Air Root Pruning

[primeform]

This is a thread to discuss various air root pruning techniques and equipment.

First off heres a quick intro to people not up on the subject.

http://depts.washington.edu/propplnt/Chapters/air-pruning.htm#_edn8

 

[primeform]

My first question is what is the optimal transplant sizes if using air root pruning containers throughout the entire veg? From the information ive read once they have a nice root mass produced via air pruning they can actually be potted in much larger containers then conventional pots. Allowing you to skip many of the smaller transplant stages.

Plug tray > 4" > 1 gal > 10 gal > 200 gal smart pot?
can you skip the 4", 1 gal or 10 gal stage?

Another farmer mentioned that until the roots hit the outside of the next container size its very slow vegging. But once they do it takes off.

Anyone got some good info on this?

 

[mal]

My Experience

I go From a root riot into a keg cup for 2 weeks then to a 4" pot for 2 weeks then to a 7 gallon smart pot for a veg of 2-4 weeks then flip the lights to 12/12. This is from seed in a root riot for 1-2 weeks, clones can usually go directly into the 4" pot
I haven't tried an initial veg period in a smart pot(small one), but when the roots hit the sides of the pot they do take off



mal

 

[vancerz]

iv grown in the air pots and the smart pots both work well the better being the air pots but for 200 gals most def the smart pots for ease, once they start the air pruning they root in every direction even up iv done clone to 1gal to 10 gal transplants with air pots and it worked too well out doors i had roots on the top of the soil all over, they really needed a bigger pot when I harvested it looked like there was more roots then dirt, cant really comment on the 10 to 200 though.

 

[primeform]

Ive used the big smartpots before but I havent used the smaller containers for vegging. If you can go from clone to 1 gallon its amazing. The problem with normal containers is you wont have any roots on the top half of your soil if you do that.

Clone > 1 gallon air pot > 10 gallon air pot > 200 gallon smart pot sounds righteous.

Mal im currently using like 10 gallon normal containers indoor. I do all the small transplants inbetween and dont get the roots at the top that i like. Altho I do like how i can move the big pots around with there handle. Im thinking about throwing a 7 gallon smart pot inside them. Please convince me!

 

[crom]

I am interested as well. I am experimenting with the smart pot knock offs from Earth Juice, aeropots. I am running them now in a tent with the 3G size. I picked up some 10G pots for outdoors to see how they go.

As far as transplants go I think that as soon as you get roots you put them in a plant w/o a bottom and holes on the sides, to promote the roots to prune from the get go. From what I have heard, for instance, is that if your roots don't reach the sides of the pot then there isn't any magic happening. So, if you don't transplant up from a 4"-1G-10G pots won't the roots just grow the same but stretch out more because there isn't a "wall" stopping the roots? In other words I guess if you take a well rooted clone lets say in RRs and put that little lady straight into a regular 200G pot what happens? The only problem that I have experienced/heard was that if you have too big of a pot it will stay too wet due to the roots only extending out so far. That being said, if you are using an air root pruning pot, like a Smart Pot, wouldn't the excess medium dry more evenly due to the well breathing pot? Because I have heard that these pots dry out faster then conventional pots.

I think that using "too large" a SP and useing a drip system in or outdoors DTW would work well. I am working on finishing my indoor drip system for this experiment. I'm using Leadsled's design and Sunshine Advanced Mix #4(yellow bag). We'll see what happens I guess.

Good thread Primeform! Now show us your cards Farmers...

Cheers,
Crom

PS
I almost cut the tip of my finger off today with these bad boys!

 

[dextr0]

Soil blocking.

 

[primeform]

Thanks for the post Crombien I was hopin some vets like you would drop in!

From the little animation on air pots it seems once you get a good root mass from one of your small air pruning pots they will explode faster into new the new mediums. Also, they will stretch as far as it takes to get to the air wall. The difference being once they get there the tip burns off instead of turning. Once the tip burns off it starts "backfilling" all the place it had stretched with the smaller feeder roots. Then you have roots through out the pot instead of just around the bottom and outside from it continually looping(root bound) from a conventional plastic pot. Heres the little animation they have:

 

[crom]

Soil blocking.

Here is a good pictorial of soil blocking.soil blocking 101 pictorial

That does seem like a cool idea. Have you tried it dextr0? What happens if the soil blocks dry, do they fall apart? Wonder how hard it would be to make one of those simple machines? Nice contribution D!

Cheers,
Crom

 

[vancerz]

i would recommend the tiny air pots if you want to speed the roots up. I always stick clones in these indoors, the roots have a super easy time growing down then out once that happens the roots grow crazy, not only that removing the pot is way way easier then smartpots.

I noticed the knock off version of smartpots use a thicker fabric that makes it harder for the roots to penetrate but its half the price.

and Yes the water drys out pretty evenly in air pots but they are a fungus gnats wet dream indoors.

never hear of soil blocking that looks like a genius idea got any personal experience with it dextr0?

 

[primeform]

nice vance do you only rock the 4" air pots or do you have them in bigger sizes too? are your 1 gal and 10 gal air pots too? I really like the idea of undoing the clip and unpeeling it from around them for transplants.

 

[primeform]

Soil blocking looks cool and cheap. Do you rock it dextro?

 

[vancerz]

I got every size air pot they make I had uses for them all at different times, but im missing half the bottoms to them =/(altho they are still useful and usable) my brother thought all my bottoms where trash when i was moving and tossed them..... And I got smartpots up to 5 gals the smaller the smartpot the more it sucks to transplant.

you can combine pots to to create bigger pots out doors.

 

[primeform]

nice vance, do you buy yours online? or do you have a local distributor?

 

[vancerz]

a few local distributors in sac.

 

[dextr0]

Sorry for not getting back to you earlier guys. I do not use soil blocking but made another post on it in a air pruning pot thread here on farm. I would love to chopp it up with yall a little more on subject but Im a little drunk and my back is killing me. Tomorrow I get back with more info, if im able. I will get back tho.

If you cant wait check out some of my old posts.

 

[primeform]

Ok I guess my real question is: what size pot should I transplant into from a 1 gallon if I have 5 weeks to veg? assume the 1 gallon has vigorous rooting going on. I want it to be well rooted in an air pot. Would 8 gallon be to big? After 5 weeks its going straight into a 200 gallon smart pot.

I just noticed Mal goes from a 4" straight to a 7 gal. How well rooted do you think the 8 gal air pots would be after 5 weeks veg?

 

[vancerz]

assuming the 1 gal air pot has good roots they should be popping out of every witch way. it should fill a 8 gal no problem in 5 weeks... it will send roots in every direction right off the bat once you transplant it and once they hit the edges they do it again, when it comes to filling the pots root zone air pots are no joke. 8 to a 200 I dont have any experience with.

and another tip with air pots, you can always raise the bottom of an air pot up so you could make a 1 gal pot to a 1/2 or even 1/4 gal or what ever if you want to start the crazy air pruning process early then lower the pots bottom down, my buddy claims it helps save time. I never tried it out personally i always got a lot of veg time.

 

[primeform]

Damn it vance, you've convinced me to spend thousands of dollars on these pots. I guess im going to have a blow out on craigslist for my conventional pots.

 

[vancerz]

yeah you wont be disappointed, they last for ever out doors to 5 about years so far, protect the bottoms with your life they just don't sell just the bottom parts =/ im not sure how it is at some places but a store in sac was giving me 25% off a stack of 15-25 pots(i forgot) at a time they still might be doing that or maybe stores local to you might.