Grow room questions

just go to bghydro.com(best customer service on the planet) and buy your lights...you can even by raw ballasts and build your own for 1/2 the price...I spent 210 bucks on 1000w hps hortilux and ballast assembly...bought one of their ballasts box and wired it...got about 250 in the one light itself...custom built by me!
Although you can grow nice plants with small lights...It takes alot of light and a very expensive exhaust system to keep the temps/humidity, down and there is no accounting how yield potential will be less than optimum due to pests/disease/You!/temps/humidity/mold...a ton of things...

you can grow alot of pot in 3 years, but I don't believe you can grow enough for Years to come, unless you use a bigger space , create a perpetual grow, and Trust me on this one...spend tons of cash.

I am not trying to discourage you, but you have 'Big Goals" and I feel you shouldn't be led down a Primrose path...

goodluck, Let us know what you decide. peace

My last grow is stored in quart glass jars. I was under the impression, that if I kept them in a cool dark place, the bud would keep for years. This amount would last me 1-3 years. (One joint a day, sometimes only a half a J, it's that good!) Latewood- Do you know something, I don't about long term storage? Shelf life?

I'm going to have to rethink the lighting, I'm now torn between an HPS light or going with several CFL's. What's the heat difference between say a 400W HPS and 10 x 40 Watt CFL's ? I may do some combo of both? It would be nice to have a few CFL's that i could position as need be as the plant grows-

I agree I was probably reaching with the idea of growing enough for years to come in only 3 or so years, but I'll be happy growing whatever I can for the experience. As far as storage goes, I was thinking of vaccumm sealing it and then keeping it in a freezer. Anyone have any experience with keeping it that way and it working without any problems?

Still trying to get all the drywall worked up, I promise to have pics of the space this evening-

THANKS FOR ALL THE INPUT!!

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Originally Posted by iwantFUEGO

ive heard a single 1000w hps can raise your electricity bill by 40-60 dollars!

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That's true- the light itself, plus with the venting that such a big hot lamp requires...

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Originally Posted by televisor

I'm going to have to rethink the lighting, I'm now torn between an HPS light or going with several CFL's.

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Both. Use the CFLs for vegging and the HPS for flowering.

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Originally Posted by televisor

What's the heat difference between say a 400W HPS and 10 x 40 Watt CFL's ?

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I don't know exactly, but I think the HPS will be significantly warmer.
You will be able to get CFLs closer to the palnts for sure, but the CFL light is less what the plant needs in its late life stages.
You are going to have to ventilate either way.

Excellent info, Stinky, thanks as always. For ventilation I will have an intake from the neighboring room (just above the floor), and an exhaust with a homemade carbon scrubber in the ceiling (as long as I can figure out how to get the exhaust air to my hot water heater exhaust... they're only around 5 feet apart, but one of the floor joists between them has a circular HVAC vent running all the way through it... I'm debating using a flexible coil, i.e. a clothes dryer exhaust to manuver around the obstacle... any other thoughts?

I meant to also say that there will be a small oscillating fan in the room to move the air around as well.

Dutchy; Glass jars are the best way to store herbs, once they are completly dried. If there is still dampness then you must open jars for a few minuites everyday, until they are...Now longevity of potency starts to degrade at about a year, I believe...Haven't read up on that in a while, but I will be glad to re-research info for you when I get a couple minutes.
Now televisor mentioned the freezer. Well that just might work, but again all dampness needs to be drawn out of herbs until they are dry...I would use the same regimen as pollen storage...Jmo...Once herbs are completely dry...place loosely in paper bag in fridge to draw out whatever dampness is still in herbs...then place paper bags in freezer bags, or jars and freeze...Goodluck, I hope this helps.
p.s. I wouldn't know the math for 1 or 1/2 joint a day, I am probably at a 4-6 joint minimum my self...3lbs a year
and it is hard for me to sustain my stash through to the next cycle. peace

I would assume like most degredation processes in this world, the colder the temps the more the degredation process is impeded. The real questions relate to the physical state of the trichomes. What is the freezing point of the lipids that are retained within the trichomes? If anywhere near a freezer temp then will the transition from a liquid state to a solid state affect the retaining container (trichome). IMHO these are the questions I would be lloking into as we know that with less heat we get slower degredation.

For what its worth I and a few growers back in the day use to vacuum seal our stash in mason jars and store them in a cool, dark area. We smoked some samples that were about 1.5-2 years old and never noticed one bit of difference in strength. This was one hit pot so maybe there was significant degredation, but since the potency was so high to start with it was impossible to discern any differences. We had also froze some, but not for long term and they were in vacuumed sealed bags.

For what its worth, if you go to jarring and then freezing them, make sure to take the light out of the feezer. Light is definately a degredant stimulant and although it's not much, every little bit helps when your talking long term.

Good points Methyl, and if your freezer has a self-defrost function, don't even bother. You'd want a chest freezer that doesn't go through those cycles.

Storing in a cool dark dry place such as a root cellar is what I would do if I had to.

Another thing to think of is that much chemical degradation is tied to the amount of oxygen present.

Have you guys ever seen those nitrogen things that you use to preserve wine after the bottle has been opened? It would make sense to either replace the air in the mason jar with N2, or to just use those food saver bags that you can suck all the air out of.