DIY Air Pruning Pot Experiment - Pictures

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I have 10 plants in my flower garden, 8 strains. The two biggest producing and healthiest plants are those in the air pruning buckets, they look much better than the root constriction plants (landscape fabric) and I think will yield more. My problem comparing is the different strains, then the one strain that I have two near harvest are from seed, not clone.

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These are Strawberry Cough by Dutch Passion, good producers, 9-10 weeks, anti anxiety high. I had 3 in landscape fabric buckets and the plant on the left below in an air pruning bucket. The root constriction plant below (right) was the best producer of the three root constriction buckets. The four were all put into flower within a day or two of each other. I clipped 6 colas half way down on the air pruning bucket for samples and to let light to the lower colas. I clipped 6 from the landscape fabric bucket too, there are just more long colas, but not as big buds.





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Super Silver Haze on the left, with another 4-6 weeks left (in an air pruning bucket), and a Big Bhudda Cheese on the right in a landscaping bucket. The Cheese is an excellent producer (should be 8-12 cups of cured bud) but the SSH is enormous - the top left cola alone will be more than a liter (4 cups). I don't know if it's the strain (Cheese is suppose to be a good producer as well) but of 10 plants in the garden the air pruning buckets are the most vibrant and best producers.





Here's the top left cola from above, about 11" of cola so far.



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After I harvest the air pruning bucket Strawberry Cough I'll post some pics of the root ball and give a quick description of any differences from the landscape fabric buckets I've been harvesting.

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edit: I forgot to mention that the stems of the two air pruning bucket plants are much thicker (50%) than the other 8 root constriction bucket stems. Seems like too many coincidences to be coincidence, I'm going to run 5 Air Pruning buckets and 5 root constriction buckets to run a fair test. I've got two Jillybean clones (Candy Store pheno) that will go into flower in another month, I'll do one in each bucket.

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sweet-

the pots i built out of the laundry baskets are doin kick ass, the roots are like Frankenstein, gnarly as hell, and like growin sideways and shit
i'll post some pics tomorrow when the lights come on, after seeing this i will probably invest in some form of root pruning pot, the only down side is the evaporation factor, i water every day, if i am late by an hour the plants look like hell

 

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Murphy I got around the watering frequency problem by using the air pruning 5 gallon bucket inside a regular 5 gallon bucket (with holes drilled in the bottom but not the sides). The cover bucket makes it like a regular bucket, a couple of days before watering I pop the AP bucket out, let the root tips dry up and die. Then put the cover bucket back on, water, and start the cycle over.

You could get a similar effect by duct taping plastic around your laundry basket.

I also use landscaping fabric for the liner in my air pruning pots now, so I get root constriction then air pruning for any tips that grow through.

Works fantastic, same watering schedule as my root constriction buckets - just more growth.

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i actually don't mind the watering,
the soil in my buckets is very loose and the stems on these things are FREAKS

 

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Super thick stems?

Amazing, my two AP buckets are the same, the two thickest stems in my garden - carry more nutes, maybe an indicator of a better root system.

I think we are on to something. The apparent improvement over the root constriction buckets is amazing, this really surprised me.

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That slip mat is a great ideA!! gunna try that!

 

here's those pics, although i'm having some sort of lockout at the moment(things got hectic there for a week or two), these plants have grown great have hella stems, and i think have shown more vigorous growth and foliage, over traditional pots

these stems are twice as big as my thumb

sorry about the shitty pics, didn't notice, i'll get better ones later

and if anyone wants to chime in on my deficiency, take a looksy at my journal

 

great thread....wanna know how the psbc skunkberry is...grew out 2 females to 4 weeks flower....then had to move 1500 miles so i let a friend have them....it amazing how fast some people can kill a plant.....got 6 beans left and was thinkin of germ'n......cant wait to try this air pruning

 

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I've been running Peak Skunkberry for years now, along with Serious Kali Mist and Bubblegum it's my oldest genetics. A real keeper, fantastic relaxing stone, good producer, strong grape smell after curing 3 or 4 weeks, turns purple with Overdrive, easy to grow, forgiving of grower errors (your buddy must have tried to grow them in a propane oven by mistake), excellent producer ... exactly what we want from a Blue Cheese stain. You're going to be happy growing them and with the final product.

http://www.peakseedsbc.com/seeds.htm

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lol....no hes jst a fkn idiot.....didnt get a timer and only gave two plants a dul 4ft T8......rookie

 

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I believe that the question of which root pruning method produces more yield will be answered by these pictures. This is the 4th Strawberry Cough I've harvested, from 4 plants from seeds. This is the last plant into flower, the only air pruning pot, the rest were root constriction, the two stems were 31" and 24", grown CCOB with a tomato cage. I can grow 12 of these under a 600 watt HPS with my set up.









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And this is the harvest, at least 50% better than the best root constriction plant and double the other two - pheno may have something to do with yield but the difference is too big to dismiss. And the spooky thing is my Super Silver Haze in my other air pruning pot, with 4-5 weeks left, is going to have 50% - 100% more yield than this SC. Just a monster. These are 1 liter jars and dense top colas.



I've made 4 more AP buckets and have 6 in the garden now. I'm making another 4 tonight and all of my plants in training and early flower will be in air pots, and I bought 10 new buckets yesterday so I can make an additional 6 buckets and I'll have one for every plant that needs a 5 gallon bucket (12 flower and 4 training).

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looks like an amazing harvest......u think u could do a rundown on yield for each bucket...or atleast a guess.....is it worth in in terms of yield???

 

so whats the bottom line
if had to do it all over again
what would you use


is this right:
landscaping fabric





optional second pot used when watering

 

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"u think u could do a rundown on yield for each bucket...or atleast a guess"

The first two root constriction buckets produced just under 2 liters each (7-8 cups), the third root constriction just under 2 1/2 liters (10 cups). If I clipped the buds from those top colas in the last picture I posted above I'd probably get 2-3 cups, so total 3 1/2 liters (14 cups) for the Air Pruning pot. The plants looked night and day different, the air pruning pot stayed fairly green right up to the end even though I gave it no nitrogen for 8 weeks, the leaves were thicker. The plant looked healthier and more vibrant.

"is it worth in in terms of yield???"

Absolutely, it was the easiest addition and biggest yield improvement I've done to my garden since my Light Rail. I'm going to have 16 air pruning buckets that I've made and I'm going to order a couple commercial air pruning pots for comparison. I'll never grow without something that promotes root branching, the difference is amazing.

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"so whats the bottom line, if had to do it all over again what would you use?

The Air Pruning buckets. My home made air pruning bucket out-produced 3 root constriction buckets (same strain but from seed, not clone) by between 40% and 75% yield and the plants were healthier. Potency test to come but I expect potency will be equal to or greater than the other 3.

I've been transplanting all of my 5 gallon root constriction bucket plants to air pruning buckets.


"is this right: landscaping fabric "

Correct. I find the fabric easier to use than window fiberglass screen, I couldn't find any warning against using either around ingestible plants. As well, the fabric gives us root constriction while the cover bucket is preventing air pruning.

"optional second pot used when watering"

I use the cover bucket all the time except for a day or two before watering - I let the root tips that are sticking out of the fabric dry up and I break them off by rubbing across the fabric after letting dry. There is immediate root constriction when the roots penetrate the fabric, before I remove the cover bucket for air pruning. The best of both methods. I leave the cover bucket on the rest of time to cut down on watering frequency from evaporation. A couple of days of drying kills the root tips for me, the new tips are growing out of the screen every time I take the cover off.

Water in the middle of the bucket, slowly. Make a slight depression in the soil to make a bowl shape, to keep the water in the middle. The water will seep to the edges of the bucket and not leak out between buckets. The cover bucket makes watering much cleaner, no spillage.

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Thread Summary

To summarize for people just joining the thread: By killing the root tip by drying (or through root constriction - making the root grow through a small hole, the landscape fabric) we cause a build up of sugars in the root. The root will get larger in diameter and a secondary root will grow out of the main root - for this example a lateral root growing out of the tap root, growing towards the holes in the bucket wall. These secondary root tips will eventually grow out of the holes and die themselves, promoting a third level of roots which will follow this process.

The reason this is preferred to letting the root circle the bucket (38" per revolution):

- maximum distance the water will travel through the root to get to the tap root.

Instead of circling the bucket once or twice, ending up with 6" + 38" + 38" = 82" of root the secondary root will grow ~6" from the tap to the holes in the bucket wall and the root tip will die, the root will increase in diameter and bud a secondary root of it's own and the process continues like a fractal. Shorter distance from water uptake to tap root.


- diameter of roots (flow)

Larger pipe to transport the water / nutes.


- More roots in the middle of the bucket instead of circling around the rim, up-taking water and nutes where there were very few roots before.


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ok.. i think i understand now ......
i thought you where using the term "root pruning bucket" and "root constricting buckit" enter changablely but now i understand them tobe 2 differant systems
@ the "root pruning bucket" is the buckets with the tiny holes in it (this is the one you suggest, and would use again, you also said it out proformed everything eles)
@ the "root constricting buckit" are the buckets that use the landscapeing fabric

so what do your diy "air pruning bucket" look like
i'm guessing there the buckets with the holes drilled in them
you use them without the fabric lining and when you water you place a cover bucket over them.... is this correct

 

constriction is when the root becomes constricted by being able to pass through a hole of certain diameter and then "choked off"

air prune is simply the roots touching the air and dying on the end
i used clothes baskets with rubbery plastic with holes in it type fabric, and they are doing great: i think i get both types of root pruning also as the roots pretty much die and fall off as soon as they poke through, my entire mass of medium is completely filled with hair like roots

next grow i will use smart pots, for 5 or so bucks a piece, i'm sure they're worth it

 

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Murfy is correct.

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"so what do your diy "air pruning bucket" look like, i'm guessing there the buckets with the holes drilled in them, you use them without the fabric lining and when you water you place a cover bucket over them.... is this correct"

Correct. I'm combining the air pruning buckets (with the holes drilled), with the landscaping fabric for root constriction, then lowering the air pruning bucket (lined with landscape fabric and with the plant inside) inside the cover bucket (which is just a regular bucket with holes drilled in the bottom).

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"next grow i will use smart pots, for 5 or so bucks a piece, i'm sure they're worth it"

I bought 3 of different sizes last online hyrdo order, they're thicker than the landscape fabric I have and may do a better job of root constriction. And they're dirt cheap, a couple bucks a pot.

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everytime this thread comes up as new on my updates i get excited! hobbes you must be stoked to see that your ideas have been working phenomenally! as am i. i cant wait to have the option of doing this myself one day (wen i no longer have landlords) but as for now, im just growing in partycups.

your harvest looks great man! cant wait to read the smoke report and potency test!

nCk

 

I thought about all those things recently and haven't figured why a lot of small holes wouldn't work the same way as making large holes and using a fabric.
Making a lot of small holes quick is easy - punch a lot of long nails into a plank, heat 'em all up over a stove and punch the plastic. You can make loads of holes pretty quickly.
Needless to say the cost would probably be much lower.

The medium shouldn't spill out and roots should be able to poke through.
As you said, an extra bucket to lower the evaporation rate would probably be benificial.

Does it make sense or am I missing something big?

 

that would probably work well-

smart pots are 6 bucks apiece for 10 gal, are reusable, washable, and you set them and go