PerpetualNoob
New Member
The wife & I are medical marijuana users and we intend to adhere to all the restrictions of Amendment 20 in Colorado. So we're allowed to keep up to 12 plants, 6 of which can be flowering. Neither of us has ever grown marijuana successfully. I may have pulled a hemp plant out of a ditch in college and proceed to kill it in a make shift hydro setup in my closet. ![Laugh2 :laughtwo: :laughtwo:](/community/styles/420style/smilies/laugh2.gif)
So I have a little experience in how badly things will go if you don't do your homework. I've been lurking here for a few weeks trying to come up with a plan so it goes a little better this time.
Basically we're looking to setup a reliable, low maintenance setup that's capable of producing good yields that comes in under 2000W max power usage. Any advice you guys give would be very appreciated. Thanks for your time.
The room
----------
We're nearing completion on construction of a 10 X 10 grow room in the garage. Ceiling height is about 8 feet. My original plan was to cycle the plants so we are only harvesting two plants a month. This also gives us some leverage to totally botch a crop or two while we figure out what we're doing.
I'd appreciate any feedback or suggestions on this plan before I go shopping for components (hopefully next week). There are still some parts I haven't worked out and other places where what I thought I could do is looking to be less likely.
Grow System
-------------
My original plan was to use a CAP Ebb & Grow system for all the plants. I figured the flowering plants could be placed in pots. I could stick a tray in a grow tent and rig it to run off the same reservoir and control bucket and then I started to investigate nutrient solutions and realized I can't run the plants on the same nutrient solution through their entire life cycle. So scrap that idea.
Would the CAP Ebb & Flow system still be a good choice for the flowering plants? Keep in mind this will only be six plants at a time. The CAP system seems to be designed for larger operations.
I've seen some designs for DIY clone boxes that look like they would work for the cloning and vegging operation. I want to put that in a tent for the separate light cycles.
Lighting
--------
I looked into LEDs for the whole cycle as the garage is detached and I only have 120 w/ a 20 AMP breaker to play with at the moment but they don't look to be quite up to the task yet and the prices are down right shocking.
So I'm thinking a 1,000W HPS for the flowering plants and either CFLS or LEDs for the veg & clone tent. My plans for the veg tent are less developed as the first grow I should have some clones lined up that are already vegged to about 18".
Ventilation
--------------
I'm looking at using 3 400 CFM inline fans. One will be dedicated to cooling the 1,000W light. One will pull fresh air into the room from the outside and the other will exhaust the room through a carbon filter. We're not trying to be absolutely secretive with the operation but at the same time I'd rather my neighbors not hear the garage humming all night or smell what's going on inside.
Is that going to be enough ventilation? My rough calculation of the cubic feet is around 1,000. (The room is slightly larger than 10 X 10) I can get precise measurements if need be. I'm not sure if those fans will be ample circulation. Our temperatures here rarely go much above 90 but I'm not sure how much extra heat that light will bring in.
Will the veg tent need a fan on it? I'm looking into LEDs or CFLs so heat won't be much of an issue but will their be ample airflow for the plants if I just leave a few vents open?
Grow cycle
-----------
3 plants per batch.
So the 1st month we'll take our 3 vegged and ready to grow clones and throw them in the Ebb & Flow. Start the 2nd batch cloning and then they go in the veg box once they root.
2nd month rolls around 3 plants come out of the box and start flowering with the original 3. New clones cut from the existing plants go in the box.
3rd month and we harvest the first batch, pull more clones out of the box, and repeat.
It sounded great at first. Small harvests so we aren't overwhelmed by the trimming job and it gives us a chance to screw up and not be at the mercy of a dispensary until the next harvest. But that doesn't allow for any changes on the nutrients throughout the flowering process. Is that a major problem? I've read about using different nutrients in the last couple weeks of flowering and the like but nutrients is one area I need to study more.
It also doesn't give you an opportunity to break down the Ebb & grow system and clean it out.
Would we be better off planning on running the six plants flowering on the same cycle so they are all at the same stage of development and we could break down and clean up the hydro system between crops?
Thanks again folks. I'm excited for my first grow and I'd really hate to kill another innocent plant. OK, I don't want to kill them before their nice and potent.![Smokin :smokin: :smokin:](/community/styles/420style/smilies/smokin2.gif)
![Laugh2 :laughtwo: :laughtwo:](/community/styles/420style/smilies/laugh2.gif)
So I have a little experience in how badly things will go if you don't do your homework. I've been lurking here for a few weeks trying to come up with a plan so it goes a little better this time.
Basically we're looking to setup a reliable, low maintenance setup that's capable of producing good yields that comes in under 2000W max power usage. Any advice you guys give would be very appreciated. Thanks for your time.
The room
----------
We're nearing completion on construction of a 10 X 10 grow room in the garage. Ceiling height is about 8 feet. My original plan was to cycle the plants so we are only harvesting two plants a month. This also gives us some leverage to totally botch a crop or two while we figure out what we're doing.
I'd appreciate any feedback or suggestions on this plan before I go shopping for components (hopefully next week). There are still some parts I haven't worked out and other places where what I thought I could do is looking to be less likely.
Grow System
-------------
My original plan was to use a CAP Ebb & Grow system for all the plants. I figured the flowering plants could be placed in pots. I could stick a tray in a grow tent and rig it to run off the same reservoir and control bucket and then I started to investigate nutrient solutions and realized I can't run the plants on the same nutrient solution through their entire life cycle. So scrap that idea.
Would the CAP Ebb & Flow system still be a good choice for the flowering plants? Keep in mind this will only be six plants at a time. The CAP system seems to be designed for larger operations.
I've seen some designs for DIY clone boxes that look like they would work for the cloning and vegging operation. I want to put that in a tent for the separate light cycles.
Lighting
--------
I looked into LEDs for the whole cycle as the garage is detached and I only have 120 w/ a 20 AMP breaker to play with at the moment but they don't look to be quite up to the task yet and the prices are down right shocking.
So I'm thinking a 1,000W HPS for the flowering plants and either CFLS or LEDs for the veg & clone tent. My plans for the veg tent are less developed as the first grow I should have some clones lined up that are already vegged to about 18".
Ventilation
--------------
I'm looking at using 3 400 CFM inline fans. One will be dedicated to cooling the 1,000W light. One will pull fresh air into the room from the outside and the other will exhaust the room through a carbon filter. We're not trying to be absolutely secretive with the operation but at the same time I'd rather my neighbors not hear the garage humming all night or smell what's going on inside.
Is that going to be enough ventilation? My rough calculation of the cubic feet is around 1,000. (The room is slightly larger than 10 X 10) I can get precise measurements if need be. I'm not sure if those fans will be ample circulation. Our temperatures here rarely go much above 90 but I'm not sure how much extra heat that light will bring in.
Will the veg tent need a fan on it? I'm looking into LEDs or CFLs so heat won't be much of an issue but will their be ample airflow for the plants if I just leave a few vents open?
Grow cycle
-----------
3 plants per batch.
So the 1st month we'll take our 3 vegged and ready to grow clones and throw them in the Ebb & Flow. Start the 2nd batch cloning and then they go in the veg box once they root.
2nd month rolls around 3 plants come out of the box and start flowering with the original 3. New clones cut from the existing plants go in the box.
3rd month and we harvest the first batch, pull more clones out of the box, and repeat.
It sounded great at first. Small harvests so we aren't overwhelmed by the trimming job and it gives us a chance to screw up and not be at the mercy of a dispensary until the next harvest. But that doesn't allow for any changes on the nutrients throughout the flowering process. Is that a major problem? I've read about using different nutrients in the last couple weeks of flowering and the like but nutrients is one area I need to study more.
It also doesn't give you an opportunity to break down the Ebb & grow system and clean it out.
Would we be better off planning on running the six plants flowering on the same cycle so they are all at the same stage of development and we could break down and clean up the hydro system between crops?
Thanks again folks. I'm excited for my first grow and I'd really hate to kill another innocent plant. OK, I don't want to kill them before their nice and potent.
![Smokin :smokin: :smokin:](/community/styles/420style/smilies/smokin2.gif)