Grow room remodel 4x4 tent 600w

Bought a new house a few months ago and now its grow season. I've been growing for about 10 years, but always in make-shift closets, basements, spare bedrooms. In the new house, there was a nice little 10x10 room in the back of the garage. This room was absolutely gross when we bought the house...totally not suitable for any grow...there was mold on the ceiling from former roof leak, no electrical (though there is electrical in the garage), no heat, no ventilation, no insulation, holes in the walls.

This is the story DIY'ing this room into my perfect custom grow space.

This is what the original state of the room. Drywall was in terrible shape. Notice the mold on the upper right ceiling?? Gross!



First thing was to get electrical to the room. My garage has a 60amp subpanel in it that pretty much only runs a chestfreezer, garage door and some lights. So I installed two 110v outlets (GFCI protected as required by code) on a 20amp breaker, one 220v outlet on its own 20amp breaker to run the ballast, and a 4ft 1000w baseboard heater with thermostat on its own 220v 20amp breaker or heat. All lines were run with 12/2 wire less than 50ft from subpanel.



Next up was repairing sheetrock. I cut out the moldy areas, replaced it, taped and mudded the rest of the room including all the holes etc.







Next was insulation on top of room and side. Installing insulation is unpleasant so didnt' get any picture.

Then painting. Used sealant primer on concrete walls. Caulked gaps between drywall and concrete.

Installed some tough rubber flooring and also got the new 4x4 tent setup.





Next up was ventilation. Put in two 6inch vents...one for direct tent exhaust when needed, and one for air in which will be run by an inline fan hooked up to a thermostat in the tent. When the tent gets too hot, the room intake fan will kick on and cool the room.





Then the drain table. Basically, the design was to make an open deck that can drip onto a tray that drain into a container on the side. I will get a small aquarium pump to suck up drainage from the container so watering cleanup is all reasonably well automated.









Bought and installed new 6inch Blockbuster air cooled hood.







Last up was the ducting and inline fans. Intake is a 6inch fan on a dimmer that will blow air from underneath the plants but above the drip pan. This way air flows from directly under the canopy to the top of the tent, where the outtake is carbon scrubber --> duct --> hood --> duct --> inline fan --> duct then either outside or recirculate heat back into room.





So now all is working great! Just need to start growing some plants now. And for the first time in ten year, I'll be growing legally.

 

I sure hope so! Bought some good genetics...plan is to germinate 4xSoma NYC Diesel, 4xTGA Querkle and 2xMr Nice SSH....all regs so males will be tossed and the best (4 hopefully?) females will be brought to finish in 5 gal smart pots.

 

Got my grow going a couple weeks ago! 2.5 weeks of veg now, probably will go another week, then flip.

Back row are Querkle, middle row are NYC Diesel and front row Mr Nice SSH. All regs. Of the 9 growin now I'd love 4-5 females.

Setup:
4x4x7 tent in an insulated 10x10 room in the back of the garage.
SolisTek digi ballast 240v
600w Digilux bulbs, MH for veg and HPS for flower
6in Blockbuster air cooled hood
6in 425cfm intake and outtake fans on dimmers. Outtake air can either be recycled back into room to retain heat or to an outside vent.
Carbon filter
Dehumidifier keeps RH ~40-50%
For heat, I have a baseboard heater on a thermostat. For cooling, I have a 6in inline fan that can suck cold air from outside when a plug-in thermostat in the tent turns on.
FF Ocean Forest soil with a little extra perlite for better drainage. Fabric pots for sure.
Watering with RO water now. My RO filter was one of the best purchases I ever made for growing. Will start nutes in a couple weeks.

 

Just over 3 weeks veg (23 days).

Thinking of flipping in 3-4 days.

 

After 4 weeks of veg...we flipped to 12/12 and swapped out the MH for HPS. So here we are at day 1 of flower.

Two plants were chopped that I was most certain were males. At this point I have 2 certain SSH females, 1 NYC Diesel female, and the rest are uncertain. I am hoping for one Querkle female at the least. No more than 5 females tho.

 

Day 6 of 12/12

The short one in the back center will likely be chopped.

What will be left are certain females:

2 x Mr Nice SSH
2 x Soma NYC Diesel
1 x TGA Querkle

 

Thanks man.

Had some minor lighting issues the other day. Ballast didn't ignite bulb but did on second try after turning off and back on. Makes it hard to trust now.

Not sure whether issue is the ballast or the bulb as both are brand new this grow. So I got a new hps at the local hydro shop and that fired up fine. Time will tell if I can trust it still or not. Just in case i also ordered a cheap backup ballast to have on hand in so if the issue is the ballast I can send it back for repair and still have light on the plants.

 

Day 10 since flip to 12/12

Back left: Soma NYC Diesel
Back right: TGA Subcool Querkle
Center: Mr Nice SSH
Front left: Mr Nice SSH
Front right: Soma NYC Diesel.

So far the SSH's are growing like beasts. They will take up more than their fair share of the tent...

 

2 weeks of 12/12.

 

Here we are at 5 weeks of flower

Had some nute burn a little bit ago on the SSH's, so I laid off the nutes for a while then they went nute deficient and now just getting things back to a settled equilibrium again. The SSH's are the most finicky plants I've grown in the last 10 years for sure. I sure hope it's worth the extra effort! The two NYC Dielsels have been really flawless so far...very impressed with them. Next grow I'm only doing a single strain.

The whole tent:



SSH;







NYC Diesel;









Querkle:

 

7 weeks of flower

The whole bunch




Querkle







NYC Diesel










Mr Nice SSH