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Any Give An Octopot A Try?


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the mnfr says Octopots outperform soil, and hydro of any type:  wick, passive, aero, in amassing roots into the secret air sleeve that magically unfuses oxygen into the water and outperform any seed that buddha didn't plant or fertilize.  Or maybe that's what i imagine.  But only a couple hundred hits on utube vid, so who knows. the early adaptors may be surly? 

Edited by pic book
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saw them at a mmj flea market type thing in taylor.

 

the guy said it works if you are running hydro or dirt.

after looking at it , you could probably make one out of a hydro net pot, smart pot and 10-15 gal rubbermaid.

 

its kind of a smart pot that sits in water in such a way that the roots dont stay wet?

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  • 2 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Arrived to today!  well packaged, discreet.   straight forward snap assembly, somewhat rugged. Well thought out, pricey. I suspect one could use those hempy bucket toppers, with the little net basket hanging down, trimmed, and used to replace the bottom of a bucket. Another option would be to use a disposable grow bag in place of their (10 dollar replacement bag), which is exactly what I'll do with the next one. A low profile Tupperware container could be used as the reservoir and a level indicator is a no brainer.

I'll probably just buy more of them, if they prove to do their job well, because they look nice on the floor of the garden, ergonomics, and mess free. I picture someone with  a line of them plumbed together, for a undercurrent experience, or just a central larger reservoir for auto watering long durations. I'm also setting up my "Wall of Plants" soon, not with cannabis but strawberries. and will hopefully get some pics up soon of both. I transplanted one plant into the five gallon bag that came with the system today. I think my expectations will be met with this one !

 

your awesome grass...

 

thank you for your reports on systems you try and of all your experience.

 

the community directly benefits from straight forward information reported as "used in the field" and not as some sales gimmick.

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I'm running them now. You fill the bottom with 3-5 inches of coco, the rest I use with a combination of Happy frog, with an added bag of perlite. You need to add an air stone to it as well to get air to the roots. I ran two stones in a couple and I'm not noticing any difference. Full nutes all the time except for your final flush. I started at 600 ppm,then work my way up to 1200 in veg. I've got several in flower that I let go too long in veg. They turned into monsters! I started with 4 under 1k, but after 2 weeks I had to break them up, 2 per 1000. Total veg time was 8 weeks. Currently 21 days into flower and they're each drinking 5 gallons every three days. I'm excited to see how they compare to their sisters. I have 4 GSC I put in with the same veg time, a few weeks prior. They're in 5 gallon pots and are roughly 1/3 the size.

Edited by apothecary33
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Grassmatch, I am very interested in how this plays out for you.

 

Anyone with experience with dwc would naturally add an airstone.   Even if you look at the old HydroFarm buckets where the water is circulated by an air pump.  Air gets into the water as it drains back over the hydroton in the bucket.   It would be interesting to see what sort of response you get if you contact the mfg.

 

I would also share your earlier mentioned concern about water temp.  I have spent years working with hydro and aeroponics.  A small black reservoir seems like you are just asking for temp/root rot issues.

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I agree semicaregiver. I was a die hard loyal hydro person since childhood(always veggies silly, always veggies)DWC, top feed, aero, passive and fog. I loved the experience of all and settled on an 8 reservoir flood and drain/trays in 2008 for a few years until deciding on an organic approach with cannabis. I miss the fun of hydro, but the proof is in the organic pudding for me.

 

I monitored the DO in every res full time and learned a bunch. One thing I found interesting was that an air stone actually introduces very little oxygen into water, but rather the violent breaking of the surface tension of the water is where the bulk of the 02 is introduced. not a helper, but interesting. I was often worried about the temps in the res too, but the only issues I had were in an undercurrent and an aero system, fixed with a small chiller.

The manufacturer of octopot says NO air stones necessary, when the tap root(s) reach the water the res will empty before anaerobic activity begins. We'll see. But adding air is no trouble. Its too late for me to stuff the small cup at the bottom with perlite or anything but the dirt that's in it,but its not recommended anyways/ We'll see. I'll sense the rot before its beyond repair and will report. If it does rot the device is a fail. I'll still modify it to work as intended on the next plant.

 

the temp in the reservoir is happily cooler than he room. I'd rather not run an ac unit in December, but have accepted the heating/cooling requirements in a sealed room, for a great return. My electric bill is near the same every month of the year strangely.

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grass,

 

Interesting on the DO.  Your experience pretty well matches the commercial world.   In an earlier life I worked selling equipment in the wastewater treatment field.  One of the major parts of wastewater treatment is what they refer to as Secondary treatment.   This is where they are trying to remove biologically the bad stuff.   The most important part of that process is introducing oxygen into the water.  You can see this when you drive past a waste treatment plant.   There are large tanks or ponds with floating devices that churn up the water.  Basically they are 50-100 hp motors driving turbine blades that churn up the water and as you say, break up the surface tension.  There are a myriad of other techniques that have been used, including covering the bottom of a tank with what amounts to airstones and variations of them.  One process even involves the addition of liquid oxygen to the tanks.   Another process involves having a series of large discs i.e. 10ft diameter mounted on a shaft that is horizontal across the surface of a tank and then rotating it.  Here again they are adding oxygen by breaking the surface tension.   All of the techniques worked better than the airstone.

 

In our field of interest, the most effective way to add DO is the spray nozzle used in aeroponics.   The most common and highly effective application I have found is the EZ cloner or Turbo cloner.     Curiously the mfg.s in both cases have you adding an airstone.   My guess is that in both cases they are unnecessary.   

Edited by semicaregiver
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One thing I learned is I could never produce too much oxygen in the water.  I went all out on the room right from the beginning and oxygen monitoring was part of that. Crazy overkill I know, but it was fun. I am old school with zero failures now thankfully, no water mess(big dirt mess though), no worries, and short vacations finally.

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