How to control cultivation electronics?

Indoor grower can harvest crops comfortably at home all year round thanks to a controlled cultivation space represented by a quality grow tent. However, without ensuring optimal conditions for the cultivated plants using various electrical devices, cultivating herbs, fruit or vegetables would be of little value. Therefore read how to regularly switch cultivation electronics on and off. Automating these cultivation processes ultimately always saves you time and money.

Let’s start with an overview of the basic cultivation electronics that can be included in the automation process. These devices include:

• Lighting
• Fans
• Heating
• Pumps
• Humidifiers and dehumidifiers
• Carbon dioxide generators
• Temperature, humidity and CO2 sensors

The cultivation electronics listed above and other devices are used by indoor growers according to their needs and experience to easily achieve maintaining the correct temperature, humidity, CO2 level, pH and EC. It’s not hard to guess that keeping all these values constantly under control would be almost impossible, very difficult, and far from enjoyable without automation and regulation of key electronic devices when cultivating in an indoor environment. Correct values in these areas together create the ideal environment for plant development. This means a substantial improvement in:

• photosynthesis
• water release through the leaf surface (transpiration)
• nutrient uptake
• growth, flowering and ripening and other aspects important for healthy plant development.

Timer switches, time switches

Growers’ needs for automation and regulation of cultivation electronics usually increase with growing experience and possibilities. At the beginning you will need to control at least the lighting so that indoor cultivation is truly efficient.

• If you use traditional discharge lamps for lighting in a grow tent or room, we recommend choosing distribution cabinets right away; we will focus on those in the next section of this article.
• For fluorescents, CMH lamps, or LED lights, reliable timer switches will generally serve well. They can also ensure regular watering in irrigation systems by switching the pump on and off. At the beginning or for hobby purposes, mechanical timer switches are often sufficient, as they allow you to turn any electrical device on or off at the desired time and are easy to set. For these parameters, the simple but reliable TBox Timer Box 1M fits best. In addition to these, the Spanish brand Tempobox also manufactures top-quality distribution boxes, which we will cover a little later. It's definitely worth reading the dedicated article TBOX: a novelty worth it!

• A different league of switching – that's no exaggeration when describing TechGrow second/interval timers from the renowned Dutch manufacturer TechGrow, which allow easy and very precise interval settings to control a given electronic device thanks to an extra heavy relay with a capacity of up to 10 A. The technically advanced TechGrow time switches feature a built-in light sensor that makes growing herbs in a growbox a lot easier, because it lets you choose whether to use the timer only during daytime or also at night.

Control units, distribution cabinets, controllers and other regulation equipment

Now we come to the regulation of cultivation electronics equipped with a contactor, which can handle significant inductive loads and thus enables reliable switching of multiple high-power appliances in practice. That is the main difference compared to simple time switches. And as mentioned earlier, if you use high-pressure or sodium discharge lamps as the artificial light source in your grow tent, then control units or distribution cabinets (distribution panels) are the safe bet.

Likewise, where one or two timer switches are enough at the start, the number of devices that need to be regulated and connected to the automation usually increases with growing experience. Some switching distribution boxes also offer a temperature sensor for fan regulation and other handy functions. This is where we start distinguishing the boundary between “ordinary” distribution panels and sophisticated automatic control units that meet the needs of experienced professionals.

For example, GSE Smart Grow Controller replaces a whole range of costly devices from light timers to heating controllers and fan controllers. This device has long been a market staple in cultivation electronics regulation. It includes temperature, humidity and light sensors.

The same applies to other GSE controllers and regulators, with which maintaining ideal temperature, humidity or carbon dioxide levels in the cultivation space is truly effortless. These devices had practically no competition for a long time. That changed recently when a direct and more than worthy competitor entered the Czech market – the Dutch brand TechGrow, from which we have already presented time switches. Considering price, performance and quality, we definitely recommend other top devices from TechGrow as well, such as temperature, humidity, negative pressure and minimum fan speed regulators. A very useful feature is the hysteresis regulator – a temperature range controller that can regulate the fan power so that the temperature inside the grow tent never exceeds the set range. If the temperature inside the growbox falls, the fan speed will be reduced to the preset minimum. With these high-tech innovations for regulating cultivation electronics, automating all cultivation processes becomes child's play!

• Distribution cabinets:
• TechGrow rozvodnice Basic Micro, 2x600W
• TechGrow rozvodnice Connect Micro, 2x600W
• TechGrow rozvodnice Connect, 6x600W

• Air-handling controllers (temperature, humidity, negative pressure and fan speed)

• Sensors and probes for climate control

• TechGrow temperature probe
• TechGrow temperature and humidity sensor
• TechGrow S-4 CO2, temperature and humidity sensor (2000ppm)
• TechGrow S-2 CO2 sensor (2000ppm)

• Generators and CO2 dosing units

Our TIP: We have prepared complete sets for CO2 dosing and measurement in the cultivation space for customers, divided into three variants so growers from all categories can choose:

• TechGrow CO2 KIT BASIC
• TechGrow CO2 KIT MEDIUM
• TechGrow CO2 KIT PROFI

Modular control units GroLab are designed to make sophisticated control of the cultivation environment available not only to commercial users but also to passionate home indoor growers! Watch the video directly from the manufacturer.

Automatic regulators are simply indispensable helpers for anyone who wants to achieve a bountiful harvest of the highest quality in an indoor environment. There are many reasons to continuously optimize the cultivation environment. It doesn’t hurt to summarize the most important ones at the end:

• Ideal climatic conditions in the growbox, from temperature and humidity through fresh air circulation to the correct carbon dioxide concentration, are a prerequisite for high yields and overall greater success in the indoor cultivation of plants.
• Optimizing these processes also means better management of water, fertilizers and electricity, which in the long run will save significant financial resources that you can later reinvest to move up another level. As is well known, time is money. Therefore it is also important to emphasize the time savings.
• A perfectly controlled environment in which your plants develop leaves little opportunity for pests or diseases, so you can look forward to a healthy harvest of the highest quality without unnecessary complications that would spoil the joy of growing.

As you can see, there are many ways to optimize your grow room, so choose primarily according to which devices and how many of them you need to control and monitor. If you want to be sure of the right choice, our experts are available at the well-known email address info@higarden.cz.

We also recommend these products:

• Rozvaděče TBox (TEMPOBOX)
• GSE Digitální Regulátor teploty a min.otáček odtahu
• Prima Klima WHISPERBLOWER

Further reading:

• Torus Hydro perfectpH: revolutionary pH stabilizer
• Organics Nutrients: naturally towards high yields
• How powerful do you need your fan to be?