Southerner's First Grow [2X1000W setup]

As recent transplant to Oregon, I couldn't resist getting involved with MMJ. Living in the deep South most of my life has meant smoking alone was dangerous enough, so I definitely didn't have it in me to grow there(god bless those who do, the world needs you). But that brings us to now. Last night I completed the necessary paperwork to become a legal Caregiver/grow site location in the great state of Oregon and damn am I excited! For the past few weeks both me and my partner have worked relentlessly on weekends to complete the grow room. We are both total noobs to growing. Everything we have learned so far has been from amazing forums such as these, Jorge Cervantes' book, and the kind people out our grow store. We both bring a little to the table; he is a qualified electrician and all around handyman and I am a relentless researcher with a bit of a green thumb. Together we have managed to piece together a room that we hope, at the very least, will get us started.

Our room is located in a basement that was completely unfinished and all-around disgusting. To make the project more approachable we first built a partition wall to create a 12X10X6 room separate from the side where our washer/dryer are located. This initial steps involved cleaning/painting the walls and floor, making a ceiling of rigid insulation to cover the bare joists, wiring the fuse box for our 4 socket CAP Lighting control(got the four in case we ever want to add more lights) and a buncha other outlets, sealing cracks as best we could, and framing a door for access. Then we finally were able to buy our gear setup.

A rundown of the setup: 2 6" Cool Tube 1000W, 2 switchable magnetic ballasts, 4" intake centrifugal fan for fresh intake with Dust Shroom filter on the outside, 6" exhaust fan pulling from a 1000 CFM C.A.N. filter, through the lights, and then up the chimney. This weekend I should be procuring six or so Afghan teens to stick under there and then its all systems go! The real downside is that right now I don't have separate chambers to veg and flower in. Long term, I want to stick a small grow tent on the other side of the partition wall to veg in so I can more of a perpetual grow thang goin. I'm also worried about heat/humidity. Default temp is around 66 degrees, so tonight i'm going to leave the lights on with the fans going and just monitor what temp fluctuations looks like. My RH is usually at 50% but I haven't even introduced plants or anything yet to see how that's going to change. I'm pretty sure I am going to need to do something about that.

Current list of worries:

1. If I have to get a AC/dehumid it's going to have to be a portable one cause there's no place for a window shaker and there's not enough funds for a fancy one that is installed outside by anHVAC guy. I guess I can make it work. But with a portable, i'm worried about venting the damn thing. Seems silly to go through all the trouble I did with the expensive C.A.N. filter i'm using in my room's exhaust just to shoot out stanky air from my A/C's exhaust. My currently developing plan involves exhausting the A/C out the drier vent in the the adjacent room with some sort of DIY carbon filter. Problem with this is that I don't think you're suppose to push out on a carbon filter for it to be really effective. Would I need some sort of moisture trap or are dryer vents moist anyways? Also, how far can you honestly duct one of these before it creates too much back pressure?

2. Preventive measures for powdery mildew/insects. Is this something I can be proactive about? A fellow farmer recommended a sulfur burner. I've seen a plan for DIY one that would be no problem, but is sulfur something you use when they have already shown or for prevention? I've been scrubbing every surface for the past few days with a light bleach solution in preparation for bringing the plants in soon, but i'm just worried since this a basement of an old house.

Obligatory crappy picture of the post:


Basic overview of the room, with a random pair of socks in the middle of the floor.

*NOTE* This journal is a space for me to think out loud. When I am asking questions about problems/worries I am experiencing in this journal, I am not actually expecting the answers to be posted in response. I know there are several other forums and resources on rollitup that can be used for just that. Rather, i'm just making mention of whats on my mind and the information that i'm currently researching. HOWEVER, should anyone reading my posts have an opinion or answer they want to offer, I totally welcome your response! Any and all feedback/critiques are welcome; I am so very new to this and just want to learn so that hopefully one day I can contribute to this community as well.

Wow, a lot has happened since I last posted on here. Well...a lot and nothing all at the same time. I tweaked my setup the way I wanted it; gave my cooltubes their own dedicated intake/exhaust, got a 8" inline the goes directly from the filter and to the exhaust in almost a perfectly straight line, got one of those neat atmosphere control boxes that will cut your fans off when the room gets below what temp you set(also will cut off the fans for CO2 if you have it). Then I went and got my first clones. I got these clones from a stranger, and in the dim light and my unexperienced eyes, they looked like perfectly healthy 10" or so clones. Cool. Here is where even more noobs mistakes begin:

First, I went ahead and transplanted them into the 7g pots because I thought I was gana need that much space with some FFOF soil. I then watered them 1.5g each with water that: #1 I did not PH test and #2 Did not leave out for 24 hours to remove all chlorine from. It was pretty late at night at this point so I got the lights started, stuck the pots on draining dishes under them, and went to sleep. The next morning I wake up like a kid of christmas and go take a peek on how the ladies are adjusting to their new atmosphere. They look a little yellow on the edges. They look a little droopy. They have small yellow spots on them. At first I am thinking the following theories: the untested water I used has totally thrown the soil's pH, FFOF is a bit hot for these plants, I have somehow shocked them another way during transplant.

I did a ton of reasearch on what the possibilities could be and snapped a couple of pictures that I took to someone I know with a little knowlege. His immidiate assessment was that these were infected with spider mites. I purchased Azamax at his advice, as well as a L.E.D. magnifying glass thingie, Blue Lab PH pen with calibrating solution, pH and pH down. First thing when I did when I got home was mix up some Azamax and absolutely drenched the little guys. Testing sowed pH was off and that water out of my faucett(that had not "sat") was not within the 6.5-7.0 range. The next day I made the decision to just scrap the plants. I need a better start than 6 already infested plants that arent even 12" high yet. The past two days or so I have bleaching everything in the room as well as working even harder to seal any sort of crack. I plan on setting off a pyrethum bomb in a few days just in case. In the meantime, I have 5 autoflowering afghans that were under a humidity dome sprouting up during this time. I made a makeshift mini-veg box out of an unused shelf, rigid insulation, and two 2 foot t12s(couldnt find a fixture that would fit the space in the space). Today I moved the root cubes into small pots of FF Light Warrior. I might get some more teen's if I can find a source that comes from recommendation. I might just order more seeds.

All I know is that right now my grow room is empty and that kinda sucks, but atleast I got the little afghans. Also- next time I transplant to a larger pot I think im going with a 5" and using Roots Organics soil. That stuff looked like a light, fluffy pillow at the store.

Did you ph water when you put them in the light warrior?