i am new to home assistant and automation. i am getting into home automation which brings me to my grow tent which i would like to use esp32 to control. i need to be able to have up to 10 capacitive moisture sensors, 4 temperature humidity sensors, 2 C02 sensors, 1 irrigation pump, 1 float valve, 3 PWM Fans etc.
my problem is undetrstanding what my requirements are for the sensors, etc. as well as what the esp32 board is capable of. i do understand electricity, as i used to be a mechanic and i have reset and addressed control boards for 3d printers. soldering any of that is no issue.
i would like to have each system stand-alone, such as temp humidity would be 1 system, C02 would be another, etc. all controlled through ESPHOME.
So what esp32 boards do i need there are so many versions. or where could i get some good info on the specifics of what can be done?
There was a time when I would have said all esp32 are the same, and the difference is in the development board they are placed on. But now they have s2, s3 and other variants. I would stick to the esp32 simpliciter, rather than a variant.
As for which dev board to buy, don’t go for cheap. They are often made with little quality control by AliExpress sellers against whom you have little comeback.
This thread has some good tips. What's your favourite ESP32 board? (# Best, good, cheap, quality, reliable)
I use a lot of the cheap Aliexpress ESP32 boards, and I suppose you get what you pay for.
If I am doing something where I want reliability and support with a bonus of battery powered options, I use Sparkfun ESP32 Thing boards.
Not cheap, but good…
There are also devices like this https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256803607646336.html?s
Lots of gpios.
ive been using AI to filter down my requirements and came to a ESP32-C6-DEVKITC-1-N8 board. it has thread or zigbee so im reducing my wifi devices. on board ads, newer tech. does anyone have an opinion of these? and with my capacitive moisture sensors it was suggested i us a ADS1115 module to give me accurate readings seeing as im going to be using wifi module. do you think i need the ADS1115
C6 isn’t supported by ESPHOME.
If you think AI is so smart why are you asking here?
Why are you ignoring advice?
im not ignoring advice. im looking at all options of advice to make my choices, as many opinions are better than 1. AI is awsome but is not the end all. a persons word on there experiences actually means more to me than AI.
As for AI it told me the ESP32-C6-DEVKITC-1-N8 board would be a good fit, so that tells you AI doesnt tell all.
is there a good matter thread zigbee board, so i could get off the wifi devices?
Not if you want to use esphome, and unless you want to program in c++, esphome is definitely a recommended solution.
is there a good matter thread zigbee board, so i could get off the wifi devices with mqtt
Really, I think you are overly cautious about wifi.
Looks like your AI is missing the “Intelligence” and choose a esp32 not even supported by esphome 
.
Like @nickrout stated for now the best supported hardware in esphome is still the “classic” esp32. While some newer ones like ESP32-S2/S3/C3/H2 are working they usally have components that are not working (yet?). Like the ESP32-C3 didn’t support I2S/DAC or the media player component when I tried a couple of months ago.
If each of you moisture sensor needs an ADC pin and a esp32 only has a maximum of 7 usable ADC Pins 
* ADC1_CH0 (GPIO 36)
* ADC1_CH1 (GPIO 37)
* ADC1_CH2 (GPIO 38)
* ADC1_CH3 (GPIO 39)
* ADC1_CH4 (GPIO 32)
* ADC1_CH5 (GPIO 33)
* ADC1_CH6 (GPIO 34)
* ADC1_CH7 (GPIO 35)
You indeed need to work’a’round that - good choice indeed is a ads1115. 
You can go with the power of wifi but ditch mqtt and just use the native api 