Automating Your Medical Marijuana Garden
Temperature, humidity, and fresh CO2 all have to remain at correct levels if you want to achieve success in indoor gardening. 
Sometimes our hobbies spiral out of control. A car collector buys too many cars, or a gardener tries to grow too many strains. Sometimes we need to simplify things to regain a sense of control.
This can be done a few ways. For an indoor cultivator of medical marijuana, you can cut the number of strains down to a few, or stick to growing in one medium or using just one nutrient line. But that’s no fun. As growers, we are enthusiastic about our hobby. We like to dabble and tinker to see what works and what doesn’t.
To truly see what works and doesn’t you need to be absolutely sure to control your environment. Temperature, humidity, and fresh CO2 all have to remain at correct levels if you want to first, achieve success in indoor gardening, and second, see what works and what doesn’t.
There are many tools at your disposal to make sure you remain a master of your indoor environment. Gardening controllers allow growers to dial a room in to the exact T. There are several out on the market now for under $250 that control temperature and humidity. These can be used to bring in fresh cool air or exhaust hot humid air if your humidity or temps push past the set points.
More expensive controllers allow you to integrate a variety of set points to control such as on/off irrigation cycles for hydroponics systems and supplemental CO2. There are few companies that manufacture these types of units. The most reputable are Sentinel and C.A.P. A former originator of the market, Green Air still makes quality products as well. There are other companies out there too that offer more expensive features like computer integration, but Sentinel and C.A.P. offer the best controllers for your buck and stand by their products with excellent customer service.
When choosing a controller you need to figure out exactly what you want to control. For example, if you’re pumping your room with CO2, you will need a controller that can turn on/off your CO2 generator based on the levels of CO2. If you exhaust your room for high temperatures or humidity you will need a controller that integrates all of these variables. When your room exhausts you don’t want your CO2 unit running or you will be wasting money as you blow CO2 straight out of the room.
One of the best multi-parameter controllers I’ve come across is the CHHC-4 from Sentinel. This controller is an all-in-one badass that retails for $799 MSRP. It controls day and night temperatures, CO2, and day and night humidity levels. You can integrate temperature and humidity if you use an exhaust fan to lower these parameters, or they can be controlled separately.
The CHHC-4 boasts four outlets for heating, cooling, dehumidifying, and CO2 which are controlled by a removable remote probe that features a dual-beam CO2 sensor. It also records min and max data for all parameters. To allow you to dial in your room to the perfect set point the unit features, a differential adjustment button which can be set to as little as +/- one degree. The CHHC-4 even features a green display to ensure it won’t disrupt the night cycle and watered protected covers for outlets that are not in use.
While all of this controller talk might sound a little too technical, most of these units are built with the idea of being easy to use by the everyday hobbyist gardener. From the moment you pull one out of the box, mount it to the wall, and plug in your peripherals you’ll be ready to roll and ready to kick back and focus on boosting the yield and quality of your medicine.
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Tuesday, 13 December 2011
