Hey yall, I was wondering if anyone can tell me how to create a grow room and how much it will cost to make a nice one with not too high a price plus lighting and all ofd that (the whole 9 yrds) plus how much my utility bill will go up and all of that stuff, I will appreciate it much if someone can help me!
What sort of size are we talking? What sort of location are we talking (an attic grow has entirely different problems to say a basement grow)? What's your upper/lower price limit? How important is stealth and odor control? How much do you want to produce? And on what regularity? Do you wish to work from seed or clones and mothers? Do you want to grow Hydro/Soil? What level of competancy are you at building stuff/electricity? All sorts of questions must be asked and answered before you can design and price up a set up. Check out Overgrow and the grow room design forum there as a start. Have fun and be creative. There is no problem that cannot be surpassed.
Soil is a good start, much easier on the beginner, hydro can get you some great bud and some phat yields but it's all to easy to slip up and kill your entire crop. Right so if you're an electrician you'll know about lights and electricity Visit 1000 bulbs and price yourself up some HPS lights. HPS is fine for veg and flowering (enough blue for veg and enough red for flowering) but if you want good yield/year you'll need a cloning/seedling area some reseach into flouro and microgrows is a good idea for a clone box. There is a mgrow forum on Overgrow, flouro's are the way for seedling and cuttings though. While we're on lights you'll also need timers and a suitable inductive relay so as not to blow the timer and your mains (not a huge concern with a k but hey you're a sparky!!). Now if you wants lbs per harvest you're going to need a reasonable bit of space and light. You didn't answer the space question so I can't fully answer but you've got to work for 50 to 80w per square foot (or probably best to think in lumens 7 to 10 thousand per sq ft). If you're a beginner grower you should expect to get MAX 0.5 g per W of lighting so about 500 g (off of a kw. This is almost 18 oz (a pound and 2 oz). It's not too hard to get more though. With a little experience you'll be shooting 1g/W and above in no time. You could easily (ish) pull 5 oz a plant off 4 super cropped bio plants under a 1kw. What you should remember though that lighting is really the easy part. Adequately lighting a grow space is easy when you have yield, size and grow method in mind but you then have to think about the heat they produce. Cooled hoods are the best option but aren't cheap to buy but there are plenty of ghetto solutions. Be creative. You're effectively going to need: A way of inducting cool air into the space, a way of circulating air inside the space and then ejecting it out again. Place inductive fans low and exhaust high. Use carbon filters on exhausts if odor is a concern. Oscillating desk fans are fine for air space circulation. You've got to shoot for 80 - 85 F temps during the plants "day" (24/0. 12/12). That i of course unless you're working with added CO2 in which case you can add another 10 F on that at least. CO2 isn't necessary for a first grow though IMHO. Beyond all of this you'll have to think about grow method, seeds or cuttings/mother and then beyond that any number of grow styles!! A second grow space for seeds/cuttings is always useful and so is a mother area for bonsai mums if you plan to use cuttings. I'd say, do some research in Overgrow (Overgrow). Look in the FAQs (Growfaq and read the threads. Cannabis Culture grow forums are also worth a read. Follow the basic principles. Be creative. Be safe. Have fun. Grow your own herb. Good luck. [EDIT - I need a joint]
Ok, I am having probs iunderstanding the snippet I took out of ur message can you kind of explain it again differently but, I got the rest!
One more thing I am just an electrician not a electric company like Virginia Power or anything so, I dunno how much power the hps' will pull, umm how much is ur avaerage power bill? and what size hp is recommended for what I need? (I don't wanna go over what I need right now until I get MORE money.
D3N, Right, first I'll explain what I meant. And then I'll explain what I think YOU should do. First up, the 50 to 80W per square feet. 50W to 80W is the optimal amount of light (IMHO) you need per square foot of growing space in order to get good healthy plants and plenty of yield. Wattage is obviously what most light strengths are measured in though technically what we want is to maximise the amount of lumens per square foot, however since different bulbs of the same wattage and type will differ slightly in their output of lumens. Because of this I'm going to work in watts. Ok? Right. So, let's say you have a 4' (W) x 4' (D) space in which you are growing. This has a square footage of 16'. At 50W per square for you're going to want around 800W. Best to get a k to be sure. Be aware that although the space height is not taken account of here as you will move the lights up as the plants grow taller (fuck chains buy seatbelt style rollers). The next bit is a “shot in the dark†yield estimate. It is virtually impossible to predict yield from a crop unless you have grown from stable clones whose mothers have been used before in an environment that you also know intimately. Even then it is hard. This is mostly due to the massive amount of variables that can be taken into account. A good rule of thumb though is that new growers should aim to get 0.5 grams of dried product weight for every 1W of lighting in that setup. So in the case above of the 4 x 4 x ? grow with the 1000 w light a ballpark yield figure for a new grower using the space reasonably well will get around 500g (almost 18 oz). This of course assumes the plants survive, the space is fully used (not just 1 measly 3 ft plant in a 4 x 4 x ? space) and there are no glaring errors. You could fill that space with 6 nice supercropped plants and pull 2-3 oz per plant with no problems, 4oz with a little knowledge and 5+ after a few seasons. Alternatively grow a much larger number of clones, and flower them small though in many cases this is unwise as many growers like to keep under a certain amount of plants to comply with medicinal marijuana laws. It does of course have the benefit of a quicker turn around time – after the initial selection of a mother or two is done. ((Note, cloning is just taking a cutting from an existing plant and forcing it to grow it's own roots. This has the advantage of being an exact match genetically to it's mother (the plant you took the cutting from), this in turn means it will have the same growth traits and most importantly the right gender! It also has the advantage that the cutting is genetically the same age as it's mother so they can be ready for flowering in very little time if you want to flower a lot of plants when they are small and hence get a quick turnaround)). The next bit was about the temperatures in the grow room. Just keep this between 80 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit when the lights are on (the plants “dayâ€) and you'll be fine. If the plant gets a dark period (see below) the temperature optimally should drop 10 - 15 degrees. If you add CO2 to your grow (Carbon Dioxide is what the plant “breathes†if you like) the temperature range is a bit higher. This is to enable the plants to transpirate (breath) quicker and hence take advantage of the added CO2. But like I said forget that for a first grow. Now, here's what I think you do. Firstly I think you should go read the Overgrow Growfaq as a whole load of what I have just explained is contained within it. It might also be worth buying a cannabis cultivation book (though the internet is negating the need for these) such as one written by Ed Rosenthal. Once I'd done this I would feel I know a little more and can start to think about my setup. I would then plan and design this setup, price it up, check it's all going to work right. Then. I would build myself a grow space of about 4'(w) x 3'(d) x 8'(h) (slightly smaller than above to allow for a smaller light), get a 600W light and start a small organic grow. I recommend a 600 because initially it will allow you to grow enough to learn the score (whilst still providing yourself with an adequate amount of top quality, percy smoke) but also be upgradeable for the future. IMHO 600's are more efficient than 1000 in that they produce more lumens per watt in most cases anyhow but also allow you to use say 5 x 600W lamps instead of 3 x 1000W giving you the same overall wattage but a far more consistant coverage of lights. Add the greater number of lights together with the ability to use rails to move your lights (or spin them) then you can really start to make use of the better coverage the 600's will provide. The growspace can be built easily in a large wardrobe or hand built as a new corner to your room (like a wooden shower cubicle, lol). Alternatively you can shrink a larger area by hanging mylar as adjustable walls. If growing in a structure this should be painted bright white (you could go for Mylar but if you can paint a surface it is much easier and less hassle to do so for an almost immeasurably small loss, cheaper too) and be well ventilated (as we spoke about above). DON'T SKIMP ON FANS AND VENTILATION. So many new growers spend ridiculous costing lights and skimp on fans which at a later date burn out unexpectedly and leave your whole crop sweltering in the heat. It's worth thinking a little about small things too like the lights ballast before you grow. Try to get a remote ballast with a decent length of cord (or build your own) as this will allow you to separate this from the grow space (less heat, less electricity near water etc.). Obviously the design of your room is entirely dependant on location but… …you're a carpenter so I'm expecting class A room design here bwoy! As a final point, before you switch on your glorious new flowering and vegging chamber I would think about installing a smoke and heat alarm just outside your space. It's also worth building yourself a smaller clone/seedling box. This can be made out of any smallish container. Ventilated with PC fans and lit with flouro's (strips preferable IMHO but CF is fine). Add an adjustable heat blanket to the bottom of this and you have a lovely propagator and grower for you babies before they are big enough to go into your room. As for cost, 1k on for 18 hours a day during the plants veg stage and 12 for the flowering stage shouldn't come in at more than 20 or 30 dollars every quarter year. But I'm not from the States so that is a complete guess!!!! Anyway. “I'm beat. My feet hurt. And that bitch is slippin.†I'm bound to have missed something. GO AND READ THE OVERGROW FAQ. Peace and good luck. Keep us updated.
Ok, I got what u said but, I need a kinda estimate from a fellow american so, I know I aint gonna run the power bill sky high! By the way thanks for posting me the info it is VERY much appreciated
The above two posts should enable you to answer your own questions... perhaps. The only further notes I would make if it's an outdoor space: 1) Inlet and exhaust points are noisy. Airflow must be considered. 2) Light leakage will be important from both outside in and inside out (don't want the neighbours seeing do we now). That's a nice size growspace for a homegrower so with a little work, some TLC and a little patience you should soon be self sufficient. You might like to think about splitting the space and having a veg and flowering chamber (and maybe a bonsai mother area too). This will enable you to have perpetual harvests. I'd write more but I'm not in the best of moods but good luck and grow well....and safe.
for people that are worried about powere issues i heard somwhere that a 1000 hps uses about as much energy as your computer when it is left on. correct me if i am wrong, just tryin to help
my pc stays on 24/7, i leave the lgith on above my stove all day and night, my ac is kept at 70 degrees, I live in FL so it is usually about 80 out at least. But all that combined not to mention the fan in the living room and bedroom on low 24/7, and the fan in my grow room 24/7, but the lights, i have a 4' fixture, a large flood light, and 2 CFL's i had to cheap it out... but anywhos, my power bill never tops 110.00.
Wanna lend me a hand to, lol? Thanks What sort of size are we talking? about 4 feet tall, 3 feet by 4 feet wide What sort of location are we talking (an attic grow has entirely different problems to say a basement grow)? Basement, Under the stairs What's your upper/lower price limit? maybe 100 bucks How important is stealth and odor control? not worried, will be locked, odor control is a must tho How much do you want to produce? (whatever is possible in the confinements) And on what regularity? I wanna grow say 4 sets of crops growing at different rates so I can get harvests more regularly. Do you wish to work from seed or clones and mothers? clones and mothers Do you want to grow Hydro/Soil? soil What level of competancy are you at building stuff/electricity? resonably good, I am getting some help
how tall does the grow space have to be to get a good yield cause i was thinking maybe about 4ft high would be good
My parents know too, my mom is actually the one who told me my seeds sprouted because she was in my room for whatever reason and was looking at my plants. lol, my parents dont smoke though.
hi there i live in the uk and would an inductive power relay be a powerbreaker in the uk and ive got my grow room in my shed and im worried that if i put the ballast outside the box the cops might see the heat what do you think?