Room Size

[Optic1]

For my first grow i have a room 14x20' i'm going to use. All flat white. So when i set up my plants, do i need to close up the space around them lets say with some Mylar to keep the light in. Or is that fine with out it. It also has a big southern facing window for a lot of added light. Probably starting 9 plants with a aero setup i saw. So about 1 plant per square foot. if that seems ok. Any idea's or suggestions?

 

[PeteSwitch]

For my first grow i have a room 14x20' i'm going to use. All flat white. So when i set up my plants, do i need to close up the space around them lets say with some Mylar to keep the light in. Or is that fine with out it. It also has a big southern facing window for a lot of added light. Probably starting 9 plants with a aero setup i saw. So about 1 plant per square foot. if that seems ok. Any idea's or suggestions?

The pros recommend 60w per sq ft so for a space like this you will need to have 16,800 watts to light up that room. That's some SERIOUS power & if you're planning on a window grow I hope you're in Australia because I don't know if the sun is up enough to be conducive for a window grow. Enclosing your space with Mylar to shrink the space down to something more manageable may be a great idea. If you're dealing in square meters, that is definitely a lot different.

 

[Devildog93]

If you don't have solid walls, then Mylar might be a poor choice. Great stuff....but only in certain situations. VERY fragile......very noisy when fans hit it and make it flex.....like noticably noisy. Cleaning Mylar can scratch the hell out of it, and/or tear it as well.

Gonna be expensive too. I recommend just simple black/white poly or this stuff called Flashgro

Poly is decent priced, easy to work with. Flashgro is pretty much Mylar, but thicker

Here is a link to it so you can see what it looks like.....Flashgro

Flashgro, that I linked is known under other names as well, but you can get the idea of what it looks like.

I would personally use Black/white poly myself until you know the room is the way you want it.

You might put expensive stuff up, then later on not like your setup....with Mylar of Flashgro, your stuck with pieces of expensive reflect, that don't fit anything.

 

[Downey]

If you don't have solid walls, then Mylar might be a poor choice. Great stuff....but only in certain situations. VERY fragile......very noisy when fans hit it and make it flex.....like noticably noisy. Cleaning Mylar can scratch the hell out of it, and/or tear it as well.

Gonna be expensive too.

i got like 50 mylar blankets for like 20 25 bucks or sumthin like that and that was more than enough and cheaper then the rolls of it that u can get. just my 2cents

 

[Devildog93]

If you don't have solid walls, then Mylar might be a poor choice. Great stuff....but only in certain situations. VERY fragile......very noisy when fans hit it and make it flex.....like noticably noisy. Cleaning Mylar can scratch the hell out of it, and/or tear it as well.

Gonna be expensive too.

i got like 50 mylar blankets for like 20 25 bucks or sumthin like that and that was more than enough and cheaper then the rolls of it that u can get. just my 2cents

If you can guerilla it like that, cheaply....Cool.

 

[canibud]

I would build two four by four rooms in there, away from the window, one for grow one for bloom. what kind of lights are you going to run?

 

[Optic1]

well the 7 ft window is just there it can be covered, but i thought the extra light might help. its a bedroom on the end of the house, im in wine and hops country. Great soil so should just do this outside but i figure my golden retrievers would have a hay day chewin bud . The lights im looking at are 600w mh/hps switchable. I got a 50 amp line under my house when we built it for a possible hot tub. I'm thinking i can just move it and have the GFI ckt right into the bedroom. I'm in planning stages so like devil dog said i might spend money on stuff and not like it. I like the aeroponics setup in the plastic fence posts mainly cause i got some around, but im worried about heat problems i keep seeing, i got a little wine chiller mini fridge i could put some copper coil in and cycle water through, but not sure yet if needed when i add a fogger. I kinda like the idea of splitting the room though but i got a 1200 sq ft garage that i would like to really do this in if i can get it goin, it has hi bays and a 200 amp service in it. But would need some building and heat. I got some seed coming in, Dutch Passion White Widow Feminized and Barneys Farm LSD Feminized, plus they threw in some dinafem ufo 1,2,3 so we will see, i'll try em mistakes are good learning tools

 

[Optic1]

Honestly you guys are the experts, im just wingin it being new and i do appreciate the comments, and i looked at the flashgro sheeting not bad, thanks...Just saw the camping section in walmart sells mylar blankets for two bucks. or http://www.marathonblankets.com/solutions.html

 

[canibud]

If you can keep the res out of the room, I use a 600w with aero and no heat problems. If not use a big cooler as a res.
the window light will screw with your plants more than help.. block it off

 

[PeteSwitch]

well the 7 ft window is just there it can be covered, but i thought the extra light might help. its a bedroom on the end of the house, im in wine and hops country. Great soil so should just do this outside but i figure my golden retrievers would have a hay day chewin bud . The lights im looking at are 600w mh/hps switchable. I got a 50 amp line under my house when we built it for a possible hot tub. I'm thinking i can just move it and have the GFI ckt right into the bedroom. I'm in planning stages so like devil dog said i might spend money on stuff and not like it. I like the aeroponics setup in the plastic fence posts mainly cause i got some around, but im worried about heat problems i keep seeing, i got a little wine chiller mini fridge i could put some copper coil in and cycle water through, but not sure yet if needed when i add a fogger. I kinda like the idea of splitting the room though but i got a 1200 sq ft garage that i would like to really do this in if i can get it goin, it has hi bays and a 200 amp service in it. But would need some building and heat. I got some seed coming in, Dutch Passion White Widow Feminized and Barneys Farm LSD Feminized, plus they threw in some dinafem ufo 1,2,3 so we will see, i'll try em mistakes are good learning tools

You could have ended up with a small problem on your hands after that snow spell & freezing temps that just passed through there recently eh? Remember the rule 60 watts per square foot will have you producing some SERIOUS budded goodness. If you go with a fogger in an aeroponic setup it will SERIOUSLY heat up your res very quickly. If you are worried about res temps then THIS is going to be an issue. If you're looking to build the NFT system out of How to Hydroponics" like I did, it's a great investment that will set you back an initial $60-$80 depending on where you go for the materials. Foggers are OK but the discs burn out, the res temps shoot up & out of control, & the NFT system is going to be easier to regulate. Temps in your area don't start to generally climb into the 80's & 90's until mid to late June so you have a little bit of time to dink around with things in your garage possibly until then & still have time to get to flowering possibly.

The 600 watt lights are an awesome way to go & especially of you have them switchable between MH & HPS. You can construct a pretty mean grow tent yourself out of the aforementioned materials & I'll support the previous idea of having a dual veg & flower room if you're willing to get up to the task. Think of it in terms of you investing a decent amount of money into your grow, do you really want to have 1 harvest & then you are offline for 3-4 months to bring more plants to maturity or possibly go with the perpetual harvest whereby you are able to produce a plant every 1 to 2 weeks or less?

The lights are going to produce heat to help you with heating your space (trust me, I know what it's like to grow in the Pac NW) & in the summer time it can be a real bitch to regulate those temps BUT one thing that will help is if you keep your res on the garage floor on top of a tarp or a grow tent floor of some kind. This helps in the summertime & wintertime. What helped me to regulate temps & humidity in the winter was definitely the investment ofa dehumidifier. It got my grow tent up to 80+ degrees with an RH of 30%!

 

[norcali]

ask me anything.... im doing that size room and i pull over 1lbs per light

 

[tomatogrowop]

Paint or Mylar sound like good options I've seen people staple car sun shades all over there walls before. hell I did it once! Whatever gets you through your grow. If you're never going to have any straight edge guests at your house and don't care if your entire home smells like a ganga farm than ya sure grow straight in the room.

But even if I had an entire empty room to grow in, I would probably still buy a Grow tent. A grow tent will help to keep the area free of pests. And help to control the environment better. If you decide to use CO2, tents are the best option. or if your rez leaks all over the floor, IMO there is no better place for that to happen than inside of a tent that has a spill liner. Tents are great to control the moisture and humidity without exposing your homes walls and floors to damaging jungle weather.

Everyone will tell you go BIG, but it's best to go as big as your area, situation and time permit. You're always going to have to invest something into your grow.

 

[Optic1]

Thanks guys +rep to everyone,

I have done a lot of reading but still cant pull the trigger on what to do, I think the room would be the best to start with, i can control the environment better. I got central a/c can add a a/c unit in the window if needed. I can get 240v to it easy. That big tall window in the room lets in a ton of light from morning till early evening but the down side is it can get hot in there especially late summer when we hit 100 to 105 for two weeks. I might have to block it off or put a a/c in if it is too hot. I would love the window open at times but then again i'm worried about bugs and such if maybe bugs like gnats can get thru house screens. The garage might be better if i get bigger, where now it gets warm in there in the summer too. I would need to do some building to make a room. 30x40 is just too big to control the environment with my budget at this point.. Growing outdoors: were considered a desert area here in south central Washington. Soil is perfect being right here on the river. Sandy loam. But i figured if i can get 3226 caregivers i could grow 48400 plants on my back 10 lol.

So for the room, walls are white but i found the silver emergency blankets like walmart sells for 0.90 to bulk 0.67 cents, so i could wrap quite a bit up with those. Lights I really like the CMH spectrum and might do 2 - 400 watters which are supposed to out do a 1000w and cheaper to run and less heat. Runs in a hps ballast "non-digital" plus bulbs aint bad at around 50 bucks. http://www.growlightexpress.com/pages/ceramic-metal-halide-pv-c0-2.html

So now for the stumper, i like Greg Greens grow bible, reading that and several forums there all types of ways to grow. Dirt, aero, hyydro etc. Pros and cons for all. Was looking at that waterfarm type setups and the uc type. Walked home depoto and costco today, did find some nice square 11 gal buckets w/ the hinged fill and pour lid for 17.99 for two.

So for now i still sit and cannot figure out what type of system to do. Seeds will be here from attitude soon. got email they shipped. To bad i didn't wait till this weekend for their big birthday sale.

 

[Optic1]

Yes i do have a question, just hypothetical. What would happen if you were cycling your reservoir water through a pool pump filter to your buckets. It would catch debris but what would happen to the nutes. I keep thinking of the big filter i have 1 hp lol. And also a big fish tank filter pump that runs through 1 inch lines and turned over a 125 gal salt tank with no problems. I just keep thinking of a system over the top like the undercurrent system.

 

[tomatogrowop]

A pool filter would probably not work right. magnetic pumps will suck all the iron out of your nutes. Oh and about gnats coming through your windows keep this in mind. I grew in a building without windows and still got fungus gnats. peace

 

[Optic1]

Thanks tomatogrowop, i figured that would be the case about the bugs, hell you leave a banana on the counter to long and things fly around. heck you ever see the stuff that will fly around onions even at the store. BTW dude thats some good thinking about the pool pump a magnet would never have crossed my mind,. I wonder though the motor is not in the pump itself. just a thought. The pump is separate on the base but is connected thru the shaft, unless that would magnetize, but i could put 12 pots on that lol damn thing shoots like a fire hose. I got it in the garage nobody ever used the pool. Would need a valve to throttle the output though. let me know if it is improper to post a pic like that too. I can remove if it is.