Some questions about Biotabs with Autopot 15L system share your thoughts please

Hello guys! I am really interesting to hear about your thougts and would be very glad if you could answer these questions below and share if you want your own experiences about how to best grow in Autopots with Biotabs (soil mix). I am growing both indica and sativa of various strains photo, no Auto.
I am currenly useing the Biobizz line up right now but I think that the Biotabs nutrition would be much better and its compatible with the autopot system I am going to invest in.

My expected setup to invest in.

BioBizz Soil Light-Mix
Autopot system 15L
Biotabs BIO PK 5-8
Biotabs starter pack:
wich contains these
BACTREX 25 Grams
MYCOTREX 50 Grams
BioTabs 10 Tablets
ORGATREX 0.25 Litre
STARTREX 250 Grams

My first question is should I REPLACE ORGATEX with mixing in Silicium Flash into the soil? The Biotabs starter pack from Dutch-Passion does contain Silicium Flash instead of Orgatex you do mix silicium flash in the beggining when you prepare the soil and never use Orgatrex.
Should I skip Orgatrex and go for the Silicium Flash instead and use the biotabs booster BIO PK 5-8 sometimes in the flower period? Or should I go for Orgatrex? The reason I ask is that it seems people have more luck with the silicium flash and love the PK 5-8 but I could be wrong whats your thougts?
The other question I have is that I wonder wich soil mix should I have? I want to use soil in autopot because it works best with Biotabs. I was thinking about useing BioBizz Light-Mix soil with the Biotabs starterpack is it a good choice? Should I add anything more to it? I already know I need to have clay pebbles in the bottom but is there anything more I need to mix into the soil? Should I add some extra perlite and maby some things too enhance the soil? Or I am good to go after I mix all the Startrex, Mycotrex, Bactrex,(and maby Silcium Flash) and biotabs into the soil? Should I put 2 or 3 Biotabs into the soil 10cm down?
The last question is that should I grow straight from seed or is it better to first grow in a little pot for like 2 weeks then transplant into the autopot system? And then wait for like 7 days before shut on the autopot system because roots need to get down into the pot so they can get water how long should I wait? As I understand the roots need to reach the bottom of the pot to be avaible to use the water?

Thank you!
Regards.

It sounds like you love brand names.

I would advise people looking for an automated watering system for organic grows look at Blumats as a better alternative. Autopots aren't really compatible with organic soil so much. And no one in organic growing has to buy anything specific for cannabis. That's just snake oil IMO.

Sub irrigated planters... they will solve all your growing woes.... but I digresss I preach too much

Lol these answers where not what I expected but thank you for cheecking in If you read about Autopots and Biotabs its pretty amazing what these combo can do. Just water in the tank and prepare the soil and water manual above sometimes beetween flower with their booster. People have achieved great yeald with minium effort and higly recommend it. Hope someone tune in that have experience

And yeah the items I listed is the things you need to get the soil working you add their startrex,bactrex,mycotrex ect into the soil to get the organic life in the soil then push down biotabs tablets wich is slowly releasing nutrition. Here you have their Autopot / Biotabs nutrition schedule guide. They have listed how much you are going to add if you are running 8.5L pot or 15L pot ect.. So its pretty established.

I use 15l autopots and coco substrate, mixed with 30% perlite, 10-15% worm castings from horse manure, 50g gauanokalong powder, 50g startrex, 2-3g mycorrhizae (also 5g more to root area when transplanting) and 2 tabs then water it with with orgatrex and bactrex as instructed. Last 5 weeks of flowering I use plagron PK booster Green Sensation and that thing is pure gold and magic. I'm now in my fourth grow with tabs and this setup has best results for me. IMPORTANT thing is to get rid of chlorine in water because it kills microorganisms, I use cheap ozone generator but you can also leave water in tank 24-48h for it to evaporate, or maybe speed it up with regular air pump. Hope this helps

Hey @OrganicGrower12 ! How's it going?
Are you currently growing with biotabs?

I am also slightly confused I think the silica flash is used as a compost for your soil, so you have the option to either use a good composted soil (with perlite mixed in) or you get an 'empty' promix/lightmix soil (and mix in perlite) and you can add silica flash to that empty soil to compost it.
From what I read I really don't think you should skip the orgatrex (and bactrex). The orgatrex seems essential to start up the 'sleeping' life in the soil.
From what I read its best to start in a little pot for like 2 weeks and then transplant into a pot using the biotabs stuff.

I didn't use the autopot system but I'm pretty sure the moisture should wick up through the system so the soil should always be moist and you have nothing to worry about. However it is essential to mix enough aeration (perlite) through your soil when using autopots or other self irrigation methods this makes the soil mix much more tolerant to higher levels of moisture without 'choking' the roots.

I Have a few years under my belt growing herb so i thought that maybe you could benefit from some sound advice on autopots in general
I struggled with autopots for a couple of years mate and i have nothing good to say about them.
Sorry , for the attention they require to work effectively you may as well go hydro, the system never feeds the most distant pots properly and even a tide mark of lime scale and fine particles of clay ball dust that makes its way through the disks on the valve floats makes them stick (open and closed)
I had floods after just moving trays.
upgrading to 13mm hose connectors and hose will give you a much wetter carpet in a shorter period of time and be just as unreliable.
In a hard water area you need to replace the aquavalves after every third run £13 each.
Honestly i gave up and resumed with hand irrigation and the only part of the system i kept was the reservoir, my great yields returned and harmony was restored
This probably isn't what you wanted to hear but i came to the conclusion that those people that were raving about autopots and biotabs hadn't actually tried it with weed , tomatoes and chillies grow great with it i wouldn't wonder.
Growing organically is easy enough , you are feeding the "herd" and not so much the plant, it's worth reading about how long it takes for mycorrhizal to establish and make a difference to your plants also consider the time taken for the soil biology to get started properly , with most plants only in their main pot for about 100 days you can be throwing good money at it for little actual change in yield or quality.
The only positive thing about autopots is that i no longer have to suffer them.

Anarchy4theUK said:

I struggled with autopots for a couple of years mate and i have nothing good to say about them.

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It's a learning process, for some it takes longer than for others.

the system never feeds the most distant pots properly

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Raise the tank.
Run a main line from the tank to a manifold, then run equal length feed lines from the manifold to the pots. This will put equal pressure on all valves, as all pots are equally "distant" from the tank that way.

fine particles of clay ball dust

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Clay pebbles need to be washed thoroughly before use. That is true regardless what system you use.
If you do that, there will be no clay dust in your valves.

In a hard water area you need to replace the aquavalves after every third run £13 each.

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Soak them in a hot water solution of citric acid for a few minutes, and the lime deposits will be gone. No need to spend 13 quid.

This probably isn't what you wanted to hear but i came to the conclusion that those people that were raving about autopots and biotabs hadn't actually tried it with weed , tomatoes and chillies grow great with it i wouldn't wonder.

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I have tried it with weed, as have many others here reporting very positive results. There is no reason why "chilies" would grow differently in them than weed.

If the AutoPot is set up carefully, it's a hands-off system. Every hydroponic system needs cleaning after use, it's no different for the AutoPot.

Also, flushing the plant (if deemed necessary) is very easy because the pot can be removed from the valve and hand watered or flushed. I flush my plants occasionally with FlashClean (using mineral fertilizer, probably not advised when growing organically).

The only positive thing about autopots is that i no longer have to suffer them.

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Good for everybody involved here as well, as there will be less inaccurate advice in the future.

ComputerSaysNo said:

It's a learning process, for some it takes longer than for others.


Raise the tank.
Run a main line from the tank to a manifold, then run equal length feed lines from the manifold to the pots. This will put equal pressure on all valves, as all pots are equally "distant" from the tank that way.


Clay pebbles need to be washed thoroughly before use. That is true regardless what system you use.
If you do that, there will be no clay dust in your valves.


Soak them in a hot water solution of citric acid for a few minutes, and the lime deposits will be gone. No need to spend 13 quid.


I have tried it with weed, as have many others here reporting very positive results. There is no reason why "chilies" would grow differently in them than weed.

If the AutoPot is set up carefully, it's a hands-off system. Every hydroponic system needs cleaning after use, it's no different for the AutoPot.

Also, flushing the plant (if deemed necessary) is very easy because the pot can be removed from the valve and hand watered or flushed. I flush my plants occasionally with FlashClean (using mineral fertilizer, probably not advised when growing organically).


Good for everybody involved here as well, as there will be less inaccurate advice in the future.

Click to expand...

insults eh .... chill man

's a learning process, for some it takes longer than for others.
its gonna take you a while then eh
Soak them in a hot water solution of citric acid for a few minutes, and the lime deposits will be gone. No need to spend 13 quid. <<<have you tried this because you'll just have the same mess. ? you are talking breeze mate.
The advice i offered was genuine experience over a couple of years of using the autopots and you can raise the res all you like and wash the pebbles all you like,
I have been growing for a good 20 years so i DO know what i'm talking about and you offered what in the way of useful advice ?
something about chillies.
Go make tomato sauce dude