Saturday, 27 May 2006
Maafahi Project - Maldives
Picture (right) shows a passion fruit vine fully recovered from severe nutritional difficiencies (before - left pic). Due to the sandy nature of the soil,  continuous feeding  with complete plant food  solves the problem. An Autopot Smart-dripper was installed to feed  two plants. Foliar feeding carried out earlier was found to be ineffective.

 Tuesday, 18 April 2006
Mt. Waverly, residential - Melbourne, Australia
- here is a combination of large and small Autopot Twin-wall planters being used for a corner of the house.
- these are self-contained Autopot units which have large reservoirs storing sufficient water for up to 6 months for one refill.
- ideal for holiday homes.

 Tuesday, 18 April 2006
Dromana Nursery - Melbourne, Australia
- this commercial nursery is using Autopot Systems for maintaining the mother stock plants.
- the key reason for using the Autopot Systems is that they wanted to be able to grow healthy stock plants which will produce good quality cuttings.
- Hydrotray Single 12 inch in use.

Monday, 17 April 2006
Shopping Mall - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- view of lovely periwinkle (Vinca) flowers in Autopot hanging baskets mounted on wall brackets.

 Monday, 17 April 2006
Last world cup, soccer - Japan
- our distributor in Japan sent us this picture showing several balls of flowers at the ends of the bamboo posts.
- each of the ball of flowers is actually Petunia flowers growing happily  in one of  the Autopot hanging basket. At the base of the cluster of bamboo posts, was a smart pump set which automatically waters and feeds the flowering plants on demand.

 Monday, 17 April 2006
Rooftop Gardening - Melbourne, Australia
- Penthouse apartment in Melbourne
- Autopot Systems was installed to provide a lovely garden that require minimal attention. This set up is on the seventh floor of an exclusive apartment block.
- Choice of plants is very important as the weather condition here is pretty harsh. Plants that perform well on the ground floor, such as petunia, may not be hardy enough to withstand the severe weather condition.

   Saturday, 1 April 2006
Malaysia - Smart Dripper fertigation for Tropical fruit trees
- Jelebu is the dryest district in Malaysia. Here, the farmer is using Autopot Smart-drippers to constantly drip nutrients and water to each of his fruit trees, such as Dukong, Langsat, Mangoesteen and even Durian.
- the feedback is that all the fruit trees have yielded better, produced earlier and have much better flavour. There is also reported less losses from fruit abortion and splitting.

  Thursday, 30 March 2006
Malaysia - Commercial Hot Chilli in Autopot Systems
- hot chilli (Mexican type) recently being planted into Autopot 12" Single tray units. This is the second batch of planting for a large organisation in Malaysia.
- growing medium used here is cocopeat.
- yields have been very good. The growth is twice as fast as compared to drip to waste system which also uses twice as much nutrients as compared to the Autopot Systems.

 Thursday, 16 March 2006
Australia Melbourne - African Violets in Autopot Systems
- picture shows African Violet plants growing nicely along side with Baby's Tears as ground cover.  We started by placing these plants with its root ball directly on the Autopot Capillary table under 2x40Watts fluro lights in a dark corner of our office.
- in just three months, they have flourished. These plants were watered and fed from the bottom by capillary action.

 Thursday, 16 March 2006
Australia Melbourne - Potato in Autopot Systems
- potato "seeds" were planted into 12 inch single Autopot Units using potting as the growing medium. When the plants have grown taller, another 12" pot with cut out bottom is cable tied to the bottom unit. More potting mix was used to fill to the top of the second pot.
- we managed to get a good harvest of 3 to 4 kg of potatoes.

 Thursday, 16 March 2006
Australia Melbourne - Butterhead Lettuce
- the lettuce are grown in 5 inch pots and 4 to a Autopot window box. The prefered growing medium is good quality potting mix. Plants 4 weeks from transplanting.
- note the plants are doing very well outdoors along a metal fence. Like many plants, Butterhead lettuces prefer to be grown outdoors than inside a greenhouse.
- since the plants are not grown in soiless medium, the Autopot Systems in this case is techically non-hydroponics.

Tuesday, 14 March 2006
Malaysia Cameron Highlands - Cherry Tomatoes
- Cherry tomato variety Cochinta growing in 1,000 Autopot 12" Tray units. Growing medium perlite.
- growth habits differ substantially from those growing under temperate Melbourne condition. The picture shows the plants have much smaller leaves, shorter plants and larger bunches. These plants already produced 10 bunches at the plant height of 7 ft from as compared to 20 ft for Melbourne plants.
- quality of fruits in terms of flavour are very much the same.

 Tuesday, 14 March 2006
Australia Melbourne - Autopot Systems for Flemington Racecourse decking landscape
- this was once a very difficult growing area (1.5M x 50M), a large planting trough filled with soil and planted with Azalea. Plants were not doing well despite regular watering and care.
- now replaced with 150 Autopot double tray units (150 x 2 Ten inch pots) planted with Nodding violet (Streptocarpus) producing extremely good results: almost a blanket cover of blue flowers year round with minimal care.

Monday, 13 March 2006
Australia Melbourne - Autopot Systems ideal for educational projects on hydroponics
- here is a bunch of school children enjoying the rewards of their effort in growing vegetables hydroponically using the Autopot Systems.
- Autopot Systems is an ideal educational tool for teaching students about hydroponics and plant science. It can be used for students to conduct experiment on water consumption of plants in relation to weather conditions. It is also ideal for creating induced nutrient deficiencies, such as taking out one nutrient element at a time and see the effects of the missing nutrients. 
- teachers love it because there is no need to maintain the system over weekends or school holidays.  

Monday, 13 March 2006
Malaysia - Oil Palm planting material study on the water consumption of different clones
- here the researcher believes that if he can identify a clone that is the most efficient consumer of water in relation to its growth and eventual yields.
- so an experiment was set up to determine the exact water requriement of each clone and Autopot Systems offers the researcher an ideal tool for the purpose.

Monday, 13 March 2006
Maldives - Maafahi island Using Corals as growing medium
- in this island, even silica sand is unavailable. Here, everything has to be imported, including bricks, perlite etc and this can be very costly.
- hence, we conducted an expriment using broken and aged corals as a possible growing medium using the Autopot System. This has been done with success before by a client in Western Samoa with good results.

 Monday, 13 March 2006
Australia Melbourne - Okid Pot Phalaenopsis Orchid
- this plant is currently still flowering. A Phalaenopsis that were transplanted into the Autopot Okid Pot (or Twin wall  pot) about two years ago when it first flowered.
- now this plant is having two spikes of flowers, each carrying about 12 flowers. The flowers are twice as big and really outstanding.
- what is more important here is that the Okid pot was filled with water only once. That's right, we fill the reservoir of 3.3 litres capacity with weak nutrient solution. That's sufficient to last this plant indoors for well over a year.
- growing medium was orchid mix.  The plant is placed close to a window receiving only morning sun.

 Sunday, 12 March 2006
Australia Melbourne - Autopot HQ - Aristolochia
- here is a case of not knowing how to water a plant species that is totally new to us and the results speaks for itself.
- this plant (just a seedling) was given to us about 9 months ago. Never seen it before and was told that it has an unusual flower measuring (10" x 14").
- so we planted it into our standard 12- inch Autopot unit in our heated greenhouse and treated like any other plant and allow the Smart-valve to regulate its watering requirement according to its demand.
- it has just flowered and it was really beautiful. In the picture, showing one of the 7 flowers in full bloom.

 Sunday, 12 March 2006
Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur Roof Top Project
- one of the 4 varieties selected for large scale production using the Autopot systems.
- one of the latest project is actually installed on top of a commercial building within the city of Kuala Lumpur.
- a total of 2,000 plants have just being planted just two days ago and scheduled for harvesting exactly  10 weeks from planting. 
Click here for full story on Autopot Rooftop Hydroponics.

 Sunday, 12 March 2006
Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur Rock Melon Project
- growing medium used very successfully is smashed bricks the size of golf balls. It may appear to be too coarse and very unlikely to work. But it did and very well too. This will be our standard growing medium for use in the tropics.
- note the use of white plastic bags which have been lined with root control mats.

 Sunday, 12 March 2006
Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur Rock Melon Project
- latest set up of a 1,000 plant module for a private farm. This is the latest of the 20 such projects. Plants one week old.
- the plan now  is 300,000 plant farm about 50 km from the capital city,
- have experimented with 20 varieties of rock melons from Taiwan, Japan and Holland and now narrowed down to 4 varieties. All very productive and excellent flavour.

Sunday, 12 March 2006
Maldives - Maafahi Island Revisited
- Jim has also been asked to look into their problems of severe nutritional deficiencies on their passion fruit vines. Many plants are dying. Corrective measures suggested, such as foliar sprays have not produced the desired results.
- Jim feels that the main problem is the sandy nature of the soil with no clay content. He installed Autopot Smart drippers to provide a 24hr non-stop drip with complete nutrients of EC 2.0 at the rate of 10 litres per day per plant. He reckons that will most likely solve the problem.
- 25 units have been installed and the progress will be reviewed in two months' time.

Sunday, 12 March 2006
Maldives - Maafahi Island Revisited
- Lettuce growing in the Autopot 10inch double pot system.
- Variety Geat Lakes. Due to the high tropical temperatures, it is not able to form heads. The crop is really healthy and still command a very good demand from local resorts.

 Sunday, 12 March 2006
Maldives - Maafahi Island Revisited
- Jim revisited the Autopot Project installed about 3 years ago. Freshwater is scarce in the island as it depends enitrely on natural rainfall (160cm per yr) for its  requirement. Hence, this is the  key reason for selecting the Autopot systems for growing vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuces.
- The other factor for selecting the Autopot system is its zero run-off feature which is important to prevent polluting the sensitive coral life around the island.
- Here, the rainwater catchment from the roof of the greenhouse is sufficient to maintain 2,000 plants.

 Sunday, 19 February 2006
Australia Melbourne - Tissue Culture Orchids
Deflasking tissue cultured orchids (Cymbidium) is now being tested for early deflasking. The undifferentiated colonies of cells have been taken out of the flask and placed on the Autopot Capillary watering table with bottom heating to 24 deg. C. Second picture showed promising results with all the cultured cells doing well with some beginning to form shoots and roots. 
 

 Sunday, 19 February 2006
Australia Melbourne - Olive growing in bags.
To grow large plants in tubs in healthy condition is not easy. However, with the Autopot Smart-dripper unit as applied in this picture for two olive trees, the results are just sensational. 
 

Sunday, 19 February 2006
Australia Melbourne - Olive in bags.
Here we have installed an Autopot Smart-dripper to serve three olive trees in a large 200 L grow bags. After one year, the results speak for itself. Will wait till next Spring to determine the production of the fruits for this Frontoio variety. 
 

Sunday, 19 February 2006
Australia Melbourne - Saffron Growing
Our first attempt with the growing of Saffron in the Autopot Double Pot Tray units. The picture showed the tubers flowered. The main interest here is to prove that Saffron can be grown succesfully in the Autopot Systems which provide us with the prospects of reducing labour costs for harvesting the stamens.  Growing medium used - perlite.  

Sunday, 19 February 2006 
Australia Melbourne - Tropical Fruit tree growing.
Guava trees - 4 plants into one 200 litre tub. Irrigated with a unit of Autopot Smart Dripper and doing really well. Bearing fruits too in Melbourne where weather wise is on the cold side for the variety. 

Sunday, 19 February 2006
Spring City Golf Resort - Kunming China
Picture showing the view from the top viewing gallery of the 19th hole of the clubhouse. Note the extensive display of Pink Craze petunia in full bloom. All grown in the Autopot window boxes - in total 5,000 plants in 6 inch pots and changing over is easy.