Hey folks... Just thought i'd post up some info and pics on my latest setup It's completely DIY, my room is made of ply and a combo of 4x4 and 2x4 Pine planks which I scored from work. I wasn't even going to get back into growing since quiting a few years back due to lack of time. My old room was quite large and got out of control a few times and the two other folks i was in on it with were doing sweet fuq all but reaping the rewards. Anyway, we get all these crates in at work and i figured I had to do something with all the wood since we were throwing most of it out. What better way than to make a room out of it. And this time spend the tine to do everything right from the get-go to save on fixing stuff later on. It's taken me a while between work and a newborn bubba, and a total lack of funds from both the bubba and two houses on minimum wage. So yeah it's completely DIY and I must add i'd never really built anything out of wood before till i started this job, since then ive built about 3 tables and two book shelves lol.
So yeah, I started off with the roof and floor with Ply cut to size and then lengths of 2x4 screwed in around the border of the Ply. next up Screwed in 5 lengths of 4x4 to the floor, one in each corner and one for the door way. Then placed the roof cap on, followed by screwing up all the walls and door. I used 6" nails on the 4x4 planks and 3" screws when screwing the pine onto the 2x4, and I used plenty of em. Oh yeah, best thing about all these ply walls is that they were lined with plastic already which will help with moisture i guess.
Once all the walls and side were up I had to fill all the gaps so that no light, air or bugs could pass through, thus making it completely sealed. This proved harder than I thought and being a crazy arsed perfectionist was doing my head in. Once I thought i had it pretty good I put 2x 1000w lights in the room and checked it in the dark for any leaks, there were plenty, so off i went again (working in pitch darkness) with more gap fill. Gap Fill
Oh yeah I cut out holes for two centrifugal fans to be mounted in the roof and wall too... To connect both ducts up to the walls for the inlet and outlet I used new garden Pots cut to the correct depth and screwed/siliconed into the walls... Now this is totally DIY and i recon i could have gone about it better looking back but for the $2 it cost me i am pretty happy with... (EDIT I couldn't a big enough pot for the exhaust so ended up buying a steel duct starter for $6 and it's worked a treat) Now's time for the hardware... I was lucky enough to mention to a bloke i work with that I was interested in this kinda stuff and he said he had a complete setup at home which he got from a mate, who got from a mate kinda deal and needed to pass it on, so for a very small price I picked up about 8x 400w HPS kits, 2x1000w MH Kits and 4x600w HPS kits, a 315mm RUK Fan complete with Carbon Filter and Baffle, an assortment of Pots, Pumps, fittings, hose, air bubblers, Truncheon and PH pen a whole roll of Panda Film and heaps of little odds and ends. Lucky me Anyway, here's some complete shots of the room...
This is basically where I am up to at the moment, I have 5 seedlings in there just growing them up to do some clones from soon and need to get a few more things (Thermostat/Fan Speed controller). Any questions, and importantly thoughts/criticisms please feel free to speak up.
Sweet start man. I wish you posted prior to the construction phase - I could've drawn up some plans for you. I spent many many years in the construction industry and have had my hands on everything from carpentry to electrical work - I would've been all over this. If you run into any other issues, let me know. I'm new to growing, but I'm pretty damn good at building/engineering, and generally solving problems. Good luck!
Hey Thanks Mr Smoke. The hardest thing I came across was getting the door to seal up properly with a proper latch, I have temporarily fixed it though... By screwing it shut each time I close it lol. That's about the only problem I had, I recon i musta fluked it
Hey, just noticed - you're running a fan on the intake and exhaust. Make sure the one on the exhaust is more powerful. Thing is, you want the exhaust moving all the air through that carbon filter and creating a vacuum inside that box. If you have higher pressure going in than out, you'll have smell escaping. Honestly, you may be able to remove that intake fan all together if the exhaust fan is strong enough.
Yeah mate, turbo fans on intake and exhaust... and yes the exhaust fan is a pretty large mutha... I'm actually getting fan speed controller for both intake and exhaust as they are way too powerful for the size of room. The intake fan is what i was actually gonna use for the exhaust but got an offer I couldn't refuse on everything including the carbon filter and baffle. I'm lucky, all up on this setup I think i've spent no more than $200 And what you said about it needing to create a vacuum, it does just that, and actually pulls so much air through the intake that the intake fan sounds like it's on even though it's not. The only reason I would keep it there instead if getting rid of it is to create circulation, so I won't need an oscillating fan. It does get quite hot here during summer too so I may end up needing it then too.
Awesome that your creating a vacuum in there. Again, the extra fan is doing less than you think. If your pulling say, 500 CFM out, then 500 CFM has to come in from somewhere (through the intake if its completely airtight). Now if the intake fan is off, you're just creating resistance as its pulling air in. If you turn it on, you'll still get no more than 500CMF of air moving in. Air will always move from high pressure to low pressure. If you have a vacuum inside, air outside will be flowing inside whether you have a fan on the intake or not. For inside circulation you'll have a more efficient use of electricity if you just had a big ass fan inside the box moving air around. The only time that you need to move air on intake and exhaust would be on really large systems where there is a larger volume of air inside.
Sweet set up. I am doing the DIY thing myself so it is always really cool when I see other growers getting in touch with their inner handyman. Subd
Thanks MM... Yeah DIY is the only way to go, especially in my neck of the woods. Only one hydro shop for like 100 miles and they are so damn expensive. My only other option was a grow tent smaller than my room for $800. No way!!! Much more fun and rewarding building something from scratch. I'll have to check out yr journal now.
Thought I should update on the actual size of the room... It's 2.6mLx1.4mWx2.2mH, much about a third of the size of my old room but with a bigger exhaust setup. Not sure if that's good or bad. Just wish these seedling would hurry up so i can clone em and flower em.
OK Folks, I havent posted in like 3 or 4 weeks so i've got a bit of an update... everything is going well, had a few hurdles here n there including my shed and grow space getting flooded out in a storm that dropped 100ml (4 inches) of rain in a couple of hours. Until then i never thought i'd see my shed floor an inch under water. Oh well, i think it actually helped with the humidity in my room. So yeah, plants going well, taken 5 clones from the 5 different plants in order to sex the plants and choose a suitable mother. Clones haven't rooted yet but 3 of my plants are already showing female pre-flowers, and they are the 3 which were growing slower than the other two but all have good internode spacing. I have heard males grow kinda spindly and in this case it seems to be true. The five plants vegging away are showing massive roots, all coming out into the saucer under each pot... i'm up in arms whether to transplant into my 40" pots or leave them in the pots and flower them. I know the answer, i definitely need to transplant, but i am waiting to find out what ones are definitely female. My room is only built for 3 large plants so it kinda works that i have three females to flower WHAT DO YOU ALL THINK I SHOULD DO? transplant the three that i know for sure are female and scrap the ones which aren't showing preflowers or should I just wait for the clones to root and flower three of them and then cut back the best female and keep her as a mum in the mum room??????? Decisions decisions.... Also, two of the plants are showing spots/blotches on the leaves kinda looking like bleaching. I'm not too fussed as i am pretty sure it's where i have splashed my nutes containing h2o2 on them. But not sure, if anyone can confirm this or offer something else that would be great (see pic).
Welcome back! Those spots def look like nute splash. And yes, transplant those suckas! The roots on my hydro plant went bananas when I flipped to flower, so if she is rootbound now I can only imagine the damage that could be done...
Yeah cool. I was thinking about it after I posted and I am going to transplant the 3 known females today and then stick the other two in the mother room and flower them under my 125w CFL. I checked all my clones last night too, 24 out 25 have rooted with the 25th looking a little sad so i binned it.
SHIT... Don't ya just hate good luck? Hahaha... another plant ID'd as being female today, so that's 4 out of 5, now i'm wondering whether I bought fem'd seeds or not. Don't think I did, but memory is hazy at the straightest of times. I've just spent about 4 hours out in my shed doing a few bits n pieces to my room, including cleaning and organising it a little better. Swapped my temporary "run to waste"/saucer setup with my little pots (put all 5 plants in my mother room) and decked out my main room with my satellite/drip system for 3 plants, i toyed with the idea of running 4 plants and if I had smalled pots I would have but my 3 pots are like 50" in size, approx 60 liter pots, as I usually grow fewer plants but make em big. So looks like i'm either gonna hafta choose my best 3 and put one out side or just keep the 4th one as a mum. Not really the way to go but i just cant seem to come to a sensible decision. I'm currently conditioning the rock wool in the big pots with a solution of H2O2 and Superthrive, PH adjusted to around 5. Leave the pump on for a day or so then get transplanting.
Time for yet another update. After setting up my room and conditioning the Grodan for a few hours today I transplanted my top 3 plants into my big pots and put em into the recirculating satellite system. Gee isn't that a harrowing experience. Thought I was gonna kill em. But all good now, only one casualty branch. All the roots were looking mega healthy and best of all not root bound at all, but almost getting that way. Check out my pic of the pistils forming too, 4/5 not bad for non fem'd seeds. And the pic of my mother's room with the left over male and female plants, dunno what i'm gonna do with em, maybe a gorilla bush grow for seeds hahaha... wild white widow plantation haha