1st Grow - 25 Plants - HELP PLEASE! Grow Room Set-Up Review

JLewbowski

JLewbowski

Member
[FONT=&quot]I would really appreciate any advice/input you could give me on my first grow.

I have not purchased everything yet, but would like to this week! This is the planned set-up:[/FONT]

  • [FONT=&quot]I have a 12x12 sealed bedroom, lined in Mylar, dedicated to this grow.[/FONT]
  • [FONT=&quot]This will be a soil grow starting with 25 female clones (Indica - OG Kush)[/FONT]
  • [FONT=&quot]Starting clones in seedling pots...then replanting into 3 gallon pots...finally graduating into 6 gallon pots. (Is this correct? Do I need an intermediate 1 gallon pot?)[/FONT]
  • [FONT=&quot]Five (5) 1000Watt HPS Lights/Hood (on adjustable chains) with appropriate matching Digital Ballasts on an Automatic Timer.[/FONT]
  • [FONT=&quot]All wired by an electrician (nice to have the brother-in-law hookup)[/FONT]
  • [FONT=&quot]Room will be equipped with: Intake/Exhaust system with Inline Puck/Vortex Fan & Exhaust Fan - on Dimmer Switch to Regulate Temp * Activated Carbon Can Filter with Sound Muffler * Oscillating Fans * Soil pH Tester * Thermometer/Thermostat * Hygrometer & Humidifier * CO2 Generator & CO2 Monitor * A/C Unit (just in case) * Fire Alarm/Extinguisher *30 Gallon Water Tank w/ Aerator * Flushing Station*[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Any comments/suggestions/advise on my proposed setup would be greatly appreciated! Any obvious mistakes? Am I leaving anything out? Thanks in advance for sharing your expertise.

- Jeff[/FONT]
 
rizou

rizou

Member
you are starting your first grow with 25 plants??? o_O good luck mate. You've got way more courage than me hehe
 
igorskee

igorskee

Well-Known Member
rizou said:
you are starting your first grow with 25 plants??? o_O good luck mate. You've got way more courage than me hehe
Click to expand...
But since he has good equipment, big room, whats the difference between 2 plants and 25 plants? If he prepares water, atmosphere, soil, if he does not overwater or overfeed etc... No problems at all.
i am sure this grow will end up just fine.
 
igorskee

igorskee

Well-Known Member
If you want, check my grow thread. I am also updating it with harvest pics today. But, i wrote a lot about general rules so welcome expand your knowledge. Since I wrote not the theory you read everywhere, but the experience I gained for no failure. Theory is wide and sometimes is confusing. Experience only matters with good pre-knowledge of plant behaviours!
 
igorskee

igorskee

Well-Known Member
I grew 20 plants under ONE 600W ;)) The results were tons of buds. The only thing with one bulb on 20 plants is that you have to turn them alot, spin arroudn so tehy all get enough of light ;) Anyway, good luck.
 
JLewbowski

JLewbowski

Member
Thanks for the knowledge Igorskee, I'll most def check out your grow thread. I'll admit I'm intimidated about this first grow, but I'm trying to arm myself with as much information from veterans such as yourself so I can avoid the most obvious pitfalls like over-watering/over-feeding. Thank God for the Internet!! Thanks again.
 
hellraizer30

hellraizer30

Rebel From The North
your first with 25 is way cool, you will get around a pound a light on the low end if things dont go wrong. pot size is allowing you to grow big plant
and thats good for more yield, make sure veg them up good to make good use of all that soil. 5 1000 is going to get hot so watch the temps close,
as for the CO2 is a waist since your going to vent so much hot air out co2 wont have time to build up in the room. and OG kush is bomb shit, you should do
a grow journal good luck +rep
 
JLewbowski

JLewbowski

Member
Thanks for the advise HellRaizer30, I was wondering if the CO2 generator was worth it with all the air movement, I guess people only do that with low wattage, less heat?​
 
hellraizer30

hellraizer30

Rebel From The North
JLewbowski said:
Thanks for the advise HellRaizer30, I was wondering if the CO2 generator was worth it with all the air movement, I guess people only do that with low wattage, less heat?​
Click to expand...
a sealed room with a ac unit would be the Ideal setup with c02 but with that many light there going to be monsters anyhow c02 not needed
 
Snow Crash

Snow Crash

Well-Known Member
You have the whole thing covered in mylar, but then you're going to cut a hole and vent the heat from the lights out a window? If I get that right. Plus and an AC system...In window? Portable? BTU's? Are you worried about people walking past the place and hearing hundreds, if not thousands, of cfm pouring out the bedroom window?

A 12x12 with 5000w is going to need an assload of cooling. If you are going to run CO2 then what you will want to do is configure your ducting and ventilation so that you pull cold air in from outside the room, through the ducts, and then back outside. This way you don't exhaust your CO2. Then you use the AC system (ventilating heat outside as well) to keep the residual heat in check. You'll definitely need a decent dehumidifier ($200 on the cheaper end) to handle the transpiration from the plants as well as the evaporation effect when keeping your temps above 80 for optimal 1200ppm+ CO2 levels. You also need a monitor and controller for the CO2 system to keep the levels in line or you're wasting it.

Basically, the environment needs to be perfect to get the full effect of CO2. Focus on Environment first, CO2 later.

Depending on the cut of "OG Kush" you get (because of all the names this is the most abused) real OG isn't a very high yielder. With the CO2, 144 sqft, 5000w, 25 plants, and a perfect grow I think you are looking at a harvest of at or around 4000 grams given the space and the lighting. To be perfectly honest you should plan on losing a few clones, and harvesting much lighter than "optimal." Figure 2500 grams would be typical for a first time grow of this size if things went a bit south; which it probably will. I'd suggesting using nothing larger than 3 gallons. You only have about 2.2 sqft per plant, and that's without walking room... The 6 gallon planters are going to hold too much moisture for the size of the plant, the root system, and the length of the grow. You can do everything you want in a 3 gallon. Start in party cups for 2 weeks. Then transplant to a 1 gallon planter. another 2-3 weeks. Then transplant to the 3 gallons and run until the finish.

This whole setup sounds like oh... $5,000 to do right... maybe a little more or less depending on quality. You definitely are going to need a lot of guidance to make sure you don't blow that cash.

My suggestion. Tell us exactly what timer you want to get. The ballasts, the bulbs, the reflectors. Tell us the soil you want to get and how you plan on amending it. Let us know if you have access to a hydro store or if this is an online order thing. Did you already get all the mylar, Marklar? I think the more brand specific you can be, and letting us know what resources you have available readily, will help us better tune this garden.

I can suggest a $1000 setup, or a $10,000 setup for this same space. It's up to you what the goal is here.
 
Snow Crash

Snow Crash

Well-Known Member
It is all about vegetative life when determining a container size for a soil grow indoors. Figure, 1L per week. A 3 gallon planter contains 11.34 liters of soil. That's good for about 12 weeks of growth. You could totally push it to 14 weeks though. That'd be a 5-6 week veg and a 8-9 week flowering no issue.

I figure your plants will finish around 3 feet tall in a container of that size. 5 gallon planters are okay too, but they're better suited to longer vegetative periods and for growing 5-7 foot monster plants.
 
mrdrywall

mrdrywall

Active Member
Snow Crash said:
It is all about vegetative life when determining a container size for a soil grow indoors. Figure, 1L per week. A 3 gallon planter contains 11.34 liters of soil. That's good for about 12 weeks of growth. You could totally push it to 14 weeks though. That'd be a 5-6 week veg and a 8-9 week flowering no issue.

I figure your plants will finish around 3 feet tall in a container of that size. 5 gallon planters are okay too, but they're better suited to longer vegetative periods and for growing 5-7 foot monster plants.
Click to expand...
thats the exact system i have, i transplant into 3g pots and they finish in them with a 4 to 6 wk veg. bout 3 ft tall with no root bound pots. way back when i started i used bigger pots turned out not neccesary, wound up with the same size plants i have now with the 3g pots
 
Wizard Of Id

Wizard Of Id

Member
:clap: Ambitious start my man. I'd personally break that room into 2 and run 2 grows so you can crop each 6 weeks or so.
Also if you get mildew or budrot etc losing 25 plants would make me ill. I'd learn how to grow a few plants first and then build my room bigger. I grow 3 lemon haze indicas under 2 400w sodiums and get 3-4 oz a plant dry which isn't shabby. I guess you're not in the UK. I could help you with some of that. We all could. :-P

P1020821.JPG
 
Turtle Koi

Turtle Koi

Active Member
Snow Crash said:
It is all about vegetative life when determining a container size for a soil grow indoors. Figure, 1L per week. A 3 gallon planter contains 11.34 liters of soil. That's good for about 12 weeks of growth. You could totally push it to 14 weeks though. That'd be a 5-6 week veg and a 8-9 week flowering no issue.

I figure your plants will finish around 3 feet tall in a container of that size. 5 gallon planters are okay too, but they're better suited to longer vegetative periods and for growing 5-7 foot monster plants.
Click to expand...
cheers ppreciated
 
JLewbowski

JLewbowski

Member
Snow Crash said:
You have the whole thing covered in mylar, but then you're going to cut a hole and vent the heat from the lights out a window? If I get that right. Plus and an AC system...In window? Portable? BTU's? Are you worried about people walking past the place and hearing hundreds, if not thousands, of cfm pouring out the bedroom window?

A 12x12 with 5000w is going to need an assload of cooling. If you are going to run CO2 then what you will want to do is configure your ducting and ventilation so that you pull cold air in from outside the room, through the ducts, and then back outside. This way you don't exhaust your CO2. Then you use the AC system (ventilating heat outside as well) to keep the residual heat in check. You'll definitely need a decent dehumidifier ($200 on the cheaper end) to handle the transpiration from the plants as well as the evaporation effect when keeping your temps above 80 for optimal 1200ppm+ CO2 levels. You also need a monitor and controller for the CO2 system to keep the levels in line or you're wasting it.

Basically, the environment needs to be perfect to get the full effect of CO2. Focus on Environment first, CO2 later.

Depending on the cut of "OG Kush" you get (because of all the names this is the most abused) real OG isn't a very high yielder. With the CO2, 144 sqft, 5000w, 25 plants, and a perfect grow I think you are looking at a harvest of at or around 4000 grams given the space and the lighting. To be perfectly honest you should plan on losing a few clones, and harvesting much lighter than "optimal." Figure 2500 grams would be typical for a first time grow of this size if things went a bit south; which it probably will. I'd suggesting using nothing larger than 3 gallons. You only have about 2.2 sqft per plant, and that's without walking room... The 6 gallon planters are going to hold too much moisture for the size of the plant, the root system, and the length of the grow. You can do everything you want in a 3 gallon. Start in party cups for 2 weeks. Then transplant to a 1 gallon planter. another 2-3 weeks. Then transplant to the 3 gallons and run until the finish.

This whole setup sounds like oh... $5,000 to do right... maybe a little more or less depending on quality. You definitely are going to need a lot of guidance to make sure you don't blow that cash.

My suggestion. Tell us exactly what timer you want to get. The ballasts, the bulbs, the reflectors. Tell us the soil you want to get and how you plan on amending it. Let us know if you have access to a hydro store or if this is an online order thing. Did you already get all the mylar, Marklar? I think the more brand specific you can be, and letting us know what resources you have available readily, will help us better tune this garden.

I can suggest a $1000 setup, or a $10,000 setup for this same space. It's up to you what the goal is here.
Click to expand...

Excellent information - thanks for the response! Yes, that was my plan for the mylar/ventilation/AC/dehumidifier systems. The exhaust would be drawing from the top of the room in the lights so that might allow the heavier CO2 to fall onto the plants. Regardless, I'm gonna take your advise and not worry about it now. Thankfully I'm in the country, so no neighbors to worry about sound or smell (although I will use a carbon can filter)

I chose OG Kush for a few reasons: I like to smoke it, it's popularity (since I'll be selling my overages to clubs), and I read that indica's are the fastest growing. I will grow whatever produces high yeild and is in demand. I figure I can wait till the last minute to decide the strain.

I have access to hydro stores, but have been seeing a lot of good deals on used equipment on Craig's List. I'm going to take you up on your offer to go over my equipment shopping list in detail (bands/models/price) I'm also going to draw up a diagram of the grow room for your feedback. Based on responses from a lot of people on the forum I've already decided to scale down from (5) 1000Watt HPC Bulbs to (4) utilizing light movers. I'm going to wait till I have a solid game plan dialed in before I move forward. I'll take care of the hardware needs first...then tackle the soil, water, nutients, strain, pots....then finally get into vegetative lengths, light cycles, feeding, flushing schedule, training, screens..etc.

Yes I definitely will need lots of guidance on this first grow and I'll be leaning on all you veterans for help. I'm impressed with the wealth of knowledge already! One good thing I have going is I'll be able to be home with my plants practically 24/7 so I'll be able to identify problems as they arise and hopefully nip them in the bud. Will need to resist the temptation to overwater, overfeed, overhandle them. Thanks again.
 
jawbrodt

jawbrodt

Well-Known Member
Quick tip:

If you're skipping the 1-gallon sized pot(approx), be sure to add plenty of perlite to the soil you choose, even if it already has it added. The main risk of going directly to a large pot, is the soil staying too wet, for too long(overwatering, to a T), and with you being a first timer, with that many plants, you want to be safe, in that dept. Shoot for 20-25% perlite, and you won't have any problems, as long as you let the soil dry out(within reason) in between waterings/feedings.
 
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