Just to refresh your memory, this is where we were at with the chillis last week.

And this is them a week later.

Things have turned around a bit. The Hungarian Wax is in the lead at 11.5 cm tall, followed by Stromboli at 9.5 cm. Placing a surprising third, having been the smallest for a while is the Purple Tiger reaching 8cm and trouncing the sulking Naga who is a measly 7 cm in last place.  The only bright spot for the Naga is the one potted up first is doing a lot better than the one potted at a later date.

With the electrics being installed in the greenhouse, the chillis will soon have the Budbox Grow Tent back to themselves.  So it’s time to set up the Autopots. We’re using the 4 pot system and need to make sure when setting up that we do it so it fits in the Grow Tent, which is 1 meter square. This is what you get.

The green container is a 47 litre water and nutrient holder which releases water into the bottom of each pot holder by means of an Aquavalve.

When the plant has taken up all the water, more is released.  The first stage of the set up is to take a length of 6mm black pipe and push it through the black Top Hat grommet and then push the pipe and grommet into the hole at the bottom of the green water tank.

Have a cup of hot water around for this stage as it is tricky to get the grommet to fit into the hole. Autopot suggest using washing up liquid on the pipe if you have difficulty. Then take the plastic filter and make sure the plastic sponge is enclosed in the case.

This is what the other side of the filter looks like.

Push the filter into the black pipe from the inside of the water tank.

Press firmly to ensure a water tight seal. Next look at the area you are looking to set up the Autopots and arrange on the floor to ensure they will fit the area you have available. In our case these are going in the bottom of a 1 meter square Budbox Grow Tent so we made sure they will fit this.

Trim the black pipe that is coming from the water tank so that the cross shape connector can be inserted to enable further pipes to be added to feed off to the Autopot bases on each side.

Dip the pipe in hot water and insert the cross piece. Then dip the remainder of the pipe in water again and attach the other bit of pipe you have to the opposite side of the cross piece.

Insert a T shape piece in the end of the pipe, which has been trimmed to be in line with the last two Autopot bases.

Attach a piece of rubber pipe to one of the exposed ends of the cross piece, this will be leading into the first Autopot base.

Here’s a picture of the Aquavalve.

To attach the rubber tube to the Aquavalve unscrew the light blue collar and push the pipe through, ensuring the grommet is facing the Aquavalve .

Dip the end of the pipe in hot water then push onto the Aquavalve nozzle.

Push the light blue collar up to the the Aquavalve and screw on.

Put the Aquavalve into the Autopot base.

And put the cover over the top of the Aquavalve compartment. Insert the Root Control Disc, gold side facing upwards.

Then repeat the process for each Autopot base so they are all connected.

The pots then sit in the base.

And the Marix square sits in the bottom of the pot. Here it is with the pot held up to the light.

The Autopots are then ready for filling and to set up with the water tank.