Has anyone tried these?

Has anyone tried these self watering pots from Botanical Brothers?

Botanical Brothers

They won the High Times stash award in 2006 for best outdoor growing product. Supposedly if you use them, you only need to water every 1-2 weeks and never have to worry about over or under watering. Also, you are never supposed to have to leech plants in these, because apparently the salts cannot build up in the soil (or soilless mix) using this watering method?

I am thinking of trying these indoors in an enclosed grow cabinet, but was hoping to hear from somebody who has personal experience with this product first?

It's effectively a wick system. The prices Botanical Brothers are asking are highway robbery! $115 for a dozen 1 gallon pots? Sheesh!

You can duplicate this stuff for about 5 bucks per pot, LOTS less if you're a clever shopper.

Just get some pots with no holes, slightly larger than the grow pots (aka good ol common 89 cent grocery store plastic buckets), to use as reservoirs.

Put a piece of frayed rope through the bottom of your grow pot.

Fill the pot with a medium (vermiculite, perlite, rockwool, perhaps some of each) and dip the rope into the reservoir of nutes.

Some pieces of brick or tile are put in the reservoir bucket to keep the grow pot's bottom above the reservoir level. Only the rope dips in the reservoir.

Give the media an initial wetting with nute solution, fill the reservior, plant the seedling/clone in your medium, bang, done.

As the media dries back, water & nutes will wick up the rope and moisten the media to just the right dampness.

Refill the reservoir with tap water as needed, dump the reservoir buckets and clean them out once every couple of weeks before mixing up new nutrient solutions.

Shiitake said:

Also, you are never supposed to have to leech plants in these, because apparently the salts cannot build up in the soil (or soilless mix) using this watering method?

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I would dispute that notion. After several months in use, all wick systems will develop a crust of nutrient salts and/or minerals from tapwater on the media which is exposed to air. The wicking action doesn't stop at the rope. The moisture evaporating from the surface of the pot of media will wick more moisture and more nutrient salts from the reservoir. The water evaporates but the mineral salts are left behind.

This isn't usually a concern with cannabis as you're not raising a plant for much longer than a couple of months, but if one were to keep a mother plant in a wick system for several months, it might become a worry. It's a good idea to replace mother plants with a clone produced from them, every 6-8 weeks or so. Not long enough to really build up a poisonous concentration of nute salts.

High Times blows. they burned me for stickers. and we all know how much i like stickers. i got a 2 year subscription just so i would get the extra sticker pack. it's been over a year. NO stickers yet. 3 emails, no response. High Times contradicts themselves every month to fill pages. their news is 4 months old. i could go on and on but we would eventually end up at Bobby Black and that's a page i refuse to go to.

High Times lost me completely when they started running those ads for imitation 'herbal buds' bullshit.

Back in the 70s, HT refused advertising for paraquat test kits cause they knew there was no such thing as paraquat pot. Just like Zero or Roundup, paraquat turns pot to crumbly dust- you'd never be able to sell it. The paraquat thing was a government bullshit campaign- and HT, to their credit, would not allow the paraquat profiteers to make money off of people's ignorance.

How times change, eh?

Thanks for posting the link to the wick article!

In that article, it said the main problem with wick systems is that large plants and/or plants with high water requirements may not be able to get enough water due to the transfer limitation of the wick itself? Since Cannabis is a high water requirement plant even when only medium sized, is it possible that a wick system would be a bad idea for growing cannabis - or should it be ok with medium or smaller sized plants?

wop, it is nothing but a fancy priced wick sys basically, same was propagated a few years back for sill plants in the same size range but for less. i guess they bought that stuff in bulk and the machinery and selling it now for weed

but i have no clue why this was in the outdoor category there are a million cheaper ways for the job then this besides that a 1 gal pot is damn small outdoors

oh, and guess why it became quickly unpopular with sill plants

I have used them indoors and outdoors and they work insane. I got 40 cameo 15 gallon Buckets from them 3 years ago and i on harvest number 4. The pots are expenive cuz the use virgin plasic and have uv inhibitors for hps lights and sun rays.These pots have paid 4 themselves over and over again. Thanks Botanical Brothers

Botanical brothers

Dont bag it until you try it. Those pots are amazing. I got mine a year ago and they work insane. They just teamed up with B.C northern lights and now making grow cabs with the buckets..go to BC northern lights for more info.

I think they would be well worth the money; it's not like you're going to use them one time then throw them away. I totally agree that HT sucks. After the "cannabis cup" this year I took them off my MySpace friends list.

Greenthumb4life said:

I have used them indoors and outdoors and they work insane. I got 40 cameo 15 gallon Buckets from them 3 years ago and i on harvest number 4. The pots are expenive cuz the use virgin plasic and have uv inhibitors for hps lights and sun rays.These pots have paid 4 themselves over and over again. Thanks Botanical Brothers

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virgin plastic? UV inhibitors?

so it is not recycled and is opaque? you've described just about every bucket i've ever seen.

virgin plastic - not if GI Joe has his way!

fdd2blk said:

High Times blows. they burned me for stickers. and we all know how much i like stickers. i got a 2 year subscription just so i would get the extra sticker pack. it's been over a year. NO stickers yet. 3 emails, no response. High Times contradicts themselves every month to fill pages. their news is 4 months old. i could go on and on but we would eventually end up at Bobby Black and that's a page i refuse to go to.

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I fucking can't stand bobby black.......seriously the guy is a douche....i don't think he even smokes buds...LOL...he just pretends too.... stupid bobby

I like High times but Booby Black ooops I mean Bobby is a loser this is from his myspace page under his Intrests. He contradicts himself like 10 times in these intrests. An E popping taoist and Buddist that pratices Black Magic oh yeah smokin weed in in there some were

classic rock, stoner rock, heavy metal, women, philosophy, literature, magick, hedonism, tantra, comic books, art, writing, poetry, women, consciousness elevation, absinthe, sex, chaos, movies, sci-fi, horror, travel, adventure, women, mushrooms, paganism, Wicca, marijuana, ecstacy, Buddhism, Taoism, Discordianism, women, beer, quantum physics, politics, jazz, vodka, cocaine, porn, funk...and did i mention women?

mattso101 said:

I like High times but Booby Black ooops I mean Bobby is a loser this is from his myspace page under his Intrests. He contradicts himself like 10 times in these intrests. An E popping taoist and Buddist that pratices Black Magic oh yeah smokin weed in in there some were

classic rock, stoner rock, heavy metal, women, philosophy, literature, magick, hedonism, tantra, comic books, art, writing, poetry, women, consciousness elevation, absinthe, sex, chaos, movies, sci-fi, horror, travel, adventure, women, mushrooms, paganism, Wicca, marijuana, ecstacy, Buddhism, Taoism, Discordianism, women, beer, quantum physics, politics, jazz, vodka, cocaine, porn, funk...and did i mention women?

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ROFLMAO....thank you for this

I cant Belive more People Dont Know about these Pots there the key to my last 10 Best Harvests of my life They Just Changed the site so you can mix and match pots or just buy 1 for 9 bucks just to see how great they work. I really hope more people try these Buckets to see what im talking about, you will throw your gay aeroponic machine in the garbage lol. check there site at www.Botanicalbrothers.com or Bcnorthernlights.com all those growcabs i see are coming with those pots smartest thing those guys ever did putting those killer buckets in there cabs. posting pics of my lemon haze and gods gift i just harvested in the BBros 12" pot.. Stay Posted......
KAI IRONS
HIKU,MAUI

Greenthumb4life said:

I cant Belive more People Dont Know about these Pots there the key to my last 10 Best Harvests of my life They Just Changed the site so you can mix and match pots or just buy 1 for 9 bucks just to see how great they work. I really hope more people try these Buckets to see what im talking about, you will throw your gay aeroponic machine in the garbage lol. check there site at www.Botanicalbrothers.com or Bcnorthernlights.com all those growcabs i see are coming with those pots smartest thing those guys ever did putting those killer buckets in there cabs. posting pics of my lemon haze and gods gift i just harvested in the BBros 12" pot.. Stay Posted......
KAI IRONS
HIKU,MAUI

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Ok I guess ill have to be the one to go ahead and call you out as the liar that you are. In your first post you said you bought them 3 years ago and had done 4 crops. In your second post you claimed that you bought them 1 year ago and now your saying that you have done 10 crops in them...
Please dont come in here and try to make sales. Its just rude and considered spam

Greenthumb4life said:

I cant Belive more People Dont Know about these Pots there the key to my last 10 Best Harvests of my life They Just Changed the site so you can mix and match pots or just buy 1 for 9 bucks just to see how great they work. I really hope more people try these Buckets to see what im talking about, you will throw your gay aeroponic machine in the garbage lol. check there site at www.Botanicalbrothers.com or Bcnorthernlights.com all those growcabs i see are coming with those pots smartest thing those guys ever did putting those killer buckets in there cabs. posting pics of my lemon haze and gods gift i just harvested in the BBros 12" pot.. Stay Posted......
KAI IRONS
HIKU,MAUI

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9 posts all with links to some gimmick. you must be pretty desperate for sales. good luck.

al b. Fuct said:

i would dispute that notion. After several months in use, all wick systems will develop a crust of nutrient salts and/or minerals from tapwater on the media which is exposed to air. The wicking action doesn't stop at the rope. The moisture evaporating from the surface of the pot of media will wick more moisture and more nutrient salts from the reservoir. The water evaporates but the mineral salts are left behind.

This isn't usually a concern with cannabis as you're not raising a plant for much longer than a couple of months, but if one were to keep a mother plant in a wick system for several months, it might become a worry. It's a good idea to replace mother plants with a clone produced from them, every 6-8 weeks or so. Not long enough to really build up a poisonous concentration of nute salts.

Click to expand...

the salts rise to the top from bottom feeding this is called inverted leaching you can actually scoop off the salts off the top of the buckets after about a month....