Nerd Alert: What's Your Favorite Type of "Smart Bag?"

Rrog

Rrog

Well-Known Member
I meant Smart Pot. The fabric deals

I'm adjusting my little micro grow area and am going with a fabric pot system like Smart. There are a few of these available now and thought I'd better consult with my fellow nerds regarding what brand of fabric pot to buy.
 
psillysimon

psillysimon

Well-Known Member
I've been using the hydrofarm version "dirt pot" i like it. i mean at least it has handles and I only pay about 4$ for a 7 gallon pot. I pay 4$ for an orange 5gal homer bucket from home depot and this does a lot more.
 
MegaBud

MegaBud

Well-Known Member
Smart pots get my vote for best quality and durability, aurora root pots would be my next vote.
 
Rrog

Rrog

Well-Known Member
MegaBud, you tried the velcro GeoPots and when you have it a whirl, your root ball broke up? Just curious, but what does a crumbling root ball have to do with the fabric pot or the velcro? Seems that either the plant was too young (no roots) or the soil ball was too dry.

My biggest concern has been the ability to transplant from the 1 gallon to the 5 easily. The velcro on the GeoPot looked ideal. I have since seen videos where guys unroll the fabric pot off the root ball and it looked very simple and clean.

Smart Pots seem very popular.
 
nugbuckets

nugbuckets

Well-Known Member
Rrog said:
MegaBud, you tried the velcro GeoPots and when you have it a whirl, your root ball broke up? Just curious, but what does a crumbling root ball have to do with the fabric pot or the velcro? Seems that either the plant was too young (no roots) or the soil ball was too dry.

My biggest concern has been the ability to transplant from the 1 gallon to the 5 easily. The velcro on the GeoPot looked ideal. I have since seen videos where guys unroll the fabric pot off the root ball and it looked very simple and clean.

Smart Pots seem very popular.
Click to expand...
i agree....i use the unroll technique with smarties.
 
Rrog

Rrog

Well-Known Member
I've read some good reviews about the build quality of the geo pots, I may try the 1 gallon velcro deal.
 
MegaBud

MegaBud

Well-Known Member
Rrog said:
MegaBud, you tried the velcro GeoPots and when you have it a whirl, your root ball broke up? Just curious, but what does a crumbling root ball have to do with the fabric pot or the velcro? Seems that either the plant was too young (no roots) or the soil ball was too dry.
Click to expand...
I use Subs transplanting technique step for step, everything is well watered and well rooted, just not rootbound. "Transplant before they know they're transplanted" as sub says.
The root ball didn't break at all, the soil that dumped everywhere was the little extra soil that the roots didn't grab. I opened the velcro and the excess soil poured onto the floor. The only way it would not lose any soil is if it was completely rootbound, as with any pot...

Just not my cup of tea I guess.

Here she sits in a 7 gallon Aurora root pot digging into some supersoil, she was transplanted a week ago.

Spacedawg



I did give up velcro in Kindergarten, maybe that's why I didn't care for the Geo. bongsmilie
 
oldschooltofu

oldschooltofu

Well-Known Member
i tried the roots and switching back to hard pots for the following reasons:
1) fabric pots cost more. plastic i can reuse many times
2) more difficult to tie down branches
3) much more difficult to carry (need 2 hands) to bring into bath tub to flush
 
SpicySativa

SpicySativa

Well-Known Member
MegaBud said:
Geopots are awful imo, snagged a 2 gallon from a garden expo. When i unvelcroed the pot, soil from the rootball dumped everywhere. Made an awful mess, it now sits on my growroom shelf.
Click to expand...
I had a similar experience with my 2-gal Smart Pots. I have a LOT of air moving around in my cab, and I think the "air root pruning" was happening about an inch into the pot rather than right at the fabric, because they were drying out so much. When I transplanted, I had a solid rootball, and then about an inch of soil around it which wanted to sluff off. Didn't seem to affect anything, just made a little mess.
 
Senseimilla

Senseimilla

Well-Known Member
oldschooltofu said:
i tried the roots and switching back to hard pots for the following reasons:
1) fabric pots cost more. plastic i can reuse many times
2) more difficult to tie down branches
3) much more difficult to carry (need 2 hands) to bring into bath tub to flush
Click to expand...
All of these are possible with air pots. I like air pots better than smart pots -- only downside is they are much more expensive... but they are plastic and you can reuse'm forever... very easy to transplant, SUPER easy to tie down branches (you tie them right to the holes in the pot... i attach paper clips to the end of string and just put the clip in an airpot hole I can customize the angle by which hole I use. You can easily carry the smaller ones with one hand -- the bigger ones it just depends on your arm strength ;) they are definitely not for everyone -- i tried the fabric smart pots (with handles) as well but i still like the airpots more.
 
Rrog

Rrog

Well-Known Member
That's expected if you're transplanting with any fabric bag, I expect.

SpicySativa said:
I had a similar experience with my 2-gal Smart Pots. I have a LOT of air moving around in my cab, and I think the "air root pruning" was happening about an inch into the pot rather than right at the fabric, because they were drying out so much. When I transplanted, I had a solid rootball, and then about an inch of soil around it which wanted to sluff off. Didn't seem to affect anything, just made a little mess.
Click to expand...
 
nugbuckets

nugbuckets

Well-Known Member
Senseimilla said:
All of these are possible with air pots. I like air pots better than smart pots -- only downside is they are much more expensive... but they are plastic and you can reuse'm forever... very easy to transplant, SUPER easy to tie down branches (you tie them right to the holes in the pot... i attach paper clips to the end of string and just put the clip in an airpot hole I can customize the angle by which hole I use. You can easily carry the smaller ones with one hand -- the bigger ones it just depends on your arm strength ;) they are definitely not for everyone -- i tried the fabric smart pots (with handles) as well but i still like the airpots more.
Click to expand...
the only thing i don't like about airpots is they are hard to clean.....imho...
 
Stu Toned

Stu Toned

Well-Known Member
I agree with oldschooltofu,I like to tie branches down.:bigjoint:
I have tried smart pots,air pots,and geo pots in the past...geo pots got me the best results.
just my $00.02
 
geekmike

geekmike

Well-Known Member
been thinking of getting those for a bit nugs. Let me know how they go.

I have been running Smart Pots for almost 2 years now and also have ran the Dirt Pots by Hydrofarm.

I actually like the Hydrofarm ones better, they have interdependent handles that actually carry UNDER the bag for extra support while toting around. It has made my 20 gallon pot very easy to handle without that center sag you can get. Being cheaper was the initial draw, but after loading up the 200 gallon ones in my green house I think I will be sticking with them for now.

I do use the 7gal indoors and just recently gave up on the 2gal smarties for veg because it was such a pain during transplant. I switched back to the 2gal hard pots and I am much happier.
 
nugbuckets

nugbuckets

Well-Known Member
geekmike said:
been thinking of getting those for a bit nugs. Let me know how they go.

I have been running Smart Pots for almost 2 years now and also have ran the Dirt Pots by Hydrofarm.

I actually like the Hydrofarm ones better, they have interdependent handles that actually carry UNDER the bag for extra support while toting around. It has made my 20 gallon pot very easy to handle without that center sag you can get. Being cheaper was the initial draw, but after loading up the 200 gallon ones in my green house I think I will be sticking with them for now.

I do use the 7gal indoors and just recently gave up on the 2gal smarties for veg because it was such a pain during transplant. I switched back to the 2gal hard pots and I am much happier.
Click to expand...
i hear you bro....2/3 gal hard pots to 7/8 gal smarts is a killer system......i like the idea of moving up to 8 gal with these new ones....the secret, like Sub always stesses, is never let them feel any root binding stress in the hardsides, as timing is critical.
 
geekmike

geekmike

Well-Known Member
exactly, I have been throwing around the idea of moving up to the 10 gal, but veg space limits me at this moment, just as a comparison.

but 8 might be the ticket
 
D

Diggidy McDank

Member
I’ve been using the 12.5L/3.4G Air Pots for some time now and love them, currently in the process of switching to S.S. and have high hopes for Nugs mainling. I’m going to use my Air Pots for Veg and mainline training just going to move the bottom plate up so it’s about 10” deep (should be about 2.75-3G I assume) then transplanting to those 8Gal Oregon Breathers for Flower. I’ll start a thread when I get everything ready and going and log the results for you all to see, under construction atm
 
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