Aeromatics Goals for this grow: Taking my autopot experience to the next level!
My first round with 3.9 gallon Geopot autopots went great! My Northern Lights Auto from RQS and Pink Kush CBD yielded 99 g (personal Auto record!) and 92 g each, so I went ahead and purchased a 4 x 4 Autopot XL 6.6 Gallon system for my 4 x 4 tent… why not hahah!
This Autoflower run will consist of 4 different diaries, each run independently as their own journals. I learned from the last one that I liked having separate journals for each strain as each plant might need little adjustments here and there and will inevitably have different harvest dates, so it simply feels natural to have separate diaries!
They will share the same tent and same Autopot reservoir, once I turn it on around day 21-28, depending on group growth.
For this diary, I will focus on Strawberry Banana Auto from Fastbuds!
Let’s have a look at my general set-up and coco preparation, as it was a bit evolved from my previous grow. I am trying something a bit different!
Autopot Set-up:
Here are my specifics for the autopots:
Autopot XL 6.6 Gallon System
Autopot Airdomes
Autopot Airbases
12.4 Gallon Reservoir
HITOP 10W Powerful Aquarium Air Pump: 4-Outlets 320GPH
To ensure proper airflow through the airdomes, and as I did last time I set up my autopots, I took some q-tips and cut the cotton ends off of each side.. Once cut, I threaded each pipe through the q-tips and let it sit for 48-hours to ensure proper time to settle into shape. It works great!
Once I let those sit, I installed them into the airdomes, connected them to their appropriate tubing for the air pump, and placed them under the airbases.
Coco Coir Preparation Process:
For this autoflower autopot round, I am going to experiment a bit and up my ratio of coco/perlite from 70/30 to 90/10! I feel like the extra coco in there is going to help maximize size and yield for these 6.6 gallon pots. I am hoping for monsters here!
I ordered a a new set of 3 bricks of Platonix Coco Coir from Amazon and rehydrated them in Reverse Osmosis water.
Reverse Osmosis water do you say….?
That’s right! I made a huge upgrade to my grow set-up and officially switched from distilled to RO water. I got a RO Buddy and added a water line to my grow space, it simply needed to happen with the switch to Autopots.I figure that I will need close to 30 gallons a week during prime stretch/flower time between both tents, and it would be impossible and incredibly expensive to try and distill that amount. So I decided to work smart, not hard!
The RO system already came in handy during the rinse and x 2 buffer stage of my coco coir preparation. This stage, I believe, was KEY to my success in my first Autopot experience, as the buffered state allowed for an early thriving microbial environment for my root development and early plant growth.
This new recipe I created (see below) will hopefully increase the powerful root growth I had by building even more early root development potential in the 6.6 gallon pots. We shall see!
Once I double rinsed my coco with around 10 gallons of RO water, I started the buffering process!
Coco Buffering:
I had to break the batches of coco into two large yellow lid/black containers (costco!) since we are working with around 13 gallons of coco per container! They were heavy haha! This is, by far, this most arduous part of the Autopot process, but I do not mind at all!
I buffered twice (both for 24 hours). Each time was a buffering solution composed of 8 gallons of RO water.
For my first buffer, I went with around 1 ec charge and a ph of 5.75 for each 8 gallons
My nutrients included:
52 ml Ventana Plant Science Support
10 ml Ventana Plant Science Expand
1.5 tsp Stash Blend
4 ml Ventana Plant Science Grow
After the first 24 hour soak, I fully drained it and resoaked the two bins in another batch of the same 8 gallons of buffered liquid, this time bringing the buffer up to 1.2 ec, a bit higher than I did for my previous run. I hear some people even start their ec closer to 2.0, but I am not ready for that haha. I’ll try and work my way up to there!
My second buffer nutrients included:
65 ml Ventana Plant Science Support
10 ml Ventana Plant Science Expand
1.5 tsp Stash Blend
4 ml Ventana Plant Science Grow
I waited another 24 hours, drained the coco, and we were all ready to pot!
Potting Process:
I placed the Airbased and Airdomes in the bottom of the 6.6 gallon Autopots and added the buffered coco to fill around ⅓ of the container. I tamped it down, and at that point at sprinkled about a tablespoon of Xtreme Mykos around the entire layer. The goal of this was to give a layer of microbes to help explode root growth once my taproot and initial roots hit that layer around day 7/10. Plus, it column’t hurt… haha!
Then I added the rest of the coco to fill the 6.6 gallon pots, tamping down a few times to ensure I had some nice even compaction without overdoing it. I left around an inch or so at the top of the pot, and we were all set for the germinated seeding!
Germination:
I’ve been using Organiplugs for all my germination for my last 20+ seeds, and I am not going back to any previous system. All you do is: insert the seed, place into a germination cube holder, place in a ziplock back, wrap it up in a towel, place it in a tent, and wait for her to sprout!
I don’t have to worry about anything really, and it almost protects the seed from any real concerns from the seedling/sprouting process.
Once she sprouted (either I see a taproot, or the sprout actually pops out of the hole, or both!), I placed her about Âľ of the way down into the coco.
In the coco hole, I added some Xtreme Mykos to encourage root development, one of my favorite reasons to use organiplugs!
I didn’t need to “water her in’ to the coco, as the coco was still very moist from the buffering process. I was actually worried it was a bit too moist, but I went with it anyway.
Lighting Set Up
I’ll be using the wonderful Grower’s Choice ROI-FF 650W for this grow. I have it pulled to the top of the tent, and this will be the first grow where I actually play with some settings and DLI/PPFD a bit as opposed to simply setting it at max and hoping for the best. It’s a fun experiment!
For this first week, I am going to go for a DLI of 21 and a PPFD of 220 for the 24 hour cycle.
Everything has gone great for the first week!
