I always wanted a basement grow, with a simple and automated system that would always water itself, and involved as few moving parts as possible. I found a good candidate that was 24'X40' and decided to fill it.
I had a new fire door put on that's all weatherstripped and has a good deadbolt on it, only one door in and out. Here' s how it looked when I started:
I took a bare basement with concrete floors, added 3 X50A 240V circuits and 5X20A 120V circuits.
It already had water, but I upgraded some plumbing an d drains. I sealed all the cracks with sprayfoam and boarded up all the windows with white plywood panels.
After that we added Tekfoil insulation from Farmtek, it's whit e poly/bubble wrap/bubble wrap/mylar, and cuts with scissors, and goes up with staples. All joints are taped with foil tape, and only about 6 large pieces were used on the entire room. The ceiling was covered too. There is a small room off to the side for trimming, one for drying, and I made an airlock just inside the main door:
Oh and here is my ozonator cannon, CD800 on a 8" Duct fan with a speed control and a timer for the ozone genny. Keeps the airlock nice and odorfree.
Veg room:
A veg room that is 9X15 was walled off with Tekf oil and a layer of panda, and sealed up with tape and a tarp zipper. I put in 4 X 4' 8-bulb T-5 lights with an 8" Vortex for exhaust, and recently added one of the 12X39" Phresh filters with a 12" Vortex as a scubber. I'll probably pull the 8 and use it as an intake fan for the flower room.
In it I put about 50 rooted clones at a time, plus a handful of moms and clones.
Babies vegging in 2 gallon Smartpots of FFOF:
Moms in 4 gallon pots of FFOF:
A CAP AIR-4 keeps the temps and RH under control, and a pair of oscillating fans keep it well stirred up.
All plants in this grow are automatically watered with Tropf Blumat valves, which are gravity fed from 1 of 5 reservoirs in the flowering room. No pumps, no timers, each plant gets as much water as it requires, and you can adjust the overall moisture level in each pot. It's so good I'll probably never use anything else again. I can leave for days at a time and everything will be fine when I come back.
I had a new fire door put on that's all weatherstripped and has a good deadbolt on it, only one door in and out. Here' s how it looked when I started:
I took a bare basement with concrete floors, added 3 X50A 240V circuits and 5X20A 120V circuits.
It already had water, but I upgraded some plumbing an d drains. I sealed all the cracks with sprayfoam and boarded up all the windows with white plywood panels.
After that we added Tekfoil insulation from Farmtek, it's whit e poly/bubble wrap/bubble wrap/mylar, and cuts with scissors, and goes up with staples. All joints are taped with foil tape, and only about 6 large pieces were used on the entire room. The ceiling was covered too. There is a small room off to the side for trimming, one for drying, and I made an airlock just inside the main door:
Oh and here is my ozonator cannon, CD800 on a 8" Duct fan with a speed control and a timer for the ozone genny. Keeps the airlock nice and odorfree.
Veg room:
A veg room that is 9X15 was walled off with Tekf oil and a layer of panda, and sealed up with tape and a tarp zipper. I put in 4 X 4' 8-bulb T-5 lights with an 8" Vortex for exhaust, and recently added one of the 12X39" Phresh filters with a 12" Vortex as a scubber. I'll probably pull the 8 and use it as an intake fan for the flower room.
In it I put about 50 rooted clones at a time, plus a handful of moms and clones.
Babies vegging in 2 gallon Smartpots of FFOF:
Moms in 4 gallon pots of FFOF:
A CAP AIR-4 keeps the temps and RH under control, and a pair of oscillating fans keep it well stirred up.
All plants in this grow are automatically watered with Tropf Blumat valves, which are gravity fed from 1 of 5 reservoirs in the flowering room. No pumps, no timers, each plant gets as much water as it requires, and you can adjust the overall moisture level in each pot. It's so good I'll probably never use anything else again. I can leave for days at a time and everything will be fine when I come back.
I named it the headbanger because I hit my damn head every 5 minutes in there. Grrrr.
A lot of little details I like a lot, really. (Like the turn-buckles & cable, I've always dreamed of that exact setup.)
