Aeroponic towers, NFT and ebb & flow racks and a desktop teaching kit — all run by one sheenbot controller that watches water quality, temperature, humidity, light and plant growth around the clock, and turns every reading into the right action.
Four hydroponic systems — from aeroponic towers to a desktop teaching kit — for every space and skill level.
The real product: an automation & AI layer that fuses every sensor into closed-loop decisions — not just dashboards.
Solar and wind charge a battery bank that switches power to pumps, cameras, lights and controllers on demand.
After “Day Zero”, every drop counts. A recirculating hydroponic system uses up to 90% less water than soil, and sheenbot accounts for every millilitre.
Rolling blackouts kill timers and pumps. A battery-backed, automated system rides through outages and resumes the schedule on its own.
Heat waves and erratic seasons wreck open-field crops. A controlled environment — a room, a tunnel or a shaded rack — grows reliably all year, whatever the weather does.
Much local land is depleted or unsuitable. Soil-free growing sidesteps it entirely — even on a rooftop, in a container or a classroom.
Fresh produce is expensive and travels far. Growing on-site near where people live cuts cost, waste and the supply-chain distance.
High youth unemployment meets a STEM gap. The same sheenbot platform teaches coding, IoT and agri-tech skills while it grows food.
Tip: drag the handle on any system to see it bare, then fully planted.
Vertical column that mists nutrient solution directly onto bare roots — the highest yield per square metre, ideal for showcase installations and high-density greens.
Classic shelf-style hydroponics where roots sit in continuously circulated nutrient solution (DWC / NFT) — the reliable workhorse for leafy greens.
Rack beds are periodically flooded with nutrient solution, then drained back to the reservoir — the rhythmic “tide” pulls fresh oxygen to the roots each cycle.
A compact classroom unit that brings the whole platform to a single bench — perfect for teaching sensing, automation and plant science hands-on.
6.10
1.80mS/cm
16.1L
24.6°C
68%
412µmol
Shaded band on pH: the 5.8–6.3 target. EC setpoint 1.8 mS/cm.
Throw something at it
Controller log
Simulated telemetry for illustration — resting values from the sample dashboard; behaviour from the sensor roles below.
Everything lives in the sheenIoT dashboard — open it on a phone or a browser and you have full remote control of your grow system, from your desk or the other side of the country.
The key isn’t any one sensor — it’s the logic that cross-references them. Level alone is just a number; level plus EC, transpiration and the growth curve is what lets sheenIoT + sheenbot decide whether to top up with pure water, dose nutrient, or raise a leak alarm.
Drained solution is never poured straight back — plants feed selectively and roots shed pathogens. sheenbot runs it through a regeneration line first, so “waste” becomes fresh nutrient again.
If you haven’t built the sterilisation and dosing line, route the drain valve to irrigate soil-grown plants — landscaping, trees or potted greens. Soil’s microbial life breaks down root toxins and buffers the nutrient imbalance, so you use 100% of your water safely and at zero cost. The spent, low-EC solution is also ideal for seedlings.
Every tier drains through its own siphon: it charges for about 38 seconds, primes at the standpipe crest, then empties in 17. The cascade travelling down the rack is the physics running — not a timed animation.
Reservoir volume and level, EC, pH, water temperature, dissolved oxygen and riser flow, updated live. Values a model produced are marked apart from values a probe measured, so nobody mistakes one for the other.
Point it at a sheenbot-controlled rack and it renders that rack’s telemetry instead of the simulation. If the board goes offline it says so — it never quietly falls back to a healthy-looking simulation.
Runs in any modern browser. Binding a twin to a live rack needs a sheen.bot account.
LeafyChallenge: Heat spikes EC and scorches leaf tips (tip burn) on hot afternoons.
Strategy: Level-triggered pure-water top-up plus a midday EC setpoint dip keep the solution gentle.
LeafyChallenge: Bolts to seed once the root zone climbs past ~22 °C.
Strategy: Reservoir chiller and DLI-capped lighting hold the canopy cool through summer.
LeafyChallenge: Heavy feeder that pulls potassium faster than other elements, skewing the mix.
Strategy: Separate A/B dosing with a weekly EC reset rebalances the reservoir.
HerbChallenge: Loves warmth, but trapped humidity invites downy mildew.
Strategy: VPD-driven extraction fans and a night-time humidity cap keep leaves dry.
LeafyChallenge: Tiny, fast roots are easy to over- or under-water.
Strategy: Short, frequent ebb-and-flow pulses tuned to the small root mass.
LeafyChallenge: Big leaves attract aphids and demand a steady calcium supply.
Strategy: Camera pest-spotting alerts plus calcium dosing on a growth-stage curve.
FruitingChallenge: Huge transpiration and blossom-end rot when calcium transport stalls.
Strategy: High-frequency irrigation with a stage-ramped EC and a tight Ca:K ratio.
FruitingChallenge: Drinks so fast the reservoir can empty and strand the pump.
Strategy: Dual level sensors trigger auto top-up and a hard dry-run lockout.
FruitingChallenge: Wants a long, warm season; cool wet roots rot it.
Strategy: Root-zone heating plus a dry-back schedule between irrigations.
FruitingChallenge: Iron lockout the moment pH drifts, and warm roots stop fruiting.
Strategy: Tight pH-band dosing and a reservoir chiller hold the sweet spot.
HerbChallenge: Bolts in heat and sulks at any root disturbance.
Strategy: Cool deep-water culture with a rock-steady level — no sudden top-ups.
LeafyChallenge: Inner-leaf tip burn when airflow is low and calcium cannot move.
Strategy: Gentle canopy airflow plus calcium dosing prevent the burn.
LeafyChallenge: A 16-week cycle risks “black heart” from calcium deficiency.
Strategy: Continuous EC logging and steady calcium dosing across the long run.
LeafyChallenge: Shallow roots dry out and stress quickly.
Strategy: Frequent short flood cycles keep the thin root zone constantly moist.
MicrogreenChallenge: A 7-day cycle where high humidity breeds damping-off mould.
Strategy: Humidity and airflow control with clean, UV-treated water stop the rot.
LeafyChallenge: Needs constantly flowing, oxygen-rich water or it stalls.
Strategy: Continuous-flow NFT with a dissolved-oxygen sensor and a flow watchdog.
LeafyChallenge: A long heading cycle and a heavy, pest-prone feeder.
Strategy: Scheduled EC ramps and camera scouting flag trouble early.
HerbChallenge: Aggressive roots clog channels and starve themselves of oxygen.
Strategy: Higher aeration and routine flow-rate checks keep channels clear.
Power flow
Solar (and optional wind) charge the battery bank; sheenbot switches power to each load when it’s needed.
3 plants · 15 W LED · desk-sizedThe Desktop Teaching Kit is sized for a desk or lab bench — perfect for teaching sensing, automation and plant science hands-on. Safe, low-power, ideal for student projects.
All data is graphed on-device and synced to the cloud for classroom analysis, and sheenbot alerts students when something drifts out of range.
Every system runs on the same controller and sensor kit, so a class can start on a desktop and scale up to a full vertical farm without relearning the platform.
The ebb & flow rack’s 3D digital twin opens in a browser tab — no login, no hardware, nothing to install.
A recirculating hydroponic system uses up to 90% less water than soil, and sheenbot accounts for every millilitre. Drained solution is filtered, UV-sterilised and re-dosed before it goes back to the plants — or, without that line, down-cycled onto soil-grown plants so you still use 100% of your water.
Solar and a battery bank (with optional wind) keep pumps, aerators and grow lights running through outages, and the automated schedule resumes on its own. sheenbot switches power to each load only when it’s needed and sheds non-critical loads to cut the bill.
For a classroom bench, the Desktop Teaching Kit (3 plants). For leafy greens at steady volume, the Standard NFT rack (36 plants). For bigger fruiting plants, the Ebb & Flow rack (20 plants). For the most plants in the smallest footprint, an Aeroponic Tower (up to 96). Every system runs on the same sheenbot controller and sensor kit, so you can start small and scale up without relearning the platform — or use the system chooser on this page.
Reservoir level, EC (nutrient strength), pH, water temperature, air temperature and humidity, light (PAR / daily light integral), optionally dissolved oxygen, flow / leaks, and plant growth through a camera. The readings are cross-referenced — level plus EC plus the growth curve decides whether to top up with pure water, dose nutrient or raise a leak alarm.
The pH probe targets roughly 5.8–6.3 for the nutrient solution, and automatic pH-up / pH-down dosing keeps it there so nutrients stay available to the roots.
Yes. Everything lives in the sheenIoT dashboard: open it on a phone or a browser to switch pumps, valves and lights, check water quality and environment readings live, and deploy or edit automation routines over the air — no site visit required.
Yes — the ebb & flow rack has a 3D digital twin that opens in a browser tab with no login, no hardware and nothing to install. The tide, the readings and the controls are the running simulation, not an animation.
It was built for classrooms as much as for growers. The Desktop Teaching Kit brings the whole platform to a single bench, all data is graphed on-device and synced to the cloud for classroom analysis, and the same platform teaches coding, IoT and agri-tech skills while it grows food.
Every package is put together for the site. Tell us your space, your power situation and whether it is for teaching or production, and we’ll put together a hydroponic and energy package that fits — WhatsApp, email or call us.
Hydrobotics.co.za is a trading name of Sheen Technologies (Pty) Ltd, based in Milnerton, Cape Town — the team behind sheenbot and sheenIoT. It is part of Sheen’s smart-farming solutions on sheen.bot.
Tell us your space, your power situation and whether this is for teaching or production — we’ll put together a hydroponic and energy package that fits.
