My office

[ogbluntdoc]

This room has been a work in progress, it started as one 4x4 corner tent, then to a 4x8 room, and finally the whole room is now full flower. some of the equipment is not ideal by any means but is working and has worked as our room progressively got bigger. i will soon be exchanging out equipment for the right items, ill go over this later. I have years of growing experience, but my joy for trying new things and learning how to grow in different ways has always given me challenges. And right now my room is being a challenge for me so I am reaching out to the Farm for advice. I will do my best at explaining things, i have taken pictures but they are from a shitty iphone so there yellow and some have the bars or stripes running through them so bare with me on the photos and do your best to make out what i describe. :)

* 10x12 room
* (4) 1000 watts vented with a 6"in fan
* (3) 6" hoods and (1) cool tube. these hoods are putting out heat like the freakin sun, they are way to small and are not sealed very well around the glass.
* 8x36 carbon filter with 8" fan exhausting air out of room
*small intake fan from outside fresh air. idk the name of it but its old and small, puts out power between a 4"-6" inline fan. way too small i know, my next thing to get is a 10" intake fan should have that later this week.
*10,000 BTU portable A/C
* (2) wall mounted fans (1) box fan on the ground blowing under tables

now for the grow part...

* (4) 4x4 tables on casters, with white PVC roofing material to drain into gutter at side of table each table has gutter that drains to bucket.
* currently 3 of the tables have beds and 1 table has about (30) 1 gallon pots.
* (4) 35 gallon reservoirs with pumps to each table
* irrigation is separate to each table as each table is on a different time schedule.
* water manifolds divide water into 1/4'' tubing to each plant site. no drippers, I use "T" connectors and let the water just pour out. the "T" gives it a split and put water in each direction rather than just letting the water flower right out of the tube.

Nutrients...

Botanicare KIND (base, grow, bloom) Grow is used during a transition phase of weeks 1 and 2. Some of my strains require the grow to be in the mix. others like the blueberry does much better without it. So the "transition period" that the KIND schedule recommends is strain specific.

Add-ins...
Armor-Si (wk1) HydroGuard (wk1) BioBud (wk1-2) Cal-Mag (wk1&3) Budswell Bat guano (wk 3-7) Terpinator (wk 3-7 I just started using this), MOAB (wk 4-7 I just started using this)


ok here is my problem... room temperature is 88-94 degrees. and during lights off its 75-80. Now i know i need more fresh cooler air, my outside air is 65-74. I also need better hoods, bigger.

the AC lowered my temps by 2-3 degrees. its a 10,000 BTU i thought forsure it would have taken care of the problem but it didn't. i think my setup is wrong. i think im working against myself or something. Before the room upgrade, i had 3000 watts in half the space and my temps were a perfect 76. i doubled the room size added 1000 more watts and im now in the 90's. WTF!!!!

second problem, smaller not as bad as the heat. but it was recently moth season and a couple made there way into my garden. now my new plants that i just put in which are nice and young have holes in there leaves and bug damage. i put in two strains on one table. the bug damage is only one one of the strains the Afghan Kush Special. they aren't going for the white fire which i thought was weird) i have found 3 green worms on the underside of the leaves. about 3/4" long. how do i get rid of these????

So please help me with any advice possible. I am ready to listen to any constructive criticism. I have been growing by myself and teaching myself from forums online. Even though im now in the great state of Colorado, ive still never had someone who knows more than me help me in person. so my experience is my own and from people like you here on the farm.

 

[ogbluntdoc]

 

[MysteryChild]

Your going to need an 18,000 BTU air conditioner to manage that room
Portables are kinda bunk
Mini Splits are the way to go
Also upgrade to 8" hoods or run a sealed room
Add Co2 to combat heat

 

[ogbluntdoc]

 

[ogbluntdoc]

im trying to avoid co2. do you think when i upgrade the hoods to 8" and bring in 10" fresh air it will be enough.

Also as of last night i disconnected the exhaust from the filter. so now its just acting as a scrubber. i am trying this to see if i am just sucking out the air faster the the fresh air and ac can cool it

 

[ogbluntdoc]

Im thinking of ditching the portable ac because yea, its shit. and putting in a big window unit. mini split isn't really an option here. as far as i know. im not to knowledgeable about them. don't they have a fairly large unit on the outside of the room?

 

[KiLoEleMeNt]

I just got done putting an pioneer split ac in my room the cost was lower than I thought, and the outdoor unit is very small I would say 1wx2 1/2 L x2h. Now it can be put on the ground or mounted on the wall outside and the hookups go through a small 3" hole u place behind the indoor unit, also did not make my bill go up in fact my bills have gone down since iv gone completely sealed and got rid of my many, many exhaust fans and portables/window units then I was even able to rid myself the the dehumi as the split dose that even better I would completely recommend doing this.

As for the green worm problem I would recommend using a capsaicin spray with a lil tiny bit of soap for those buggers they hate that it burns the shit outa them I personally like the hot pepper wax insect repellant but home made stuff works fine.


P.S.
Your room looks great hope all goes well for you and you turn it into exactly what you want will be fun to watch it go as you keep us updated

 

[MysteryChild]

im trying to avoid co2. do you think when i upgrade the hoods to 8" and bring in 10" fresh air it will be enough.

Also as of last night i disconnected the exhaust from the filter. so now its just acting as a scrubber. i am trying this to see if i am just sucking out the air faster the the fresh air and ac can cool it

Understandable and yes when you upgrade it will help a bunch
Glad to see your using the filter as a scrubber

Im thinking of ditching the portable ac because yea, its shit. and putting in a big window unit. mini split isn't really an option here. as far as i know. im not to knowledgeable about them. don't they have a fairly large unit on the outside of the room?

They have DIY quick connect mini splits available
I've installed two by myself
Takes about an hour or two for installation
You can put the outside unit in the attic or outside like intended

 

[KiLoEleMeNt]

im trying to avoid co2. do you think when i upgrade the hoods to 8" and bring in 10" fresh air it will be enough.

Also as of last night i disconnected the exhaust from the filter. so now its just acting as a scrubber. i am trying this to see if i am just sucking out the air faster the the fresh air and ac can cool it

I would assume that you are dead on in that assumption when I first sealed my room without my window ac it was cooler already just do to hoods being sealed I also feel that portable was able to handle the still air way better than my constant pull and evac

 

[ogbluntdoc]

thanks for the responses everyone. I have been able to lower the temps a few degrees by scrubbing the air rather than exhausting it. although i do feel i need to exhaust something. so i might use a 6in fan, hook it up to a smaller filter and turn it on only at night just to exhaust stale air.

i am harvesting the blueberry tray in less than a week so once that comes down i will have the $ to get new hoods. and a 10in intake fan.

 

[ogbluntdoc]

the second to last picture i posted. shows my grape 13 table. there in 1 gallon pots. if you look at the leaves you will see that they are damaged. its the first time growing this strain and am trying to find out what they are telling me. is it a really bad cal-mag problem or something else? some of the leaves started turning brown very early. and hasn't been able to correct itself. bud development, seems to be a little slower than my other strains. but i can't tell if it was due to the problem or just the strain.

 

[Thoth]

Might be a potassium problem, though this kind of thing isn't my strong suite.

 

[ogbluntdoc]

current strains in this room are, blueberry, grape 13, hong kong, white fire, and afghan kush special.

 

[KiLoEleMeNt]

the second to last picture i posted. shows my grape 13 table. there in 1 gallon pots. if you look at the leaves you will see that they are damaged. its the first time growing this strain and am trying to find out what they are telling me. is it a really bad cal-mag problem or something else? some of the leaves started turning brown very early. and hasn't been able to correct itself. bud development, seems to be a little slower than my other strains. but i can't tell if it was due to the problem or just the strain.

The very first thing that comes to mind the way you explain it for me is root rot/ fungi / mold in the soil? However this is not quite what the pictures show but you may have pulled any brown leafs off before pictures if you have had any totally dead/brown not tan yellow its some sort of rot for sure, with the picture provided though I will have to say not only could it be cal/ not mag problems or manganese not mag problem have you put any type of cleaner in them from start like a flush or a kleen in your rez if you have one

You are also looking slightly potassium deficient according to my charts this I can not attest to for sure but IMO I would also say this is so due to the rust on the edges of your leafs

 

[ogbluntdoc]

i haven't removed any leaves, and only 2 or 3 have leaves have completly died and fallen off but they were also way below canapy not getting much light.

this table with this issue has individual pots, with plants at identical stages and size. but i have noticed some of them will dry out much faster and others sometimes don't feel like they need water at all. So i will take a closer look when the lights turn on to see if the ones that are not drinking as much have the problem more than the ones that dry out. this should help me determine if there is rot or mold or something in the pot.
next rez change i will do a clean water flush on them and test the runoff. im going into week 6 so pretty much almost done.

 

[KiLoEleMeNt]

At the point of six weeks I would just not worry about it! Its kinda to late but it is good to identify the problem and try to do a little fix so u don't take a huge loss on it and can be more prepared for issues the next time after postin my reply I went and search it out for a bit to try and back up my info on defiance and it would seem I was dead on you can look for your self here https://www.thcfarmer.com/community/threads/there-is-no-such-thing-as-a-cal-mag-deficiency.62747/
I would say your salty locked and potassium defiant from these charts and convo in place

 

[ogbluntdoc]

i follow that same chart in fact i have the picture saved on my phone so i can pull it out and compare right away in the garden. I was very busy and didn't notice the problem fast enough and when i did notice it i didn't really do anything about it. so it is my fault its still an issue at wk 6. This was the first time running the strain and as always i take that as a learning experience. the next time will be much better.

Thanks for your advice and help kilo

 

[ogbluntdoc]

last night when i went in the garden, two of the wheels for one of the tables had snapped off, ( im horrible at construction) so its just one problem after the next. now i have to figure out how to put the wheels back on with a huge heavy bed sitting on top. maybe ill just take the other two wheels off and keep that table stationary. only reason i have them on wheels is because i have to push them to the corners and sides of the room in order for me to have room to walk between the tables and access them. The table thing was something i had always visioned doing. 4 separate tables 4 different reservoirs 4 different harvest times. but the tables have been more of a pain in the ass than anything else. So im debating scratching the whole design and figuring something else that will be easier for me to navigate the room.

 

[KiLoEleMeNt]

I like tables and see lots of very successful grows with them on large scale and small but as you are saying its hard to get around them n a small room stationary is not the best option as they need to move from time to time when they are full even but when you have no room its more about location, location, location, than anything with the small room you have I probably would scrap it and start over but same idea just more narrow tables with more walkways however pictures are lies so I would say take a good hard look at what you have and try and figure a way you can place them all dead center but stii be able to stand in the middle of the room like a ( + ) I would say growing is such a personal thing that no one person is going to be able to put a room together for you its up to you otherwise you take a great risk at failing hope this will help some but don't take it to heart

Ps as for wheels don't waste your time or money on casters get the ones that look like shoping cart or lawnmower wheels they are super spendy like $25ea but have a huge mounting surface for screws or bolts and are way worth it in the end you will thank me later they are in the grden section near the shovels n such

 

[ogbluntdoc]

So i discovered a big reason why the room is so hot. this room is in the basement. the windows half above ground and half underground level. So outside around each basement window there is a open space all the way down to the bottom of the window. most people have them covered so leaves, and junk don't blow down into them and get stuck and build up with junk. ours were just open, so you can look down into them and see into the windows if there was not blinds or covers. So since we had exhaust tubes and intake tubes at each window it was very clear to anyone that just looked down. and this window is right next to the front door. So we decided to cover these openings outside, it looked legit because we now just fit in with our neighbors and everyone else who has these over there basement windows. we thought nothing of it except, better security. well the heat that we were pushing out these windows was not able to escape as freely as it needed to. and the intake also wasn't able to bring in efficient air. so it was bringing in warm air from around the room not from outside. i removed these covers. now you can feel a rush of hot air coming out of them from the outside, and the intake air temperature actually feels like the temperature of outside. before i could not figure out why my intake air was hotter then it was outside. lol. so long story short my room temp has gone down to 82-88 depending on outside air. so i obviously still have work to do. but coming from 89-95 its a big improvement.

im thinking of changing to two tables. maybe a 3.5x8. the length is fine, the room is 10x12 so when my tables are 4x4 i have very little room on the 10ft wide part of the room.So im thinking if i cut it back just half a foot on both it gives me an extra foot of space. And if i make them stationary with an isle down the middle it would be a little more practical. then they can just be on a slant high in the back and low up front by the isle with the same gutter/drain system. it would require recentering the lights, tearing down the current tables and reconstructing new ones. 2x3 wood is heavy and bulky. im now thinking its worth it to buy tables made to hold hydro trays.

my partner in this came in and did the waterings last night, and saw the filter disconnected and since i forgot to mention to him that i took it off he put it back on wanting to be safe cause i guess i looked like it might have just fallen off. so the filter is not scrubbing anymore and is exhausting.i will check temperatures for a few days with it this way. and then take it off and compare if its better to just scrub the air