Marijuana grow room controllers and data collection programs help you grow smart!One of the most professional and helpful things you can do for your marijuana growing business is to keep a grow diary.
A grow diary includes as many details as you can record about your marijuana strains, their growing characteristics, your hydroponics nutrients feed program, grow room environment, harvest weight, and harvest quality.
You can read our previous article about keeping a grow diary the old school way, by writing down details based on your personal observations.
Having grow room facts helps you save money, increase yield and growth rate, and fix problems.
Now, modern technology gives you a better option for marijuana grow room data collection about environmental and nutritional factors, if you can afford it.
That better option is seen when you look at marijuana grow room monitors and data recorders such as those offered by Growtronix.
Marijuana grow guru Eljay, of How-To Hydro fame, turned us on to the power of data logging and the Growtronix approach to it.
Growtronix technology integrates traditional marijuana grow room monitoring equipment with automated data collection and analysis capability delivered to your computer and other enabled devices via hardwire, apps, and the Internet.
Growtronix says its equipment does for you what you can’t do on your own even if you were to sit in your grow room personally recording data 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!
Here’s are the services they say their gear can provide you simultaneously:
Screenshots
Complete Climate Controller
Hydroponics Controller
Environmental Controller
Temperature Controller
Humidity Controller
CO2 Controller
pH and EC / TDS controller
Reservoir Temperature Controller
Reservoir Level Controller
Security System
Flood Detection and Alert System
Fogger Controller
Irrigation Controller
Ebb and Flow table Controller
Time lapse movie creator
DWC Level Controller
Deep Water Culture Controller
Cycle Timer(s)
Lighting Controller
Atmospheric Controller
Long Term data logger with advanced graphing features
Control multiple grow areas from one system
Personally customizable configurations
Growtronix says it achieves this level of monitoring, controlling, and data services using proprietary software analytics along with temperature sensors, humidity sensors, CO2 sensors, pH, EC, and TDS (total dissolved solids) sensors, reservoir monitoring, light detectors, PAR (photosynthetically active radiation) sensors, soil temperature sensors, flood detectors, smoke detectors, web cams, and security systems such as door, window, and motion sensors.
Growtronix also says its equipment interfaces with dedicated power outlets to control hydroponics lighting, exhaust fans, venting and air handling, pumps, C02 burners and tank regulators, air conditioning, heaters, humidifiers and dehumidifiers, water chillers and water heaters, sulfur burners, solenoid valves, security features, and virtually any other hydroponics grow room device that uses plug-in electricity.
According to Growtronix, the control of devices through electrical on/off switching can be pre-set, keyed to sensor readings, themed to time of day and week, arranged as a cyclic pattern, or any combination of these factors.
You can remotely monitor and control marijuana grow room environment and equipment from computers, I-Phones, and other devices.
You can set up your system to deliver marijuana grow room warnings, reminders, and other alerts via text messages and emails.
The marijuana grow room data storage and analysis functions of systems such as Growtronix are impressive.
You get useful graphs, graphics, charts, comparison tools, time-lapse videos and other data sets that unlock the specific performance secrets of how your marijuana plants are responding to the light, air, C02, water, nutrients, and grow room conditions you provide them.
When you can do instant, long and short-term analysis of factors such as sensor data, on and off time for outlets, kilowatt hours of electricity used, electrical costs, you’re saving time and money.
These types of systems help you streamline your hydroponics marijuana grow room for ease of operation and also get the most grams and cannabinoid percentages per watt from every penny and every moment of time you invest in each crop cycle.
You should remember of course that Growtronix and other hydroponics manufacturers are making product claims so they can sell products to you.
As with all purchases of grow room equipment, you’ve got to do your due diligence to make sure the manufacturer and its products are solid.
Frankly, most hydroponics companies disappoint marijuana growers by advertising in Maximum Yield magazine, and participating in Maximum Yield indoor gardening expos.
Maximum Yield is a money-grubbing profiteer coward company that makes all its money from marijuana growers but openly discriminates against marijuana growers and against hydroponics companies that defend the rights of marijuana growers.
Read here and you’ll see what I mean.
If you look at Maximum Yield magazine or go to the magazine’s indoor gardening expos, you don’t see any marijuana, and nobody will talk to you about it either.
You have to pretend you grow lettuce.
It’s so f****ng lame!
But we understand why many hydroponics manufacturers feel forced to participate in Maximum Yield indoor gardening expo fakery, because so many growers go to Maximum Yield events.
We also note that when we talk to marijuana growers about Growtronix and other hydroponics monitor and controller gear, we get extremely mixed reviews.
Some growers claim their Growtronix gear works great and that the company provides useful tech support and customer-friendly warranty repairs.
We talked to a grower who was out of town on vacation with a fully-automated, sealed six-light grow room controlled and monitored by Growtronix equipment.
The grower got multiple warnings and data flags from his Growtronix system, and it saved his crop.
Other growers describe equipment that failed within a few days, poor customer service, and an experience that left them feeling ripped off.
It’s a big puzzle as to who’s telling the truth.
And we must remember that competitors often promote fake negative reviews of other manufacturer’s products.
So while we’re not taking sides, we are saying Growtronix has worked very well for some growers, and Growtronix marketing materials indicate they’ve given a lot of thought to what growers really need.
But unless a hydroponics company provides a member of the BigBudsMag.com grow team with a complementary set-up so we test their gear in our personal, legal marijuana grow rooms for journalistic purposes, we can’t absolutely recommend gear.
We also urge all hydroponics companies that make such apparently amazing grow gear to bypass Maximum Yield expos and show up instead at High Times Cannabis Cup events and other grower events that are marijuana grower friendly.
That’s where the real growers are, and it’s where you find out if all this often-expensive grow gear is made and sold by people who understand the unique needs of cannabis growers.
So when you’re looking into buying hydroponics grow room controllers, monitors, and data logging equipment, be sure to get a statement in writing from the manufacturer that satisfies you that your warranty and customer service rights will be totally protected and respected.
Note that we previously reviewed another grow room monitoring system, made by Smart Bee. One big difference between Growtronix and Smart Bee is that Smart Bee uses wireless rather than wired monitoring and sensors.
Read more about Smart Bee here.
For those of you who’ve always wanted to take your marijuana grow room into the 21st century so you use monitors, sensors, controllers, and data analysis to maximize efficiency and productivity, Growtronix gear is a good way to make your desire into a reality.
