One Controller, Many Crops: How MultiGrow Solves India’s Mixed‑Greenhouse Puzzle
One Controller, Many Crops: How MultiGrow Solves India’s Mixed‑Greenhouse Puzzle
Take a stroll through a modern Indian farm and you’ll spot a genuine mosaic: net‑houses bursting with cucumbers, poly tunnels cranking out capsicum, and an A‑frame hydro bay pumping lettuce for city cafés.
The agronomy varies by structure, and so do the irrigation methods: recirculating nutrient film in one bay, drip‑to‑waste next door, overhead misting in the seedling room.
Until recently, growers had to run three different controllers or skids, juggle spare parts for each, and call three separate support lines when something went wrong. That complexity is exactly why many large sites are moving to Autogrow’s MultiGrow platform: one brain that speaks every irrigation language on the farm.
From Patchwork to Platform
Traditional vendors excel at one discipline, like high‑end drip fertigation, yet stumble when the project also demands pumps for NFT or simple on‑off watering lines.
MultiGrow was built for the Indian reality that greenhouses rarely rely on a single technique.
Its modular output boards let you drive recirculation pumps, inline injectors and basic watering valves from the same chassis. Add sunlight‑ or VPD‑triggered irrigation logic and you eliminate both water waste and the daily walk‑round with a stopwatch.
What That Looks Like on the Ground
A nine‑acre cucumber operation in Hyderabad, Telangana, recently swapped multiple legacy controllers for MultiGrow. Before the change, staff spent five‑plus hours each day tweaking valves and hunting for error codes after power blips.
Post‑install, those checks dropped to an hour. Heat‑stress losses fell from double‑digits to low single digits once vents and pads were linked to live weather data.
Early numbers suggest the controller will pay for itself well before its second summer, largely through labour savings and more consistent crop quality.
Does It Work on Smaller Farms?
If you run fewer than five acres under cover, a simpler unit may suffice.
But once you pass that threshold—or add even one hydro bay—the economics flip quickly.
MultiGrow owners running four hectares often report 18‑ to 24‑month payback; at eight hectares the window can shrink to a single season. Those figures assume a modest 30% reduction in labour devoted to manual valve checks and a 7% bump in marketable yield thanks to fewer stress events.
Five Steps to a Smooth Roll‑Out
Map every structure and note the irrigation style for each.
Record pump capacities, motor voltages and the age of key components.
Verify generator backup and 4G or 5G signal strength.
Work with the Autogrow team to build a phased expansion plan so the controller can grow as you add bays. (We have experts on the ground in India for specific and fast support needs.)
A Simpler Future
Mixed cropping shouldn’t mean mixed‑up control rooms.
One farm, one dashboard and one support line—that’s the promise behind MultiGrow, and it’s proving itself from Maharashtra to Karnataka.
If juggling multiple controllers is stealing hours from your day, it might be time to consolidate. Book a virtual design session with Autogrow South‑Asia and discover how one platform can tame the daily chaos—and start paying for itself before the next harvest.