Rambling Rookie Requests Review of Room Ruminations

[ThreeHit]

Greetings from noobieville. I have too much time on my hands while waiting for beans...

Setting up my grow room and want to do it right the first time. My goals are entirely personal.

Disclaimers. I am long-winded, I over-think things, and I am prone to over-engineering things. Mostly because I'm a geek and I love to over-engineer things. Especially when I am :stoned:

My available space for the flowering chamber is about 6' by 10'. I could make the 10' dimension longer if needed and I wouldn't mind cutting the 6' down to 5'. I intend to eventually have two purpose-built cabinets outside the flowering space; one for pollination/seeding and the other for mothers/cones/seedlings. To start, I will be just be growing from seeds in the one room.

I'm planning to have a 4' by 4' grow area in the room. That should leave plenty of room for other stuff and for me to get my fat butt around in there.

Lighting:
I started out thinking I would just have one 1 kW HPS light. I like the deep penetration capability of the 1 kW light. Some other posters recommended I look into a combination light that is more full-spectrum. So I did. And I'm impressed by what I see. So I started thinking about possibilities. After I copped a buzz, of course.

Assuming I could afford two lights, and they would be glass-covered and air-cooled, what combination would be optimal for growing 16 sq. ft. of Indica and Indica/Sativas with some plants just topped and some grown with LST? I'm also a pretty fair amateur metal fabricator, so welding together an off-the-wall lighting frame idea is a pretty simple thing for me to do (see number 2 below).

1. Use two combination lights, like a 400W MH/600W HPS lights. The type where both bulbs illuminate at the same time, not the convertible type. I like this idea best except I am assuming that 400W + 600 W does not equal 1000W as far as having 30" of lumen penetration. I'm not sure if it would be best to hang both directly above or to use one as a side light.

2. Use 1 kW HPS and 1 400W MH/600W HPS light. I thought of this combination while I was reading about the 30-degree table technique (angle the plant so the light hits it at 30 degrees and rotate it daily) to get more light to more of the plant. So I thought about welding a light frame that would hold the 400W MH/600W HPS light at a 60-degree angle (same effect as tilting the plant 30-degrees) and so the light could slide up and down as needed, too. I could rotate plants to get even exposure to it. I could put a hydraulic actuator on it, too, so I could raise it and lower it at the touch of a button but I don't want to introduce hydraulic fluid into my grow room.

I'm thinking I'd hang the combination light horizontally right next to the HPS light when the plants are small and move it to the angled position when it seems to make most sense. During flowering, the MH light would be nearest the fan leaves, which, as I understand it, are the nutrient factories for the colas and which respond best to the MH color spectrum.

3. Use two single-bulb lamps; 1 600 W MH and 1 1 kW HPS. Could be used similar to above.

Construction/Wall Coverings:
I'm starting from virtually nothing construction-wise for my grow room. Just two exterior walls and a concrete floor. So I have complete control over the materials I use starting with the studs. I know how to plan and install the electrical and ducting and I know how to plumb a water line into the grow room if I decide to do that. Given this, I have a couple of questions:

a. Is there anything else I should plan to put inside the walls beside regular electrical and possibly plumbing? I may run some speaker wires so I have something to listen to while in there. Do plants like music? LOL.

b. I am planning to use batten insulation on the interior walls to cut down on noise, temperature fluctuations, and to enhance light sealing.

c. Wall covering. I'm planning to use sheet-rock on the walls because of fire-resistance. I'm not planning to use mylar; just flat white paint. But I may add mylar later on. Is there anything else I can do with wall covering to enhance the grow room?

d. Any advantage to using 2" x 6" studs instead of 2" x 4" other than the obvious (stronger, more room for insulation)?

e. Sub-floor/floor covering. I'm thinking of using some of that heavy plastic underlayment they use underneath tile-covered showers and custom bathtubs. And laying it up the walls about six inches from the floor as a last-ditch defense against water spills (I'd need a tall threshold in the doorway, too). And then just laying thick, heavy ceramic pavers/tiles over the top of that without actually setting them with cement or grout. I'd still use trays, too. Otherwise, what would make for a good grow-room floor if I leave off the impermeable membrane?

If you made it all the way down here, thank you for wading through my ramblings.

Thanks for any and all help and advice.

ThreeHit Reviewed by ThreeHit on 12-23-2006. Rambling Rookie Requests Review of Room Ruminations Greetings from noobieville. I have too much time on my hands while waiting for beans... Setting up my grow room and want to do it right the first time. My goals are entirely personal. ;) Disclaimers. I am long-winded, I over-think things, and I am prone to over-engineering things. Mostly because I'm a geek and I love to over-engineer things. Especially when I am :stoned: My available space for the flowering chamber is about 6' by 10'. I could make the 10' dimension longer if needed Rating: 5

[babystarbud]

the biggest thing i can see, is that is a lot of ground space for one
1kw light,
i think youll get better results with two 600 watters..? hoe many plant are you gonna have?

[babystarbud]

oh sorry, just read its gonna be a 4x4 area....forget thay, go the the 1000w

[ThreeHit]

After consulting with co-habitants regarding the scope of my growing plans, I am scaling back my plans in order to ensure they are comfortable with what is going on and accepting of it. As it should be, IMO.

I am now looking at two cabinet setup; one for cloning/vegging and one for flowering. I'm also now planning to grow continually instead of intermittently. So now I'm off to research cabinet growing and fluorescents and all the stuff I had skipped over the first time.

[Abattoir Dream]

plants like music, but only as a substitute for care and love lol