6 ms·

This is cool but seems a tad over engineered. I have a garden. It uses a drip line that's buried in the ground. It's $10 worth of tubing from Lowes with a fe

This is cool but seems a tad over engineered. I have a garden. It uses a drip line that's buried in the ground. It's $10 worth of tubing from Lowes with a few holes where plants go. It's on a $15 timer that waters automatically once a day. I do, however, have to take a few minutes to put seeds in the ground. That said, I would be throwing money at the monitor right now if this thing was smart enough to identify weeds and remove them. (Maybe that's in the plans? They have a part for weeding shown.) But I love all these new ideas around farming. The most interesting is hydroponics considering how much more resourceful it is with water (sometimes using 90% less water per equal amount of harvest). Edit: for those asking, all I used was half inch black tubing (the kind they use for automated sprinkler systems), drilled small holes every 12 inches, buried it, hooked it up to a spigot with a timer, and that's it.

mrfusion 10y ago
How did you build that? I'd love to make something like that.
- dexterdog 10y ago
  A drip line with a timer? This is low-tech stuff that's been available for quite some time. Search for B013JPIJG4 on Amazon.
  - VLM 10y ago
    While you're shopping at amazon there are $25 class kits that come with a water filter, backflow preventer, and pressure regulator. That's what I have on my container garden. Drip emitters are the kind of thing I should be 3-d printing but at $5 for 50 or whatever the going rate is...
- adrusi 10y ago
  You just need a solenoid water valve to let the timer control the water flow. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00E1HXYQA/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1465333663&sr=8-1&pi=SL75_QL70&keywords=drip+hose https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00E1HXYQA/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid... https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00K0TKJCU/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1465333715&sr=8-2&pi=SL75_QL70&keywords=valve+electronic https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00K0TKJCU/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid... https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B006LYHG42/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1465333779&sr=8-1&pi=SL75_QL70&keywords=electric+outdoor+timer https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B006LYHG42/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid...
  - awqrre 10y ago
    Doesn't this solenoid need 12V?
    - mdorazio 10y ago
      Yes (actually they say it works as low as 6V). You could, however, power it off a solar panel + battery enclosure so it's mostly set and forget.
MustardTiger 10y ago
>That said, I would be throwing money at the monitor right now if this thing was smart enough to identify weeds and remove them. Weeding is entirely unnecessary and often does more harm than good. Plant a cover crop and leave it be. Gardening can already be as simple as 3 tasks: plant, harvest, spread compost. It is just that people are very set in their ways and don't ever think to explore better ways of doing things.
- hutzlibu 10y ago
  Have you done that, or just read about it? Because I read about it (I asume you mean permaculture), tried it out - and dismissed most of it. Permaculture is indeed great as a concept, but is in no way as easy as people tell you it is. Most of what people tell you about is close to scam (even if it is wishfull thinking)
  - gtvwill 10y ago
    Mate permacultures easy, like....incredibly easy, if you read into old billy mollisons book and couldn't manage to make it work you probably just over thought the process, and it does make for land that has GREAT production per acre rates.
    - hutzlibu 10y ago
      Well, I've seen quite some places doing permaculture in australia and europe - and they all had to do LOTS of work - and a not so great production per acre rate (but it all looked great on the other hand) And I do use permaculture principles in my garden, but if someone tells me, no weeding is ever needed - then they either do gardening on a different planet, or are just lying.
  - stellar678 10y ago
    Sheet mulching is easy and incredibly effective in my experience. Cardboard topped with a mulch layer like straw. (Optional soil amendments below the cardboard.) In a small backyard garden you might need to pull out a couple dozen weeds over the entire growing season. You'll also be able to reduce your water use significantly because you've eliminated most of the open/broken soil that loses water to evaporation.
white-flame 10y ago
I just use adjustable drippers on an extremely low setting, and leave the water spigot on 24/7. One drip per second is approximately one gallon per day, so you can estimate how much water you're dispensing. Most timers are either battery-operated, or have to be wound once a day. To me, that sucks, and I don't want to have to route power to the garden system. With the slow drippers, I can leave this for weeks without issue.
prawn 10y ago
I agree. For me, planting seeds is easy and watering is straightforward (driplines on a timer). It's the weeding (despite mulching) and pest control that is ongoing, time consuming and difficult to automate. If I don't dust tomatoes or cover broccoli/etc I will lose almost everything. Something that skimmed/raked the surface lightly at regular intervals between rows to frustrate slugs and disrupt weeds would probably help me, but not sure how it could reliably account for varying plant types, sagging leaves, wayward tomato vines, etc.
- tiplus 10y ago
  Yes, I agree (in part). This stuff makes a lot more sense when you add climate / light control. Some plants are very difficult to cultivate, coffee for example (it needs constant temperature and will drop all leaves if you leave the window open on a frosty day). Others, like tomatoes, are difficult/impossible to get right if your garden is too shady (personal experience). The energy costs for indoor climate / light regulation can quickly become outrageous compared to super market veggie prices. Therefore, I think this type of tech is for rare exotic plant, maybe historical even. Imagine buying a piece of tech for growing historical coffee plants in your basement where you set the climate control to Kenia or Hawaii (buy the soil addon?) and which guarantees (as in `likely it will yield') you 2kg of your own personal coffee harvest per plant. This stuff has urban hipster $$$ written all over it.
  - patrickk 10y ago
    > Imagine buying a piece of tech for growing historical coffee plants in your basement where you set the climate control to Kenia or Hawaii (buy the soil addon?) and which guarantees (as in `likely it will yield') you 2kg of your own personal coffee harvest per plant. This stuff has urban hipster $$$ written all over it. If you could control climate and soil to that degree, I can think of a certain plant that you could grow that will yield much more profit than a coffee plant: http://botanycentral.providence.wikispaces.net/file/view/coca1.jpg/185968069/614x464/coca1.jpg http://botanycentral.providence.wikispaces.net/file/view/coc...
    - 10y ago
tonylemesmer 10y ago
For some its over engineered. But for time poor people who want to grow their own food in the back yard it seems perfect. By virtue of the fact that it can manipulate the plants by robot you can keep track of many metrics automatically via the remote user interface. Where the plants are, when they were planted. Staggered planting. IT could bring relatively advanced techniques to complete newbies. Plus its scalable - just extend the raised bed if you have space and it allows manual intervention because it can be moved out of the way easily. For watering yes I agree its complete overkill.
erkkie 10y ago
Even more interesting (to me) is aquaponics, hydroponics + fish for the nitrogen cycle: http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/information/the-nitrogen-cycle/ http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/information/the-nitrogen-c...
- lennelpennel 10y ago
  I do this at home, hybrid my own urine and some fish. No weeds make it into my grow bed and the yield is high. I even use this water to water my other plants because of its high nutrient content. I power it all of an arduino.
throwaway1979 10y ago
Completely agreed. When I tried my hand at gardening, weeding was the hardest part .. we ended up neglecting our garden for a few weeks and the weeds pretty much took over. And this is despite having laid down a layer of black plastic and mulch.

mrfusion 10y ago

How did you build that? I'd love to make something like that.

dexterdog 10y ago
A drip line with a timer? This is low-tech stuff that's been available for quite some time. Search for B013JPIJG4 on Amazon.
- VLM 10y ago
  While you're shopping at amazon there are $25 class kits that come with a water filter, backflow preventer, and pressure regulator. That's what I have on my container garden. Drip emitters are the kind of thing I should be 3-d printing but at $5 for 50 or whatever the going rate is...
adrusi 10y ago
You just need a solenoid water valve to let the timer control the water flow. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00E1HXYQA/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1465333663&sr=8-1&pi=SL75_QL70&keywords=drip+hose https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00E1HXYQA/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid... https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00K0TKJCU/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1465333715&sr=8-2&pi=SL75_QL70&keywords=valve+electronic https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00K0TKJCU/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid... https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B006LYHG42/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1465333779&sr=8-1&pi=SL75_QL70&keywords=electric+outdoor+timer https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B006LYHG42/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid...
- awqrre 10y ago
  Doesn't this solenoid need 12V?
  - mdorazio 10y ago
    Yes (actually they say it works as low as 6V). You could, however, power it off a solar panel + battery enclosure so it's mostly set and forget.

MustardTiger 10y ago

>That said, I would be throwing money at the monitor right now if this thing was smart enough to identify weeds and remove them. Weeding is entirely unnecessary and often does more harm than good. Plant a cover crop and leave it be. Gardening can already be as simple as 3 tasks: plant, harvest, spread compost. It is just that people are very set in their ways and don't ever think to explore better ways of doing things.

hutzlibu 10y ago
Have you done that, or just read about it? Because I read about it (I asume you mean permaculture), tried it out - and dismissed most of it. Permaculture is indeed great as a concept, but is in no way as easy as people tell you it is. Most of what people tell you about is close to scam (even if it is wishfull thinking)
- gtvwill 10y ago
  Mate permacultures easy, like....incredibly easy, if you read into old billy mollisons book and couldn't manage to make it work you probably just over thought the process, and it does make for land that has GREAT production per acre rates.
  - hutzlibu 10y ago
    Well, I've seen quite some places doing permaculture in australia and europe - and they all had to do LOTS of work - and a not so great production per acre rate (but it all looked great on the other hand) And I do use permaculture principles in my garden, but if someone tells me, no weeding is ever needed - then they either do gardening on a different planet, or are just lying.
- stellar678 10y ago
  Sheet mulching is easy and incredibly effective in my experience. Cardboard topped with a mulch layer like straw. (Optional soil amendments below the cardboard.) In a small backyard garden you might need to pull out a couple dozen weeds over the entire growing season. You'll also be able to reduce your water use significantly because you've eliminated most of the open/broken soil that loses water to evaporation.

white-flame 10y ago

I just use adjustable drippers on an extremely low setting, and leave the water spigot on 24/7. One drip per second is approximately one gallon per day, so you can estimate how much water you're dispensing. Most timers are either battery-operated, or have to be wound once a day. To me, that sucks, and I don't want to have to route power to the garden system. With the slow drippers, I can leave this for weeks without issue.

prawn 10y ago

I agree. For me, planting seeds is easy and watering is straightforward (driplines on a timer). It's the weeding (despite mulching) and pest control that is ongoing, time consuming and difficult to automate. If I don't dust tomatoes or cover broccoli/etc I will lose almost everything. Something that skimmed/raked the surface lightly at regular intervals between rows to frustrate slugs and disrupt weeds would probably help me, but not sure how it could reliably account for varying plant types, sagging leaves, wayward tomato vines, etc.

tiplus 10y ago
Yes, I agree (in part). This stuff makes a lot more sense when you add climate / light control. Some plants are very difficult to cultivate, coffee for example (it needs constant temperature and will drop all leaves if you leave the window open on a frosty day). Others, like tomatoes, are difficult/impossible to get right if your garden is too shady (personal experience). The energy costs for indoor climate / light regulation can quickly become outrageous compared to super market veggie prices. Therefore, I think this type of tech is for rare exotic plant, maybe historical even. Imagine buying a piece of tech for growing historical coffee plants in your basement where you set the climate control to Kenia or Hawaii (buy the soil addon?) and which guarantees (as in `likely it will yield') you 2kg of your own personal coffee harvest per plant. This stuff has urban hipster $$$ written all over it.
- patrickk 10y ago
  > Imagine buying a piece of tech for growing historical coffee plants in your basement where you set the climate control to Kenia or Hawaii (buy the soil addon?) and which guarantees (as in `likely it will yield') you 2kg of your own personal coffee harvest per plant. This stuff has urban hipster $$$ written all over it. If you could control climate and soil to that degree, I can think of a certain plant that you could grow that will yield much more profit than a coffee plant: http://botanycentral.providence.wikispaces.net/file/view/coca1.jpg/185968069/614x464/coca1.jpg http://botanycentral.providence.wikispaces.net/file/view/coc...
  - 10y ago

tonylemesmer 10y ago

For some its over engineered. But for time poor people who want to grow their own food in the back yard it seems perfect. By virtue of the fact that it can manipulate the plants by robot you can keep track of many metrics automatically via the remote user interface. Where the plants are, when they were planted. Staggered planting. IT could bring relatively advanced techniques to complete newbies. Plus its scalable - just extend the raised bed if you have space and it allows manual intervention because it can be moved out of the way easily. For watering yes I agree its complete overkill.

erkkie 10y ago

Even more interesting (to me) is aquaponics, hydroponics + fish for the nitrogen cycle: http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/information/the-nitrogen-cycle/ http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/information/the-nitrogen-c...

lennelpennel 10y ago
I do this at home, hybrid my own urine and some fish. No weeds make it into my grow bed and the yield is high. I even use this water to water my other plants because of its high nutrient content. I power it all of an arduino.

throwaway1979 10y ago

Completely agreed. When I tried my hand at gardening, weeding was the hardest part .. we ended up neglecting our garden for a few weeks and the weeds pretty much took over. And this is despite having laid down a layer of black plastic and mulch.