$1500 to spend on 9'x9' budding room...looking for input...

[Butte]

Hello all

I thought I’d throw my first post out there to get some input on my new flowering room. I’m a California med patient as is my wife, so our limits are twelve budding and 24 veg’ing plants at any given time. As the title says, I’ve got about $1500 to spend and I definitely want it done right since this is our medicine. Since I can bud twelve plants, I thought about three 600’s with four under each, but this configuration doesn’t fit my room very well since it is 9’ x 9’. My second thought was to put up a couple 1000’s with six under each, but that seems like a pretty far spread for the light.

Sooo, what do you guys think? I grow organically in soil and smell isn’t really an issue since I live on twenty acres up in the Sierra foothills. The room is in a metal garage/ shed, so it usually stays pretty chilly and I don’t expect the heat to be too big an issue although I would like to run a co2 system as well. Quiet ballasts would be a plus.

So, given a 9x9 blank slate and $1500 to blow, how would you build it?

 

[ogrefugee]

2 1ks w/ 6 plants underneath each
air cooled hoods

basically it would look like 4 plants x 3 plants w/ each plant having 3x2.25ft each which is way more than enough each. even if you planted each in 5 gallon buckets you would still have plenty of room me thinks (5 gallons are 1' wide right?). So i would spread out 5 gallon buckets in a 4x3 design under each lights footprint, so the footprints are adjacent. This should provide plenty of space for some bodacious buddrey

 

[Guest]

I would go with three 600 watt lights my self, since they produce more lumens/watt.

 

[Guest423]

i'd go with the 1000's, get the hortilux hps bulbs...they are 143,000 lumens a piece....if smell isn't a problem you might not need a carbon filter so thats an option, you'll need oscilating fans for sure, buckets, soil, ferts, CO2, ect.....pretty easy to spend that $1500 once you get rollin....depends what you already have though. well worth the investment thats 4sure....good luck

peace

 

[Guest]

Ever think about krusty buckets? You would certainly take advantage of thoose plant numbers.

 

[Dr.Feelgood]

You could do any number of things. That's why these threads are (somewhat) pointless. The grower needs to determine what is best for his/her setup and that is the bottom line. Not trying to rain on your parade, but it's the truth. Take into account: lights, ventilation, soil mix, nutes, and any other supplies. You'll also need a veg room for mothers and clones.

Man-up and get a good fan like a vortex 8" to keep the shed well-ventilated. Then get another 2-3 fans for circulation.

If it were me and I could only bloom 12 plants, then I would try to grow with a system that allowed high yield with low plant-count...like a scrog. A perpetual 12-plant scrog with 3 600w hps lights would be your best bet (from what you've told us). By that, I mean bloom 4 plants, then bloom 4 more after 2 weeks, then bloom 4 more after another 2 weeks. Or just put all 12 into 12/12 at the same time.

Either way, it sounds like a scrog would be best. And, in the case of a scrog, 600's would be best. 1000's would be better for tree-style.

That's all I can tell you, but you have to make the best decision for your situation.

 

[morgan420]

I agree with Dr. Feelgood for the most part. Have you considered getting two 600s or two 1000s and putting them on a light mover? That way, with a scrog, you could have even more flowering tips going through the screen, ergo more yield.

 

[Butte]

Thanks for the input guys

I talked with a friend yesterday that has two 1000's and two light rail movers his going to give me for nothing!

I guess I should have given a little more info on where I'm at right now. I’ve already got a 4x8 veg room with my twelve plants ready for a modified scrog. I’ve been vegging them for quite a while and they’re all nice little bushes. Soil, nutes, buckets and all the “plant stuff” is already taken care of, so the $$ was for lights, co2, environmental controls, etc.

So, now that the lights are taken care of, the co2 burner moves up the list. I was thinking about the CAP AIR-4 controller with a Green Air CD-6. The 6 is a little big for the space, but will work nicely in the greenhouse later. Here’s a write-up of the CAP AIR-4:

CAP AIR-4 Independent Temperature, Humidity and CO2 controller
•Coordinates supplemental CO with independent temperature and humidity control
•Includes photo-controller and CO2 outlets
•Photo-controller assures that the CO2 device only activates when your lights are on
•CO2 device is disabled when ventilation equipment is operating
Rated for 15 amps at 120 volts

Anyone ever used either of these? Good/ bad?
Pictures coming soon…

 

[Dr.Feelgood]

I really wouldn't try f*cking around with CO2 at this point. The shed is outside, which means it'll warm up in the summer. Which means you'll have to ventilate like mad. Which means all the CO2 would be wasted.

Save your money and put $250-300 towards a nasty ventilation fan. Vent 24/7 at a rate that exchanges the volume of the shed 4-5 times per minute and your plants will have more than enough CO2. Order a good grow book. Get some nice seeds. And be sure you have big enough pots (4-5gal, I'd say).

 

[Butte]

Hi Doc

I appreciate your approach to educate, but I'm not really such a newbie at this as I've been growing off and on for the last ten years in soil, aeroponically, and hydro. This shed is only for the winter crop as I grow outside in full sun during the summer months. The co2 is an investment for me as this spring I'll be putting up a green house to pre-veg my plants before they go into the 75 gallon containers I plant in during the summer. I like to put out plants that are already about 3' tall and about that big around. For me, there’s no need to grow inside at all during the warmer months…

I’m reading a bit more about that controller, though, and it doesn’t seem to actually monitor co2 so much as make sure it’s not running in conjunction with the exhaust. I would prefer one that I could set to a certain ppm...

 

[~O HI O~]

With such heat comes mega smell, best advice I can give you is to go with inline fans, not blower/squirrel cage type on your filter and or ventilation. The higher speed the better. Also I would go with the 1000w lights but run them on 240 you'll save a lot of money. And in most cases the 1000w lights cost about the same price as the 600w.

 

[Dr.Feelgood]

Okay, Butte. Didn't know you weren't new at all this. And I didn't know the shed was for winter.

Let us know how it goes.

 

[Butte]

Thanks all

The lights are, incredibly, with 220 ballasts, but I'm not sure what the reflectors look like. I'll keep ya posted and thanks again....

 

[unobtainium]

hey dude... checkout my scrog over in the flower pix forum. its a 1kw scrog 5'x4' 8 plants. im thinking 2 of these rigs (threw it together for under 40 bucks also has 4 wheels so your able to move for training and such. check it out dude you might be interested... im hoping for 2 pounds off this grow 4 pounds sounds like lots of meds for 2 months have fun dude pm me if you need any measurements or anything

 

[2buds]

First step in the setup in my opinion is: How much power do you have going to the shed? Hard to plan power usage without knowing how much you got. Whatever you plan on ordering, wait a day before you commit and think it all through. $1500 will go fast with or without donated hardware. Wiring, insulation, paint or reflective material, just smoke a bowl and think about what your gonna spend that hard earned money on before you click submit when you go shopping. Spend as little as you can, throw some plants in there and see what goes wrong and what goes right, as the grow progresses you'll find all kind of "I whish I had done this" things. Just my .02. Building your setup is like growing some bud, patients, patients, patients.

 

[Guest]

i'd get a couple 3x6 tables 2 1000w lights and 2 movers

 

[Guest]

Being a med user, do you not need a scrubber - or is it still a good idea to prevent theft/bugs?

 

[Guest]

CO2 is a definate plus!

CO2 is a definate plus!

Increased my yield and shortened flowering substancially. I use tanks w/ an injection system and a simple co2 table for settings. Safer and runs cool. You can usually pick up a 20# tank (you may want a spare also) and injection system on fleabay for under 200. Also you may want to try DWC as a Hydroponics option. Provided you have a fairly cool growspace you will FILL!! a 9x9 space easily w/ 7 plants. I have never seen anything grow like DWC. Buds the size of baseball bats and leave fans bigger than frisbees . If you need instructions for a DWC setup I can send you a great instructional I got from OC before they crashed. PM me