Highland cooled growroom [automatic]

[sativ]

Each nep's grower comes to the moment, when his terrarias are too small to keep all plants inside... I have too low amount of time to care about greenhouse, and too cold winters here in Poland , so i decided to build 100% automatised growroom in my basement

First thing was to remove my old growroom from basement and move plants to temporary home [simple 400W HPS in other, small basement]

After that i started from making new floor, and refreshing walls in target- basement:


Growroom must have well heat- insulation- so i decided to build double- walls with air- gap between. Also water waste collecting in basement is hard, so floor had to be built with small angle, letting water to fall in one side like in very big pipe



Wooden walls are best option- price, easy performing, they can handle some water and humidity due to fast drying on opposite side.





After that, i cutted all needed holes in walls, installed the AC unit inside and started to cover walls with reflective foil, water isolation and great heat insulation in one




On the "backstage" i mounted compressor, water supply, water waste collector, and mounted pipe for removing the water waste.
Also- 2 fans, one for changing air inside growroom, 2nd one for keeping inside walls dry, and keeping whole basement at quite dry level.



Humidification system is not working [misting is enough to maintain high humidity] but it can be plugged to water-mist generator all time.



I decided to use induction lighting [some info- www.inda-gro.com/ , but i used hermetic M-land lights], 2x 200W and after some time i added also one 250W HPS for helis

+ induction lights, misting, shelves for plants



"Backstage" now:



Water waste collecting, and automatic pump for it's removing.


Water supply is 60l bucket automatic supplemented with water from RO filter



Electrovalve opens, when water gets under this Pt sensor, and swithes off when it touch upper one [hard to see on this photo]



Misting system pump:


Spraying noozles built by myself from components


Heating in winter is realised with 2 of them:



Heart of system- PC and 2 drivers. With free time i will manage to control system via internet


Drivers turns on/off equipment with contactors. All mess inside


It works



Timeline:

lighting:
7.00- ON 2x30W fluorescent tubes to simulate sunrise
8.00- OFF 2x30W fluorescent tubes, HPS and induction ON. Start of the daytime, end of the nighttime
21.00- ON 2x30W fluorescent tubes, HPS and induction OFF
22.00- OFF 2x30W fluorescent tubes, end of the daytime, start of the nightime


misting- every 4 days- ON for 7 minutes, each 2h 20 min in daytime- ON for 6sec.

temps:

Daytime max 25.5, hysteresis 3*C [cool to 22.5 and switch AC off]
Nighttime max 16*C, hysteresis 3*C [[cool to 13 and switch AC off]

Some photos from inside


2x 30W tubes


AC unit


2nd part


All lighing ON



Plants:

H.exappendiculata seem to like new buddy- HPS


Other ones also seem to like it


Flowering N.mini maxima


Chaniana finally start to grow after repotting


Group photo


Jamban also start to grow after repotting


spectabilis X (lowii X ventricosa) [hidden with lowii x boschiana leaf ]


Some seedlings



And tiny sweet macrophylla


In case of questions- ask I hope You will use this idea to build Your growroom and stop to crowd plants in terrarium

[dvg]

Hello Sativ, and welcome to the forum.

That is a most impressive first post too!

You are obviously a very dedicated CP grower and i don't recall ever seeing such an elaborate basement setup before...at least not for CPs.

It is apparent you spent some time first designing and then building your basement plant haven, and it shows...the end results speak for themselves.

Thanks for the inspiration and sharing your alternative to the terrarium upgrade.

dvg

[vraev]

Amazing setup Sativ. A fantastic grow area for those of us who cannot grow these plants permanently outside. Keep us posted on the progress.

[sativ]

Hello;)

I forgot to write the "welcome to" post, but i read this board from 3(?) years frequently, so i hope that You feeled my presence here for this time

Thanks for comments I will post photos when my babes will take a deep breath after living in very bad growspace during builing new house:



and after cooking during summer in 35*C here: [ only aristo died ] [this is previous growroom]

[dvg]

Sativ, your new setup is a noticable improvation in living accommodations for your dear plants.

Best of luck to you and your plants with that much improved new automated grow room!

dvg

[sativ]

Hello

It's been a while of setup running.
Everything is working well. I moved helpamphoras closer to new 250W HPS unit in the middle of setup, and installed air-cooling of HPS.

Some photos of "heavy bushes in attack" :











lowii x camp


vogelii


tentaculata


"a must be"-one of wistuba's clones


dubia from Malea



and regular one



"comparision" to villosa seedlings growing there



mini maxima flowering 2nd time, slightly bigger than in previous post





another mini maxima clone "porcelain" ?



Greetings
Witek

[kevnep]

Im impressed, how long did your maxima take to grow that big? My tentena has started vining so i would like to know

[sativ]

Hello

I grow all of mine mini maximas from seeds, germinated near july 2008.

How this plant looked like some time ago- You can see in the first post. Very fast and vigrous plants, i left 4 plants for me- one of them is whole red, with deep purple pitchers, and also slowest grower- didn't start vining yet.

Greetings
Witek

[kevnep]

Thanx how long did the largest take to get that tall from it started vining to now

[ocpaddict10]

Great grow area sativ!