What is The Least Time Consuming Method Of Indoor Growing?????

Ladies and Gents,

I've done a few runs in coco coir/perlite and smart pots. I find it that It becomes a second job real fast as the plants starting taking off in growth and requiring more water and nutes.

I found myself mixing nutrients and watering taking more time than I want to spend looking after my plants. I know some would say, if I am not willing to invest the time necessary then don't grow. But I am more for working smarter...not harder.

In your experience... What is the most efficient method of indoor growing that would consume the LEAST amount of time to look after 4-6 plants?

I am looking to AUTOMATE almost everything and my ideal time spent gardening would be 1-2 hours per week MAX!

Your input is much appreciated as always!

W

Wigiberto said:

Ladies and Gents,

I've done a few runs in coco coir/perlite and smart pots. I find it that It becomes a second job real fast as the plants starting taking off in growth and requiring more water and nutes.

I found myself mixing nutrients and watering taking more time than I want to spend looking after my plants. I know some would say, if I am not willing to invest the time necessary then don't grow. But I am more for working smarter...not harder.

In your experience... What is the most efficient method of indoor growing that would consume the LEAST amount of time to look after 4-6 plants?

I am looking to AUTOMATE almost everything and my ideal time spent gardening would be 1-2 hours per week MAX!

Your input is much appreciated as always!

W

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Look into autopots.... love them...

If your willing to put in a little time and a lot of money into the starting process you can cut down the amount of time you need with your plants. An automated watering system is a must, something you only need to top up once a week would be ideal. Automated control of your environment using a controller for temperature, humidity and CO2. And maybe something like the smart bee just so you can monitor what the conditions are like with alerts when it gets outside the set parameters. That would take a lot of work out and you can spend a couple of hours a week just training and defoliating your plants

I am also interested in this.

There is one thing I am planning to lighten the workload. Note that I said lighten and not reduce.
Instead of having one grow tent/room, I would rather have two. One for veg and the other for flowering.
Rather than having to cut down down and trim everything at the end of you cycle, you can split it in half and do half the job twice.
As I said, it does not reduce the workload but makes it lighter. I hate trimming and cutting down the plants for hours. I have bad shoulders and I get sore for days when I do.

blumats are very popular, i haven't tried them myself, but i keep looking at them, and one of these days i'll break down and try them.
there are lots of automated systems, if you're planning on sticking with coco, i'd look into a drip system with halo rings, single emitters seem to leave big craters in coco, where the halo won't disturb it so much

From my experience, you reap what you sow. Don't want to spend time on your garden, then don't expect much from it.

personally i looove SIP's! very easy! automation is great.. until it fails and your plants die or you flood something... SIP's? just take the time to make them and make up some soil... then fill with water and let wicking do the rest... get your lights, temps , humidity and such down and off you go.. look at em maybe once a week or so if you dont want to spend time in your garden. Easy PZ

i must admit, i've never understood those that don't like to spend time in their gardens. why are you gardening if you don't like it? if you're just in it to make money, automate it as fully as you can, but you still better put in the effort to know your equipment, and how to learn to detect and resolve problems with your plants. if you don't put in at least some time "playing" with your plants, you won't be familiar with them and won't know how to diagnose problems

octopots fit the bill. five gallon buckets full of pro mix fed with dry organic ferts does too. plenty of auto watering(flood the room) techniques to choose from.

flood and drain is the easiest to manage.
you will cause floods and you better have a drain

We need to look at our plants each day if possible, until they have finished there stretch into flower so, whatever you try to do will not work! Unless it includes this simple formula or you have tons of money for total automation. Ha I'm sure you don't or you would not be asking...
After that it's Ok to let them go for a couple of days. Say 3-5.
Look into DWC . 4 gal. min. per plant that can give you 3 or more days in flower before PPM's get out of whack.
These plants are like baby's indoors. They will not do good on there own.

Peace

Wigiberto said:

What is the most efficient method of indoor growing that would consume the LEAST amount of time to look after 4-6 plants?

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hire somebody else to do it. zero time consumed. done.

DWC, all it requires is 1 hour a week refilling your res. For optimal results you should take another like hour per week training when the time comes but thats only for a few weeks that you'd take the extra hour.

Water only soil and drip irrigation. I hand water 6 and it takes, maybe, 30 mins every few days. Most of my time is spent training for an even canopy.

Anon Emaus said:

DWC, all it requires is 1 hour a week refilling your res. For optimal results you should take another like hour per week training when the time comes but thats only for a few weeks that you'd take the extra hour.

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Maybe RDWC. I was running multiple single buckets, all different strains at different stages. I was looking at 2+hrs a day, every other day, to check, top off and adjust res's. PITA.

WeedFreak78 said:

Water only soil and drip irrigation. I hand water 6 and it takes, maybe, 30 mins every few days. Most of my time is spent training for an even canopy.



Maybe RDWC. I was running multiple single buckets, all different strains at different stages. I was looking at 2+hrs a day, every other day, to check, top off and adjust res's. PITA.

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I use a 18 gal tote with 10 gal of water, perfect for 4 different strains and you only gotta fill every 7 days. But yeah I ran single 5 gal buckets before and that gets drunk in like 3 days. With the bigger res you can get yourself dialed in so well that you never have to worry about PH swings unless you have some kind of problem(dependent on the water and nutes you use too, but mine is that way anyway).

Personally I check my plants daily though. But I really only spend maybe 5-10 minutes a day plus the hour long res change once a week. And of course time spent training when it's that time.

Thanks for sharing the post.

If your grow room is bang on then fill your tank and leave it alone. This is what I do and I achieve 3.5 kg of weed of 6 plants.

It takes up very little of my time. Infect after changing from a drip system too auto pot system. I'm very bored now and don't know what to do with my time. Well I'm sure I can think of something . Good luck with what ever you choose matey.

Bowser4:20 said:

If your grow room is bang on then fill your tank and leave it alone. This is what I do and I achieve 3.5 kg of weed of 6 plants.

It takes up very little of my time. Infect after changing from a drip system too auto pot system. I'm very bored now and don't know what to do with my time. Well I'm sure I can think of something . Good luck with what ever you choose matey.

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Thats insane weight! Whats the grow space and what kind of light do you use?

Split between 2 tents (both 1.2x2.4) veg for 6 weeks flower for 8 weeks just over half a kg per plant.

Using autos with gavitas

I'm still quite new to this so I'll get more stuff as I go.

I have a aquaponic set up I can go 1 week take 5 mins to feed fish a bunch of brine shrimp and monthly i might do a 25-35% water change and 1/3 recommended nuets.. other than that. having a biological filter in the mix for the fish actually help a lot at keeping my ppm level low I guess. because I have never had yellow leave's or drooping plants, i haven't tested my water in 1 year besides ph.

draxhemp said:

I have a aquaponic set up I can go 1 week take 5 mins to feed fish a bunch of brine shrimp and monthly i might do a 25-35% water change and 1/3 recommended nuets.. other than that. having a biological filter in the mix for the fish actually help a lot at keeping my ppm level low I guess. because I have never had yellow leave's or drooping plants, i haven't tested my water in 1 year besides ph.

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Hey Drax What the heck are you talking about? Do you eat the fish and smoke weed from the same setup?