Hi to you all..

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Rusty74

Rusty74

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I left my tent unattended for 6 weeks with a home built auto irrigation system. No issues thankfully!
Spot on, I very nearly hermied a grow when I dropped the timer while messing around near my tent, I didn't realise I had interrupted the night cycle segments that you push in, the light was coming on for around 2 hrs for going on a week 😬 it started to re veg... I was lucky though, reduced yield slightly.. But all OK. Lesson learnt. Don't mess around where it's not needed.
 
Rusty74

Rusty74

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If you haven't heard of them check out AC Infinity controls. They're already heading down that path of automation in a really thoughtful way.

Even though they say they are more an HVAC company I wish they would split off their HVAC division and setup a cannabis division developing specific products for cannabis automation only. They do a great job as it is but I'd like to see them dedicate specifically to weed!
Yes I was reading something earlier on a forum, somebody was complaining of there extractor fan being noisy, they were pointed towards the infinity range, silent apparently. To be honest alot of your devices have some type of control, whether it be a thermostat etc, an inkbird gives you some useful cotrol and if the wattage is an issue just switch it through a relay from mains voltage.
 
RootsRuler

RootsRuler

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Yes I was reading something earlier on a forum, somebody was complaining of there extractor fan being noisy, they were pointed towards the infinity range, silent apparently. To be honest alot of your devices have some type of control, whether it be a thermostat etc, an inkbird gives you some useful cotrol and if the wattage is an issue just switch it through a relay from mains voltage.
True although having a main controller that allows you to monitor and control all your peripheral devices is a powerful thing!!!!
 
Rusty74

Rusty74

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If you haven't heard of them check out AC Infinity controls. They're already heading down that path of automation in a really thoughtful way.

Even though they say they are more an HVAC company I wish they would split off their HVAC division and setup a cannabis division developing specific products for cannabis automation only. They do a great job as it is but I'd like to see them dedicate specifically to weed!
The more countries that wake up and realise the benefits of weed the more companies that will invest in technology, without it I would not have got through the last few years, meds and councilling didn't even touch what I and my family were going through. 🤗
 
ninjadip

ninjadip

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My favorite controller so far is my pH controller lol. That one actually saves me a lot of time and stress.
 
Rusty74

Rusty74

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True although having a main controller that allows you to monitor and control all your peripheral devices is a powerful thing!!!!
Exactly, atm it all aims towards temp and humity, can you imagine a ready available controller that is plug and play something that just needs the parameters entering in... To be able to control your whole environment, something that you can interact with while away from home, something that can alert you etc etc.. There's lots of separate devices but an all in one that covers all needs.... Sorry I'm a little drunk too.... Joys of living in Eastern Europe lol
 
RootsRuler

RootsRuler

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Exactly, atm it all aims towards temp and humity, can you imagine a ready available controller that is plug and play something that just needs the parameters entering in... To be able to control your whole environment, something that you can interact with while away from home, something that can alert you etc etc.. There's lots of separate devices but an all in one that covers all needs.... Sorry I'm a little drunk too.... Joys of living in Eastern Europe lol
Don't need to imagine. These guys are doing it.

They're running it off a Raspberry Pi module using Linux as the OS.
 
ninjadip

ninjadip

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Don't need to imagine. These guys are doing it.

They're running it off a Raspberry Pi module using Linux as the OS.
Yeah, it's been done before. They already have open source growing software made just for this on GitHub. I read about it before. Still cool though. I don't think it's that popular because it's a lot of work for stuff that already exists. Now for a commercial grow, yeah a brain box would be a game changer.

But I don't have anything else that needs a controller. And I kind of like having my controllers separate. I don't need to water anything with the hydro setup I have. Just topping off the reservoir is all I have to manually check, until I have a room with a water source so I could automate that.

Ph controller for ph drifting, temp controller for exhaust fan/humidifier, dehumidifier has built in controller, and then mechanical timer for lights. I don't know what else I could automate besides having something drop nutes in, but if I only have to do it every two weeks, that doesn't save me a lot of time. It would be more time dialing it in than current process of actually doing the labor.

Of course that's my opinion.

Kiss...
 
RootsRuler

RootsRuler

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I believe indoor farming is going to be an important industry in the future. A lot of the R&D for that has been done by cannabis growers.
More than most people are really realizing. Being able to drop 10 vertical farm containers in the middle of a food desert will be game changing.
 
ninjadip

ninjadip

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More than most people are really realizing. Being able to drop 10 vertical farm containers in the middle of a food desert will be game changing.
Oh I love those things. Re-using old shipping containers and utilizing a grow space that was otherwise inhospitable to plants.

Can't wait for the guy that comes on and says they need lights for 40' container! Then think about this as a mobile farm, that could relocate when needed. So cool
 
GrilledCheeze

GrilledCheeze

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More than most people are really realizing. Being able to drop 10 vertical farm containers in the middle of a food desert will be game changing.
I'm not sure I agree. It's difficult to justify the investment for most food crops. Putting millions into a facility to produce lettuce is not only economically impractical, but you also have to consider the massive environmental footprint that goes into constructing and operating such a facility. Most food crops do not carry anywhere near the value cannabis does. You're also competing with hundreds of years of development and improvisations that come with traditional agriculture. Even the Dutch are scaling back on their agricultural exports citing environmental impact and costs increase associated with production. My bet is we see a resurgence in small scale regenerative ag before we see a transition to indoor food production for most crops.
 
RootsRuler

RootsRuler

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I'm not sure I agree. It's difficult to justify the investment for most food crops. Putting millions into a facility to produce lettuce is not only economically impractical, but you also have to consider the massive environmental footprint that goes into constructing and operating such a facility. Most food crops do not carry anywhere near the value cannabis does. You're also competing with hundreds of years of development and improvisations that come with traditional agriculture. Even the Dutch are scaling back on their agricultural exports citing environmental impact and costs increase associated with production. My bet is we see a resurgence in small scale regenerative ag before we see a transition to indoor food production for most crops.
When you factor in land availability and erosion, travel time and expense, etc. it makes WAY more sense.
 
GrilledCheeze

GrilledCheeze

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Farmland is readily available but more importantly almost all of it is already in use. Greater than 50% of acreage in the US is dedicated to agriculture. Erosion is an issue in very specific areas which represent only a tiny fraction of all ag land. The majority of farmers out there don't want to utilize practices that negatively impact their land, they are financially and in some cases bound to the land by their heritage. I don't think travel time and expense are valid arguments considering I have no less than 5 mega grocery stores that are constantly and completely stocked to the brim within a 10 min drive from my house.

If you are going to argue this position you need to bring examples, better yet business plans. My only experience with an actual company doing this is Infarm. They built a huge facility where I used to live in Maryland. Somehow the company blew through hundreds of millions of $ they raised trying to make it work. They failed because they couldn't turn a profit. Just as I have been trying to explain, it's very difficult to turn a profit growing food crops and even more so when you're saddled with mountains of debt.
 
RootsRuler

RootsRuler

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I'm talking more in terms of proximity. Trucking from farm to table, Fresh water usage, etc.

As far as land usage my view tends to lean more towards less usage of land for ag and more rewilding to bring our ecosystems back into balance.

Vertical farming uses much less water and much less fertilizer but it does use more electricity, granted.

I do agree that right now it isn't viable as a business mostly because of setup and running costs that all new ventures experience but like most things mass adoption along with tech advances tends to take it into the black and neither of those is that far off.
 
Rusty74

Rusty74

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Hi all 😊 I hope your all keeping well..
It's been a while since my last post and I did promise I would let you all know how my DIY light was performing, well today is exactly 4wks since my auto's shown their 1st signs of flowering and I've had my fair share of trouble due to the soil I was growing in. After chasing my ass with what I thought was nute deficiency I pulled the soil out their 2.5 gallon pots to find they we're root bound 😬 ,ive since replanted them into 5 gallon pots and they are starting to reward me 🤗...I'd say at exactly 4 weeks into flower they are doing OK under a DIY light, I'm seeing the making of some good cola's and I'm only half way through the flowering stage, I believe that now is the time that they will be starting to bulk out and all those individual buds will form into one 🤞. I have upgraded my bulbs to 19 watt led 2700k and a couple of 4000k so I'm now at just over 150 watt from the wall ( pretty much OK for a 70x70) works out about 40 watt per square foot. I'll post pics in about an hour and a half when lights are on 😊.
 
Rusty74

Rusty74

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OK I'm back, lights have just come on so excuse the droopy leaves lol, one plant still shows a little deficiency but alot better than a few days ago now that I've hopefully sorted the issues 😊... So here are the latest pics at exactly 4wks to the day of them switching to flower..
 
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Rusty74

Rusty74

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Your plants wake up droopy? Is that normal?
I've noticed them start to droop an hour before lights go out and start to pick up just before lights come on, but are fully awake within minutes of light being on. Pic taken 10 minutes after light on
 
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