Automating hempy/growroom for extended periods away?

Hi all,
i'd like to have a microgrow i can leave untended for up to two weeks. I'll be growing SOG style so I won't have to worry about training.

Does anybody have any recommendations for automating the watering of hempy containers? I was thinking of using a gravity fed water valve/solenoid(?) that will release on a schedule. Would I simply do a test run to see how much water it takes to get to the point where it's dripping out of the container, and then adjust a timer accordingly? What kind of valve and timer should I use?

Anything else I should consider? Like fireproofing, remote monitoring? It's been several years since I grew last but I remember the lesson of getting everything set up right at the beginning rater than play catch up as issues occur.

Thanks a ton!

You could get some of those watering globes you get from Walmart. They will work for watering while you are away.

I have a Hempy SOG on automated drip irrigation.

A 20 gallon rez is big enough to hold nutes for two weeks of feeding. 25 clones under a 600 watt HPS yields a pound every harvest.

The pump inside the rez comes on once a day for 10 mins to pump water through drippers to each plant. If you need more water then add more time, if you need less water take away some time from the timer. Super easy. I use a digital timer with one min increments and 1/2 gallon per hour drippers, one per plant.

I made the drip array myself for around 100 bucks.

All I have to do for my grow room is fill up the rez once every two weeks.

just set it up and watch it do its thing a few times and make the proper adjustments, I've taken a few trips where I set up a drip right before I left and wasn't quite sure if I'd have any live plants when I got home because I'd never seen it run on its own. I gives you a bit of confidence to set it up a few days earlier and watch it do its thing on its own that way you know whats going on and there is not likely to be any suprises when you get back.

I've been considering doing something like this when I get bored with my current set up. I am usually gone for about 10 days a month, so things need to be pretty bulletproof. What I had been considering was to use direct-acting solenoids so that they will function on low water pressure for the feed side. On the drain side of the hempy bucket, use a float switch in a well with a small drain hole, probably something like a large plumbing tee could be used. One leg of the tee would go to the bucket drain, the vertical leg turned straight down and a pipe plug with a small metering hole drilled in it, and the remaining leg would be the main drain. The float switch would then be installed so that it would actuate when the water in the vertical leg lifted it, with the bulk of the runoff continuing on out the main drain leg - this signal could then be used to drive a timer that would determine the amount of runoff. The metering hole in the pipe plug would then drain the well, re-setting the system.

All of this would be hooked up to a little micro-controller. I know, I know, but I used to do machine automation!

For what it's worth, I found this Gravity Feed Electric Solenoid Valve on Ebay. That plus an Arduino(or other cheaper microcontroller???)= win!

Nice find on the ebay valve - it is a direct acting valve, if you look under (4) in the tech specs. I have been curious about trying an Arduino for quite some time, but I still have several Allen-Bradley MicroLogix controllers sitting around. The little Teco in the following link looks pretty cool too, for that kind of money I think it would be a challenge to come up with I/O and a keypad/display for the Arduino.

http://www.factorymation.com/s.nl?it=A&id=46&sc=2&category=1296&whence=

I have some Arduino experience. It's fairly easy and cheap. I only started learning how to use them within the past couple of years. I'm pretty open to trying other microcontrollers but the Arduino has a pretty big, active hobbyist community.

not sure if they have enough lift but there is always blumat systems

Instead of starting a new thread, I'm just gonna jump on this old one to share a tip I used recently. Somebody might be looking for something like this.

I had 12 plants flowering in one gallon buckets, about three weeks from finishing, and I had to leave for a whole week.

I can't remember where I got the idea, but what I did exactly was this. For every six plants, I provided a one gallon jug, placed above the tops of the buckets. You put your nutes in water as usual.

Then I ripped up a cotton t-shirt (make sure it's a 100% cotton shirt), ripped it up into one inch strips.

Cut the strips to a length so that they will reach from the bottom of the jug to the top of your hempy pot, leaving about an inch to shove down into your hempy medium. When you cut the t-shirt into strips, it will curl itself into a round shape that's perfect for a wick.

Soak your wicks. This is crucial, like priming a pump. It's also crucial that your water supply sits above your growing medium.

Then you just run your wicks from all the way at the bottom of your reservoir in a downward path to your pots. Shove about an inch of the wick into your medium, and it will draw water as needed.

Watered the plants up good before hooking everything up right before I left for the week.

Worked 100% for me, and didn't cost anything except an old t-shirt.

an automated hempy is a dutch bucket. very simple.

i think ive heard of someone using a wick like that but out of rope. good idea!

Excellent idea jellyfish. That one gets filed away for future reference.