Unless you are limited by a hard plant count, running large scrogs may lose its luster after some time with a perpetual grow. Whatever you do, I would build in some flexibility and then proceed as you see best.
Building your own will save some cash, and isn’t very difficult to do. If you can post a model or drawing for how/where you plan to have canopy, I can crunch numbers on what you should target for lights and come up with a couple of suggestions for builds.
What do you mean by “limited to a hard plant count”? Like limited in plants? That’s not an issue. I just wanna scrog some so they produce big yields. I want to do some fast grow plants for trials/experiments/sexing clones also so I don’t expect everything to produce great.
I plan on having many different strains/variations. So I’ll basically wanna do a little of it all with each to see how/what each will produce.
I’m a stay-at-home dad and mechanic by skill but this is my “job”! Lol. My wife and I are very heavy daily users and we go through a lot of green! Also, we have friends we “help out” here and there also and with my current production we don’t last from harvest to harvest with one or 2 plants at 3-4week separations
@dbrn32, it’s going to be 19’ long total and 8’ wide, ceiling(rafters) is 8’ 2” from floor. I can do 2 or 3 rooms no preference there. So we have to figure light and reflective surface-.5”-1” reflective insulation boards for ceiling height and I’m going to build the floor on 2” concrete blocks. Basically figure 7’ 2” room height-floor to ceiling
Edit-current harvests have been no more than 2oz/plant so far from short veg periods
@dbrn32, I’m not at all set in any setup yet. Lol. I’m more than happy to check a few ideas you may have for the dimensions I provided.
Right now I am planning on big open rooms with fans mounted to the walls and a ceiling fan in each grow room. Have an itching to mount a few lower wattage LEDs to the walls also…down the road of course!
Right now, I have 8 plants in veg, 2 new autos, so 6 photos. In flowering I have 7. I intend on setting myself up for harvests every 2-3 weeks
You can get a large yield per plant that way, but it’s a lot of time and work to commit to a single plant. Have you ever noticed breeders quote yield estimates per square meter of canopy instead of per plant for indoor grows? That’s because there’s little difference in yield potential from a single plant that size, 4 plants, or 24 plants, provided canopy is managed properly. When you have multiple spaces to pre veg plants changes some things, a long veg scrog doesn’t hold up flowering at all. But it’s also a pain to move large plants around without damaging them. There is an ideal out there for everyone, and its rarely the same for everyone. Since you are home all the time having a larger quantity of smaller plants that you can harvest weekly may help your situation more than harvesting large chunks of your space at a lower frequency too. More or less just putting it out there to leave no stone unturned.
If you look more like taking a few plants per week and those are 2ish zips per plant, that would be significant improvement right?
Two rooms would be enough and could possibly cut down on equipment you need. You could make 3 rooms work too if you see value in that. But you only really need 2 different light schedules, so the two rooms definitely workable.
Height won’t be a problem if you are ok with building. We’ll get you into some strips that offer a lot of coverage and you can run 18" from canopy. What about a 11’x8’ flower room with 36" aisle? I think I can get you about 65 ft² of canopy there and a good amount of access too. Assuming you’re going to give up some space for walls, a 7x8 room with same aisle down middle should feed the flower room plenty good enough. You could probably use a shelves or something too for starting seeds, rooting clones, or young plants. And a good flat white paint offers plenty of reflection, I wouldn’t mess with any special wall coverings for that purpose.
That’s a so much better idea! Thank you!!
That’ll be perfect! All the way around! No need for any of the other for seedlings or cloning. Outside the grow room is still a very large portion of the half of my basement that would suffice for anything other than veg or flower. I can build an external area for all that stuff. Won’t need walls to block lights from cloning or seed starting.
Come to think of it, everything you just said is dead on point to my initial target! I don’t even know, now, why I’d not thought of continuous harvests with faster plants. Like SOG but in continuous cycle-in and out.
The only concern now is strictly lighting. How to light the entire grow without costing more than buying product outright. That’s where I’m in desperate need of help!!
I thank you very much! It’s a great improvement over my plan!
If you want good led lights, the initial cost will be significant. I’m working on something for your flower room. I will post as soon as I’m done
Ok, so if you run an 8x11 flower room with plants all the way around the outer wall and 3’ open walkway, I have a plan. For fixtures, you could build with hlg-320h-c2100a and three SI-B8VZ91B20WW (double row f-series).
Would cost $300 or so per fixture, and you would need 6 fixtures total. This is kind of bare minimum for space in terms of light intensity, but I think you would be pretty happy with results
Ok
3 fixtures evenly spaced on both sides of the aisle. That’d be perfect again, due to height differences in different areas of the flower stages.
Also, I’ve completely scrapped the idea, but I was going to build SCROG carts on wheels to roll from room to room. Either way, more work eliminated by common sense and efficiency idea of yours! I can’t express how much I appreciate the idea to bring a whole new light to my growing!!
“Two heads are better than one”, proven yet again! Lol
Is it worth doing an analysis of his current methods? Because he’s estimating the new grow based off of current yields; however, he could be really inefficient (absolutely no offense meant to the OP).
He didn’t actually specify how much he needs to yield per (insert timeframe).
Right on! Appreciate you pointing that out! However, minimums are all I’m really concerned with. There will be no “over abundance”! Lol. I’ll use it all, give/sell some, make bubble hash with everything that’s “waste” or too old
Thanks @KeystoneCops, that’s a good point!!
I’m going to have a bunch of different strains eventually so I’m hoping to be able to “stock up” on a little bit of everything
I’m combing over your other threads looking for info. I see you’re in soil. Those look like 2 gallon pots to my eye.
What soil/medium are you using?
What are you putting into the soil before/during the grow?
Are you adding anything to your water? If yes, then elaborate please.
Are you at all concerned about odor? Does the mailman come to your door? Do you have relatives/repair people over?
Are you open to growing in a hydroponic system?
Do you have any hard constraints we should keep in mind? That could be physical, philosophical, or legal…
Also, and maybe I’m misreading your explanation, but how do you lose a foot of overall height? I have you at 7’11" by my accounting.
You’re also correct with the whole “assumption” matter. I’m an amateur, no longer a beginner, not quite a novice yet! Lol
I have been pretty inefficient in my techniques as I’m just learning how to maximize yields through training and methods.
Also, I’m a sorta picky grower: I only choose to buy seeds that are very high THC(preferably 20%+, mandatory 18%), and high yielding(400+g/m2) and unheard of/uncommon strains
Everyone has quirks. Some people will shell out all their money on a great light, but skimp on the other essential inputs.
Why would I pay $$$$ for soil. It’s just dirt…
I was actually picturing more of a U shape. If you make the veg room the walk through would be no reason to continue through and out the flower room right? That means instead of taking walkway to wall you could have 2-3’ deep of grow area. I say 2-3’ because as far as you could reasonably reach. Whatever it is, you pickup some extra grow space.
A couple small pots that will be eliminated, yes. 2-fabric 3 gallon pots, 2-unknown probably 2 gallon pots and the rest and future go in 5 gallon buckets. Soil-Base soil: 60/40 Promix/Happy Frog, Topsoil-Ocean Forest.
WAS over feeding with Fox Farm Trio. Now using plain tap water with a Ph of approximately 7.1. No odor issues, actually enjoy the smell. No visitor issues either.
Very much open to hydro setup but it’s constant work with the water, I’m told!
You’re not misreading, I’m very big at low expectations so I was adding 6” for flooring(2” concrete blocks will be supporting the floor) and 6” for ceiling and lights/hangers. Estimated 7’ 2” between bottom of lights and floor
You are correct. But the most efficient way to grow doesn’t always work for everyone. Some people are dead set on growing organically, which can be really expensive. Even with synthetic nutrients some people will refuse to go away from what they know when there are much cheaper options available. In regards to pot size, you only need a big pot if you’re going to grow a big plant. That takes time, and time is money.
There is usually a happy a medium that varies from person to person. I like to recommend new growers try every growing method they feel reasonable and see for themselves. Maybe not right away, but we can always learn so it’s best to be open to new ideas.
I would need room-to-room access to switch. Also need exits from each room because that’s where I smoke cigarettes, in the basement, so sometimes I’m down there when only veg is lit…
Have you been tracking the temperature in your basement? I’m going to guess it’s varied throughout the day/year and dependent on where in the room you’re measuring.
Yes sir!! I have hygrometers in each space. Sort of varied. But not by a whole lot. It’s a semi-heated/cooled basement. My highs in summer were about 82 and now like 75. Lows in summer were down to 72 and now 64