Glad you chimed in… was not aware of that.
I tried to get the CFO to have a representative stop in here at OG since thete are so many hete using the system… they seem content with a Reddit group they have.
I did some reading yesterday, found out the vermiculite holds water more than i thought, is it ph neutral like the perlite?
Im actually stuck in Ohio. That was a bit of an inside joke. Libby Montana is where they mined tons and tons of vermiculite that was contaminated with asbestos. The mining company lied to the town and the workers saying the dust was safe. Asbestos related diseases pretty much wiped out the entire town of Libby. Theres a really eye opening documentary about it that we have to watch every year for training. Its actually one of the worst environmental disasters of all time…
Heres a pretty wild mini doc about Libby. Such a sad, horrible situation.
My understanding is that perlite is hydrophilic and vermiculite is hydrophobic. So mixed together the perlite will wick as much as it can and the vermiculite will create air pockets in the medium so that the roots don’t drown.
Warning, sorry incoming stoned rambling post.
For years I thought the smart valve was like a ball cock in a water tank keeping the fluid at the same height, but it’s not, it’s really clever how it works. It will open and slowly fill to a set height and then close. The filling slowly is important because when a fast wicking medium like perlite is used and water is introduced at the base slowly, the perlite can suck it up almost as fast as it’s coming in. So the valve opens, liquid comes in but it’s wicked away so the water level stays at the midway point for a few minutes before it overtakes the wicking of the perlite, reaches the maximum level and then shuts off. So now there’s a pot full of wet medium and a full saucer at the base, almost as if it’s been watered from above. Coco wicks a lot slower so only the bottom 1/4 of the pot would be wet when it shuts off.
The other part of the puzzle for me was finding out that the next water cycle doesn’t happen when the float valve drops back down to the base, it happens when the whole base of the saucer is bone dry and the airtight seal between an o-ring and the base is broken. But with a wet pot of perlite just above it, that saucer is not going to reach less than 90% humidity and until the whole pot has dried back significantly then that o-ring seal will be broken and then another water cycle commences.
My best friend dad actually died about 2 years ago now he was a carpenter laid flooring ripped it out etc an when younger didn’t know care was just making money ripping that asbestos tiles up fuck I miss him was like a 2nd father RIP BLAINE
Thats horrible, and asbestos tile is actually some of the less hazardous materials containing asbestos. When we go into some of these refineries and chemical plants, some of the pipe insulation they use on the steam lines is almost pure asbestos. The money is good, but im trying to get out of the industry.
Crazy ,back in the day cigarette filters were made of asbestos, even the fake snow in the films was 100% asbestos ,breathing not just small airborne but the whole lot of it 
Hello,
I just wanted to introduce myself to the Autopot thread. I am using the Tray2Grow by Autopot, two of them actually.
Finally got everything transplanted into hydroton. I guess i should emphasize that im not technically growing in 100% hydroton. I start all my plants off in coco loco ammended with perlite and ewc. Before they get transplanted,i cut about the bottom 2" of the rootball off and prune roots with a long bread knife. This might work great, might be a total failure. We’re about to find out.
Also will be using the airdomes for the first time. Curious to see how much of a difference they make
Good luck mate I’ll stick around to see how they do
Welcome, I have always wanted to try those trays, how long had those plants been growing in there since?
I received the plants about half the size in the picture.
Decided to pull the root ball (square) out from the sfv og I chopped last week. Very happy with the straight perlite. Had about a 2" solid square mass of thick ass roots.
Finally got things on the right track. Since last I emptied tank and pot and started over. Also added som root mycel stuff and seaweed fertilizer bypassing the tank.
A mixed bunch here , some looks really good others not so much. Trying to get them all att a good health before switching to bloom.
I think at least one explanation for the uneven health of them is that the floor is not 100% flat. Should have positioned it better i think.
Last pick is one outlier that looks different, over feed/watered ? Thhe other ones are healthy or underfeed and recovering.
Pulled some more root balls ( squares ). Im sold on going completely soilless in this system. The perlite worked awesome. Cannot wait to see how the hydroton works out. It’ll be soo much easier to clean and re use.
@douggyfresh420 so you didn’t fill the void below the airbase with perlite?
About to fill containers, I thought I had read where its suggested to fill those voids below. I did not last time and had the root nipples like your pics show.
Can you say nipples on here?
