Galavant
420 Member
Hello All.
First time medical grower here gearing up for a basic grow room. If you want any background info on me, check my intro link in my signature. After countless hours of reading and reaserching I have decided I am ready to get my feet wet. Luckily, with the exception of the HID lights and a few select odds and ends, I conveniently have about 85% of the needed equipment on hand due to hobbies and home improvment projects such as reef and salt water fish keeping, gardening, cigar collecting, ect. Some of my list of on hand stuff includes:
100' x 4' roll of mylar radiant barrier
No less than 12x 40w 6500k CFLs
No less than 20x 23w 2700k CFLs
Tons of wire, fixtures, timers, extention cords, surge strips
4x 250gph fountain pumps
Irrigation tubing, PVC pipe, tons of assorted fittings, sprayers and sprinklers
Jiffy seed starter greenhouse with heater
Peat Plugs
2" net pots
A few Assorted flower pots, 1-3 gallon
A few Assorted soils and fetilizers
Rooting powder
A small portable 100 gpd R.O.
Saltwater hydrometer, EC meter, PH meter, Hygrometers and thermometers
Air pumps, line and stones.
PH adjusting chemicals
Fans, air filters, activated carbon
Tons of rough neck and HDX totes
Tons of tools; hand, power, electrical, gardening, wood working, metal working, welding, soldering ect.
Good smoke alarms and fire extinguishers
I have an insulated, air conditioned, and secure approx. 500 sq ft building that we use as storage and as a big dog house. It has a closet, approximately 6' tall, 8' wide, and 3' deep.
Based on my research, space avaliable and on hand materials I think I am going to go with a low pressure aeroponic system utilising a modular SCROG I thought up. Although I have never grown cannabis, I have grown many fine vegetables and flowers in soil. Also, at my peak, I kept 3 reef tanks going, including a 5 gallon nano reef tank. To keep that small of a reef thriving with virtually no water to act as a buffer it took constant attention and delicate water balancing. I think that if I could keep that happy, I will be OK with aero. I will be using 6 sleestack seeds I got for less than $1 each, and a free pound of maxibloom so I am not worried if I fail and have to chalk it up as a learning experience. I have never learned anything by 'easing' into it! I guess I still have the "train as you fight" mentality from the Army.
The closet will just hold 4 home depot 27 gallon totes with a few inches of slop.
Here is what I'm thinking with my 12 plant limit:
A bloom chamber with 3 27gal chambers, 2 plants per container, and 1 27 gallon chamber vegging 3 plants, then a mother in soil, and 2 cuttings cloning in jiffy plugs. Lined with mylar all around. Each reservior completely self contained and independent of one another for redundancy and contamination. The odds of one big pump failing is better that the odds of 3 smaller pumps failing at once. I was going to use an external reservior, but for the sake of redundancy and segregation of the pairs of plants' roots and nutrient solutions, I am going to keep the nutrient solution in the same container as the root mass with an airstone under each plant. If the waterpump or sprayers fail, hopefully the psedo-DWC bubble system will keep them alive. Each pump will be in a filter bag to help prevent sprayer plug without the back pressure caused by an inline filter , and atleast 2 differnt type of sprayer will be used incase one type is prone to plugs or failures. I also intend to rig up float valves fed by a gravity fed tank of nutrient solution to keep the fluid at a predetermined level since with work I may not be able to check on them for up to 3 days at a time. There will probably be an air stone in the gravity tank. ALL holes and componets will be mounted to the lid as to not compromise the basin's integrity. Also i think this will make cleaning the tubs a bit easier if they are not tethered to any tubes or cords. There will be the added benifit of controlled nutrient dosing as the individual pair of plants need it and the abillity to track EC with the only variable being plant uptake. I used this redundancy philosophy on my aquariums. I typically ran a canister filter rated at 3x the tanks requirements, then I would run an additional 2 or 3 smaller in tank or hang on back filters for redundancy. It did cost 40 to 60 bucks more, but saved about $1k worth of coral and fish more than once.
Something I mentioned earlier is the SCROG. I intend to mount a fully adjustable frame equal to the perimeter of the individual tote. I have about a hundered mini bungee cords to fashion the net with. The supports for the screens will be adjustable so the outer two totes' canopies can be angled to the center light in a stadium manner. I then also can pull out each individual pair of plants if needed for pruning or other reason, unlike a single large scrog.
I have an 8 inch duct fan that I will adapt to 6" and hook to a cool tube 1000w hps in the bloom room and a carbon filter that will mount in the chamber devider drawing a bit of stale air from the veg room, but most from the bloom section. The intake will simply be a large vent, low to the ground and sealed with a HEPA filter (The area is very dusty). Since the building is climate controlled, I will just set the thermostat to 72 or so and run the vent fan 24/7 to keep temps stable. The lights in the veg room will predominantly be 6500k cfl for now with a few 2700ks mixed in. Some time I may upgrade to t5s, but the CFLs are "free" and make 70 lumen per watt. My veg chamber should be around 4 sq ft, and the bloom chamber around 14s qft. With with the 1000w hps I should be over 9k lumens per sq ft. I may even add a few hundred watts of cool and warm CFLs for supplemental light.
The main flow once I get a good mother will be:
Take some clones and root in jiffy plugs
Once established take the 3 best, wash away peat moss, and put into net pot to veg for 1/3 of the strain's bloom time, ensure at least 2 new clones are rooting
Move two best plants from veg to bloom, move 2 clones to veg, take 2 new clones.
Continue process until first plant is ready to harves and repeat. Remember to gradually increase EC over time, and flush pre harvest. H2O2 system at harvest.
The major downfall is there is only a 1 plant buffer in veg when a clone fails. However, when cloning works, one vegged plant will get the benefit of double veg time. One possibility is I might just take clones off the veg plants and do away with a mother all together. Then I would have 2 clones rooting and 4 plants in veg, with each getting 6 weeks of growth.
Any comments, concerns or questions are appreciated. Sorry for any typos, Im on a phone. I will edit to better organize and proofread once I am on a desktop.
One question, the bloom room will be approx 3'x6', how should the HPS be orientated relative to the short and long side? Should the length of the bulb be parallel or perpendicular to the long dimension of the grow room?
First time medical grower here gearing up for a basic grow room. If you want any background info on me, check my intro link in my signature. After countless hours of reading and reaserching I have decided I am ready to get my feet wet. Luckily, with the exception of the HID lights and a few select odds and ends, I conveniently have about 85% of the needed equipment on hand due to hobbies and home improvment projects such as reef and salt water fish keeping, gardening, cigar collecting, ect. Some of my list of on hand stuff includes:
100' x 4' roll of mylar radiant barrier
No less than 12x 40w 6500k CFLs
No less than 20x 23w 2700k CFLs
Tons of wire, fixtures, timers, extention cords, surge strips
4x 250gph fountain pumps
Irrigation tubing, PVC pipe, tons of assorted fittings, sprayers and sprinklers
Jiffy seed starter greenhouse with heater
Peat Plugs
2" net pots
A few Assorted flower pots, 1-3 gallon
A few Assorted soils and fetilizers
Rooting powder
A small portable 100 gpd R.O.
Saltwater hydrometer, EC meter, PH meter, Hygrometers and thermometers
Air pumps, line and stones.
PH adjusting chemicals
Fans, air filters, activated carbon
Tons of rough neck and HDX totes
Tons of tools; hand, power, electrical, gardening, wood working, metal working, welding, soldering ect.
Good smoke alarms and fire extinguishers
I have an insulated, air conditioned, and secure approx. 500 sq ft building that we use as storage and as a big dog house. It has a closet, approximately 6' tall, 8' wide, and 3' deep.
Based on my research, space avaliable and on hand materials I think I am going to go with a low pressure aeroponic system utilising a modular SCROG I thought up. Although I have never grown cannabis, I have grown many fine vegetables and flowers in soil. Also, at my peak, I kept 3 reef tanks going, including a 5 gallon nano reef tank. To keep that small of a reef thriving with virtually no water to act as a buffer it took constant attention and delicate water balancing. I think that if I could keep that happy, I will be OK with aero. I will be using 6 sleestack seeds I got for less than $1 each, and a free pound of maxibloom so I am not worried if I fail and have to chalk it up as a learning experience. I have never learned anything by 'easing' into it! I guess I still have the "train as you fight" mentality from the Army.
The closet will just hold 4 home depot 27 gallon totes with a few inches of slop.
Here is what I'm thinking with my 12 plant limit:
A bloom chamber with 3 27gal chambers, 2 plants per container, and 1 27 gallon chamber vegging 3 plants, then a mother in soil, and 2 cuttings cloning in jiffy plugs. Lined with mylar all around. Each reservior completely self contained and independent of one another for redundancy and contamination. The odds of one big pump failing is better that the odds of 3 smaller pumps failing at once. I was going to use an external reservior, but for the sake of redundancy and segregation of the pairs of plants' roots and nutrient solutions, I am going to keep the nutrient solution in the same container as the root mass with an airstone under each plant. If the waterpump or sprayers fail, hopefully the psedo-DWC bubble system will keep them alive. Each pump will be in a filter bag to help prevent sprayer plug without the back pressure caused by an inline filter , and atleast 2 differnt type of sprayer will be used incase one type is prone to plugs or failures. I also intend to rig up float valves fed by a gravity fed tank of nutrient solution to keep the fluid at a predetermined level since with work I may not be able to check on them for up to 3 days at a time. There will probably be an air stone in the gravity tank. ALL holes and componets will be mounted to the lid as to not compromise the basin's integrity. Also i think this will make cleaning the tubs a bit easier if they are not tethered to any tubes or cords. There will be the added benifit of controlled nutrient dosing as the individual pair of plants need it and the abillity to track EC with the only variable being plant uptake. I used this redundancy philosophy on my aquariums. I typically ran a canister filter rated at 3x the tanks requirements, then I would run an additional 2 or 3 smaller in tank or hang on back filters for redundancy. It did cost 40 to 60 bucks more, but saved about $1k worth of coral and fish more than once.
Something I mentioned earlier is the SCROG. I intend to mount a fully adjustable frame equal to the perimeter of the individual tote. I have about a hundered mini bungee cords to fashion the net with. The supports for the screens will be adjustable so the outer two totes' canopies can be angled to the center light in a stadium manner. I then also can pull out each individual pair of plants if needed for pruning or other reason, unlike a single large scrog.
I have an 8 inch duct fan that I will adapt to 6" and hook to a cool tube 1000w hps in the bloom room and a carbon filter that will mount in the chamber devider drawing a bit of stale air from the veg room, but most from the bloom section. The intake will simply be a large vent, low to the ground and sealed with a HEPA filter (The area is very dusty). Since the building is climate controlled, I will just set the thermostat to 72 or so and run the vent fan 24/7 to keep temps stable. The lights in the veg room will predominantly be 6500k cfl for now with a few 2700ks mixed in. Some time I may upgrade to t5s, but the CFLs are "free" and make 70 lumen per watt. My veg chamber should be around 4 sq ft, and the bloom chamber around 14s qft. With with the 1000w hps I should be over 9k lumens per sq ft. I may even add a few hundred watts of cool and warm CFLs for supplemental light.
The main flow once I get a good mother will be:
Take some clones and root in jiffy plugs
Once established take the 3 best, wash away peat moss, and put into net pot to veg for 1/3 of the strain's bloom time, ensure at least 2 new clones are rooting
Move two best plants from veg to bloom, move 2 clones to veg, take 2 new clones.
Continue process until first plant is ready to harves and repeat. Remember to gradually increase EC over time, and flush pre harvest. H2O2 system at harvest.
The major downfall is there is only a 1 plant buffer in veg when a clone fails. However, when cloning works, one vegged plant will get the benefit of double veg time. One possibility is I might just take clones off the veg plants and do away with a mother all together. Then I would have 2 clones rooting and 4 plants in veg, with each getting 6 weeks of growth.
Any comments, concerns or questions are appreciated. Sorry for any typos, Im on a phone. I will edit to better organize and proofread once I am on a desktop.
One question, the bloom room will be approx 3'x6', how should the HPS be orientated relative to the short and long side? Should the length of the bulb be parallel or perpendicular to the long dimension of the grow room?
