My goal this year is to make a system with minimal maintenance while also being easy to setup and process plants.
Getting your medium ready can be messy / time consuming with potting mix. So this year i went with coco plugs. I simply had to put them in the trays give em some water and they are ready to go. They will be easy to handle without making a mess in 3 months when i package them.
The biggest part of maintenance is watering / nutrients. In the past when i was smaller i just individually watered 1020 trays. While this works it is slow / can be messy. Spraying everything with misters is an option but that makes everything super humid and can affect electronics (like led strips) in the area. I have been using bottom watering for forever why not stick with that... but how?
Instead of watering individual trays.... just get some big ass trays. with a 8x4 ft tray i can bottom water 16 trays at the same time!
Hauling water over there in the winter when the hose is frozen can be annoying... So in comes a reservoir. This will hold enough water for a week or more.
Moving that water up into the trays can be messy / dangerous if i spill on any electronics... So in comes water pumps to pump the nutrient solution from the reservoir to the trays. and might as well put timers on them so i don't have to turn on the pumps manually..
Lights are controlled by a timer.
The heater is automatically controlled by a thermostat.
So there is 0 daily maintenance in this system. Just weekly maintenance of the reservoir, check tds / ph / water level and amend accordingly.
The only thing DIY is the supports for the trays and the led wiring. So it's easy to reproduce if i need to scale up $_$
= medium =
32mm coco plugs
72 ct plug trays
= nutrients =
hort americas hydro
ph down
great white myco
= equipment =
patton milkhouse heater
30a 12vdc power supplies
3014 204/m led strips
hurricane 16" fan
botanicare 8x4 lt trays
botanicare flood fittings
70 gallon res
eco water pumps
electric timers
= area =
~ 50 sq ft shed in my backyard
= vars =
biquinho
aji dulce
joes long
lemon drop
pimenta de neyde
sbs purple ornamental
thai hot
malaguetinha
cumari do para
paper lantern
MOA
west indes red
Scotch Brain
BBM
JPGS
chocolate moruga
trinidad scorpion
SB7J
BOC
+ a few other randoms
trying to keep the list smallish
January 19th
January 27th
Getting your medium ready can be messy / time consuming with potting mix. So this year i went with coco plugs. I simply had to put them in the trays give em some water and they are ready to go. They will be easy to handle without making a mess in 3 months when i package them.
The biggest part of maintenance is watering / nutrients. In the past when i was smaller i just individually watered 1020 trays. While this works it is slow / can be messy. Spraying everything with misters is an option but that makes everything super humid and can affect electronics (like led strips) in the area. I have been using bottom watering for forever why not stick with that... but how?
Instead of watering individual trays.... just get some big ass trays. with a 8x4 ft tray i can bottom water 16 trays at the same time!
Hauling water over there in the winter when the hose is frozen can be annoying... So in comes a reservoir. This will hold enough water for a week or more.
Moving that water up into the trays can be messy / dangerous if i spill on any electronics... So in comes water pumps to pump the nutrient solution from the reservoir to the trays. and might as well put timers on them so i don't have to turn on the pumps manually..
Lights are controlled by a timer.
The heater is automatically controlled by a thermostat.
So there is 0 daily maintenance in this system. Just weekly maintenance of the reservoir, check tds / ph / water level and amend accordingly.
The only thing DIY is the supports for the trays and the led wiring. So it's easy to reproduce if i need to scale up $_$
= medium =
32mm coco plugs
72 ct plug trays
= nutrients =
hort americas hydro
ph down
great white myco
= equipment =
patton milkhouse heater
30a 12vdc power supplies
3014 204/m led strips
hurricane 16" fan
botanicare 8x4 lt trays
botanicare flood fittings
70 gallon res
eco water pumps
electric timers
= area =
~ 50 sq ft shed in my backyard
= vars =
biquinho
aji dulce
joes long
lemon drop
pimenta de neyde
sbs purple ornamental
thai hot
malaguetinha
cumari do para
paper lantern
MOA
west indes red
Scotch Brain
BBM
JPGS
chocolate moruga
trinidad scorpion
SB7J
BOC
+ a few other randoms
trying to keep the list smallish
January 19th
January 27th
