AutoPot News - 2012

AutoPot are pleased to announce that for the month of February we will be offering free delivery on all orders over £30 from our online shop. This applies to UK Mainland orders only. Now is the perfect time to take advantage of free delivery, with everyone ordering their equipment for the growing season and ensuring you have everything you need to make this your best harvest yet! This means you can order bulkier items such as the easy2grow liquid feed and larger AutoPot systems without worrying about the additional cost of delivery.

The Valley Grown Nurseries AutoPot Trial is now established and being streamed live here, the trial was set up at the end of December and is thriving already. AutoPot narrated videos are also available which explain the progression of the trial and time elapsed video shows the development of the pepper plants step by step.

There are 88 pots in total, using 2 rows of 44 AutoPot easy2grow systems, each supplied by a 225 litre waterbutt. Two varieties of peppers are being grown; the Palermo pepper and the California Block red. The trial is being monitored 24 hours a day with live streamed video so you can view the trial at whatever time you wish. Aeroponic technology is also being utilised within the trial to demonstrate how effective the AutoPot systems are even when a medium is not used. Valley Grown Nurseries is one of the largest commercial nurseries in the country, supplying peppers to major supermarket chains including Waitrose; watch this space for great results, tips and advice on how to get the most from one of the market leading growing systems in the UK.

AutoPot are now working with a project in Tuvalu, which is an island off the north-west coast of Australia. Tuvalu is comprised of nine coral islands, it is one of the world's lowest lying nations, with less than four metres above sea level at its highest point. In recent times, the "king tides” have been the highest in memory, swamping many of the islands and hastening erosion and the salt water intrusion that is making soil infertile. In just the past dozen years, Tuvalu has reported sea level rises of 10 centimetres. With most Tuvaluans living just one or two metres above sea level, experts say much of the island chain may be underwater in 50 years. More than 4,000 people have already left the islands to live in New Zealand.

Our client in Tuvalu, Jeremy Blishen explains ‘The acute need for fresh food is easy for all to see. The stores on the island are completely devoid of fresh vegetables and canned goods are also running low.’ Water shortages due to serious droughts are now also a key concern, this combined with a lack of usable land on the island is causing serious concern.

Jeremy’s project involves leasing land in Tuvalu to create an agricultural site where he aims to have 2000 plants, to grow a variety of crops including pok choi, cabbage, lettuces, cucumbers and tomatoes. He contacted AutoPot initially because of the water efficiency of the systems, not one of drop of water is wasted in our systems. By using the AutoPots not only is water conservation at it upmost, crop failures from recent droughts will also be combated by involving the local community in growing their own crops in a sustainable and environmentally friendly growing system.

Jeremy is having meetings with the Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources as well as the Deputy Prime Minister to discuss the project and get it off the ground as soon as possible. He is hoping that with additional support from the government the project will be able to help even more people. The simplicity of the AutoPot technology is ideal for this project, it means that the locals can grow their own produce and learn how to utilise the technology to their advantage quickly and easily.

AutoPot in New Caledonia continues to go from strength to strength. A local farmer who is one of the largest tomato producers in the country (approximately 4 hectares of greenhouses) recently purchased AutoPot kits for testing. For the first tests, he temporarily placed a 200 litre tank, at about 50cm high with one row of easy2grow extensions and a row of 1Pot modules, each line is approximately 25 meters long. As a professional farmer, he uses his own hydro fertilisers and bags of coco fibre instead of the pots. As you can see from the photographs there is 1 tomato plant per 8.5 litre pot and 2 per 15 litre 1pot module.

He has been extremely pleased with the results in comparison to his standard growing method. It is great to see a new project in the region and that AutoPot is reaching further and further around the world.

AutoPot are extremely pleased to announce that we have redesigned the FlexiTank. Although the first product initially did what we required of it, we were not happy with the quality and reliability. We therefore started from scratch and redesigned the tank, with Paul our Marketing and Sales Director visiting China twice to work alongside our manufacturers to ensure superior quality and design for the second product. We couldn’t be happier with the result the all new FlexiTank is made with a softer more malleable material, so the seals and bonds are of far superior quality; they now come in the lovely AutoPot blue, with water level marks to let you know how full your tank is. We originally offered the FlexiTank in 225 litres but we now offer it in the 100 litre size. This is ideal for smaller scale growers who have limited space in their polytunnels or gardens. It fits in a box size of only 74x18x13cm and weighs 1.9kg this significantly reduces shipping costs and storage for retailers.

For more information please visit the FlexiTank website.

AutoPot will be exhibiting in Barcelona this month between the 24th and the 26th at one of their largest trade fairs. We exhibited last year, however this year we have near doubled our stand area and will have new products, gadgets and literature on show. We look forward to catching up with our European distributors and building our connections and market in Spain for 2012.

AutoPot are pleased to announce that we will be conducting a trial at the farm site in Oxfordshire. We will be growing one thousand chilli plants using 500 of the easy2grow systems from April ready for harvest in July We predict that we will harvest 2kg per plant, with a total harvest of 2 tonnes. We will be using the easy2grow liquid feed and coco medium for this trial. We hope to exceed previous trials at the farm site this year.

AutoPot has sponsored Chris for some time now and he continues to excel in all disciplines of his shooting career. Featured in January’s edition of Clay Pigeon Shooting Association magazine, Chris came second in the Sportrap discipline, with an average of 92.1 and eleventh in the Sporting category with an average of 91.8. He is a rising star in the UK Clay Pigeon Shooting circuit and continues to rise through the rankings both nationally and in Europe.