Grow space setup and ventilation question

[Dejohn]

Hey all, I'm a noob in the Pacific Northwest setting up a legal medical grow for myself and at least one other person.

For the first crop, I intend to take it very easy and do only 4 or 5 plants as I get the hang of this. In the long run, I will crank it up, so I'm trying to make purchases that will still work for me down the road.

Still deciding on whether to start with soil, or just do an Ebb & Gro hydro system right away.

-Space is a 12' x 12' barn-type structure with a 12' x 12' loft, so I have 288sqft to work with
-First floor ceilings are about 9', Top floor about 7' in the middle (vaulted).
- No insulation in the walls. Plywood and siding on the exterior. Sealed reasonably well.
-100amp sub panel
-Water spigot nearby

For my first grow, I've planned on using a small corner of the space for a single large Adjust-a-Wing 1000w for both veg and flower, and I'll cluster 4-5 plants under this. I don't have any plans for a tent inside the space, but I do intend to line the walls with mylar. Long term I will probably use the loft for Veg and the lower space for flower.

Since it's now winter, do I even need to vent this? Temps in my area (west of the Cascades) range from 30-50 degrees outside. Will a single 1000w bulb even warm it enough, or will I need to add heat?

 

[Dejohn]

As I've been researching this, it occurs to me that I might want to insulate the walls for better climate control and consider doing a sealed grow. Is that as easy as just adding CO2 generation and Air Conditioning/Heating as necessary?

 

[hiboy]

I would def. insulate and seal the room. Keeps your temps inside more stable, and keeps out bugs that will love a warm room.
h

 

[Dejohn]

I would def. insulate and seal the room. Keeps your temps inside more stable, and keeps out bugs that will love a warm room.
h

Thanks for the feedback. I'm finding there's a hell of a balance between getting things done "right" and getting things done inexpensively when the goal is ideal space utilization.

I'm struggling to figure out the path of least resistance to ease into this without going all in.

 

[Bigcorners]

Dejohn,

I love the fact that you have a bitchin 12x12 barn setup! If i were you ideally i would set the "loft" up as a clone/veg room! and the bottom floor for the flower room!

i work with something similar to your setup, and your heading in the perfect direction. For the First grow its going to be interesting because you have alot of empty space. If you want a simple, easy, and super clean setup i would go with a single 4x4 Ebb and flow table. For Veg i would defiantly grab a 4x8 T5 light or something similar, cheap, efficient, and instead of using that 1000w for 24hr VEG that thing would be sucking massive juice! the 4x8 t5 would pull 175watts max.. and then when you get more clones that t5 will be super clutch. Those 5-6 babies would clone and veg for 4-5 weeks and be nice and grown itching to get under that 12hr 1000w hps :)

As far as the room i would start with the loft as the main room for the first grow, seal the loft and set it up, run a hose up there so you can fill your reservoir. and that 100amp will be plenty powerful for 5-6 1000w's with circuits to spare. Setup the 4x4 table in the middle of the room.. hopefully 12-16 inches off the ground, enough space to fit a reservoir or find somewhere to put your run off. With that 1000w hanging you will have around 4-5 feet of usable space to grow some monsters. Are you going to air cool that light? I would defiantly setup a exhaust fan with a Carbon Filter cause when those babies get to 4-5 weeks in Veg they can get super stanky.. I would run a intake fan as well but it does not have to be as big as the exhaust fan, defiantly get a thermostat for your fan so when it gets to cold it would turn off and let the heat build up but when it gets around 78 it would turn back on.
http://www.acehardwareoutlet.com/productdetails.aspx?sku=4252961
Someone on here made a bitching DIY for super cheap of this but im having trouble finding it.

Well then onto future plans when you want to add more tables and setup the different rooms, then the VEG room would be fully setup already with bitching Ventilation and ready to pump out awesome clones! Then seal off the bottom room and setup with 4 4x4 ebb and flow tables with 4x1000w air cooled lights. With that setup it would be simple for 2 people to maintain and grow with minimal back breaking.. turn on a pump fill a tray, drain tray... Rock-wool is awesome. You could then be running a 8 week flower cycle, and having a crop every 2 weeks!! 1-1.5 pounds every 2 weeks aint bad ehh?

-Bigcorners

 

[Dejohn]

Bigcorners,
Sweet! Thanks for the "bitchin'" feedback :) I am pretty jazzed that I will be able to put this unused barn to good use.

So... 4x8 T5 florescents - would they make a good lamp for mothers in addition to clones? If so, how do people handle the height difference? A separate light?


Also, I totally haven't even considered flood trays yet for a grow system. I had been looking at Ebb & Flow, or DWC/MPB systems to do larger (but fewer) plants. Thoughts?

 

[Bigcorners]

Dejohn,

T-5s.... They make great lamps for clones, and mommas. here is how we have our Veg setup. We have 2 4x4 floodtrays in our VEG. and a long shelf that is on the wall and goes down one side of the room. Over each tray we hang a 4x8 T5, and in the middle of the 2 trays we have an older smaller 4x4 in the middle of the 4x8s. so all together we have 3 T-5 lights.

On the shelf on the wall we keep our clone trays with domes. it keeps them out of the way, they use the ambient light in the room so no need to give them there own light, its actually not advised to have your clones under the light it can kill them.
Under the shelf we have 3 CFLS (2800k) hanging from the shelf pointed straight down. On the floor under the shelf we have our 5 mothers.. They still get plenty of light from the t-5s and the Cfls above make sure they always get enough lights. When the mothers are on the ground they have plenty of vertical space to grow and at the same time we keep them off the flood tables for easy working with, and they dont get in the way with the small ones.

On one tray we have our "NEW" clones that just got transplanted into 4" rockwool cubes and the t5 light lowered to hover, about 6" above them so they all get awesome light and it helps the canopy grow at somewhat of the same size. On the other table we have our next step up. When those 4" cubes mature and start showing roots we throw them on top of 6" cubes and they go on the 2nd table, the light again is only hanging 6" from the top of the canopy. Each light is hung by these awesome cheap adjustable hanging straps. So in a second we can raise or lower each light to desired height to accommodate each grow process. So each light is a different "zone" keeps things ultra simple and clutter free.

Flood trays are what we went for because of easy cleanup, and setup was a breeze, we also grow on a perpetual grow so each Flowering tray is 1 week ahead of each other, so we have a crop finishing every week, something that is hard to do on a DWC or different system.

Personally i would LOVE to try a DWC grow one day down the road, looks like a ton of fun, simple, and I love the DIY factor, plus most DWC grows i have seen grow some monsters!

 

[Dejohn]

Bigcorners,

Your post gave me some good ideas for managing the clones and mothers. I'll be looking into some shelving and CFLs for managing those this week.

Do you keep the mothers in soil?

In the meantime............ :volcano:

 

[Bigcorners]

Im glad you got some good info outa what i wrote!

i wish i kept my momas in soil, thats the next step, at the moment all of the mothers are either in a 6" Rockwool cube, or a 4" cube stacked ontop of a 6" cube for extra root space, i would like to get to soil so we can have more space, but when we first setup our moms they were already in the cubes :P they work fine, no mess. We used to use harvest clones every 2-3 weeks, but over the last 2 months there growth has slowed... so were thinking about getting a new mommas going..

-BIG

 

[RollingWeed]

I agree. Insulate the area you want to use, but what protections do you have against pests. A barn is usually pretty much an open area. You must keep the insects away. Once you get them, they are hard to eliminate. Trust me, I made that mistake before.