Set It and Forget It/Automated Growing?

My most recent grow failed because I leave town a lot to see my girlfriend. I had my Mom. Dad and Brother were helping me keep them alive but I trimmed too much too early, didn’t account for humidity and didn’t have any outtake fans.

I grew straight soil (Happy Frog by Fox Farm) and bottled water it or used boiled water that was left to steep at room temp for a day. I’m growing personal.use in Massachusetts and I’m also a medical cannabis patient. it’s very expensive here to purchase which is why I’m initially growing my own.

My biggest question is, is there any mode of growing cannabis where I can Set It and Forget It and have it still grow?

also any documents about hydroponics for beginners would be appreciated

You can automate many things in a grow…but not everything. You can probably buy a setup that will claim to be “fully automated”.

Almost everyone automates the light cycle.

But usually you want to know how to grow manually before you try to automate everything. You need to be able to recognize when things are not doing so well, so you can make adjustments.

You can certainly set something up that allows you to leave the garden for extended periods…but you should have remote monitoring so you can check stuff or get alerts when something goes wrong.

4 Likes

Sounds like a reverse osmosis water system and automated watering could help take some work out of it

5 Likes

One of the simplest automated watering methods is the wick system.

https://hannainst.com/hydroponics-wick-growing-system

2 Likes

If you grow without bottled nutrients and just feed your soil you can use water only the entire cycle. Combine this with gravity fed blumats on a res with a float switch plumbed into ypur main water supply and you have a fully automated garden. It’s easy as cake to be completely honest.

You’ll still need to take clones, transplant, harvest, mix dirt, but that’s about it

5 Likes

May need something to dose the water supply to correct PH. Like this.

https://www.bluelab.com/products/type/connect/ph-controller-connect

1 Like

I’m on the 3rd floor.

Hydro is pretty simple. Automatation is nothing more than a pump and some tubing with an occasional reservoir change. A great resource for learning hydro is over on GrowWeedEasy.com, a few helpful getting started links below.

Hydro is all about pH and maintaining a good atmosphere for growing. Sounds like you may have had some mold issues without exhaust and battling high humidity. The basics link below will walk you through setting up your space which us very necessary. It doesnt matter what you grow in if your environment isnt conducive to happy, healthy plants, you wont have a lot of success.

I’m also in MA and happy to answer any questions. Find me on IG @farmerjim420 or on the gwe forums (farmerjim)

Start growing here: Learn How to Grow Cannabis Indoors | Grow Weed Easy

Start hydro here: Top-Fed DWC Cannabis Setup Guide - Bubbleponics | Grow Weed Easy

4 Likes

Automation aside, you need a grow dialed in to “set it and forget it.” Unless you have everything figured out, and have a dozen grows on that strain and exact room with the same number of plants…then you cannot replace daily attention paid to the grow. You catch problems early while they are manageable, you make adjustments, and you maintain a plant that is very happy…remember…these are women…your paying too much attention to the wrong lady lol

3 Likes

Happy flog is a low PH Soil. Your better off going with Ocean Forest if you want to use Soil. I would not recommend Using a Soil with a Hydro system. Do you have wifi at your grow? If you do I can show you some very expensive options for remote monitoring and even feeding.

2 Likes

Ok if your in soil your looking for polymers - soak polymers first until they swell with water & grow 30x size. Mix these with your soil about 1/4 polymers rest soil considering your growing in 5 gal pots. This was our method on late 80’s early 90’s when we still used mediums to grow in. We could head to Colorado for snowboarding for two weeks come back & all we have was big girls showing off there sexyness.

As time went on we moved to hydro then Aero and never looked back. Dialed in a room would only require 8 hour of work a month - that’s 8 hours total of in room work - harvest/trim not included. Plenty of time for your girl & vacays!

2 Likes

Almost everything I have going is auto. Portable ac unit, dehum. Carbon fan, wind fan, lights, all are set up on timers. I use floraflex to water with and depending on the time of cycle I water once maybe twice a week. Ive watered, gone on vacation, come back and all is well… only thing I have to do is pour the water in my bin add Mills check PH and let it rip…

1 Like

Is the saying true then? Mills pays the Bills. :money_mouth_face::money_mouth_face::money_mouth_face:

Fucking A right… :raised_hands::raised_hands::raised_hands: :rofl::rofl:

1 Like

Extremely Basic

Just throw in some Blumats into your pots if you are soil and want some automation. 707 Organic is a good soil out the bag(you can literally plant in the bag). That watering system is a great investment for the at-home grower.

Look into Hempy Buckets for Passive Hydro, I have made those from 2-Liter bottles, Milk Jugs, and Rubbermaid totes, and it doesn’t need constant electricity like actual hydro. You can use the Lucas Formula with Maxibloom in a all Perlite Hempy Bucket for ultimate cheap at home hydro grow.

1 Like

Agree hempy bucket with either all perlite or coco and perlite with Lucas formula feeding (I like floranova) can set up to drip feed the buckets to automate it. Doesn’t get much easier than drain to waste hempy!

1 Like

Ppk is the ultimate set it and forget it. Check out icmag and the ppk grows on there. Delta9nsx on there runs clones through veg to flower using the same reservoir and Jack’s professional 321 nutrients around 1.2ec

3 Likes

Yeah if you’re using nutrients definitely keep the ph in check. If you’re like me and just feed the soil, plain tap water works fine. I never ph anything

1 Like

I have Control Release Formula you can throw into some soil and use blumats for watering. You dont have to worry about nutrients, the CRF releases with each watering for up to 11 weeks. You use 1 oz crf per gallon of growing medium.
Or if u want to go fully organic use blumats and
Top dress once a week and water in well.
I’d just top dress with a blend of worm castings, alfalfa, kelp, nettle, spirulina, burdock root, and hummus. For flower top dress with worn castings, alfalfa, kelp, nettle, burdock root, turkey rhubarb and cocoa.

3 Likes