Autopot users: any salt issues? Benefits vs drip?

Star Dog

Star Dog

Well-Known Member
oill said:
Hows dtw more work?
Feeding timer.... it automatically drains.... I can go on 2 week holidays!

When you get salt build up in a autopot you have to move it and flush it. If you got the xl's that's a massive pain in the a

Maybe ots fine if you run really weak nutes... but how's that gonna help getting you dense buds.
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The nutrient strength has nothing to do with dense buds.

It's just silly to sa dtw isn't more work, I sure couldn't go away for a fortnight but I could with autopots.

FYI I never had a single bit trouble with the valves.
 
Star Dog

Star Dog

Well-Known Member
flipwon said:
So many opposing schools of thought. I guess its unanimous that dtw is better for the plant, but by how much seems to be up in the air. I wonder what sort of tangible difference there is.

If only I had unlimited space.. and money.. would be a fun test.
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I can tell you that feeding 5-7 times a day doesn't make a noticeable difference over 1 feed.

I've pulled out my 2 pot system to give it try, it's the last word in Easy to use!
 
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myke

myke

Well-Known Member
Auto pots? There just a sip correct ? Hose attached to fill, instead of just pouring it in?
 
Star Dog

Star Dog

Well-Known Member
myke said:
Auto pots? There just a sip correct ? Hose attached to fill, instead of just pouring it in?
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Yes that's it, there's a valve that let's x amount nutrient/water in at time and automatically refills when it empties.
 
Dreminen169

Dreminen169

Well-Known Member
oill said:
I've run both.... I would never do an autopot again. Loads of salt build up and it's a pain to flush. I now to dripper fed coco dtw.... and it rocks
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I found that the salt builds up on top for the autopots, not affecting anything unless you try to water in from the top. I also found that reducing my feed for the autopots led to minimal if any salt build up on top. I think have it dialed in now to where at the end of this run I won’t find any salt build up at all. You just have to dial it in. Sounds like you were vastly over feeding when not needed.
 
flipwon

flipwon

Well-Known Member
Dreminen169 said:
I found that the salt builds up on top for the autopots, not affecting anything unless you try to water in from the top. I also found that reducing my feed for the autopots led to minimal if any salt build up on top. I think have it dialed in now to where at the end of this run I won’t find any salt build up at all. You just have to dial it in. Sounds like you were vastly over feeding when not needed.
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Reducing your feed by what percentage, would you say? What kind of ec/ppm are you using in flower?
 
Dreminen169

Dreminen169

Well-Known Member
flipwon said:
Reducing your feed by what percentage, would you say? What kind of ec/ppm are you using in flower?
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~400 in Veg & 600-900 (ppm) in flower slowly increasing. If I start to see deficiencies I’ll give a quick boost of a couple hundred ppm then back down to just above where I was at
 
ComputerSaysNo

ComputerSaysNo

Well-Known Member
flipwon said:
If only I had unlimited space.. and money.. would be a fun test.
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I will definitely do a direct comparison DTW vs wick as soon as I get the time. It will probably be 4 plants, 2 clones from 2 strains, fed from the same res, two with a drip ring and some runoff, the other two in AutoPots, no flushing, no FlashClean shenanigans, and everything unrelated to the fertigation as equal as possible.

It's the only way to get to some "facts", because in this place most people seem to be content with following voodoo, gospel and cargo cults.

bk78 said:
You grow a single autoflower on your balcony. Relax mr autopot
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Guess who chimed in with some words! You're really driving the discussion forward reliably.

rkymtnman said:
i guess he was technically correct then. there is no drain, it just runs off his balcony down to the neighbour below. lol.
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What is your problem, exactly? That I have a plant on a balcony does not mean there is no grow room elsewhere. One has nothing to do with the other.

Most people do not have a drain in the space where they grow plants; any drain water needs to be collected and disposed of manually. A lot of people use pumps. It does not sound convenient or fun to me, would rather avoid.

The balcony would actually be a good place to run DTW exactly because draining the water is easy (it's not going down to the neighbour, don't worry).

lol.
 
ComputerSaysNo

ComputerSaysNo

Well-Known Member
flipwon said:
Reducing your feed by what percentage, would you say?
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I have fed the TriPart recommended schedule at HALF strength. E.g. in flower that would be 0.4/0.8/1.2 grow/micro/bloom in mL/L. No salt build-up (at least not visible one), and no signs of malnutrition on the plant.

Going at half strength is what people who do top-fed coco/perlite with GH nutrients recommend as well. It's apparently not different for a wick system.

The manufacturer of the AutoPot advises against feeding from the top, because according to them salts accumulate at the top. The also advise against flushing the medium the regular way, but mention you can run something like FlashClean through the reservoir.

I have boldly ignored the flushing advice, and ran FlashClean through the pot from the top (at least 10L for a 15L pot), to no ill effect as far as I could see. However, I also do not know if there was a benefit...
 
rkymtnman

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
ComputerSaysNo said:
It's the only way to get to some "facts", because in this place most people seem to be content with following voodoo, gospel and cargo cults.
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so your cargo cult following self has never done DTW. yet you claim wick systems are better than DTW?

and you use flashclean but then say flashclean shenanigans?

are you a bot?
 
O

oill

Well-Known Member
Dreminen169 said:
I found that the salt builds up on top for the autopots, not affecting anything unless you try to water in from the top. I also found that reducing my feed for the autopots led to minimal if any salt build up on top. I think have it dialed in now to where at the end of this run I won’t find any salt build up at all. You just have to dial it in. Sounds like you were vastly over feeding when not needed.
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Are you in coco?
 
ComputerSaysNo

ComputerSaysNo

Well-Known Member
rkymtnman said:
so your cargo cult following self has never done DTW. yet you claim wick systems are better than DTW?
and you use flashclean but then say flashclean shenanigans?
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Learn to follow a line of reasoning, and I will entertain you more by reacting to your emotional posts.

are you a bot?
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You are very insecure.

oill said:
Give up... its just difference of opinions at this stage
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The point is, all I've done is reported my experience with AutoPots -- then the Drip Irrigation Gang and associated troll army turns up and goes "your mom!" on me, while not providing any arguments or helpful information.

Obviously, putting one's own opinions (or rather, "cultish beliefs") to the test might end up with having to actually change your opinion. Clearly not an option.
 
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