My First Room, My First Indoor Grow!!!

Day 1
Well, day one of actually getting some materials and getting to work on taking this idea out of my head and into my garage. I'll be taking pictures and posting progress as I go along, and of course I'll looking to the forum members to throw your two cents in and hopefully we'll all learn something along the way. I've got to say I'm a little long in the tooth for my first indoor grow. I'm not new to the scene by any means, smoked my first pipe load of ragweed back in 1977, but for one reason or another, have never had the time, money or opportunity to dive in.
Let me start by telling you I'm west coast, I live in an area that rarely gets over 80 degrees in the summer and most of the time stays in the high 60's to mid 70's.(yeah, even in the summer) I've an area in my garage that I started insulating, and framing in two walls to make a room approximately 10x7x9. I'm going to vent the room but have been told an additional intake fan wouldn't be necessary in this climate and that a couple of good oscillating fans would be enough. I'm thinking two 1000w HPS lamps for between 8 to 12 plants in a room that size should be more than sufficient light. I've got the ceiling height so I'm planning on putting my ladies in some 10 gallon or + pots, top 'em and let 'em get big, so I'm staying with a smaller number of plants this first grow. I'm going to tack up some fir strips and attach some small hooks to the walls to pull the branches outward as they veg, with the hopes of getting light deeper into the plants. I'm using Fox Farm nutes. I know jack about duct work, fans, ventilation and the like, but I'm sure we'll get through it..lol
I'm going to post a couple of pics tonight, nothing exciting yet, just a couple of the area I'll be working with and where I am right now. You'll see the insulation I put up this afternoon to block the light and the sound. I know it's probably overkill, but I'm thinking of sheeting the outer wall (the one with the insulation) with some half inch insulation board, then running Reflectix radiant barrier, instead of visqueen, through out the inside of the room. I know it's more expensive, but it's thicker and offers a bit of noise barrier too.I'll be working on this tomorrow, ordering lights tomorrow night, installing the lights and hoping to have a fully functioning bad-ass little grow room operating in less than two weeks. I'm open to suggestions on just about anything. I've kind of decided to build this room with your advice and take this thread all the way through to first harvest. For the record, this is a legal grow and I'll be staying under the plant limit I'm allowed for my household. So hello and welcome to my journey...

I'm going to tack up some fir strips and attach some small hooks to the walls to pull the branches outward as they veg, with the hopes of getting light deeper into the plants. I'm using Fox Farm nutes.

I know jack about duct work, fans, ventilation and the like, but I'm sure we'll get through it..lol

Lookin good! Sub'd for sure! Im a conractor an i love seeing structures start to finish. Starts out as a drawing and ends up a walmart or something lol. But no one knows all the work it takes to turn that sketch into a walmart or grow room!
Hooks on the walls are a great idea. Are you goint to pull the plants to one direction?

This helped me learn alot about ventilation.

I dont think building an awesome grow room is overkill! What are you doing with the floor? If its cement or concrete your temp reading might not be accurate. If your plants are on the cold floor they lose some heat through the cement/concrete. You should also think about mold resistant sheetrock or gypsym board. I dont have a garage but a few years ago rain made its way in my parents garage an ruined everything that was on the ground.

Dutchie

Thanks for the link Dutchie, I'm starting ventilation duct work today. I'm using 8" insulated ducting, pulled through a GrowOp Ozone 8x24 Carbon Filter, 750 CFM by a 8" Sunleaves WindTunnel, 650cfm that will be plugged into a Mercury 4 fan speed controller. Like I'd mentioned before, it's a VERY rare occurrence that the temperature reaches over 75 80 degrees here, so I'm not putting any glass in front of the bulbs and I'm not going to air cool them. As far as the floor goes, I found that the Reflectix roll out insulation is really easy to work with. A little pricy, but really offers more in the way of sound barrier than I'd originally thought. I was going to just use a white, insulated drop cloth of some sort, but decided to line the floor with the same Reflectix. I'm hoping that should take care of the cold floor issue you mentioned. I'll post pics so you can take a peek. I should have more than enough ventilation and in addition to the carbon filter I found a great little thread on building your own little O.N.A. deodorizing bucket right here http://forum.grassci...=odor control,( if you haven't seen it, it's worth a look) so I think I've covered my bases on odor control. I chose and ordered the lights and ballasts on Monday. I went with 2 Phantom 1000w lights, and the hortilux HPS bulbs. I'll be running the ballasts outside the room of course and the whole package should be here sometime Friday!

Subbed for this. Good choice on the Phantom ballasts. The room looks really good also

Oh wow! That looks like a dutch grow room. I love it!! I see that overlap on the door good thinkin bro. I rele dont think the room would get too too hot. Youre keeping air circulating pretty well. That really helps keep temps down. Is walking on that Reflectix going to damage it?

Thanks very much! This was my first time using the reflectix and I had originally thought by the ads i was looking at that it wasn't very resilient, but I was wrong. I don't see any problems at all with it on the floor, I'm putting my step ladder all over it as I go back and re tape and hang ducting.
Today I got the vent and the backing hung and then took the ducting into the room up to the point where I need to install the fan that's not set to arrive until Friday. At this point, I don't see any reason for this room not to be up spreading sunshine by the end of this weekend. You can see I don't know jack about ducting, but it doesn't seem to be too complicated once you figure out you're going to need a pretty heavy duty pair of shears to cut through that insulated 8" duct, again, thank god for duct tape. I'll post a pic or two from today...

My stuff arrived a day early so I got to work early this morning and just finished up a couple of hours ago. Got the ventilation hooked up first, wasn't bad at all, did it by myself and just took my time. I've never done any kind of duct work before, let alone installing a filter and fan to pull it. When it was all tight, I fired up the fan and was surprised with how quiet it runs, my garage door is less than fifteen feet and behind one door from where I'm sitting now, and it's completely inaudible. Also, the power on this fan was really something, sucked the insulation board from the studs in a couple of places when I turned it on...lol Got those secured, then went about the business of hanging my ballasts..then the lamps. The 1000 adjustable wing phantoms are HUGE, and in my opinion a bit of a pain in the ass to work with, but like I said, I'm no contractor. I got the lights hung, everything hooked up..and blast off..Here's a few pics

Edited by spankinztine, 06 July 2012 - 10:24 AM.
Adding pics

Ok, I'm having some heat issues in the room. The ambient temp outside the room is a steady 70, inside 92, I called a friend, we got together via instant messaging w/pics and he showed me where I was actually ventilating into the same room. I'm doing modifications today, venting through the roof....man, I'm getting into some seriously uncharted territory with this roof cutting, but I figure what the f++k, I've got this much invested and complete, what's an 8" hole in my garage roof? Anyway, like all things, I'm sure the answers will keep revealing. Damn this is fun!

Changing the exhaust location really helped. Ran the lights for hours last night and never got over 82. Working on it some more today, I have fresh air being pulled into the room passively in 2 difference spots. One opening is 6" and one 8" on the other side of the room, and I still have plenty of negative air flow in the room. I'm pretty sure all I have to do now is play with the passive venting to bring those temps down even further. Should be a fun day.

I'm not set to get my clones until sometime next week, they're being looked after by a life long friend. I had told myself I wouldn't put anything living in the room until I understood it's workings a little better and could regulate the temperature more accurately. I think I'm almost there.

QUESTION: Does anyone have a good idea for hiding the light that pokes out of the ingoing vents? I'm got the vents piped and have a little run of flex from the wall, but can still see light coming through...

Edited by spankinztine, 07 July 2012 - 08:31 PM.
question

Got 10 sweet little OG Kush clones in today, the room is running beautifully, been at it all day. Gonna post a couple of pics...and I have a question. You can see in the pic where I've got the lights, are they close enough to the plants? I dimmed the ballast down to 750w for the first couple of days, then I'll run full power the rest of the way. Any constructive input welcomed. Thanks

For plants that young the distance should be fine. With open reflectors like that you won't be able to get them as close to plants as air cooled reflectors can. Every couple of days lower the reflectors a little at a time until you find a comfortable distance that the plants like.

As far as opinions go here's a little of my input. Dimming the lamps is overrated if you have the ability to cool them at full power. Also if you plan on vegging your ladies for a few weeks than you should go with Metal Halide lamps. The bluer spectrum given off by the MH lamps will decrease spacing between nodes and help create more compact, denser growth during veg.

That last part is just my opinion and how I run my indoor grows.

BTW, that setup looks legit. You should be able to grow some beasts.

Thank you bro, much appreciated. I have a couple more things to order this week, and after reading your reply was thinking about picking up a couple of MH 1000 watt bulbs, but am not sure if I would do any harm to the lighting or ballasts. Is it just a simple bulb change with the Phantoms? Does changing the bulbs reduce their lifespan and/or effectiveness? If it's just as simple as changing the bulb then I won't skimp now. Also, I was kind of wondering about running the lights at 75%, after their cycle tonight, I'll reset the ballast to run 100% and just keep it that way.

The room temperature is holding nicely between 79 and 80, and the plants look happy. My next question is going to be about when I should top these babies. i'll continue to update weekly with pics and be looking forward to input from the members.

Wow Spank looking gooooood homie! when we insulate roof drops we usually build board up around it. then cut it so it slopes down..Kinda like a cone around the duct. That way the water never actually gets to the point/seal where you cut the hole.. Ill look for a pic

you should go with Metal Halide lamps. The bluer spectrum given off by the MH lamps will decrease spacing between nodes and help create more compact, denser growth during veg.

Yupp I feel like my plants smile when that MH comes on lmao!
Idk if you got the dual ballast but if not..

Click Me
"I've found either a single metal halide or high pressure sodium light system works nearly as good as a dual system. So if you only have one or the other don't worry, it will work just fine. You can't use a standard hps bulb in a mh fixture, but you can use a mh bulb in a hps fixture of the same wattage. I didn't think this was possible till several months ago when someone I trust told me it was possible. So I decided to try using a 400 watt mh bulb in a 400 watt hps fixture."
Page two has more recent posts lol;) I read up on it awhile ago but ended up getting the dual.

My bad for not keepin up but looks like u are just about set-up!
Dutchie

Thank you bro, much appreciated. I have a couple more things to order this week, and after reading your reply was thinking about picking up a couple of MH 1000 watt bulbs, but am not sure if I would do any harm to the lighting or ballasts. Is it just a simple bulb change with the Phantoms? Does changing the bulbs reduce their lifespan and/or effectiveness? If it's just as simple as changing the bulb then I won't skimp now. Also, I was kind of wondering about running the lights at 75%, after their cycle tonight, I'll reset the ballast to run 100% and just keep it that way.

The Phantoms ballasts are able to run both types of lamps HPS/MH. It is literally just as simple as changing the light and turning on the ballast. The lifetime of the ballast or lamps won't be affected at all. The only thing that will affect your lamps is running higher wattage lamps at lower power levels over long periods of time. People might argue that point but it makes sense.

The room temperature is holding nicely between 79 and 80, and the plants look happy. My next question is going to be about when I should top these babies. i'll continue to update weekly with pics and be looking forward to input from the members.

You can top that at anytime you feel comfortable. The general practice when topping early is to top/FIM after the 3rd to 5th set of true leaves. After that I would do it after every 3rd to 5th node to achieve a shorter bushier plant or whenever a plant is growing way faster than the other to bring everything back to a nice level canopy.

There is a lot of information about topping/FIMming and all other related plant training in the advanced techniques section.

Well I got my 1000w MH bulbs in day before yesterday and switched them out, and after reading for the next day on these phantom dimmable ballasts and talking to a few other folks, decided to dim the ballasts down to 50% for a little while and lower those reflectors. The thought being that the seedlings are small, they can only take in so much light at a time, and I'm not spinning the meter at 1000rpm for now. I'll be changing my bulbs out annually anyway so looking to extend the life the bulb isn't highest priority for me, for now anyway.

On Tuesday the 10th, I brewed up 5 gallons of "boogie brew" organic tea, diluted it with another 5 gallons of water ph balanced to 6 and chlorine free, and gave them a drink. The little gals LOVE the new light and the temperatures are really easy to keep comfortably in the mid 70's most of the day with the new MH. I'm vegging 24-7 light right now and my high and low for yesterday's 24 hour period were 80.2 and 68.4 respectively. I'm documenting temps right now as I have the time to do so and the information I'm gathering is becoming pretty useful when it comes down to planning out the timing on lighting and ventilation schedules and is just generally good to be aware of your environment, although I think this project has brought on something of a hyper-awareness that can be addicting as well as distracting lol. The humidity is ranging in the mid to high 60's pretty consistently over the last week, and being on the coast, I don't see that getting better anytime soon, so I ordered a 30 pint dehumidifier (DDR30E - Danby 30 Pint Portable Energy Star Dehumidifier)yesterday for $159.00 delivered and should get here sometime next week. I'm looking forward to bringing that issue under control soon. For now, it's not a hot humidity, it's actually cold ass fog, mostly in the mornings and during the warmest part of the day the humidity drops down into the high 50's for a few hours.

I ordered a small 2ft t5 bank for a closet area I'm going to use to veg and clone , I also bought a small 24 space cloning machine, I've got some seed on order from attitude and I'll also report on how that goes. Anyway, I took my camera in with me this morning and took a few pics to update..

Edited by spankinztine, 13 July 2012 - 02:54 PM.

Awesome. You really seem to have your shit together.

Does the door to your room only open inwards? If it does you might want to change it to swing out of the room. When those girls get bigger space is going to be a commodity and that door is eating up a lot of area opening into the room like that.

LMAO, I would of never thought of the door only opening inward bro...until of course it was too late. And I thought I had the day off today:) Gonna fix that door issue today...Thanks for the heads up on that, my wife started laughing too, neither of us saw it..thanks again.

Well, thanks again for the door tip, nice to have a different set of eyes looking stuff over. I fixed the door swing and duh, I have a lot more room.

Your welcome, just doing my duty as part of the GC community. Helping my fellow blades succeed makes me feel good.