Air-Pot vs standard pot grow from clones. 600w in a tent

TechnoMage

Well-Known Member
interested to see how this goes about to pick up some airpots but not sure on sizes...can I grow from seed to harvest in a 2 gal airpot, or would it be better to get the mini pots and then transplant into 3 gal pots?
Stick around and find out. :) I'll be moving at least two of the smaller plants into larger pots. The standard will go into a 2gal standard pot and the .3gal Air-Pot will go into a 2gal Air-Pot. The larger pots are the same one's I'm already using. This will do a few things.
  1. Let me take a look in a couple of weeks at how the root structures are developing.
  2. Compare difference between standard and Air-Pots when transplanting.
  3. Compare the difference between plants that are transplanted and plants that are just started in bigger pots.

In the end, the less work I need to do for equal yield the better.

Home Made Air Pots FTW ! Hobbes :)
Hobbes' https://www.rollitup.org/grow-room-design-setup/303229-diy-air-pruning-pot-experiment.html thread is what got me interested in Air Pruning in the first place. I did a bunch of research and came to the conclusion that having that smooth cone shape was a definite plus and something that would be difficult to do DIY.

in those pics i see the standard pot doing much better. that standard pot plant looks like its ready to fly. nice job on the grow.
Just went back and took a second look. It's not so much that the plant in the standard pot is doing better but it is stretching more. I think this is because the Air-Pot it taller and closer to the light. I don't really count this as a plus or minus because I can adjust the light higher if I want them to stretch. The cab I'm growing in now is very height limited. I've put together a 2x4 HydroHut tent for this grow and have got a couple extra feet of vertical space to play with. I couldn't fit four 2 gal pots in my current cab.
 

a mongo frog

Well-Known Member
no i can see other signs of the standard pot doing way better.not just stretch actually i dont see any stretch at all.
 

SpaaaceCowboy

Well-Known Member
to me the regular pot is about to surpass thr air pot by a mile.
would u look at that. no really just look at that.
Sometimes you just got to look at it.

Subbed to this thread...Interested in seeing you results...I got a home made airpot that I just transplanted into...I lined the inside with mesh cloth for fiberglass repairs...Plant is 6 weeks old today....

Here is a pic of mine when it was at about 5 weeks...Might not work as well as an original but I did see a root poking out the other day.

DSC01479_opt.jpgDSC01478_opt.jpgDSC01480_opt.jpg
 

a mongo frog

Well-Known Member
Sometimes you just got to look at it.

Subbed to this thread...Interested in seeing you results...I got a home made airpot that I just transplanted into...I lined the inside with mesh cloth for fiberglass repairs...Plant is 6 weeks old today....

Here is a pic of mine when it was at about 5 weeks...Might not work as well as an original but I did see a root poking out the other day.

View attachment 1822048View attachment 1822049View attachment 1822050
your plant looks great also. im just not seing any difference between the 2 typs of pots. maybe later in this grow the air pots might surpass.
 

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
no i can see other signs of the standard pot doing way better.not just stretch actually i dont see any stretch at all.

I believe you are seeing an optical illusion. The standard pot has a smaller diameter (distance across) and circumference than the LARGER AP, and so it 'looks' smaller.

In the infamous words of a husband getting caught having sex with another woman "Are you gonna believe me, or your lying eyes?"

My test plant (see below, taken Monday) went from a standard 8" pot, where it was totally root bound (and therefor no growth), to a 4" AP.

In ~ 10 days, it has exploded with growth (canopy 10" across, main stem 3Xs the diameter), but then my lighting is tits HO T5s using coral bulbs, plus DM Gold nutes. The outer pot is just for stability. I will need to replant soon.




IMG_0826.jpgIMG_0827.jpg


 

cacamal

Well-Known Member
Wednesday, October 5th 2011
Total days: 22
Clone: 11
Veg: 11
Flower: 0
Notes:
-------------------------------

We're 11 days into veg and the plants are all looking good. Not seeing much of a difference yet between the standard and Air-Pots but I didn't really expect any. From what I've read about air pruning, the differences should get more and more pronounced the longer the plant is in the pot.

View attachment 1821963
Shot of the four plants in the smaller pots.

View attachment 1821964
Close-up of one of the smaller Air-Pots. I watered a little so you can see how the berm of dirt around the edge keeps the water from leaking out of the holes.

View attachment 1821962
Shot of the two bigger pots.
I dont see much difference either but also agree that given time the air pots will take off. In fact the regular pot might take off a little up top at first because the roots are splitting and establishing themselves but I agree that with some time given and once those roots are split and established proof will show bigger buds! Once again great report thanks!
 

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
When I transplanted a week ago, from a standard pot to a 4" AP, the roots were very thin and wrapped all around the outside of the soil. Yesterday when I transplanted, it to a 1G pot the roots were running laterally from the main tap root AND they were thicker with visible signs of fish bones- smaller roots growing out of the larger roots. When viewed without soil, they look like a fish bone skeleton. The plant mos def needed transplanting, but has doubled in size in a weeks' time in the 4" AP, so from this one example, they are amazing.
 

cacamal

Well-Known Member
When I transplanted a week ago, from a standard pot to a 4" AP, the roots were very thin and wrapped all around the outside of the soil. Yesterday when I transplanted, it to a 1G pot the roots were running laterally from the main tap root AND they were thicker with visible signs of fish bones- smaller roots growing out of the larger roots. When viewed without soil, they look like a fish bone skeleton. The plant mos def needed transplanting, but has doubled in size in a weeks' time in the 4" AP, so from this one example, they are amazing.
Do you think the AP used has to be a plants final home? I mean I saw the little coke can size APs and if you started with that and wanted to transplant to a 3gal AP pulling the plant out of the little AP would be mighty stressful with the roots growing into the AP air chambers....hope that made sensi
 

SirusSirus

Member
Do you think the AP used has to be a plants final home? I mean I saw the little coke can size APs and if you started with that and wanted to transplant to a 3gal AP pulling the plant out of the little AP would be mighty stressful with the roots growing into the AP air chambers....hope that made sensi
there is a link to someone's thread in here where they showed transplanting to larger airpots no problem.

mine will be here tomorrow, 4 4" minis and 4 2 gal pots I won't be starting my grow for a few weeks though just made a big ol order of pots, radiant hood, digilux 600 mh/hps bulbs, sunhut large 3x4, and lumatek ballast
 

cacamal

Well-Known Member
there is a link to someone's thread in here where they showed transplanting to larger airpots no problem.

mine will be here tomorrow, 4 4" minis and 4 2 gal pots I won't be starting my grow for a few weeks though just made a big ol order of pots, radiant hood, digilux 600 mh/hps bulbs, sunhut large 3x4, and lumatek ballast
cool thanks for the heads up i will check around as i am very curious about these APs! nice investment sounds like youll be rocking some nice buds soon. good luck!
 

TechnoMage

Well-Known Member
Do you think the AP used has to be a plants final home? I mean I saw the little coke can size APs and if you started with that and wanted to transplant to a 3gal AP pulling the plant out of the little AP would be mighty stressful with the roots growing into the AP air chambers....hope that made sensi
All you have to do is unscrew the blue nut and you can literally unwrap the plant. I'll post photos when I transplant in a week or two.

This video shows how they go together starting about 1:30
[video=youtube;pafzxbfb30g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pafzxbfb30g[/video]
 

TechnoMage

Well-Known Member
Getting the tent put together.

Starting to hang 10-8-2011 3-15-16 PM.jpg
Here I've got the tent put together, the reflector hung and am hooking up the ducting.

Exhaust 10-8-2011 3-15-38 PM.jpg
Here's the carbon filter and fan. This is actually the 6"x18" filter which I'll be using to filter the tent. I've got a 6"x12" filter on the way that I'll be using on the end to filter the air cooling the bulb.

Hung 10-8-2011 3-18-05 PM.jpg
Ducting hooked up to both end.

I wanted to get the light hooked up now so I could test for light proofing. I need to touch up a few spots but overall it's not bad. The other filter should be here in a couple of days and I can finish getting the tent set up.
 

Izoc666

Well-Known Member
hey TM, the tent grow looks nice and neat ! how many plants that you re gonna put in the tent ?
 

TechnoMage

Well-Known Member
hey TM, the tent grow looks nice and neat ! how many plants that you re gonna put in the tent ?
Thanks, it's a HydroHut Silver Edition 2x4. I'm going to be doing 4 plants in 2gal containers for my first grow. First time with this much space and this big a light so it's going to take me a bit to get it dialed in.

So I'm an idiot. I took a closer look at my pots and realized that I put the base on the wrong @#$% end. The top row on the smallest Air-Pot and the top two rows on the bigger pots have no holes. They are built this way to prevent the exact problem I had with water leaking out the top. Nothing I can do about the plants already going but I'll re-build my other Air-Pots and fix the ones in use later.
 

cacamal

Well-Known Member
Thanks, it's a HydroHut Silver Edition 2x4. I'm going to be doing 4 plants in 2gal containers for my first grow. First time with this much space and this big a light so it's going to take me a bit to get it dialed in.

So I'm an idiot. I took a closer look at my pots and realized that I put the base on the wrong @#$% end. The top row on the smallest Air-Pot and the top two rows on the bigger pots have no holes. They are built this way to prevent the exact problem I had with water leaking out the top. Nothing I can do about the plants already going but I'll re-build my other Air-Pots and fix the ones in use later.
Nice one for pointing this out because I rewatched the video and this seems like a mistake I would make so thank you for saving me the error! Oh well grow and learn right
 

Izoc666

Well-Known Member
ahh TM i see about the leak...mystery solved...that got me thinking. really airpot have water leaking at the top....then im definitely going to buy me some airpots :) but thanks for sharing man !!!

666
 

Dropastone

Well-Known Member
Air pots are legit. I grew out two NL#5 in 2.4 gallon AP. One yielded 5 and the other 6 oz. I already know your gonna love these AP but I'm gonna stick around to watch the nay sayers eat their words.

Peace.
 
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