Full Automation Checklist

[BigCityFarmer]

Hi all, I’m very happy to have stumbled across this website, I’m a hobby (novice) grower who’s making a run for the pro leagues due to my employment situation changing in recent times and Im in the process of both designing and equipping a commercial grow room.

The end game here is that I want a room that is completely sterile, self contained and automated so that I can literally be thousands of miles away for weeks on end and be able to fully monitor and control my grow from my phone.

The more I’ve researched this the more I’ve realized how achievable it is, I’ve bought an environmental controller that can monitor and control 4 lights, CO2, Temp and humidity remotely, I’m going to be using a flood and drain irrigation system which I’ve also purchased a controller for which can schedule feedings as well as monitor and control Ph, PPM, EC and water temperature in addition to a 3 stage pump attached for ph down and 2 nutrient feeds so the reservoir can be maintained long term.

lastly, I’ll have remote viewing cameras to inspect plants and even remote access control in case I ever need to send someone to my grow room.

Am I missing anything? I’ve walked through the process and all I can think of that I haven’t accounted for is pruning, which is impossible to automate but I’m not beyond exploring the possibility of some sort of robotic hand to do this remotely, ha! Not really, but maybe some day.

Is there anything else I can or should be incorporating?

 

[JSB99]

Hi all, I’m very happy to have stumbled across this website, I’m a hobby (novice) grower who’s making a run for the pro leagues due to my employment situation changing in recent times and Im in the process of both designing and equipping a commercial grow room.

The end game here is that I want a room that is completely sterile, self contained and automated so that I can literally be thousands of miles away for weeks on end and be able to fully monitor and control my grow from my phone.

The more I’ve researched this the more I’ve realized how achievable it is, I’ve bought an environmental controller that can monitor and control 4 lights, CO2, Temp and humidity remotely, I’m going to be using a flood and drain irrigation system which I’ve also purchased a controller for which can schedule feedings as well as monitor and control Ph, PPM, EC and water temperature in addition to a 3 stage pump attached for ph down and 2 nutrient feeds so the reservoir can be maintained long term.

lastly, I’ll have remote viewing cameras to inspect plants and even remote access control in case I ever need to send someone to my grow room.

Am I missing anything? I’ve walked through the process and all I can think of that I haven’t accounted for is pruning, which is impossible to automate but I’m not beyond exploring the possibility of some sort of robotic hand to do this remotely, ha! Not really, but maybe some day.

Is there anything else I can or should be incorporating?

It's a bad idea trying to manage plants remotely, especially with hydro, where at times, plants can grow 3" to 4" in a single day. Managing nutrient and pH levels is a daily thing, not to mention water levels. I'm in heavy flower right now, and my four plants are drinking gallons and gallons of water each day.

If you can't be there all the time, find a good friend, who's knowledgeable about growing weed.

If you're insistent on trying to manage your grow remotely, at the very minimum, grow in soil.

 

[Renfro]

I ran several grow houses at once back in missouri, I visited each one about once a week. It can be done very easily with flood and drain using RO water and large capacity reservoirs. After the first few days your pH should be locked in stable with RO and large capacity. Once a week you give it a PPM bump, verify pH and bounce. I used a float valve with a solenoid valve on a timer so the reservoirs would top off automatically from the RO filter during the dark period when floods won't happen and all the water is back in the reservoir.

 

[Renfro]

The addition of a dosing pump system can eliminate the need to check PPM and pH. Beware of a bad probe run away doing condition though.

 

[JSB99]

I ran several grow houses at once back in missouri, I visited each one about once a week. It can be done very easily with flood and drain using RO water and large capacity reservoirs. After the first few days your pH should be locked in stable with RO and large capacity. Once a week you give it a PPM bump, verify pH and bounce. I used a float valve with a solenoid valve on a timer so the reservoirs would top off automatically from the RO filter during the dark period when floods won't happen and all the water is back in the reservoir.

I imagine you were a fairly experienced grower by that time, which I could see. Without the experience, just learning can be overwhelming.

 

[Renfro]

I imagine you were a fairly experienced grower by that time, which I could see. Without the experience, just learning can be overwhelming.

Well that can be true indeed. I did have a buddy that I taught my setup and he did the same thing (for me) and ran some houses without problem. But I told him exactly what to do and he did it to the letter.

 

[BigCityFarmer]

Cheers for the advice, definitely appreciate it. I’ve never grown in anything but soil, so definitely a leap of faith on the flood and drain system.

Regarding the reservoir, with the controller and a large enough container I should hopefully be able to mitigate some of that, but with the plant growth I had no idea about that level of growth, that’s crazy, and not in a bad way! But I’ll have at least a couple of fully supervised runs before I’d have to potentially go fully remote, I’m shooting for afully legit operation and the geography/ legal climate is my biggest obstacle so far.

 

[Renfro]

A tip that I used to build my large capacity / low profile reservoirs:

1 - Build a frame out of 2x12 lumber and 3/8" lag screws. It will be like a sand box basically. Make it about 6 inches longer than the tray so you have an access opening when the tray is on top of the res.
2 - Line it with 45 mil pond liner.
3 - Put some strut channel bars across the top of the reservoir so the tray can sit on those and not sag in the middle.

Now just toss a circulation pump in there and put the flood pump in there and connect to the tray.

You can make a bracket (I used acrylic) and put the float valve on the reservoir, use a solenoid valve on a timer to feed that float from the RO filter. Now you can set the timer to top off the res with RO when the lights are out and there will be no floods (all the water is back in the res).

The nice thing about this design is it has a low profile, only raising the tray about a foot off the floor. This saves vertical space for plants while still providing large capacity.

I had made these for 4x4 trays, 4x8 trays and even ones that held two 4x8 trays end to end on one reservoir. I always ran these reservoirs with GH Three part nutes and they ran for the entire flowering cycle without change outs, only the RO topoff and small nute adds to maintain PPM at 1000. Using LECA the pH will try to rise a few points each day during the first couple days, if the LECA was washed well and you use good RO water, then that pH rise will stop after the first few days and the pH will stay rock solid stable.

 

[BigCityFarmer]

Holy shit, that’s amazing, thank you. I’ve been mulling over what form exactly my reservoir will take, this is better than anything I could have come up with and I think I’ll run with what you’re suggesting. I’ll post a pic of the build! I’m going to be running two 4 x 16 tables.

What size in gallons do you reckon I’d need to get through a full flower cycle per table?

Also I can’t figure out how to thank posts, lol.

 

[Renfro]

I am not sure what you are talking about. Table, like flood and drain? Or RDWC with sites for trees.

Post some pics of your setup. Show me what you got lol



You can like posts soon, it's just because you are still new here.

 

[BigCityFarmer]

Attached is a 4 x 8 portion of one of the tables, each will be comprised of 3 pieces, two 4 x 4 end pieces and this middle piece, each table will be 4 x 16 total with 64 sq ft of canopy. I can run a maximum (for now) of two tables.

what I was thinking of was a single reservoir that can accommodate both tables as I only have the ability to monitor and control one of them remotely.

 

[tehn00b]

i'm a noob in growing, but i'm well versed in automation and i've seen this and am familiar with homeassistant.
totally doable.

 

[Renfro]

what I was thinking of was a single reservoir that can accommodate both tables as I only have the ability to monitor and control one of them remotely.

I explained how you can accomplish this in post #8 above. Just modify the design to fit your needs. I had some that I ran two 4x8 trays on, they were 4 feet wide and about 17 feet long to allow an access opening on one end of the res under the trays.

 

[JSB99]

i'm a noob in growing, but i'm well versed in automation and i've seen this and am familiar with homeassistant.
totally doable.

As a noob, you should really be all hands on for your first couple of grows. It's a lot to learn and keep up with when you're first learning how to grow. Not to mention that it also takes a few grows to work out all the bugs, and optimize the system. Even the best grow room plans need some adjusting. Again, hydroponics makes it that much more difficult to learn and dial in.

Just sayin'

 

[Renfro]

As a noob, you should really be all hands on for your first couple of grows.

But I’ll have at least a couple of fully supervised runs before I’d have to potentially go fully remote,

 

[JSB99]

Missed that

 

[Corbat420]

Don't take this the wrong way - but i literally laughed when i read this post... I do understand that your serious, but i need you to understand that its not as simple as a blow-and-go grow. Its good you are ready to spend some time dialing it in, It takes around 6Mo to a year to really get it right and dialed in.

First you need to secure the property, That means 360 degree camera's in a neighborhood that is isolated enough people will not ask "Why does this guy have these camera's?" - without this you risk break ins. Weed is worth alot of money, the lights are worth a shitload, and people WILL rip you off.

Second is automating the system. I suggest the classic float valve tank as mentioned before. As well as using a combo EC/PH/Temp sensor that can be seen and read on the camera system to monitor the inflow/outflow of the RO water from the surge tank. it will show an EC/TDS increase if the filters blow, or a PH spike if the pump goes. You will also need an inflow system for the nutrients and balances being added to the system, Personally i recommend Agrowdose - they are expensive because they are quality.

Now that is out of the way you need a dumping system for the old, gross nutrients. This can be achieved by an electronic valve that can be controlled by you remotely. This will allow you to dump the system at will based on Age, PH ect and then re-flood the system with fresh nutrient compound from the RO water tank. This is VERY important as it allows you to control the long term contents of the reservoir.

Have been doing this since the 2008 recession... Don't give up if it looks too daunting.

 

[JSB99]

Don't take this the wrong way - but i literally laughed when i read this post... I do understand that your serious, but i need you to understand that its not as simple as a blow-and-go grow. Its good you are ready to spend some time dialing it in, It takes around 6Mo to a year to really get it right and dialed in.

First you need to secure the property, That means 360 degree camera's in a neighborhood that is isolated enough people will not ask "Why does this guy have these camera's?" - without this you risk break ins. Weed is worth alot of money, the lights are worth a shitload, and people WILL rip you off.

Second is automating the system. I suggest the classic float valve tank as mentioned before. As well as using a combo EC/PH/Temp sensor that can be seen and read on the camera system to monitor the inflow/outflow of the RO water from the surge tank. it will show an EC/TDS increase if the filters blow, or a PH spike if the pump goes. You will also need an inflow system for the nutrients and balances being added to the system, Personally i recommend Agrowdose - they are expensive because they are quality.

Now that is out of the way you need a dumping system for the old, gross nutrients. This can be achieved by an electronic valve that can be controlled by you remotely. This will allow you to dump the system at will based on Age, PH ect and then re-flood the system with fresh nutrient compound from the RO water tank. This is VERY important as it allows you to control the long term contents of the reservoir.

Have been doing this since the 2008 recession... Don't give up if it looks too daunting.

Yep, much more involved than just watering and letting them grow. I closely observe the fans daily, to make sure there are no mites, or the start of a nutrient/pH issue. I smell the air in the room each day, for sour smelling water, which tells me there's a problem starting with the roots, and the system needs a couple flushes. My system is finely tuned, so I don't get pH fluctuations, major nutrient issues, or the need to flush at all during the grow. But it took years of practice to get there. There's no way a noob will be successful at this. His friend will be in there every single day, much like he's the one doing the grow, and the remote "grower" will just watch it on the cameras.

 

[BigCityFarmer]

i'm a noob in growing, but i'm well versed in automation and i've seen this and am familiar with homeassistant.
totally doable.

You just introduced me to the next level of what I’m looking for. Well shit, there goes my summer. Thank you.

 

[BigCityFarmer]

All of you guys have been exceptionally helpful with reservoir information, automation information and general criticisms to be aware of and overcome, I appreciate all of you, blown away and very happy to have found this community, I promise to input at least as much information as I get out of the forums as I get more experienced!