Autopot users: any salt issues? Benefits vs drip?

Auto pots work but purchase spare tubing for the feed lines to the autopot trays.

Make sure that you use at least 50% perlite in your pots. I would honestly do 70% perlite 30% coco in them.

Do not use any organics at all. Nothing with kelp!!! You'll wanna throw the system in the trash if you make the mistake. Test your nutrient solution, put it in a 5 gallon clean bucket and make sure it doesn't gunk up within a few days.

I've decided not to go with the autopot system. I have no idea if it performs adequately or not, but either way I wasnt able to come up with any benefit over dtw, for me personally.

I see there's a lot of strong opinions here but if it requires the same amount of attention then in my eyes its moot.

I'm going to take another gander at ebb and flow before I decide 100% on the direction of my next grow, but autopots it won't be.

Thanks for all the input guys and best of luck with everyone's ongoing/upcoming grows!

flipwon said:

I've decided not to go with the autopot system. I have no idea if it performs adequately or not, but either way I wasnt able to come up with any benefit over dtw, for me personally.

I see there's a lot of strong opinions here but if it requires the same amount of attention then in my eyes its moot.

I'm going to take another gander at ebb and flow before I decide 100% on the direction of my next grow, but autopots it won't be.

Thanks for all the input guys and best of luck with everyone's ongoing/upcoming grows!

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I don't Drain to Waste even in 20 gallon pots of Sunshine Advanced #4. I just feed at full strength and flush once a week with water & 5ml/gal of calmag+ from botanicare.

never have issues and don't have to deal with runoff. Major thing about not doing drain to waste is remember that anything you put in is going to be sitting in the medium (soil, coco w/e) until the plants eat it up. So depending on what nutrients your using you'll want to monitor your rootzone and or plants and probably dilute the nutrients since your not flushing them out every time.

Some cheaper "dirty" nutrients with lots of salts and stuff need to be drain to waste but certain lines I've used such as House & Garden, Cyco, Canna haven't given me any issues with salt buildup.

Frequency of irrigation and duration until dryout is going to change not using a drain to waste system such as risers below trays or flood tables etc.. I "feed"/water every other day in 20 gallon pots, if I were using a 10 gallon pot with the size plants I grow I'd be needing to cut back my nutrients a lot or even just do a water/feed/water/feed type schedule to prevent excessive buildup of nutrients.

calvin.m16 said:

Do not use any organics at all.

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Fulvic is fine (if that counts as "organics").

flipwon said:

if it requires the same amount of attention then in my eyes its moot

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I doesn't require the same amount of attention, since no hand watering is needed, and no disposal of waste water.

ComputerSaysNo said:

Fulvic is fine (if that counts as "organics").


I doesn't require the same amount of attention, since no hand watering is needed, and no disposal of waste water.

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Hand watering isn't part of drip, and both require res maintenance.

flipwon said:

Hand watering isn't part of drip, and both require res maintenance.

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All automated fertigation systems require res maintenance. One should not hold that fact for or against any method.

After the res is maintained, wick systems are trivial. And they have been used, very successfully, for a long time. The problem for some people: "if it's that easy, it can't be good". Luckily I do not have that cognitive bias in this case.

ComputerSaysNo said:

All automated fertigation systems require res maintenance. One should not hold that fact for or against any method.

After the res is maintained, wick systems are trivial. And they have been used, very successfully, for a long time. The problem for some people: "if it's that easy, it can't be good". Luckily I do not have that cognitive bias in this case.

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Well as far as I can tell it's not easier, its the same amount of work, with an extra point of failure in a valve, and the possibility in salt buildup and nutrient lockout.

Look I'm not calling the method bullshit, so don't get offended. But for me, there's no added/inherent benefit in time or labour savings.

flipwon said:

I see there's a lot of strong opinions here but if it requires the same amount of attention then in my eyes its moot.

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By all means go with your choice, but whoever claimed the above hasn't used both autopot and dtw (if I'm wrong then correct me), I can guarantee you that autopots maintance is only limited by the size of the reservoir, I could go on holiday for a week with zero concerns with a bigger res 2 weeks without a problem.

Eta... Once dialed in they leave you with literally nothing to do bar fill a reservoir once a week.

@ComputerSaysNo come on man post some of your pics, you can't recommend stuff then not show the results, are you ashamed of them lol

Star Dog said:

@ComputerSaysNo come on man post some of your pics, you can't recommend stuff then not show the results, are you ashamed of them lol

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Not going to happen, at least not here. I will DM you some pix when I get around to copy them from the phone.

Also, I don't agree with you that "picture proof" is necessary. In this case, there is absolutely nothing to explain in the way of pictures, and I'm not asking for advice on the plant. The AutoPot is an off-the-shelf product, the plant is a plant, and I guess everybody knows how coco coir and clay pebbles look like.

If I was claiming to have contructed something amazing, that produces fire weed just on its own, I would be ready to be asked for "proof".

Not here to prove anything to anybody.

It's a plant on a balcony, not very spectacular. I love how it looks, it's my plant. 2 more weeks to go minimum I guess, but I'm not going to risk frost, so it will get chopped before November no matter what.

Star Dog said:

By all means go with your choice, but whoever claimed the above hasn't used both autopot and dtw (if I'm wrong then correct me), I can guarantee you that autopots maintance is only limited by the size of the reservoir, I could go on holiday for a week with zero concerns with a bigger res 2 weeks without a problem.

Eta... Once dialed in they leave you with literally nothing to do bar fill a reservoir once a week.

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So what maintenance does drip coco require that autopots don't, then? Actual question not trolling.

flipwon said:

So what maintenance does drip coco require that autopots don't, then?

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AutoPots and other wick systems require no maintenance except for refilling the reservoir.

Anything on top of that, including acquiring pumps, running power to pumps, replacing them when they break, running drip lines to pots, dialing in the drip schedule, disposing of waste water, is the extra maintenance for drip systems.

If you want to move or rearrange the pots for whatever reason, you have to deal with drip lines and tubing. That also makes it less convenient.

You decide if the hassle is worth it for you. There are plenty of expert opinions in this thread alone about how much better DTW is than wicking. They even explained the how's and why's in great detail.

I don't even know why I'm still going on about anything else; it's so obvious.

flipwon said:

So what maintenance does drip coco require that autopots don't, then? Actual question not trolling.

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For me, daily removal of run off to prevent humidity from it and it overflowing from the catch tray, filling the reservoir more frequently, no constant adjustments of the pump/timer to acomadate the appropriate volume of run off (it's a real pia during the 1st 4-5 weeks of flowering, so you also have big savings on nutrient, I'm sure there's more but that's a few key points if I remember anything else I'll add to it, i've run both dtw and auto the autopot is a holiday by comparison to dtw ime.

I was really being serious with autopots leave you nothing to do once its going.

Star Dog said:

For me, daily removal of run off to prevent humidity from it and it overflowing from the catch tray, filling the reservoir more frequently, no constant adjustments of the pump/timer to acomadate the appropriate volume of run off (it's a real pia during the 1st 4-5 weeks of flowering, so you also have big savings on nutrient, I'm sure there's more but that's a few key points if I remember anything else I'll add to it, i've run both dtw and auto the autopot is a holiday by comparison to dtw ime.

I was really being serious with autopots leave you nothing to do once its going.

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That's a lame excuse, it's just talk without pics.

Omfg I quoted my own post

ComputerSaysNo said:

Not going to happen, at least not here. I will DM you some pix when I get around to copy them from the phone.

Also, I don't agree with you that "picture proof" is necessary. In this case, there is absolutely nothing to explain in the way of pictures, and I'm not asking for advice on the plant. The AutoPot is an off-the-shelf product, the plant is a plant, and I guess everybody knows how coco coir and clay pebbles look like.

If I was claiming to have contructed something amazing, that produces fire weed just on its own, I would be ready to be asked for "proof".

Not here to prove anything to anybody.

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That's a lame excuse you are recommending them showing pics is surely part of that, it's just words without pics.

It's a trivial task to strip all EXIF data from a picture if privacy is a concern

Anyone with the technical savvy to post to a forum could do so if they wanted

The dude grows a single plant on his balcony, not much to see I’m sure.

Every quote he’s given has been off the autopot website, which tells me he’s on his first grow with them, or a salesman for them.

99% of his comments have only ever been about autopots, so my guess is he’s a salesman.

Anyone who is proud of their grow would gladly show it off. I grow like shit and have no issues telling the world I do.

I have to say you can make a drip system as simple or complicated as you want. You can very much just get a couple of drip stakes and feed your plants once a day from a cheap timer. If you size your pots right this will work just fine. Obviously not taking advantage of generative/vegetative feed types but that's all extra imo.

It also gives you the added benefit of being able to flush easily.

The price of a drain table would be similar all up to a 4 pot autopot kit at least here in Australia.

f.r said:

It also gives you the added benefit of being able to flush easily.

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Well said.