Air Pot Exsperiment - Romulan vs Romulan

Ok , i decided to give these a whirl,

15L Air Pots. After adding all kinds of stuff to our mediums to make it more airy ,Perlite,VercumiliteHydroleca etc,
i figured these were deffo worth a shot
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So , all my plants are in Plant Magic Coco, with added perlite and a lower level layer of Bat Guano and Hydroleca clay.
I use the complete nute range from Vitalink, veg and bloom,
All my plants are vegged under 250w MH lights and flowered under 1700w HPS.
My main objective is to produce more yield from an already good producing Romulan Pheno,
I will compare with normal 11L square pots that i normally use, although these plants are 3 weeks ahead.
Im using this thread to follow my own progress but any constructive comments are also welcome,

I will also add at this point that the Air pot plants seem to grow alot quicker than the normal pots whilst under 24hour light,
also note these pots seem to need watering everyday, more air-flow means higher evapouration i guess(plants need attention daily as appose to 2-3 days with normal pots).
I will update every other day with pictures.....

OK, first up are 2 Romulan plants in 11L normal pots.........
These are 3 weeks into 12/12



Ok , now the 15L Air Pots , 2days into 12/12 & 2 11L Airpots that are still under 24hour light.....



Some other small plants i am experimenting with, Romulan x Exo Cheese etc...


Cheers for looking , like i said will update often,
And if you guys have any purples you wanna show off feel free,

Air pots & coco r the bollox m8 '! I'm loving em !

A reminder to myself to leave some space in my veg room .........

I don't know but those plants and buds look spectacular. lol. Great grow man.

I have a buddy who use's air pots and coco in a flood and drain set-up and he loves it and his bud comes out super dense and all around great smoke. He runs 3k watts also with 10 2 ft tall plants just so you know. lol.

I saw those pots and was wondering if they helped or where just a gimmick. I'm curious to see how they turn out.

Blowin' Smoke said:

I saw those pots and was wondering if they helped or where just a gimmick. I'm curious to see how they turn out.

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Me also , i will be updating often , really they do not cost that much so hopefully the extra cash input i have made will pay off,
if they perform i will gradually change all my pots over.......

i gaur-en-fukin-tee the fabric pots will blow ANY plastic planter u compare it with. im so positive of it... that if i could face to face with ya, i would bet my next 100 crops on it and shake on it. im not sure with the metric system too well, but ive done 7 gallon plastic planters vs 5g smart pots and there was no contest on the bigger healthier plant with more yield. i do 7 gallon smart pots now and averave 4-5 z's per plant on only 30 day vegg. some strains i get more..like sour diesel and God Bud pull 6-7....never less than 4 oz's per plant of any strain. good luck on ur experiment...ill just spoil the party and tell u who the winner is gonna be tho

Grown n Oregon said:

i gaur-en-fukin-tee the fabric pots will blow ANY plastic planter u compare it with. im so positive of it... that if i could face to face with ya, i would bet my next 100 crops on it and shake on it. im not sure with the metric system too well, but ive done 7 gallon plastic planters vs 5g smart pots and there was no contest on the bigger healthier plant with more yield. i do 7 gallon smart pots now and averave 4-5 z's per plant on only 30 day vegg. some strains i get more..like sour diesel and God Bud pull 6-7....never less than 4 oz's per plant of any strain. good luck on ur experiment...ill just spoil the party and tell u who the winner is gonna be tho

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Your not spoiling anything ,
I am doing just fine with the normal pots, i just wanted to give them a go,
If ever i want to change anything i always run the test myself if i can , obviously i did research first and unless i was convinced they would be better, i really would not have bothered,
kinda like the proof is in the pudding,
the pots you use , smart pots ,i just don't get along with ,i prefer a good strong sturdy pot.

i hear ya on the sturdyness issue. i had my wife sew handles on the side of mine which has made life alot easier i must admit. i also run a wire around the top of them and tighten it down and use it as my anchor for other strands of wire i run up to the branches for lst'ing and pulling center branches out to the side. it can be a pain in the ass come harvest time cuz i have like 20 or 30 wires to unhook but it does great for "opening" up ur plant.

Biggest problem I had with the Air-Pot is that they dry out so fast. In a regular pot, I usually water one day, skip the next. With the Air-Pots I had to water everyday or I'd find the girls in bad shape. I'm going to build a gravity drip system at some point and will try them again for flowering.

I'll tell you two things they excel at.

1. If you transplant into larger pots for flowering, vegging in Air-Pots will give you nice root balls that aren't root bound.
2. Mother plants, again because they keep the plant from getting root bound. I've had one mother in a Air-Pot for a couple of years without a problem.

The mother cab is much cooler and only 2x14w T5 so they don't dry out nearly as quick.

Grown n Oregon said:

i hear ya on the sturdyness issue. i had my wife sew handles on the side of mine which has made life alot easier i must admit. i also run a wire around the top of them and tighten it down and use it as my anchor for other strands of wire i run up to the branches for lst'ing and pulling center branches out to the side. it can be a pain in the ass come harvest time cuz i have like 20 or 30 wires to unhook but it does great for "opening" up ur plant.

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sounds quality ,
my main issue is that i make a separate mesh for each plant as i grow many different strains i never have an even canopy,
i find with the sturdy type of plastic pot its better for fixing to.
also , sometimes after a crop , my bloom tent can be half full. what i do is i have two veg tents, one of them being next to the bloom tent, the plants in this tent get moved across for 12 hours of extra a
light power while the tent is on, then in 12 hours they go back.
i would not be able to do any of this.
your input is valued,
sounds like a web of wires,
can't you pin them to the ceiling to support plant and pot ?

TechnoMage said:

Biggest problem I had with the Air-Pot is that they dry out so fast. In a regular pot, I usually water one day, skip the next. With the Air-Pots I had to water everyday or I'd find the girls in bad shape. I'm going to build a gravity drip system at some point and will try them again for flowering.

I'll tell you two things they excel at.

1. If you transplant into larger pots for flowering, vegging in Air-Pots will give you nice root balls that aren't root bound.
2. Mother plants, again because they keep the plant from getting root bound. I've had one mother in a Air-Pot for a couple of years without a problem.

The mother cab is much cooler and only 2x14w T5 so they don't dry out nearly as quick.

Click to expand...

everything you have stated is exactly right.
i spend 2 hours with my plants everyday (they are at my office),
i dont use timers as such, kind of my built in safety method, i figure im there most the time things can't go wrong,
so watering everyday i dont mind at all,
i also am however considering a manual drip system, each dripper is placed into the soil and your own water and nutes can be added your self.
they only last 72 hours though before they need filling.
i will be doing a write up on these tomorrow.
thanks for your input, very useful.

TechnoMage said:

Biggest problem I had with the Air-Pot is that they dry out so fast. In a regular pot, I usually water one day, skip the next. With the Air-Pots I had to water everyday or I'd find the girls in bad shape. I'm going to build a gravity drip system at some point and will try them again for flowering.

I'll tell you two things they excel at.

1. If you transplant into larger pots for flowering, vegging in Air-Pots will give you nice root balls that aren't root bound.
2. Mother plants, again because they keep the plant from getting root bound. I've had one mother in a Air-Pot for a couple of years without a problem.

The mother cab is much cooler and only 2x14w T5 so they don't dry out nearly as quick.

Click to expand...

just add more water when u do your normal waterings so u can skip a day in between. im a skip a day in between waterings kind of guy myself. with 7gal smartpors, i water 1gallon every other day up untill about week 6ish...then i go with a gallon and a half every other day untill week 8-10 and then back down to just a single gallon. most of the plants wont even need the whole gallon at that point cuz they arnt really "growing" anymore..just sitting there ripening.

i think some ppl forget that with air/smart pots, the root system of your plant is is almost double the size of any plastic potter u use and there for requires almost double the water. plus when u factor in the pot itself is letting consistant air into it, for sure the soil drys out a little faster....but its all benificial, so there for worth doing in my opinion. a few of my friends bitched about having to add a extra gallon of water all the time untill harvest time came around and the had twice as much herb as before...then it all became worth it, lol. good luck,, hope this helps at least a little

Grown n Oregon said:

i think some ppl forget that with air/smart pots, the root system of your plant is is almost double the size of any plastic potter u use and there for requires almost double the water. plus when u factor in the pot itself is letting consistant air into it, for sure the soil drys out a little faster....but its all benificial, so there for worth doing in my opinion. a few of my friends bitched about having to add a extra gallon of water all the time untill harvest time came around and the had twice as much herb as before...then it all became worth it, lol. good luck,, hope this helps at least a little

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Totally agree ! . . . If you're a lazy cunt , you're a lazy cunt , don't matter what pot u use ! , get em in airpots & coco & do a bit more watering & ye shall reap the rewards !

Grown n Oregon said:

just add more water when u do your normal waterings so u can skip a day in between. im a skip a day in between waterings kind of guy myself. with 7gal smartpors, i water 1gallon every other day up untill about week 6ish...then i go with a gallon and a half every other day untill week 8-10 and then back down to just a single gallon. most of the plants wont even need the whole gallon at that point cuz they arnt really "growing" anymore..just sitting there ripening.

Click to expand...

The only problem with overwatering is that i had a fungus gnat issue a few weeks back,
i don't want to encourage those little critters back , the Air pot's are scary in that sense, they have holes everywhere , perfect for those little critters to camp out an set up a supply line of their lavrae maggots ,
although they dont do alot of harm , i hate bugs!!!

Ok ,
Update ,

A few pictures of teh normal potted plants , they are doing really well , only 3 weeks in and forming nicely, i have grown this pheno before so i know they will produce lot's of yummy sticky purple, they have 6 weeks bloom left,

The 2 15L Air pot plants have been in only a few days , plus 2 more 11L Air pots that i put into bloom just today, the stems are alot thicker than normal and vegative growth has speeded up alot,

I took some pictures of my set up as i had some PM questions i would rather answer here,




















<---- coffee break.

Grown n Oregon said:

i think some ppl forget that with air/smart pots, the root system of your plant is is almost double the size of any plastic potter u use and there for requires almost double the water. plus when u factor in the pot itself is letting consistant air into it, for sure the soil drys out a little faster....but its all benificial, so there for worth doing in my opinion. a few of my friends bitched about having to add a extra gallon of water all the time untill harvest time came around and the had twice as much herb as before...then it all became worth it, lol. good luck,, hope this helps at least a little

Click to expand...

I was giving small bits of water spaced out over a 2 hour period until I had water running out the holes in the side. You also said you were using the 7gal pots. Biggest pots I have are the 2.5 gal ones.

Nice setup, interested to see what you find out. I've used 2 gallon air pots with great success. Watering just takes a little more care but I'm able to water in soil every 2-3 days.

Ok update time...............

All plants doing well , if the Air pots are an improvement then i am in for some wicked plants because my normal potted Romulan's are looking funky ,
Purple showing through and they are glistening and spitting after only 3.5 weeks,
The air pot plants are 1 week into 12/12....

Thanks for looking....