I have to go away for two weeks and am racking my brain trying to come up with a way to keep my babies alive. (Soil, indoor, fabric pots, just started flower). I was checking out @blackthumbbetty 's posts n self watering planters. I am thinking of moving them into plastic buckets with self watering, then connecting the buckets with hoses to a reservoir to keep them filled so the moisture gets sucked up. Probably put a diluted amount of fertilizer and air stones in the reservoir. Anyone had any experience with something similar?
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I was away a couple of times and ordered this. Seemed to work great at times and failed other times.
@NewGirl that’s a tough spot to be in. I usually plan my grows between a couple vacations a year. If you are in a legal state maybe you have somebody that you could ask to come by and water in for you. I am in one of the unfriendly States so I have no choice TELL NO ONE. They are some drip systems available. Good luck
Look at auto pot
What about dosing pumps? Run those into as large of a reservoir as you want and set a timer. They are used in the saltwater aquarium hobby but have many other uses.
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Need to be able to regulate it better, track ppms to be able to tell pump to add so many parts of each solution until it reaches the desired levels
@LandShark I like your idea of the dosing pump. It may or may not maximize my grow, but should keep my plants alive. Probably do something like that later.
My plan at this point is this: use a bucket and an 90 gph aquarium pump. I timed it and it pumps 1 gal in 2 min. So I programmed Alexa to turn the pump on for one minute every other day, which results in a half gallon every other day which is the amount I am watering. I also have a large reservoir with air bubblers and a tube to take the water from the reservoir and feed it into the bucket as needed. I will put up a pic when I finish it tomorrow.
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@DoobieNoobie has posted pics of his automation setup. It’s some futuristic Star trek stuff
This med grow up the road has installed dosers to keep the EC and ph optimum. Its automatic, and you can adjust it from your phone. They have leaf readers too and atmosphere control is also remote capable. Can it be done on the cheap? Possibly? This system is really pricey. I think the leaf scanning units are many thousands of dollars. I think blue lab? Has a unit that can hook up to a doser for ph? I could be wrong though that shouldnt be too expensive. The fertilizer dosers are quite a bit of money though.
Ph dosed is about 800$ usd
@Cannabian I want the full Bluelab auto dosing system… it’s pretty nice. But not sure if it’s able to dose out the 15 different chemicals we all use and be cost effective on our scale
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Thats right, I suspect you need to go to a 3 part or 2 part system to use it? Its not in my cards so I havent researched it yet.
I went poor mans dosing and got a Autopot system 4 pot xl
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Don’t forget, you’ll also need something to keep stuff from settling out. An automatic stirrer or agitator. Those aren’t cheap either!
@LandShark Ever seen a thrift store hand held mixer duct taped to the side of a plastic 45 gallon drum, plugged into an extension cord with a manual timer on it?
Well I haven’t either but I really hope we get a picture as good as I’m thinking this will turn out, because it will work and you know what they say…
If the women don’t find you handsome they will at least find you handy!
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@LandShark was that directed at me?
I’ve seen some pretty sketchy shit in my days, it takes a lot to surprise me anymore!
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@PharmerBob - No sir, it wasn’t. With everyone talking about auto dosing, no one mentioned keeping things from settling out.
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Keep it flowing with a inline pump
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You are only need a small pump to move the solution around, and you won’t need it to run all the time, just enough to keep anoerobic bacteria from taking over your reservoirs.