Help me design 6'x4' basement closet

[Tom Farmer]

I don't like for my first post to be one asking for advice but I have reached a point that I need to get started quickly and if I don't ask now I can easily see myself spending the next 2 months or more doing research before I even buy the first light and I just don't have that much time right now. I am hoping for advice from those who have experience to advise me on how to best achieve my goals, given my limitations.

Lets start with the goal: I need about 1/4 ounce per week for medical purposes. My sole supply source is getting to be unreliable in quality and quantity and I am unable to find another source so I need to start growing ASAP. I have some bagseed to start with, I plan to buy seeds once I know I can properly grow them.

By law I am limited to 12 plants growing at any one time.

My space: Basement closet 6' x 4' with 7' ceiling, this space has a door, 3 walls of unfinished drywall, 1 wall of concrete block, a concrete floor and open floor joists overhead. I want to seal the light in (I don't want my neighbors to see the lights), so I plan to use Panda paper and duct tape to line all interior surfaces. Current conditions in the space are 55F, 55% humidity, I do not believe that normally the temperature would rise by much more than 10F degrees even in the hottest part of the summer. This leads me to believe I should have at least two grow areas inside the space with offsetting lighting schedules in order to raise the temperature on a relatively consistent basis and then use exhaust fan speed to regulate the temperature. This is where I really get lost as to how many grow areas and of what size and what lights to use, considering my goal of 1 ounce of quality bud per month and the need to raise the ambient temperature by 20 degrees on a consistent basis.
A water supply is just a few feet away and a floor drain is about 10 feet away.

I don't want to spend any more than necessary but cost alone probably won't be a limiting factor if it is money that is well spent.

Again, I apologize for my first post being to ask advice but there are so many options available and I don't have the time that I know I would need to investigate them all thoroughly.

Thank you in advance,
Tom

 

[blazinbudsforever]

you could prob harvest 1 0z a month using a perpetual havest with staggered growing of plants, or you could just grow 5 plants at a time (at a oz each) that would be more than enough to last for the next grow to finish up. Maybe a 400W HPS light would do well with intake and exhaust fans going inside the operation. You may want to consider Hydro, or soil? Hydro may cut out some grow time and make bigger plants if done correctly.

Good luck ... what else?

 

[Picasso345]

I hear basement grow and I think of Mr. Green's videos. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UbnBsUEoE0

Another great informative thread is here: https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/116859-harvest-pound-every-three-weeks.html

 

[Tom Farmer]

you could prob harvest 1 0z a month using a perpetual havest with staggered growing of plants, or you could just grow 5 plants at a time (at a oz each) that would be more than enough to last for the next grow to finish up. Maybe a 400W HPS light would do well with intake and exhaust fans going inside the operation. You may want to consider Hydro, or soil? Hydro may cut out some grow time and make bigger plants if done correctly.

Good luck ... what else?

I will look into the perpetual harvest idea.

The problem I think I will have with growing just one crop at a time is that I think the space will cool down too much when the lights are off for 4 to 8 hours. But I don't have experience so I could very well be wrong. My initial thoughts have been two grow areas, each with a 250W HPS?

I am very open regarding hydro or soil. I have some thoughts of trying both. I need advice. Or is experience the best?

Thanks,
Tom

 

[camo]

Hey man thats a pretty good area to be working with my suggestion is to go with hps lighting. Now you need to decide if you want one or two grow rooms.(soil,hydro) either can produce the amount you want i would go with just one room, grow twelve plants harvest and smoke that while you grow again. For a start i would atleast go with a 400w hps it will warm the basement if you want any more ideas let me know i would like to see this happen. sounds like it has a lot of potential

 

[cowboylogic]

Also Tom if you were to insulate the area with like r-13. With it being light and air tight (with the exception of your circulating fans during lights on period) I am sure soil or hydro you would accumulate enough heat in the thermo mass (soil, water ect...) that the temp could easily be brought up and kept from falling back to the 55 as it is in its normal state. Also do not forget to add a few inches of foam board to the floor. That and the block wall will be you biggest heat exchangers

 

[Picasso345]

Kinda depends on your goals too. Is this strictly to get 1 oz a month of bud? Or are you interested in a new hobby and trying different strains and becoming a good grower? How adventurous are you?

I think if you just want the bud, then soil might be the answer. If you think you might do this for a while then hydro/aero might be worth spending the time to learn - it isn't that hard, but it takes a little bit of study.

Using soil and a 400 HPS you could pull 6-8 oz every three months no problem. Quit growing for a few months and then start another grow.

 

[cowboylogic]

Oh ya Picaso, been awhile since I checked out the green man. He is the bomb! Definitly lloves what he does. But then again I guess we all do!

 

[Tom Farmer]

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate all the input.

I spent more time watching the Mr Green series of videos than I have ever spent in total on YouTube. Well worth the hour plus of time, thanks.

I am pretty sure now that I am going to go hydro.

The area is already drywalled, although not finished, and does not appear to be insulated. Screws were used for the drywall, is it likely that I can unscrew them and install insulation at this point? Or maybe it is worth starting over?

But don't I need two areas anyway in order to be cloning? Where would I keep my mothers during a flowering period?

I am willing to produce more than an oz per month but all excess will go down the garbage disposal. I love to learn and experimentation is the only sure way to know...so probably a 2 to 3 oz per month production would be ideal.

Edit: Can someone assure me that the plants will not get too cold down there if I only have one area during a flowering period with the lights off for 12 hours and the temperature of the surrounding basement area at only 55 degrees F? I thought this would be a problem but no one has mentioned this as a potential issue in their responses.

Thank you all,
Tom

 

[Picasso345]

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate all the input.

I spent more time watching the Mr Green series of videos than I have ever spent in total on YouTube. Well worth the hour plus of time, thanks.

I am pretty sure now that I am going to go hydro.

The area is already drywalled, although not finished, and does not appear to be insulated. Screws were used for the drywall, is it likely that I can unscrew them and install insulation at this point? Or maybe it is worth starting over?

But don't I need two areas anyway in order to be cloning? Where would I keep my mothers during a flowering period?

I am willing to produce more than an oz per month but all excess will go down the garbage disposal. I love to learn and experimentation is the only sure way to know...so probably a 2 to 3 oz per month production would be ideal.

Edit: Can someone assure me that the plants will not get too cold down there if I only have one area during a flowering period with the lights off for 12 hours and the temperature of the surrounding basement area at only 55 degrees F? I thought this would be a problem but no one has mentioned this as a potential issue in their responses.

Thank you all,
Tom

I don't think the temps are a problem at all. Ideal is 60-65 at night so 55 is no problem, if it even gets that cold with the plants and heat from the light. It would be cheap enough to run a little heater to raise temps a little bit if you wanted too. I wouldn't worry about temp.

 

[closetspace]

hey,
I grow in my basement.
the walls are all concrete block, and the pots are sitting on the cement floor.
The space is not insulated or heated at all.
I have a 400w HPS. My plants have no problem whatsoever.
I live in a northern state so the basement is fairly cool.

 

[nickbbad]

Dont throw your excess weed in the garbage disposal!!! Make hash out it !!!This will help with those extra hard days and temps should be fine but if you want you could put a little heater there

 

[camo]

if its just drywall you could definitely take it down and put insulation up but like others have said you should be fine with the temp so dont worry to much about it much. Also about the two areas it depends on how many clones you plan on doing and how many mother plants you decide to keep.

 

[Tom Farmer]

Again, lots of great advice, thank you all. closetspace, I really appreciate the very similar basement experience, that put my mind at ease regarding temps.

Today I ran into a new legal limitation, I found that I can only have 2.5 oz of dried, smokable bud at any time. This is in addition to the limitation of 12 plants growing at any one time.

Prior to learning of this new limitation I was working with what I had learned here and thought that I was going to go with a 400w HPS or HPS/MH combo for the flowering area and then some kind of fluoro lighting for a veg area. This was because I spent much of today reading a cabinet SCROG grow journal by cruzer101 and want to work on a similar system: https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/123658-led-t5-veg-400w-hps.html
It really is a great grow journal, he has evolved his system over a few grows and documents it all really well, including pictures, a great read for me.

But now due to the limitation of 2.5 oz on-hand, I think I may need to have 2 or 3 separate flowering cycles going at once. I consume .25 oz per week, so I need to harvest at least 2.5+ oz once every 10 weeks or some other multiple not in excess of 10 weeks (eg, 2.0+ oz every 8 weeks, 1.5+ oz every 6 weeks, etc). I don't think that I can do that with only one flowering area? I also realized that I probably will have no back-up source in the very near future and I must have a reliable supply for myself so it is better that I produce too often/too much and throw away the excess. I also would like to have excess capacity so that I can safely experiment with confidence that if an experiment completely fails I can still meet my .25 oz per week consumption requirements.

So my current idea is to have something similar to cruzer101's cabinet SCROG but without the complications of climbing the walls due to my larger space. I am thinking 2 separate SCROG of only 3 plants each, on staggered cycles, but hopefully sharing one 400w (or 600w?) HPS.
And then a separate veg area, probably fluoro lighting, where I can have 3 plants vegging for the next cycle and the remaining 3 plants that I am allowed can be for used as mothers or possibly having some test plants cycle through the system,etc. Or will I need to have 2 separate cycles of 3 veg plants to meet my flowering schedule?

Now my current questions/concerns:
1. How many different batches do I want to have going in order to have .25 oz per week and never need to have more than 2.5 oz on hand? I think 3 batches of 3 plants works in a hydro/scrog environment but it may be 4 batches, if so could it be 4 batches of 2 so I still have excess to experiment?
2. Can I always use the same flowering lighting schedule for separate grows (i.e., can I share a 400/600w HPS always on the same 12/12 schedule for multiple flowering cycles)?
3. What hydro system should I use? I am going to have multiple systems so probably a variety so I can experiment? Did I mention I need excess so I can experiment? I am an experimenter...even at times just to see what will happen
4. Does this new limitation suggest that another solution than a hydro/scrog is better?

Thank you,
Tom

 

[Syriuslydelyrius]

6x4=24 sq ft. 400w hps(45,000 lumen) would be only 1875 lumen per sq ft. A 600w hps(90,000lumen) would be 3750 lumen per sq ft and this will be better and just as easy to keep cool in a basement.

Yes you can have multiple aged plants in the bloom room, thats sort of the point of the rotation. You could put a new plant in the bloom room every week and harvest one a week as well if wanted. You can do this rotation with whatever medium/system you wish, however to do a rotation in a hydroponic system means your going to want a seperate resivor for the plants in there final "flush" stage.

Other aditional advice would be, research is better than expermintation. So keep reading.

 

[cruzer101]

Hey Tom,

Got your message and thought I would drop in and add my 2 cents.

Now my current questions/concerns:
1. How many different batches do I want to have going in order to have .25 oz per week and never need to have more than 2.5 oz on hand? I think 3 batches of 3 plants works in a hydro/scrog environment but it may be 4 batches, if so could it be 4 batches of 2 so I still have excess to experiment?

I would go with six plants, veg them for two months. Cut two clones from the lower part of each plant and move them to flower. While the six are flowering veg the clones and pick the best six and do it again. You would have six plants to harvest every two months. If you just let them go you should get 1/2 oz per plant. that's 3oz every other month. You would just have to smoke a 1/2 up real quick.

2. Can I always use the same flowering lighting schedule for separate grows (i.e., can I share a 400/600w HPS always on the same 12/12 schedule for multiple flowering cycles)?

Here your talking about a flip flop flower room. You divide your room in half, turn on your ballast and leave it on. The lamp cord is split with a relay that is controlled by a cheap timer. 12/12 flips from one lamp to another.

This won't work for vegging and flowering because you need more time in veg cycle.

3. What hydro system should I use? I am going to have multiple systems so probably a variety so I can experiment? Did I mention I need excess so I can experiment? I am an experimenter...even at times just to see what will happen

I like to experiment too. But I like getting results better. I would suggest you try a system that's tried and true. Then tweak on it.

I chose hydroton because if I screw up, like didn't notice high pH or something and didn't tend to them for a few days I can still catch it and fix the problem. Do that in a bubbler and they are toast.

4. Does this new limitation suggest that another solution than a hydro/scrog is better?

You can have 12 plants, keep it simple. sure you will have an extra six clones but a couple will die and a couple will be runts a couple you just toss.

I would not worry about the insulation in there, I would be more concerned about co2. Six flowering plants at about 3 feet tall will use it up fast in that space. Be sure to exchange the air a few times a day. In regards to temps, its the root zone that is important. You want the root zone temp within 10d of the canopy temp. That way you will get tight spacing between the nodes.
If you go 400w keep the light between 8 and 20" away.
I would make a circle with the plants and hang a 600w vertically in the center about 15" away from them and rotate the plants once a week. Hanging a light vertically without a reflector uses all of the light. Paint the walls white and slap some mylar across the center third of the wall. Get a couple oven liners for $5 and poke a hole in one and run the lamp cord through for a cheap reflector.

Just divide it, light proof it, get an air source, use 5000k to 6500k fluorescent to veg and HPS to flower. If its cool in there grow a strain that can handle it. Sativa grows better in cooler climates then indica. Start with an easy strain to grow. With a little research I am sure you will find what you need.

You may want to look into the cermiac metal halide lamps that are out now.They run on a HPS ballast, Got the right spectrum and last twice as long as HPS bulb.


Good luck

​

 

[ejc06]

I saw that you said you cant have more thane 2.5 ounces of smokeable bud can you have the green dragon on hand
(high proof liquor with extracted thc in it)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCGa4X5Lh6o
it seems like you are using it for medical purposes and the green dragon fucks you up a lot (2 shots and you can be high for like 8 hours depending on tolerence and what not)
I made it with an ounce of regs and made about 5 shots worth the main problem with it is that it isnt cost efficent but if you would just be throwing it away that wouldnt be a problem (you can also use plant clippings stems etc) i used 151 and followed the video step by step.