Watering suggestions?

I need to find a different way to water this room. Right now I'm basically playing a tile game and moving them around to get to the back but it's getting thick.
What would you do? Plants are of various sizes in 5 gal pots mostly, any suggestions besides kill plants will be appreciated lol. Thanks!

My canopy is pretty thick like that, I use a 24oz cup that pour water into from the gallons I mix up. Then I have to get on the floor and reach under the canopy. It's a little bit of a pain.

I'm thinking of setting up a water pipe and funnel near the entrance on a rope, this way I can just stick it in each pot, my main concern is I can't do my weight test, so I don't know how dry they are before watering.

I started writing down water and feed times to see what the plants schedules are but it's random cause my temp swings so much, the only ones consistent are the two monsters in the back. They drink every 2 days. The others are like 3-5 depending on temps.

Sounds like a pretty good idea. But I would have opted for a bigger room or fewer/smaller plants. How are you going to get in there to make sure there are no signs of deficiencies or to get up close with the buds in the back to know when to harvest?

Is this a box that you have built? looks like it's just thin plywood, maybe you could make a short long door that runs the length of the space and put it on hinges. Then you just lift up your door, maybe even have a clasp to keep it up, and check on them like that. Probably would still have to use your pvc pipe trick still to reach the back row when watering. But at least you would be just a few feet away rather than several feet away trying to see if the back plant has some sort of deficiency or not.

edit #2, I guess at that point with the long door idea you could just set that whole wall on hinges. All depends on how your grow space has been sectioned off.

It's drywall and 2x4. As it sits I can move a few around and get back to the back plants, I do admit the plants aren't getting the attention they could be this way. I don't have the option of making it much bigger. Maybe 10 in wider and it's a lot of work to do that.

I already gave a bunch of plants away because of this. I don't want to give any more away or kill any.

Maybe I'll try and move the wall out some. Any room at all would help right now.

This is the entrance

https://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-1-Gal-Sprayer-1501HDX/207202420?cm_mmc=Shopping|BT3|G|0|G-PLA-BT3-HDX-D28I-InsideGarden|&gclid=CjwKCAiAm7LSBRBBEiwAvL1-L_tCbP53vl5WRa2IrZr_Vkj2tCQu9-vLbP4dZf-AEsGslP_xS8IboxoC0IMQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CK7i1t6YvNgCFRAKgQod9voDtA
?

Roger A. Shrubber said:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-1-Gal-Sprayer-1501HDX/207202420?cm_mmc=Shopping|BT3|G|0|G-PLA-BT3-HDX-D28I-InsideGarden|&gclid=CjwKCAiAm7LSBRBBEiwAvL1-L_tCbP53vl5WRa2IrZr_Vkj2tCQu9-vLbP4dZf-AEsGslP_xS8IboxoC0IMQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CK7i1t6YvNgCFRAKgQod9voDtA
?

Click to expand...

Lol that would be cool but it's only a gallon, I use like 10 or more when watering and feeding so. As it sits I crawl on the floor every day and lift the pots individually. Not easy but it will pay off.

Anyone else dealing with limited space and big plants? Any tips or tricks? The hinged wall idea is great just takes up too much space when open.

they make those bigger, i have a 5 gallon backpack unit, but that would be kind of unwieldy in a tight area

That's a bad ass stealth grow you've got there! Perhaps if you got some adjustable emitters or buy some of those halo/drip rings and had all the hoses color coded or labeled on the end and leave them sit by the entrance there. Then just get a tote and a water pump and attach the corresponding hose to the pump to water each individual plant. probably have to make marks in the tote to know how much you've given each plant.

dtl420 said:

That's a bad ass stealth grow you've got there! Perhaps in the if you got some adjustable emitters or buy some of those halo/drip rings and had all the hoses color coded or labeled on the end and leave them sit by the entrance there. Then just get a tote and a water pump and attach the corresponding hose to the pump to water each individual plant. probably have to make marks in the tote to know how much you've given each plant.

Click to expand...

Wow now that's an idea! Although a little involved for me, I'm moving soon and this room will become my dads. I've decided to add the 10 inches of width for one, and I think ill probably set my dad up with less plants in the future.

I know I asked for your suggestions and they are great! It's just now that u got me thinking about it maybe I should just suck it up and finish this grow the way I've been going, (plus the ten inches of width).

I should end up getting enough to last me through till I move and set up again as I don't sell and its all personal for 4 people.

I've never really had bad deficiencies or problems this way. I've had some leaves canoeing and small stuff but it always figures shit out on its own so long as I don't panic and just keep on schedule.

Thanks guys! I was thinking of starting a thread about the room or even a journal for people to look at but I'm always too far along and changing shit. I'm not new to this but def not a pro, if there are any questions about the room just ask and I'll give detailed answers.

I would like to take the best solutions here and apply them to the room eventually in some way to make it more automatic or easy to water and feed. Any suggestions will be considered into the final setup and thanks in advance. I'm already considering the tubs and halos option.

dtl420 said:

That's a bad ass stealth grow you've got there! Perhaps in the if you got some adjustable emitters or buy some of those halo/drip rings and had all the hoses color coded or labeled on the end and leave them sit by the entrance there. Then just get a tote and a water pump and attach the corresponding hose to the pump to water each individual plant. probably have to make marks in the tote to know how much you've given each plant.

Click to expand...

To add to this do you know of any soil monitor systems that can probe multiple pots and report to one screen? This way maybe I could monitor soil moisture content digitally and know when to water instead of having to pick up pots. Would be great to have all of this on a one button setup haha just flip it on, set up a gradual increase in watering amounts and check on it here and there.

907cannabis said:

To add to this do you know of any soil monitor systems that can probe multiple pots and report to one screen? This way maybe I could monitor soil moisture content digitally and know when to water instead of having to pick up pots. Would be great to have all of this on a one button setup haha just flip it on, set up a gradual increase in watering amounts and check on it here and there.

Click to expand...

I like where your head is at, but that's WAY over mine. lol. My brother is a tech guy in the military, he's always telling me about this thing called a raspberry pie that can apparently be programed to do what every you want it to. They probably already make a system for doing that, but it's probably going to run you a lot of money.

There are those little moisture meters that you probe down in the soil, you could put one of those in each pot in your line of site. wouldn't be as sophisticated, but it would sure as hell be a lot more affordable. lol

I'd rather add a weight sensor..... when pot drops under x weight, it waters.

I'm loving this automatic talk. Some killer ideas.

I spend so much time figuring out which needs watered, of what, and how much, that I never have any freetime anymore. I'm either working at work, or working on watering.

$7 for a sensor, $50 for a Arduino, ability to program it - priceless.

https://www.amazon.com/Moisture-Humidity-Compatible-Atomic-Market/dp/B00TMD43BS

I thought the grow software Herb.IQ was going to add the ability to monitor sensors. An old laptop, and some of the $7 sensors might be economical.

NugHeuser said:

I'm loving this automatic talk. Some killer ideas.

I spend so much time figuring out which needs watered, of what, and how much, that I never have any freetime anymore. I'm either working at work, or working on watering.

Click to expand...

Agreed. Anything that cuts out time in this activity helps a lot.

deno said:

$7 for a sensor, $50 for a Arduino, ability to program it - priceless.

https://www.amazon.com/Moisture-Humidity-Compatible-Atomic-Market/dp/B00TMD43BS

I thought the grow software Herb.IQ was going to add the ability to monitor sensors. An old laptop, and some of the $7 sensors might be economical.

Click to expand...

This. And I started building something with the Raspberry Pi. I added a temp/humidity sensor so far, plan to test adding a soil moisture sensor but I'm not growing anything lol..
But it's not really hard to get one set up connected to sensors, cameras, and adding remote web access to outlets on a relay, etc
Google RasPiViv

GrayDizzle said:

This. And I started building something with the Raspberry Pi. I added a temp/humidity sensor so far, plan to test adding a soil moisture sensor but I'm not growing anything lol..
But it's not really hard to get one set up connected to sensors, cameras, and adding remote web access to outlets on a relay, etc
Google RasPiViv

Click to expand...

You could always just fill up a pot with dirt in a room with plenty of air circulation to get the soil moisture sensor set up for when you do grow something.

dtl420 said:

You could always just fill up a pot with dirt in a room with plenty of air circulation to get the soil moisture sensor set up for when you do grow something.

Click to expand...

Yeah I guess I can adopt a houseplant or something lol.
Eventually I want to get a tent to start my vegetables early indoors. That will give me more environmental control to make the fans, vents, heaters, etc.. respond to parameters set from the sensors.(like turn on fan #2 when temp or humidity reach certain thresholds)
At that point, I plan to start testing soil moisture sensors and water level sensors- adding peristaltic pumps to water X amount of ml from reservoir #1 when moisture sensor reads below 20%,
Trigger res #2 to top off res #1 when water level reaches below 10%.. endless possibilities