Hydro Autopot HPS/LED

Hi All,
This is my first grow from seeds. Plants shown are 5 weeks from germination. I am running an Autopot setup using GH 3 part nutrient system. Plants are grown in rockwool core surrounded by a mixture of vermiculite/perlite.
Plants have been growing under a 400W HPS light up to now and will be switching them to an LED array (11x14W lights as pictured, total of ~ 150W total). Plants will be switched to flowering as soon as clones have taken. Should be another 10 days.
We have 2 plants that we think are males as they are taller, have longer internode distance and are not as bushy. The 2 taller plants are 21" and the 2 shorter ones are 16".

Comments and suggestions welcome

i've heard tin foil burns the plant's leaves

It's not tin foil. It's a vapor barrier which is used for construction in houses.
Basically it's a tarp with an aluminium coating. The coating is not smooth and the reflected light is scattered.
Haven't had a burnt leaf yet!!

I use smartvalves, how do you like the autopots? Have you noticed any over watering at all? Also, what media are you using?


They look awesome! I'll be watching this thread

The Autopot system comes with a smartvalve for each 2 pots. I have not noticed any problems with overwatering. On the contrary - before moving them to Autopots, we were watering them by hand but they really shot up once we put them on the system - drinking much more than we thought they needed. They have grown 12 inches in 3 weeks.

The media is a large rockwool cube, surrounded by a mixture of vermiculite and perlite - always damp but never soggy. The General Hydroponics 3 part nutrients are working very well, just by following the instructions on the bottle.

That's cool! I am using turface as the media. It is suppose to have the properties of the combined mixture of perlite & vermiculite...it is also re-usable!

Where did you get your LED lights??

The LED lights are from homegrownlights.com - they sell them as kits or assembled. Decent price too

How is this grow coming along?