Minimal Maintenance/Automated grow room

TortureKill · Oct 21, 2010

I just landed a great job this past week, and the catch is I will be working away from home for 2 weeks at a time, then home for 1 week. My problem is I have 2 dozen different mother plants Ive collected over the years, and had planned to grow and breed with for many years to come. This is a huge passion of mine, but I couldnt pass up the opportunity that this job brings. Signing on this job, basically means an end to any financial stress for me and my family. Taking care of my family is priority number one, and these girls are the 2nd.

What I need is some tips, or ideas on how to set up my room, and plants so that they will be cool for upto 2 weeks with minimal to no maintenance. It is possible for me to have a family member drop in and do some light watering/feeding or topping off of the res. Right now, these girls are in pots, in a soil-less mix. My ideas were to get smalls cuts of all of my girls rooted, and vegging before i leave in a separate room, and throw the larger/mother plants into flower (12/12).

Any ideas or tips to get my brain rolling in the right direction would be greatly appreciate by all. This is a very serious issue for me. Thanks in advance

TK

altitudefarmer · Oct 21, 2010

I hear drip-to-waste can be ideal for your situation. Hard to leave a garden untended, though... I feel your pain, but congrats on the j-o-b.

Smokey503ski · Oct 21, 2010

The Hempy Buckets are a pretty good choice for what you are describing. Do a google search or search on here for hempy buckets.
Or what I do is grow in Coco, 100 gallon rez with a pump and timer, running half inch tubing with 1/4 inch tubing to each plant.
If I need to I can go out of town for about 10 days with the size of rez I am running. Also I feed to waste.

motherlode · Oct 21, 2010

some real good dirt on a drain to waste res that gets topped off with ro

best I can think of for a 2 week stretch

grats on the new gig

TortureKill · Oct 21, 2010

Could u give me any info on building a drain to waste ?

RMCG · Oct 22, 2010

UC with auto-topoff and an nute doser. Its almost ~boring~.

Only thing someone would need to do is raise the lights for you, as needed.

Inuit · Oct 22, 2010

Hey,

If you have hydro tables, you can use soilless mix in containers, and plumb both holes in the table with overflow valves. Put above a res with nutes.

Figure out how much the dirt girls drink every x days, and then time how long it takes the pump to move that much water. Put your pump on a nice timer that will let it run for just a couple minutes every few days. Water won't drain due to the double overflows, and they plants will wick it up.

Best of luck in the new job.

A

TortureKill · Oct 23, 2010

Thanks bro, I appreciate the info, and luck. I dont have hydro tables. But in 4 weeks I will be able to upgrade to an ebb n flow type system or UC. Ive decided to use a 40 gallon res, and recirculating drip. Im trying to put all the parts together now, and get this up and tested within the next week. This should be fun.. any tips or ideas are appreciated.

Jalisco Kid · Oct 24, 2010

RMCG said:
UC with auto-topoff and an nute doser. Its almost ~boring~.

Only thing someone would need to do is raise the lights for you, as needed.

You could easily come home to crap in a rcdwc, 2 weeks is too long. Coir dtw would be the easiest and fairly safe. JK

RMCG · Oct 24, 2010

Yep, you could.

Could also come home to a flood, or plugged emitters, failed pumps, etc.

Tropf Blumats in a soil/soilless mix would be the 'safest'.

leadsled · Oct 24, 2010

I like top drip to waste. Use a cycle timer or irrigation controller. Then use top drip lines or manifolds. Then can combine that with a CAP autodrain controller to automate the removal of the waste. Can also combine with a intellidose or dosatron to automate feeding.

Top drip manifold diy (have not had clogging issues with 1.4 lines and top hat drippers. KISS and just route 1/4 lines. Nothing to clog and less $$)

fertigation controller

Once I build out a autodrain controller,plan to do a diy on that.

CAP autodrain controller (basically a reverse float valve that controls a pump)

Here is the easy feed system that is based on the dig controller I use in the diy fertigation controller.

http://www.easyfeedsystems.com/

I took it t a little farther and hooked up 2 res(water and food) so can automate water feed water with one timer.

deacon1503 · Oct 24, 2010

UC with AmHydro Intellidose and Intelliclimate.

Shady · Oct 24, 2010

TortureKill said:
Ive decided to use a 40 gallon res, and recirculating drip. Im trying to put all the parts together now, and get this up and tested within the next week. This should be fun.. any tips or ideas are appreciated.

whaddup TortureKill! Congrats on the new gig. This is pretty much what i've got in the bathroom... Sentinel MDT-1, 50 gal res in the tub, airstones, 400 gph pump, 3x3 tray, coco/chunky perlite DTW with a PVC manifold... Runoff caught in a 5 gal bucket that could be filled in a week or use a sump pump to automate the draining. Let's see some Picts of your girls in action! :cool

Minimal Maintenance/Automated grow room

Minimal Maintenance/Automated grow room

TortureKill

altitudefarmer

Smokey503ski

motherlode

@Rolln_J

TortureKill

RMCG

Inuit

TortureKill

Jalisco Kid

Guest

RMCG

leadsled

GrowRU

deacon1503

Shady

Chillin' in the Shade...

Minimal Maintenance/Automated grow room

Minimal Maintenance/Automated grow room

TortureKill

altitudefarmer

Smokey503ski

motherlode

@Rolln_J

TortureKill

RMCG

Inuit

TortureKill

Jalisco Kid

Guest

RMCG

leadsled

GrowRU

deacon1503

Shady

Chillin' in the Shade...

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