It will allow an extra full grow cycle in a year so in theory it could be looked at as you will make your money back in 6 months or less. I agree that the cost invested per ounce continues to rise and there needs to be some sort of plan to reduce grower’s costs for the grobo system to stay viable.
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This is precisely why I started growing in a tent, about the same cost upfront, but once everything is dialed in there isn’t much of a hassle. Depending on how this grow goes I may end up selling my Grobo. With the Grobo I’ve had 5 failed grows, 2 of those the seeds never germinated. Of the 3 that failed to grow after popping above the coco pod, all of them were started in coco pods that I purchased from Grobo back in October. Which is why I am thinking that the coco pod source was changed, they were not packaged the same as the ones I purchased back in May/June.
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@VermontGrobo Do you think they couldn’t get the same pods and the best workaround they could find was the peat change? There has been debris in pods, they stay soaking wet, failed grows, failed germs, cases of damping off, people’s money spent on seeds (and other cannabis!) and time and love invested in failed grows to be paid back in more faulty coco pods because grobo feels bad - is that about the gist? Cuz that’s about what I’m feeling right now tbh, especially considering my own short experiences with the pods while reading this thread over
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Could be. I had 2 seeds not pop at all back to back and one pod was greenish when i pulled the seed and the other was not. Sometimes they arrive quite wet in the pack which means it was tested, but never dried out before sending to me.
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@Angiebaby my current grow in my Grobo is recovering from damping down. Never had any issues with their coco pods until the ones I purchased back in October. 3 stopped growing, probably from damping off after popping. I don’t expect this one to survive, unless it is able to repair the damage and start growing
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@Todd.grobo I’m thinking the batch of coco pods I purchased came with some bad fungus already growing in them. I bit the bullet and purchased the new lid and peat pods, going to give those a try once this one either dies or I decide to throw in the towel.
@Stephen I didn’t change anything between my successful grow and the 3, soon to be 4 failed grows. The only thing that changed was the coco pods, the ones I purchased back in early summer were packaged differently than the ones I purchased back in September/October. With the batch that I purchased back in Sept/Oct I had 3 failed grows (seed popped but stopped growing once it broke the surface). Which is why I cannot help to think that the coco pods are why none of those plants survived.
I am 99% sure that the first 3 that failed were due to damping off, which will be the C.o.D. for this one also. I had to suck it up and spend even more money to get the lid adapter and peat pods to see if those will make any different. I have now had 5 failed grows out of 6.5 attempts, which doesn’t include the seeds that failed to germinate which would add another 3. When I pull the plug on the current plant that will mark 6 failed grows in 7 attempts, not exactly a good track record for the Grobo.
That is an 86% failure rate.
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Harsh. Seeds arent cheap either.
Ive only ever used the pod method and i think im at 6 failed of maybe 4 successful harvests and like 8 fails in flower due to one reason or another.
How are your seeds shipped. If not packed in a squash proof (for the seed) container, they could be damaged.
I usually use my fill water in a glass and soak the pod for a few hours.
If the pod is too moist i push it up lots. Ive got tooth picks holding it up now because it dried out and would have dropped the plant in when i didnt want it to.
Ive had dampening off kill two plants @VermontGrobo i hear ya man.
I did also buy 5 or 6 pods at once on my last order maybeb in 2019.
No new toys for todd until he gets a job !
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Meh. I’m a sucker for toys. Ordered mine.
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Ordered mine mainly to see if I could cut some time and will be posting the results and anwering questions as soon as its shipped out, under The new Grobo Start.
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I also ordered the Grobo Starter and I’m hoping the peat pods will help mitigate the damping off issues we’re all having
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Did the support team check your water sensors?
I had to terminate my grow. It wasn’t getting any taller, and the stem wasn’t stable at all. When I removed the coco pod with the plant in it the stem broke clean off, so it wasn’t going to survive much longer.
I am out of coco pods, thanks to the 4 failed grow’s due to damping off. One of the plants in my tent is the same strain and it is flourishing to the point I have to trim it every couple days. This pretty much tells me that it’s a coco pod issue and not a genetic issue. I find it really odd that I had 4 failed grows in a row with coco pods from the same batch.
@Stephen and @bjorn is this one of the reasons why you are switching to the peat pods? I will say that I am not impressed at all with the 86% failure rate with the coco pods I purchased from you.
Going to think about it for a couple days before I make up my mind, but I am leaning towards selling my Grobo, or just throwing it into storage. Right now all it is to me is a $2000.00 ($2500+ if you include all of the seeds wasted) money sink.
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I have only had one dampening off in the history of my grobo but my question is, do you top off your reservoir often, or inbetween the week before drain and fill day?
I never fill my reservoir until drain and fill day, maybe this can help your grow.
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Nope, I don’t add any water once the grow is started. I don’t do anything until the first water change is due, and more often than not I put it off until the plant is ready for early veg.
One thing that I have seen in all 4 cases is the coco pod gets over saturated way too easily. From what I can tell is the coco pods I had were longer than the ones I previously. Even after the second water change the coco pod was still always saturated, even though the water level in the Grobo was lower…
Honestly if I could make my own coco pods I would make them with coco and perlite to help prevent the pods from retaining too much water.
EDIT: Decided to sell it.
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I filled my reservoir only on drain/fill days (once a week) when my plant suffered from damping off. For my current grow (3rd seed attempt, my 2nd seed didn’t germinate successfully in the coco pod) I lowered the water fill level to the bottom/lower sensor to prevent the issue from occurring again. However, that may have caused another issue I experienced in doing so lol
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I swear I thought I was the only one like this lol
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Well, I gave the start a go. My two autos I started in it never really took off so now I have these 3 months later. After a month I had maybe 2 nodes.
The jalapeño I started a month before the one in my aerogarden is still smaller and less healthy looking. I’m not a fan for a couple reasons but thats just my opinion.
- water changes are a pain
- the light doesn’t go high enough for doing other things like herbs
- I can’t see the timeline for what’s in there, there’s only the active schedule
- there’s no easy way to top off either
- for something designed for a plant that needs light, it doesn’t seem sufficient
If the start works for you, I’m glad. Maybe I’ll try my own nutes in the start next, since I’m not sure where the problem lies.
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I have never seen anyone grow to flower in the start!
Can’t believe the light is efficient enough to support buds!
Why didnt you tranfer to the grobo after germination?
Having a designated area for fills would have been nice and
You can buy a light extension on the grobo site this august to make your light as tall as you need to!
I’m gonna get two more extensions! 
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Due to overheats in the Grobo that I didn’t know were happening, the current plant was taking WAY longer to mature in flower than it should. By the time I was able to harvest my Grobo grow, the autos were already flowering so I just let them ride.
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