I currently have a 2x4x5 tent in an unfinished, unheated basement. I am planning to build a proper grow room, but my mind is racing between a trillion ideas. My legal limit is 5 plants and I have zero intention of growing more than that at any given time. At least one of those plants will be outdoors, so I need to build a grow room (or 2) in my basement for 4 plants. I am torn on whether I want a separate veg/flower room (2 and 2) or just start with a single room to finish off the 2 plants I have started now then worry about making it more complicated with 2 stages at once later. Ultimately, i'd like to be able to have two sets of plants going in a somewhat perpetual cycle, but that may be more than I can handle. At the very minimum, I need to enclose the space around my tent because a) it is a pain in the fucking ass to control the temp of such a small space and b) y home office is in my basement so I either need to build a grow room or an office and it would be easier to build a grow room because when I the main lightswitch. I would seriously consider just throwing up some walls with plywood to surround the tent with enough room outside the tent to have my humidifier, heater and exhaust but I also want to future proof it as much as possible for when I maybe finish the rest of my basement (just moved into my first house July last year). I also want to maximize my space with regard to potential canopy size vs how much light I need to buy. I don't want to buy lights for a 2x2 space if I need enough for 4x4, savvy? So, grass city, what are your thoughts? I am open to what materials to use (drywall vs just plywood vs mylar backed polystyrene), to how to best use existing components without needing to create two independent environments for the two stages all the way to dimensional layout of the individual partitions.
My first thought is "just use the tent for veg". Problem solved. I veged 4 in a 2x4. It was a little tight, but they were fine. Then you can move them to your room for the flip and let them get huge! Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
I had that thought too and is the closest I came to on a compromise (with myself). After all, i am vegging two plants fine as is with no room. I could just create a flower room that is taller which will accommodate the expected growth and reuse the tent as is for the next two.
To circle back on this, my concern is the need to moderate 2 independent environments without significantly increasing power consumption. However, my rookie assumption is that, should I opt to start by building a "flower room", I probably won't need to add heat and humidity since my basement ambient is ~62%/~59f. A well insulated flower room will need dehumidified and the temp will increase enough due to the lights, hopefully. My main concern is making sure I maximize the space as much as possible. That said, it is proving to be pretty hard to maintain the environment in the tent as is. I have had to severely limit the exhaust of my tent, resorting to having a small clip on fan facing at an angle of the upper exhaust port (intake being passive). If I exhaust any more than that, RH drops to the 40's even with the humidifier running full blast. I disconnected my big ass 6" inline fan because I could never run it anyways and the ducting was just collecting condensation. It is because of this that I am equally inclined to just build an individual grow room that will work both ways, then worry about separate environments down the road. I guess I'm just throwing out ideas to see what sticks. sometimes I get inside my own head and it's not until I communicate my thoughts that I can see their flaws. in fact, it's a common occurrence that I get these great highdeas and run to my wife and tell her, only to stop mid-thought or mid-sentence and realize it's not at all that great of an idea or I left out a critical piece of data.
This is just my opinion, but I think guys get a little crazy about humidity. I used a humidifier on and off during my grow, but mostly off and my RH has always kinda hung around 38-45 in the tent. I got sick of filling the humidifier and my plants were dense so, where leaves touched, water would condense. So I was kinda thinking I didn't really care for the higher humidity anyway. I've never noticed any difference in how my plants grow at 40% or 60%. As long as it's not crazy dry, I wouldn't get too worked up about it. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
Yea, it's definitely something that doesn't seem to have a consensus on, that's for sure. Do I think you can get good results not being as strict? Absolutely. People have been growing the shit in unventilated closets or breezy garages and sheds just fine for decades. However, plenty of commercial and or big name grow ops are adamant about following the VPD chart and it seems that they have great results because of it. I just want to take as many variables out of the equation as possible so when I inevitably ask for help because my plant looks like ass or is producing shit flowers, it hopefully won't be because of the environment I've placed them in.
they are trying to wrestle a much bigger beast (and trying to make money) so i think for them, vpd is worth controlling and ultimately easier to target when youre running a full commercial room, often "sealed" in a way. running a few plants in a house... i mean, you might see a redux in like 15 grams a plant. but to them, thats like 15000 grams per harvest know what i mean? basicaly, i dont know if its worth youre time (and money) to really target vpd in a small numbered setup.
just my $.02 but maybe an idea or two in here for you to think about and consider. since you already know you have no intention of more than 5 plants, four of which will be indoors, you only have to be concerned over a relatively small area of space. you can easily grow 4 plants in a 2x4 tent. I have 2x4 tents and have grown ranging from 2 plants to currently I have 6 plants in there. Even if you wanted to go larger, 4x4 would be about the largest you would really need - if you decided you even needed it although since I do grow in a 2x 4 I will say having the space of a 4x4 would be nice - but than I'd be tempted to increase my plant count. if you can resist increasing your plant count LOL than the larger 4x4 would be nice, but I'd consider than a future upgrade, not a necessity. consider growing auto's. a few benefits to autos is that you can run them on a 24/0 lighting schedule which makes seeing up your environment a lot easier since you won't have to worry about the typical "lights off" temp drop, especially in a basement which can have much lower ambient temps. I think it's easier to keep temps and /RH stable in a basement with constant lighting. the environment stays nice and stable, and much easier to control in a small 2x4 tent or any size area really, but the smaller the area the easier of course additionally, with autos you don't need separate veg and flowering spaces, they can all go start to finish in the same room, seed to harvest, no matter when any plant starts or finishes. that means easy to set up perpetual grows in just the one room or tent. just stagger your plant times and plants fish when they are done and just start a new plant immediately in it's spot. without having to follow a 12/12 schedule you can run from seedlings all the way to harvest all together at all stages Also much easier to deal with odor control if that's a factor for you in a smaller space rather than a larger space, or multiple spaces. Even if you went to a 20/4 or a 24/0 if you wanted to enclose an area in your basement it would always be a good thing. it would help keep the area cleaner so your incoming air into the tent will also be cleaner. and the better the ambient environment the easier it is to control the tent environment (or whatever growing area). If you need a home office, why not just build out for your office, and just allow an extra 10-12sf of space as part of your build-out. It could simply look like a set of closet doors for your office but it's a nice grow room, or easiest, a clean room to put your tent in. either way you can get fresh air in and exhaust out. more than anything else it's how fancy you want to get, but it can be pretty simple and still get a good environment to grow in, especially since you know what your limits are. just some ideas to think about
Just build a room sized for everything growing, flowering, processing, drying etc. You can enclose a flowering room or use tents in the room, but you’ll be able to control conditions better with a room like that. Build some shelves and a work area. I have a 14x14 room that is like a workshop. I mix soil, mix nutrients, store extra grow stuff and lights. I also veg and grow autos in there since lights leaks don’t matter. There was already a 44” x 12’ room “root cellar” area with door that I use to flower in. I knew that’s what it would be used for 12 years ago when I bought it. I even have a card table, and if I live long enough, maybe a tv. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
I do open room flowering in my basement, the room isn't used for much of anything else, gives me a 9ftx14ftx7ft area, I did a open room due to 2600w hid lighting, if enclosed I would have heat issues, as is right now with just 1 1000w hps running I can heat up the entire room to 74 with just 2 fans running. I've had the same idea of 2 rooms, 1 to veg and 1 to flower but I'm just lazy, right now I have 5 flowering in a 5ftx7ftx7ft room, this will become my veg room once these are done. After my litter of pups are gone I plan on a 6x6 area to flower in, this gives me just enough to keep 2 in flower at all times, I can have 12 total so veg will hold up to 8 total in veg and 4 in flower. Plan is to offset the times by 2 weeks so I'm pulling 2 plants every 2 weeks, rinse and repeat to a constant 2 harvested every other week. In my mind it seems easy but once I get off my ass its alot of work just to set it up.
that's all i need to hear... and i'm jealous. LOL that would be a dream space amount for me - plenty to grow, and extra for the "work stuff" like the soil mixing. That's plenty of space I'd even run 2 or 3 2'x4' storage racks along one of the walls with coasters on them for easy movement if needed just for trays of micro greens and salad greens. that much space, and autos so not controlled by a light schedule would allow for anything well, except photo strains.. lol actually, in a space that size you could still even throw in a small tent if you needed a space for flowering a couple photos.
Thanks for all the ideas, folks. Another thing that came to mind was effective square footage. For example: if I create a room large enough to put the tent in, which was my initial goal, this room would likely be larger than the recommended area needed for X number of plants based on light needs. So say I build an 8x8 room, am I going to be beholden to still using the tent because I am not going to get enough lights to cover an 8x8 canopy any time soon? Or does the light that gets reflected off the sides of the enclosure not matter enough?
I can't say quantitatively how much the reflective coating helps, but I did an experiment where I looked at a bud site near the door with the door open and it was mostly in the dark. I closed the door, and it was almost as bright as the buds higher up and closer in. I think it does make a difference. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk