Anyone use AC Infinity Watering Bases?

So I’d like to preface that this is my first grow. With that said I want to know if anyone has used watering bases for their whole grow from start to finish. I decide to get 4 of the XL ones for my 7 gallon fabric pots in my 5x5. Reason why I got them is that I don’t want to risk overwatering or under watering my first harvest when I’m actually trying to get some smokable product for myself. Also I don’t want to have to water every day especially during flower since I do live in an apartment building and don’t want it to stink everyday. My seedlings seem to be doing well but I’m also worried about root rot. The soil doesn’t seem to be wet but I’m also not sure how wet is too wet for roots.

Gonna list some stats on my soil so you can tell me if there’s enough drainage. This is across the 4 pots.
Soil is FFHF
30% worm castings (my own and store bought)
Dolemite Lime
Lime
5LB of Lava Rock
Gaia Green All Purpose
A few lbs of fine quartz sand in there too. (Reptisand is the brand I believe).
Also worms from my worm bin (wigglers and nightcrawlers.)

TriggerX said:

Soil is FFHF
30% worm castings (my own and store bought)
Dolemite Lime
Lime

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I'd try to transplant into fresh straight happy frog soil. Don't add anything. If you make it through the grow without problems in this soil mix I'd be very impressed. Happy frog is already great soil, adding anything during seedling stage is just asking for trouble. Your going to run into alkaline/ excess calcium and it's going to lock out magnesium and you'll be asking questions and chasing your tail the whole grow.
Also with 7 gallon pots you won't be watering every day. Every third day during the plants thirstiest times would be my guess unless you veg out a monster plant.

Beeswings said:

I'd try to transplant into fresh straight happy frog soil. Don't add anything. If you make it through the grow without problems in this soil mix I'd be very impressed. Happy frog is already great soil, adding anything during seedling stage is just asking for trouble. Your going to run into alkaline/ excess calcium and it's going to lock out magnesium and you'll be asking questions and chasing your tail the whole grow.
Also with 7 gallon pots you won't be watering every day. Every third day during the plants thirstiest times would be my guess unless you veg out a monster plant.

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With all that said if you still want them the ac infinity watering bases aren't terrible. But if you're worried about having to open your tent every day, then I wouldn't get them. My plant is already drinking 75% of the water in the bases and I'm not that close to finishing flower, I have to lift them once every day to keep the roots from growing into the wick, and I check my plant once a day to make sure she's healthy.

Instead of lifting the pot you could point an oscillating fan at the pot to keep the roots pruned. But honestly id just buy or make an SIP.

UnknownRemedy said:

With all that said if you still want them the ac infinity watering bases aren't terrible. But if you're worried about having to open your tent every day, then I wouldn't get them. My plant is already drinking 75% of the water in the bases and I'm not that close to finishing flower, I have to lift them once every day to keep the roots from growing into the wick, and I check my plant once a day to make sure she's healthy.

Instead of lifting the pot you could point an oscillating fan at the pot to keep the roots pruned. But honestly id just buy or make an SIP.

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Do you have the XL bases and I guess opening the tent is inevitable. Oh well I’m still gonna use them since I have them and I see really nice grows from people who use them, I just don’t know if they use them in early veg, it seems people use them later in the grow.

How did you add nutes to your soil during flowering?

I use filtered water when I do coco but my soil plants have always seemed to prefer tap water. Sometimes I'll dilute the tap just because it's hard as hell but I would use tap to raise the pH before using baking soda. Definitely agree with just using plain happy frog for your first go. Keep it simple as you can before you start tinkering. Transplant into ocean forest etc. Good luck

TriggerX said:

Do you have the XL bases and I guess opening the tent is inevitable. Oh well I’m still gonna use them since I have them and I see really nice grows from people who use them, I just don’t know if they use them in early veg, it seems people use them later in the grow. I have a question, the ph of my RO water is 5.9, should I add some baking soda to the water in the bases or should I just let the microbes buffer it for the plant, I keep hearing that’s what they do but it sounds like it something that wears them out after a while. If the plant doesn’t like it, idk if the microbes do. What are your thoughts?

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I have the normal ones but they work the same. If you only plan on transplanting once, then yeah you can use them immediately after transplanting into your fabric pot. They'll probably start drinking from it around 5 days after.

UnknownRemedy said:

With all that said if you still want them the ac infinity watering bases aren't terrible. But if you're worried about having to open your tent every day, then I wouldn't get them. My plant is already drinking 75% of the water in the bases and I'm not that close to finishing flower, I have to lift them once every day to keep the roots from growing into the wick, and I check my plant once a day to make sure she's healthy.

Instead of lifting the pot you could point an oscillating fan at the pot to keep the roots pruned. But honestly id just buy or make an SIP.

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UnknownRemedy said:

I have the normal ones but they work the same. If you only plan on transplanting once, then yeah you can use them immediately after transplanting into your fabric pot. They'll probably start drinking from it around 5 days after.

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Okay one final question please.
How did you add nutes during flowering? Are you just gonna use water til the end of flowering?

TriggerX said:

Okay one final question please.
How did you add nutes during flowering? Are you just gonna use water til the end of flowering?

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I just top dress and then water it in. My plants have never had a problem taking in water from the top and bottom.

I just watched this a couple of days ago. Pretty good video.

He talks about the pros and cons.

Blue_Focus said:

I just watched this a couple of days ago. Pretty good video.

He talks about the pros and cons.

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At first I thought nothing useful would be in the video but it did give me the idea of not always using the fabric pots and just taking out the strings and using it as a saucer for my next grow or for when I top dress. All the cons in the video are true, wish AC Infinity put in a little more thought before making them. I’m gonna stick with them the whole grow and then I’ll get back with a detailed review.