First grow room - let the wild rumpus begin!

[Swany]

I would like to document and share my new obsession in the hopes that we can all learn something and have some fun, myself certainly being the one to learn the most I'm sure. I've known MMJ is legal here in WA for sometime but just didn't know much about it and failed to investigate. About three weeks ago a friend takes me into his shop, though a partialy hidden door, and Wha Laaaa! A sea of very familiar looking little green leaves smiled up at me and said "it's about time!"

My shop is 11' wide by 30' feet deep with a 10' ceiling. I've started to put up a wall to enclose the back 17'. This will give me about 11'x11' for a grow room, and 5' x 11' as a work space to keep Mom, the clones, nutes, ext.

I intend to grow 16 plants to start; DWC in 18 gallons Roughneck totes, big baskets, (4) 1000w HPS hopefully in Adjust-a-wings (concerned about heat), digital ballasts, 6" fan sucking through a charcoal filter. All ducting will be outside grow space in an attempt to maximize light reflection, as will main water res and ballasts.

I may be getting anal, but I'm enjoying building the room ;-} Sealed and painted the floor and will run a bead of caulk along the crack between the walls and slab. Intake will come in low on the right side. The other side of that wall is a car port and I'm going to build a wooden plenum I can slip a furnace filter into to keep incoming air clean.

The door is a basic metal exterior door to help seal and secure the room. The bare studs will be the frame to staple panda film too. I'll have a little less than 2 feet of space above the grow cubical to work ducting and run cords to the lights. Ballasts will be on the wall where the conduit is. Home Depot had little electrical panels for $25 so I'm putting in a sub panel.

If anyone has any comments / suggestions I would love to hear them. Ttystikk has already pointed out I may need AC, but I'm still going to start without it and rig something up if temps go to high. I'm ducting for 8" exhaust and necking it down for the 6" fan. Ordered the 6" 'cause the math works out for better than 5 air changes per minute for the space. Then I got educated about how tough it may be to get the heat out. If need be I can swap to an 8" fan and use the 6" on intake or hoods.

Another friend/mentor on this project has started seeds for me. Ice Princess and Alaskan Thunderf*#k (don't know if those words are appropriate in a family forum such as this...;-). I've not found info on them yet. Anyone know much about these strains?

Thxs for checking in and leaving any input you wish too -

 

[KUSHPILES]

I would like to document and share my new obsession in the hopes that we can all learn something and have some fun, myself certainly being the one to learn the most I'm sure. I've known MMJ is legal here in WA for sometime but just didn't know much about it and failed to investigate. About three weeks ago a friend takes me into his shop, though a partialy hidden door, and Wha Laaaa! A sea of very familiar looking little green leaves smiled up at me and said "it's about time!"

My shop is 11' wide by 30' feet deep with a 10' ceiling. I've started to put up a wall to enclose the back 17'. This will give me about 11'x11' for a grow room, and 5' x 11' as a work space to keep Mom, the clones, nutes, ext.

I intend to grow 16 plants to start; DWC in 18 gallons Roughneck totes, big baskets, (4) 1000w HPS hopefully in Adjust-a-wings (concerned about heat), digital ballasts, 6" fan sucking through a charcoal filter. All ducting will be outside grow space in an attempt to maximize light reflection, as will main water res and ballasts.

I may be getting anal, but I'm enjoying building the room ;-} Sealed and painted the floor and will run a bead of caulk along the crack between the walls and slab. Intake will come in low on the right side. The other side of that wall is a car port and I'm going to build a wooden plenum I can slip a furnace filter into to keep incoming air clean.

The door is a basic metal exterior door to help seal and secure the room. The bare studs will be the frame to staple panda film too. I'll have a little less than 2 feet of space above the grow cubical to work ducting and run cords to the lights. Ballasts will be on the wall where the conduit is. Home Depot had little electrical panels for $25 so I'm putting in a sub panel.

If anyone has any comments / suggestions I would love to hear them. Ttystikk has already pointed out I may need AC, but I'm still going to start without it and rig something up if temps go to high. I'm ducting for 8" exhaust and necking it down for the 6" fan. Ordered the 6" 'cause the math works out for better than 5 air changes per minute for the space. Then I got educated about how tough it may be to get the heat out. If need be I can swap to an 8" fan and use the 6" on intake or hoods.

Another friend/mentor on this project has started seeds for me. Ice Princess and Alaskan Thunderf*#k (don't know if those words are appropriate in a family forum such as this...;-). I've not found info on them yet. Anyone know much about these strains?

Thxs for checking in and leaving any input you wish too -

Looking forward to learning with you! I myself am quite new at the farm, but I have a few suggestions for ya!
I have used the roughnecks and was not happy with the flex in them, if possible, you may want to consider more rigid totes to house your plants and water. My application at the time required them to be almost full much of the time, your does not so you may be able to get away with it.
In my experience with the panda film or black/white poly it will pull quite hard if negative/positive pressure is too great in the room, it could rip right through the staples. Heads up that if it is you may want to put some thin plywood behind it or something more rigid, its also real easy to poke holes in it.

Looking forward to the show as i have not seen these strains in action- Good luck!

Oh yeah and if you can put your ballasts in a different room that would really help with heat !

 

[Swany]

I have used the roughnecks and was not happy with the flex in them, if possible, you may want to consider more rigid totes to house your plants and water.

Thanks Kush ;-} I know about the roughnecks bulging and thought I could put frames around them or something. They are a good size and cheap so they seem to be it. I looked at 10 gl Roughneck pales and though they were the bomb but my local mentor talked me out of them saying I needed more space for the roots.

I had not thought about the film bulging at all! Many of the videos i've watched just shows a frame with film stapled to it, and the guy that started me on this just hangs it from the ceiling. My venting and fans will all be in the 'tent' with small holes to allow some transfer into the work space. I'm going to rethink that a bit...

My ballasts will be in the work space, so out of the grow tent but in the enclosed area. I'd rather keep them behind the second locked door but if I need to lower the heat they will move outside the hard wall. Good point.

 

[KUSHPILES]

Awesome! Il make sure to stop in and see progress!

Heres a gem..

Ah couldn't figure out how to put a link that wasn't a mile long in here.. google 27G strong box -they are black and yellow, and will never deform from its contents.

 

[Swany]

I tried searching 25g strong box last night and didn't get a hit on what you're trying to show. I was pretty tired, as I am now ;-} I'll try again tomorrow.

Ugh! I feel like it's been a week since I got to work on my room (it's been 2 days). The floor is all painted and dry, and I ran calking along the floor last night or the night before. I got a package today!

The cloner is in process and I'm building it from parts sourced local, but the other pumps and fan came from hydroponics.net. They have a good site and some of the best prices I've found. Anyone know a better site? I didn't realize the carbon filter was so heavy! I picked the box up and wondered what I had bought... Still need to get LIGHTS! I want to support the local grow shops and do for the little stuff. I talked to my favorite shop about getting (4) electronic ballasts, reflectors and bulbs - It would cost me a couple of hundred + more over purchasing them online. That's a big chuck...

 

[Swany]

I sure wish I got more done on the room, but it's been a busy weekend.

Finally got the exhaust duct work done. The semi rigid flexible duct is pretty misleading. It said it was 6" by 8'. Try stretching it to 8'... You can see I stretched the one on the left. I got maybe 6' before it started to unravel. I bought a new piece for the other connection and didn't stretch it at all. There are two because I ran 8" duct but wanted to exhaust it out the existing roof vets for stealth. The floor vent connectors I used only came with 6" connections. Two 6" connections have the same volume as one 8" pipe so I hope I don't loose flow.

Here is where the 8" pipe comes through the ceiling. You can see I'll have a little less than 2' of space above the panda film frame to route the duct. From what I have been told and learned, light loss sucks. I'm gonna try and keep anything that absorbs light out of the panda tent.

This is the big box you see in the last photo. My idea is to strap the carbon filter up into this box. First I mount the 6" van, then strap in the filter. I can remove the 8" to 6" reducer and install an 8" fan if needed but the 6" should do an 11'x11'x8 space. I may cover half the opening with a panda coated trap door to reflect back more light. I will paint the interior white. Sometimes I smile about how much i'm geeking out and enjoying the build - I don't even have seeds or clones yet ;-}

It's getting there.

 

[Swany]

Looking forward to the show as i have not seen these strains in action- Good luck!

Hey Kush - If I could ask a favor; it's bad enough I linked hi-res photos that take up the whole screen in my first post. In your reply they all show up again. Could you edit out the repeat of the photos? Thanks. I have yet to figure out how to post so just a thumb nail shows up, if anyone can point that out I would be much obliged.

 

[MagicSeth]

WOW!!!........

 

[Swany]

Wow, how dare I ask Kushpiles to edit, or Wow that chick has a pink tail! She's got many tails but my favorite one is the one about how we met ;-} And the tail about how when presented with the facts she said 'OK, I agree, you can grow'!

 

[urbanfog]

subscribed ;) Looks good!

 

[Swany]

subscribed ;) Looks good!

Thanks Urbanfog ;-} I am really excited about this, and have no plants yet so I'm very focused on the room. Hopefully it pays off. I'm so busy for the next couple of days I won't get anything done. I can't wait for Saturday!

 

[Swany]

OK - now I'm excited! My mentor called and said he's coming home from OR with clones ;-} The room is not ready, so I took over a corner of the living room...

I was searching for something on line and came across a post on another forum from Rumpleforeskin about building a clone machine; well written and easy to follow. I hurriedly assembled it, bent up some conduit as a stand and rigged up my own version of Frankenlight

Cut up two (2) bulb T12's and used the two haves to make a wider reflector, then installed a 4 bulb T8 ballast. All parts I had handy.
... I hear a car in the driveway - gotta go!

 

[Burned Haze]

Good luck :)

 

[Swany]

I'm a Father!

18) Blues City Diesel
6) CNX - or Cynic or <spelling?>
and 2) White Elephant I believe he called them... I don't even know what the strains are, and I'm too tired to search right now. If anybody knows anything about them I would love to know what you do. We used Clonex gel and clone feed. At least I think that's what it was, there were a few cuttings left and he took them and my new purchase with him. Got the water to 6.3 ph and he set the nutes at 725 ppm, which required a table spoon or more than the directions. We'll see...

 

[Swany]

Good luck :)

Thanks Burned Haze ;-}

 

[Swany]

DoH - I just figured out you can't edit a post after ______ time Kushpiles, so please ignore my request ;-}

 

[Swany]

Day two with the new clones and it seems they are mostly happy -

How ever, two seem to have a few trouble leafs and I'm wondering if I should pinch those leaves or leave them? Here's what I mean

If the leaf on the right does not come back in a day or so should I just pinch it right at the main stem? The smaller leaves are all healthy. All the reading I've been doing told me a lot about this, but now starring at the plant I'm afraid to harm it ;-}

I don't know how this happened. It was like this last night when we did a fresh trim and stuck 'em in the cloner. My benefactor didn't say a thing about it. I don't see any nasties on the bottom of the leaf. Should I just cut the dead part off, take the whole leaf, let it be?

any input could or would save a life, all be it a very small one ;-}

 

[MagicSeth]

Get your seed from here ..oh my GOD!!!:blackalien:

 

[Swany]

Get your seed from here ..oh my GOD!!!:blackalien:

I don't get it, but it seems funny and I don't mind looking at your avatar... ;-}

I clipped the dead leaves. All the youngsters seem peppy.

 

[Swany]

Finaly got some time to work on the room again. Need to get it set up enough to move the clones out of the living room ;-}

Got the carbon filter up. Was short one 8" duct coupling so that will get finished tomorrow. I'm really hoping hot air will just happily rush up into the box and get expelled. I did some more reading on Awings today and I'm getting them. Also saw JD Lightings digital ballasts for $190, did some reading on those and I might try them.

Ahhh - nothing like a creative mess ;-}

After verifying my layout by actually placing some tubs in the room I find it's true I'm only going to have 2' between main stalks. I think that may be tight if I do a decent job of growing, but it's all the room I have for now.