Help with ideas on grow setup?

[James427]

Hey fellow growers I am looking for some advice on a grow setup in a shed I been starting to slowly build up. First off the shed is a well insulated large shed that is locked and about 12 feet tall at tallest point with small vents. Shed holds god RH and temps and seems to be pretty free of pests. My current setup is a few bagseeds in Fox Farms ocean forest soil and some seedlings in happy frog. Seedlings little over 2 weeks old and first plant in ocean forest is about 46 days old. Right now I have them in the shed in a milliard 3x3x6.1 grow tent with a small centrifugal fan circulating and a 600 watt HPS on 75% power. Temps in the 75-80° range with around 30-40% RH. Right now I have the light on a timer to do 12\12 because I am done waiting for the 46 day old one and don't mind a small yield. Also for the seedlings I know they will be OK because they won't flower until they reach maturity anyways so they will be like very small autos (the females that is). Now the reason why I'm rushing these reggie bagseeds along is because I have some Crop king Feminized White Widows waiting to be termed. But before hand I wanted to do this as an experiment and see if I could poke holes in my setup and add and or change it to get the best environment for my white Widows. Here is what Im planning on doing for the white Widows.

I'm going to have at least 1 (preferably 2) secret jardin or gorilla 4x4x6.5 grow tent for flower as well as my 3x3x6.1 I already have for veg\clones. I'm going to get another light preferably 400-600 watt metal halide for the veg and of course the 600 watt HPS for the flower tent. 2 450CFM 6" fans (1 for veg and 1 for flower) and 6"x12" phresh carbon filters both will be on fan speed controllers. Will be using FFHF cut with 30% perlite for seedlings and FFOF cut with 25-35% perlite. Nutes will be FF trio Grow Big, Tiger Bloom, and Big Bloom. I'm not sure with flowering coming up on my first plant if any other nutes are really needed like FF other nutes or molasses?

So what do you think I will need other than the three base nutes with FF or is it best to watch and add as deficiencies show?

Can you see anything else I should add here to be safe with my Feminized seeds? I know no environment is perfect especially in a tent but I want to make it as close to possible as being my fault if anything goes wrong and not a bad light or missing nutrient or something.

What sized tent or tents would you suggest for 2-4 flowering medium to large (indoors large that is, I know outdoors they can get HUGE)? And how many plants can my 3x3 fit vegging?

And lastly for smell eliminating what sized phresh filter should I get in a 4x4x6.5 filled with very potent flowering plants? Is it possible for a single carbon filter to almost completely eliminate smells in a tent in a shed? It's just people I'm in a area where smells could travel very easy once outside the shed.

So sorry for the book and I know this is a stupid post and is probably a waste of time in some people's eyes but in my location where cannabis is disliked severely I want to be safe and give my babies a healthy environment. Anything other ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Also open to constructive criticism of my grow plan

 

[James427]

BTW was curious is it possible to get away with lst'ing during early flower. Just switched to 12\12 a few days ago and was wondering if it's still safe to lst.

 

[madmarv0525]

If you are in a shed why not clear an area out and make a pvc or wood frame and enclose the area with some panda film or similar it would save some money on tents you could even build a couple rooms one for veg one for flower and spend the money you save on lighting or environmental control just an idea and lst is fine in the beginning of flower you just don't want to cause too much stress.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Well total height of the grow tent is always going to be the question on how big you can grow you plants plus width/depth etc

Once you factor in pot size, hood size & safe hanging distance from bulb to plant canopy level & expected stretch perhaps double or triple the size of vegged plant once flowered will give you an idea on how big you can grow them !

I might avoid larger growing strains as it may test the best off us if wanting to grow a bush type of plant.

Small to medium sized strains are more likely a safer bet.

For a bush type plant veg for around 6 to 8 weeks from sprout & in good conditions you may expect a plant of some 12 to 18 inches tall by then, once flipped to 12/12 expect stretch for the first few weeks where the plants will gain size.


MH ah well cfl, T5 tubes etc of 6500k light spectrum (blue) are quite effective for germination & vegging plants with suitable results more likely getting away with less wattage than a MH bulb.


I use a 3 by 3 by 7 tent normally growing bush type of plants 4 at a time to which i may get away with most of the times... some strains grow like xmas trees which are pretty cool for the space some others are more bushy & can test the limits of you area

Ideally for bush plants you may need about 2 foot of space per plant for comfortable conditions & 4 by 4 tents are ideal.

 

[Graytail]

I have a little concern over how you're going to go about venting the heat. If you're going to put multiple tents in your shed, you're going to need to think about the temperature of your intake air. Simply running inside air through the tents will warm up the entire shed - you'll either need A/C for the shed, or you'll need to bring in cool outside air. Your question about the filter sounds like you've already realized this. So you want a filter big enough to handle multiple tents and you probably want to filter your intake air too, to keep bugs and other stuff out of the shed. Look at a 6" to 8" fan and filter and don't cheap-out on either of them. Get a known centrifugal fan and a beefy filter. The filter will take out almost all of the odor until they get completely stinky - then you can cover the rest pretty easily with air fresheners/deodorizers. Some years ago I had a neighbor who seemed to be running his clothes dryer all the time - like every day - you could see the air blowing from the outside vent and it smelled like laundry.

For size requirements, think 2-4 square feet for each flowering plant. I typically have 6-8 blooming plants in a 4x4 and get about a pound out of it. Generally, vegging space needs to be about half the size of the bloom space.

You can easily LST in the first couple weeks after the flip, but it will slow bud growth after that.

You're off to a good start so far!

 

[James427]

Thanks for the advice. I would love to build my own separate room or rooms in a part of the shed because that would be a lot cheaper. The problem is my shed is a bit of a pita to work with because there's a loft about 62" from the right hand wall that makes the ceiling height only 75" tall. And if I get a 4x4x6.5 I can fit it right into the area before the loft starts. Plus there's a vent by the top of the wall near the roof I can use.

Fuzzy duck I definitely see what you mean. So for instance like the Feminized White Widows under the 600 watt hps in a 6.5ft tall may only be able to safely grow 3.5-4ft from the bulb pulled all the way up. Would likely get very bushy though with all the training needed I imagine. The first plant I have is quite small though about 7 weeks from sprout and is only like 8" tall or so it still hasn't even come close to filling out the 1.2 gallon pot it's in

Graytail I'm already seeing that happen with just one 600 watt hps. My shed will get into the 80s real fast meaning my poor plants are in sweltering 90° heat in these tents. So I'm thinking I may use another fan and duct with a intake filter to intake air through vents the shed has near the root. The AC is a great idea though I'm actually glad you reminded me of that because it can hot outside In the summer around me. Hot enough to be intaking upper 90s from outside at times. So im most likely gonna need an ac. But do ac's cauase any humidity problems like molding and mildew on buds from excess RH?

Otherwise on my first plant Lots of growth between nodes but I'm noticing the growth is deformed like 3 finger leaves with one small twisted finger and some five finger leaves with all different sized fingers on the leaves? Guess it's a bit of a freak but I can't help but feel like it's a pH or huge problem. I did just give it its first very light nutrient feeding in this soil (FFOF) because for a while it was actually a bit nitrogen toxic with water only. So I used FF liquid nutrient trio 1\4 tsp grow big 1\4 tsp tiger Bloom and 1\2 tsp of big bloom. Also added 1ml of calmag. Total ppm was 295. Reason why light is because if it's roots haven't even filled this 1 gallon pot yet I don't think it's actually ready for full strength or any where near. PH of the distilled water I used was 4.4 so I had to use pH up bring it to 6.7 and fed. Now the runoff pH was 5.2! I'm gonna recalibrate my pH meter but if my runoff is still this low I'm gonna have to do a flush and I will likely know why. I have been watering with distilled water for a little over a week now. That distilled waters ph is usually below 6.0 sometimes even below 5.0. Is it likely I made a mistake by not ph joint my distilled water when reading so acidic? It's just I read a lot of people see crazy ph problems in the FFOF soil and recommend not ph'ing water until adding nutes? Guess I'll have to see. Again thanks for all the advice I'll keep updated on my grow.

 

[madmarv0525]

Use under the loft for veg and in front for flower run the panda down a truss or a rafter to seal out light 1st then build your frame and put panda around good to go

 

[Graytail]

Yeah, intake air in the 80s won't work.

Actually, A/C will remove humidity from the intake air, and the condensation runoff is perfect low ppm water - win/win.

 

[James427]

Use under the loft for veg and in front for flower run the panda down a truss or a rafter to seal out light 1st then build your frame and put panda around good to go

Yeah, intake air in the 80s won't work.

Actually, A/C will remove humidity from the intake air, and the condensation runoff is perfect low ppm water - win/win.

Thanks for the suggestions and ideas. I'm definitely gonna need some sort of ad because the heat from that light even on 50% power builds up really fast. So I ended up moving again now into my room. I have a large room plenty big enough for my 3x3 and even 1 4x4 once I get it. Reason for the move was because of nosey neighbors who live plenty close enough. My shed I was using is literally 5 feet from there shed. Very close together. So for now am using my room to be safe until I know what kind of people really live around us. I would definitely have to exhaust heat outside with how hot that shed gets and if any smells get out my sheds right next to someone else's house. Just to risky for me. In my house we have central air to keep to temps well regulated to a win win for me. As for the first plant it unfortunately turned out to be a male.mit has male pre flowers all over it so I have to cut it.

 

[Graytail]

Sorry to hear about the male. My first plant, after many years of not growing, was a male - kinda takes the wind out of a person's sails.

But it's good to hear you moved the tent inside - gives you time to figure out what you need.

 

[James427]

It definitely sucks but if was a good learning experience. Also my other seedlings are at 23 days and I'm gonna need to transplant them. Just started a light nutrient feeding but being how small they are in solo cups transplanting them into FF ocean forrest !ay cause burns with feeding since I have heard it's a hot soil. How long should I wait after transplant to try feeding again?

 

[Specialists]

I think heat will be your enemy here. Think about if you exhaust all the 60 deg air the A/C makes in 5 to 10 minutes, its going to have to constantly run to make more... maybe cool the lights as best you can with intake and exhaust ducting, then exhaust the air from the tents at a slower rate as to keep temps down... you only need to exchange the air in the tents a few times a minute... if you have a whole shed of cool air to feed them, maybe you'll be all right...