Phychotron
Member
nice read, I've been standing up for the airpots in another thread.
I think they're great, they take a little while to get used to filling and watering them, but once you get it down they are nice to have around. good roots, easy transplanting, rigid containers allow for easy movement, whereas bags have left me with a big crack across the top of the soil when moving them or setting them down on an uneven surface/over an edge... usually making a 'root ripping' sound. Cleanup is a breeze, a quick rinse then a little bit of soapy water and a nylon brush, whereas bags either need to be scrubbed or run through a washing machine, which i dont want to pay to use at the laundry mat for, nor if I owned a machine would i want to run plant fertilzers in the same one i wash my clothes with.
I use the 1L 'air cells' to veg clones from the aerocloner before moving them to larger pots. I use autopots mostly, but have a few 1.5gallon airpots hanging around for random plants. I keep those 2-3 feet, usually 2-3oz per plant. I usually go with sunshine #4, but just put a blackberry in the 1.5g with coco/perlite for the first time. I got a 3pack of mini blumats and stuck 2 in with it, hopefull it will keep up with the watering.
I've got 2 mother plants in an aircell that were 2' tall and almost died (leaves completely wilted) cause I couldn't keep up with watering it ever 15 hours. I was giving it water only for awhile every two days and then with some fertilizer and all of a sudden it shot up and needed to be watered twice a day. They both survived, one is going to be a mother, the other is a pheno that i wanted to get rid of and flower it in the aircell. I trimmed it back the other day, so i'm going to let it recover, and i'll throw a blumat mini in it and see how it does.
with bonzai you stunt the plants growth by cutting back it's pre existing root mass and leaving an undersized root mass to support the plant, with air cells it allows the roots to continuously grow, it just diverts root growth to another location when it reaches the edges. The roots in the airpots tend to be very fine, fairly even and dense, like dawn patrol posted above.
Oh, and those undersized bottoms, could you just wrap the airpot one hole tighter? I keep the bottom on the second ring up, first if i plan on bottom feeding.
If you have space concerns, its important to note that they have 2 sizes per diameter, check out the airpots page at rogue hydro you'll notice that there is a short and a tall for each color bottom. So you might want the taller 4.6g instead of the larger footprint 5.2g if you want to pack them in a little more, or if your getting the 5.2g you might opt for the taller 6.5g and not fill it up as much and have the option of going with more, since it's the same footprint.
I think they're great, they take a little while to get used to filling and watering them, but once you get it down they are nice to have around. good roots, easy transplanting, rigid containers allow for easy movement, whereas bags have left me with a big crack across the top of the soil when moving them or setting them down on an uneven surface/over an edge... usually making a 'root ripping' sound. Cleanup is a breeze, a quick rinse then a little bit of soapy water and a nylon brush, whereas bags either need to be scrubbed or run through a washing machine, which i dont want to pay to use at the laundry mat for, nor if I owned a machine would i want to run plant fertilzers in the same one i wash my clothes with.
I use the 1L 'air cells' to veg clones from the aerocloner before moving them to larger pots. I use autopots mostly, but have a few 1.5gallon airpots hanging around for random plants. I keep those 2-3 feet, usually 2-3oz per plant. I usually go with sunshine #4, but just put a blackberry in the 1.5g with coco/perlite for the first time. I got a 3pack of mini blumats and stuck 2 in with it, hopefull it will keep up with the watering.
I've got 2 mother plants in an aircell that were 2' tall and almost died (leaves completely wilted) cause I couldn't keep up with watering it ever 15 hours. I was giving it water only for awhile every two days and then with some fertilizer and all of a sudden it shot up and needed to be watered twice a day. They both survived, one is going to be a mother, the other is a pheno that i wanted to get rid of and flower it in the aircell. I trimmed it back the other day, so i'm going to let it recover, and i'll throw a blumat mini in it and see how it does.
with bonzai you stunt the plants growth by cutting back it's pre existing root mass and leaving an undersized root mass to support the plant, with air cells it allows the roots to continuously grow, it just diverts root growth to another location when it reaches the edges. The roots in the airpots tend to be very fine, fairly even and dense, like dawn patrol posted above.
Oh, and those undersized bottoms, could you just wrap the airpot one hole tighter? I keep the bottom on the second ring up, first if i plan on bottom feeding.
If you have space concerns, its important to note that they have 2 sizes per diameter, check out the airpots page at rogue hydro you'll notice that there is a short and a tall for each color bottom. So you might want the taller 4.6g instead of the larger footprint 5.2g if you want to pack them in a little more, or if your getting the 5.2g you might opt for the taller 6.5g and not fill it up as much and have the option of going with more, since it's the same footprint.
thanks for doing a side by side too it's awesome! I would imagine that those girls are gonna be MONSTERS in full bloom.
