100 gallon smart pots indoors

[Rasta Roy]

Sooo currently in my personal room I got 16 plants in 7 gallon smart pots.

About 112 gallons soil. It seems to be working out for the most part.



This is all under three 1000w hid lights.

Now today, I fortuned into four 1000 gallon smart pots.

Whoops I meant 100. Could you imagine 1000?! Jesus titty fucking Christ our Lord and baby savior.

So that's 400 gallons of soil.

I wanna add a light, but do the same number of plants.

So I'd basically be doing four plants per light. all in this giant plot of soil. It's almost like an indoor raised bed.

I know some dudes that have grown giant trees in 100 gallon pots outside. But anybody else ever use one of these giant smart pots indoors like a bed to do multiple plants before?

I'll definitely be documenting the grow I do in them.

 

[Rasta Roy]

@greasemonkeymann im wondering your opinion...for each bed I'm thinking I want the ratio to be 60% peat/recycled soil/aeration (a mix of perlite, crushed red volcanic rock, and sand). And then 40% a mix of compost, worm castings, and composted cow manure.

But I was also thinking I could invert the numbers and do 60% compost blends, and 40% Peat/soil/aeration.

Or maybe even 50/50.

What do you think?

You think 4 plants would get crowded?

 

[calliandra]

Whoops I meant 100. Could you imagine 1000?! Jesus titty fucking Christ our Lord and baby savior.

So that's 400 gallons of soil.

Actually it is 1000s - of liters
Ah I can just see those raised beds, like a real garden - what shape are the pots, round or rectangular?
I imagine you won't be moving them around much!
So no-till?

 

[Rasta Roy]

Actually it is 1000s - of liters
Ah I can just see those raised beds, like a real garden - what shape are the pots, round or rectangular?
I imagine you won't be moving them around much!
So no-till?

They're smart pots, kind of a round, squarish shape lol. Im interested to see the shape it takes once I put dirt in em. I'm gonna take a bit of a nap and then empty out all of my on deck soil into one of em and see. And yes sir, definitely taking the no till plunge finally.

 

[calliandra]

They're smart pots, kind of a round, squarish shape lol. Im interested to see the shape it takes once I put dirt in em. I'm gonna take a bit of a nap and then empty out all of my on deck soil into one of em and see. And yes sir, definitely taking the no till plunge finally.

Ah this is going to be fun!
I think I know the shape you mean - been looking at big smart pots as possible containers for a 9m² balcony garden I'm starting next year, but I have a few restrictions that will probably make me end up making hypertufa containers.

And yeah, the soil to put in them!
I just saw how my (chunky) lava rock sunk to the bottom of the pot in a matter of only 2 grows, so I have question marks as to the best size and type of aeration too. I've been thinking of relying more on earthworms to do the aeration.. but all unfinished thoughts here

So I look forward very much to the way you set yours up!
Cheers!

 

[Vnsmkr]

I definitely wanna see this @Rasta Roy ! That would be fucking awesome. Manageable with heavy training, in your room I think. Maybe mainline them?

 

[Vnsmkr]

Or if multiple plants, yeah it works if you have plenty of rootspace like that. I do companion plants and covers in the same pots all the time and have done multi sativas in the same pot as well, no issues, long as they have room to stretch

 

[Rasta Roy]

I definitely wanna see this @Rasta Roy ! That would be fucking awesome. Manageable with heavy training, in your room I think. Maybe mainline them?

I'm definitely gonna train the shit out of em until I've got a full canopy. Im gonna do some companion planting too but I'm concerned the weed will quickly tower over them and drown them in shadows! So I might have to do my basil and rosemary in separate containers again.

 

[Rasta Roy]

. I've been thinking of relying more on earthworms to do the aeration..
Cheers!

I've been thinking the same thing!

 

[NaturalFarmer]

I caution you that living soil respiration can produce a large amount of CO2 as well as other gases. Do you have monitoring equip for CO2? I have seen levels reach 3500ppm with several hundred gallons of living soil in a sealed room overnight.

 

[Rasta Roy]

So I dumped all my recycled soil into two of the big bad boys, minus the dirt I still have plants finishing in.

They definitely take on the circle shape when you fill em up.

I put tomato cages in one to get an idea of what some grown plants would look like.

Four might be a little close to each other...but it'll make for a shorter training period as they will fill it out pretty fast.

Two pots next to each are 6 feet and 4 inches across. I was thinking one pot a light, four pots total.

However if I set up four lights and take advantage of the area where the light crosses I might have two pots in the cross light areas, making for a total of six pots. Damn.

Once I finish my round going right now, Im gonna tear down my wall. Reset the boundaries of my room and mark my lighting area and figure out how I wanna set up the pots inside that.

 

[Rasta Roy]

I caution you that living soil respiration can produce a large amount of CO2 as well as other gases. Do you have monitoring equip for CO2? I have seen levels reach 3500ppm with several hundred gallons of living soil in a sealed room overnight.

I do! I would not have even thought about that concern though thanks for the info!

 

[NaturalFarmer]

You can use it in your advantage. The peak respiration that I have seen occurs during night cycle at the temp of 78 degrees Fahrenheit. My bottle of gas is now a hood ornament. I have to replenish the microbes routinely. EM-1 seems to trigger higher amounts. I believe peat is perfect for this but that is just a guess. You need high amounts of organics for this to work I believe (my soil mix is 50% organics).

"Carbon dioxide (CO2) release from the soil surface is referred to as soil respiration. This CO2 results from several sources, including aerobic microbial decomposition of soil organic matter (SOM) to obtain energy for their growth and functioning (microbial respiration), plant root and faunal respiration, and eventually from the dissolution of carbonates in soil solution."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_respiration

http://soilquality.org/indicators/respiration.html

 

[NaturalFarmer]

I have run the same soil for two runs now and still am able to achieve 800-1800 ppm depending on media saturation level (As it dries, activity slows).

 

[greasemonkeymann]

@greasemonkeymann im wondering your opinion...for each bed I'm thinking I want the ratio to be 60% peat/recycled soil/aeration (a mix of perlite, crushed red volcanic rock, and sand). And then 40% a mix of compost, worm castings, and composted cow manure.

But I was also thinking I could invert the numbers and do 60% compost blends, and 40% Peat/soil/aeration.

Or maybe even 50/50.

What do you think?

You think 4 plants would get crowded?

No way man, they'll have plenty of room, i'd just make sure you run a lil heavier on the aeration, like a 50/50 or so.

So the cool thing about using compost is that you are doing three things at once, you are aging, and cycling your amendments, while growing MASSIVE amounts of the microbes you want, all while you are displacing/replacing your peat.
your choices on aeration are perfect by the way, sand is overlooked a lot and it works really well with humus heavy mixes.
What I like to do is have the cow manure in with my stored castings or compost, the worms love it, and it sorta "charges" the manure as well.
I made so much compost last yr I am skipping my normal autumn pile (past just collecting leaves, which I do perpetually)
I've done 4 plants in the same container multiple times, it works well but you sorta need to have each container as a monocrop, or you have issues, but that's due to the fact that I have like 12 strains, and most of them sativa-hybrids..
I remember doing nice 25 gallon smartpot with four gorilla glue #4s in there (wait, it was three and a doubledream)
anyways I got like 9 oz off those, not bad for a 25 gal "footprint" ( I think around 2 feet squared)
I know one of our oldschoolers does that @Pattahabi
but I don't think he's on here much anymore

Whoops I meant 100. Could you imagine 1000?! Jesus titty fucking Christ our Lord and baby savior.

did you forget a noun in there?
mother mary or one of the wise men?
hahahaha

 

[Rasta Roy]

No way man, they'll have plenty of room, i'd just make sure you run a lil heavier on the aeration, like a 50/50 or so.

So the cool thing about using compost is that you are doing three things at once, you are aging, and cycling your amendments, while growing MASSIVE amounts of the microbes you want, all while you are displacing/replacing your peat.
your choices on aeration are perfect by the way, sand is overlooked a lot and it works really well with humus heavy mixes.
What I like to do is have the cow manure in with my stored castings or compost, the worms love it, and it sorta "charges" the manure as well.
I made so much compost last yr I am skipping my normal autumn pile (past just collecting leaves, which I do perpetually)
I've done 4 plants in the same container multiple times, it works well but you sorta need to have each container as a monocrop, or you have issues, but that's due to the fact that I have like 12 strains, and most of them sativa-hybrids..
I remember doing nice 25 gallon smartpot with four gorilla glue #4s in there (wait, it was three and a doubledream)
anyways I got like 9 oz off those, not bad for a 25 gal "footprint" ( I think around 2 feet squared)
I know one of our oldschoolers does that @Pattahabi
but I don't think he's on here much anymore



did you forget a noun in there?
mother mary or one of the wise men?
hahahaha

Thanks for your advice sir! I'm definitely gonna monocrop in the containers. I also have too many strains to choose from! But I think I've got it narrowed down to a few different strains. And ill just do a pot of this and a pot of that. I'm gonna have to get an additional resovior too I imagine I'm gonna be going through water like crazy!

 

[Vnsmkr]

Thanks for your advice sir! I'm definitely gonna monocrop in the containers. I also have too many strains to choose from! But I think I've got it narrowed down to a few different strains. And ill just do a pot of this and a pot of that. I'm gonna have to get an additional resovior too I imagine I'm gonna be going through water like crazy!

you on the right path with monocropping inside the containers as have tried mixing things and thats a pita with different uptakes

 

[Rasta Roy]

you on the right path with monocropping inside the containers as have tried mixing things and thats a pita with different uptakes

Yes sir I learned my lesson a couple of years ago. I was growing in 30 gallon storage containers and doing two plants a tub. Worked well enough...until I mixed strains. Id have a six foot sativa plant hanging over a four foot indica in one tub. No bueno lol.

 

[iHearAll]

I was looking at these things. Seems like the way to go for a fkg pail to get dumped right into the soil. Freaking indoor raised bed.

 

[Rasta Roy]

I was looking at these things. Seems like the way to go for a fkg pail to get dumped right into the soil. Freaking indoor raised bed.

I'm pretty stoked about them! I guot my plants in two and three gallon pots right now. Soon as the root balls are nice and thick I'm gonna transplant them into the big pots. Cannot wait!