My gf and I have been tossing the idea of a totally automated grow room. We live in an uncool state but she is still a resident of a cool state. Would it be possible to set a grow room that would be 100% automated that the only time you needed to be there would be for setting it up and harvest. I talking top of the line automation!
Absentee growing? - Total automation
- Thread starter Daryl420
- Start date
OG1969
Well-Known Member
Re: Absentee growing? (total automation)
Sounds cool , but doesn't that take some of the fun and enjoyment out of growing? It would be cool to a degree , I am just more of a hands on grower. Best of luck to the two of you.
Sounds cool , but doesn't that take some of the fun and enjoyment out of growing? It would be cool to a degree , I am just more of a hands on grower. Best of luck to the two of you.
LighTer
New Member
Re: Absentee growing? (total automation)
It can be done sure, but you will have to automate mixing of nutrients at a specific ratio and water every x days. But what would you do about pests?
It can be done sure, but you will have to automate mixing of nutrients at a specific ratio and water every x days. But what would you do about pests?
Greenhouse250
New Member
Re: Absentee growing? (total automation)
and deficiencies and.. and....
and deficiencies and.. and....
Re: Absentee growing? (total automation)
learn to make thriving life giving soil...make lots of it-- in giant tubs, y not a bathtub-- rip out the shitter line the bathroom floor in some panda... double/triple stack those plastic kiddie pools, etc... run everything off a dripping faucet n check it monthly... man that sounds like it could b fun...
learn to make thriving life giving soil...make lots of it-- in giant tubs, y not a bathtub-- rip out the shitter line the bathroom floor in some panda... double/triple stack those plastic kiddie pools, etc... run everything off a dripping faucet n check it monthly... man that sounds like it could b fun...
Re: Absentee growing? (total automation)
I can think of a couple ways that it would work. Some are very cheap. Some require you to make a visit halfway when you want to switch over to flower, the other way is as you requested setup then come back in a few months and harvest.
Both ways will require you to use pesticides, but we should be able to get them out of the plant by the time harvest rolls around.
Seeing as you are new to the forums and may not even come back to check answers I will just give a short tutorial on a few ways to do what you asked.
Firstly the simplest way is to just use super soil. Packing a lot of slower releasing nutes in the soil.
The plants would be in pots and the pots would be in bins that could drain out through the plumbing. Your water would come from a shower or sink. You would take a tub/bucket put it in the tub, this water containers water line would be slightly higher then the tops of the pots your plants are in. A drip system would go from the water container to every pot and the shower would pour into your container at the rate of a few drops a minute, the exact amount would depend mostly on the amount of plants you are growing. The tub would be setup with a anti syphon valve to stop too much water from going to the plants, instead if the tub was filling faster then it should the excess water would simply pour out of the tub and go down the drain.
If you really wanted to yes this same system can be used with automated nutes. It is a bit more tempermental but there are ways to regulate the amount of nutrients through ppm monitors automatically.
The lights can be setup using a motorized wench which will extremely slowly raise the lights higher and higher. You coul just put the lights up high to start too if you want to go the cheap route, but the results will suffer and you would have more stems breaking over due to being too tall with not enough stoutness.
If you really wanted to know more or have it explained in more detail just say so. But seeiing as you have 1 post I dont wanna spend all night planning something out for someone who wont even see the post much less care lol
.
I can think of a couple ways that it would work. Some are very cheap. Some require you to make a visit halfway when you want to switch over to flower, the other way is as you requested setup then come back in a few months and harvest.
Both ways will require you to use pesticides, but we should be able to get them out of the plant by the time harvest rolls around.
Seeing as you are new to the forums and may not even come back to check answers I will just give a short tutorial on a few ways to do what you asked.
Firstly the simplest way is to just use super soil. Packing a lot of slower releasing nutes in the soil.
The plants would be in pots and the pots would be in bins that could drain out through the plumbing. Your water would come from a shower or sink. You would take a tub/bucket put it in the tub, this water containers water line would be slightly higher then the tops of the pots your plants are in. A drip system would go from the water container to every pot and the shower would pour into your container at the rate of a few drops a minute, the exact amount would depend mostly on the amount of plants you are growing. The tub would be setup with a anti syphon valve to stop too much water from going to the plants, instead if the tub was filling faster then it should the excess water would simply pour out of the tub and go down the drain.
If you really wanted to yes this same system can be used with automated nutes. It is a bit more tempermental but there are ways to regulate the amount of nutrients through ppm monitors automatically.
The lights can be setup using a motorized wench which will extremely slowly raise the lights higher and higher. You coul just put the lights up high to start too if you want to go the cheap route, but the results will suffer and you would have more stems breaking over due to being too tall with not enough stoutness.
If you really wanted to know more or have it explained in more detail just say so. But seeiing as you have 1 post I dont wanna spend all night planning something out for someone who wont even see the post much less care lol
.
Alkhemist
Well-Known Member
Re: Absentee growing? (total automation)
greets!
ive played with wirelessly controlling a room before... it can be done but im unsure to the degree you want, effectively. you can buy cell phone kits that hook up to a laptop and can control upto 8+ devices from a mobile phone as well as control kits that can merely hook up to a laptop and control upto 8+ devices without cell phone control and you can monitor via remote access to a laptop that is set up with webcams, which can also be set to record through a variety of methods. the basic idea of remote control of electrical appliances is not new by any means and can be easily adapted to your own needs if you have a know how or willingness to research and learn. its similar to horticulturalists that run wind machines on their orchards, these machines send to their mobile phones upto date information about temp, wind direction, humidity etc etc and can be turned on/off via the mobile as well. the kit my friend and i experimented with was meant for a house about 5 hours north of my location, so our goal was set up a house and remotely control the environment. as i mentioned it could run upto 8 devices(turn on or off) when plugged into a laptop you could run webcam access also... so, i had a 44 gallon drum filled with water and another hooked up with nutrients(for flowering cycle), the plants were in 30 litre buckets and were soil, the soil mix was PACKED with goodness so the entire vegetation cycle was fine as far as feeding was concerned. the water pumps were hooked up to a digital timer that was set to pump every mon-thurs-sat(mon for 20min, thurs for 20mins and sat for 10 mins) this water pump was independant of the actual cell phone controlled kit but was backed up by being connected if the timer failed. the water pumps were merely set up to irrigation tubing, fed to all plants. the control kit was basically a parallel port controller that worked through the printer port and was adapted to fit our needs. the extraction fan(intake fan as well as ambient fan(s) was constant), the lights, altho hooked up to timers were also connected to control unit as a back up, laptop and cam were accessed via wireless/remote access. you would have to seriously look at the logistics of what you want to do, your goals, system of growing etc but i know its more than possible. the control we used itself used spdt relays that could handle 10 amps and had led indicators to show whether they were on or off.. what i loved about this control kit was you could use any old puter really... but later model notebooks had obvious advantages.
as mentioned above by jimmy the lifting of the lights was an obvious issue too, what we did was work with the basic idea of a light mover that was hooked up to lift by pulling the cable connected to a pulley(that the light was connected to and hanging from) as it moved across rather than move the light itself horizontally.. of course the use of a heavier duty motor and rail was necessary to hold the lights. we got to about halfway through budding stage with this experiment and found the idea a bit too complicated to realistically continue with.. considering the size of what we were wanting to do the, taking into consideration every little detail and possible break down the logistics became a head ache and we left it at that. upon saying that though.. for a smaller grow... i believe you can with RELATIVE ease set up a remote controlled grow room
greets!
ive played with wirelessly controlling a room before... it can be done but im unsure to the degree you want, effectively. you can buy cell phone kits that hook up to a laptop and can control upto 8+ devices from a mobile phone as well as control kits that can merely hook up to a laptop and control upto 8+ devices without cell phone control and you can monitor via remote access to a laptop that is set up with webcams, which can also be set to record through a variety of methods. the basic idea of remote control of electrical appliances is not new by any means and can be easily adapted to your own needs if you have a know how or willingness to research and learn. its similar to horticulturalists that run wind machines on their orchards, these machines send to their mobile phones upto date information about temp, wind direction, humidity etc etc and can be turned on/off via the mobile as well. the kit my friend and i experimented with was meant for a house about 5 hours north of my location, so our goal was set up a house and remotely control the environment. as i mentioned it could run upto 8 devices(turn on or off) when plugged into a laptop you could run webcam access also... so, i had a 44 gallon drum filled with water and another hooked up with nutrients(for flowering cycle), the plants were in 30 litre buckets and were soil, the soil mix was PACKED with goodness so the entire vegetation cycle was fine as far as feeding was concerned. the water pumps were hooked up to a digital timer that was set to pump every mon-thurs-sat(mon for 20min, thurs for 20mins and sat for 10 mins) this water pump was independant of the actual cell phone controlled kit but was backed up by being connected if the timer failed. the water pumps were merely set up to irrigation tubing, fed to all plants. the control kit was basically a parallel port controller that worked through the printer port and was adapted to fit our needs. the extraction fan(intake fan as well as ambient fan(s) was constant), the lights, altho hooked up to timers were also connected to control unit as a back up, laptop and cam were accessed via wireless/remote access. you would have to seriously look at the logistics of what you want to do, your goals, system of growing etc but i know its more than possible. the control we used itself used spdt relays that could handle 10 amps and had led indicators to show whether they were on or off.. what i loved about this control kit was you could use any old puter really... but later model notebooks had obvious advantages.
as mentioned above by jimmy the lifting of the lights was an obvious issue too, what we did was work with the basic idea of a light mover that was hooked up to lift by pulling the cable connected to a pulley(that the light was connected to and hanging from) as it moved across rather than move the light itself horizontally.. of course the use of a heavier duty motor and rail was necessary to hold the lights. we got to about halfway through budding stage with this experiment and found the idea a bit too complicated to realistically continue with.. considering the size of what we were wanting to do the, taking into consideration every little detail and possible break down the logistics became a head ache and we left it at that. upon saying that though.. for a smaller grow... i believe you can with RELATIVE ease set up a remote controlled grow room
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Blueballavngr
New Member
A local grower has a fully auto cabinate grow where he fills the water res once a week, but could ad a float valve but set it up upside down so when it gets to low it will refill res
