Grow room set up

What are your goals with this room? How much do you wish to be able to produce? Are you planning on going with soil?

 

Are you wanting to have a perpetual harvest or grow in runs? Hydro or soil? Is the room already walled? Is it connected to your central A/C? Stealth grow or legal state/country? Autoflowers or photoperiod? There’s a lot of variables and you could definitely spend the 5k wrong if you don’t have a clear plan of what you want to accomplish

 

Wall in the 4th wall (not hard, you could go temporary or even just add another wall in if you know house framing)
Fans, filters, and ducting
Lights
Wiring and timers
Pots/grow containers, soil, and nutrients
Seeds
Wall covering (probably just go with flat white paint on a space that large)

That should be a basic checklist. I’m not sure on your environment but with a room that size you’ll probably need a dehumidifier at the least and a small a/c unit at most. Since you’re doing a stealth grow you’re going to want a lot of carbon filter to keep smell down.

That’s a pretty big space you have to work with. Have you grown on that large of a scale before?

 

Not trying to come off blunt my man, just trying to get a scope on your space and your own experience. I could spend $5k in a space like that pretty easily. Between lighting, air flow, and grow space upgrades/needs you could spend that money and still need stuff.

 

Quantum Boards and A/C Infinity fans

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Just a suggestion, but consider running 2-3 dedicated electrical circuits to the space before anything is purchased or goes in. That way you can have an electrician come in and handle it (Unless you are experienced with doing electrical work that is) and not worry about them knowing what you're doing. A smart one might guess but you can always say you're setting up a workshop or something.

I agree with TexasTiger, make a 4th wall and it can be as simple as a 2x3/2x4 frame with panda film over it and one of those stick on plastic zipper doors you can buy online. Either that or set yourself up a 10x10 tent along one side and give yourself 1 foot in back and 3ft down one side to get to it. Might be a little snug and while easier than making a wall and painting the other ones it may end up being more of a pain in the ass and would cost more. Or multiple smaller tents if you prefer.

Definitely get your exhaust/ac/dehumidifier setup first and figure out where all that's going to hook up and go from there. Nothing else matters if you can't keep your environment in a decent growing range and if it's stealth don't skimp on the carbon filter (You can DIY this but either way bought or DIY make sure it's a big one and probably an 8" exhaust fan at minimum for that space).

Personally I am an advocate for LED fixtures using the Samsung LM301 series (Such as HLG, SpiderFarmer, etc etc.) but there are many choices out there both LED and HID. I suggest staying away from HPS since you have a decent budget. I would also suggest starting off in a smallish area of that room say a 4x4 area with 2-4 plants in it and one light, and once you get a grow down expand from there. It makes it harder to learn if you are trying to balance a bunch of plants under multiple lights, plus after your first grow cycle or two you may want to try other methods of growing besides the old tried and true dirt in a pot so having area to experiment and grow is good also.

I like growing soil with automated sub-irrigation but mostly because I am away so often I need a system I can leave alone for weeks at a time. If you're there taking care of it every day the sky's the limits as to how you want to grow.

 

An activated carbon/charcoal filter is what is meant when people discuss a "Carbon filter" in growing. You use it with an in-line exhaust fan so that all smell is eliminated from the air being exhausted out of the space.




I prefer to set them up on the suction side of the exhaust fan (Pics 1 and 2) so there is no worry about a leaking piece of ducting on the outside of the grow space stinking up the place.

Cobs are also a great option and you can pack some serious power into a smaller area with them vs QB lighting. Just make sure you have adequate heat-sinks on them.

Soil is usually recommended for beginners because it takes longer for mistakes to kill a plant in soil, it acts like a buffer that slows down changes you make so you can't accidentally kill the plant in a matter of a minutes or hours like you can in hydro.

Personally I'm now doing a hybrid soil/dwc but I started out my indoor growing in soil with fabric pots hand watered like normal, then moved to sub-irrigation to provide my fabric pots with water 24/7 and then from there added reservoirs, pumps and all kinds of stuff to make everything automated.

If you do a lot of reading and pay close attention to your pH and PPM, you could start off with hydro if that's what you really want to do. Hempy buckets or bubble buckets are probably the simplest hydro setups to get into.

 

I would suggest staying away from the cheap fixtures that are a combo of blurple and cob. If you want good quailty pre-built maybe take a look at Timber lights, they make some killer setups. You can do it for cheaper if you build them yourself but that's a whole different line of conversation.
I think HLG makes some single cob fixtures designed to cover 3x3 areas as well.
Alternatively you can do something like the Rapid LED 72 Cob fixtures that are an all-in-one little unit you can hang several of in whatever pattern you choose.

I'm sure there are some COB enthusiasts on here who can provide many more good options.

 

If you use any decent LED fixtures you're gonna spend at least 600-800 per light for any decent cob/DIY setup. By decent I mean LED's whose light to heat ratio is on par or better than HPS systems. I second the above poster who said no Blurples. Since the light/heat ratio is the same or worse than DE HPS systems. Im currently running 4 Cree 3070s on my ladies and they're loving it even thought they are 4yr old lights. With 2 DIYChill-led kits on the way. All 6 were purchased for about 700-800 a piece. Its worth it for the reduced heat alone but you're gonna pay for them. Add in a 1ton portable A/C dehuey for about 500-800 depending on your area and for even a 2 light setup you're already at 2k+ before Carbon filters and veg area/cloning setup. You can do it but you're definitely gonna be stretching you're budget so be careful on who and what you're handing your money to. Add in 15% extra costs for mistakes that we all make as well just to be safe(I definitely did). Hopefully this helps GL growing man.

 

With a $5000 budget depending on how much you want to grow I would say do the same thing I am doing in the same sized Room which is a 4' organic bed with a fluence spydr 2i light. I have two supplemental H LG 135s To increase my flower area to 6 by 4 and should be able to produce 9 or 10 pounds a year with that set up Of organic happiness

 

invest in cooling and exhuast, then genetics, then lights, then soil/nutes

 

Coco is very easy and forgiving. Have you looked at cmh lights.