keith1975
Well-Known Member
I'm lucky enough to have a really awesome downstairs basement area below my house, perfect for growing. Or so I thought. My first grow is still in progress and it made me realize a lot of the shortcomings of the grow room. So this post is about planning for the next grow and documenting it as I go. It's probably still a good 2 months away before I will finish the current grow and be able to make many of these changes, but if there is anything I can start doing now already, even if it's just getting costings etc, it would allow me to start quickly again after this first grow is done.
I will probably clear out my whole grow room for at least a week in order to do any final big changes, such as cleaning the entire room and sorting out various other things like the floor and windows etc. I want to do this right and get the best possible grow room. One that is a joy to go to and easy to work with and obviously, produces great bud. Heck, if I can chuck a couch in there and turn it into a true man-cave, that would be even better (but a lot of creativity would be needed to get a couch in there). If my environment could also be seen as 'medical grade', that would be awesome. I want to go for the best this time round.
This thread will be used to keep track of all the changes I make, what I try, what works, what doesn't etc. But most importantly, it gives me a place to get help from all you awesome people! Because I'm certainly going to be stuck on a bunch of these! Thanks in advance!
This is the current layout of my grow room:
Note:
a) it's drawn to scale... 1 pixel = 1cm
b) for a quick idea of size, the orange 'current grow tent' block is 1.2 meters by 2.4 meters.
Some background info on the room:
The main changes I am thinking of making is:
1) Most efficient use of the grow room
As you can see, I have a grow tent in my grow room. I squeezed the biggest I could find for the area I have. I don't know if this is the best setup. I'm open to any suggestions, or perhaps even out of the box ideas like getting rid of the tent and working directly in the room. Any suggestions on layout?
2) Screeting the floor
This is the most important part in my opinion. Currently my floor looks like what it would look like at a builder's site:
I.e. The phase right before they actually do the final flooring.
I believe this might is also a source of water for my grow room. So Ideally I would like to seal this. I have no idea what would work best, but the cheapest option would be fine. I'm not going for cosmetics. I just want it sealed and easy to clean. From what I understand, screeting is what most floor people need to do before they do anything else. Therefore screeting is the cheapest option. Is that true? Or is there an easier way to seal this floor and get it smooth and easy to clean?
IMPORTANT: Whatever floor changes happen must not have a drastic effect on height. The room is 2m in height, and too much added to the floor could result in my tent not fitting (and tall people having to bend down...)
3) Water outlet in grow room.
In the bottom right corner, close to the door, I would like to add a similar outlet that you would find in a shower. That way if I mop my grow room, all the water can go to the bottom right and out of the grow room. But wouldn't that make it easier for bugs to come in via the outlet? Or am I being paranoid? Either way, it would be a life saver for me if I could have a corner drain in my room.
4) Adding better lights in the grow room (non-grow lights)
In the graph you will see "light". This is the only light in the room and not really enough for me to work inside the room properly. I am thinking of installing lights in the roof. Where, will depend on a bunch of changes, but I thought I'd mention it so long. Perhaps there are lights best for grow rooms? Something bright but with no light that marijuana actually responds to? That way you can come in, put on the lights and disturb the plants the least amount even if they are sleeping?
5) Ditching the tent
I don't know if it's a good idea, but what if I got rid of the tent, and let the lights hang directly from the roof. I can instead perhaps add some kind of sheet to block of a section of the room. Something like this:
Then I can use the entire left side of the room as a "tent". But I would need to:
a) add some kind of reflective lining on the floor and everywhere else.
b) mount brackets to the roof to hang lights
Is this a good idea to consider?
6) Air
My main problem with my first grow was humidity and temperature. To solve the problem, I need to get a sophisticated ventilation system in the grow room. I'm thinking and air conditioner that allows me to set the temperature might be the best idea. That a good idea? I'm thinking it's going to be expensive to install and to keep it running 24/7. But might be a lifesaver in winter when temperatures can go as low as 5 degrees. It's still a long way from Winter, but best to keep this in mind now.
At the very least I need an extractor fan built into the wall. What would be the most cost effective and effective way to do this?
7) Closing all windows
The windows have a grid over them. Air can pass in an out freely. I want to close these off. They windows are 23cm by 52cm. If I could use this as the air ventilation by perhaps adding a duct with extractor fan on the one window and perhaps an air intake on the other. To be honest, I don't understand this part. I need to get fresh air into the room, but too much and the the humidity becomes too high. So what sort of air intake and outlet solution do I need to get both fresh air into the room, but also bad air from growing out?
8) Adding a tap
It would help me a lot with cleaning and mixing stuff, if there was a tap and a zink in the grow room. It would probably need to be close to the blue part where the outside tap is, but I guess laying a pipe would not be impossible.
9) Easier Watering
The tap from point 8 would help with watering, but it's still a pain to water manually. I'd love to find a way to incorporate a watering system that can also support the addition of nutrients. I want to stick to soil and not do hydrophonics, but surely there must be a way to water pot plants with fertilizer without manually mixing the water and manually pouring it into each plant.
10) A cupboard to store my stuff
The place gets cluttered quickly and a big reason is that there isn't official places for things. A "toolbox cupboard" type thing could solve my problem.
11) Alternative to trays
I use two 1.2 meter by 1.2 meter trays for my plants. The water collects and I have to drain it and manually drop it outside. My shower outlet from point 3 might help with this, but perhaps there are better ways to manage water? Or at least the drainage of it? Some more permanent structural change that will allow me to not have to manually water stuff?
12) Dry Rack
I bought a dry rack I can hang from the roof. But I need to make sure the dry rack is in a dark place and the temperature is always correct. And that place also needs to be in this grow room. So perhaps I can hang it in a corner and just sort of build a tent around the dry rack? Any ideas?
13) Inverter
I have an inverter I also need to include into this setup. We often have power disruptions and an inverter is the only way to guarantee my lights dont go off their schedule.
Thanks in advance for any feedback!!
I will probably clear out my whole grow room for at least a week in order to do any final big changes, such as cleaning the entire room and sorting out various other things like the floor and windows etc. I want to do this right and get the best possible grow room. One that is a joy to go to and easy to work with and obviously, produces great bud. Heck, if I can chuck a couch in there and turn it into a true man-cave, that would be even better (but a lot of creativity would be needed to get a couch in there). If my environment could also be seen as 'medical grade', that would be awesome. I want to go for the best this time round.
This thread will be used to keep track of all the changes I make, what I try, what works, what doesn't etc. But most importantly, it gives me a place to get help from all you awesome people! Because I'm certainly going to be stuck on a bunch of these! Thanks in advance!
This is the current layout of my grow room:
Note:
a) it's drawn to scale... 1 pixel = 1cm
b) for a quick idea of size, the orange 'current grow tent' block is 1.2 meters by 2.4 meters.
Some background info on the room:
- It previously had a mold problem. We resolved this by making the exterior more watertight and I haven't seen any mold since (despite having flooded the room... twice!)
- I didn't clean the room before I started growing. There's a lot of spider webs behind the grow tent that I am aching to clean. So the very first thing I am doing when done with my current grow, is to remove everything from the grow room and clean it!
- But cleaning won't help, because the floor is dusty and things can come in via the windows etc. The room needs more work on the hygienic side. And more ideas on making it more hygienic. Is there some sort of hospital requirements list used by guys making medical grade weed?
- The purple part is solute concrete, but only about 1 meter from the ground. So I can place things on it, but it limits the actual full height of that area. Hope that makes sense, let me know if it doesn't.
The main changes I am thinking of making is:
1) Most efficient use of the grow room
As you can see, I have a grow tent in my grow room. I squeezed the biggest I could find for the area I have. I don't know if this is the best setup. I'm open to any suggestions, or perhaps even out of the box ideas like getting rid of the tent and working directly in the room. Any suggestions on layout?
2) Screeting the floor
This is the most important part in my opinion. Currently my floor looks like what it would look like at a builder's site:
I.e. The phase right before they actually do the final flooring.
I believe this might is also a source of water for my grow room. So Ideally I would like to seal this. I have no idea what would work best, but the cheapest option would be fine. I'm not going for cosmetics. I just want it sealed and easy to clean. From what I understand, screeting is what most floor people need to do before they do anything else. Therefore screeting is the cheapest option. Is that true? Or is there an easier way to seal this floor and get it smooth and easy to clean?
IMPORTANT: Whatever floor changes happen must not have a drastic effect on height. The room is 2m in height, and too much added to the floor could result in my tent not fitting (and tall people having to bend down...)
3) Water outlet in grow room.
In the bottom right corner, close to the door, I would like to add a similar outlet that you would find in a shower. That way if I mop my grow room, all the water can go to the bottom right and out of the grow room. But wouldn't that make it easier for bugs to come in via the outlet? Or am I being paranoid? Either way, it would be a life saver for me if I could have a corner drain in my room.
4) Adding better lights in the grow room (non-grow lights)
In the graph you will see "light". This is the only light in the room and not really enough for me to work inside the room properly. I am thinking of installing lights in the roof. Where, will depend on a bunch of changes, but I thought I'd mention it so long. Perhaps there are lights best for grow rooms? Something bright but with no light that marijuana actually responds to? That way you can come in, put on the lights and disturb the plants the least amount even if they are sleeping?
5) Ditching the tent
I don't know if it's a good idea, but what if I got rid of the tent, and let the lights hang directly from the roof. I can instead perhaps add some kind of sheet to block of a section of the room. Something like this:
Then I can use the entire left side of the room as a "tent". But I would need to:
a) add some kind of reflective lining on the floor and everywhere else.
b) mount brackets to the roof to hang lights
Is this a good idea to consider?
6) Air
My main problem with my first grow was humidity and temperature. To solve the problem, I need to get a sophisticated ventilation system in the grow room. I'm thinking and air conditioner that allows me to set the temperature might be the best idea. That a good idea? I'm thinking it's going to be expensive to install and to keep it running 24/7. But might be a lifesaver in winter when temperatures can go as low as 5 degrees. It's still a long way from Winter, but best to keep this in mind now.
At the very least I need an extractor fan built into the wall. What would be the most cost effective and effective way to do this?
7) Closing all windows
The windows have a grid over them. Air can pass in an out freely. I want to close these off. They windows are 23cm by 52cm. If I could use this as the air ventilation by perhaps adding a duct with extractor fan on the one window and perhaps an air intake on the other. To be honest, I don't understand this part. I need to get fresh air into the room, but too much and the the humidity becomes too high. So what sort of air intake and outlet solution do I need to get both fresh air into the room, but also bad air from growing out?
8) Adding a tap
It would help me a lot with cleaning and mixing stuff, if there was a tap and a zink in the grow room. It would probably need to be close to the blue part where the outside tap is, but I guess laying a pipe would not be impossible.
9) Easier Watering
The tap from point 8 would help with watering, but it's still a pain to water manually. I'd love to find a way to incorporate a watering system that can also support the addition of nutrients. I want to stick to soil and not do hydrophonics, but surely there must be a way to water pot plants with fertilizer without manually mixing the water and manually pouring it into each plant.
10) A cupboard to store my stuff
The place gets cluttered quickly and a big reason is that there isn't official places for things. A "toolbox cupboard" type thing could solve my problem.
11) Alternative to trays
I use two 1.2 meter by 1.2 meter trays for my plants. The water collects and I have to drain it and manually drop it outside. My shower outlet from point 3 might help with this, but perhaps there are better ways to manage water? Or at least the drainage of it? Some more permanent structural change that will allow me to not have to manually water stuff?
12) Dry Rack
I bought a dry rack I can hang from the roof. But I need to make sure the dry rack is in a dark place and the temperature is always correct. And that place also needs to be in this grow room. So perhaps I can hang it in a corner and just sort of build a tent around the dry rack? Any ideas?
13) Inverter
I have an inverter I also need to include into this setup. We often have power disruptions and an inverter is the only way to guarantee my lights dont go off their schedule.
Thanks in advance for any feedback!!
...cheerz...h00k...
...
