As dedicated indoor gardeners, it can be a worry leaving your plants unattended. Much of your time and effort has gone into cultivating your crop, so ensuring they stay healthy when you’re away is essential. If you are searching for the best ways of how to water your plants while away on holiday or if you’re simply looking for ideas on how to automate watering in your grow room, an automatic plant watering system could be the answer you are looking for.
We explore some of the best automatic plant watering systems to use when leaving your crops unattended.
In this article we take a look at:
- Easy2Go by Autopot, and other AutoPot self-watering systems: Perfect for anyone looking for a cost-effective hassle free solution for watering plants in a tent, room, greenhouse or patio.
- NIDO One V2: A high tech system for serious growers and pros that provides an all in one watering, fertilisation and climate control solution.
- Aqua-X by TrolMaster: A cutting-edge automatic watering and monitoring system best suited to professional growers.
Autopot - Easy2Go Kit
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Nido One V2
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Trolmaster Aqua-X Irrigation Control System (NFS-1)
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Easy2GO by AutoPot
Easy2GO by AutoPot is a flexible, cost-effective automatic watering system. It’s really simple to set up and is perfect for watering your plants while away..
The system is suitable for grow rooms, greenhouses and patio plants. You can even connect multiple kits together to water a large number of plants while you are away. At just £21.55 (at time of writing), this system is a no brainer if you need automatic plant watering on a budget.
How Does Easy2GO Work?
The kit includes an aqua value and all the fittings needed to connect the system to a reservoir. The aqua value is placed on a large plastic tray (make sure it is level) and connected to a reservoir tank.
Once set up, the aqua value will flood the tray with 20mm of water and then stop. The plants within the tray soak up the water. When all the water has been consumed, the aqua value will re-open after around 30 minutes to one hour, and the cycle starts again. Essentially, the plants control the aqua value with their rate of water take up. As a result, the plants determine how much water they require.
Why We Love Easy2Go
This kit is so simple to set up and it needs no electricity or timers to operate. All you need is a large plastic tray and a reservoir tank and you’re ready to go.
The system is flexible and can be used with either large or small plant pots. It is capable of irrigating up to 2 square metres in a flat tray. Large pots can be placed directly into the tray, but if you are using small plant pots, we recommend placing these over a sheet of pre-soaked coco coir inside the tray. The plants will drink as much as they need, so there is no need to worry about over or under watering.
Alternative Automatic Watering Systems from AutoPot
AutoPot also offers other easy to use automatic watering systems that utilise its innovative bottom feeding system.
The Easy2Grow system comprises of double tray modules that are attached to a reservoir. This system can be expanded to cater for up to 100 x 8.5L or 15L plant pots (depending on the system you choose).
The Autopot System, and AutoPot XL work in the same way as the Easy2Grow system. The standard Autopot System is designed to water 1-100 x 15 litre pots, and the XL system can water up to 100 x 25 litre plant pots.
Either of these alternative systems may be a better solution than the Easy2GO if you need to water a large number of plants.
Autopot Easy2Grow
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Autopot System
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Autopot XL System
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NIDO One V2
The NIDO One V2 is a sophisticated management tool for automated crop cultivation. It provides a whole host of features including automatic irrigation, fertilisation and integrated climate control.
This clever system allows you to precisely optimise your grow room’s fertigation, hydration, pH levels and EC control. It can also be connected to other devices such as humidifiers, heaters and even lights.
This all in one solution is the ultimate automated crop cultivation system, and with remote monitoring via the NIDO app, plus the option to add the NIDO camera, you can have total control and peace of mind from anywhere in the world.
Why we love the NIDO OneV2 Automatic Crop Cultivation System
Compatible with a number of hydroponic growing methods including drip irrigation and aeroponics, this compact unit features advanced digital sensors that monitor water temperature, EC balancing and pH, to ensure fully optimised conditions for healthy growth and thriving crops.
Nutrient management is easy with 4 slots for different fertilisers and pH adjusters. What’s more, the system performs a whopping 96 checks every 24 hours to ensure the nutrient solution is balanced according to your own preset parameters. Some of the reasons we can’t get enough of this system include:
- Easy to install: This system is really easy to install. Within just a few minutes you can have a cutting-edge automatic cultivation system that meets agriculture 4.0 standards.
- Suitable for small and large crops: It is suitable for feeding both small and large batches of crops. If you have large crops that need 2,000 -10,000 litres of water, you have the option to add the NIDO Connection Kit. This allows for the direct connection of larger containers of fertiliser and pH Balancer.
- Climate control: Featuring sensors to easily measure temperature, humidity and vapour pressure deficit (VPD), you can remotely manage the climate of your grow space.
- Complete grow room control: The NIDO One V2 kit includes one NIDO plug but you can add more to allow for complete grow room control. The NIDO plugs allow you to connect and control peripheral devices such as humidifiers, dehumidifiers, lighting, irrigators, air heaters and extractor fans.
- Easy to use App: The App has been carefully designed to make managing your crops easier than ever before. Set your parameters for light, irrigation, pH, EC, temperature and humidity according to your crop’s current growth phase, create a schedule and the unit will do the rest! The app also allows you to connect multiple NIDO One V2 devices with the touch of a button.
- NIDO Lab: The NIDO Lab is a web based platform that allows you a complete digital view of your cultivation system. You can access and download your data, make modifications to advanced settings and even integrate your device with third-party software through the REST-API (included in the NIDO Lab subscription).
Nido One V2
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Nido Camera
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Nido Smart Plug
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TrolMaster Aqua-X
The TrolMaster Aqua-X is a professional feeding and irrigation system that allows precision irrigation schedule control and 24/7 nutrient monitoring. This modular system is fully customisable to suit your needs and can be used to control up to 30 individual irrigation times or channels for solenoid valve and pump control. A versatile piece of kit, you can control irrigation cycles for a stock or nutrient tank. It can also be connected in line with the Dosatron nutrient dosing system.
Why We Love The Aqua-XThis advanced system allows you to water your plants and monitor the pH, EC, feeding solution temperature, and grow media water content by using optional sensors that make precision watering possible from anywhere in the world.
You can set schedules, create alarms, adjust general settings and monitor levels all from the digital display on the main control unit. For advanced monitoring, such as assessing nutrient variables and remotely changing complex settings, use the intuitive TM+ smart phone app.
The app offers a wide range of uses from viewing real time watering schedules to logging historical nutrient data, and making pH and EC adjustments. With the app, you can completely finetune your irrigation schedules to exactly what your plants need to thrive.
The NFS-1 controller comes with a 12v power adapter and a TrolMaster WD-1 water detector for leak detection and water confirmation. All the additional control boards, sensors and accessories can be purchased individually to create a bespoke set up to fulfil your individual grow room needs.
It might sound complicated, but once you are set up, this system is easy to use. There are plenty of online tutorials and this video by TrolMaster explains the Aqua-X system in more detail.
Trolmaster Aqua-X Irrigation Control System (NFS-1)
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Trolmaster Aqua-X 24V Control Board (OA6-24)
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Trolmaster Aqua-X Reservoir EC/Temp Sensor (PCT-1)
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Conclusion
If you only have a few plants to water while you’re away, the Easy2Go system is a great option. It is a cost-effective solution and does the job without the need for any electrics or timers.
For serious growers, the high-tech systems like the NIDO One V2 offer the ultimate in remote irrigation, lighting and climate control. If you are a commercial grower and need a really bespoke system for a large set up, the TrolMaster Aqua-X is definitely one to consider.
Need a hand choosing an automatic watering system to water plants while you are away? Give us a call for expert advice or drop us a message and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can!
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