Minimal Maintenance/Automated Growroom

[TortureKill]

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 would be greatly appreciate by all. This is a very serious issue for me. Thanks in advance

TK

 

[freelove7]

Grobot?

Hey, I am currious about this also. I have done a ton of research and found that the grobot seems to offer the most features including remote control from your iphone with environmental, ph and ppm control. Is it true that many people don't use these because a computer cannot tell what the plant needs as well as a human?

Does anyone have real experience with the Grobot or another fully automated system?

 

[TortureKill]

This thread has had 80 views and noone willing to shoot me some ideas.. I dont own an iphone free love, and im trying to stay away from dumping a lot of money into this for the next two weeks atleast. so I gotta make it two weeks before i can get all tech and shit..

 

[opt1c]

ok you're going to need someone to come in and check probably once or twice a week depending on how much your plants drink

trick is to make em drink less; take clones off your moms; root prune; repot in larger container; top; etc... basically do things that stunt and slow down growth for a bit before it picks back up... this will buy you time between waterings

clones are always a nice peace of mind backup plan incase something goes wrong; friend drops a mom on the ground snapping the stem at the base etc..

water heavy before you leave
premix a res with buckets and watering can next to it
write out very specific instructions that are very visible

limit the amount of things the person looking after your room can do... a lot harder to mess up watering from a premixed res than mixing and ph'ing nutes yourself for the first time

lower the intensity of your veg/mom lighting; lift the lights so they don't grow into the reflectors; etc...


once you get all tech and shit under currents with float valves and an intellidose type setup can grow themselves... go vertical and u probably don't even have to mess with the lights and can get away for a minute; tomato cages keep the plants from toppling over

after that get a nice aquarium monitoring system and vid system for ur iphone so u can check ph/temps/lights on or off/etc... and rock that shit :joint:

 

[altitudefarmer]

I thought I posted on this thread already; maybe it was deleted.
Drip-to-waste is the way to go for absentee gardeners. Good luck!

 

[TortureKill]

My problem is I dont have the slightest clue about hydroponics.. Looks Like I gotta do some researching. Thanks everyone I appreciate it. Keep the ideas flowing

 

[TortureKill]

Another issue, is I dont have running water in my house. I gota go to the barn to fill watering cans

Is there away to build a remote res, that will gravity feed my plants or possibly set on a timer?

 

[TortureKill]

Ive decided to build a drip irrigation system.. I have no idea how to go about this, but decided a large plastic trash can will suffice for a res. I will need to pick up a pump, drippers and lines. If anyone has any feedback please leave it. I appreciate everything

 

[MrTwister]

I was just on the road doing outdoor harvest stuff for the last 30 days with no days off. only had 3 check-ins from friends

running aero thingy from general hydroponics with an autofill valve on the reservoir, auto ph control, peristaltic pumps on timers for nutrients, and all i had someone do was take care of the pruning and moving the lights. paid 'em a couple hundred bucks for 6 hours of work. came back and the plants were a foot and a half taller - opened the door, looked at the plants, roots, etc... closed the door.

 

[HookedonPonics]

Id def go with a 4x4 ebb and flow table (sometimes known as a flood and drain system) for every 1kW (1000w) of lighting your using for your ladies and run a 50 gallon reservoir full of nutrients for every 2 weeks of growth and break bread with a responsible friend to manage your pH every other day and to top off your rez with RO water to maintain consistent ppms through the two week period your gone.

:party0023:

 

[Nobodynobody]

I have to recommend intillidose from AM hydro. Since you are doing a drain to wast set up. Your going want to place the dosers to check and dose vary far in between. Flout with an RO to top the res again after feed.

There is a few good idea all ready said like the net/cage idea.

Know a guy that does all hydro
Wont lie $8k per hydro system set up.
It will does all 9 cims and ph at 6.
Can flush then recim it self with proper triggers and PC monitor.

Personally the PH doer works just fine with a big res, also some dry power to increases the PPM while it drinks.

 

[budfriend]

I used to go on surf trips for 6-8 weeks all the time and have friends stop by and change the water once a week.

Use a medium that can be watered everyday but will go a couple days if pumps fail.

Have two pumps on two different circuits unless one trips.

Oversize the res so it has a couple weeks of water.

Drip dont flood and drain because you can have almost no water in rez and still drip.

If you really like a mom put it in another place for backup or/and run the set up again.

The chances of mess up are minimal.

 

[Smokey503ski]

I am a lazy person, I admit it. My grow is very easy to deal with.

I run feed to waste in coco. I use a $20 digital timer that goes as low as a minute on time.
I feed 3 times a day for a minute.
I use 2 60 gallon barrels plummed together= 120 gallons

with this setup I can leave for 2 weeks no problem.

This is very easily to do. I recomend using a 1 part nute system if you decide to go this route. CNS17 Coco line works great for this and is what I use.

Basically you run a pump with 1/2 inch tubing from your rez, then the 1/2 inch tubing gets 1/4 inch tubing going from that to each plant.

 

[simos]

These are what you need: http://www.blumat.at/automatic-watering-system.php#bltropf, specifically the ones for balcony, patio, potted, or greenhouse plants.

Tropf Blumats are gravity fed drippers attached to ceramic sensors that measure the moisture level of each pot and slowly modulate the drippers as necessary to maintain the desired level of moisture (as dry or damp as you want). There are tons of advantages of these things over a pump-driven drip system, the biggest being that they don't require pumps that can fail, and they deliver the proper amount of water to every pot while pump drip systems always over-water some pots and under-water others. There's a 50 or 60 page thread on IC titled "blumat auto watering" should you be interested in more info, documentation, and lots of information about how to fine tune 'em.

So after you buy your blumats, here's what you do:

Hook up your RO or chlorine filter directly to the reservoir and rig a float valve on your reservoir, so it automatically gets topped off at a predetermined level. Attach blumats to feed line, set and forget.

Personally, I would mix a very rich supersoil that can sustain the plants over long periods of time so you only have to apply water and you have a more forgiving medium. You can hit em with a top-feed of nutes every couple weeks when you're home to keep them in top form. Mixing a nutrient solution to be dripped is problematic for many reasons (not limited to pH problems, dilution over time, potential clogs in the system, etc.).

Cheers

 

[GirlCarny]

I have used auto pots in the past for some finicky plants. Dont see why you couldnt make something similar and larger if needed.

 

[Herban Legend]

How well do the blumats work?

 

[simos]

How well do the blumats work?

Extremely well. Many seasoned growers are switching

Check out the thread that I mentioned in my above post if you want more info.

Here's the link, but without being familiar with this site's policy on external links (particularly links to competing sites), I can't say how long it'll stay up...

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=111046

Cheers

 

[weedfarm]

These are what you need: http://www.blumat.at/automatic-watering-system.php#bltropf, specifically the ones for balcony, patio, potted, or greenhouse plants.

Tropf Blumats are gravity fed drippers attached to ceramic sensors that measure the moisture level of each pot and slowly modulate the drippers as necessary to maintain the desired level of moisture (as dry or damp as you want). There are tons of advantages of these things over a pump-driven drip system, the biggest being that they don't require pumps that can fail, and they deliver the proper amount of water to every pot while pump drip systems always over-water some pots and under-water others. There's a 50 or 60 page thread on IC titled "blumat auto watering" should you be interested in more info, documentation, and lots of information about how to fine tune 'em.

So after you buy your blumats, here's what you do:

Hook up your RO or chlorine filter directly to the reservoir and rig a float valve on your reservoir, so it automatically gets topped off at a predetermined level. Attach blumats to feed line, set and forget.

Personally, I would mix a very rich supersoil that can sustain the plants over long periods of time so you only have to apply water and you have a more forgiving medium. You can hit em with a top-feed of nutes every couple weeks when you're home to keep them in top form. Mixing a nutrient solution to be dripped is problematic for many reasons (not limited to pH problems, dilution over time, potential clogs in the system, etc.).

Cheers

When reading this thread, the whole time I was thinking, this guy needs Blumats... LOL

How well do the blumats work?

I have read a few grow logs from growers who have tried several methods and they seem very pleased with the blumats



this thread is 2 months old. wonder what the OP did