New Grow Room Advice

[ddcolorado]

HI , This is a great site with much info, im still trying to figure it out as far as doing searches and such. Im not that internet savy. Been reading for the last 2 days straight.

I am in Colorado and just got my MMJ card yesterday.

This is my plan.... I am going to grow a total of 18 plants (in dirt) since I have been assigned 'caretaker' of 2 other friends. I plan to get 9 clones to start and Veg. When they go to flowering I will get 9 more clones to veg so I have a cycle going.

I have a spare room in my house that I own, its about 12 X 10,
is this big enough to do what I want? I will partition the room for Veg/Flower areas.

What kind of lighting is best for this senario? Bud quality is my top concern.

Thanks:thumbsup:

[headshake]

must have missed this, Indoor Lighting - Cannabis Forums Message Boards - Medical Marijuana, Cannabis Club, Dispensary, News (http://boards.cannabis.com/indoor-lighting/), during your reading marathon.

your cycle will work.

sounds like you have a bit more reading to do.

good growing!


-shake

[disrupt86]

well shake is right,infact i would do much more than read these forums.theres a video on the good old you tube that i watch from time 2 time just for s and g's but its verry informative,type in i grow chronic"u want the video with the guy painted all green. now first and formost, you have more than enough space for your bidding,when it come 2 lighting if you want the best performance your going to want the 1000 watters,personally i use 600's but i have experince and make it work,if you put a plant grown under a 400 watt and a plant grown under a 1000 watts of light you will see that the 1000 watter as many more shoots,bigger stock,many more flowering sites.if you have the cash try and find a system that is switchable from mh to hps "trust me if a ballast fails in your veg room you can snag one from your flowering room or vice versa it save you a lot of would be problems" the second thing to consider is how your going to keep your rooms cool, 2 or 3 1000's is going to heat up like no bodys buisiness and will kill everything.one thousand watt usally runs about $100 per month to run 18/6 "verry expensive" when you add all your fans runing 24/0 .now you could do say 3 600's linked 2 gether no further than a foot apart in your flowering room and 2 for veg .you will have much cooler temps and your power bill will be reduced dramatically.well im tired and rambling but i must emphasize that most people to not consider the utility bills when buying every thing and then cannot afford to run there equipment.verry good luck to you

[ddcolorado]

Thanks for the replys guys. How much yeild per plant can I expect in from nine plant harvest running 2 1000 watt Hps/ MH lights? Guestimation?

I think cooling wont be a problem right now cuz winter is coming (im in Colorado). I will regulate with fresh air from outside.

I think I will be able to just cut a hole in the wall of my grow room and place a good fan and filter blowing outside. I will draw in cold fresh air from the floor, I have a large crawl space under my house/grow room. The great part of this is it LEGAL.

Thanks

[disrupt86]

true well legal or not,its a bitch when the cops come.u can still be arrested and have your equipment seized "total pain in the ass to get back"
but trying to answer your yield question basically there are wayyyyy 2 many variables 2 throw out there,i could tell you if this is your first grow and every thing is perfect dont expect your yields to be spectacular.i would throw out an ounce per plant with no experience,do a couple more grows and you could pull 3-4 ounces a plant,like i sed wayyyyy to many variables.i think the best advice i could give to you is be plant specific,get a couple different strains and keep mothers,do several grows with the same strains that way u can learn more about that particular plant and how to maximize her potential.i have friends that have grown the same strains for years and by using different techniques,nutrients,grow set ups, they have been able to perfect yields of one strain.i hope that makes sense

[ddcolorado]

Disrupt86 says

"now you could do say 3 600's linked 2 gether no further than a foot apart in your flowering room and 2 for veg .you will have much cooler temps and your power bill will be reduced dramatically"


Hmmm your saying 5 600w is cheaper and cooler than running 2 1000w. How can that be? 2000w vs 3000w


Thank you

[ddcolorado]

I think I am going to divide/partition this room up into a 7L X 5Wx 8T flowering chamber and a similar sized Veg room or should the flowering room be larger?

Im still planning on 9 plants in each as the cycle starts but would like to have room to expand to maybe 12 plants in each.

Thanks alot guys, really appreciate any advice/tips

got are first dusting of snow today woohooo:thumbsup:

[DreadedHermie]

I'd devote more floor space to your flower room than to the veg area.

1) If you're gonna be growing from clones, you can flip them to 12/12 as soon as you want. I dunno, 4-6 weeks? Depends on lotsa things, strain, how big you want them to finish, etc. You can actually flip 'em about as soon as they have roots. (Check Oldmac's grows for that kinda operation.) They're gonna have to spend 7-8 weeks minimum, (again, depending on strain) in the flower room. Sativas may take considerably longer, dammit..... :(

With equal space devoted to veg and flower, the plants are gonna start piling up waiting for a space in the flower room, just 'cause they stay in there so much longer. I've heard of <cough> continuous grows with 10-11 plants in bloom being "fed" by 4-5 in veg. :thumbsup:

2) your veg plants can be moved around a bit for space, if necessary. You could even veg a few in the living room under T5 accent lighting, if ya had to. I think they're pretty. You don't need a "special" place for them like your plants in flower, which need total darkness for 12 hours every single day.

Need to ventilate a vegging plant? Just open a window. Need to ventilate a flower room? Now you need light traps, ductwork, etc. Little more critical setting up the bloom room, IMO.

Just my .02, hope it helps. Hermie

[ddcolorado]

Thanks a ton Hermie!!!!! Im still in the planning stage here. This is my first grow and want to do it right.


If you're gonna be growing from clones, you can flip them to 12/12 as soon as you want. I dunno, 4-6 weeks? Depends on lotsa things, strain, how big you want them to finish, etc. You can actually flip 'em about as soon as they have roots.

How many 2-3 foot plants can I succesfully grow in a 35sq foot flowering room? I'd like to have room to possiblly expand to 12 plants in each cycle in the future.

I know it depends on strain, with that said, whats a good strain to grow as far as being(good shit) and fast growing. Im shooting for a strain that the local despenceries with pay $200-$250 oz for.

I know, I got alot to learn and have been reading this site non stop for 3 days now and I am visiting the 4 local despenceries tomarrow.

Cheers!

[disrupt86]

sorry about that i had been at work all night for 14 hours when i was trying to let u know about lighting.basically if your trying to get a good lumen foot print you could use 2 thousand watts in your flower room or 3, 600's,600 watts in my opinion are more efficient and with out a doubt run cooler.so do the math,1200watts @ 2 lamps or 3 lamps at 1800 watts. for your veg room you dont need as much light coverage because your plants are smaller and compact.some people would do 2 thousands for veg and 3 or 4 for flower, so if your intent is to run 5 lamps "3 for flower,2 for veg "thats 300 watts with better coverage than say 5 thousand watts.you can spread 3 lamps around 2 suit your needs,u get 3 lamps for the same amount of money as running 2 1000's.i say this because when i started i didnt have much info,now im sitting on thousands and thousands of doller worth of things that i either dont need,cant use, because no body really informed me on many things.well live and learn.if your going to run 5 1000 watter your bill just for the lights alone will be 6-7 hundred a month. if you used 5 600's your bill would be hundreds less.

[ddcolorado]

This is sure confussing. I found this growing area guide on another site. It doesnt mesh with what I read on this site:(

HID Light Output
Primary Growing Area -Supplemental Growing Area

250 watts 3' x 3' - 5' x 5'
400 watts 5' x 5' - 8' x 8'
600 watts 6' x 6' -10' x 10'
1000 watts 8' x 8' - 12' x 12'


According to this guide I would only need ONE 600watt in my (proposed) 7X5 flower chamber, and you would go for 3 of them????? I need to go to bed LOL

Thank you very much for your imput as I muddle thru this plan of mine:stoned:

Cheers
Darren

[ddcolorado]

OK I switched things around abit. The flower chamber will be 6x8 (48sq ft)

Would this be a good choice in a light for this area?

http://vi.ebaydesc.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemDescV4&item=390092052027&t=0&ds=0&js=-1&ssid=0&seller=htgsupply&category=42225&bv=msie&caz.html


They suggest a area size of 36sq ft to 100sq ft. Gonna grow atleast 9 plants.



Thanks

[disrupt86]

400 watt 3x3 600 4x4 1000 5x5, most of it depends on the size of your plants,u could grow a ton of little plants with one lamp but as soon as they get bigger,they start blocking the others from receiveing light so you would want to move them further apart. thats y bigger lights are better aside from the lumen out put.lighting is all about personal preference, i woulnd never by anything again that couldnt be air cooled,u mentioned earlier your in colorado and your going to be growing this winter but what when the summer time roles around?look around on Hydro Wholesale - Hydroponics and Grow Lights (http://www.hydrowholesale.com) or Discount Hydroponics (http://www.discounthydro.com) discount has great lighting packages that are cheap and u build your self.

[DreadedHermie]

I found this growing area guide on another site. It doesnt mesh with what I read on this site.

Disrupt86 is correct about the approximate coverage areas of those lights, IMO. :thumbsup:

ddcolorado, at this stage of your research you should feel free to change your mind frequently about how to set up your grow. You have many, many variables to consider, and at this stage of the game totally changing your mind doesn't cost a cent.

There are lotsa "sticky" threads at the top of various topics. Read all the ones by Stinkyattic and Rhizome.

I'm just gonna throw some things out there for you to consider as you're studying up. You may wanna start a little smaller in case you want to make design changes. Once you get your production maxed out, changes may be difficult to implement.

1. That "5x5" area that a 1K light's supposed to cover is more a reference number (25 sq. ft.) than a fact of life. The shape and style of your reflector is what'll give you the actual footprint of your light. Might be 6' x 4'. Maybe 3.5' x 7'. And so on. Match the shape of your room to your lamp/reflector combinations. The possibilities are endless.

2. Flowering or fruiting plants requires a lot more light than just vegging them, whether we're talking about cannabis or cucumbers. You can veg some pretty hefty plants using inexpensive, cool running fluoros. Lowly shoplights from HoPo will work pretty well. But you gotta "put the wood to 'em" in the flower room, though. And you've only got 12 hours a day to do it. Setting up a 1000 watt veg room to supply a 1000 watt flower room is a poor allocation of resources, IMO. I've heard of an efficient little operation using ~150 watts veg / ~500 watts flower, for example.

3. Cloning is easy and super fun, and just about zero cost. Read Stinky's sticky, follow the instructions carefully. It's just taking cuttings, no hocus pocus involved. Start with your store-bought nine clones, and take your own subsequent cuttings from them when they're bigger. You will never have to buy seeds or clones again! I heard of a guy who popped one single seed and grew for over a year from its cuts. He was glad he got a female, lemme tell ya...:D

4. Lighting's easy because the need is so obvious. The part people screw up is adequate ventilation. By the time you realize you're having problems, it may not be a cheap or easy fix. Go with overkill the first time around and save yourself some grief.

5. Disrupt makes a good point about heat problems in summer. And you DO NOT want to be pulling air from a crawl space under your house into your grow. MAYBE you can get away with it in the winter, IDK. In the summer, you're gonna get mold spores, insect eggs, bugs, demons, vagrants, etc., etc.

Just some things to think about. In general, mj is comparitively easy to grow and quite forgiving. HTH. Hermie.

P.S. Take your time and look at other folks' setups on this site. You should be able to find something close to what you're planning, and fine tune it to your situation, No sense reinventing the wheel. :thumbsup:

[ddcolorado]

Thank you Hermie!!!!

I visited 2 more Despenceries in my town today (Colorado Springs) And they all agreed that a 1000w system would be good for my app.(9 plants, 48 sq ft) They told me I want 100w per plant. Just watch the heat.

I am leaning towards a 1000w digital switchable system because at first I wont need the hps. When its time to flower, I just change the bulb and get another light to veg. (less start up $$$)

I am now trying to figure out the ventilation. The back wall of the flower chamber is an outside wall. I own the house so I was thinking I could just cut a hole in the top of wall and put a 500-600cfm (flower room area is 380 cu ft,Veg room 320 cu ft) exhaust fan direct blowing outside(no ducting required). Depending on how my temps are, I will draw the fresh air in passively thru a window or a hole in the floor to the crawl space. I will also put a air filter in the floor hole to keep undisirables out from under the house.

I also need to think ODOR control. What I am doing is legal, but I dont want to advertise. Does anyone make a good scrubber that with work with the wall exhuast fan set up I invision?


Thanks:thumbsup:

[DreadedHermie]

Well, most folks'll tell ya they like ~5,000 lumens/sq ft for best results with HPS. A 1000W. covering 48 sq ft gives about 3,000, which will certainly work. You could start there and add to it if necessary, as long as your electrical supply and ventilation allow for such expansion.

The switchable ballast idea makes sense. Filtering incoming air has worked well for some folks on this board. You might check with the local Cooperative Extension Service and see what's in the local air that you would need to filter out.

Scrubbers? Can Fans are great. An 8" fan driving a Can 66 filter might cut it. May wanna go bigger; but those filters are conservatively rated and last way longer than the year I hear folks talking about.

[attachment=o227967]

That's a 6" 464 HO sucking through a ceiling-mounted Can 33 and firing directly through a wall. No ducting--a straight shot. :thumbsup: Tight fit, though. :D

[ddcolorado]

Hermie, love your ventilation set up!! Thats exactly what I want to copy. Where did you get that set up? Cost? How big is your room?


Thanks

[ditdotter]

There are several ways to determine the amount of light you need for a given size room. One way is 5000 lumens per square foot of space minimum up to a maximum of 7500 any more than that and you will stand a good chance of "sunburning" your tops.
The other way is 50 watts per square foot minimum up to 75 watts per square foot. Using either formula will give you a very close idea of what your basic needs are to flower good plants.

Vegging plants is a different story all together. All you need to veg 9 plants is one 4 foot by 4 bulb T5. I just did 12 clones for my present grow under one such light that were 32 inches tall (topped) when put into flower after 60 days.

[ddcolorado]

Thanks for all the advice. I have decided to hold off for alittle .

I checked out the 5 despenceries in my town and all are alittle different some good some not so good. One of them has grow classes and very professional. I thought I was in my dentist office oppossed to a headshop. I enrolled in there class ($150) starts Oct 6 and it runs twice a week for a month.

In the middle of the class and at the end they give you an exam, If you do well ,the despencery will set you up to grow for them legally up to 99 plants.

This place also had the cheapest meds, prices range wildly here.