CypressRyan
Well-Known Member
I trimmed in a 30k op.. to much overhead for my taste. Good work and good luck, I hope you have a tight group of people to share the workload.
20,000 Watt Medical Grow Op Construction
- Thread starter collective gardener
- Start date
collective gardener
Well-Known Member
Yeah, the collective will cover the product overage...if there is any. We're shooting for a 2 week cycle perpetual, which should keep the product on hand under 4lbs. As long as we can get everything dried, cured, and distributed to our members inside of 2 weeks, we should be ok. We'll be building a temperature, humidity, and air flow controlled drying box to help with keeping the dry and cure consistant.
collective gardener
Well-Known Member
I'm not sure what you mean by "state card". The county health department offers a card that assures the validity of your rec in the event of a law enforcement encounter. Starting a collective has loads of advantages but costs a few bucks to do it right. Once you have the collective, there is also a significant amount of record keeping and various paper work necessary to remain legal. It is not a "set up and forget" proposition.
collective gardener
Well-Known Member
I have one full time paid helper that logs about 60 hrs per week. Trimming is still going to suck. Especially since our members insist on perfect hand trimmed product. I've used or personally seen used every trimmer out there. Some are decent, but all pale compared to an experienced hand trim.
There is some overhead costs. Fortunately, state law allows us to be reimbursed by our members for all overhead and labor costs necessary to produce their medication. That is actually the legal way to establish a price. "Suggested donation" is BS. According to State law, the money paid by a patient is a "reimbursement". Not to get off topic, but this is why any collective giving breaks for quantity or charging a premium for a small purchase is technically breaking the law. The production and distribution cost is what it is...whether you're buying a gram or an ounce.
collective gardener
Well-Known Member
A quick update:
We transplanted 6 plants that were in 5 gallon pots into 10 gallon pots. Theye were only in the 5's for 9 days yet the roots were packed in pretty tight. We're using a coco/perilite mix.
We're running a couple different kinds of halides to see what works best for us. The Hortilux Daylight Blue gives the tightest node spacing. The Sun Pulse Pulse Start 6.4k is a little brighter and penetrates deeper into the canopy for a little "thicker" growth. I'm thinking of using the Daylights early on, when the plant is small to really pack the nodes in, then moving them under the Pulse Starts for the rest of the veg time.
I'm using Digilux HPS. They're brighter than the Hortilux HPS and were designed for digital ballasts. I have 6 Hortilux's from a previous grow and may use them for our bare hanging bulb experiment.
None of these bulbs are cheap. In fact, they're pretty much the most expensive bulbs out there. However, if they give us just 5% better growth than a cheap bulb, theye pay for themselves many times over. I just can't see skimping on lamps in an indoor grow.
We put in a little 10,000 btu AC unit a few days ago. The exhaust ducting is plumbed into our main exhaust lighting manifold. This provides strong negative pressure where thr AC's exhasut hose ties into our 20' ducting run. I've found that the better these units can "breath" the better they work by far.
The humidity has been quite low here. The new air conditioner doesn't help either. Here's a pick of our evaporative cooler and our little humidifier. When alls said and done, we'll need several of each.
Several 6" vent holes are provided to facilitate air flow from the veg room to the flower room. The 36" attached ducting acts as a light block between the rooms.
That's it for today. We'll put up a couple lights tomorrow to try and keep up with the explosive growth we're experiencing. Maybe we'll knock off early and try out the collective's new hash glass. Yipeeeee.
We transplanted 6 plants that were in 5 gallon pots into 10 gallon pots. Theye were only in the 5's for 9 days yet the roots were packed in pretty tight. We're using a coco/perilite mix.
We're running a couple different kinds of halides to see what works best for us. The Hortilux Daylight Blue gives the tightest node spacing. The Sun Pulse Pulse Start 6.4k is a little brighter and penetrates deeper into the canopy for a little "thicker" growth. I'm thinking of using the Daylights early on, when the plant is small to really pack the nodes in, then moving them under the Pulse Starts for the rest of the veg time.
I'm using Digilux HPS. They're brighter than the Hortilux HPS and were designed for digital ballasts. I have 6 Hortilux's from a previous grow and may use them for our bare hanging bulb experiment.
None of these bulbs are cheap. In fact, they're pretty much the most expensive bulbs out there. However, if they give us just 5% better growth than a cheap bulb, theye pay for themselves many times over. I just can't see skimping on lamps in an indoor grow.
We put in a little 10,000 btu AC unit a few days ago. The exhaust ducting is plumbed into our main exhaust lighting manifold. This provides strong negative pressure where thr AC's exhasut hose ties into our 20' ducting run. I've found that the better these units can "breath" the better they work by far.
The humidity has been quite low here. The new air conditioner doesn't help either. Here's a pick of our evaporative cooler and our little humidifier. When alls said and done, we'll need several of each.
Several 6" vent holes are provided to facilitate air flow from the veg room to the flower room. The 36" attached ducting acts as a light block between the rooms.
That's it for today. We'll put up a couple lights tomorrow to try and keep up with the explosive growth we're experiencing. Maybe we'll knock off early and try out the collective's new hash glass. Yipeeeee.
rzza
Well-Known Member
in michigan, all we hear is cali weed is ALWAYS cured for at LEAST a few months ...blah blah
either its all bs or you are going to have subpar meds for your area.
Luger187
Well-Known Member
nah. ive seen plenty of nugs at clinics that arent cured yet. but i would deff cure those nugs OP
BiteSizeFreak
Active Member
I did a long time ago, not my fault people keep stirring the pot...
collective gardener
Well-Known Member
I can assure you that very few growers are curing their meds for a few months. In my experience, how you treat the buds in the first week makes more difference than just a bunch of cure time. I like to dry for a week, and "cure" for a week...meaning I'm just getting the buds to the perfect even moisture content. Would they be better after a month long cure? Probably. But the improvement is very small and makes zero difference our members and the collectives we sell our overages to. I guess it comes
down to dimminishing returns. The fact is, keeping 30 or 40 lbs of curing buds laying around isn't even an option for us.
I do know some pretty heavy Nor Cal growers that cure their buds for several months. While I'm sure it improves the quality some, the main reason these particular people do it is to let the market recover from the post harvest price slump.
Shit...I'm getting way off topic. Anyways, thanks for the concern, we feel good about our drying techniques.
collective gardener
Well-Known Member
Another day in the room down. We're still having really dry weather and our humidity is a little low. I'm hesitant to add too much humidifying equipment since these dry spells are few and far between. The plants water needs are going up: about a gallon/plant/day. Currently I have daisy chained trash cans to store the RO water. This will only due for so long. Our water maker can produce about 200 gpd. We're looking into a couple 250 gallon polly tanks. I have a feeling that in a few weeks that water maker will be running 24/7.
Hate to sound like a broken record, but we are just so pleased with the Cutting Edge nutes and Sunshine #4 with extra perilite. Our original plan was to experiment a little, but that has changed. Growth has been explosive and there's not a single sign of any nute problems. As long as this continues through the bloom cycle, we will be sticking with these nutes and soiless mix.
We put up 2 more Block Buster reflectors today in the veg room. We'll need the extra lighted area for when we transplant tomorrow and re-bend the plants down and out. We're trying to keep the plants at the same height and just keep training them to a larger diameter.
Here's one of Helper D sitting in the canopy watering. These plants have been flowering for about 5 days and are just starting the stretch. How they end up after the stretch is done will help tell us how to train the next crop going into the bloom room.
I didn't take cuttings soon enough and we're going to have a gap in th perpetual cycle. I'm calling in some favors from some other grow ops in the hope of scoring a dozen or so 8" to 10" plants. If I can't get these, we'll be growing some of our existing plants very large before blooming them, in the hopes of keeping the rooms full. This may get interesting.
We ordered 4 more 1000 watt and 4 - 600 watt ballasts today. Just 8 more 1000's and a few more 600's and the big spending will be over. Oh...and a couple grand worth of bulbs, too. Shit, this is getting expensive.
Hate to sound like a broken record, but we are just so pleased with the Cutting Edge nutes and Sunshine #4 with extra perilite. Our original plan was to experiment a little, but that has changed. Growth has been explosive and there's not a single sign of any nute problems. As long as this continues through the bloom cycle, we will be sticking with these nutes and soiless mix.
We put up 2 more Block Buster reflectors today in the veg room. We'll need the extra lighted area for when we transplant tomorrow and re-bend the plants down and out. We're trying to keep the plants at the same height and just keep training them to a larger diameter.
Here's one of Helper D sitting in the canopy watering. These plants have been flowering for about 5 days and are just starting the stretch. How they end up after the stretch is done will help tell us how to train the next crop going into the bloom room.
I didn't take cuttings soon enough and we're going to have a gap in th perpetual cycle. I'm calling in some favors from some other grow ops in the hope of scoring a dozen or so 8" to 10" plants. If I can't get these, we'll be growing some of our existing plants very large before blooming them, in the hopes of keeping the rooms full. This may get interesting.
We ordered 4 more 1000 watt and 4 - 600 watt ballasts today. Just 8 more 1000's and a few more 600's and the big spending will be over. Oh...and a couple grand worth of bulbs, too. Shit, this is getting expensive.
collective gardener
Well-Known Member
Spent the day tracking down some more plants for the stable. Came across some 8" plants from this purple beast. I grew this one last winter and love the color. Took some samples to some members and got positive responses. So, it looks like tomorrow we'll have a dozen of these ladies cooking under the halides.
Sr. Verde
Well-Known Member
collective gardener
Well-Known Member
Verde, I wish I knew! It's a strain a commercial grower friend grows to offer something in a purple. That plant was started indoors and flowered outside in winter. We harvested it around thankgiving. While the cold night added to the darkness of the color, it's still pretty dark when flowered inside. Several of the best strains I've ever sampled have no names and a questionable heritage. If people want to take a guess as to the strain, I'd love to hear it.
RawBudzski
Well-Known Member
Beautiful. Cant wait to see things in full swing.
Sr. Verde
Well-Known Member
first +rep for the thread, loving the setup and all out or nothing! thats how I try to roll too..
bite the bullet at first, then ride the wave later
I feel you about the best strain is often nameless! I'm just curious because it's such a lush purple!
What are YOU reffering to it as
I love names, such a key to it's effects
collective gardener
Well-Known Member
first +rep for the thread, loving the setup and all out or nothing! thats how I try to roll too..
bite the bullet at first, then ride the wave later
I feel you about the best strain is often nameless! I'm just curious because it's such a lush purple!
What are YOU reffering to it as
I love names, such a key to it's effects
Thanks for the kind words on the settup. It's still a little mix-mash. Once we get all the gear in, we'll get it tightened up. It's kind of a pain to complete the settup with live plants in the room. The original plan called for just having some clones at this juncture.
We've always just called the purple "The Purple". It's indica dominant, with a pretty heavy high. It smells and tastes pretty good grown in hydro, but that plant I grew outside was 100% live soil organic, and the odor was something to behold! Dank beyond dank.
collective gardener
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the heads up. I'm fine with his web site being visable. He's a good doctor who is truly interested in helping people with a vast array of alternative medicine. I also like to support him because he was one of the first docs to write marijuana recs. He was doing it when all these other quacks were pissing themselves. Now, they're all on the band wagon.
collective gardener
Well-Known Member
Got the new plants today. I had asked my buddy for a dozen, but he delivered 25. They came in 4" rockwool blocks and looked great. These plants put us over our self imposed 99 plant limit, so I had to toss 5 un-rooted clones. Oh well...I'll take 25 small plants in high gear anytime. We spent the day getting soil, putting up another light, and transplanting. About 13 went into 5 gallon pots (we ran out), and the rest went into 1 gallon pots till tomorrow. It's great to have all our girls in the room. Now it's grow time. I'll put a couple in DWC buckets just to compare growth rates.
New plants have arrived
New plants transplanted
Close up of new plants. We call them "Lavander", but they're not. It's an unamed, clone only So Cal plant that my group has had for a few years. It is truly top shelf stuff, but takes some work to grow. Lots of sativa, and a wild grower.
Four 1000 watt lights pretty much maxed out. It's time to move a few into the bloom room.
Flowering plants will be getting some company and 5 more lights this week.
The 10 gallon plants are getting to heavy to easily move. We'll place carts on wheels under each one pretty soon. Emptying the waste water is also too much of a pain. I'm rigging a suction pump to suck out the waste water via a hand held wand. Helper D is burning out on dumping waste buckets. To put it in his words I'm "Harshing His Mellow". Even though he has the best job in the world (also his words), we still aim to keep him happy. I also had to promise him a couple new glass water pieces and some hash gear. He's so spoiled.
New plants have arrived
New plants transplanted
Close up of new plants. We call them "Lavander", but they're not. It's an unamed, clone only So Cal plant that my group has had for a few years. It is truly top shelf stuff, but takes some work to grow. Lots of sativa, and a wild grower.
Four 1000 watt lights pretty much maxed out. It's time to move a few into the bloom room.
Flowering plants will be getting some company and 5 more lights this week.
The 10 gallon plants are getting to heavy to easily move. We'll place carts on wheels under each one pretty soon. Emptying the waste water is also too much of a pain. I'm rigging a suction pump to suck out the waste water via a hand held wand. Helper D is burning out on dumping waste buckets. To put it in his words I'm "Harshing His Mellow". Even though he has the best job in the world (also his words), we still aim to keep him happy. I also had to promise him a couple new glass water pieces and some hash gear. He's so spoiled.