Ok, breakfast is done and I'm sufficiently blazed enough to release some info.
Let me start by saying I have done a lot of research, and I mean a lot. Botany research, lighting research, nutrient research, ventilation research, grow medium research, the list is extensive. I then sat down over the course of 3 months and compiled everything I had learned into one single Manifesto of growing knowledge. I then took that info and went to a close friend who is a carpenter, well, he builds the entire home, custom homes only. So wiring, framing, you name it. I personally have an extensive background in electrical wiring, electrical components and custom cabinet building specific to loud speaker enclosures. Like this one,
Next I have a friend who volunteered his home for the grow "lab" as we call it.
Myself and the construction engineer, we'll call him George cause he reminds me of George of the jungle kinda. Like the goofy monkey in the books. Anyway, me and George started discussing the perfect area of the house to grow in. We came up with the bathroom in his master bedroom, lol. Yes, his girl hated it, at first. She's hot so we though it was perfect, maybe catch her, well, never mind you get it. But seriously we decided that for good reasons.
1- it was built with greenboard
2-bath tub is the kind with the surround on it and a little lip all the way around the top, also if you spill something who cares, rinse it away.
3- water supply in the room
4- the outlets have their own GFC in that room and we can pull power from other outlets in the master bedroom if needed.
5-it allowed a straight walk way from door to tub to be created with shelves on either side for multiple veg trays.
6- it was the farthest room from the front door and back door
7-it had ac into the room via the ceiling
So now that we have a room picked out we used a single sheet of 3/4" plywood for the "top" of the flowering chamber, the tub surround would support the remaining three "walls". And these walls are special folks. I have posted a LOT of pic's and vids of this LAB but no one has noticed the walls in the flowering chamber. These walls are not just Mylar tapped up on the tub surround, there are styro foam boards under the Mylar. Each board is one inch thick, cut to fit into the chamber with a slight camber from top to bottom. Laymens terms, they tilt. The bottom of the chamber is 20* inside the top of the chamber. |\ <= kinda like that. If you were to shine a laser pen off the side of the reflector on your light so it showed you the exact line of primary light and secondary light demarcation, on my walls you would be able to follow this beam directly into the sides of the plants. This way very little of the light is wasted by being reflected down towards the ground. I had planned on using two lights from the get go, this way I could cover more of the grow area with equal lumens. There is no weak spot in between the two lights because of the overlap of secondary light by both lamps raise the lumen output to within just a few off from the lumen output at the very center under the light. We tested it with a meter.
Next we did the air exchange issue. I dont want to run co2 in my buddies place so we needed a way to make sure that the amount of air being forced into the flowering chamber is slightly more than that being sucked out by the blower. I use a 6" Dayton axial fan for the intake at the bottom of the chamber's face. I use the a/c in the bathroom to cool both the remaining bathroom area for vegging and the flowering chamber. It's split with a t. then one side is boosted with a duct fan, once it goes into the flowering chamber it blows down on to the lights helping to keep them cool. The blower sucking air out through the filter is 275 cfm an slightly restricted because the filter is attached. SO, by forcing more air in than can be sucked out in the same amount of time I ensure plenty of fresh natural co2 in the flowering chamber. The axial fan is only 235 cfm and I have it restricted by a displacement sheet in front of them opening.
Flowering chamber , perfect.
On to the veg.
Left side of the room is running 1250 ppm for older plants and the right side is running 1000 ppm for the younger plants. Anything below that ppm rating is hand fed by yours truly. All water is RO bought at a store. Ph is 5.6 constant and checked daily. The lights are both T5's from Feliz.
Here's were the bushes begin.
Photosynthesis peaks in the 435nm and 680nm range. A T5 light emits peaks at 435nm and 615nm. This makes a T5 light the most efficient light for veg, hands down, well until plasma lights get popular. T5 bulbs make 96 lumen's per watt which is pretty damn good. Now think about the fact that I have pics in here of me holding a lit T5 in my hands and resting it on the back of my hand, so NO HEAT. Also in test after test on plant after plant, T5 lights used during seedling and clone growth show root growth TWICE that of any other light on the market currently. Also they are designed to run in high humidity environments. So, I use the BEST light to veg with.
This next topic is a touchy one to some people, nutrients. I use one thing and I use the ENTIRE LINE of nutrients as the makers designed it to work fine separately but when used as a whole the results are amazing.
I use Dutch Master Gold Line Nutrients and Liquid Light and Penetrator Foliar feeding programs. They have an online interactive nutrient calculator that takes guessing out of the equation, which I like. Their product reviews were outrageous, so I asked around and concurred they were for me.
You will have to do your own research on these nutes, but you'll see things like ionic charged nutrients to promote vigorous growth, etc. Basically they focus the feeding on the Calvin cycle of the plant. Liquid Light is pretty much just that, light in a bottle. It was designed for small growers with small lights so they could get big yields. It works, no doubt. Penetrator DOUBLES the power of liquid light, hence my garden.
The veg tray on the left uses a 250 watt Feliz 6500k with a gull wing fixture.
the veg tray on the right uses a 150 watt Feliz 6500k with econo wing fixture.
this from DM:
Gold Range LIQUID LIGHT puts your plants into overdrive by helping to restore their lost natural photosynthetic power. Liquid Light does this by providing your plants with selected minerals, carbohydrates, amino-acids and phyto-nutrients that optimizes the Calvin Cycle, a critical cycle of photosynthesis. By restoring a large portion of a plants’ natural genetic photosynthetic speed, or power, plants are able to use a lot more of the precious light you provide them.
I proved this to be true by using it outside on some plants in my front yard that were in the shade almost the whole day (pics in here), at the end of two weeks (4 applications) the ones in the shade were twice the size of those in direct sunlight all day with no LL. SO on to my cannabis it went!!
Left tray 1250 ppm
right tray 1000 ppm,
In the left tray you can clearly see the Train wreck everyone loves before it was SC'd and topped. Compare its foliage to those around it, lol. It pales in comparison. It was recently cloned again is why, the bottom 20 branches came off, I think, might have been more. Here it is before it was hacked up, little baby, about 28 days old