My Ultimate Indoor Grow Room Setup

What is your experience level?
· Approximately 4 years. All indoors with soil on a much smaller scale.

Your Equipment:
.1) Type and wattage of lights? For cloning I had a 2’ T-5 fluorescent fixture, for veg I use either an air-cooled 250w and/or 400w XXXL fixture, and for flowering I use 2 1000w air-cooled XXXL fixtures in series.
.2) Distance from tops? Depending on maturity, approximately 12” for veg and down to18” for flower or further, again depending on maturity and overall health.
.3) Reflector type? 3-6” XXXL’s and one 250w Sunburst fixture
.4) Is there a consistent fresh air supply? I have the room fairly well sealed. There are two 20”x30” air filters, one for each room. At first I had some fairly fine ones but had to get some others that were less restrictive since I am utilizing passive air intakes.
.5) Do you have an exhaust fan and a circulation fan? I have a 400cfm centrifugal fan in the flowering room pulling air through this filter (http://www.amazon.com/LEDwholesalers-GYO2301-Hydroponic-Scrubber-Control/dp/B003UL8JMM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350364538&sr=8-1&keywords=carbon+filter) and over 2 1000w bulbs which are all connected in series. The thermometer in the FL room has been reading a high of around 78-82 degrees and under the 1000w bulbs at plant level has been reading about 4 degrees hotter. For the veg room I have a 240cfm Panasonic WhisperLine fan to cool my 400w MH bulb and a 120cfm Panasonic WhisperLine fan exhausting both the carbon filter for this room and the 250w Sunburst fixture. The WhisperLine fans are virtually silent!! Highly recommended. Where as the 400cfm Hydrofarm centrifugal fan is LOUD especially blowing through that flex ducting. I am considering buying insulated ducting and wrapping the centrifugal fan with fiberglass insulation or something! Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!?
.6) What are the bulb wattages, kelvin ratings, and schedule? For clones, 24 hours of the bluish colored t5’s. For veg 18 hours on with a 250w and 400w MH. For flower, 12 hours on with two 1000w HPS. Most of my bulbs are the least expensive ones I can find new on Amazon.

Your medium:
.7) Specific brand and type of soil, (coco, peat based soilless...) and anything you've added to it. PRO-MIX HP MYCORRHIZAE (my first grow using this brand). Saw this stuff at the store and figured to give it a shot. I don’t pre-mix anything before potting but I probably should. I recently purchased some Espoma Garden Lime and Ironite Mineral Supplement 1-0-1 from HomeDepot. My run-off ph was at 5.8 last I checked. My plants appear to exhibiting some forms of deficiencies. I sprinkled both products onto the top of each pot and then drenched each pot until I saw run-off roughly 2 days ago. Any tips when growing with this type of medium?
I use to use fox farm happy frog, but for the price and quantity of the pro-mix I decided to give it a shot.
.8 Size of container. Clones in 1in. rockwool, from there into one quart sized containers, from there into 1 gallon square containers and lastly into 5 gallon buckets.
.9) Did you use peat pucks (or similar) to root clones or germinate seedlings? I used rookwool for the first time and presoaked the cuttings in Dip n’ Grow rooting hormone. I foliar sprayed with RO water for the first 5 days and then just kept the cubes wet. Within 12 days when I went to pot them, nearly every single cutting had roots showing. Best success yet!!

Your nutrients and water:
10) Source of water? For the most part tap with a ppm of 500 and ph of 7.5 :/ Occasionally I will go fill up my 5gallon jugs with RO water from those water machines outside of grocery stores. I was considering buying an RO system but can’t bare to get 1 gallon out of every 10 or so. I’m sure my plants would greatly appreciate it though. I purchased one of those Big Blue 20” filter housing and a 20 to 1 gradient micron filter that I have yet to install. I’m not to confident this will do anything to help my tap water.
11) Method of checking water ph. Hanna combo meter!!
12) Method of adjusting water ph. If I’m lazy I will water straight from the hose when water is required. I hope that adding the addition Hydrated lime the other day will help make any adjustments in the soil. Usually I use vinegar to bring plain water down but usually once nutrients is all mixed it is around 6.5 ph.
13) Specific brand and N-P-K ratio for each bottle. List dosages (quantity per gallon) and current feeding schedule. Botanicare (Pure Blend Grow, Liquid Karma, Silica Blast, Seaplex, Hydroplex, Pure Blend Original Bloom), Humboldt Nutrients (Deuce Deuce, Honey, and Ginormous). Heavy 16 (Bloom A&B and their Prime Additive).
14) How often are you watering between feedings, and how much per watering? Usually two to three times. I water/feed whenever I notice/feel that the weight of the container is feeling light, but never to the point to where the soil pulls away from the container.
15) Any additives or tea's? I rarely make tea’s but when I do I use Ancient Forests, molasses and seaplex.
16) Are your ph levels stable, or do they fluctuate? I don’t monitor the run-off frequently enough to answer this accurately.
17) What is your ingoing water's ph? ...your runoff ph? Tap 7.5, tap + vinegar = down to 6.6, and for nutrients solution the supplements bring it down without the vinegar.
18 Do you foliar feed? If so, with what, how often, and at what time do you spray? Rarely, but I would like to incorporate it into my schedule. I recently purchased neem oil by Dyna Grow to help prevent spider mites and powdery mildew.

Your growroom:
19) Indoors or outdoors? Indoors
20) What size of closet, room or hut? Total size 10’x12’ (veg 5x10 and flower room 7’x10&#8217
21) What are the temps and humidity levels while lights are on? ...With lights off? When on, low 80’s/ humidity 50%. When off, around 70 degrees/ humidity 60%.
22) Have you seen signs of insects in the growroom? Just the occasional fungus gnat. Fortunately that’s all! Using yellow sticky traps helped catch any flyers. Have not seen any since. I also purchased one of those Hot Shot repellant strips on the exterior of the room. I spray with neem oil occasionally to help prevent any undesired infestations.

Your strain:
23) What strain are you growing? DJ Shorts Blueberry, Pure Kush, True OG (all of which I’ve grown twice before). I recently purchased several clones of Sour Kush, Madman OG, Oaksterdam OG, Abusive OG, Gods Gift, and Mandarin OG. I am trying to find which ones grow best for my setup.
24) From seeds or clones? Clones
25) Is this an autoflower strain? Not to my knowledge.

Last thought: In order to make disposal/ collection of water run-off more efficient I have created a dual 5 gallon bucket setup with the lower bucket using a bulkhead fitting with a 1/2” hose barb. All the bucket drain lines will feed into a central collection center that is further fed to a drain. Since the bulkhead fitting is in the side of the bucket and is fairly large it leaves about an inch of residual water in the lower collection bucket. Is that a concern leaving residual water sitting in the bottom on each collection bucket?

Did I forget to mention anything...
I have included some picture of several leaves showing signs of deficiency. Any ideas of what they might be?
Thanks in advance for any constructive insights/advice

Anyone who has any constructive input please feel free to chime in with your experiences. My goal is posting this information was to get constructive insight from experienced cannabis growers as a way to discover new techniques to improve the quality of medicine for this gardens patients.

P.S. this garden is operated by multiple growers who have legal documents from legitimate doctors permitting them to do so.

Looks really nice and clean. I can tell you put alot of time and effort into this room. But....
Tap water with ppm of 500! isnt that the legal limit in the US. Anything over 200 is considered hard so this might be causing a ton of your issues with deficiencies.

Hydrofarm fans tend to be loud afaik maybe a maxfan or can fan would be better. Sometimes larger fans put to lower speeds can be better as well.

I got those spots on my leaves when I had a calmag issue or when I foliar feed nutes/insecticide with the lights too close.Are you running Heavy 16 while running pure blend grow and bloom?

nice setup.

Love this set up. I have a couple questions if u have time. First is how many plants do u have flowering?? Second how much do you usually yield? Thanks.

Chimpmunkproof: I appreciate that! I am proud of my creation. As far as my tap water I would say its safe to assume the hardness of my water likely has something to do with the health of my root zone. Would flushing more often/ once a week with excessive amounts of tap water runoff help reduce ppm build up in my root zone? I regards to the feeding I only run one or the either. Running two bases wouldn’t seem very wise, corrcet? Have you had experience growing with either brand?

Wheels619: Thanks; are there any improvements that you think can be implemented?

Killerobsession: Of course I have time The purpose in posting this was to get some feedback and possibly have a discussion. I believe there are 16 ladies in there as of right now. I read somewhere that 9 bushy sized plants are about as many as you want under a single 1000watt. 25cu. Ft. is about as big as one should go I interpreted for each 1000watt bulb. As far as yield goes we will have to wait and see. This is my first grow since the completion of my project. I read on multiple forums that a knowledgable grower should get around .5g per watt. Also that each cubic foot should have around 50watts per cubic foot. Correct me if I’m wrong

If I had to guess I would think I should yield at least 3lbs... what do you think guys? I make hash to vaporize and edibles so that amount should be fairly used up after its production.

piecemasta said:

Wheels619: Thanks; are there any improvements that you think can be implemented?

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longer veg times. less plants. some LSTing or scrogging. yeah u can fit roughly about 25 sq ft of plants under a thousand. also depends on ur hood and its quality. the better quality and larger the size generally increases ur light footprint. i have an xxxl hood and id go about a 6x6 area max with it.

How tall do you think I should veg them before putting them into flowering? I use to use a trellis on my previous smaller grows but decided to go with the cages this grow in order to have some flexibility and ability to inspect and remove any undesired grow/ pest problems. I Lollipop the mature plants when I’m in the process of taking clones. For topping my plants I usually just pinch or cut the very top node off all the tallest shoots. I also use twist ties to train my plants. Shoots that are significantly taller get tied horizontally along one of the three circular rings on the cages. I recently upgraded my hoods to the XXXL’s and am very pleased so far with their performance. I was using a Super Sun 2 6in air cooled reflector before the XXXL’s.

piecemasta said:

How tall do you think I should veg them before putting them into flowering? I use to use a trellis on my previous smaller grows but decided to go with the cages this grow in order to have some flexibility and ability to inspect and remove any undesired grow/ pest problems. I Lollipop the mature plants when I’m in the process of taking clones. For topping my plants I usually just pinch or cut the very top node off all the tallest shoots. I also use twist ties to train my plants. Shoots that are significantly taller get tied horizontally along one of the three circular rings on the cages. I recently upgraded my hoods to the XXXL’s and am very pleased so far with their performance. I was using a Super Sun 2 6in air cooled reflector before the XXXL’s.

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its all technique. depends on how ur setup is running and what little tweaks u can do here and there to better it. i normally get lucky becuz i wait to piece my grows together until the last minute. lol. everything just kinda falls into place.

what kind of yields are u trying to achieve? and what techniques are u using now. what style of growing are u doing exactly? kinda a sea of green thing?

Would flushing more often/ once a week with excessive amounts of tap water runoff help reduce ppm build up in my root zone?
Truthfully it seems like flushing with more hard water would only make it worse. The calcium and magnesium in the water are not very available to the plants and collect around the root zone limiting calcium absorption from the soil substrate and messes with the availability of other nutrients. If you are going to do hard water I would flush more regularly with RO water and/or use a nutrient made for hard water such as GH flora micro hardwater.Hahaha ya I thought you were doubling up or something. In regards to the feeding, I only run one base or the other. Running two bases wouldn’t seem very wise, corrcet?

Have you had experience growing with either brand?X

Some experienced growers mix all kinds of stuff together but most would only run one base at a time. Some people will run the grow in with their bloom to keep the leaves green. Ive heard varying things about heavy16. I have not tried either one of them.

Are you working in a special plant limit?

Do you do any LST?

Also how far are your lights from your canopy?

Have you tried MH in your flower room?
-your nodes look a little long and mh can cut down on stretch and give a more complete spectrum

Have you ever tried reptile uv-b tubes?
-many people swear it increases tricome and thc production

wheels619 said:

its all technique. depends on how ur setup is running and what little tweaks u can do here and there to better it. i normally get lucky becuz i wait to piece my grows together until the last minute. lol. everything just kinda falls into place.

what kind of yields are u trying to achieve? and what techniques are u using now. what style of growing are u doing exactly? kinda a sea of green thing?

Click to expand...

There is no set yield I set out to achieve. I mainly just want everything to be running as efficient as possible. From what I've read I should expect around .5g per watt. Would you say that's a safe estimate if there aren't any major hiccups? Considering we plan on making only edibles and hash the the dried flowers, we should really only desire to grow an amount that would sustain our needs until the next harvest.

We top the plants throughout veg and into flowering until I am comfortable with the amount of main shoots on each plant. We also lollipop them when we take cuttings. My goal with these techniques is to create a uniform canopy amongst the various different genetics and minimize inefficient undergrowth.

chipmunkproof said:

Would flushing more often/ once a week with excessive amounts of tap water runoff help reduce ppm build up in my root zone?
Truthfully it seems like flushing with more hard water would only make it worse. The calcium and magnesium in the water are not very available to the plants and collect around the root zone limiting calcium absorption from the soil substrate and messes with the availability of other nutrients. If you are going to do hard water I would flush more regularly with RO water and/or use a nutrient made for hard water such as GH flora micro hardwater.Hahaha ya I thought you were doubling up or something. In regards to the feeding, I only run one base or the other. Running two bases wouldn’t seem very wise, corrcet?

Have you had experience growing with either brand?X

Some experienced growers mix all kinds of stuff together but most would only run one base at a time. Some people will run the grow in with their bloom to keep the leaves green. Ive heard varying things about heavy16. I have not tried either one of them.

Are you working in a special plant limit?

Do you do any LST?

Also how far are your lights from your canopy?

Have you tried MH in your flower room?
-your nodes look a little long and mh can cut down on stretch and give a more complete spectrum

Have you ever tried reptile uv-b tubes?
-many people swear it increases tricome and thc production

Click to expand...

There are several patients who help maintain this garden and receive a percentage for their compensation. We aim to grow an amount that would produce enough edibles and hash to sustain us until the next harvest. I asked my Dr. about plant count and he said they offered a 99 plant recommendation for triple the price of the regular recommendation. I read that this type of recommendation is not any more legitimate or official then the standard 6mature/12immature. Doctors can determine plant assignment depending on their patients needs. I informed him that we grow to produce edible and hash so that maybe he could take note of that and include that into the recommendation. He said that wasn't necessary. We are within our limit but we currently have a few left over clones so once we properly dispose of those we are technically in the clear. I am not concerned as long as we the patients can justify a suitable amount for our needs.

As far as LSTing we didn't begin until the plants were already fairly tall and once we received the cages we were then better able to tie back and train as needed. Ideally we would do this much earlier on in the plants life to get a more uniform growth.

The XXXL's w/ 1000watt bulbs are about 18in. from the tops. I'm not sure If I could fit in another fixture to run a MH. I'm aware that they make fixtures that house both bulbs but that isn't an option right now. What about just using MH bulbs the first week of 12&12 to reduce stretching?

I have read about the uv-b bulbs but have yet to try implementing one. Once we optimize the basics I shall try out more advance techniques. Now that we have some space I would like to run some side by side comparisons. What do you think about using the uv-b bulbs?

piecemasta said:

There is no set yield I set out to achieve. I mainly just want everything to be running as efficient as possible. From what I've read I should expect around .5g per watt. Would you say that's a safe estimate if there aren't any major hiccups? Considering we plan on making only edibles and hash the the dried flowers, we should really only desire to grow an amount that would sustain our needs until the next harvest.

We top the plants throughout veg and into flowering until I am comfortable with the amount of main shoots on each plant. We also lollipop them when we take cuttings. My goal with these techniques is to create a uniform canopy amongst the various different genetics and minimize inefficient undergrowth.

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u should be pulling more than .5 per gram eventually. first few tries should be a little light until u get ur tactics in order. u should pull at least a pound per 1000. look into scrogging and LSTing. its ur best bet if ur going to try for easier yields. have it set up so u can get a harvests every month.

Well u have two 1000w lights and want 3lbs so u r hoping for the best. I hope it happens. I will be following thins grow as this is the set up I want but I want 4-1000w lights. Or some LEDs. Haven't made up my mind yet.

the goal of many growers is to get to a gram or more per watt. This is a very subjective mesurement though because of varying veg times or plant densities(sog). I think MH only for the first couple of weeks might help reduce stretch but then again the switch to tell the plant to flower respoinds to red light which HPS is high in. I would just stick to the HPS for flower if you dont have the funds. I noticed you are growing alot of ogs. Have you tried supercropping or pinching? some people find it a good way to increase overall yield and reduce internodal growth. I believe that uvb is very beneficial, my buddy uses it now and it is a noticible difference. The high is much more intense and the buds look a bit better to me, but the yeild is reduced somewhat. I have yet to use them.

be wary of bad advise.

lol which would be?

Oh I forgot to ask u. The dimensions of the two rooms.

chipmunkproof said:

lol which would be?

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• I think MH only for the first couple of weeks might help reduce stretch but then again the switch to tell the plant to flower respoinds to red light which HPS is high in.​
  
  
  
  

the bud doesnt honestly care what spectrum the light source is to go into flower. hps light spectrum speeds up flower growth. or was that what u were trying to say?