I would like to improve my previous technique

[Silica]

Ok im getting interested in growing again after a few years away from it and as im moving into a new apartment soon.

I am looking at getting a 2 bedroom apartment, one room for me, one room for my plants and setup and drying etc.

I would like to have a setup like what i used to for a long time but a few improvements on timing etc.

Aswell as fixing some heat,humidity and other problems.

the setup i will be doing will be something along these lines-

Perpetual harvest.

I will be using perlite only as medium, canna nutrients

Veg-
I will be using 1x 250 watt metal halide for veg and 2 mothers, bonzai style mums, other plants in veg in same veg room
-a few 4 ft flouro lights for cuttings and maybe mums if other veg room full.
-semi large plastic cups for vegging plants untill moving into flowering room
8 litre pots for mothers.
growing many strains- keeping two or three mothers out of all of them in the end.

Flowering-
1x 400 watt hps
90 by 90 cm by 180 cm box
pandafilm
wooden home made grow tent like room that dissasembles easily.
air cooled hood
150mm inline extractor
8 litre pots (200 mm)
15 plants in flowering


Problems i had before with this-
(mainly due to concrete building with no roof for extraction)
Humidity, heat and smell and ventilation.
-im hoping the aircooled hood will reduce heat a lot
-maybe it will reduce humidity aswell, but may need to purchase a dehumidifier
-need to purchase better ozone gen, some odor sox..

It doesnt look very stealth leading a duct from the grow room to outside the window.
So i will need to either use an empty AC unit (or a pot plant perhaps)as a dummy that offloads the out take somehow
or maybe just control the environment inside the bedroom better.

I need to block off the windows from the lights and any activity in the bedroom anyway so its probably better to
control the environment inside the bedroom than exuast the air through the window.

Now im not sure how big i should grow.
Or how many plants in flower i want.

What i was doing before was growing a few out in the veg room under flouros but probably not waiting long enough for a decent sized plant.

Now i have a 250w metal halide aswell as the flouros
so more time for veg,hopefully better yeild.

I would like to get an even sized bunch of plants all into flower every 8-9 weeks and harvest every 8-9 weeks.

However what i had was plants of all different sizes as some grew slower but in that way it was too bad as you can put the smaller ones directly below the lights.

Anyway i hope theres not too much in this post, im just looking for suggestions on any of the above
so i have minimal problems.
However i can not spend a lot more cash.

Ps- anyone using odor sox? how do you rate them?

 

[ProGroWannabe]

These are just some random thoughts on the issues you mentioned...
1. I'd grow in tents only, if I were you for a few reasons. The first is that if someone like the landlord, or maintenance were to have to come in, at least you can try the excuse that they are portable closets. May not work, but it's better than them seeing an all-out growroom in my opinion. The second reason I'd go with tents is because you have automatic spill protection if something leaks, as well as light-proofing. With a tent you won't have to worry about the window so much---as far as it showing a mysterious "glow" when the lights are on.

2. Ventilation/odor...I'd definitely give the odor sok a thumbs up based on what another grower on a now-defunked forum told me. He had one that he had been using for a month or two and loved it. Plus!, when your done flowering that round, throw it in the washing machine and wash the damn thing. Once it's FULLY dry in a few days, it goes right back to work. However, since you are in an apartment where you may have to let people in (landlord/maint.) I'd say to install an ozone generator in your ductwork just to be safe....on the exhaust side, of course.

3. As far as how big to grow, I'd let the size of the tent you have, or buy, decide that for me. Whatever floorspace I had would be filled with square pots, grown SOG style. You can get the mommas vegging good so you have enough clones for the next round and do one SOG after another, until you decided you wanted to do a different style. And for the size of the plants before flowering, I'd say 2-3 weeks of veg max. Otherwise you may end up with plants that are way too tall once the stretch is over.

Well there's my two cents......Good Luck

 

[Silica]

Thanks for the feedback.

How much would it cost for a 1mx 1m grow tent cost? i cant find the pricelist.

Not sure if my Karma thing works with me being a newbie

 

[hererisssh]

PGW makes good points silica.

A 400 watt produces a 3x3 usable footprint. Four good sized plants is the way to go IMO. The last time I had a perpetual setup with my 400 I used plants that finished at the same time, give or take a few days. Perpetuals only really work with clones, so if you don't have access to clones you'll need to do a run from seed to find a nice female plant to make a mother out of. Try to find a plant that finishes around 8-9 weeks.

Once you've got a mom for clones, I'd take a few clones each time just to make sure you get one that roots well and has a lot of vigor. Plan on vegging the clone for two weeks. At the end of the first week take another batch of clones. Once the first plant has vegged 2 weeks, force it to flower and start vegging the next clone for another 2 weeks. Rinse and repeat!

By the time your 5th plant is ready for flowering you'll harvest your first, and from that point on you'll harvest every two weeks. I was harvesting a qp per month with minimal veg using fast finishing, sativa dom plant (SSH).

Hope that helps bro. Good luck.

 

[Silica]

Thanks for the tips.
I will be keeping mothers so i will have access to clones.

4 Plants sounds good in flowering.


However the problems im thinking of will be ventilation.
In a concrete unit i might not be able to extract or in take air from/to outside the bedroom.

The problems i had before was too much heat and humidity built up in the room.

This caused problems with clones and seemed to slow down the growth of veg aswell..My veg stage seemed very delayed and no way would a two week old clone be ready to flower.
However i wasnt using an aircooled hood.

I wasnt using odor sox or carbon filter, not sure if carbon will reduce heat or humidity.

-If i have two grow tents- one for flower one for veg-
One small cab for clones.
Im thinking if i extract the aircooled 400w hps
into something i might be able to cool the air before it goes into the bedroom air.
Or maybe cool the air outside the growtent, just cool the bedroom itself.

But id rather not use an AC unit, too much electricity and cost.

the aircooled hood will have incoming air and outgoing air, not from plants air but from the bedroom air.
The plants will also have incoming air and extracted air.

I may need to dehumdify the extracted plants air aswell before it is de-oderised.
Im thinking the odor sox wont work aswell if the extracted air is humid.

So here are a few thoughts on solutions-

- Humidity- Either have duct from lower flowering room
extraced blowing straight into a small cabinet that dehudidifies the exaust air somehow, as cheap and effective as possible.
This cab might have either-
Blow straight into a few layers or socks semi filled with bi-carb soda.
Im thinking this might be a cheap solution and dehumidify the extracted air.

Might have to replace the bi-carb soda here and there but it will also remove some odor aswell.

The the air is deoderised

-Heat- Have a very large esky with 100mm ducting spigot on one side below the lid.
The other side has small holes or maybe one 80mm hole..maybe just a 100mm hole not sure..
You can attach the spigot to ducting or a fan.

Anyway, its easy for me to get free bags of ice every few days.
So to cut costs of AC, i just use this esky full of ice bags to cool the temps.
This can either be ducted into the grow room to simply cool the temps of the bedroom.

I may need to put piping elbowed into the bottom of the esky layed throught where the ice will lay, so it cools down more.

Any thoughts?

 

[HolliHerb]

You could save some electricity if you don't use that 250 for veg. Floros are fine for veg. I keep my mom and clones under a 2' t5 set up. I've kept larger bonsai moms under 4ft t12s along with cuts. I try to save as much power as possible in veg as it sucks up the most power.

keep moms under floros to slow down growth as you don't want that exploding out of control. imo 250watts for veg is too much. Maybe if you still want to veg with 250watter try to use just that for veg. Cuts down power cost unless you just don't care lol :D

Everything else looks good. Cool your reflectors independently from the grow space and have it exhaust out the window or something.

I try to have everything functioning in the most efficient manor possible.

 

[gacktodd]

I think Holli's spot on about the flouros for veg. 250 is excessive especially if you're considering a perpetual set up. spend your saved energy running a blower w/ carbon filter. also, exhausting directly out the window could be a security issue if LEO uses FLIR in your area.

 

[HolliHerb]

True. unless your cooling your reflectors independently away from the grow area. as in pull air trough the reflector from another room (ie. crawlspace, adjacent window.) that way smell wouldn't be a worry and heat is taken out of the reflector using ambient air from another room leaving your cooled grow space, well cool. If you need to cool your reflector taking air in from within the grow space, than you'll need to scrub it.

please caution with smell. big problem.