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The gift of automation will let you leave your MMJ garden during the holiday season.
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 Installing grow room controllers will free you from your medical marijuana garden. 

The holidays are upon us, which for most people means trips to visit loved ones. But leaving your hydroponic medical marijuana garden, even overnight, can cause undo amounts of stress, both for hydroponic growers and their crops. However, it is possible to implement some technologies into our rooms that can give us the freedom to leave our grow-ops, while ensuring that our precious crop will still thrive, even in the absence of human hands.

The vast hydroponics market has developed a number of options designed to set you free from your garden. And you'll find that these devises will save you valuable time, even when you're back home from the holidays.

LIGHT TIMERS
Many gardeners, from hobbyist to commercial, use light timers in their grow rooms. With the use of timers or large lighting controllers, a grower can set a photoperiod for their vegetative or blooming stage. When multiple lights are used in a single room, lighting controllers allow all the lights to be turned on and off simultaneously. This ensures a solid photoperiod which is imperative to triggering a flowering response in photosensitive plants like medical marijuana.

ATMOSPHERIC CONTROLLERS
Fans, air conditioners and heaters can be tied into an atmospheric controller. Atmospheric controllers are very diverse; ranging from single use units (cooling thermostat) to advanced complete atmospheric automation devices that control everything from heating and cooling to humidity control and CO2 enrichment. Generally speaking, CO2 controller units are an optional upgrade to an atmospheric controller but many of the complex controllers are now coming stock with CO2 controllers. Atmospheric automation enables a grower to set desired temperature and humidity levels; creating the perfect environment for growing medical marijuana. Changes can be made when needed as some strains may thrive in slightly different atmospheric conditions than others.

CO2 MONITORS
CO2 automation is possible with a CO2 monitor/controller. The CO2 monitor/controller allows the grower to set a desired parts per million (PPM) of CO2 in the air. For CO2 to be most effective it needs to be at a consistent level during the photoperiod. Some of the more advanced CO2 controllers take samples of the air every few seconds and actually start to “learn” the conditions of the grow room and make the necessary adjustments to maintain a consistent PPM of CO2. CO2 controllers are usually equipped with a photosensor to ensure the device is deactivated during the room’s dark cycle when administering CO2 would be wasteful.

NUTRIENT DOSERS
Automated nutrient and pH dosers are the new must-have toys for the serious hydroponic grower. Nutrient dosers take a reading of the nutrient solution’s concentration and makes adjustments accordingly. If the solution tested is weak, the auto-doser will add more nutrients until the desired PPM is reached. If the reading is too high or over-concentrated, the doser will add water to dilute the solution until achieving the desired PPM. A pH auto-doser is very similar only it makes adjustments to the pH of the solution; adding pH up if the solution tests too acidic or adding pH down if the solution tests too alkaline. Automated dosers are allowing commercial hydroponic growers to maintain consistent levels at all times which leads to faster growth, higher yields and less problems all around.

There are hundreds of devices on the market to help you manage your crop, even when you are away. Check out Big Buds' gear reviews to learn about some of the best devices, and spend some time talking to fellow growers and hydroponic store employees to figure out the right devices for your particular growing situations. With the right gift list this holiday season, by next year, you'll be able to spend more time with friends and family, no matter how far you have to travel.