Environmental swings can be a bear in a desert dep, so I programmed an ESP32 to vary mist dependent on VPD. 5 ON/OFF patterns from >1.0 to <3.0 and crop steer roots in the sweet zone. Scalable, automated, fail-safes, 30g/sq ft yields, 42-day flower cycles, less water, electric, NPK, and zero medium cost. 100 drybacks per day. with solar I’m at .05 cents per gram production cost, not counting labor. If the NPK could be made strong enough from compost and post harvest biomass composted a carbon neutral op would be attainable.
Currently running…
Zkittles X Kush Mints
Slurricane
Gelato 33
Geisha’s Breath
Nectarine Lips
Frozen Peaches
Berried in Detroit
Gastro pop
Super Booof
If you wanted proof the industry was bought by investors look no further than at what’s possible vs what’s the normally process for large ops. So many dropped out of the race long ago because of cost to profit ratio. It’s sad this high level of efficiency isn’t the goal of most growing commercially, but when leaning on a golden ticket (cultivation licence) innovation is just an unnecessary gamble.
I’ve been doing HPA for over 2 decades, in a greenhouse for 10 years, If you have any questions let me know.
I’m using the Arduino framework on ESP32, as well as Home Assistant, but no network connection is required for it to run, just to monitor logs.
ESPHome is built on top of the Arduino Core for ESP32, which provides the familiar Arduino-style functions like digitalWrite(), delay(), millis(), etc. that the code relies on.
I have nothing on github, I’m very new to this, but Ai helps a lot
Is your greenhouse already built? I’ve seen many run plastic to the ground over a hoop house, then realize the need to isolate the bottom 4 ft to keep away the intense heat, but it already inside at that point. If you can make the bottom 4’ solid paneling it helps root zones immensely.
I also find light dep to be a must for cutting heat at the hottest times, but better to wire it yourself with limit switches than rely on motors that count rotations so you have more control. I use cargo ratchet straps like on an 18 wheeler to keep the dep from blowing away.
Nice, havent seen that yet. I was working with the Arduino Core only using BLE to send sensor data to RPi. But the more scalable the more sexy
The greenhouse is in a garden property I basically inherited. Still learning so much a bout plants, geeez.
Main diff might be I am not in a desert area, so we dont have crazy highs on day or low at night.
Good question. There’s days when its 120 during summer, and nights in the 40’s during winter. Shade cloths over the plastic help a lot. I also have a RO mist system, and two portable mini splits that kick on when it hits 90. 21kw of solar i installed on my house really makes this feasible. Intake air comes through a dark misted 10x10 lung room in back on the north end of the greenhouse, which is where the RO barrel that feeds the mist system and ground res is kept cool and dark. Electric heaters (with a fan) under the grow tables is the best way to keep the roots warm that I’ve found. I focus more on root temp than leaf temp. Can get some colorful nugs at times for sure. The pressure tanks (two of them) are also kept cool, out of the direct sun, kind of under the tables skirt. The return reservoirs is buried to ground level so i didn’t have to raise everything else up including the roof height, its right by one of the tables and also covered by panda film i can flip up to access it. The return res is small, only about 9 gallons, so i do have to toss in more NPK 3x a day when they’re really eating. I could automate feeding, but then i wouldn’t even have a reason to go in there.
I was foolishly using HTTP requests to a Tasmota flashed Sonoff S31 to pop the solenoids before i finally figured out to use a relay, lol. HA was pissed, kept dropping api connection. I had so much 2.4g interference i had to go back to the drawing board. I love that it’s hard wired to the solenoids now. ESP32, SHT30, and a 3.3V Relay. Simple and effective. I’ll never use a cycle timer again. I even had a duel cycle timer setup for night/day, but i can see roots are happier with even more mist patterns.
