Organic soil with Smart/Fabric/Air Pots?

Overgrowtho

Overgrowtho

Well-Known Member
I wonder what everyone's thoughts are on organic living soil grows with these smart/fabric/air pots? Helpful or harmful or neutral?

In my own experience, I can see how they are helpful in an outdoor grow with too much rain. It will dry out quicker.

However for indoor grows, unless you WANT to be watering very very often -- I find it hard to justify?

If the soil on the sides of the pot becomes dry after 1-2 days the microbes in that part there will just flee. No?
 
The smallest is really 15 gallon if you ask me. If you hand watering at least. With self irrigation pots or blumats 5-10 g work. Keeping correct moisture levels is definitely more difficult the smaller you go. Air pruned roots right at the rhizosphere will really choke things out right at critical growth periods.
 
I tried out 1 gal smart pot last grow, this time 2 1 gal and 1 3 gal, they dry out a little faster but i use blumats so its no skin off my back...lol ya the sides get a little dryer than the hard pots,don't see any noticeable difference in growth or anything so far, might try and turn up the blumat on one to see if i can get the moisture right out to the edge, then again maybe not...i think that's one way you can end up with a runaway over adjusting a fabric pot
 
I am currently hand watering a crop using 5 gallon fabric pots and organic living soil with no issues. I am watering every 2.5 days, they are in their fourth day post-flip and 6 5 gallon pots are drinking about 3/4 gallon each without any runoff.
 
dbz said:
I am currently hand watering a crop using 5 gallon fabric pots and organic living soil with no issues. I am watering every 2.5 days, they are in their fourth day post-flip and 6 5 gallon pots are drinking about 3/4 gallon each without any runoff.
Click to expand...
How’s that going with 5 gallon? I was worried about using 10 and 15 gallon pots, thinking they were on the smaller side.
Also, what are you using for aeration? Pumice is such a bitch to find and read bad stuff about perlite but some say quality perlite is legit.
 
Perlite is fine. Don't get worked up about your aeration material. Pumice might be great but it's crazy expensive to ship. Similar product is something called growstones. Pretty sure company is out of business but bags are still sround. Lava rocks are heavy AF but work really well. The most important reason I use perlite in my mixes is that I can get it locally.
 
when you use 10-15+ gallon pots are you guys using such a big pot for no till purposes? Or some other reason?
i am running 3 gallon pots and if my plants were any bigger the tops would be trying to breach my tents roof.
those huge pots could grow a 10-15 foot tree
 
ChrispyCritter said:
Perlite is fine. Don't get worked up about your aeration material. Pumice might be great but it's crazy expensive to ship. Similar product is something called growstones. Pretty sure company is out of business but bags are still sround. Lava rocks are heavy AF but work really well. The most important reason I use perlite in my mixes is that I can get it locally.
Click to expand...
It’s hard for me not to get worked up about it TBH, I was thinking I’ll just do a mix of thick thick perlite and lava rock broken into small pieces.

JustBlazin said:
when you use 10-15+ gallon pots are you guys using such a big pot for no till purposes? Or some other reason?
i am running 3 gallon pots and if my plants were any bigger the tops would be trying to breach my tents roof.
those huge pots could grow a 10-15 foot tree
Click to expand...
Yea people use bigger pots for notill, I have never done notill just regular organic so I’m learning myself.
 
I'm pretty into doing things right so I understand and didn't mean "Dont get worked up about it" in a negative way. It sounds like I'm being a prick. Sorry. I just meant there are options. Good luck!
 
I use lava rock and perlite in 10 gallon pots. My girls 3.5 weeks into flower drink about 1 gallon of water each every other day.
 
GrassBurner said:
I use lava rock and perlite in 10 gallon pots. My girls 3.5 weeks into flower drink about 1 gallon of water each every other day.
Click to expand...
How small did you break the lava rock up? Like the size of a big piece of perlite? Maby the biggest pieces would be the size of your pinky nail?
 
I run a cover crop and straw as well, has really helped to keep the top layer of dirt from getting crusty. When I first started growing, this gave me a lot of problems. The water would just shoot to the perimeter and haul ass out of the sides of the pot. I also check 5 or 6 places with my moisture meter before each watering, little aeration and gives water different avenues to travel.
 
I didn't break it up at all :lol: When I dumped the rocks out into my plastic tub, I noticed there was a nice mixture of sizes in the bag, the majority being small to medium sized. Figured a little variety wouldn't hurt. My 10 cu ft of soil had 3 cu ft of various sized lava rock, and then and I added 1 cu ft of perlite to that mixture before using it. Hopefully covered all my bases.
 
GrassBurner said:
I run a cover crop and straw as well, has really helped to keep the top layer of dirt from getting crusty. When I first started growing, this gave me a lot of problems. The water would just shoot to the perimeter and haul ass out of the sides of the pot. I also check 5 or 6 places with my moisture meter before each watering, little aeration and gives water different avenues to travel.
Click to expand...
Yea I have a 12 types of seed cover crop from buildasoil, was thinking about using leaf mold and some type of hay. Good call on the different avenues for the water, didn’t think about that... but am I right I’m thinking the lava rock would be like pinky nail size biggest?
 
Kind Sir said:
How’s that going with 5 gallon? I was worried about using 10 and 15 gallon pots, thinking they were on the smaller side.
Also, what are you using for aeration? Pumice is such a bitch to find and read bad stuff about perlite but some say quality perlite is legit.
Click to expand...
Well the current grow I am doing is water only living organic. Kindsoil 5 lbs in the pots and rest filled with coco loco. I have not amended one bit, they come with plenty of perlite in them. I am cooking some of my own compost ewc and amendments for a next go around. You can see progress in my signature. I think the latest pics are jist a day or two after flip.
 
JustBlazin said:
I tried out 1 gal smart pot last grow, this time 2 1 gal and 1 3 gal, they dry out a little faster but i use blumats so its no skin off my back...lol ya the sides get a little dryer than the hard pots,don't see any noticeable difference in growth or anything so far, might try and turn up the blumat on one to see if i can get the moisture right out to the edge, then again maybe not...i think that's one way you can end up with a runaway over adjusting a fabric pot
Click to expand...
How large of plant were you able to grow in 1 gallons?
 
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