Automated watering vs hand watering pictures? Is it worth it?

  • Thread starter hydrom
  • Start date
  • Tagged users None
hydrom

hydrom

5
3
I'm thinking about making a pre-programmed watering schedule for a few reasons:
1) Reduce my labour
2) Reduce my water usage
3) (Hopefully) Quicker growth / better yields due to consistent water cycle
4) Why not?

Has anyone had any experience with automation and coco? Any before/after photos would be much appreciated.

Also thinking about a pH sensor and maybe a system to maintain the pH by itself. As I heard that pH and watering affect growth significantly.

Also saw, this, automatic drain catcher which gets all the waste water outside the room to reduce humidity.

How likely is growing better while doing less?
 
AmokNewb

AmokNewb

427
93
I’m on my first grow and made an auto water and drain system. I will say it is truly a blessing to not have to hand water 3-5 times a day. I’m not at harvest yet but just the convenience factor is awesome. Check out my diary for some pics and progress on mine. I do know there are quit a few people here that have something similar and a few that are way beyond me, especially in scale. Here is a quick pic of mine before I put my plants in it.

Drain system:
7703F5F5 D995 4603 9254 700B2F3EACE7

F9F71A1A C55D 44C9 AACA 9E1548CD0F82

Auto feed:
4D20F4B5 8E59 43BF BF33 9411395A388B
 
Jakecan

Jakecan

402
143
Whatever you plan on going with, you should look into Mantis Buffered Nutrients. It's a one part nutrient so you don't need to swap out nutrients and it's the same ratio from seed to harvest. The best part about it, is its buffered so it sets the PH between 5.7 and 6.2 at all times. All you have to do is top up a reservoir or whatever you decide to go with to automate. It's literally 5mL nutrients per 1L water... Simplest nutrient program out there and gets the same results if not better than all the other nutrient programs out there.
 
freezeland2

freezeland2

3,421
263
Here is a 4 pot blumat system on soil. Reservoir is out of frame in adjacent room. All gravity fed. Never hand watered that grow. It’s since been harvested. Pretty sure it would work in coco.
 
A0A9014B 958B 43C1 B9EF AAEDEFB505DE
Ponky

Ponky

3,941
263
When I'm lazy. I do beds. Then its just turn on the water. And walk away for a week. Water a bed on a table. Use wheels so you can spin it and move it. Lemon squeezy.
 
AmokNewb

AmokNewb

427
93
Here is a 4 pot blumat system on soil. Reservoir is out of frame in adjacent room. All gravity fed. Never hand watered that grow. It’s since been harvested. Pretty sure it would work in coco.
Blumats don’t work well with coco as they tend to clog with certain nutrients. 🤷🏻‍♂️ I wasted money on that and coco already. :) but I am able to use them for any other soil plant just getting water in my house and outside.
 
hydrom

hydrom

5
3
Here is a 4 pot blumat system on soil. Reservoir is out of frame in adjacent room. All gravity fed. Never hand watered that grow. It’s since been harvested. Pretty sure it would work in coco.

I’m on my first grow and made an auto water and drain system. I will say it is truly a blessing to not have to hand water 3-5 times a day. I’m not at harvest yet but just the convenience factor is awesome. Check out my diary for some pics and progress on mine. I do know there are quit a few people here that have something similar and a few that are way beyond me, especially in scale. Here is a quick pic of mine before I put my plants in it.

Drain system:
How much water did you use per day would you say? Did you find automation more efficient in yields?
 
hydrom

hydrom

5
3
Whatever you plan on going with, you should look into Mantis Buffered Nutrients. It's a one part nutrient so you don't need to swap out nutrients and it's the same ratio from seed to harvest. The best part about it, is its buffered so it sets the PH between 5.7 and 6.2 at all times. All you have to do is top up a reservoir or whatever you decide to go with to automate. It's literally 5mL nutrients per 1L water... Simplest nutrient program out there and gets the same results if not better than all the other nutrient programs out there.
Have you tried lime as a ph buffer? I might try those nutes next time. I only buffer coco with CalMag and usually feed pH is 5.0-7.0
 
Jakecan

Jakecan

402
143
Have you tried lime as a ph buffer? I might try those nutes next time. I only buffer coco with CalMag and usually feed pH is 5.0-7.0
Nope, I only really use Mantis now. I grow in coco as well but this stuff works extremely well in hydro. I know a guy that does DWC and has completely automated his grow. Only time he ever has to do anything is when his reservoir gets low. He went on vacation for two weeks and his plants were still thriving when he got back. Stuff kicks ass if you've got a busy life and still want to grow top shelf cannabis.
 
AmokNewb

AmokNewb

427
93
How much water did you use per day would you say? Did you find automation more efficient in yields?
Hard to say as I never fully measured. But I feed 5 times during lights on for 1:20 seconds for first and it runs less as the day goes on. As I go by runoff vs volume. But I would bet it is a good gallon and a half a day. Maybe even 2 total for 2 plants. If one was to measure out and dial it in better you might be able to water less. I will be doing that my next run.
 
Og_punkgenetics

Og_punkgenetics

180
63
I'm thinking about making a pre-programmed watering schedule for a few reasons:
1) Reduce my labour
2) Reduce my water usage
3) (Hopefully) Quicker growth / better yields due to consistent water cycle
4) Why not?

Has anyone had any experience with automation and coco? Any before/after photos would be much appreciated.

Also thinking about a pH sensor and maybe a system to maintain the pH by itself. As I heard that pH and watering affect growth significantly.

Also saw, this, automatic drain catcher which gets all the waste water outside the room to reduce humidity.

How likely is growing better while doing less?
Automation is best if you are growing any kind of quantity
 
hydrom

hydrom

5
3
Here is a 4 pot blumat system on soil. Reservoir is out of frame in adjacent room. All gravity fed. Never hand watered that grow. It’s since been harvested. Pretty sure it would work in coco.
How do you turn off the flow with a gravity fed system? I heard of using a solenoid valve but they require constant power!
 
freezeland2

freezeland2

3,421
263
How do you turn off the flow with a gravity fed system? I heard of using a solenoid valve but they require constant power!
I have two manual shut offs. But the blumat open and close automatically as needed based on the soils moisture level. There is no power needed.
 
Aqua Man

Aqua Man

26,480
638
Just helped a grower convert to high fertigation coco in 1 gal pots and autofeed.... he thinks it's worth it. You be the judge. Closest tray was clones vegged just over a week. They are being fed 7x a day at 250ml each event. I think this photo was 4 weeks and a day or 2 into flower.
 
Camera preview EUkDFho2Dce7 9iYupt5wWSy0asYfATa6ACow9jZqK4
Og_punkgenetics

Og_punkgenetics

180
63
How do you turn off the flow with a gravity fed system? I heard of using a solenoid valve but they require constant power!
It depends if you get a normally open or normally closed cell annoyed valve, and it only draws a tiny bit of power
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom