Steering and whole-grow planning

What the two modes actually do#

The legacy controller reads mode-specific morning dryback and P0/P1/P2 EC references. Switching vegetative/generative selects those references; it does not automatically create a complete recipe or calculate suitable targets from your pot size.

The grow planner defines two explicit endpoints in each profile. The slider blends every configured parameter between them: 0 is the vegetative endpoint, 100 the generative endpoint, and 50 is halfway, rounded to each actual HA parameter's step. Profiles can differ in VWC targets, dryback, EC targets, shot sizes and other supported settings. These are operator-defined endpoints, not universal crop prescriptions. Existing installations seed endpoints from their current values, so identical endpoints intentionally produce no change until edited.

A more vegetative irrigation approach generally keeps water more available; generative approaches can use greater dryback and different root-zone EC. Appropriate values depend on substrate, cultivar, crop stage, climate and actual measurements. See Grodan's crop steering introduction and precision irrigation guide. This software does not claim a yield or potency percentage from those inputs.

Build a grow#

1. Select the room, then Irrigation plan → Schedule. Set each zone's grow start date.
2. Open Endpoint profiles. Review both endpoint columns; duplicate a profile when a zone needs different bounds. A shared profile affects every schedule block referencing it.
3. In Schedule & curve, select a zone row and week. Set its profile and steering slider. Switch to Days for exceptions. Editing a range splits existing blocks and preserves surrounding days.
4. Review the combined planning curve and hydraulic estimates below. The same selected date, zone and interpolated parameters drive both the curve and preview.
5. Choose Review & save. Resolve validation issues, inspect the per-zone preview and save the draft. Export JSON for a portable backup or another draft.
6. After adding or archiving zones in setup, use Update zones from setup in the draft planner. This keeps existing active-zone schedules, removes archived assignments and seeds new zones from current settings. Export the old draft first if you need those assignments. Review and save the reconciled draft.
7. Arm plan after the controller reports support. Activation happens at the next eligible local lights-on boundary. Active plans must be disarmed before editing. Disarm transfers control back to manual setpoints at a boundary.

The calendar supports grow days 1–366 per zone, distinct start dates and complete contiguous schedule ranges. Missing/finished/invalid schedules are visible and hold managed zones rather than inventing targets. Each room stores its plan in HA persistent storage with optimistic revision checks. Restart recovery uses the stored plan and controller latch.

Read the combined graph#

• VWC axis: percent substrate water content. P1 target, P2 trigger and the P3 emergency floor come from the selected interpolated profile.
• EC axis: root-zone conductivity in mS/cm. P0/P1/P2 references are distinct from the supply tank's feed EC. There is no independent scheduled P3 EC target: overnight, the dashed EC line interpolates from the last daytime reference to the next morning's. It is not a predicted salt response.
• Morning dryback: relative to the peak. Formula: (peak − current VWC) / peak × 100. A peak of 60% and a dryback target of 10% gives a 54% VWC reference, a drop of six percentage points.
• Phase windows: show configured wait/shot timing where supplied. Approximate layout windows are explained beneath the chart when a parameter is missing. Actual phase transitions depend on sensor conditions.
• The day, phase by phase: the VWC line is drawn the way the controller runs the day. P0 keeps drying after lights-on, P1 climbs one step per shot, P2 fires a shot each time VWC falls to its threshold, and P3 dries down overnight to the next lights-on. Shot timing comes from a dry-down rate: the zone's own measured rate on Today, a stated nominal rate (2 points an hour with lights on, 1 with lights off) where no zone history is available, as on Schedule. The P3 emergency floor stays a separate line. If a P2 threshold sits far under the P1 target, few or no P2 shots project, and the graph says why and names the threshold that would give them.
• Shot size on the graph: each riser assumes the whole shot is retained unless the zone has a learned gain; drainage and actual substrate response can differ. Hover a riser for its time and size.

Change a slider, profile value or supported graph handle and the preview updates immediately. Graph handles edit the selected profile's endpoints as explained in the UI; check shared profile references. Editing the graph does not directly write irrigation hardware.

This is a projection from setpoints and a dry-down rate. It does not predict uptake, runoff or salt balance, and the engine fires on the probe, not on these times. Overview → history separately plots recorded VWC and EC on one timeline using HA Recorder data, with independent units/axes and explicit missing-data states.

See changes while editing manual setpoints#

Open Irrigation plan → Today and select a zone. The daily graph stays beside the phase controls on a wide screen. The saved reference and draft are shown separately: changing the P3 emergency floor moves its line immediately, while the saved line remains for comparison. Changing a mode uses that mode's dryback and EC values. A shared room value is used only when the controller has no zone-specific value.

Graph edits and form edits share one draft. Invalid fields remain visibly invalid; they do not become zero or silently fall back to a different room. Review and apply still controls when values reach Home Assistant. When a schedule owns the room, Today shows its effective targets read-only and hides manual fallback inputs. Use Schedule to edit dated targets.

Compare a run with targets or a previous run#

Use Compare runs for recorded VWC/EC history over a day, week, month, a run so far, or a selected date range. Register each run's name and start/end dates. The run record preserves zone identity, mapped sensors and a timestamped reference configuration. Previous runs align by elapsed grow age so a partial current run is not compared with a complete previous run.

Targets are reference lines, not a claim that those values were used historically. Adding an older run today captures today's reference configuration unless an existing saved reference is available. Historical readings remain limited by Home Assistant Recorder retention. Missing periods stay missing. This view does not change irrigation, arm a plan or fabricate earlier data.

Pot and dripper sizing#

Nominal shot volume = substrate L/plant × plants × shot percent / 100.

Nominal flow = plants × drippers/plant × L/hour/dripper / 3600.

Estimated duration = shot litres / flow litres/second, before the controller's explicit duration cap. Plant count cancels in duration for uniform per-plant irrigation but still determines total water volume. Actual catch tests, hydraulic pressure and sensor calibration remain necessary.

Effective water per plant (mL) = effective runtime seconds × drippers per plant × L/hour per dripper ÷ 3600 × 1000.

Effective zone water (L) = water per plant (mL) × plants ÷ 1000.

For 42 plants with one 4 L/hour dripper each, 120 seconds is about 133 mL/plant and 5.6 L/zone. A 60-second duration limit gives about 67 mL/plant and 2.8 L/zone. The UI shows the requested and effective run time separately. Daily recorded water uses controller estimates; average per plant assumes equal distribution. These values do not measure crop uptake, runoff or unequal emitters.

The P1 maximum-shot budget is conditional. P2 maintenance and P3 emergency shots depend on sensor feedback, so a guaranteed whole-day total cannot be inferred from target values alone. Historical controller totals are preserved; new shot accounting uses effective duration after caps and minimum timing.

Insights provides a local catch-test calculator, probe coverage/freshness diagnostics and an equipment map. These tools expose assumptions instead of claiming to tune a crop automatically.

Current boundaries#

For reusable copies of your own schedules, use Recipe library. It stores named plans in the current browser and room, supports export/import and loads only into the local draft while retaining current zone start dates. See the library guide and reference sources.

Plans steer irrigation targets, not tank dosing or environmental equipment. Legacy manual shot and phase override services may emit events without being consumed by this controller; the workspace does not advertise them as working actuator commands. Closed-loop crop-response learning, measured flow reconciliation and automatic recipe optimisation remain future work. See the feature matrix.