Building new growroom, need input!!!

Thanks in advance for all your input!!! So I will be building new grow room/shed. It will be a shed in the backyard. This is my first time doing this size of a grow. I've done a lot of reading on here, but haven't seen much on sheds. I'm planing on 10' wide x 14' deep x 8' tall. It's not all for growing, I will have to park my 2 quads in it ;) So I will have about 10' wide x 8' deep for growing. One of my main questions is what would be the best light setup? I haven't experimented much with different lighting, but I was thinking 3 400w HPS lights across the back wall, seems like I would get pretty good coverage. Or is this to much/not enough light? Would it be wise to to buy MH lights too? I'll be building a nice venting/air cleaning setup for the shed, so I'm mostly interested in getting your opinions on the best lighting/grow bed setup. This will be a soil grow and planing on doing SOG once I get a good mother for clones. I'm hoping for a pretty desent output and gram/watt ratio. So if I'm completly wrong about my setup, feel free to let me know. I have no problem buying pricy stuff for this as long as I will see a good return on my money. This isn't for profit, but for me and my friends "enjoyment". Thanks. :smokin:

Are you going to do mom/clones in the same space? If so, you might want to subdivide into one 10x10 and one 4x10- You can use the 4x10 for keeping moms, rooting cuts, and whatever veg time you want. Will also give you a place to keep supplies, tools, etc

I'd be thinking

Mom/cut room- at least one 48"t-5 4-bulb for the cuttings, at least one for the moms, and a 400 halide for veg. Stick a workbench in there too.

Flowering room- you could probabley get away with 4 600 watt sodiums, but I'd really rec going with 4x 1K.

What's the roof on this shed? How hot is it gonna get during the day?

Yeah I was going to add, before you get too crazy setting up the inside, INSULATE!!!! And work out your climate control before you commit to moving the grow in there. Heat is a huge killer. Perhaps even if the shed is moveable, positioning it under a big shade tree to keep your a/c costs down.
For sure 4k in a 10x10 space is going to be SWEET if you can cool it.

Sorry, It was late when I posted and I didn't put in all the info. The shed will be fully insulated and built out of 2x4's. The shed is in the shade 90% of the time so I feel the temps wont be bad. There is a metal/vinyl shed there now, I put a therm in it and I've never seen it above 85*F. I was planing on spliting it 80/20 for a clone area. So what your saying is two 1000w would be better then four 600w? To me, it seems like you would have better coverage with the 4 smaller lights then two big ones, but what do I know, thats why I'm here!!! For now I'm keeping this under 1500w-2000w total. Thanks for the input!! I'll be taking pics all along this build/grow.

No input on lighting?? I want to order them soon!!

NorCal - you need to look at the "footprint" you want to light and the kind of grow you will be doing. Check out this thread - this guy has 4 x 1000watts, but claims to get around 12 pounds per harvest... and he's doing a 4' x 8' sog.

Decide exactly what and how you want to grow and it will then make your lighting decision much clearer.

PC:pimp:

Thanks for the input, I just finished reading that thread. I decided I would like to try "sea of green" growing. I will have a divided area for clones and mothers. Never tried done SOG, so what would be the best light/plant ratio for a 4'x5' size area? Maybe a recommendation on good plant for first timer?

1k per 4x5 will be sweet. Better dispersion if you run the bulb parallel to the short sides.

In the discussion above, I was rec'ing that you use 4 x 1k for the 10'x10'space, just to be clear.

This is about the same footprint per light.

I've had good luck packing 'em in as tight as 4 per square foot- no veg time at all, tiny cuts ( about 3"). To start out, though, I'd try around 1 per square foot, or 20 in a 4x5- you want to know how the strain reacts before you squeeze them in any tighter. SOG takes a little dialing time.

Whatever you've got that tends to minimal branching and a single dominant cola is a good place to start. It's much easier to SOG from cuts, if you can- variance is the enemy.

I ordered all the goddies for the room. I'll be doing my first grow with a 1000w switchable MH/HPS in a 18" cool tube. Venting is 6" with a 440cfm inline exhausting through a 12"x26" activated carbon filter. The walls of the 5'x4' grow area are lined with 2mil mylar. Once I get any problems worked out in the first grow I will set up the other 5'x4' area so I will have a veg/clone and a flower area. This is a soil grow. Is there anything major that i'm over looking? So far my only real question is should I put a inlet filter on all the ducting? I feel like it needs something to keep the lamp nice and clean. Pics are coming soon!! Thanks.

When you get the cool tube, don't neglect to take the protective film off the reflector. I didn't notice there was a reflective film until I got my two tubes hung, so then I had to take them down again. grrrrrrr.

Remember a couple oscillating fans, timer, pH tester...

PC :smokin:

Should have put that down. I have one 16" wall mount oscillating fan, ph metter, temperature, and humidity gauge, timers..... all the little stuff. Thanks for the warning on the film ;) Over alll do you think this will be a good setup?

You might want to consider if you have to worry about an IR signature from your shed and, if so, take some mitigating measures.

your set-up sounds pretty darn good to me - not that that counts for a whole helluva lot. LOL You seem to have all the right gear. If you haven't built the shed yet, you might want to consider some kind of floor drain, or even just a future through the wall down low. Drains come in handy!

Just remember this thread when you are smoking the first bud from your new grow op, then you can tell us if it is a good set-up or not.

PC :D

Shed is built, doing some more insulation/ducting tomorrow. On the topic of IR, the shed has a 3/4" OSB roof, then 3.5" of insulation, then metal roofing on the outside, and the intire inside of the shed is rigid foam board with a R-value of 7.5. So a total of 18.5 R-value, I think it would be pretty hard to see 1 or 2 1000w's through that. To my knowledge, metal roofing has a poor infrared signature...... as in hard to read, very reflective. I'm really not sure how much of a problem heli's are here anyway. I dont have a drain, but that is a nice idea, thanks. Yes, I will remember this thread when I'm toking up..... I will post all along this build/grow. Hopefully it won't annoy anybody ;)

I'm doing all the ducting tomorrow. I'm running a "Can-Fan" 6" Inline Fan with a cool tube and cabon filter, is it more efficient pushing or pulling air? Also, is it ok to wire it on a dimmer? I think it would be nice to be able to control fan speed. Thanks!!

Those who push air insist it is the best way to do it. Those who pull air, like me, let them think that they are right. But, in reality, I think it mostly has to do with where is a good place to hang your fan in relation to your cool tube.

My cool tube fan also exhausts the growroom. I'm sucking air through the cool tubes then pushing it out through the filter. I'll put a photo of my cool tubes & exhaust sytem on this thread and maybe you can get some ideas from that. But right now I seem to have lost my photo posting privileges, so I'll have to figure out what's up with that first.

I put a dimmer on my fan. I have yet to use the dimmer, but then it's summer. I can bump up the temp by slowing the fan, which is useless now but may come in handy during the winter. ...and anyway it's cool to have one, regardless of if you need it. But, if you do use a dimmer, get the $18 one, not the $6 - your $250 exhaust fan will last a lot longer if you use good switches.

PC :thumbsup:

Your setup sounds the like what I had in mind. I got the HO 440cfm fan so I can use it to vent the whole room. I'm thinking I should have a duct that picks up the hot air at the top of the room and have the fresh vents at the bottom near where the plants are. This way they will always have nice fresh air flowing over them.

LOL - You don't have enough "points" or whatever to post pics and somehow that rule seems to have also applied itslf to this thread cuz I can't find a way in hell to post photos here.

In any event, there are some pretty good pics of my set-up on this thread so you can check those out if you want.

I ended up taking a piece of flex duct, bending it into a 90 degree ell, then putting it over the intake end of my cool tube. I just tacked it on with a couple small pieces of duct tape, that way I can move it around, as needed, when I move the lights up and down. This helped lower the temps a few degrees.

My intake is about 18" from the floor, which puts it just about at the bottom of the plants since they are up in pots. Anyway, you need one or two fans in the growroom itself to keep the air circulating. These plants love a nice breeze.

PC :thumbsup:

So I tried to up-load pics, but my cable for my camera was having issues, so no pics till tomorrow..... I can't believe how well this foam board insulation works!! This is my first time using it. It was pretty hot out today(for here), I think it hit 87F. Couldn't even tell inside the shed!! SUPER even temp form 8am till 8pm, just gotta keep the door shut. Guess thats what 3" of insulation can do for you. So my question for the day is; Whats the best way to divide the flower and veg areas? Just double up and hang panda film?

I don't know why this thread won't allow pics. There's supposed to be a "manage attachments" function that appears with the reply box, but it just isn't here. Weird.:wtf:

As far as dividing the space, obviously you can't have light leaking in or out of any growing area. the flowering area probably needs to be larger than the veg. You also have to consider access to the two areas - you don't want to have to pass through one to get to the other. If you are doing clones, you need space for cloning too; as well as somewhere to keep the mothers. Although, some people put their clones directly into flower as soon as they root... There are a lot of variables. LOL I think you need to decide how you want to grow and divide the space based on that. Even then, your needs will change with time as you settle into your own growing niche.

A lot of people swear by panda film, just make sure you hang it so that it is light tight.

Well, those are all the glaringly obvious things I can think of this morning. :D

chew no

groovy