Have you wanted to automate your cannabis growing process? It can be done. Grow room automation lets you increase control and efficiency over your plants while cutting down on labor.
This guide will teach you about grow room automation, including fertigation. It will also detail three techniques for automating your indoor marijuana gardens.
Even if you aren’t planning to automate now, you’ll want to learn how.
Automation is the future of cannabis growing. It is quickly becoming the go-to process for indoor growers since it works for both large and small grow rooms.
3 Ways to Use Grow Room Automation in your Marijuana Garden
Even if you are growing a personal supply at home with a limited budget, grow room automation is still a good idea. Here are three easy ways to incorporate automation into your growing process:
1. Climate Control Meters
Hydroponic, greenhouse and indoor growers must control the climate of the grow room. This helps the plants flourish.
Climate control meters can help control and monitor temperature, CO2, and humidity. They also log data so that you can store it for later use.
Climate control meters collect all kinds of useful information that help you maintain a controlled environment. Keep it simple and monitor dips and spikes in the room’s humidity and temperature or go high-tech and monitor the vapor pressure deficit (VPS).
Some climate control meters are also designed to monitor and measure total dissolved solids (TDS) or PPM levels as well as acidity. That way, you always know if your plants are getting the right amount of nutrients without getting your hands dirty.
2. Automated Timers
Timers are an affordable and easy way to automate many cannabis growing tasks.
You can find an efficient analog timer for as low as $10. With just one analog timer, you can automate your grow room by connecting the timer to pumps, fans, lights, and other elements that control climate.
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Want to reduce the time and labor you put into repetitive tasks?
A set of timers decreases how often you need to visit your grow room to perform tasks.
There are many automated timers on the market. Some come with multiple inlets. These are useful because you can control various growing tools at the same time. With timers, you can stop thinking about having to turn fans and lights on and off – they will automate the process for you.
Do you need digital?
Digital timers are a bit more expensive, but appropriate for larger grow rooms. You can use them to schedule multiple program settings over a specified period.
For example:
Use a digital timer to program your CO2 systems, pumps, fans, and lights to run multiple schedules in intervals. Imagine the amount of work that you’ve just saved!
3. Feeding & Irrigation Systems
Feeding and irrigation systems automatically feed and water your crops, but this process is a bit more complicated than automating the climate. This is because every plant could potentially have unique nutrient and water needs based on their genetics, climate patterns, or other factors.
However, it is still possible to automate this portion of the grow process – with some effort.
Grow Room Automation Using Fertigation
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If you’d like to automate the feeding process, you’d likely use fertigation. What is fertigation? It is the process of integrating your nutrient feeding system into an automatic watering system. It’s also very common among indoor cannabis growers.
With fertigation, every part of your watering and feeding schedule is streamlined. This is done by calculating the nutrients and mixing them within the crop’s irrigation system.
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What are the benefits?
- Efficient and precise nutrients
- Reduction in nutrient leakage
- Decreased water consumption
- Less physical work
DIY Fertigation Systems
Large grow operations often have custom-built fertigation system setups, but you can also create your own with an easy-to-follow kit. Typically, these kits include both hardware and software that help the grower maintain full control over how the nutrients are administered. The kits are easy to use, however, hiring someone to install them can be quite expensive.
If you’d prefer to skip the kit, you can also construct your own setup with common supplies from a gardening center. Start with a tank and connect it to a distribution pump. The pump then connects to piping systems and a dripper pen that feeds the nutrients to the plants. A DIY fertigation system like this is excellent for flood-and-drain, or hydroponic style grow setups.
Automated Trimming Machines Improve Efficiency
Simply put, automation increases the grower’s chance of success. Timers, climate meters, and automated feeding and irrigation systems are a great start, but they are just the beginning. Believe it or not, there are even more automation tools that make the process even smarter.
Curious about what else you can automate? How about these time-saving processes:
- Control your automation from your cell phone
- Automate your drying and curing processes
- Streamline the harvest with a timesaving trimming machine
Whether you’re a savvy cultivate or a new grower, grow room automation is key to keeping you from working so hard. The best part is – there are automation options for every budget.
