Auto Light Dep. Who Has What And How's It Working???

[Cali clouds]

I'm hoping to see how all these fancy light dep greenhouses are working out for anyone who has bit the bullet and went big on automation. What problems have you came across? How many runs per year is everyone doing? What kind of controllers are available?I'm just hoping to get a good thread going with useful info on auto light depping.
I'm a 10 year indoor grower with a few good outdoor seasons in the past. I have been learning tons of new info on growing in greenhouse's, as well as endless info on automation.
We built a 24'x24' gro-tech greenhouse. It's on a concrete foundation with floor drains throughout. We have 9 gavitas for supplemental lightning. We had a good size evap cooler, about 2000 cfm. It helped but it still gets hot so I put a chiller on the evap and that made a big difference.
We did a first run in spring and early summer with mixed results. The quality was amazing for anything I have ever seen come from outside. Big bummer, gro-tech sucks ballsack and sells shit box tarps that light leak pretty bad and what do you know? I should start a seed company. So a few phone calls to grotech and they send us another set of tarps. After we got those on, what do you know the new one is worse then the old one. Anyhow we are going into winter with short days so I'm not worried about seeds this run but I guess I'll be changing tarps again after the second run.
Has anyone ever dealt with wadsworth? They seem to have some useful info and fancy controllers, and tarps. I just left them a voicemail to see about getting new tarps through them but missed the guys call late Friday when he called back.
Anyhow anyone else have any experience/ pics I would love to hear/ see all about it.

 

[durst]

I have built a bunch of growtechs and only had one bad set or curtains. The pinholes in the curtains are supposed to be defused enough not to effect the plants. ???? The super controllers are awesome.

 

[durst]

And they hold up in the snow unlike some other companys.

 

[Blaze]

We built a Gro-Tech over the last year. It's a nice solid building but their customer service is fucking terrible. So far everyone I've seen put up something like this has had their share of issues one way or another though. Having a good contractor and finding someone who had set up a bunch of the curtain systems and actually knew what he was doing helped a lot.

Now that it's up and running it works smoothly but we had to make a lot of 'on the fly' modifications and changes which resulted in a lot of extra time and wasted labor due to their shitty and inaccurate plans. Oh and never hire one of their dipshits (aka technicians) to come out and 'help'. We had one of their guys come out to supposedly set up the light dep system and all he did is jerk off on his phone and waste everyone's time.

The automation helps a lot of you still have to preform regular maintenance and keep and eye out for light leaks, etc. All in all though I'm loving ours, not having to be on site twice a day of months on end to manually pull a tarp has really been a game changer and a huge stress relief. You will still be affected by the seasons which is probably one of the bigger difference from indoor and certain strains will do better during certain parts of the year. The quality and appearance of the end product comes out just as good as any indoor.

Plants are looking great as well, here's some pics from a few days ago, we should be harvesting our first run of the year in about 3 weeks:

 

[Cali clouds]

We built a Gro-Tech over the last year. It's a nice solid building but their customer service is fucking terrible. So far everyone I've seen put up something like this has had their share of issues one way or another though. Having a good contractor and finding someone who had set up a bunch of the curtain systems and actually knew what he was doing helped a lot.

Now that it's up and running it works smoothly but we had to make a lot of 'on the fly' modifications and changes which resulted in a lot of extra time and wasted labor due to their shitty and inaccurate plans. Oh and never hire one of their dipshits (aka technicians) to come out and 'help'. We had one of their guys come out to supposedly set up the light dep system and all he did is jerk off on his phone and waste everyone's time.

The automation helps a lot of you still have to preform regular maintenance and keep and eye out for light leaks, etc. All in all though I'm loving ours, not having to be on site twice a day of months on end to manually pull a tarp has really been a game changer and a huge stress relief. You will still be affected by the seasons which is probably one of the bigger difference from indoor and certain strains will do better during certain parts of the year. The quality and appearance of the end product comes out just as good as any indoor.

Plants are looking great as well, here's some pics from a few days ago, we should be harvesting our first run of the year in about 3 weeks:

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You sound like me lol. Growtech sucks ballsack. The whole reason I ever joined this site was because of your other thread "best light dep greenhouse". I think that was my first post so I'm sure you thought I was a idiot.

Quality is amazing . We pass it all off as indoors. Don't Tell anyone you even know of a light dep cuz as soon as you do they think it should only be worth 15/#. We lie through our teeth and everyone is happy. If you just see the product out of the GH it seems just as good or better. We have the same strains going indoors and GH and the indoor usually does look slightly better if you put them side by side. I have some fresh harvest out of the GH and indoor of the same strains. I will post some pics and see who thinks what looks better. Even still it all goes as indoor. The peeps that know of our GH always ask when it's going to be around and we just tell them the boss has his own outs and we don't touch it as they are telling us how amazing it is, thinking it's indoor.

Oh yeah, I can't remember if it was you or not but somebody said I wouldn't be able to pull off more then 3 or 4 runs a year, we are going to hit a easy 5. If my veg room was a lil bigger and my trim crew a lil bigger we would be able to hit 6, it runs just like a indoor room.

 

[durst]

We built a Gro-Tech over the last year. It's a nice solid building but their customer service is fucking terrible. So far everyone I've seen put up something like this has had their share of issues one way or another though. Having a good contractor and finding someone who had set up a bunch of the curtain systems and actually knew what he was doing helped a lot.

Now that it's up and running it works smoothly but we had to make a lot of 'on the fly' modifications and changes which resulted in a lot of extra time and wasted labor due to their shitty and inaccurate plans. Oh and never hire one of their dipshits (aka technicians) to come out and 'help'. We had one of their guys come out to supposedly set up the light dep system and all he did is jerk off on his phone and waste everyone's time.

The automation helps a lot of you still have to preform regular maintenance and keep and eye out for light leaks, etc. All in all though I'm loving ours, not having to be on site twice a day of months on end to manually pull a tarp has really been a game changer and a huge stress relief. You will still be affected by the seasons which is probably one of the bigger difference from indoor and certain strains will do better during certain parts of the year. The quality and appearance of the end product comes out just as good as any indoor.

Plants are looking great as well, here's some pics from a few days ago, we should be harvesting our first run of the year in about 3 weeks:

View attachment 701487

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That greenhouse looks great and kind of familiar. Did you have a second tech come out to help?

 

[Blaze]

Yup the second tech actually knew what they were doing and the dep system went up quickly and smoothly ;)

 

[ubi]

Humbolt light dep. Com, I used a retro fit kit. Works great and doesn't cost an arm and leg
Called farmtek and Quoted 15k for light dep, spent less than 3500 to build humbolt light dep system.

 

[Menehune]

Humbolt light dep. Com, I used a retro fit kit. Works great and doesn't cost an arm and leg
Called farmtek and Quoted 15k for light dep, spent less than 3500 to build humbolt light dep system.

Hey Ubi,
What is the manufacturer of that motor that humbolt light dep sends in the kit?

I see the same one on Monstergardens and Emerald Kingdoms kit. I'm starting my first greenhouse grow and we are trying to keep expenses low and DIY the whole thing.

Oh also the controller?

Any info would be amazing. I'm so tired of googleing fixed, low voltage, motors, blah blah blah....

Mahalo!

 

[durst]

I got sick of the controllers all the companies were selling, so I had my electrician build one. We added upper final limits so the curtain will not roll over the top and you can get you can roll it up a lot farther. They have digital timers and separate controls for each side. Pretty much plug and play we don't sell the motors.

 

[Menehune]

Found the motor on alibaba. I will let everyone know how the order goes as it's coming from China. Right on durst, that's a good idea. I didn't like how the controls stop the rotation way short of the ridge (blocks lights when you want it).

 

[Menehune]

I have built a bunch of growtechs and only had one bad set or curtains. The pinholes in the curtains are supposed to be defused enough not to effect the plants. ???? The super controllers are awesome.

The pinholes are supposed to be similar to starlight which doesn't affect plant chemistry. I don't have the science to back that up but it seems logical when comparing lumens. I'm opting for a full blackout though (no pinholes).

I'm getting the SolaScrim and BOLD Blackout from Americover. Anyone have experience with using their covers?

 

[DetGrnThumb]

Have quite a few light deps going right now from somewhat bare bones to facilities with all the bells and whistles. What would you like to know?

 

[DetGrnThumb]

For some reason couldn't fit these other pics in the previous post

 

[Cali clouds]

Anyone ever have any problems with wind or anything on the tarp systems that close over the outside of the greenhouse? I like the idea to keep from losing space on the inside but scared of the wind blowing the edges up.

 

[Menehune]

If you build a little trough along the sides of your greenhouse it wont be a problem. The roll bar is already really heavy.

Here like this:

 

[Cali clouds]

I got sick of the controllers all the companies were selling, so I had my electrician build one. We added upper final limits so the curtain will not roll over the top and you can get you can roll it up a lot farther. They have digital timers and separate controls for each side. Pretty much plug and play we don't sell the motors.

are you guys selling those controllers? I was looking at one at the local shop and it's pretty basic with pre programmed open and close times. I wasn't really a fan of it

 

[markscastle]

I'm not a fan of light deprived weed myself. The plant produces better quality and larger quanity went it goes the full gambent.