Starting up again after 15 years "away". (Kinda long -sorry)

Discussion in 'Grow Room Design/Setup' started by dustydoggy, May 27, 2010.

  1. Well actually 16 years. I know not much has changed (it's still a plant). A family member (brother) lives in a neighboring "friendly" state and asked that I use my past knowledge and skills to assist him with an inside grow. Went up, saw the space (nice), explained the basics and then lost him with the more advanced requirements and techniques required for a successful perpetual grow - light movers, growing options (SOG, SCROG, Hydro, Aero, soil etc.). He was going to forget about the entire plan calling it "too complicated". Everyone here knows the "complexity" is in direct relation to ignorance of the process involved. He has finally agreed to "start small" instead (per my suggestion) to see that the complexity isn't. As we all know, by the 2nd -3rd harvest he'll be an "expert" and thoroughly hooked and then he'll be more than willing to use the original space. We ALL know this. : )

    I am building him a Cabinet (actually. 2 boxes for a low concrete crawl space with limited height. I intend on showing him the basics of a perpetual grow. First box (sorry not a tech guy so I'm not able to post plans and prints etc.). First box will house the home made aero-cloner with space for 8 -2" pots. A rooting area and a veg area. Again, this is small scale but more than a micro grow. Guess it could be considered a micro-perpetual op. Box 1 dimensions will be 2'Dx3'Lx30"(?)H. Box 2 dimensions will be for final flowering only 2'Dx3'Lx42-48"(?)H. I will obviously start from seed initially, use soil (more forgiving, easy, familiar and the way God intended) make copies of plants as I go along to pick out the bitches and to select best quality, maturity times etc. etc. and isolate (for now) 2 separate genus' to keep going in the boxes.

    Not my first "Rodeo" just been soo long I forget little details. I had a wardrobe closet back in the day that produced huge high quality bud every 60 days (even got in the old High-times twice! ) but killed Mom (Little Princess- Native 'Jamaican' -AWESOME plant -5 years old) after her potency dropped off from a regen after getting 'greedy' and flowering her up for a couple HUGE fat colas w/o securing a few extra clones first. Did all of that with a Lil' 150w HPS and a couple Circline T-12s (no CFL/PLL's yet) : (

    OK, questions (finally); I plan on cloning cuttings in a home brew aero-cloner (18w PLL/24H/5000k), after a week-10 days (when rooted) put the 8 clones into soil (4"x4"x6" pots) and keep under (18W PLL/24H/4100k -the 4100 should get them a bit leggy for taking one cutting off main shoot -FIM?) for about 3 weeks +/-. This first section of 'Box 1' will be 12"w divided by a shelf, top shelf =clone area (13/14"H) bottom =root area(16-17"H).Take cuttings and put in cloner, transplant the 8 topped plants to 8x8x10 pots (10 qt) and move to Veg. area of box (2'x2'x30"H) This area I'm using PLL Lamps (36w/14H/6500k) in all 4 corners (16" bulbs/2900lumens ea.) and a 55wPLL/6500k hanging dead center (21" bulb/4800lumens) all remotely ballasted and even though odor is not an issue I am using 2 -23w Fresh2Ti (ionizing) bulbs for the hell of it (2700k 1,600 lumens ea.) hung from the top left and right of the 55w bulb in center. That gives the Veg/Pre-flower area nearly 5,000lumens/sq.ft. (245w) mostly in the blue spectrum to tighten up node stretch -I like blue light) I know this would have been easier to have a drawing but my questions are; 1) keeping the rooting clones 6" away from a lower wattage 4100k PLL, IYO, will the center shoot get long enough to clip for a clone in 21 days? 2) under same light do you think 4x4x6 pots will be root filled by then easing stress of transplant or should I go smaller? 3) is 30" (minus 8" pot height leaving 22" or so of altitude) going to be enough height for 30 days (minus limited stress of transplant). I don't want to make Box 1 much higher because after this little thing gets up and running he'll see what the "complicated" process entails and want to move the boxes away to set up real room. The boxes can then be set one atop the other for a single 6'4" cabinet. I can shorten the flower box and add height to veg box if need be. Sorry it's soo long again. But if I'm going to build something and drive 250 miles each way to help out my bro I wanna get it right (or close) the first time ... I'm only going to see these things every week or two, the rest is "on him". It's semi- "legal" for him (judge said I can't though - long story).

    The flower box will be 42-48"(?). Plants according to my failing old guy memory should be about 18-24" by now, spread out in the box I plan on dangling 2 70wHPS among the plants (not that hot) and side lighting with (4) 55w PLL 5000/4100k(?) to add some blue and get better coverage. They should have plenty of room and shouldn't grow as fast up because light will be low inside canopy right? I'm guessing depending on genetic variety, light time manipulation 8 oz. minimum /month if all goes well but at least half that am I close ya think? Sorry again for the length and lack of drawings ... I'm not a smart man.

    Thanks -Dusty. : )
     

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