Down the rabbit hole

Hi all.

New grower here looking for some guidance. Luckily I stumbled across this page and this appears to be a great place to go for educated help.

I recently acquired my Missouri medical marijuana license and growers license and am looking to get our first grow started once I have enough knowledge to guidance to get the ball rolling. I have a small amount of cannabis knowledge which is growing daily.

Missouri allows for 6 flowering plants and a number of non flowering clones or seedlings. Our plan is to have plants in various stages so that we can optimize our growing time and space. My wife will aslo be getting her doctors recommendation Monday so that ups us to 12 flowering if we wanted.

We are planning on setting up in a windowless decent size 1 car garage 12’x24’ ish.

I am looking at the following items to get started. However I am still researching everything we may need. The list keeps getting larger and larger.

  1. ENCLOSURE : OPULENT SYSTEMS 96"x48"x80" grow tent for the larger flowering plants.

  2. ENCLOSURE 2 : OPULENT SYSTEMS 48"x24"x60" for smaller non flowering plants.

  3. VENTALATION : We are looking at the AC Infinity cloudline t4 or t6 depending on what required cfm for the tents. Also looking into if we will need an intake fan as well to prevent negative air space issues.

  4. AIR FILTRATION : iPower or similar inline carbon air filter.

  5. TESTING EQUIPMENT : Apera Instruments AI311 ph60 for PH. We have a few random moisture testers already but open to suggestions.

  6. SOIL : still researching as this is one of the many crucial components with a big learning curve. We are looking at fox farms happy frog to get us going possibly. However I would like a cheaper quality alternative or DYI solution.

  7. NUTRIANTS: another big learning curve here. Still researching.

  8. SEED: As this is our first grow I am looking at something resilient such as Northern Lights and another undecided strain.

  9. POTTING: looking at fabric pots.

This is about where we are at for now. We certainly appreciate any input and give our thanks in advance.

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Welcome! I way too much of a newb to even try to give you my opinion. I’m sure others will belong shortly. This is a great site.

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thanks. I tried editing the giant font that appeared for lines 2-5 but it will not let me.

Welcome and here’s a few salient points to ponder:

Lighting is the single most important component of your grow. LED’s are the admitted King of lighting tech with the caveat that there are a lot of sub-standard LED fixtures. Do your research.

What is your budget and what is your desired yield?

How many strains will you be doing? If only one you could set up a Mother plant in soil and use that plant to produce clones (12) that you flower out every 2 1/2 months. You can expect about a pound every 2 1/2 months, give or take.

Or, with limited plant counts you can in the larger tent put out some larger trained plants that can yield well depending on lighting.

Soil is fine and recommend you stick to a proven soil line for your first grows. You should get an equal amount of Fox Farms Happy Frog and Ocean Forest. 5 gallon fabric pots for a medium plant, 7 gallon for a bit larger.

You need a digital TDS meter to measure PPM when adding supplements just as you need to keep water in correct PH range. (6.3 to 6.8).

If you become serious about this there are other growing techniques that can jump yields. Hydro, soilless etc but can get technical.

If you are planning on providing the same product to a clientele you will want to do the Mother/clone routine as every seed will be different. Just an FYI.

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Temperature and humidity control. Is your garage space insulated and conditioned? Are you using the entire garage or dividing off a section for the flower and veg tents (smaller space in order to control temp & RH). Missouri is not noted for its dry arid climate.

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Thank you for the reply. garage space is not conditioned. This was a main talking point today with my better half. it gets quite hot and humid here in missouri. It stays moderatly warm during the winter. nothing a space heater doesnt fix.

It is something you will need to address. High temps and high humidity during flower is something you want to avoid. This might be on point Cannabis Temperature Tutorial | Grow Weed Easy

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Thanks for the input.
my main goal in all this at the moment is to provide a safe, legal cost effective source of quality cannabis for my wife who has peripheral neuropathy.
As far as budget were not skies the limit and I love to get a good deal. but we dont want cheap junk thats not going to work right.
Were looking at 2 strains probably at the mostright now. Especially during this learning process.

thanks again.

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we are defiantely going to be rethinking our entire plan. I dont see anyway to get the garage cool enough in those humid months.

Well a bit of time has passed since I started this topic(23 days). I’ve devoted much of that time(to much according to my wife) to learning as much as I can and collecting what I need before germinating a single seed. I have found that the huge amount of scientific knowledge required to successfully cultivate quality cannabis can seem overwhelming. Thankfully there is a vast amount of knowledge in places like ILGM with friendly helpful folks willing to lend that helping hand.

When I last post I was having very real concerns regarding environmental control and ventilation.
Our plan was for a tent grow in our garage which were are going forward with.

Over the course of the past 20 days I have been watching the temps and taking humidity reading on multiple devices.
What I have found is that our garage stay the same temp or lower than the rest of the home. A thick concrete wall on one side and a wall adjacent to a room thats always 70ish on the other. The garage door itself is also insulated. inside the garage I am Averaging 68-73F and 46-52 RH during the day. The hottest day so far was 98F with +70RH outside. In the garage it was 72F with a RH of 52. These reading are with just the house AC on and set to 70ish and a single fan on low blowing in the garage and Leaving the interior door to the garage open. If i open the exterior garage door however all that goes away in an instant and takes about an hour to come back to those levels.(worst case scenario). Something we wont do.

I still have RH concerns however. At night the RH outside gets into the 80s and creeps up near 60 in the garage with the door closed and no fan running. This leads me to believe that with lights and plants in a 4x8 grow tent during flower I would need to obviously keep the ac set at 70 and possibly run a dehumidifier. I plan on picking up a unit to dehumidify the downstairs area which which will most likely keep the grow area in check. Even if the dehumidifier raises the room temps by a few degrees which it shouldn’t with the air exchange being right there I will still be good. If any of this doesnt sound good please reply.

I have Picked up a FEW items for the grow since last post as well. :rofl:

  1. opulent systems grow tent 96x48x80
  2. 8: KB-QB288 with Lm301B Diodes and CREE XP-E2 660nm reds. (my wife said my face looked like Clark Griswalds from Christmas vacation when I turned one on)
  3. 4: HLG-240H-48B Mean Well drivers with dimmers.
  4. 1: AC Infinity Cloudline T8 Exhaust fan
  5. 1: AC Infinity Cloudline T6 Intake fan
  6. 1: AC Infinity 8" carbon filter
  7. 1: iPower 6" carbon filter
  8. 1: Apera PH 60 ph tester. (comes in handy for wifes fish tank ) and a bottle of 3m KCL Solution.
  9. 1: HoneForest tds,ec, temp meter
  10. 1: Acurite RH temp gauge
  11. 1 each of general hydroponics PH UP and Down. 8oz
  12. 1: vivosun green led headlamp
  13. 1: 1A10BC fire extinguisher
  14. 1: Camco 400043 taste pure water filter(have a hose bib in the garage)
  15. 2: BN-link 7 day timers(dual outlet)
  16. 2: Vivosun 10x20.75 seedling heating mats
  17. 2: Vivosun digital heat mat temp controllers
  18. 1: Kuman KW48 electrical usage monitors
  19. 2: echo gear 12 outlet surge protectors
  20. 1: Delxo 10-Pack 5 Gallon Grow Bags
  21. 1: 20 pack of dual sided yellow stickies for bugs.
  22. 20 White Widow FEM (photo)

Picking up fox farms Happy Frog and Ocean Forest tomorrow from the local shop.
I also have on my list.
Gro pro Nx Pot elevator
trays for water
baster
duct work
extension cords of various gauge.
propagation trays
gorilla tape for the leaky ass tent.
Random fans
Tons of other stuff that I will need.

I am undecided on my propagation medium however. Suggestion more than welcome.

As for power. I have two 15 amp circuits I can pull from and a 30 amp I can safely and discretely run a heavy gauge cord to that only has a garbage disposal on it.
I plan on mounting the drivers and controllers outside of the tent on a wall on some heavy wood or fire rock with the drivers slightly elevated with washers or grommets for air flow.

Were planning on between 6-10 plants as advised in the tent. we can have 12 but that seems like a huge handful for a first timer.

I feel as if I am getting close to being ready and feeling confident we can do this. I mean look at all this stuff. We are in it to win it at this point so no turning back.

Thanks for all your input. Any advice is greatly appreciated and welcome.

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I’m still tuned to watching brother :v:

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As far as mounting the drivers outside of the tent. I have been reading and seeing suggestions of 18g and 16g solid core wire @300v. Can I run a more flex able wire up to the board then make the final connection with the supplied 18g solid core? And If so what would be best? I just worry about moving that solid core wire to much while adjusting lights and such. thanks

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I just used SO cord from Lowes. Looks like a piece of black extension cord. I would post a picture but, the site is not letting me post photos

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my lights changed the room temp 10 degrees and the bigger my plants got the higher the humidity got. the dehumidifier and a/c saved my grow

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thanks for the replies. Spent some time today taking measurements and gathering electrical supplies and the wood to mount the drivers, surge protectors and displays and such.

I also shortened the potentiometer cable by a good 8". I need to shorten the power cables also as they are 8ft and I need maybe 8".
No soil yet the local shop didn’t get the Fox farms Happy frog in yet. Not a big deal as I am not quite ready. Still taking my time getting everything setup.
It was stupid humid today and still is, 81RH outside now.
Garage is holding at 54RH with little ac and not much air circulation. I planned on ordering the dehumidifier but ended up making 4 trips to lows instead. Looking on amazon however there is so many to choose from.
Thanks again for the looks and input.


Planning the layout of the mounting board.

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Well I got a a bit done yesterday. Electrical is done for the lights aside from the long ass power cables I need to shorten up.
Ill be Installing the ventilation system today as well. 8" cloud line t8 exhaust/ filter and a 6" cloudline t6 intake/ filter. I am still undecided on how to mount the exhaust. It’s most likely going outside as I don’t want to waste the headroom. Any input is greatly appreciated.
I know i haven’t asked a lot of questions yet but the threads have been invaluable. ILGM forums and guides are awesome.
emphasized text

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8" beast. well at least to me. Took it out of the box, sat it on the floor in the garage and instantly scratched the paint on the bottom. :frowning:

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continuing here @ my grow journal Golgi apparatus

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