Ebb & Gro/Multi Flow with Coco Smart Pots?

[One Love 731]

This might be better for the Coco Forum but thought there would be more people with Ebb & Gro/Multi Flow experiance here in th Hydro Forum. I was thinking that an Ebb & Gro or Multi Flow with Smart Pots filled with Coco would be the cats meow. The #2 Smart Pots have a 8" round base, The Ebb & Gro or Multi Flow buckets have a 9" round inside diameter, there fore you would have a 1/2" around the smart pot for water or air. The Coco would stay inside the smart pot never cloging the water lines. You would avoide root bound issues with the smart pot and provide extra oxygen. Has anybody tried this method? Is there any reason this would not work? I love Coco and have been having great success with it in 4x4 trays but would like to grow some lardger heavy yielding plants. Karma, One Love


"The Smart Pot® aerates the container medium and air root prunes the plant’s root structure. When roots reach the side of the bag, they do not circle as they do in a plastic container. Instead, the root tips stop and lateral root growth begins. As lateral root growth continues, a full fibrous root structure quickly develops, as opposed to the harmful root circling caused by plastic containers."

 

[morrisgreenberg]

the only thing i could think of is flood far less times as the coco holds water well, my opinion is the cats meow in this system is clay pellets, theres not many media out there that can deliver major oxygen to the root zone than clay, i say this becuase on the drain cycle as water gets pumped out o2 gets pulled into the root zone, this is why you will get better overall plant performance flooding these bucket modules as opposed to using and open flood table

 

[Seed Buyer]

I have converted all my ebb & grows to top drip systems using a 50/50 coco/perlite mix and have been killing it. However, assembling a drip system for hundreds of plants is getting mighty old and my fingers are destroyed from pinching 1/4" tees into poly line. I have pondered the smart pot idea as well, but I am not sure there would be any benefit as opposed to just filling the pots as I have been doing. I still think the roots will grow from the bottom of the smart pot and fill the bottom 2 gal bucket. My only concern is when flooding having the root system submerged for 15 minutes or more at a time. By the way I do not get coco in my bottom drain tubes w/ my current method.

PS - A company called Sentienel is releasing an "improved" ebb & grow system. The design of the buckets look awesome and should drain 100%. However, they are way behind on the release of the unit.

 

[pimpjuice]

ebb & grow in 3gallon buckets with 5gallon smartpots as liners work great. The smartpots prune the roots, you won't have any lines clogged with roots. This is a 12k using that method.

 

[morrisgreenberg]

if sentinel comes out with a system that drains 100% they will kill it, i hate roots standing in water especially over night when no flooding is going on, even when i raise the buckets you still get about 1 inch of water, IME if not raised you will have problems during flower

 

[One Love 731]

Pimpjuice, your garden looks great. How long have you been running this system? Morris, I'm sure the system works awesome as is. I clone and grow in coco with the Rez recipe, the plants take in nutes and water at an even rate, therefor there are no add backs. When I have to hit them with Koolbloom I use a wand top feed. The Idea is 1 media, 1 set of nutes start to finish all systems. I checked out the Sentinel web site, no mention, even in the coming soon. Karma, One Love

 

[pimpjuice]

That is a buddies garden. He's done a couple rounds in the greentrees & cap systems with straight coco & coco perlite mixes. The straight coco works the best. This round is in a home brewed 3 gallon bucket system with 3/4 inch fittings. We built our own because the pre-fab systems have small buckets & 1/2 inch line.

Sentinel system has the same volume pots as the greentrees & cap, but it will have 3/4in fittings which will make it the best of the pre-fab when it comes out. Still no eta from ngw.

 

[One Love 731]

Cool, found it.

 

[GrnAlien]

More info on the new Sentinel in the 2010 Sunlight Supply Catalog...I'm looking at it now, and it looks really sweet. Much better than my Multiflows...if I didn't have so much invested in the multiflows I'd consider switching.