Indoor growing set-up advice needed...

No doubt you guys will be sick to death of these threads and i apologise for another one!

I've had a read over various threads for a while now and got alot of good info on indoor growing in houses etc, but my situation is slightly different..

A friend owns an industrial site that is closed down/derlect and off the records, well out of the road of town and people, he has let myself and another friend use a couple of these industrial units for storage and use.

Electricity bill is no issue and neither is need for keeping it under wraps with regards to smell etc as like is aid it's not a place anyone has been for many years and no one can gain access.


Basically I aim to grow around 5-10 plants which is more than enough for my family and friends. I have plenty of wood to build a frame and can purchase the lighting required, however I am unsure what sort of structure would need to be built, cabinet style or simply a base for soil etc with lights overhead??

Any help is greatly appreciated as looking to get this started as soon as.

Colin

Colin,

Are you looking to flower 10 plants at a time, or grow 10 plants at a time? See there are alot of variables here. Like I grow about a dozen at a time in various stages, and typically always have 4 in flower, its called a perpetual harvest. Or, you can just start 10, and then finish them off in the same space.

You let me know what your plan is, I can help you implement it. Also let me know your budget, that helps things too. What supplies, if any, do you already have?

Welcome Phoenix
The site is still here because people like to read other peoples questions and many like to contribute answers. So, no worries. We like to ask questions too.
Let me ask this? Would you prefer a crop from seed to harvest in 16 weeks? Less? No problem with longer?
Are you looking for automatic watering? soil or hydroponic? Any particular strains in mind?

I love it when a plan comes together!!

Black out any windows so you can control the lighting inside the building. Buy sodium lights and cheap flouros, like shop lights. Build a wooden frame that is pretty tall, one that you can reach the top of with a six foot ladder (so say make the frame about 9 feet tall). Hang the lightbulbs from the frame with skinny chains. You can avoid getting reflectors for the sodium lightbulbs. Just hang the wires from the frame in such a way that the lightbulbs hang in the middle of the plants. You might have to build more than one frame because it would be good to hang flouro lights, 4 footers, to add some white light, giving plants a mix of white and yellow. 600 watt sodiums should be fine. Make sure wooden frame is stable. For soil, get large Rubbermaid style tubs one to two plants in each one. Use good soil, Promix, foxfarm ocean forest or happy frog, roots brand stuff. Not miracle grow. Get a bag or box of foxfarm's fruit and flower fert or whitney farms all purpose or dr. earth all purpose fertilizer, just one container only is all you need, don't buy more than one, don't buy several ferts and mix them together. No proof that will help any. Just one container and you pick which one. Fill containers about 3/4 way with soil, whichever you chose, and add one heaping cup of the fert you picked (solid measure, not liquid). mix well into soil. Fill the rest of containers with soil. Also get Alaska brand micro nutes in green bottle if you can find it. Sold at some big hardware stores or search web. Put a couple tablespoons into the soil and mix well. These ferts will cost you about $20. Make sure you get just enough soil to fill containers. Don't waste money on too much soil you can't use. Make sure electricity in building is good with no risk of fire damage. Get good quality timers. Lights won't be cheap but then what is? Get good genectics. Water preferably with distilled water if you can. Don't water too much, let soil dry out some. You shouldn't have to add any fert. You should be able to let grow go for a while without having to check on it every day. best of luck. hope this helps. just my suggestion. you could go hydro but this method doesn't need to be watched so closely. got to put of fan on them to knock them around a little too.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by polishpollack

Black out any windows so you can control the lighting inside the building. Buy sodium lights and cheap flouros, like shop lights. Build a wooden frame that is pretty tall, one that you can reach the top of with a six foot ladder (so say make the frame about 9 feet tall). Hang the lightbulbs from the frame with skinny chains. You can avoid getting reflectors for the sodium lightbulbs. Just hang the wires from the frame in such a way that the lightbulbs hang in the middle of the plants. You might have to build more than one frame because it would be good to hang flouro lights, 4 footers, to add some white light, giving plants a mix of white and yellow. 600 watt sodiums should be fine. Make sure wooden frame is stable. For soil, get large Rubbermaid style tubs one to two plants in each one. Use good soil, Promix, foxfarm ocean forest or happy frog, roots brand stuff. Not miracle grow. Get a bag or box of foxfarm's fruit and flower fert or whitney farms all purpose or dr. earth all purpose fertilizer, just one container only is all you need, don't buy more than one, don't buy several ferts and mix them together. No proof that will help any. Just one container and you pick which one. Fill containers about 3/4 way with soil, whichever you chose, and add one heaping cup of the fert you picked (solid measure, not liquid). mix well into soil. Fill the rest of containers with soil. Also get Alaska brand micro nutes in green bottle if you can find it. Sold at some big hardware stores or search web. Put a couple tablespoons into the soil and mix well. These ferts will cost you about $20. Make sure you get just enough soil to fill containers. Don't waste money on too much soil you can't use. Make sure electricity in building is good with no risk of fire damage. Get good quality timers. Lights won't be cheap but then what is? Get good genectics. Water preferably with distilled water if you can. Don't water too much, let soil dry out some. You shouldn't have to add any fert. You should be able to let grow go for a while without having to check on it every day. best of luck. hope this helps. just my suggestion. you could go hydro but this method doesn't need to be watched so closely. got to put of fan on them to knock them around a little too.

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And tell no one!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by low_rdr

Colin,

Are you looking to flower 10 plants at a time, or grow 10 plants at a time? See there are alot of variables here. Like I grow about a dozen at a time in various stages, and typically always have 4 in flower, its called a perpetual harvest. Or, you can just start 10, and then finish them off in the same space.

You let me know what your plan is, I can help you implement it. Also let me know your budget, that helps things too. What supplies, if any, do you already have?

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I think best plan of action would be to start growing 5 then have a delay before starting the next five?

Budget isn't too much of a problem, i'm an engineer and through work can get my hands on most things supplies wise and purchase anything else. any help greatly appreciated!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shovelhandle

Welcome Phoenix
The site is still here because people like to read other peoples questions and many like to contribute answers. So, no worries. We like to ask questions too.
Let me ask this? Would you prefer a crop from seed to harvest in 16 weeks? Less? No problem with longer?
Are you looking for automatic watering? soil or hydroponic? Any particular strains in mind?

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This is true and i'm glad you guys are willing to help! I don't have a problem with time scale to be honest as long as end product is good! I was thinking of something along lines of AK-47 Serious Seeds AK47 or would you recommend something else?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by polishpollack

Black out any windows so you can control the lighting inside the building. Buy sodium lights and cheap flouros, like shop lights. Build a wooden frame that is pretty tall, one that you can reach the top of with a six foot ladder (so say make the frame about 9 feet tall). Hang the lightbulbs from the frame with skinny chains. You can avoid getting reflectors for the sodium lightbulbs. Just hang the wires from the frame in such a way that the lightbulbs hang in the middle of the plants. You might have to build more than one frame because it would be good to hang flouro lights, 4 footers, to add some white light, giving plants a mix of white and yellow. 600 watt sodiums should be fine. Make sure wooden frame is stable. For soil, get large Rubbermaid style tubs one to two plants in each one. Use good soil, Promix, foxfarm ocean forest or happy frog, roots brand stuff. Not miracle grow. Get a bag or box of foxfarm's fruit and flower fert or whitney farms all purpose or dr. earth all purpose fertilizer, just one container only is all you need, don't buy more than one, don't buy several ferts and mix them together. No proof that will help any. Just one container and you pick which one. Fill containers about 3/4 way with soil, whichever you chose, and add one heaping cup of the fert you picked (solid measure, not liquid). mix well into soil. Fill the rest of containers with soil. Also get Alaska brand micro nutes in green bottle if you can find it. Sold at some big hardware stores or search web. Put a couple tablespoons into the soil and mix well. These ferts will cost you about $20. Make sure you get just enough soil to fill containers. Don't waste money on too much soil you can't use. Make sure electricity in building is good with no risk of fire damage. Get good quality timers. Lights won't be cheap but then what is? Get good genectics. Water preferably with distilled water if you can. Don't water too much, let soil dry out some. You shouldn't have to add any fert. You should be able to let grow go for a while without having to check on it every day. best of luck. hope this helps. just my suggestion. you could go hydro but this method doesn't need to be watched so closely. got to put of fan on them to knock them around a little too.

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There is no natural light at all in the building only the lights lighting the unit. I have plenty of wood available to build a frame, so you would recommend building the frame 9 ft tall and x in length only to hang the lights on and use tubs instead of building a base frame to plant in? I'm not too sure on water systems etc and until get used to growing a bit I prob would like to avoid that direction if it's possible, but whatever is recommended best I'll give a try!

Well, I suppose you could build a large container, perhaps out of wood, or you could stack a bunch of bricks in narrow rectangles and line the inside with pond liner or similar plastic. I would think that large plastic containers would hold enough soil to get through the entire grow. How you set up the soil/grow medium isn't quite as important as its ability to sustain the entire grow without being babied all the time like hydro requires. That's why I recommend that you put the fert in the soil using a type listed above because this is pretty much a fix it and forget it kind of thing... just check on the soil dryness and whether it needs water. If you use a lot of soil, you shouldn't have to worry about watering too much, even when the top appears dry. The lower area should still be moist. You want the soil to dry out some because this is the only way that oxygen will reach the root zone and this is necessary. Somebody on here came up with the idea of using an air pump to bubble air into the water you give the soil, to oxygenate the water ahead of time, and this is probably a good idea. The advantage to hydro is to do just that, oxygenate the water like crazy which causes huge growth. I suggested that you use potting soil because you can be away from it for a few days without worrying. Hydro would be fantastic in a warehouse grow, but you just need to keep an eye on it. Maybe try one plant in a 5 gallon bucket DWC just for kicks, but you need a different fert for that. I was wrong about hanging lightbulbs with skinny chains. I was thinking of using reflectors, but then I said just go bare bulb and hang them between the plants. you won't need chains for that, just the bulb wire should be fine. Don't spend on reflectors if you don't have to. But yes, build a kind of tall frame, because people always get a grow set up forgetting that the plants might get really big, especially in hydro. You start a soil grow early enough and they can get pretty tall. You can cycle 5 plants early and 5 later if you want but you'll have to separate the plants because you can't have 5 getting 12 hours lighting for flowering/budding and the other vegging/grow plants getting more light. You'll have to make sure that the plants in flower cycle get zero light 12 hours a day to avoid screwing up there hormones and putting them out of flower and back into veg. They will continue to grow in flowering, so most people with an indoor grow put plants in flower around the 18 to 24 height range. If you have a big space that no one will see into, you can veg them taller, but this will take longer. Veg to, say, 4 feet, and put into 12/12 lighting, and they will probably grow to six feet or so. You have a great opportunity there. You might learn how to clone, to keep the cycle going without having to use seeds. You can study taking cuttings using other plants, which will give you an idea of what to do, like roses for example. I think building a base to plant in is not a good idea because you'd have to shovel in a lot of dirt and shovel it out when done. With tubs, you can put them into a truck when finished with the soil and dump it somewhere. Just not too obvious, eh? Getting distilled water will cost a little but it's pure and can be trusted.

Not experienced enough to help much, but damn, I admire the problem. :thumbsup:

Make it as simple as possible, so u can care for it easily, my two cents- good lights & organic. Dirt can give you some flexibility. Security is the issue if your not there, seems like someone always shows up.

One thing I forgot to mention. Growing in containers is difficult when the weather is warm. Soil in containers loses a lot of water fairly quickly, so when summer comes, you want to keep that in mind. Don't be surprised if you have to water the soil every day if it's hot in the building. Having said that, soil is still easier than hydro.

I would set up a tent with panda film or other white, reflective surface. Use a fan over the plants.
I just harvested Ak-47 and it's a good strain. I bloomed for 12 weeks this time, which was two weeks more than average for that strain.

Honestly - I would find an office and turn that into my growroom. Avoids having to build walls and all that jazz. From there, place your pandafilm, since your only doing 5 plants for harvest, 1 600 watt light should work, then you can just use like a 125 watt CFL to veg under.

As far as setup, if this is a grow your going to be checking out constantly, I'd go with RDWC, just because you'll get them bigger, faster - If your doing a remote grow where you won't be around that often, I'd use a soiless medium such as coco coir and perlite in 30 gallon containers. (the fat squatty ones)

If you want an automatic setup, as an engineer, that's pretty easy to accomplish. If your doing RDWC, This is also pretty easily setup. But as far as everything else, setting up in an office gives you a much better area to setup for cooling and fresh air intake. Also, what would be the source of your fresh air?

THere are as many questions as there are answers. So in your next response why don't you tell us a bit more about your situation and resources. and really, asking people the best way to grow, is the exact same as asking them what kind of car you should buy - Just because it works for someone else, doesn't mean its any good for your situation.

OHHHH

A bathroom would also be a GREAT setup place.

Not much point in building a tent or walls as no one can see in the building anyway. You could surround plants with panda, turning the white toward the plants, but I doubt if the reflected light would be very strong. It's a good idea but I doubt if the expense is going to be very beneficial because you'd have to make the tent pretty large to accommodate that many plants. I think it would be a waste of money, but that's just my opinion. Krusty grew large plants in a small warehouse without panda and it was successful. A bathroom would be too small for 5 to 10 plants, especially if you really want to let them grow. Just hang bare bulb lights from a frame and spin the pots around once in a while to expose the other side to the light should be fine. Hang sodium bulbs in the middle and put flouros on the outside, standing vertically if you can make that work. Build a small frame to support them so they don't fall over. Takes a little effort but can be done.

I have to disagree - A bathroom in an old warehouse or office building would actually be too large for 5 plants. Even a private bathroom would be big enough for 5 plants. And if he's lucky, it'll be lined in white tile. That would be ideal. I agree that you can setup without walls, but why waste the light? Also, you stated setup without walls, then build a frame to hold the lights, its much easier to just attach the lights to the already created walls.

You guys are talking like he's going commercial, he isn't, he's doing a few plants. Even in OLD warehouses, there were offices and bathrooms. Utilize what you have. To the OP, this is exactly why I said your question was too broad. For 5 plants, you can go with a 400-600 watt light for flowering, and a 125w cfl or a 150w metal halide for veg

Good luck!

He could make the best of an open warehouse by growing the plants larger. A bathroom is going to be too small. Since phoenix already mentioned something about building a frame, I took it that phoenix is not looking to stay in a bathroom. Might as well grow 5 plants as big a possible to take advantage of the fact that no one can see in, there is plenty of space and probably plenty of power. I guess what you're thinking of is something like a three stall bathroom but I still think that is small. But since I haven't seen it, kind of hard to say. It's an opportunity to grow indoor trees. That's how I see it. BTW, I didn't say "set up without walls," but just to avoid spending money on panda plastic if it isn't going to be an advantage in reflecting light. At least one frame still needs to be built in order to support the sodiums or MH, even if the grow takes place in a bathroom because you can't screw HPS or MH bulbs into a conventional socket (if there are any), and most commercial bathrooms use flouro anyway, which means there won't be any incandescent style light sockets. So in my opinion, take advantage of the open space and secrecy by using the open area, build at least one frame to support the lights, and the rest as noted above.