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THE BASICS OF HYDROPONICSThe Advantages of The Autopot System - Even Outdoors in The United Kingdom. The basic Autopot System consists of a plant pot on a membrane in a container.
This container has a SmartValve built into it which is fed from a nutrient tank.
As the plant in the pot uses nutrient the level of nutrient in the Autopot
container is maintained by the SmartValve. This means that the plant always has
the optimum level of nutrient at its disposal. As the plant grows and needs more
nourishment, the SmartValve opens more frequently to replenish the nutrient supply
from the tank. Because the plant pot is sat on a membrane, it will only take up
what it needs in the way of moisture.This system ensures that the plant does not
become too wet and drown or rot, neither can it dry out provided that the tank
is kept topped up. In our climate in the United Kingdom, where rainfall is often quite high and
sunshine limited, I have found that the results obtained with the Autopot system
have far outstripped those of a coventional system of soil and a growbag.
These results have only been studied using tomatoes, however I have no doubt that
the same benefits would apply to virtually any type of plant. I have grown a crop of tomatoes from seed this year and for the first time tried
the Autopot system against a growbag and against pots hand watered with nutrient
solution. The substrate used was washed coco. The seedlings were grown on to about
4" in height using rockwool cubes and a small propagation tray. They were transplanted
into 8" pots (3 plants per pot.) and the pots placed in either Autopot systems or into
containers about 2" deep. Some were planted in soil in Growbags. The Autopots were connected to a nutrient tank and the trayed pots were watered twice
daily using nutrient from the same tank. The plants in the Growbags were watered daily
and had plant food added to the water as directed on the container. It was found that
the Grobag plants did not grow as well as the others and fruited less abundantly.
The plants in pots and container trays fruited well, but during hot spells needed more
frequent watering as the coco does not retain moisture. By far the best results were
obtained from the Autopots. The plants grew quickly and were soon very well established.
The root balls soon became dense and well formed. Within a short time the plants became
sturdier than there less fortunate siblings and started to flower. I had deliberately done no maintainance with any of the plants. they were planted, fed and
left to grow without interference. This meant that the crops would be smaller than if I had
pinched out the shoots, but there could be no discrepancy due to better maintainance. The
results were quite staggering. The trayed plants produced some 250% - 300% more fruit
than the Growbags and the Autopot had at least double the crop produced by the trayed plants. The only drawback with the Autopot was that when it rained the water ran back into the nutrient
container causing it to overfill. This problem did not seem to be detrimental to the plant's
growth or yield. Copyright (C) 2004, 2005.
J R Haughton.
--- All Rights Reserved ---
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