Growroom design that allows me to take 2 week vacation.

Howdy folks!

So I'm a small time outdoor grower from far far north. Now i wanna setup a indoor grow , but the thing is that from time to time i can't check on plants for 2 weeks.
So i was wondering if you guys know how to do setup like that or if it's even possible..?
I don't know yet if ill make custom grow box from MDF or just buy 2'x2'x5' tent.
For light i'll use 4x CXA3590 CD 3500k and meanwell 1400mA dimmable driver. 12'' x 9'' heatsink with active cooling.
Gonna make DIY carbon filter n' stuff..

I'm a handy guy and i love DIY stuff, so i hope some of you DIY guys will climb in and share your ideas and designs to help me achieve that

So what are the best options to achieve that?
DWC, soil with automated watering, drip system? Any other ideas?

Cmn guys share your ideas!

i think 2 weeks is way too long to be gone from a dwc.
a lot of people like bluemats, but i'm not sure they'd work for 2 weeks at a time.
i'd try a drip system. you'd have to figure out how much it uses per day, then find a res that holds 14 times that much.
just realize, 14 days is a long time to go away, lots can happen, timers break down, emitters get plugged, plants grow up into lights that seemed plenty far away. try to take as much into account as you can before you go away that long

I think there's only one way to do that-----> better have a person you trust that is reliable to help you! That won't do any harm either. Otherwise I'd what until after the 2 weeks to start your project.

GOLDBERG71 said:

I think there's only one way to do that-----> better have a person you trust that is reliable to help you! That won't do any harm either. Otherwise I'd what until after the 2 weeks to start your project.

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Yep, thats the thing, i don't wanna tell any1 about me growing and i have to go away from time to time for about 2 weeks.

Roger A. Shrubber said:

i think 2 weeks is way too long to be gone from a dwc.
a lot of people like bluemats, but i'm not sure they'd work for 2 weeks at a time.
i'd try a drip system. you'd have to figure out how much it uses per day, then find a res that holds 14 times that much.
just realize, 14 days is a long time to go away, lots can happen, timers break down, emitters get plugged, plants grow up into lights that seemed plenty far away. try to take as much into account as you can before you go away that long

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Yeah i understand that, but that's my only option atm. And i have plenty of seeds and stuff. And i dont need it to produce me some smoke right a way.
But what i'm trying to do is work things out so that it will be possible in the end. And i understand that it will take me time, alot of time to sort thing out.
I'll check out bluemats.

Maybe need a camera to monitor plants just in case.

GOLDBERG71 said:

I think there's only one way to do that-----> better have a person you trust that is reliable to help you! That won't do any harm either. Otherwise I'd what until after the 2 weeks to start your project.

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I second this.

Uberknot said:

Maybe need a camera to monitor plants just in case.

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I actually have a trailcam, i could set the cam to take pictures every 12h and send it to my email..

0mfg420 said:

Yep, thats the thing, i don't wanna tell any1 about me growing and i have to go away from time to time for about 2 weeks.

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Growing isn't for you then imo

Ebb and flow and drip hydro could maybe work. Even recirculating DWC with auto top off setup. Large reservoir to try to stabilize nutes. I'd try 2 week increments ahead of time with nothing but monitoring to see what happens to pH and ppm. You'd need plenty of vertical height, depending on what stage of growth you're in. This could work in theory, but the results will be less than optimal for sure.

a week is possible. 2 weeks is pushing it with any automated system. theres a lot of things that can go wrong, all it takes is one and you come home to dead plants.

GOLDBERG71 said:

I think there's only one way to do that-----> better have a person you trust that is reliable to help you! That won't do any harm either. Otherwise I'd what until after the 2 weeks to start your project.

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I put eyeballs on my plants twice a day and it has paid off, big-time. If there's a problem, you can catch it before it becomes a catastrophe.

i had a little hydro deal with a couple manual autofeed water buckets to keep water level up and would only have to touch it every two weeks to change the res. I was growing colas in rails though . They didnt get very big. If your water pump or somehting goes though your f'ed. its always good to have an honest trustworthy friend around for this reason.........

First off whats the budget to be able to do this you will be laying out some cash even diy style and then you will still need someone when you are gone to fix any issues otherwise you just lost the plants. I'm moving towards a fully automated setup but still have to have eyes on things a couple of times a day

qballizhere said:

First off whats the budget to be able to do this you will be laying out some cash even diy style and then you will still need someone when you are gone to fix any issues otherwise you just lost the plants. I'm moving towards a fully automated setup but still have to have eyes on things a couple of times a day

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Lets say i don't have a budget limit. If all those parts are really expensive it will take me just a little longer to get all those parts.
Main thing is that i want this setup to be as reliable as possible. And i understand that higher quality and reliable stuff is more $$$

This question has got me thinking. Sure would be nice to be able to go away for 2 weeks. But he is only talking about a 2x2 area, thats not much. One nice plant. I would do blumats, alot of em and 50gal res should do. Mix up some super soil so all you have to do is add water, maybe some cal mag. Then you can still top dress once or twice a grow when you check on them. Biggest issue will be when you flip to 12/12, plants growing into the lights, i have had 3' of growth in 2 weeks from the stretch. So a low stretch strain might be better with only 5' height.

0mfg420 said:

Lets say i don't have a budget limit. If all those parts are really expensive it will take me just a little longer to get all those parts.
Main thing is that i want this setup to be as reliable as possible. And i understand that higher quality and reliable stuff is more $$$

Click to expand...

Well first off I would suggest https://hackaday.io/project/11997-mycodo-environmental-regulation-system as the main controller now its just the sensors you will need.
For co2 I would suggest http://www.co2meter.com/products/k-30-co2-sensor-module its plug and play with the controller I linked to
For the automatic feeding will be more chalenging. Code is not already out there that I know of for a diy unit.
You will need peristaltic pump and how many will depend on how many different nutes you will use.
Water solenoid and flow meter
But you will still need someone if something goes wrong when you are away and they need to know how to fix it
Its not the biggest deal if co2 goes out but if there is a issue with the watering system goes down. That is not thinking about how are you going to train the plants in the 2 weeks since there is only 5' of headroom.

I took a 10 day cruise.
Flood and drain buckets with hydrocorn.
6 to 7 plants in 2 small tents.
They were fine when I returned. If pushed, it could have been left alone a few more days. The only real issue was they grew into the lights.

i took 18 days last year with a full flowering chamber and full veg chamber, they were a jungle when i got back. The system that you want to look into is ebb and flow, you could hook 2 pumps in a tricky way to e sure that if one breaks, the backup is on, although i took the risk several times, these submersibles rarely break when used freely with no back pressure. and if you cover your hydroton and have a big container, they retain moisture enough to keep a plant alive for days. I once made a plant live for 2 weeks vegging in a hempy bucket style coco bucket, just covered it, watered and let it sit in a little water at the bottom, and put it under a fluro tube. It takes quite some time for a small vegging plant under low light to suck all that water, whereas a big plant under hps in hot dry climate would dry up much faster. A properly vented room helps in keeping plants for longer

2 weeks is a long time without someone available. I'm off for a week at new years so I setup my flowering to end by then, I'll just shut everything off other than the exhaust in the flower room and trim them up when I get back. For veg so I can fire the room back up when I return, I'm vegging some plants that I'll do a final up-pot just before leaving from 3gal to 7 or 10gal, that and a simple dripper (Claber) will keep those watered until I get back and ready to flip. The rest will be clones in 2x aero cloners, some will be cut 2 weeks before I leave (ready to plant/veg when I return) and the rest will be cut and put into the cloners just before I leave. I normally have my son available but he's coming with me! lol