Outgrowing my 3 tents, time to build rooms!

[Jay T Trichomes]

So I’m currently on my second grow. I have 3 tents at the moment. (1) 4 x 8 with plants in the last 7 to 10 days before harvest. I’m currently in flush mode with these girls. I have another 5 x 5 tent with 6 wedding cakes in their 4th week of flower. I also have another 5 x 5 with a variety of plants in veg mode. I have bubba kush, Tropicana cookie, green crack, and some grape apes in there. I’m in Michigan and just picked up 2 more patients, so I’m needing to make better use of my basement space. I’ve started to frame some walls tonight. I plan on making a 19 x 10 flower room, and approximately a 8 x 8 veg room. I will be transferring my 8 quantum boards from my 4 x 8 tent and my 4 boards from my other 5 x 5 tent into my new flower room. So that will give me a total of 12 quantum boards in my new flower room. I’ll have 4 boards wired to a 480 meanwell driver. I personally consider 4 boards and a driver to be one light. So I’ll have a total of 3 lights in my flower room. Each light pulling 550 watts from the wall. I may add more boards if need be. In my new veg room I will be using ( 2 ) bestva 1200 watt lights, and a mars hydro light I currently am using in a little closet. I already have 3 six inch vortex inline fans. One in each of my current tents. I will try to use these for my exhaust??? If not may upsize to an 8 inch or ten inch inline fan for exhaust in my new flower room. I’ve also just recently purchased a trolmaster hydro x controller as well as a trolmaster irrigation controller. I plan on hooking these up for my new rooms. I’m mechanically inclined but have never used such a system so I will be learning as I go. I’ve attached a few pics of today’s work and will keep everyone posted as my journey takes place. The first pics are the new walls being framed, the other pic is my lights, just to give you an idea of my quantum board setup. Stay stoned my friends!

 

[TorturedSoul]

I wish I could grow in my basement due to the milder temperature, but there's a spring under it. I know of no way to turn one off . I've learned not to trust a sump pump, they seem to die eventually. And my sump pump fills up (from underneath - no water drains into it from above) in an hour or less, year round, even during periods of minimal rain. I just watched a video about a water-powered emergency backup pump yesterday, though, and I might look into setting up one of those some year in the future. It appears that they use 2x water (takes two gallons of municipal water for every gallon that it pumps out), but that might vary depending on pressure of one's water supply, IDK. Be almost infinitely more reliable than a UPS on a regular pump or a battery-powered backup pump, though.

Looks like you're going to have a nice setup when you're finished. And it'll be your third grow, lol? Mine was in a closet too small to lay flat in. By the time your tenth grow is finished, maybe you'll have to rent another house .

 

[Blew Hiller]

Just thinking on the ventilation...if all of these tents are in the same space, would it be more efficient to have them passively vented and just actively vent the encompassing space? Thinking there might be some energy ($) savings and less chance of mechanical issues (with one big fan versus several smaller).

 

[Jay T Trichomes]

Hiller I think I’m gonna bring outside air in with an 8in fan, and exhaust with a 10 or 12 in fan. Went to a friends grow last night, and he is on a similar size grow and he’s using that set up and the air exchange seems on point! Just learning as I go!

 

[TorturedSoul]

With actual construction involved, there's always sealing the space, air conditioning it, and adding supplemental CO₂ (along with the level of light you'd need to really take advantage of it).

Would increase your expenses, though.

 

[Jay T Trichomes]

So it’s been a lil bit but I’ve been busy with work and working on the rooms after until bedtime. I’ve completed my veg room and moved some girls into their new home. Took today off to harvest my current ladies in my flower tent, and then it’s tear down time of the 2 remaining tents. Have a few buddies coming to help to start the design of the new flower room. I still have to install the door for the flower room and line my walls with some panda film. Then it’s gonna be light placement and the beginnings of the wire for my trolmaster controls. I bought the hydro-x and their irrigation controller. I also bought 2 50 gallon resovoirs so I will be able to have automatic watering. The resovoirs will have a blue labs ph controller to monitor the ph and dump ph down if necessary. I am still pondering what exhaust and intake fan size I will be using. Here is a few pics of the veg room. I still have to slap some moldings up around the door and some paint. Sorry I have a little tinge if OCD so I just need moldings. The overflow trays will soon be placed up about 8 inches , once I build some tables out of 4 x 4’s and some plywood. I will then drill some holes for drains and have the drains running to a holding tank which I can pump out and dump.

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[TorturedSoul]

In the picture with the dog, is the stud towards the bottom right corner of the picture, the first one we can see the bottom of... a little short, lol, or is that just an optical illusion?

I'd recommend Orca film over Panda. It's just over twice as thick, reportedly more light-proof - and measurably more reflective. It's also more expensive, but that shouldn't be a factor in building a major grow setup, plus it'll help you get the most benefit possible out of the lighting (that you'll be paying the same in electricity each month whether you use as much of it as possible or less than that amount).

<SHRUGS> Or you could go with the brightest white paint (flat or something that you can clean/scrub, like eggshell) on properly prepped and primed walls. That's highly reflective, too, and the major advantage is that you're not then hanging sheets of material on the walls of rooms that will have lots of evaporated/transpired moisture from the plants entering the air and possibly causing mold/mildew issues behind the film.

If you do end up using some kind of film / wall covering, make sure to install it reasonably tightly, so that it doesn't have wrinkles or waves in it.

 

[Jay T Trichomes]

So I’m about 90% done in the new rooms. I still have to wire in my Co2 sensor, and get my reservoirs filled and finish piping in the irrigation. The ladies were out growing their veg room so I had to move them to the flower room. During all the construction I had some ladies finishing up in the new flower room, so I had to leave the new plants in veg for a few more weeks than I wanted. I’m concerned with them stretching way to big. They vegged for about 9 week.

They are inside cages and I plan on hanging a trellis and start tucking away. I’ve been hand watering still until I can finish up the irrigation.

 

[CattleTurd]

Impressive. I’m definitely dedicating my whole basement to grow space whenever I buy a house and quit renting.