Smartpots or Coco Slabs?

[Bionik Kronik]

I want to switch to coco, but I don't know if I should do 2 gallon smart pots or coco slabs. Can anyone offer any advice. These will be in a growlab tent on a 3'x6' flood table.

 

[leadsled]

Can re-use the smart pots.
slabs are easy to dispose of.
both have pros and cons.

I personally would go for the smart pots.

 

[Thundurkel]

Eco Pots are just like Smart Pots but built better and have square bottoms and thick triple stitching on them. I just switched to the 2gal Eco Pots from 1gal Smart Pots and I'm very happy with them so far plus they have handles so I can move them around much easier. Hand made in Nor Cal also....

 

[Bionik Kronik]

Well I'm having a hard time sourcing coco slabs locally and I don't want to order so im going to go with the lose fiber from CANNA. I was thinking of doing something like:

70% Coco
30% Perlite

or

70% Coco
20% Perlite
10% EWC

any thoughts... I will be running all CANNA nutes and foliar feeding with Coco-Wet wetting agent with FOSSIL FUEL, NITROZIME, CANNA BIO BOOST.

 

[Aligee]

smart pots filled with coco is the ticket bro good luck!!!

 

[motherlode]

the coco slabs I have seen do not hold much water - guy at the shop told me youd almost need a constant drip to run them

 

[dentonland]

I've only used coco slabs... kinda messy and dirty compared to your smart pots. Plus if you get them gnats they just love to hang in there. I'ld stay away from em

 

[HortiLab]

Tuff choice...coco slabs as well as smart pots (filled with coco) will preform VERY well in combination with a top drip / sprayer setup.

 

[antimatter]

I find the smartpots dry out much faster than regular nursery pots. I was thinking to fix that problem by putting them tightly inside a regular nursery pot, still have not tried it though but there is no doubt that smart pots are cleaner to water as no loose coco is mixed in with runoff. 3x on the Highest setting in the washing machine seemed to clean em up good enough for reuse.

 

[motherlode]

bro part of the appeal of smart pots (for me especially with coco) is that they dry out faster

I think putting them in another pot would defeat the air pruning to some extent

if your using coco with perlite, try just pure coco

 

[Str8Dank]

I'm switching to canna coco with smartpots. Gonna use #1 #3 and #5 smart pots I can't wait to make the switch from a active hydro system. My boys running like this go three days between waterings in full bloom in #5's that's perfect imo not too often but long enough to leave for a long weekend.

 

[Darth Fader]

Smartpots work great but are a PITA to clean. I found a better solution: 9"x9" square netpots. Cheaper too. check greners:anim_30:

 

[antimatter]

bro part of the appeal of smart pots (for me especially with coco) is that they dry out faster

I think putting them in another pot would defeat the air pruning to some extent

if your using coco with perlite, try just pure coco

And why is that an appeal to you? Ive had plants in these smartpots need watering twice a day, and drying out like crazy just because of my dehumidifier with no noticeable difference in growth atleast not that I can notice but the air pruning really does use every inch of coco efficiently.

 

[motherlode]

because coco is hydro and the whole point of hydro is being able to feed/water more often then every 2-3 days - you may as well grow in dirt

if your not on a drip or something and want to use coco then Id use straight coco or a bigger pot

 

[xerhoss]

I'm thinking about going this route as well. Any recommendations for going 3 gallon or 5 gallon with these for maintaining a 3-4' max plant height? My yield goal is 4-8oz per. Any suggestions would be much appreciated... :rauch08:

 

[xerhoss]

Eco Pots are just like Smart Pots but built better and have square bottoms and thick triple stitching on them. I just switched to the 2gal Eco Pots from 1gal Smart Pots and I'm very happy with them so far plus they have handles so I can move them around much easier. Hand made in Nor Cal also....

Interesting. I haven't bought my next set of pots for transplant yet. Google isn't giving me nuttin. :anim_44: Care to share source intel? :hi

 

[antimatter]

because coco is hydro and the whole point of hydro is being able to feed/water more often then every 2-3 days - you may as well grow in dirt

if your not on a drip or something and want to use coco then Id use straight coco or a bigger pot

Coco is hydro you are right and its a very simple failsafe way to do hydro and in my opinion more forgiving then soil in alot of ways.

So instead of twice a day with smartpots on a drip, I only have to water once a day on a drip with regular nursery pots with straight canna coco what is wrong with that? It is in my opinion that if you have to water twice a day you are creating something that can fail alot easier and throwing peace of mind out the window. If you really have to water every 2-3 days when the plants are drinking there most in flower then you probably are using way to much coco to begin with. Also there is no rule you can't drip a bit at a time instead of a full watering every 2-3 days.

If your watering every 2-3+ days in veg that is normal but if you were watering everyday in veg that would equal watering many times a day in flower (if using same pot size) which is totally unnecessary, coco is supposed to be setup as a forgiving system not a fail system. Throw established plants in coco into your flower room to veg a bit on 18/6 with full flower wattage with a full tray of runoff even and your plants will veg at a disgustingly fast rate, there are no fancy tricks these plants will blow up in coco regardless of if your feeding 4 times a day or every 3 days aslong as your feeding them right in the proper environment.

 

[motherlode]

all Im saying is IF your gals need to be watered more then once a day then use a bigger smart pot or use pure coco - not put a 4 dollar smart pot inside a nursery pot

when you do that you dont have a smart pot - you have an expensive pot liner

 

[antimatter]

all Im saying is IF your gals need to be watered more then once a day then use a bigger smart pot or use pure coco - not put a 4 dollar smart pot inside a nursery pot

when you do that you dont have a smart pot - you have an expensive pot liner

One of the main advantages of the the smartpots is using a smaller pot and less coco because of the air pruning but the faster drying out and smaller pot size has you needing to water way way to much follow me? If the expensive pot liner idea takes away from the main disadvantage of drying out to fast but still allows the air pruning, would have to test it out but my theory is the pot being fabric alone would be enough to allow enough breathability to air prune even if sitting snug in a nursery pot. Motherlode a 5 gallon bucket of pure coco can handle a 1lb plant of dry bud if vegged long enough what are you looking to gain by using smartpots?

 

[motherlode]

I dont use smartpots and maybe thats why I find this debate tiresome - sorry to the OP for the thread hijack