I've been using 2.4 gallon Air Pots in flowering for a while now with great success! I recently went from a 600 w HPS for flowering, to a 1000 w HPS. Actually, I use the 600 for the first 2-3 weeks of flowering, followed for the rest of the cycle by the 1000 w HPS. Anyway, I'm wondering, for those who have used Air Pots, what your opinion is on going to the 3.4 gallon Air Pots. Here's my set-up right now. Spare bedroom as a dedicated area. 4.5' X 4.5' X 7' tent for flower. 2.5' X 2.5' tent for Veg. with a 240 w LED optimized for Veg. 4-5 (4 at the present) plants grown in a perpetual style; so, when one set is done flowering another set is done vegging and ready to be transplanted and transfered to the flower tent. Nextgen 600 & 1000 w digital ballasts with Digilux HPS bulbs. Plants are 15-16 inches (on average) when they are transfered to the flower tent. My last grow was 2 Grape God, 1 Yumbolt-47, 1 Sweet Deep Grapefruit, and 1 Kannabia Special. Yield: 21 ozs. dried and cured. So, do you think going to the 3.4 gallon Air Pots would allow the roots more area to expand into and fill, thus increasing yields; or do you think there would be little to be gained from an increase in media volume? After all, these are short lived plants--they can only grow so much of a root mass, and only yield so much in a limited time frame. Thanks, Budbrain
I thought Air Pots didn't need to be a specific size and they don't really form a rootball. Is this information incorrect? I had a 5ft tall plant in a 1gal airpot.
[quote name='"Aliquid"']I thought Air Pots didn't need to be a specific size and they don't really form a rootball. Is this information incorrect? I had a 5ft tall plant in a 1gal airpot.[/quote] Bigger is always better.....
All plants will form a root ball no matter the container. Air Pots prevent root circling. however, I'm not sure that "bigger is better" always applies. As I said, these are short lived plants; you can only get so big of a root mass and so much yield in 10 weeks--there has to be a limit to the useful size of a container for a plant that has a total life span of ~ 4 months. Bud
A guy I talked with said he had gotten 52g from a 1L plant, and he had pictures with it. On another international forum. I am still unsure wether to get 3L or 1L in sog because of this.
You could use the smaller pots for a plant up to 3' tall with no problem. I just harvested last night, was using the 3.4 gallon size and was amazed at how the roots were spread out in the soil. Absolutely no sign of root balling and were nice and healthy too, but really didn't notice anything spectacular while growing. Plants were between 2-2'6" tall and would definatley go with 2 gallon next time...Just a lot easier to handle 2 gallon pots and less wasted nutes running off...
True, I will be using a trumph-blumat in every pot so watering wont be a problem for me. I will go with coco medium, in 6L (1.8 gal maybe?) my first grow since I already ordered it before noticing how people went with half the size pots and still got big plants (2feet or so). We'll see if it works good I might stick with the 6L air pots.
I'm planning on running the 3.4g ones and was thinking of using the blumats too, but people are starting to talk bad about them now? Also is cannabis considered a fine root plant? There is a deal on fine-root Airpots, are these ok or is the larger root hole needed?
People that talk bad about the blumats are the ones that lack the intelligence to set them up properly and follow simple directions. Zero uses them and so do I.... no problems here, just extremely happy plants and care free watering in coco.
For now I've decided to run the 2.4g Airpots, still may consider the 3.4 in the future. The only thing holding me back from the blumats is trying to figure out how to setup my grow room that has an elevated holding tank for the blumats that is out of the way, yet easy to access to clean etc.
I start all my seeds in the 1L Air Pots, and then go into the 20L (5 gallon) air pots. Then I give them about three weeks, and then into flower. I did do a run where I went from 1L for seedling stage, then into the 5L for some vegetative growth and then into the 20L for flowering. I have now determined that the 5L pots were not needed, and the plants that went from 1L into 20L did the best. I also have some 30L pots, but honestly, they look too big for my regular needs. I have had awesome results using soil in Air Pots. You definitely have to adjust certain methods or equipment for them to work best. For example, I had to change my soil mix to increase porosity and absorption, but once dialed in, it is easy growing from there on. I'm on my fourth cycle using Air Pots.