DIYocto-pot

Mr.Head

Mr.Head

Well-Known Member

So I've been looking into these and they are just too expensive in Canada. It's $100 per unit shipped and duties on-top of that.


So here's a part list

5 gallon Bucket Net pot Lid
Tote your preferred dimensions to fit your space. Something light proof, or wrapped in reflectix or similar
Air-pot, you could probably use a fabric grow bag. I haven't tried it. I figure they will mold

The pictures are pretty self explanatory.

My Bucket lid net pots had a line already on them at the perfect 8.5 inches for my totes.

IMG_0933.JPG IMG_0934.JPG IMG_0935.JPG IMG_0937.JPG IMG_0939.JPG IMG_0942.JPG IMG_0940.JPG IMG_0943.JPG IMG_0944.JPG

All that's left is to drill a hole for res. fill-ups and attaching a straw to a rubber ducky for a water level indicator.

All in all this is costing me $15 Canadian per unit because I got the air-pots for free. With the price of the Air-Pots factored in it's $30+/-.

I can build 6-7 of these for the price of one and IMO these are better because there's no fabric to go moldy.
 
Mr.Head

Mr.Head

Well-Known Member
Getting the hole in the tote lid the right size is a little tricky, some trial and error there.

I have 1 row of nipples below the tote lid to hold it all together.

Do not forget to ziptie the net pot to the upper pot or else when you go to look at your roots in the res the net pot will fall out the bottom and all your dirt will fall in the res. The tote lid doesn't need to be zip tied just the net pot and the upper pot.

They take me about 45 minutes to make one.
 
Nrk.cdn

Nrk.cdn

Well-Known Member
Great design.. Are you going to wrap the outside of airpot with landscape fabric? I have read some people have gnat issues with airpot (gnat motel). Going organic soil?
Cdn prices are on the high side..
 
Mr.Head

Mr.Head

Well-Known Member
Nrk.cdn said:
Great design.. Are you going to wrap the outside of airpot with landscape fabric? I have read some people have gnat issues with airpot (gnat motel). Going organic soil?
Cdn prices are on the high side..
Click to expand...
We'll see, if I start seeing gnats then I'll give that a try thanks for the tip!

I've got the tops covered with Rice hulls. I didn't really think about the sides cause I'm a :dunce:
 
Nrk.cdn

Nrk.cdn

Well-Known Member
I like the design..lowes have kdx black and yellow totes that are really tough also.... Pure coco will not work due to salt build up or i would have built the same... I love the fact no pumps..
 
Mr.Head

Mr.Head

Well-Known Member
The plan was to try fabric bags too and compare the two but the fabric bags I got are super thick, I figured they'd hold too much water. I still may do it, but with the landscape cloth I have downstairs, it's considerably thinner. The stuff the octopots use seems pretty thin.

I've got 3-4 more to build so a bit of time to figure stuff out.

I'm watching the first one I built very closely for signs of root rot or other nasty things but everything seems good so far at 9/10 days.

I am going to get some drip system straight connectors and drill a little hole for an air line with one of those tiny circle air stones. With the drip system connectors I'll be able to move them around and disconnect them from the airpump pretty easy without a huge PITA.

I had a big airstone in the first one I built and it washed some of the dirt out of my netpot.

I know they say you can get away with not aerating it, but why not add a little extra umph right?

Going to find plugs to block the fill holes and use ping pong balls instead of rubber duckies for my float gauge.

I'm hoping to run 6 of these in a 3x3 with a 2 week veg on clones.
 
Nrk.cdn

Nrk.cdn

Well-Known Member
I believe airstone might be a waste as air exchange on the water surface will be super.. If u want to bring laziness to another level..as u are doing bottom feeding..google Alaska buckets..checkout the design of connecting the CDN max 4 plant limit..
 
Nrk.cdn

Nrk.cdn

Well-Known Member
Rubber ducks..lol..nice one..they work..thought of corks? I will go with dtw hempy..2 coco..and 2 SIPs with soil..If u want hempy square buckets..call sushi shops..free..

U going organic? I did outdoor sips last year..southwest ontario gets hot as hell and great at 42 lat..u doing indoor? I built my own lights..because i am cheap...
 
Mr.Head

Mr.Head

Well-Known Member
Nrk.cdn said:
I believe airstone might be a waste as air exchange on the water surface will be super.. If u want to bring laziness to another level..as u are doing bottom feeding..google Alaska buckets..checkout the design of connecting the CDN max 4 plant limit..
Click to expand...
I'll run some with and without the air-stones and see. I'm paranoid lol.

I plan on using EM-1 as well so that should also help mitigate nasties. EM-1 might eat cork lol. I've heard of it dissolving glues from another user on here.

and yeah I'm like 90% organics, I will add some hydroponics cal/mag here and there. But all my pest management is organic stuff from around the house. If plants run get hungry they get EWC/Compost teas.

Trying out Malted barley this run as Cootz says it will speed up flower times fairly significantly, so we'll see what that's all about. I need to do some more reading on the application.
 
Nrk.cdn

Nrk.cdn

Well-Known Member
With the octopot..i think u want to veg longer..let roots hit the water..then they will explode up.. U will have monters..too many monsters in a 3x3 will be breeding for pm.
 
Budzbuddha

Budzbuddha

Well-Known Member
Wow ... love the thread. Subbed.

I actually built one too , but did not get to run it yet.......
I modified two different “ pots “ , one is a wide top container and the other is a modified Airpot with net cup attached to bottom screen as well. Main Rez is Made from a food grade “ salad “ tote .... lol. And fish bobber made float.

Looking forward to seeing how yours plays out.

44706C62-E2E4-4C92-A50C-C5BE9F71B854.jpeg AECD5815-82C3-45F0-8E4B-0929189E866D.jpeg E523041F-E500-4411-827C-B1BE1D2DF65C.jpeg
 
Mr.Head

Mr.Head

Well-Known Member
Budzbuddha said:
Wow ... love the thread. Subbed.

I actually built one too , but did not get to run it yet.......
I modified two different “ pots “ , one is a wide top container and the other is a modified Airpot with net cup attached to bottom screen as well. Main Rez is Made from a food grade “ salad “ tote .... lol. And fish bobber made float.

Looking forward to seeing how yours plays out.

View attachment 4295543 View attachment 4295545 View attachment 4295546
Click to expand...
Fuckin eh, love it!

Can't wait to see what it does! I'll throw some pics up later of the first one I built
 
Mr.Head

Mr.Head

Well-Known Member
This is a bandit breath clone, it's the middle white cup.
20190223_110149.jpg
Plant at 7 days
20190303_115134.jpg

So here's root growth after 13 days. Insane.

IMG_0961.JPG IMG_0959.JPG

Now here's the bad news, the wick went anaerobic. I was getting root rot symptoms was showing deficiencies no other plants were seeing in the same soil mix. Even seedlings that went from no nutrient promix straight into my soil mix full strength.

I'm going to try COCO as the wick with a better drilled bottom netpot. My first iteration I forgot to drill the holes until I had the plant in the pot like a dumb ass. So I drilled them with a 20lb full pot of dirt and it was a bit tricky without damaging the clone.

So here I am, 13 days after planting in my first DIY octopot and it's a failure.

I'll definitely be adding the airstones to the next ones I try and run, I'm going to root clones right in them and see how that goes.

This plant has been put into a fabric root pouch to recover, clones will be cut off it today in case it gets worse.

Going to give her some EM1 and hope it helps out the recovery process.

This was always a possibility.

Probably going to use Coco/Perlite next run.
 
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Mr.Head

Mr.Head

Well-Known Member
So I decided to read the octopots site. They said this would happen lol. I gotta do things for myself and learn the hard way, story of my life.

They also say air stones can cause PH swings, that's neat didn't realize that would happen. Going to fill one with Promix and Perlite and Synthetic feeds and go from there.

Probably find a clear plastic and make a little dome like they do with their octopots and try and drop a clone right in one as I use an aero cloner for other clones.
 
Grow24/7

Grow24/7

Well-Known Member
Mr.Head said:
This is a bandit breath clone, it's the middle white cup.
View attachment 4296376
Plant at 7 days
View attachment 4296377

So here's root growth after 13 days. Insane.

View attachment 4296374 View attachment 4296375

Now here's the bad news, the wick went anaerobic. I was getting root rot symptoms was showing deficiencies no other plants were seeing in the same soil mix. Even seedlings that went from no nutrient promix straight into my soil mix full strength.

I'm going to try COCO as the wick with a better drilled bottom netpot. My first iteration I forgot to drill the holes until I had the plant in the pot like a dumb ass. So I drilled them with a 20lb full pot of dirt and it was a bit tricky without damaging the clone.

So here I am, 13 days after planting in my first DIY octopot and it's a failure.

I'll definitely be adding the airstones to the next ones I try and run, I'm going to root clones right in them and see how that goes.

This plant has been put into a fabric root pouch to recover, clones will be cut off it today in case it gets worse.

Going to give her some EM1 and hope it helps out the recovery process.

This was always a possibility.

Probably going to use Coco/Perlite next run.
Click to expand...
With the Octopots having fabric planters helps keep some of the water in side and helps with the wicking action you want. Even my Octopots fabric planters feel little damp. Not soaked on the bottom 4 inches. I like to have at least 2 gallons in the max 4 gallon reservoirs in the Octopots. I only water from the top of the Octopots when I first plant my plants. Actually I do it one more time. the fabric planters actually go in to the water a little bit which helps with the wicking.
 
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