OlgaStruthio
- 9
- 3
Greetings all,
I've lurked and occasionally posted over the years, and I'm emerging from hiding now to share and learn as I take our operation to the next level. Over the past several years this operation has grown from a 400W light with a ballast I built inside a mailbox to the current building, 3 rooms, 400 ft^2, 18 x 1000W HPS, ~60 plants.
This is a plausibly legal operation in a medical state, in a rural area with more problems with meth and heroin than small-time pot growers. My partner lives on-site.
We recently had a break-in, thieves breaking in on the day before harvest (need more odor control, perhaps?). My partner called the police. The local drug task force was on site real quick. They checked out our grow, and soon told us we were the victims and not the criminals. There was no search, and we're clearly on their good-guy list. The thieves are being prosecuted, charged with multiple felonies each. As for us, we were told not to worry. We were a bit surprised by the police's easygoing reaction, so we asked around. We learned that we had already been checked out by the drug task force, running our identities and asking local informants if they knew us or our business. Nobody did. Lesson Learned: Don't shit where you eat -- we're very careful that nobody in the county where the grow is located ever gets our product.
I have a partner handling day-to-day operations and retail, leaving me with systems design and fine-tuning our grow. We're very fond of the KISS principle, Keep It Simple Stoner.
(sorry for the horrible photo quality. These are 29 days into flower)
Where do we go from here? Our hopeful next steps include:
I've lurked and occasionally posted over the years, and I'm emerging from hiding now to share and learn as I take our operation to the next level. Over the past several years this operation has grown from a 400W light with a ballast I built inside a mailbox to the current building, 3 rooms, 400 ft^2, 18 x 1000W HPS, ~60 plants.
This is a plausibly legal operation in a medical state, in a rural area with more problems with meth and heroin than small-time pot growers. My partner lives on-site.
We recently had a break-in, thieves breaking in on the day before harvest (need more odor control, perhaps?). My partner called the police. The local drug task force was on site real quick. They checked out our grow, and soon told us we were the victims and not the criminals. There was no search, and we're clearly on their good-guy list. The thieves are being prosecuted, charged with multiple felonies each. As for us, we were told not to worry. We were a bit surprised by the police's easygoing reaction, so we asked around. We learned that we had already been checked out by the drug task force, running our identities and asking local informants if they knew us or our business. Nobody did. Lesson Learned: Don't shit where you eat -- we're very careful that nobody in the county where the grow is located ever gets our product.
I have a partner handling day-to-day operations and retail, leaving me with systems design and fine-tuning our grow. We're very fond of the KISS principle, Keep It Simple Stoner.
- 5 gallon Hempy Buckets
- 3:1 perlite:vermiculite mix, partially reused
- One nutrient mix (similar to Lucas formula)
- One light type (1000W HPS in cheap hoods with 6" venting)
- 1 55 gallon barrel for nute mix, refilled every other day, drain-to-waste
- 1 pump, manually controlled, feeding plants through 1/8" dripper lines
- Cheapest Air Conditioning (cold air in winter, 3 hotel-type PTAC units in the summer)
- 9 plants in the 10x10 flower room, 12 plants in the 10 x 14 flower room
- 2 month veg in 5 gallon buckets, plants start flower at 4-5 feet tall
(sorry for the horrible photo quality. These are 29 days into flower)
Where do we go from here? Our hopeful next steps include:
- More Light! Considering increasing from 6 to 8 lights in flower rooms. Rooms are 10x11 feet and 10x14 feet
- More Uniformity! Growing different strains has made it difficult to create an even canopy
- More Weight! If we do everything right we reach 8-10 ounces per plant.
- Easier Trim! Harvest and trim takes at least a week now, with 1 or 2 guys trimming. We're working on making that easier with more pruning in veg and early flower, stripping out the popcorn.
