your game plan? you must have right? 70days on an unattended inside grow is very risky imo...Humidity level can sky-rocket a number of things can happen..I just hope your looking at the whole picture..timers can stop working,plant can fall over, a fuse/breaker can go out, on say dehumidifier then what a fire? Like I said a smart tent is only way but there isn't any I know of that can do all them things...

I know for myself and I'm being honest here there is no possible way I could leave mine for even more then a week, maybe 2 if I had to really push but I'd be a total nervous wreck until I got back, not knowing if i'm even returning to a house...so 70day totally out of question for me...There are always things that come up, I've never seen a flawless grow where not a single thing come up that I didn't need to do something....Always expect the unexpected,plan for the worst...If ya was to have a flood and 55gal spewed out, can the area tent is in handle that size of a flood? the tent sure can't...I'm sure maybe you only thinking about floods & clogs but so much more can go wrong...I think of safety first....

I hope you realize test I was just commenting on someone else’s thought about the possibility of leaving them for an entire grow. Of course I would never try it for that length of time. I have been away for as much as 14 days and nothing went wrong. I have no choice when I travel to leave them alone. Yes I’m always a nervous wreck about it but it’s what I have to do to be able to work. I have a smart phone in my tent taking and uploading a picture every hour so I can tell if something goes wrong. Traveling for work and pleasure is the reason I originally started using the autopots, otherwise I would still be crushing it with DWC.

As for the lighting idea, I was just hypothesizing that with four AutoCOBs in there at my tent height of seven feet that a lot of the plants I have grown recently never showed any excess stretching when under the COBs. I usually find myself trying to move the COBs down and the next day go back up because my girls didn’t like it. I do think with an organic medium and using just plain water, less clogs that way, and the right autoflower strains someone could pull this off. Not me necessarily, but someone. Again it would take the right combo of lights, medium, and nutrients and could fail horribly but with the way I grow, there would little chance of housing damage as I have a drain in the bottom of my tent which takes any overflows away to a floor drain. The only electronics inside my tent are the lights and they are just 55w COBs so not an over abundance of weight to come crashing down and certainly no dehumidifiers or splits inside my tent. Thanks for the concern and good advice but again I won’t be trying this anytime soon.

 

[pop22]

speaking of clogs, one thing I see in Ripper's set up is micro valves for each pot. I too thought that was a good idea..... well....... no its not. That's when I started getting clogs, adding the valve just adds more choke points. Now the only valve is at the tank and I've not had a clog in months. I'm also going to change the feed tubing to .5" tubing, terminated to 1/4" micro 6 inches from the pot. Auto pots sells a barbed, .5" to.25" fitting that goes into the end of .5 tubing. Less likely to clog and if it does, you can just unclog that one fitting. Although I must say, in almost three years of using auto pots, I've only had clogs 3-4 times.

 

[Archaic]

Fastbuds Northern Express day 57 and Female Seeds Auto Bubble day 30. I bought another 2.2 gallon autopot (just the pot) that I'll be dropping a white crack in next week or so. That way when the NL is about done, I'll just drop the next plant in the tray just in time to switch from top feed to the reservoir.

 

[Trichome farmer]

speaking of clogs, one thing I see in Ripper's set up is micro valves for each pot. I too thought that was a good idea..... well....... no its not. That's when I started getting clogs, adding the valve just adds more choke points. Now the only valve is at the tank and I've not had a clog in months. I'm also going to change the feed tubing to .5" tubing, terminated to 1/4" micro 6 inches from the pot. Auto pots sells a barbed, .5" to.25" fitting that goes into the end of .5 tubing. Less likely to clog and if it does, you can just unclog that one fitting. Although I must say, in almost three years of using auto pots, I've only had clogs 3-4 times.

im sure you have answered this already but do u clean the lines after every grow etc .i like the idea of using the bigger tubing

 

[pop22]

Yes i clean the res and lines between grows. I also keep a spare tubing rig that all i have to do is swap out the old one, which i throw in a bucket of soapy water to soak. Going to 5." lines will eliminate the need for a .25" tubing rig as the only place it can clog is at the reducing fitting near the pot and can be cleared using a 30ml syringe with a little water in it and using it to suck the clog out. Bingo! back in business!

im sure you have answered this already but do u clean the lines after every grow etc .i like the idea of using the bigger tubing

 

[Duggy]

AutoBlueberry now getting some BioPK and little Stilton...

 

[Master_gRoshi]

The jungle is growing again.
Switched off the megacrop.
Now all I have is one problem child of the 3 on the res. All 3 photos on the res now. So here in 2 weeks. Switching to bloom nutes and flipping the lights

 

[Unique]

Hey Guy's here is another update of my Autopot Test with my Fastbuds Lemon AK-47, Dinafem Sour D & Mephisto FE.. Things are moving along, no issues to speak of(only one issue I'm having and is a small one, one of the 4 pots for whatever reason I always need to check on for some reason the float isn't always feeding that one pot) there is no clogs or anything.. I press down on float a few times or hold down for tray to fill, it's only that one pot every time I recheck every24-36hr I am having to play with that one float... Anyways, we past the half way point and with-in 45 days or less till finished...Enjoy!