Re-designed Outdoor Grow Shed

[Oldwomanslipper]

I think I have decided what I'm going to be doing in the grow-shed in my back yard.

The shed is 5' tall, 6' wide and 7 feet long.

I am going to have a mother room, a SoG room and a main-grow room.

In the mother room, I will have 4 26w blue spectrum CFLs. The mother, which I've named Mother Superior, is currently in a 2.5 gallon pot, but will be moved into a 5 gallon bucket when the shed is finished (hopefully April 15th).

In the SoG room, which will be lit by a 150w HPS (and possibly some 2' fluorescent tubes), I am going to use a method I'm calling "Stairway to Heaven". I will have three 8" "steps" which will hold 10 plants each. Every three weeks, the plants will be moved up a step. Meaning after the first 9 weeks, I should be harvesting 10 small plants every 3 weeks.

The main grow room is 6' wide and 5' long. I'll have a 400w HPS running 6 plants in 3 gallon buckets. The 6 plants will be the first clones taken from Mother Superior, and put onto 18/6.

See attached image for better explanation.

If you have any suggestions for my setup, please post them.

[mordgrow]

make your walls out of panda plastic, or the bubble reflective insulator from homedepot /lowes so you save on space.

looks like a good set up, a 2x2 room for SOG and the moms, thats pretty small.

also double your wattage on all lights so you dont regret it later.

start designing your vent system now, you could draw air from underneith the shed and vent it out the top (not sure what the roof line is like, if its peeked vent it right at the peek facing away from anything, a carbon scrubber, a fan, some duct, some intake vents and proper screening should cover you for parts)

[Oldwomanslipper]

The walls are covered with "polyshield" from Home Depot. Basically a piece of insulation wrapped in tin foil.

You think the mother room is too small? All I want her for is clones, I am never planning on flowering her. How much space would you suggest giving her? Also, I've read that a vegging plant only needs ~2,500 lumens. I'm giving her 8,000, which should be more than enough, right?

My venting system (intake, outtake, cooltubes, etc.) will be ran from above the ceiling. The ceiling is actually more than 5' tall, but it is pointed. 5' is the lowest point in the shed. I'll also be using a DIY carbon filter to reduce smell.

[Oldwomanslipper]

So I have decided that it is probably time to change up this plan since the most common source of information I have been handed, is that I need to be upping the wattage. Since I am unable to supply anymore watts to the shed, I will simply be switching to all LED lighting for my plants! I hope to somehow implement LEDs with a SoG, it would be greatly appreciated if anyone could post some links of LED grows outside of TheScientists, who is pretty much my sole guide during all this. Even links to more information on LEDs would be appreciated too, gonna be researching constantly for the next couple days before I finalize my project setup to discover what possible routes I could take with about ~100 watts of LEDs.

[Don Piano]

Skip using the SOG room and make one wall (The far end 2x6) into a mom chamber to house a couple moms and some rooting clones. Light that with 8 26watt CFLs on the moms and 2-26 watt cfls to use on the new cut clones. Then do your SOG larger "Stairway to Heaven" in a 5ftx6ft room lit by 600 watts, And skip doing the big ones. I dig the stairway deal.
any particular reason for the MOMs name?

[Oldwomanslipper]

Haha, as much as I originally loved the idea of implementing the stairway to heaven, studying LEDs constantly for the past 8 hours has left me more confused than when I started. Trying to understand LEDs has just gotten more and more complicated when trying to review them from a growers perspective; however, even through all these complications I think it has only peaked my interest in using them further. While I definitely have a lot of interest in your modification and will probably begin to prepare for getting all the supplies ready for it, I may begin by trying out a smaller section or possibly a separate area, with 4 Mixed Spectrum (25% Blue, 75% Red) Panels for a total of ~60 Watts, along with the use of 4 Full spectrum 26 Watt + CFLS and 2 or more 10.0 UVB lights. Figure use each panel as a 2 week marker running possibly 4 - 6 plants under each one (Since I still lack a fair amount of knowledge in the amount of light I can distribute, not sure on this one) and do a 2 week replacement system as to prevent having to implement another mother just yet. All that I have going on right now though is just different types of scenarios I can formulate in both the use of HID and the use of LEDs, all of which sound to great!. As for the mothers name, it is meant as a trainspotting reference that was sort of spur of the moment. I'll be doing at least another full day of research before I come to any definite conclusions. Thanks for the show of interest and best of luck to you with your grow setup, that I will be keeping probably daily tabs on.

[mordgrow]

I've found that DIY carbon filters are absolutely usless. look into something more proven.

[Oldwomanslipper]

Originally Posted by mordgrow

I've found that DIY carbon filters are absolutely usless. look into something more proven.

Ahaha, yea I've read many things that say they're not all that effective, but truth be told smell was never a really big worry of mine. It only cost me like ~$25 to make and I can at least give it a fair trial if I get my venting all nicely hooked up, but if it does become an issue I will probably look into purchasing a real filter.

[Hempstress]

LEDs absolutely SUCK for flowering.

[Oldwomanslipper]

Do you have anything backing that statement, or are you just saying it?

[Don Piano]

Actually I saw a comparison video of hps vs. led. Led produced smaller buds. The only thing is the weight to power consumption ratio. Led has that trophy hands down, way less power to make a gram. IMHO If you can pull it off powerwise, go with the HPS for flowering

[Oldwomanslipper]

Originally Posted by Don Piano

Actually I saw a comparison video of hps vs. led. Led produced smaller buds. The only thing is the weight to power consumption ratio. Led has that trophy hands down, way less power to make a gram. IMHO If you can pull it off powerwise, go with the HPS for flowering

Or maybe an implementation of both the 400 Watt HPS and 4 LED Panels Angled! We will see, I feel like I have a better idea on the benefits and disadvantages of LEDs, and I agree that without thoroughly reviewing what type of nm bulbs you need and such you can get some piss poor results in flowering. So far the vegging has looked good so they may still have a use yet, but I'm still not sure what design I am gonna try to shoot for with it.

[Don Piano]

I am not knocking leds at all. I was just throwin that out there. no disrespect.
Are you thinking on doing the whole cab in LED? Or are you just doing the mom/ and or the sog cab led?

[Oldwomanslipper]

Currently I only have the SoG planned for the LEDs, which would only eat up about 2.5' x 2.5' of the shed.

[Don Piano]

Thatd be cool I think. I thought you were talking about using that in the whole shed.

Have you thought much about What you're gonna do for venting?

I have a shed in the back and it gets hot hot hot in the summer. Is there much deck clearance? Is there any built in venting in there?