first grow room built

I put it together today. It's in my basement. I just need to run power down there. I'll get to that tomorrow.

6x6 room. 5 ft10 inches tall (that's as high as the basement ceiling)

2 600w HPS

6 inch duct run from North (cool/shaded) side of house. Split into two four inch ducts. One goes into the bottom right corner to feed fresh air into the room; the other goes into the top left corner and into the first 600w hood.
Each split has an online fan. The intake vent has a filter.
Both the fresh air and lamps vent from the top left of the room through 4 inch ducts. Both of the out let ducts joint together and form a 6 inch duct that has a vortex inline fan sucking air through the system.

I wish I could take pictures but I broke the lens on my camera phone.

I got two separate timers and I'm planning on letting the fans vent the lamps and room for about a half hour after the lamps torn off

The room is made of 1x2 and panda film.

My first grow will only be 4 plants but I didn't want to keep building rooms so I built it bigger then I need and hope to grow into it.

I'll probably only use one of the 600w bulbs for the first grow. Then go to 12 plants. Then fill the room on the third try (depending on how the first two runs go)

I'm vegging under CFLs.

Hillbillybuddha

Sounds like you've got a pretty good handle on things, and your setup sounds great.

I also like your logical approach to start small (a single 600w) until you get familiarized with things, then expand up. Too many people I know get all ambitious and start with far too many plants (I recommend between 1-6 for a newb). They then panic when one plant shows an issue, and they go crazy with a possible solutions to ALL of the plants, not just the one with the issue, essentially killing all of them.

Up some pics when you can

-spek

I figure I'm going to go through the obligatory "first grow freak out" and kill half my girls which is why I'm starting small.

I've done a lot of reading but I have very little practical knowledge. Things like; I know I shouldn't over water but I don't know how light a pot will feel when I do need to water, for example. Or how long adjustments to heat and humidity take.

Thanks for the support. (I'm going to check out your thread on 12/12 from seed now, that seems interesting)

Hillbillybuddha

I just started it, and haven't yet received my seeds. Should get them by the end of this week, then I'll be going full bore. The details of my grow are explained in the first post.

Experience is the only thing that will make a good grower. Even my many years of managing very large outdoor crops wasn't enough to just become a perfect indoor grower. I had to start right from scratch.

You'll get a feel for it. If you are uncertain whether the plants need water, don't water them. They'll start to droop when they are too dry. As far as environmental changes, some will show within minutes, others can take days.

It is very important to only make one change at a time, and wait it out. Many newbs panic when a problem arises, and they immediately do a dozen 'remedies' all at the same time. If the plants get better, they have no clue what fixed the issue. More often though, the plants die.

If you're really worried about over watering, test it on one. Water one plant with the amount of water you *think* they need, and leave the rest for at least another day. This is a very quick way to learn how your plants communicate their needs.

You're in a great place here; there are some serious expert growers at RIU, and they are all willing to help out.

Happy growing!

-spek

ps. I subscribed to this thread, I'm going to watch your grow.

I got the grow room finished last night. Haven't put my girls into it yet. I ran it empty last night to check temps. My thermometer has a high and low temp reading so I can tell how hot and how cold it had gotten in there.

The highest it got was 79.6 degrees and the lowest was lowest was 77.2 degrees.

The timers were set for 18 hrs on 6 hrs off for lights. The fans stay on for ab extra half hour after the lights go off.

***So here's the important stuff that has to do with my question. ***

Lights go off at 11pm and turn back on at 5am so when it's dark in the tent, it's dark outside as well. During the day, very little light gets into the basement anyway. Takes almost a full minute for my eyes to adjust so I can see at all down there during the day.

There is a very small leak of light where the panda film meets the ground on one corner.

I have a green florescent in the basement just in case.

A) is that small light leak at the bottom corner something I should worry about now? How about when I go into 12/12?

Thanks
Hillbillybuddha

If the 600's are dimmable Id use one of them for veg fairly soon. Turn it down to 50% I wouldnt leave a seedling under a CFL for more than a week with another light option waiting.

During 18/6 a tiny light leak won't hurt but be sure its really dark for 12/12. My basement typically stays dark too but I found a small light leak in a ventilation screen as I do need to turn on the lights in the room occasionally. I built a simple light blocking screen out of plywood to shield light during the dark hours & works well. I find it better to set the 12 dark hours during the day & run the lights overnight, but you'll need to figure out what's best for you of course. Another advantage to basement grows I find is it is easy to keep temps low due to the relatively stable ambient temperature. I use no a/c or res chiller & my res stays cool. Grow room temps never exceed 80 even when its 90+ outside. Good luck

Nice set-up. I had to upgrade from 4" to 6" as I found that 4" just wasn't big enough (so my wife tells me) to keep heat in check.

Other than that, you sound like your ducks in a row.

hillbillybuddha said:

I got the grow room finished last night. Haven't put my girls into it yet. I ran it empty last night to check temps. My thermometer has a high and low temp reading so I can tell how hot and how cold it had gotten in there.

The highest it got was 79.6 degrees and the lowest was lowest was 77.2 degrees.

The timers were set for 18 hrs on 6 hrs off for lights. The fans stay on for ab extra half hour after the lights go off.

***So here's the important stuff that has to do with my question. ***

Lights go off at 11pm and turn back on at 5am so when it's dark in the tent, it's dark outside as well. During the day, very little light gets into the basement anyway. Takes almost a full minute for my eyes to adjust so I can see at all down there during the day.

There is a very small leak of light where the panda film meets the ground on one corner.

I have a green florescent in the basement just in case.

A) is that small light leak at the bottom corner something I should worry about now? How about when I go into 12/12?

Thanks
Hillbillybuddha

Click to expand...

Those temperatures are excellent for growing good bud.