I found a guy who built is own EC meter with Arduino:
I think the stuff is out there, cost is probably the biggest hurdle. Turning lights and fans on/off fairly simple. Measuring nutes at the scale we do probably quite a bit more difficult.
Too time consuming and complicated for the $20 it costs to buy a meter
But my meter wonât report the data to my phone and alert me if there is an issue.
Very few issues which donât take time to develop aside from pumps dying or leaks most issues happen over hours ppm drops and changes are easy to notice with a daily check
Though at -14f with -27f windchill I could easily resist urge to go check my ladies today
Which is great when I am home - unfortunately I travel a lot for work (hence the title). The way I look at it is⌠what can I reasonably ask my wife to do when Iâm away. I think I can expect her to react if there is a problem but I donât expect her to be very proactive in the care and feeding of my garden.
In any case a PPM sensor/meter would be the last thing on my priority list for this stuff. Iâm more concerned with automating safety features for extreme issues like 90F temps.
Look into pool automation systems. I have a friend who has a pool system that adjusts pH and chlorine levels via inline droppers and sensors. So as the pump is running, it is constantly sampling the levels in the pool and adjusting via additions from reservoirs of acid and chlorine. This is basically what youâre looking to do except with different inputs and readings.
Thatâs a common line of thinking for hydro growers. The PH one isnât too difficult because itâs binary - just two solutions and they arenât mixed together.
PPM is a whole different beast because we can have many different nutes at different stages, each plant might have its own requirements, etcâŚ
Obviously the easiest thing to do would be to grow outdoors in the ground. I will likely leave my 6 summer plants for weeks at a time without my attention. The soil is pretty rich and theyâll be on drip irrigation. Lighting is covered by that nuclear reactor in the sky.
But I get thatâs not the goal here.
I am going to try and grow outside this year, but I donât have high hopes. I donât have a green thumb so hydro appeals to me because I can control most of the variables. It seems simpler to the way my brain works.
Ppm drift is simply part of hydro and is gonna be one of those psionic activities (gotta do it after looking at everything).
Good morning all!
Today marks the second day of week 8 of flower. It is the 129th day since the seeds sprouted, the 67th day since the lights were switched to 12/12, and the 51st day since I first noticed flowers.
Didnât do a lot today - plucked some leaves, adjusted PH, and thatâs it. The GL PH crashed hard again - 5.2 today. I double checked everything and guess what? I left the water heaters unplugged after I did the reservoir change on Sunday. Plugged them back in this morning so we will see what the PH is tomorrow and the next day by comparison.
GL PH adjusted from 5.2 to 5.80 and a PPM of 888. SSH PH adjusted from 5.75 to 5.9 and a PPM of 650.
What I did do today was take a bazillion pics.
I have noticed on the SSH I have a few leaves turning purple on me:
Other than that nothing really new to report.
She might be asking for PâŚ
Seems likely. Iâve had her on a 1000-1300 ppm feeding schedule for the past 4-5 weeks and this week I stopped feeding Liquid Koolbloom (0-10-10). She was given the following on Sunday (per gallon):
5ml Micro
15ml Bloom
2.5ml Calmag
6ml FloraNectar
leaves turning color is just normal donât do anything means they are happy fall colors is what you should expect when plants come to the end
This is my train of thought - Iâm 2 days into week 8 so Iâm just keeping the ship on the current heading for another couple of weeks.
Beautiful garden amigo! Is the gl still throwing out a bunch of pistils, or are those ssh colas just getting bigger?
Thatâs the reason for the word âmightâ lol.
I donât think there are too many new pistils on the GL but itâs really hard to tell because there are so many already⌠I donât think the SSH colas are getting bigger at this point, although it has thrown out a bunch of new pistils in the past few days. I have removed some fan leaves so itâs probably an optical illusion. That being said it definitely added a bunch of weight over the past week IMHO. If she finishes right where sheâs at now Iâll be happy.
Gotcha. Iâve been trying to follow closely, still hard to tell when something looks different. Just looked like some really big buds with fresh pistils. Wasnât sure what I was looking at is all.