AirPots vs regular cups/pots

[joedogsong]

Things are like $10 per 3.4 Gallon. Not sure if the extra cost is worth it. The smart pots are a lot cheaper at less than $4 per 3 gallon. (prices found online)

I'm just not sure that the return on investment is there.

R.Fortune

That's why I'm doing this. They are sturdy plastic and can be used many times, but expensive.

I've made the smart pots out of felt pond liner, (the GF is quite handy with a serger), a thirty dollar roll will make dozens and dozens. So when I look at $4.00 for one , well...this is about air pots

 

[Scottish Research]

Sorry about that. I look forward to watching your progress. Thanks for helping the community.


R.Fortune

 

[guest194]

Might sound obvious but I always use a bit of wetting agent and when watering keep away from the outer inch of the airpot. I'd also agree it depends on your veg time and whether the root system is using all the available soil as to wether there's an advantage.

 

[lost in a sea]

more people should use a wetting agent when watering,, really improves the porosity of the soil,,

 

[PetFlora]

But why use a medium at all? Now, I do germinate seedlings in starter cubes; once roots are coming out of the bottom I insert cube into a small net pot, filling the space between with hydroton.

Then into my DIY 4 air stone bubbler for a couple weeks, or until a nice root mass has developed.

Next either into my HPA rig, or, my 21st Century F & D, where I put the plant into an AP filling in the space with lava rock. It works fantastic, easily cleaned and reused.

Due to rapid drainage, I can flood ~ 60 minutes. BLAM

 

[joedogsong]

Excuse me but this is a side by side comparison thread, that's why a soil medium is used. I've grown for decades and have tried countless methods, never would I assume that my way is best for anyone else.

 

[vwgtiron]

How to fill AIRPOTS

How to fill AIRPOTS

Excuse me but this is a side by side comparison thread, that's why a soil medium is used. I've grown for decades and have tried countless methods, never would I assume that my way is best for anyone else.

BLUEMATS BLUEMATS.
Your not filling the pots correctly, if you are getting water drainage out the sides, these pots are supposed to be compacted. If the soil packs down you need to backfill and compress. Also if you lay the thing flat you will see a row of raised tits down at the bottom. That is where the grid goes, this is only on the larger sizes. When you transplant into the pot you are supposed to completely fill it pack it down, refill, pack, refill, until it is full. Then you dig it out and water, add your transplant. Also make sure that the "reservoir" which is the rows without holes, is at the top of the pot, and one last thing, when you insert the holder, make sure its in a nipple sticking out, not in the depression. Make sure the nipple on the grid is pointed up so that water doesn't sit inside of it and cause root rot. I use the 4.6gals if I didn't say, sorry heavily medicated. With a 3.0 cu ft bag of advanced mix #4I can fill like 6 of these pots. Or close to it. watch this video and see how you are supposed to pack the pots. also rogue hydro has a smoking deal on these and if you google around you will find a 10% OFF coupon for these.
OK here is a link to the PDF for assembly from superoots
http://www.superoots.com/pdfs/Air-Pot-assembly-print.pdf
And here is the somewhat weird and quirky video.
http://www.superoots.com/airpot_using.htm

 

[vwgtiron]

ps I buy 30 at a time to get the bulk price and free shipping, it was around 9 a pot. And they do not make it easy to find these instructions for some reason, also grow store employees have no Flipping idea half the time. 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.

 

[Dave Coulier]

BLUEMATS BLUEMATS.
Your not filling the pots correctly, if you are getting water drainage out the sides, these pots are supposed to be compacted. If the soil packs down you need to backfill and compress. Also if you lay the thing flat you will see a row of raised tits down at the bottom. That is where the grid goes, this is only on the larger sizes. When you transplant into the pot you are supposed to completely fill it pack it down, refill, pack, refill, until it is full. Then you dig it out and water, add your transplant. Also make sure that the "reservoir" which is the rows without holes, is at the top of the pot, and one last thing, when you insert the holder, make sure its in a nipple sticking out, not in the depression. Make sure the nipple on the grid is pointed up so that water doesn't sit inside of it and cause root rot. I use the 4.6gals if I didn't say, sorry heavily medicated. With a 3.0 cu ft bag of advanced mix #4I can fill like 6 of these pots. Or close to it. watch this video and see how you are supposed to pack the pots. also rogue hydro has a smoking deal on these and if you google around you will find a 10% OFF coupon for these.
OK here is a link to the PDF for assembly from superoots
http://www.superoots.com/pdfs/Air-Pot-assembly-print.pdf
And here is the somewhat weird and quirky video.
http://www.superoots.com/airpot_using.htm

I was gonna jump all over you about compacting your medium, but then I read that pdf, and its them I should be jumping on.

I dont care what they say about needing to compact the medium to use their containers, its just a bad idea to do that. Its laughable they even say its okay to compact the medium. They're airpots! They get alot of air, so its okay.

Ahem, Bullshit.

All you do is reduce air porosity in the mix by packing your soil down. Shrinking pore sizes by compaction isn't a smart thing to do. Fafard recommends no compacting of the soil ever be done when filling containers/transplanting, and I would trust the word of them, so please dont believe Im FOS.

Any containers that tell me I have to compact the medium to properly use the container doesn't sound like a container I really want to use. Ill stick with MikroKote treated containers.

 

[vwgtiron]

Well you use strong language, I have been using these pots for a while
now. These pots have also been on the market quite while now and used by very respectable institutions. Call b.s. all you want. The manufacturer tells you how to use your pots to get peak performance. This is your choice. But do not scoff and scold if you haven't used them correctly.

 

[whatsupdoc]

I can't imaging any scenario where heavily compacting the medium would be beneficial to the plant. It seems that they're simply trying to put a band aid on a design defect.

 

[vwgtiron]

Prove it. The proof is in the pudding

 

[Dave Coulier]

Well you use strong language, I have been using these pots for a while
now. These pots have also been on the market quite while now and used by very respectable institutions. Call b.s. all you want. The manufacturer tells you how to use your pots to get peak performance. This is your choice. But do not scoff and scold if you haven't used them correctly.

I'm sorry you felt my post may have been an attack, but it wasn't meant that way. I'm only trying to show you the information they present about compacting the media is flat out wrong.

Ive never used Airpots per se, and I doubt I will, but I tried a similar design to it, and I wasn't not at all impressed by the product or the results.

I had no issues with water running out of the side holes. That will only happen if improper watering is done, imo, and I did not need to compact the media any to prevent this.

Ill gladly provide a video that discusses media compaction multiple times, and I hope you'll watch it and take something away from it.

Here is the link Skip to 3:45 and watch from there.

Your garden looks nice, but no one is saying you can't grow great plants with compacted media, its just hamstringing your efforts. Ive done it before with plants in Fabric Bags that had significant media compaction but the plants in the plastic containers had less compaction and visibly were growing faster than Fabric containers that had more media compaction.

 

[Emil Muzz]

Compress not compact

Compress not compact

Pour in one or two scoops of compost or soil mix and lightly compress the first layer.
Add the next few scoops and compress again. Continue until full.
You should see potting mix at the tips of the cones.
You might need to tap or shake the Air-Pot container, as well as compressing to ensure that the cones are full of the mix. The vibration of a potting machine is also ideal for this.
Overfill to allow for further settling. Don’t be afraid to compact the potting mix more than you would in a standard pot. There is lots of air in an Air-Pot container.
If the mix settles below the reservoir during the season it renders the reservoir ineffective if watering by hand and is also an indication that not enough compaction has been applied during filling.

The PDF clearly says lightly compress not compact.

If you did watch the video: the guy filling the pots did not heavily compact the media- he pressed it down with his knuckles and then gave the filled pot a couple of sharp taps on the potting bench. Looks the same as any other pot being filled.

A whole load of arguin' over "compact" when i expect "compress" was meant. And anyway the pots design means that if there is compaction it does less harm

In my limited experience with Air-pots i consider them superior to standard pots of an equal volume. In my experience Tomatoes can be grown much larger, much faster in Air-pots than in an standard pot.

I am on my first run with Cannabis in Air-pots and the roots are fat and healthy and poking out everywhere and getting air-pruned.
The plants are growing fast in less than perfect conditions.

I will not go back to using standard pots.

 

[vwgtiron]

The PDF clearly says lightly compress not compact.

If you did watch the video: the guy filling the pots did not heavily compact the media- he pressed it down with his knuckles and then gave the filled pot a couple of sharp taps on the potting bench. Looks the same as any other pot being filled.

A whole load of arguin' over "compact" when i expect "compress" was meant. And anyway the pots design means that if there is compaction it does less harm

In my limited experience with Air-pots i consider them superior to standard pots of an equal volume. In my experience Tomatoes can be grown much larger, much faster in Air-pots than in an standard pot.

I am on my first run with Cannabis in Air-pots and the roots are fat and healthy and poking out everywhere and getting air-pruned.
The plants are growing fast in less than perfect conditions.

I will not go back to using standard pots.

Yes, I did misstate myself when I used the word compress. The pot is going to compress itself naturally though the water process anyways. That's why I use a High drainage soil like the Sunshine Advanced Mix #4, along with the super roots pots. If you do not continue to refill the pot to the top you are not going to get the top adventitious roots. Also if you fill the pot correctly there is no runoff out the sides of the pot when you water. I have over 100 of these pots now, I was using smartpots, before that 5 gallon buckets and DWC. I love these pots, especially the transplanting process.

 

[dr.bomkfist]

If you have problems with water escaping through holes, shape the top layer of soil like a bowl, it helps alot.

I used airpot once, I don't know if it helped to get better yield but the roots looked amazing.

 

[joedogsong]

Hmmm...

Hmmm...

Must admit I surely didn't expect to learn so much from this thread, and not necessarily about growing but about what may happen on an open forum.

Lots of opinions, attitudes, critics and assumptions. But thankfully lots of folks that support activity that allow all of us to learn about different grow styles. I guess I have to keep in mind everyone is probably stoned.

First I still maintain that the bottoms could have been engineered better to fit the pot, bigger tits or not. The "reservoir" is insufficient and should be at least another row, just as the "tits" should be another row closer to the bottom. But this is just my opinion so I digress.

Yes I've read the materials and watched the videos. I surely wouldn't have spent over $500.00 on these things without doing my homework. So no, I didn't buy them because as one suggested...

"i think airpots are more for people that don;t know how to water properly thus giving root system some air otherwise yield = root mass so bigger the pot the better"

I'm running a skunk that doesn't care, beyond a certain point, how big the pot is. The difference is insignificant if finished in 2 gallon vs 7 gallon. I believe this to be strain dependent.

"Grower error..." because I didn't get 100% of seeds to break ground, get real. Your handle is a misnomer.

The watering issue has settled as the soil settled but there is no quick watering method. The suggestions are helpful but If I stay "an inch away from the outer edge" in a four inch starter pot, well you get the picture.

So, thanks for all the input and stay tuned as these will finish in my almost finished green house in much larger fashion.

A new camera is coming, promise...

https://www.icmag.com/ic/album.php?albumid=36482&pictureid=876777

 

[vwgtiron]

I hope I did not piss anyone off, I was just stating my opinion. I enjoy the side by sides and would like to thank you for documenting one. I am sorry if I sounded like I was strongly wording my arguments. I wish to just pull up a chair and blaze some more of my bloodwreck x the white. Thank you for letting me play though!!!

 

[ellinho]

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

 

[GET MO]

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.