So it looks like elbow surgery is in the near future, which means I have to give up heavy lifting. Joints just don’t like the strain anymore.
On the bright side, my 4x4 grow tent shares a room in my basement with my weights. The room is 15’x15’; has a sub panel with 3 empty slots; and the well holding tank w/ spigot I use for water.
If I’m successful harvesting my first grow,
I’d like to have a dedicated flower space and a veg space, as well as my seedling/clone cabinet.
I thought the 4x4 would be a good mother tent, if I were to build veg/flower rooms versus tents.
Basement is 800 sqft walkout, and air would intake from 650 sqft open area. One hard rule is no added C/O2. Grow room is right under my bedroom, so I’m not willing to risk that.
My day job is financial risk management, so I am a freak about planning ahead!
Won’t be actually expanding for 4- 6 months, but I can plan and sale shop now.
How about a drawing with measurements of the room and location of doorway and location of lung room…
The better you describe what you want in the end the better we can give you ideas…
It looks more cost advantageous to buildout the room versus adding tents.
Seedling cabinet is fine for setup (light, ventilation, and humidity.)
Hardware on hand:
Hlg 650r w/ uva
ac infinity t6
(2) ac infinity t/s4’s
Knee Jerk thought:
Flower
650r w/uva
Diablo scorpion or 2nd 650r w/uva
-t6 exhaust to outside
Veg:
(2) 600 Hlg 600 bspec
t4 exhaust to outside
Room:
Ac s4 active intake from outside grow room.
This would be an incremental buildout, as that’s easily $3,000+ in lighting, and I’m a hobbyist.
I think the weak link is definitely ventilation. Each space will have hygrometer controlled dehumidifier and heater (Thus far room stays around 66.)
I’m allowed 24-36 plants total. Does this seem like a realistic option for that size? (6-8 in flower, getting mainlined in prep for flower, and some clones taking root.
Appreciate the tag, better let the really experienced folks handle this. I haven’t made it past a 4x8 tent yet. I’d be interested in seeing what you end with.
Tents will be cheaper they already have all the venting options built-in they have someplace to hang lights and fans already there and most important you can move them and rearrange them or Eliminate them easily
The T6 fan will be fine in a 4 x 4 but you’re going to need the T8 or 2 T6’s for the 4 x 8 tent or cabinet if you have six months before you’re going to need this done I would start buying parts and build lights like bulldog did. Also if you have tents you can assemble them and then have someone help you move them around the room for the ultimate set up for your needs. So once you figure out what your needs are as far as tents you can start collecting all the rest of your gear you need.
These are just ideas I’d like to hear from Hellraiser
@Happilyretired I knew I’d need more ventilation. I just wasn’t sure whether 2 tents would be more expensive than partitioning off sections and wrapping with Mylar. Lighting is a wash, but ventilation is a swaying factor.
My room is rough 1,575-is cuft, indicating I need somewhere between 500-600 cfm to turnover the air every 3 minutes. The 4” cloud lines move 207 each, and the 6” moves 407. Though I would have to figure out merging the vents, so I don’t have 3 pipes sticking out the house there.
If you merge the vents you need to put dampers on them because one fan will blow into another tent rather hen go outside, trust me learned the hard way.
I agree with everything @Happilyretired is saying (definitely build lights) , for sure use tents don’t wreck your house. It also keeps the mosture inside the tens better than in your walls aside from what was already said.
Your going to have to vent outside with more than one dryer vent, you know that and that’s gonna be your biggest problem to get over as I can see right now.
I’m not gonna really say more because I belive the forums has a rule about helping large scale operations as they have a consulting service. while you may be legal to grow that much I would like a mod to say something before I go any further because I have a hard time finding any one person needs this type of grow for personal use.
Once approved I’ll be glad to share more of my thoughts
@Nicky the mere need to get mod approval means scope is too big. I’m not an enterprising fellow. I have some family and close friends, whom like me, don’t want to buy pot. That’s the extent of my endeavors. Nature of my old travel audit job, we always expanded to fill our space.
However, I’m enjoying working with the plants and learning. Especially the extended vegetation HST/LST.
We welcome all kinds of growers here. Some commercial like @Dasawman. I personally enjoy larger grows being being put together.
As far your veg space, you should be able to feed the 4x8 sized area with the another 4x4 area. So that may reduce your footprint a bit.
I also would recommend framing in the areas over using a tent, environmental control is easier to manage that way.
Ultimately, I would like to dabble and develop mainlining skills. Perhaps the 4x4 is plenty for a flower room. In my mind, I needed a lot of veg space for training the plants. Also, I know mainlining adds significant veg time.
@dbrn32 I don’t rightly know the answer to that. As a new grower, I assumed I’d operate at about 50% of what the equipment is capable of. My goal is to eventually raise that closer to
If I start producing too much, I’ll have to have friends over more or slow down the number of plants that I flower.
@dbrn32 since you are the all knowing wise one for lighting…
If I have a 4x4 or 4x8 veg area, what is the best light? Obviously 4x8 would mean x2. I love my 650r, so my thought is 600 bspec, but due diligence has me also looking at other options. (ie chilled x6 veg spec and mammoth 400w mom&veg x2 or 4 depending.) But I’m open to suggestions.
@dbrn32 would a couple 300w lights provide ideal coverage to a 4x8 space?
If 4 plants were in flower tent, and eventually mainlining required 4-6 months of veg, I would have 16-20 plants in some stage of veg at any time, under maximum capacity. That’s why I thought 4x8 for roughly 2 sqft per plant for training and room to move around.
That’s not a bad plan. Typical veg schedule is 18 hours, since you get a third more time you can reach same dli with a third less light. And the 650r is already larger than need be for a 4x4 space. Number of plants doesn’t really matter, all about total amount of light over area. So 1 plant that fills a 4x4 or 16 have the same lighting requirement.
Even if you wanted extra light and to be kinda lazy about it, two of the hlg-550 eco could veg nicely at roughly 60% power. But you could totally save some money even from there.
I was in the room breaking down workout stuff and taking measurements. I can source plastic pallets locally for $5 each, and their 4’x4’.
For veg space, I think I will lift 2 of this pallets on cement blocks(already have.) Then I would build a frame 18-24” around that area. That would give me ample room to move around and grow space, I believe.
I’m leaning towards a 4’x100’ roll of 6 mil Mylar on a 2x4 box skeleton with magnetic overlapping door. Seal the seams, and vent with ac t8.
I’m making a shopping list and will acquire everything over the next couple of grows. I’m going to wait until later in the process for choosing a light. I’m excited to learn different areas and techniques, so I may want to build lights.
@dbrn32 Researching lighting based on your previous comments, is there a benefit to the chiled x3 330w diy veg spec vs. either an HLG 260w bspec kit or 300w bspec?
