Smart Pot Tips

hey all.current grow is 5x5 tent with 600 watt hps, happy frog with perlite added in 7 gallon root pouch(the manufacturer) pots.watering is a pain tha ass with runoff, scroggin these so moving them is out of question,pots are 14 inches wide in 16 inch drip trays, even after DAYS without water I would notice if I moved the pot in the tray there is still moisture under it!!searched all over for ideas ,finally decided to go to the depot and bought some bricks with holes in them ,washed all 27 bricks by hand in the tub!! im gonna place 3 bricks under each pot to get them up out of the trays, and as far as watering goes, I purchased a small wet vac and im attaching a hose to the end so I can suck the runoff out of the trays as needed!! pretty clever I think! anyhow , I noticed what appears to be whitish looking mold growing around some of the pots bottoms!! anyone else experience this with these pots? im thinking litely mist the bottoms with bleach to kill the mold if that's what it is? and I have 3 6 inch clip on fans in the tent as well. any thoughs? or anyone with tips or tricks with smart pots please feel free to post! thanks in advanced

Put them in milk crates, keeps them off the ground for good airflow and gives you structure to tie down to for lst

Good idea to get something under them. I found some plant stands (dollar store) with 1/2" "feet" that I put in the catch tray then sit the plant on them, that way there's no water/runoff sitting for any length of time (evaporates quick) and the bottom of the pot isn't sitting in it.

Pics would help but your "mold" issue is likely salt build-up, not necessarily mold. Fabrics will get stained if you're feeding a lot and not watering enough in between. Careful with bleach, roots won't like it much and it won't do anything if it's salt build-up.

breakdancer0003 said:

Put them in milk crates, keeps them off the ground for good airflow and gives you structure to tie down to for lst

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in the milk crate? they wont fit!the pot is a tad bit bigger than a standard milk crate

GroErr said:

Good idea to get something under them. I found some plant stands (dollar store) with 1/2" "feet" that I put in the catch tray then sit the plant on them, that way there's no water/runoff sitting for any length of time (evaporates quick) and the bottom of the pot isn't sitting in it.

Pics would help but your "mold" issue is likely salt build-up, not necessarily mold. Fabrics will get stained if you're feeding a lot and not watering enough in between. Careful with bleach, roots won't like it much and it won't do anything if it's salt build-up.

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I haven't fed a lot ... matter of fact only twice, and always water in between feedings, I think its cause they've sat in a bit of moisture for to long? im gonna try to raise them and get better air movement at the bottom and see if it helps

i went back to plastic pots and like them better, but I had this idea and apparently someone else did too.

https://www.sunlightsupply.com/shop/bycategory/pots-containers/gro-pro-nx-level-pot-elevators

You don't actually need much run off at all. I made this mistake way back when I started growing.

Now days I try not to get much run off if I can help it.

diamonddav said:

with bleach to kill the mold if that's what it is?

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Chances are bleach will destroy your pot. Fabric + bleach drying on it = fabric being destroyed.
Make H202 to get rid of the mold. Just google it. There're actually tutorials on killing mold with it.
I suggest chucking out the smart pots and getting these http://www.horticulturespecialties.com/index.php?cPath=30
Basically they're plastic pots that do the same thing. Uncle Ben pointed these things out a while ago. I switched up and won't ever look back.
Pros = No mold.
No transpiration out of the sides. So no busting your balls watering them because they're drying out every day and a half.
Cheap as can be. That's 3-4$ a pop for 3-5 gallon pots.

I use plastic pallets. Try to look at gas stations grocery stores behind them were they stack the crates out back. Another thing i have used was bread crates. The bread delivery people have the plastic carriers with handles. They are hard plastic. Use a circular saw and cut to fit in your area

The Groves In My Hydro Try Keep Them From Sitting In water.. Smart Pots Are awsome, This Is My First Time Using Them. They dry out quick, I water every 2 to 3 days.. The 5 gallon smart pots are drying out as fast as 3 gallon plastic pots I'm running in the same tray...When they're done ill check the roots and decide whether I want to use them again.. so far I can't find one thing wrong with them. that being said they would suck if I didn't have them sitting in a tray.

mr sunshine said:

The Groves In My Hydro Try Keep Them From Sitting In water.. Smart Pots Are awsome, This Is My First Time Using Them. They dry out quick, I water every 2 to 3 days.. The 5 gallon smart pots are drying out as fast as 3 gallon plastic pots I'm running in the same tray...When they're done ill check the roots and decide whether I want to use them again.. so far I can't find one thing wrong with them. that being said they would suck if I didn't have them sitting in a tray.

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I've been using them for a while and find the same thing, not a bad thing but with the air going through them it doesn't seem to matter what size pot I use, in flowering they're dry in 2-3 days. If you size the pot right, you end up with a solid cylinder of root mass. I'm running a thirsty bitch right now in 10gal and watering it every 2 days. It's the one closest to the camera is a week into 12/12 and stretching her legs wide

mr sunshine said:

The Groves In My Hydro Try Keep Them From Sitting In water.. Smart Pots Are awsome, This Is My First Time Using Them. They dry out quick, I water every 2 to 3 days.. The 5 gallon smart pots are drying out as fast as 3 gallon plastic pots I'm running in the same tray...When they're done ill check the roots and decide whether I want to use them again.. so far I can't find one thing wrong with them. that being said they would suck if I didn't have them sitting in a tray.

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Doc and a few of us were kickin this around awhile back. There was a video around promoting the use of these smart pots for better overall growth but as Doc pointed out in his wisdom, and you may see when you tear one down, there is often a lot of area toward the edges of the pot that the roots never make it to which also means that valuable pot space is ending up not being used by this system.
This might be the reason why Chuck ditched them too.
Keep that in mind and see what you think later.

thanks for the feedback! I really like those pot elevators,gonna see if my local grow store has them or can order them, if not im gonna do the bread tray or milk crate trick! cant believe I didn't think of cutting the fukers up with a sawzall to make em work and there FREE! good tip on the h2o2 as well !

One more thing I meant to mention in the first post. When you transplant, it helps if you pack/fill the edges to make sure there's medium all the way down and fill any crevices. If you don't they tend to get pockets and water will shoot out when you pour the first bit of water in, if you pack them along the first 1" of the perimeter or so that doesn't happen.

yep good tip as well, hell ive noticed that just from moving them around sometimes the edges become like that, I usually level the soil real good and pack the edges before every watering!! the pots im using have handles on them as well and if you pick them up it definitely fucks up the soil on the sides, but there also handy for some LST to tie to!