100 gallon smart pots indoors

Rasta Roy

Well-Known Member
ever thought about getting some blumats for those bad boys???? they might be too big for blumats i dunno
If I were doing this in a bigger room I would definitely set up some kind of drip irrigation system. But this is just my personal room and especially with it being a new method for me, I don't mind tasks like watering making me spend more time with em. I do think Blu mats could be a little challenging to dial in in a medium this size! You would just have to use a bunch of em! Unless they have different sizes? I've only seen the smaller sizes in action.
 

Rasta Roy

Well-Known Member
I was thinking SIPs (but thats whats on my brain atm lol) but i dont know wth you could use for a rez... maybe build something from 2 x 4s and pond liner
A lot of good fungal networks develop right under the surface of a good mulch layer. I would have concerns about SIP water from the bottom and if that would effect their development (not having a moist upper layer). Also I'm already gonna be testing the limits of my ceiling, a rez underneath would definitely cost me precious height!
 

meangreengrowinmachine

Well-Known Member
A lot of good fungal networks develop right under the surface of a good mulch layer. I would have concerns about SIP water from the bottom and if that would effect their development (not having a moist upper layer). Also I'm already gonna be testing the limits of my ceiling, a rez underneath would definitely cost me precious height!
yeah i am worried about height issues and using SIPs for sure... as far as upper moisture, I have always used a soil moisture meter (since some very bad over watering as a noob long ago) and in my experience surface moisture can be very very deceiving... also don't we want the roots to go DOWN as opposed to up? One would think moisture in the upper area of the soil would promote the root growth toward that moisture? Also doesn't cannabis prefer bacterial soil as opposed to fungal? Not that you don't want diversity but you dont want it to get to fun... (hahaha)
 

Rasta Roy

Well-Known Member
yeah i am worried about height issues and using SIPs for sure... as far as upper moisture, I have always used a soil moisture meter (since some very bad over watering as a noob long ago) and in my experience surface moisture can be very very deceiving... also don't we want the roots to go DOWN as opposed to up? One would think moisture in the upper area of the soil would promote the root growth toward that moisture? Also doesn't cannabis prefer bacterial soil as opposed to fungal? Not that you don't want diversity but you dont want it to get to fun... (hahaha)
The whole medium is kept moist to keep the microherd alive...the roots will find their way to the bottom as the plant seeks to establish itself in the soil. Cannabis does prefer bacterial dominant soil, however fungal networks play an important role regardless (this is why a lot of growers add mycos). I'm not adding them so Im trying to foster an environment that encourages that kind of activity naturally. Like a forest floor, just below the surface of the mulch.
 

ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
the biggest blumat is the "maxi" which is like 8-10 inches or so. you can run a sequence of drippers off of one blumat to cut down on the amount of them needed.

I would think for a large bed... passive hydro would be the way to go. wick from below, have good mulch to help the water distribute throughout the soil. cool shit.

also, when you get to spend less time watering, you get to spend more time admiring, and watching and doing the other care things as well :) I enjoy not having to water my flower room by hand. i actually get more time with my plants cause i have one less "chore" if you want to call it that.
 

Organja

Well-Known Member
Rasta Roy!
Hells ya buddy! I am stoked to see this...
I have been thinking of building raised beds in my grow room. Why not! I wholly agree with your logic behind this!
 

ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
I'll be doing an update soon going over some success and problems of the first few weeks!
i saw on ebay or amazon that blumat was making some longer carrots. not sure if they're actually blumats or not though, have to check. if it ships from china.... DONT buy it
 

Organja

Well-Known Member
I'll be doing an update soon going over some success and problems of the first few weeks!
Sweet, I will for sure be watching for that!
With everything I am sure there is some learning curve from doing it a new way coming from an old way of doing it.
Anywho! Great work and I am staying tuned to see what comes next!
 

Rasta Roy

Well-Known Member
Yooo so it looks like maybe rollitup is back to normal hopefully??? Everytime I went to post the site was down and I got busy getting my soil company going (That's right y'all, you'll be able to buy some soil that had my hands all over it, this fall, maybe this summer. If you live in Michigan or wanna make the drive you can get it from me this spring in bulk sales only!)... So anyway, big update here.

Here we are upon first initial planting, looking alright to start

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But then alas, disaster.

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Broad mites...Super hard to diagnose but I had an issue with some of my mother's so this wasn't a huge surprise. I sprayed with neem oil in the morning and the evening everyday and they have hence forth retreated to the hell from which they came!

However, along with the mites; once the roots shot out a new problem became apparent. My recycled soil (which contains peat moss), had not had it's pH lower as much as I had estimated (I should have tested I know lol)...So my applications of oyster shell flour were a touch more than necessary...My soil was testing at 7.8...Yikes. plant growth wasn't going too hot, my water res natural pH is 8.0 on top of that (which had never been an issue before). I top dressed with some organic sulfur, and growth took off.

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Rasta Roy

Well-Known Member
Update continued...

So I mentioned how my soil had some high pH because I treated it the way I treat everything I love...I overfed it. An application of sulfur seem to counteract my heavy application of calcium fortunately...But about four weeks after the application the charm seemed to wear off and I started to see signs of pH imbalance again...Did not really feel like buying more sulfur so I grabbed the apple cider vinegar out of my kitchen pantry and dumped some in my water res. This brings my resting res pH to 5.4-5.6, I water with that and the imbalance issues have cleared up.

Unfortunately, this was during the height of rollitup not working and my schedule being pretty packed so I didn't take any pics of this period :(

I switched into flower on Feb 21st, I would have liked to waited a little longer to train em into a better shaped canopy but I'm going to England, and France in May and don't want to deal with having it taken care of while I'm gone.

Here's pics of them from yesterday

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You can see the LAPK's on the right in the above picture are shorter than the other plants, they were the ones that suffered the hardest from the broad mites.

A couple of issues that I can mostly attribute to my own neurotic behavior but other than that so far so good!
 

Rasta Roy

Well-Known Member
Looks good.... what did you end up with the final recipe being that all of the compost was frozen? I see a cement mixer from Santa Clause in your future...
Luckily a landscape supplier in my city makes a killer compost, that along with some local mushroom compost, and composted cow manure mixed with my recycled soil makes up the bulk of the mix. I worked worm castings from my bin into the top layers of soil and planted into that.
 

gotkush?

Well-Known Member
This is by far one of the most informative growing threads that I have ran across lately. And I also commend your bravado for following through with such a plan, I have contemplated about this before but never really had the balls to go through with it.
Looking great so far man. Too bad about those russet mites, but other then the runted PK everything looks really healthy, have you had to water them much? How are your companion plants coming along so far? Do you just let your run off go on the floor, or are you using saucers? Looking forward to see how it finishes up for ya.
Happy Growing
 

Rasta Roy

Well-Known Member
This is by far one of the most informative growing threads that I have ran across lately. And I also commend your bravado for following through with such a plan, I have contemplated about this before but never really had the balls to go through with it.
Looking great so far man. Too bad about those russet mites, but other then the runted PK everything looks really healthy, have you had to water them much? How are your companion plants coming along so far? Do you just let your run off go on the floor, or are you using saucers? Looking forward to see how it finishes up for ya.
Happy Growing
I wrestled with the decision to do this for a while before I finally went for it! Organic container gardening and organic gardening in beds are very different things and while they definitely share some exchangeable practices, I really wanted the full garden bed experience. My curiosity won in the end as you can see.

The basil and rosemary are growing well but they are just in little five gallon smart pots so they don't get too big (plus I keep clipping them when I cook).

I water each bed with about 2.5 to 5 gallons of water every other day. I either have to water 2.5 gallons every day or 5 every other day. Which isn't really much considering how much soil I have. The soil's composition and the straw mulch make for great water retention.

I get good drainage too, I do have the beds elevated to keep them off the concrete floor; but no trays. I installed a drain in my floor and I got dehumidifier as well just in case.
 

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
I wrestled with the decision to do this for a while before I finally went for it! Organic container gardening and organic gardening in beds are very different things and while they definitely share some exchangeable practices, I really wanted the full garden bed experience. My curiosity won in the end as you can see.

The basil and rosemary are growing well but they are just in little five gallon smart pots so they don't get too big (plus I keep clipping them when I cook).

I water each bed with about 2.5 to 5 gallons of water every other day. I either have to water 2.5 gallons every day or 5 every other day. Which isn't really much considering how much soil I have. The soil's composition and the straw mulch make for great water retention.

I get good drainage too, I do have the beds elevated to keep them off the concrete floor; but no trays. I installed a drain in my floor and I got dehumidifier as well just in case.
I'm curious about why you felt you needed such deep containers. Why wouldn't 6" deep trays have worked?
 
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