robots are taking over everything and a
greenhouse is no different with a
greenhouse if you want to do less work
and make more money you need a robot or
a simple machine to automate some of
your daily time-consuming tasks saving
you hours of work every day simple tech
that's the name of this channel and we
have piles of other videos on
greenhouses you can check out after
watching this one in this video I'm
going to review automating some everyday
greenhouse functions like cooling
heating lighting watering pollinating
and harvesting with some very simple
technology to save you time and help you
put more money in your pocket
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greenhouses heat up and who wants to
keep running out to open or close the
vents or windows the simplest device to
automate opening and closing of a vent
is a heat-activated window.event opener
these usually work with a type of wax
that expands and contracts depending on
the temperature and a screw allows you
to set the temperature when they
activate fans are the next level and
cooling and autumn izing a fan is done
just as for a home air-conditioner with
a thermostat the fan comes on and off
when certain temperatures inside are hit
simple thermostats makes turning your
fans on and off easy exactly when you
need it to happen some people don't
think of a thermostat as a robot but
that's exactly what it is a robot that
can control the climate inside your
greenhouse and it's essential simple
technology to keep a greenhouse running
at a growable temperature inside some
fans are electric requiring on the grid
connections and some are powered by
solar panels regardless of how you power
your fan automated vents and fans are
the first step you need for better
automated control of your greenhouse
growing climate
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regardless of how you heat your
greenhouse be an electric gas propane
would solar compost or other the number
one simple technology gadget that will
help you grow better and save you money
and time is once again a thermostat most
thermostats aren't expensive and if your
heating system will allow you to install
one you suddenly get stable winter
temperatures which your plants won't
thank you for now you can set up and get
one of those fancy dancy thermostats
that decrease the temperature at night
and they'll though more expensive too by
lowering the temperature at night can
save you hundreds if not thousands of
dollars on your heating bill so
upgrading this device is something maybe
you should consider thermostats are
probably the most important simple
technology you can employ to save money
with a winter greenhouse as heat is
usually the number one expense for
four-season greenhouse operations or
anyone that wants to grow in the winter
spring or fall I'd love to hear what
kind of automating you're using in your
greenhouse regarding heating in the
comments below
a lot of people don't think auxilary
lighting is necessary in a greenhouse
but if you live in northern climates
fall and winter have reduced sunlight
periods and boosting your plants growth
with artificial light is the best way to
speed up produce production it doesn't
matter if you have LED fluorescent for
some fancy type of HPS lights
automating your lights is a heck of a
lot easier than flipping a light switch
on and off and there's two main types of
devices to do this the first is a solar
switch with a timer so that the lights
go on when there's less than a set
amount of sunlight and stay on for a set
amount of time with a timer the second
is just using a timer the problem with
just using a timer is every week or two
you have to adjust when the lights come
on as the Sun keeps moving and sunset
time is slightly later or earlier every
day depending on the time of the year
that being said this simple technology
of a timer or a solar timer can save you
an enormous amount of headache flipping
switches late into the evening and
turning them off after your plants got
all the additional artificial light they
need and it's time to make everything
dark so your plants can sleep
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watering a greenhouse can take up a huge
amount of a gardeners time on a daily
basis you see pictures of greenhouse
gardeners watering their plants all over
the place but there's another way the
solution is a watering system set up on
a timer distributing a set amount of
water to the plants at specific times
during the day now having a watering
system doesn't mean you can forget to
check on your plants but checking on
your plants is a lot less time than
watering your plants 2 to 3 times a day
you can buy expensive commercial
watering systems or you can go to Amazon
eBay or Alibaba and buy some Chinese
made watering systems that work on a
timer and will do everything you need
for a large amount of plants for under
50 bucks all that's needed is a hose
spigot with pressurized water as the
electricity to run these timers often
just comes from a couple of cheap
double-a batteries the size of your
greenhouse an amount of plants you need
to water will determine the size and
cost of system you'll need they're
having a municipal or pressurized water
system helps but if you can somehow draw
warm pressurized stored rainwater from
some kind of large barrel or cistern the
extra nitrogen and minerals the
rainwater picks up from the air is one
of the best ways to get rapid plant
growth try not to water your plants
directly with super cold well or
municipal water or you're gonna stunt
their growth
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and pollination works but it's very
time-consuming if you've ever had to
hand pollinate and have a large
greenhouse after 30 to 50 plants you
start dreaming about automation now
there has been some research into robot
insects to pollinate your plants but at
this point in time it's not a reality
you don't have to worry about swarms of
robot bees yet yet now if you watched
one of my previous videos on pollination
you'd realize there's no other creature
or gadget that compares to leaf-cutter
bees when it comes to pollinating they
outperform all other birds and insects
and even seriously outperform honey and
bumble bees without any of the swarm
sting risk factors now in summer you can
cheat and just open your windows and
doors wide up and use natural local
pollinators during the day but once
things get colder you have to bring in
your own pollinators the best way to
automate pollinating is just to buy some
leaf-cutter bees leaf-cutter bees or
mason bees as some call them is a simple
way to use natural technology to
automate pollinating your plants I can't
think of anything better to increase
produce than investing in some
leaf-cutter bees and experimenting with
this natural creature it's something you
really should try as the rewards are
incredible and most large commercial
greenhouses use bees to automate
pollination and seriously increase their
produce production
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harvest is what it's all about and
although just picking your produce by
hand is great the bigger your greenhouse
gets the bigger this task becomes
automating some things and how you
harvest your cloth will save you time
and money but determining what devices
you need to help automate harvesting
varies so much depending on what you're
growing with tomatoes it's possible to
get a robot harvesting machine but this
technology is just in its infancy right
now
and most commercial operations just
employ people to pick their plants
flower operations aren't much different
requiring a lot of manual labor with few
options available at this time to
automate the process at harvesting
hydroponics and aquaponics systems use
floating rafts to somewhat automate
harvesting moving entire rafts through a
cycle so that when the plants are ready
they are positioned in the optimum
location for harvesting but the file
plucking is usually done by humans here
too now outside in the fields the
situation is a lot different crops like
wheat corn and soy are harvested by
combines fruit trees have shaking
devices to fall the fruit potatoes have
potato Pickers that pluck them from
under the ground in fact most of the
produce you eat that came from a field
involved automated harvesting in some
way yes
teams of human Pickers still exist but
this labor force is slowly being
replaced every year by better cheaper
and faster automated systems and
machines greenhouses though seem to be
much more reliant on human harvesting at
least for now
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I hope you enjoyed this video on
automation in a greenhouse there's so
much subject matter on automating a
greenhouse that this video could go on
for hours exploring every little gadget
imaginable but if I got you thinking
about ways you can automate your daily
tasks
hopefully I saved you some time and
money simple tech has piles of other
videos on greenhouses you have or are
planning to build a greenhouse you need
to check out my other videos on this
channel also please post water
automation devices or machines you use
in your greenhouse to make your day go
faster and make you more profitable in
the comments I'll see you next time