What's new
  • Happy Birthday ICMag! Been 20 years since Gypsy Nirvana created the forum! We are celebrating with a 4/20 Giveaway and by launching a new Patreon tier called "420club". You can read more here.
  • Important notice: ICMag's T.O.U. has been updated. Please review it here. For your convenience, it is also available in the main forum menu, under 'Quick Links"!

AirPots vs regular cups/pots

Dave Coulier

Dave Coulier

Active member
Veteran
GET MO said:
I did a little test with 2 airpots, 2 smart pots, and 2 regular square pots with the slits down the side, all using the same cut of affgooy. In my experience the square pots outperformed both the smart pots and airpots. this was in a recirculating system with canna cocoa. One thing I found difficult with the special pots was that it takes a lot more water to water them, seems like it doesnt soak down into the pot evenly as well as the square pots when hand watering. in the recirculating system tho they got plenty of water but the yield and growth was better in the square pots.
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting your experience about the three. Did you experience any more compaction with the special containers over the plastic square ones?

I found Fabric bags have greater compaction of media versus plastic containers, and its more difficult to water the media due to the increased compaction making infiltration difficult.

I too question the value of these special containers. They're purpose is to create a robust branched root system, but I can get that in regular plastic containers with marginal root circling.
 
joedogsong

joedogsong

Member
Multiple answers:

Multiple answers:

ellinho said:
hey joe,
i think this is a great test. and also alot of good info is allready to be found in this thread. i got one question, do you have 12 airpots and 4 regular pots there? and what are the genetics if i may ask? sry if i missed sth earlier :tiphat:
Click to expand...

The genetics are a Medley released by Bog. Its kind of a mystery as to which plant is which.
Equal amounts ofBlue Moon Rocks, Lifesaver and Sour Strawberry Kush were mixed in a bucket and paks of 20 were sold at the Boo at 1/2 price of regular cost. There is a thread over on Bogs Seed vender forum where I'm soliciting help in identifying which is which as I have not grown out these strains.

I originally germed all 20, 8 in cups and 12 in air pots. 4 in cups did not break ground after germination. Kind of messed up the comparison, but what the heck...I was looking for a general trend as to any benefits even with not knowing the specific strain. There is also a comparison between clone cuts of Sour Bubble and it is neck and neck but there is still a long way to go.

vwgtiron; no, your post are not a problem, thank you for contributing. By the way, what tool are you talking about?
" I didn't even know there was a little yellow tool that you can put on your drill, until I ordered a 30 pack. BASTARDS!! Man it saves on the thumbs."
You are correct about shop employees not having a clue about them...

Get Mo; I also have identical cuts of SB in square white pots along side the air pot/regular comparison, only a couple of weeks younger. I'll put up some pictures soon.

Dave C; I to question the value, but am always looking for an advantage, that's why this thread exists
 
Last edited:
D

dramamine

Dave Coulier said:
I found Fabric bags have greater compaction of media versus plastic containers, and its more difficult to water the media due to the increased compaction making infiltration difficult.
Click to expand...

The only time I see this happen is when the fabric pot is over-filled with media....which is easy to do with those at first. Otherwise, there's no real chance of more compaction based on the pot itself.
 
F

Funion

I've recently been experimenting with netpots as substitutes for airpots. They dry out crazy fast but growth is strong.
 
groady-ho

groady-ho

as is all-too-common in my life, I succumbed to my
Veteran
i gave up on on smart pots.the 3g squares seemed to work better for me..
 
chos3n

chos3n

Member
I recently received a bunch of 2.5 gal airpots. Been doing regular pots all my grows and wanted to try something different. Plus with there being such mixed reviews, some people love them and some people think they're a waste I figured it'd be best to make my own opinion. A little concerned for how quick they will dry out, I'll be hand watering with coco so it might be a bit of a challenge at least until some good root development is formed. If they don't work out, I'll probably just go back to regular square pots. We shall see...
 
joedogsong

joedogsong

Member
cont.

cont.

Yea these things dry out quickly, I've ordered the Blumats and will be setting that up this next week. I don't think you can take full advantage of airpots with a regular type of watering schedule.
I recently started keeping them in an aluminum roaster pan with the water level just enough to keep the bottoms moist an it seems as if they like this better than drying out every day.

To match this the cups in comparison are in two cups with the bottom of the outside cup acting as a reservoir so the roots can grow into it.

picture.php

https://www.icmag.com/ic/album.php?albumid=36482&pictureid=878831
 
Dave Coulier

Dave Coulier

Active member
Veteran
Joe, you are gonna love the Blumats. You'll see plant growth improve considerably compared to hand-watering.

I do like how you are watering your ladies now. Its exactly how my dad waters his plants and it works pretty well for him.
 
PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-known member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
My experiment using lava rock in APS is blowin my mind. Wish posting pics was easier here. You can google my UN and hopefully comes across my journal elsewhere; or pm me for the link.
 
joedogsong

joedogsong

Member
Pix

Pix

So these continue to stay under 8 4ft T-5's. Took 'em out for a breather on a decent day...been nothing but rain... as per up above these were cloned together, spent 3 weeks in Solo cups then transplanted to these containers. It appears that the regular pot has slowed a little in the last couple days so it's time to up pot.

The Airpot clone is growing longer and more dense primary nodes than the regular and a little taller.

picture.php


More to come...
 
S

sso

Active member
Veteran
kinda looks like the airpot is a bigger pot.

or so it seems from the picture.

that might also explain the better growth..

or thats a possibility anyway.
 
PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-known member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
It does look that way. Still, it points out the value of growing in larger pots. Both look like very well cared for plants. Good job!
 
jammie

jammie

ganjatologist
Veteran
should i be seeing roots coming out the airpot side holes? have 14 liter pots, plenty of white roots coming out the bottom and when i try sticking my finger into the soil along the inside edge, i can feel a thick fibous mass, but nothing coming out of the holes except for the stray piece of perlite.
 
chos3n

chos3n

Member
No I believe the way it works is that as the roots move closer to the holes the soil is less dense and air passes threw it more freely, thus drying out the root tip (pruning it). This is when more roots develop and the process continues.
 
ellinho

ellinho

Active member
nice shot ... something changed about the foto upload just recently, like 3 weeks ago i used to just put the pics in the upload box, the site would resize them and it was all good. now i always time out when it is not exactly max. 1024 x 1024 + 145kb ...

had a chat with a mod about this and the answer was that i should always resize my pics manually ...

ehhh, what can u do? still the best boards about our lovely plant and i used the chance to learn how to use irfan ^^
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Latest posts

Top