I'll be coming into a huge space, prolly 24x20/22. Plan on having 3 rooms in the end. HOW WOULD YOU SET IT UP?! budget is going to be around 10-12k. Lighting, water system, room sizes and ventilation/filtration. Any advise is appreciated. Thanks in advance GC.
[quote name='"zrub"']sounds like you know everything that you need. What are you unsure about?[/quote] Wondering how somebody else would set up lights (distance apart, wattage etc) also wondering what kind of watering system would be ideal. I figured just run 1/2 inch PVC off a hydro pump from a resevoir but should I invest in a RO system or just use tap that I let set out? Trying to be as efficient as possible.
What growing style are you going with? Horizontal SOG, SCROG? Vertical? Colisseum? What medium? Soil? Coco? Hydro? Perpetual? CGE for flower with vented Veg & Mother rooms? Etc. Good questions generally get better answers than vague ones.
[quote name='"Barnyard Dawg"']What growing style are you going with? Horizontal SOG, SCROG? Vertical? Colisseum? What medium? Soil? Coco? Hydro? Perpetual? CGE for flower with vented Veg & Mother rooms? Etc. Good questions generally get better answers than vague ones. [/quote] Not to be a smartass but that's what I'm asking you guys I was trying to get people to tell me what THEY would do so I can gather ideas and plans for the final outcome. My plan is have 3 rooms, one for clones/seedling, one for veg and one for flower. Minor LST in the veg room and then just let them run their course when they get to flower. And I plan on using soil for this untill I think I can move up to hydro if I ever feel like that would be better or easier. WHAT WOULD YOU GUYS DO IF YOU WERE HANDED 12K AND HAD A 24x22 ROOM TO WORK WITH?
[quote name='"plants2fresh"'] WHAT WOULD YOU GUYS DO IF YOU WERE HANDED 12K AND HAD A 24x22 ROOM TO WORK WITH?[/quote] Underground bunker
I would probably do 5 gallon bubble buckets hooked up to controller buckets/res..easy to drain and fill and easy to swap veg room ones with flower room ones..then 1000w lights for both rooms..and yes I would get a RO filter because that's a lot of water and ph to maintain
If you plan on having a lot of plants, soil is a lot of work. I moved from soil/coco to hydro ebb and flow. Changing and cleaning the reservoirs and trays is work, but on a daily basis you just check your levels and top off, and check ppms and ph. With soil, you have to water every couple of days, repot, dirt all over the place. That's just my opinion. In hydro, how many lights and what distance apart will be determined by how many trays you are going to have and how big they are. You can have two 1000s over each 3x6 or 3x8 tray. The more trays the more light the more heat the more ventilation you need. You don't need a whole room for clones, they can go in a section of the veg room. How big the veg room needs to be depends on how many plants you will be flowering and at what size. So really you have to decide first how many plants you want to grow and then take it from there. If this is your first time growing, you should start small.
google al b fuct, his methods are proven and can be adjusted to any size area, and/or plant numbers. THe simplicity is unbelievable and the yields are massive.
this is on a concrete slab right? this much weight in one room in a house on a foundation will fuck it up royally.... i know this for a fact lol. what i do... doubled for your area. no exhaust lines leaving the room. everything is self contained and i run 77-80 degrees. on two walls: 4x6 to have two mothers. 4x8 for nutes. rez. controller bucket. water chiller. co2. 4x24 for veg. that should leave you with 16x16 or thereabouts. nutes diy a 5 gal controller bucket. there are kits online that will let you build one for $130. takes an hour to do. big ol 96 gallon trash can like you would leave at the curb for your rez line ebb n grow buckets up. 4 rows wide. 7 buckets in each row. 3/4 hosing or pvc (half inch will not let water flow fast enough. run four lines out of cont bucket. one for each row air bubbler in each bucket. lights 5-600 watters down the middle of each row. so thats 15 in all. all cool tubes. 2hp chiller with 12 ice boxes. 3-440cfm 6" fans to run through each line big ass 8" fan and filter to run on its own in a corner. a stainless steel wort to run off of chiller rez and cool the nutes. 2- 1600 gph mag drive pumps. 55 gallon plastic rez 100gph pump for wort veg 10-125w cfls. they make them now to run off of standard light sockets. so pretty easy to diy your own light bar. this is how i have mine. it sits on a row of totes. all linked together with half inch line. so far... this is my favorite way to veg. i have tried just about everything to make it as easy as possible to transfer around my room. i wish.... i would have spaced averything a foot apart. if i had the room i definitely would have. water pumps through pvc. i have a hole drilled for each site. air bubbler in each pot also. one gal buckets can be found at lowes or wally world. buckets have holes drilled for overflow and two or three tiny holes in bottom to drain. i also dont have mothers. i just cut before i move to 12/12. by the time i harvest. the clones are ready to rock. use tomato cages in each bucket to hold plants up or run you a few 2x4s overhead to tie plants up. my siggy and other posts i have made have pics for everything here that i have mentioned. and lastly.... go cheap on everything. its all the same. edit: i run straight tap water and i never have issues. my ph is constant and never ever fluctuates. i never change my rez either. ro filters are purchased by peeps that think there is a need to waste 70% of their water.
[quote name='"BudMASTAH"'] Underground bunker[/quote] Hehehe, wink wink.... To everybody else this is amazing, so many ideas running through my head right now. Buuuut, I'm still not sure about the hydro thing, haven't ever experimented with it. I do agree that watering and soil everywhere is gonna be a bitch but I'll prolly deal with it for a run or two. THANK YOU GC!! you guys are the shit, also what do you guys think about light movers? Are they worth the money?
light movers = hoods = great to have if you live in colder area (chicago and up). but not so great if you dont. movers dont work with cool tubes. i have three movers sittin in a room collecting dust. the heating issues from 4k+ watts is going to amaze you. you would be even more amazed if you went from battling heat every day for years and then one day build your own light chiller setup as i just did. every heating issue instantly vanished. there is a lot of stress involved when you have ten grand invested and you are battling that much heat. if you live where it is cold.. ignore. but if you dont... then spend the money while you have it on doing it right the first time. also.... hydro is fool proof. peeps act like its hard and scary. mostly due to that green guy video showing dead plants. once a half way decent root structure is produced... you have hours and hours to figure it out. thing is though... it doesnt happen. the nutrients are tons easier also. you run minimum risk of burning your plants. and you only have to fool with a setup that big every 6-9 days. <--- its true. the only plant threatening problem i have ever had with my hydro setup is this last time i set up the controller bucket. i spun and spun the timer and it froze the relay in the on position. forcing my pump to continually pump from the rez to the control. i caught it about ten minutes later (was just setting things up). if unplugged and plugged it back in and havent had an issue since. that bucket has been through at least 2000 cycles and i expect it to go through 10k more without a hitch. you get better pot from dirt. but it takes longer to produce and it yields a lot less. i said some stuff in here that requires me to knock on wood. so umm. knock knock. if you are growing for profit, and not producing for a dispensary, hydro is the only way to go.
[quote name='"needa"'] light movers = hoods = great to have if you live in colder area (chicago and up). but not so great if you dont. movers dont work with cool tubes. i have three movers sittin in a room collecting dust. the heating issues from 4k+ watts is going to amaze you. you would be even more amazed if you went from battling heat every day for years and then one day build your own light chiller setup as i just did. every heating issue instantly vanished. there is a lot of stress involved when you have ten grand invested and you are battling that much heat. if you live where it is cold.. ignore. but if you dont... then spend the money while you have it on doing it right the first time. also.... hydro is fool proof. peeps act like its hard and scary. mostly due to that green guy video showing dead plants. once a half way decent root structure is produced... you have hours and hours to figure it out. thing is though... it doesnt happen. the nutrients are tons easier also. you run minimum risk of burning your plants. and you only have to fool with a setup that big every 6-9 days. <--- its true. the only plant threatening problem i have ever had with my hydro setup is this last time i set up the controller bucket. i spun and spun the timer and it froze the relay in the on position. forcing my pump to continually pump from the rez to the control. i caught it about ten minutes later (was just setting things up). if unplugged and plugged it back in and havent had an issue since. that bucket has been through at least 2000 cycles and i expect it to go through 10k more without a hitch. you get better pot from dirt. but it takes longer to produce and it yields a lot less. i said some stuff in here that requires me to knock on wood. so umm. knock knock. if you are growing for profit, and not producing for a dispensary, hydro is the only way to go.[/quote] Thanks man, def not very cold where I'm at but it'll prolly be winter time by the time we get the room built. Deffinately won't use light movers if they won't work with cool tubes. I'm gonna have to check out hydro, sounds like it's easy after you figure it out. How hard would it make it to move the plants from room to room tho? Would I have to move the whole bucket setup or whatever?
With the rocks that I use. All you have to do is over fill them and they kind of float a little so what I do is is just stick my hand in there and lift the plant from under the roots and then go put it in a bucket full of rocks that is over filled with water. When I'm not high and I'm being careful it takes about 2 minutes a plan to yank it out and put it back in.
[quote name='"needa"']With the rocks that I use. All you have to do is over fill them and they kind of float a little so what I do is is just stick my hand in there and lift the plant from under the roots and then go put it in a bucket full of rocks that is over filled with water. When I'm not high and I'm being careful it takes about 2 minutes a plan to yank it out and put it back in.[/quote] Thanks bro, I'll be checking into this hydro thing. Sounds like it's easier than people make it sound.
[quote name='"plants2fresh"'] Thanks bro, I'll be checking into this hydro thing. Sounds like it's easier than people make it sound.[/quote] Look into the CAP ebb n gro system... its around 500 dollars for a 24 plant system, all you do is run the hoses and your all set, no building anything and have that chance that you fucked something up. I would suggest the Lucas formula for a nute line, its SUPER simple, and yields great results. I am running this setup right now with 48 plants and no problems so far (knock on wood) and i am 2 weeks out from my second harvest. I have 4 1000 watt lights and 2 400 watt lights covering the canopy quite nicely. Check out my grow journal for more details or if you wanna ask a question.
lucas indeed. and you are definitely correct on the simplicity. this time around i am sinking a little bit more in the nutes to see if i can improve upon it. hygrozyme at 1/4-1/2 strength. floralicious plus to spec. kool-bloom to spec. and i have always thrown in a cap full of superthrive on every 20+ gallon top-off. it really is. if you do use hydro and then decide to go with lucas, here is the run down on how easy it really is. i turn on my water, hose pipe connected to shower head, guestimate the amount of nutes to put in. go fill up a 16oz plastic cup with bloom. fill one half way with micro.<-- 30 gallon topoff. dump that in. check my ph. its usually spot on or 5.9. then add in all my other crap. then check ph again. <--probe never left water and i have a circulation pump so it stirs the nutes up quick. i then usually have to go put another inch or so of bloom and then half the micro and im done. it takes fifteen minutes total and im good for another week.
[quote name='"jang707"'] Look into the CAP ebb n gro system... its around 500 dollars for a 24 plant system, all you do is run the hoses and your all set, no building anything and have that chance that you fucked something up. I would suggest the Lucas formula for a nute line, its SUPER simple, and yields great results. I am running this setup right now with 48 plants and no problems so far (knock on wood) and i am 2 weeks out from my second harvest. I have 4 1000 watt lights and 2 400 watt lights covering the canopy quite nicely. Check out my grow journal for more details or if you wanna ask a question.[/quote] Sweet, did you just pick it up on amazon or something? I think that sound like a he'll of a deal, would I need to buy anything else to go along with it or does the kit come complete with everything? Thanks for the tip bro! [quote name='"needa"'] lucas indeed. and you are definitely correct on the simplicity. this time around i am sinking a little bit more in the nutes to see if i can improve upon it. hygrozyme at 1/4-1/2 strength. floralicious plus to spec. kool-bloom to spec. and i have always thrown in a cap full of superthrive on every 20+ gallon top-off. it really is. if you do use hydro and then decide to go with lucas, here is the run down on how easy it really is. i turn on my water, hose pipe connected to shower head, guestimate the amount of nutes to put in. go fill up a 16oz plastic cup with bloom. fill one half way with micro.<-- 30 gallon topoff. dump that in. check my ph. its usually spot on or 5.9. then add in all my other crap. then check ph again. <--probe never left water and i have a circulation pump so it stirs the nutes up quick. i then usually have to go put another inch or so of bloom and then half the micro and im done. it takes fifteen minutes total and im good for another week.[/quote] Damn..... I wish I woulda looked into hydro sooner, you guys make it sound so simple. But how do you guys "drain" the water? I think you gotta drain it right? Cause what I'm imaging right now is having to haul 50-100 gallons of water up some stairs and outside lol that's gonna blow!
thats because it is. i dont drain mine. i run a sifter through it every now and then to get the root particles out. thats it. the reason why my water is so balanced and care free is because i never change it. it takes... a good three weeks before your water stops with the huge ph swings. once it does... dont mess with it other than top-offs. after the third week... i no longer need to use ph down. <--which is what causes the huge swings. as far as when you do have to drain... you see how i used 1/2 pvc. its cheap and wonderful. i dont even use the glue. i just cut to length and sling it together. then when you need to empty the rez, you just take off an elbow and then sling on the hose pipe adapter. a 1/2" pvc male fitting screws in the end of the brass fitting and then you slip that on the a/2" pvc pipe. the 1/2" male fitting also screws right into the ecoplus and sunleaves durapumps. so running pvc is near painless. below is a pic of my control bucket also. from the looks of it... the cap system isnt set up to use pvc. it uses hoses. which will make hooking up a hose pipe a lot more difficult. if you buy that system. then buy another 500-700gph pump to get up the stairs and into a bathtub. that way you can just plop it in and turn it on to drain. 300 gph if you just want to pump it out of the basement vent.