Ideas for movable automated watering system.

[sheik_yerbouti]

Hey guys/gals

Looking for ideas on how to automate my watering in my grow rooms.

Right now I have 2 rooms. One is 12'x18' and the other is 15'x20'

Each room has 50 plants in 8gal pots growing in pro-mix and I hand water each from a rez with a pump. It's not too bad, takes me about 45minutes every 3 days for each room to do. However I am dreaming of ways to automate this but my problem is that I don't have a dedicated trim or dry room so each harvest I push all the pots the the edge of the room and set up a table and screens and trim and dry in the room. So this is where I'm looking for ideas.

I would like to automate my watering but each grow I need to move aside my plants and create space for trimming and drying. I'm open to trying a hydro system but I'm having a hard time finding one that could be easily moved.

My best idea is setting up grow beds on caster wheels and having sprayers do the job of watering for me, then I could roll them out of the way each time though I'm concerned about how difficult it would be to move a 4x8 bed full of soil would be though.

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[hermdog]

First idea that comes to mind, water reservoir movable on castors,and blumats or equivalent.
You could keep all the hoses linked to all the plants and have separate reservoirs that are movable and connectable/replaceable to the each other.
The plants too could be on platforms with castors, though 8 gal. containers have a large foot print, it could be managed.
Then everything is easily pushed about to clear your self an area.

 

[VonBudí]

https://youtu.be/pFlD_B7fJBk?t=6m35s

there is some one using the i502 tag on Instagram using those big totes with rez/sprayers inside.

 

[sheik_yerbouti]

https://youtu.be/pFlD_B7fJBk?t=6m35s

there is some one using the i502 tag on Instagram using those big totes with rez/sprayers inside.

Ya thats almost exactly what I need to do in that video. What a setup. Too bad they don't go into how the water them though. I'm sure I could figure out some sort of spray watering system.

 

[sheik_yerbouti]

First idea that comes to mind, water reservoir movable on castors,and blumats or equivalent.
You could keep all the hoses linked to all the plants and have separate reservoirs that are movable and connectable/replaceable to the each other.
The plants too could be on platforms with castors, though 8 gal. containers have a large foot print, it could be managed.
Then everything is easily pushed about to clear your self an area.

Not sure what you mean by "water reservoir movable on castors".

Each platform would have an individual rez?

 

[810FireFarm]

1in black tubing, submersible water pump, active air plastic air manifolds({4,6,8,10 split avail), aquarium air line tubing, 1 or 2 gph drip emitters, basic light timer.

1.put pump in water res, 1in tubing run down room and ending with a stopper.
2. poke hole in tubing and insert plastic air manifolds into black tubing, spaced even with bucket config, connect air line tubing and drip emitters to ends. * leave extra slack in air tubing lengths for adjusting positions
3. set timer....watch and enjoy

 

[810FireFarm]

it could not be easier,

the longer you cut your air line tubing from the splitters to the drippers, the move movable it is!

 

[sheik_yerbouti]

it could not be easier,

the longer you cut your air line tubing from the splitters to the drippers, the move movable it is!

Do you use this set up?

Curious what kind of medium you use for the drippers. I'd be worried about getting the right soil moisture levels using pro-mix as it can easily become too saturated and the roots will not be getting o2.

Being a newb to using drippers will one dripper be good for an 8 to 10 gal pot?

I'm guessing the drippers are pretty consistent with their dispensing ya? I'd be worried about getting the same distribution from one end of the room to the other.

I like the idea, having the air line tubing snaking all over my grow room could be a pain when it comes to cleaning up but I'm sure with a bit of pre planning it could be set up to easily move out of the way.

 

[Drop That Sound]

I would at least get the digital programmable timer, that way it keeps the settings as well as allows you to program up to 8 feedings a day at set intervals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHdWgGuC1sE

 

[Drop That Sound]

Also there is an easy pin short mod (soldering 2 pins together on the back of the board) for them that allows you to water in seconds mode instead of minutes..

 

[Drop That Sound]

http://ohmyclegg.blogspot.com/2013/07/chicago-electric-digital-timer-hack.html

Oh and I don't run a dripper system but i'm pretty sure it is wise to always have a second dripper in case one clogs, redundancy is a hydro growers best friend!

 

[Bobby Boucher]

I'm open to trying a hydro system but I'm having a hard time finding one that could be easily moved.

Curious what kind of medium you use for the drippers. I'd be worried about getting the right soil moisture levels using pro-mix as it can easily become too saturated and the roots will not be getting o2.

I know I probably sound like a broken record here, but this might be something you want to look into. I've never grown in soil or read into it much, so I don't know how one would go about automating watering, but.. DJM's automated coco system is pretty f'n bad ass, to say the least. Very smoove, much grace.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=300255

 

[sheik_yerbouti]

I know I probably sound like a broken record here, but this might be something you want to look into. I've never grown in soil or read into it much, so I don't know how one would go about automating watering, but.. DJM's automated coco system is pretty f'n bad ass, to say the least. Very smoove, much grace.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=300255

This is seriously the most bad ass thing I have ever seen and the most helpful thing anyone has anyone has done for me. Thankyou for the link to the thread. This is exactly what I needed