Planning first commercial grow. Could use pointers.

[Scrogger2190]

So I'm in the process of planning my first commercial grow of 400 plants. I would like to stagger 4 rooms of 100 plants 1 month apart. I have refined the Scrog system on a small scale, and want to bring it into the commercial arena, and see if I can be successful.

I plan on setting up the rooms with 50 lights. 2 plants scrogged under each light in a 4x4 area. Usually takes 2.5 or 3 months veg time from seed, then once phenos are selected it should only take a 2 month veg time on average. I usually range from 1-1.75lb per light. My main concerns are this is a much bigger scale than I've ever handled.

Usually unless it's a defoliation day or chop day( there's only 2 defoliation days and 1 chop day) It only takes a few minutes to feed and water 1 4x4 that contains 2 plants. But at 200 4x4s at 3 minutes a piece, thats a full 10hr. Shift. I plan on automating watering. As far as feeding I've been throwing around 2 ideas. 1. Run pure osmosis water through the drip, and top dress with powders. This could cut time for 1 4x4 down to 1 or 1 and a half minutes. Or the second option is I can run synthetic ferts through the drip as well, eliminating all maintenance labor completely, but opening up the risk of a line getting clogged, and dealing with that headache.

So I guess what I'm asking is. People with experience managing hundreds of plants. What systems do you use for daily management? Do you automate feeding AND watering? Or just watering? How do you manage to get everything done?

 

[GNick55]

So I'm in the process of planning my first commercial grow of 400 plants. I would like to stagger 4 rooms of 100 plants 1 month apart. I have refined the Scrog system on a small scale, and want to bring it into the commercial arena, and see if I can be successful.

I plan on setting up the rooms with 50 lights. 2 plants scrogged under each light in a 4x4 area. Usually takes 2.5 or 3 months veg time from seed, then once phenos are selected it should only take a 2 month veg time on average. I usually range from 1-1.75lb per light. My main concerns are this is a much bigger scale than I've ever handled.

Usually unless it's a defoliation day or chop day( there's only 2 defoliation days and 1 chop day) It only takes a few minutes to feed and water 1 4x4 that contains 2 plants. But at 200 4x4s at 3 minutes a piece, thats a full 10hr. Shift. I plan on automating watering. As far as feeding I've been throwing around 2 ideas. 1. Run pure osmosis water through the drip, and top dress with powders. This could cut time for 1 4x4 down to 1 or 1 and a half minutes. Or the second option is I can run synthetic ferts through the drip as well, eliminating all maintenance labor completely, but opening up the risk of a line getting clogged, and dealing with that headache.

So I guess what I'm asking is. People with experience managing hundreds of plants. What systems do you use for daily management? Do you automate feeding AND watering? Or just watering? How do you manage to get everything done?

those are questions you should know the answers too and already prepared for before starting.. having to ask about those things i’d be inclined to say “do you have the experience/knowledge about everything growing”?
you already know what to do with pests, mildew, mold, viruses, viroids, etc..
than there’s equipment failures or fires.. etc..
so is it worth it?..

 

[Scrogger2190]

those are questions you should know the answers too and already prepared for before starting.. having to ask about those things i’d be inclined to say “do you have the experience/knowledge about everything growing”?
you already know what to do with pests, mildew, mold, viruses, viroids, etc..
than there’s equipment failures or fires.. etc..
so is it worth

I don't really like to talk about experience because many people are very aggressive and flat out mean about things. I have 9 years experience growing. My average yield now is 1.5-1.9gpw. I've used a slew of different nutrient lines, (I prefer roots dry line, paired with their soil) I preventative spray once every 7-10 days with azadirachtin during veg. If something comes up I rotate between azamax and neem until the breeding cycle has been interrupted, and the rest are killed off. As for mold and mildew I use defoliation, and good airflow above, inside, and below the canopy as well as make sure the air that's being pulled in is filtered. I tend to use ro water to try to avoid waterborne pathogens. I've never had a fire, or MAJOR equipment failure. I've had dehumidifiers go out but caught it in time that no mildew formed. I'm not really worried about actually growing the plant. I'm more concerned with division of labor, and how large scale operations handle division of labor. When you get into hundreds of plants labor becomes an issue very quickly. I've managed to do all the labor myself when it's a small scale, however this is about 10x the scale that I have experience with, and the labor division is twisting my brain a little and was just hoping I could have some input from growers that operate on a scale in the hundreds