I've got a small medical grow in my basement. I've got 9 grape romulan clones growing under a friend and my prescriptions. We are allowed 6 each so i figure 9 is a good number. This is our first grow so we are trying to get everything dialed in still. Any suggestions or anything that we have missed would be very helpful.
I'm growing in a 4 x 4 x 7 hydrohut original. This was a floor model in a hydro shop and I got a really good deal on it. Before anyone says anything about offgassing, it sat setup but otherwise unused before I got it. My basement has low ceilings so I had to trim the hydrohut about 7 inches. It makes the "skin" a little baggy at the bottom and there is a tiny light leak because of that but I think it's very acceptable considering I took a hacksaw to it.
For a light I'm using a 1000w HPS, super hortilux bulb. It's in a Fresca Sol water cooled fixture. I love the fresca sol as I can hold the light in my hand after it's been on for almost 12 hours. I'm sure it's the only reason I can have such a large light in a small space and maintain a decent temp. I've got a lumatek 120v electronic ballast. I wanted to go with 240v to save power but didn't want to rewire a rental house with a new dryer outlet in the basement
The fresca sol's cooling water is pumped through a heater core from a 1980-1990 F150. I went to the parts store and after asking for a few different heater core prices I found this was the cheapest one at $30. Right now I only have a small fan blowing on the heater core but it keeps the water ate a reasonable temp, somewhere below 90 degrees. I want to get a higher volume fan that doesn't make much noise. I used my can-fan once to push air through the heater core and was amazed how much heat it extracted. I'm sure this would drop my temps quite a bit. The water then dumps into a 55 gallon barrel with a small pool cholrine tablet floating in it to keep things clean. I can't remember the GPH of the pump I'm using but I'm very happy. The fresca sol was a floor model as well so the wing hood and the water pump/barrel were setup by their reps.
For a medium I have a 50/50 coir/perlite mix in 5 gallon buckets, 3x3 in a 3x3 tray with a 20 gallon resevoir below. This all sits in a "no holes bar" rack that holds up the light, table etc. I have a small pump that goes from a 1/2" line to 1/4" line that flows into the pots without a dripper to clog. I adjusted the watering from 2 minutes every other hour to 2 minutes twice a day today. I noticed that the coir I had thrown in between the pots was quite wet and don't want root rot. A air pump puts air into the resevoir 24/7. A trellis is suspended above the pots to support the plants and to be used for LSTing.
Ventilation is all 4" ducts. Cold air is pulled from the next room which has large vents to outside. Hot/humid air is vented in the room the hut is in which isn't very sealed from the outside so heat quickly escapes. I'm using a Centurion EVC-2 controller to ventilate if heat gets above 82 and to push the heat down 3 degrees before turning off the fans. If the humidity gets above 70% it vents, pushing it down to about 55%. When the fans aren't running it activates the CO2 system running off of a 20lb bottle from the welding supply shop. At "night" the controller turns off the CO2 and vents at 80 degrees or 55% humidity. I use a low cfm inline fan for supplemental intake and a 4" can-fan hooked to a can filter 9000 carbon filter. I also have two small clip on fans for circulation around the plants. These run when the lights are on.
For nutrients I'm using mostly advanced nutrients products. I'm using Connoisseur parts A and B, with big bud powder, tarantula, piranha and SensiCal MG. I'm also using Nirtozime and Dark Energy. I mix this into a 2000 PPM nutrient formula which I've changed every 2 weeks. PH in the pots is holding at 6.5. My water without R/O is 50-60 PPM to start and 6.5 PH.
I started the plants from 3" dirt into the coco a little less than 3 weeks ago. They were about 9" tall so I started them on 12/12 right away. They are filling out OK but I want to make sure we get a decent amount of medicine for our efforts! I'll attach some pictures, but they are from earlier tonight before I cleaned up all of my wiring. It's all neatly secured with zip ties now and doesn't look like such a mess. Also nothing is hung from the ceiling any more.
First picture was the day I transplanted to the coir and started under the HPS. They had only seen floro before.
Second picture is tonight.
What am I missing? What can I do to make sure I get a good harvest?
I'm growing in a 4 x 4 x 7 hydrohut original. This was a floor model in a hydro shop and I got a really good deal on it. Before anyone says anything about offgassing, it sat setup but otherwise unused before I got it. My basement has low ceilings so I had to trim the hydrohut about 7 inches. It makes the "skin" a little baggy at the bottom and there is a tiny light leak because of that but I think it's very acceptable considering I took a hacksaw to it.
For a light I'm using a 1000w HPS, super hortilux bulb. It's in a Fresca Sol water cooled fixture. I love the fresca sol as I can hold the light in my hand after it's been on for almost 12 hours. I'm sure it's the only reason I can have such a large light in a small space and maintain a decent temp. I've got a lumatek 120v electronic ballast. I wanted to go with 240v to save power but didn't want to rewire a rental house with a new dryer outlet in the basement
The fresca sol's cooling water is pumped through a heater core from a 1980-1990 F150. I went to the parts store and after asking for a few different heater core prices I found this was the cheapest one at $30. Right now I only have a small fan blowing on the heater core but it keeps the water ate a reasonable temp, somewhere below 90 degrees. I want to get a higher volume fan that doesn't make much noise. I used my can-fan once to push air through the heater core and was amazed how much heat it extracted. I'm sure this would drop my temps quite a bit. The water then dumps into a 55 gallon barrel with a small pool cholrine tablet floating in it to keep things clean. I can't remember the GPH of the pump I'm using but I'm very happy. The fresca sol was a floor model as well so the wing hood and the water pump/barrel were setup by their reps. For a medium I have a 50/50 coir/perlite mix in 5 gallon buckets, 3x3 in a 3x3 tray with a 20 gallon resevoir below. This all sits in a "no holes bar" rack that holds up the light, table etc. I have a small pump that goes from a 1/2" line to 1/4" line that flows into the pots without a dripper to clog. I adjusted the watering from 2 minutes every other hour to 2 minutes twice a day today. I noticed that the coir I had thrown in between the pots was quite wet and don't want root rot. A air pump puts air into the resevoir 24/7. A trellis is suspended above the pots to support the plants and to be used for LSTing.
Ventilation is all 4" ducts. Cold air is pulled from the next room which has large vents to outside. Hot/humid air is vented in the room the hut is in which isn't very sealed from the outside so heat quickly escapes. I'm using a Centurion EVC-2 controller to ventilate if heat gets above 82 and to push the heat down 3 degrees before turning off the fans. If the humidity gets above 70% it vents, pushing it down to about 55%. When the fans aren't running it activates the CO2 system running off of a 20lb bottle from the welding supply shop. At "night" the controller turns off the CO2 and vents at 80 degrees or 55% humidity. I use a low cfm inline fan for supplemental intake and a 4" can-fan hooked to a can filter 9000 carbon filter. I also have two small clip on fans for circulation around the plants. These run when the lights are on.
For nutrients I'm using mostly advanced nutrients products. I'm using Connoisseur parts A and B, with big bud powder, tarantula, piranha and SensiCal MG. I'm also using Nirtozime and Dark Energy. I mix this into a 2000 PPM nutrient formula which I've changed every 2 weeks. PH in the pots is holding at 6.5. My water without R/O is 50-60 PPM to start and 6.5 PH.
I started the plants from 3" dirt into the coco a little less than 3 weeks ago. They were about 9" tall so I started them on 12/12 right away. They are filling out OK but I want to make sure we get a decent amount of medicine for our efforts! I'll attach some pictures, but they are from earlier tonight before I cleaned up all of my wiring. It's all neatly secured with zip ties now and doesn't look like such a mess. Also nothing is hung from the ceiling any more.
First picture was the day I transplanted to the coir and started under the HPS. They had only seen floro before.
Second picture is tonight.
What am I missing? What can I do to make sure I get a good harvest?
