Build a high yielding grow room/cab with $2000 or less

[saintgr8one]

HI All
the title pretty much says it all. $2000 max budget. For everything, including strain(s). cab or room? Oh, $2000 is max initial investment, gotta try not to raise utilities by more than $100/ month.
Please give me feedback on this because i really need alot of help. Thanks in advance for any help you can contribute.

 

[andrew415]

What size of room do you have to work with?

 

[saintgr8one]

let's say up to 10'x10'.

 

[Daemon]

What are your stealth requirements? We'd need a bit more info than provided to really help....

 

[saintgr8one]

immediate family may or may not know, really doesnt matter, rather not have the neighbors makin a "stink" about it though.

 

[saintgr8one]

And since nobody wants to play, "what would you do,"- lights are :
two 400 watt hps ballasts
one hps growbright bulb
one mh conversion bulb
Air is: Stanley Blower and Dayton Pole Blower
Water is: 3 gal. Bubble Buckets
plus a few other options
Now will people play?

 

[Albert Hofmann]

you have not set the parameters for a high yield room...in fact, running a couple 400 over plants in 3 gal bubblers is the recipe for a whole lota popcorn...unless we are talking about a couple plants scrog. I assume you meant high yield relative to the power that you are willing to throw at your grow. $100 a month does not a high yield garden make.

Anyway, my suggestion would be a 2' x 4' scrog with 2 plants in your bubblers. Once you get it dialed in you might see 2lbs every 3 or so months.


good luck,
albert

 

[saintgr8one]

I'm already at $300 dont want to go more than $400. Can you understand that? not saying that the bubblers are all i have to work with/ just sayin that i'm gonna base the grow on them.(seen results first handed so it won't do any good to try to dissuade me) but i want maximum yield for least?, not by far, investment.
Anybody with ideas, please share them but this isn't the first time i've done this, it's just the first time i've done it (illegally.) Is that possible? of course it is

 

[Albert Hofmann]

hey, I simply comment on what is written...based on what you said it is a small garden. If you are saying you are willing to put $400 towards the elec for the grow, then you might be getting somewhere. Lights +Power = Pot

When you say high yield you get my attention as I am an actual high yield grower, but then I come in and you have put just about every limitation on yielding high quantities of pot...weird to me.

Don't overlook the 2 x 4 scrog...it will give you the best numbers possible with those 4's

albert

 

[Guest]

Why do people start threads like this? Do you need someone to hold your hand? You've already got the equipment and you're already telling us how you're going to grow. What else is there to say?

 

[stke_fingas]

my current 400w v-scrog cab comes down in a week. been looking at a few options for the next cab/tent myself.

if you got that much space and only 2 lights? and 400w's at that... get some more lights and a flip flop. 400's don't cost shit to run 24/7, i read somewhere about $20/light/month. if you had two more ballasts and 6 bulbs you would have the potential to pull 8 bows(dialed in). thats on $80 of power for the ballasts alone, add the fans and pumps and your right about $100/month in grow power.

cmh all the way, cost less and are a little easier to cool. ballasts are ~$56, bulbs are ~$62(shipped). i'd find tube glass to make cooltubes and save $1000 in hoods. the DR80 is the perfect size for a mini-coli/v-scrog with 2 400w lights each(my next project). with the money saved on hood's i'm going to spend on tents to make it easier to keep harvests staggered. i've been building/designing my own rooms since i started and have full confidence in my progress and experience. i'll make a thread covering all aspects in a few weeks.

 

[GrowerGoneWild]

Why do people start threads like this? Do you need someone to hold your hand? You've already got the equipment and you're already telling us how you're going to grow. What else is there to say?

Some people like to be reassured.. Or they just want to confirm the theories that they have about growing..

Funny thing is that if you gave 10 different growers the same budget, I'm sure none of them will be identical. Its always interesting to hear a persons spin on things.

 

[GrowerGoneWild]

HI All
the title pretty much says it all. $2000 max budget. For everything, including strain(s). cab or room? Oh, $2000 is max initial investment, gotta try not to raise utilities by more than $100/ month.
Please give me feedback on this because i really need alot of help. Thanks in advance for any help you can contribute.

As much as I'ld like to answer you question, its not really detailed enough to give a good answer.

-What is your style of growing?.. Hydro or Soil, chemical or organic?

-Would you like to grow from seed to harvest, or would you like to grow moms?

-Do you plan on cloning?

-What is your technical level?.. can you DIY or do you need to buy equipment.

-Do you need odor control?

-Is it hot where you live?.. Hows your water quality?.. etc..

 

[saintgr8one]

hey, thnx for the responses ppl, i do appreciate it.
GROWERGONEWILD: you sort of nailed it, i'm basically looking for feedback.
As far as the supplies i have, thats just what i have to start with. Like i said 2 grand budget what should i get.
I guess i didnt mention anything specific about yield other than high, huh? I smoke an ounce a week to the head. Add the wife, theres another 1/4, friends, add another say 1/4. That doesnt count the weekends i get off of work, can easily smoke a half on a saturday night. So, lets say i need 2 oz.s a week 52 weeks a year.
I live in the northeast US of A so summers aren't too bad. right now i am growing in soil. I currently have 2 moms-1 from seed that i flowered till she showed sex-the other is a reveg from either the last run or the one before that. Waiting on a few clones in my cloner.
All of this is irrevelent though, because it taints the responses i will get. So let's say we have a 10'x10' room, and 2 grand to get us through 2 grows. What would be the way YOU would do it?

 

[GrowerGoneWild]

Well this is how I would do it.. just some thoughts anyways.

10X10 perpetual SOG. with mom & veg/clone area box, cabinet.. whatever..

Mom Cabinet, ~200W MH, running 18/6 for mom, in DWC.
Clones, ~200W CFl's running 18/6 in a aero cloner or DIY cloner.
Veg~200W CFL or MH running 18/6, in Rockwool.
The clone and veg area coud fit in its own cabinet, I would have a seperate mom area.
400 USD.

Bloom Room.
SOG style running either NFT or Aeroponics, and to keep things simple for nutrients,
just run General Hydroponics Flora Nova. It will keep nutrient costs down.

Assuming you are running a 60 day Indica/Sativa Hybrid, And you could pull 10 clones every 2 weeks, I would make a 40 sites, so you could harvest every 2 weeks. mebby a couple of aero flo 20 site systems.
As far as the lighting I would put 2 400's HPS's on movers. 400's will light up 4x4 but to make things even I would go with the movers.

1000 USD

That should keep your utilities reasonable, and keep you under a budget of 2G's.

 

[FirstTracks]

this isn't a complete answer by any stretch, but from where you're starting and your 8oz/month minimum target, here's what i'd do.

-add 2 more 400w hps
-hang bulbs vertically with 6-10 plants around each light 1.5-2 feet from the bulb.
-get 4 tilting desk fans and position them pointing straight up at the bulb which will promote airflow around plants as well as push the hot air from the lights up and away.

-get a 2x4 tent and put a 250w mh in there off center
-clones on the side of the tent away from the light, mother(s) in the middle to shield light from the clones, vegging plants directly under the light.
-veg for 4-6 weeks (strain dependent, and i guess as little as 2 weeks for a high stretching sativa, and as much as 8 weeks for a slow vegging kush variety).
-convert your bubbler buckets to a recirculating system to promote aeration.
-make sure to insulsate buckets somehow (reflectix, aluminum tape, whatever you want).

you can get an 8x8 or 10x10 (i forgot) tent for somewhere around $800-900 or just build a frame out of 2x2s and line it with panda poly, probably costing 200 for the same space the tent would provide.

you already have nice cheap fans that work well. Since you'll be growing during the summer, i'd suggest getting a third fan (stanley with 3 speed control) t0 have on standby when your temps start climbing.

depending on the strain(s) you choose, 2 can66 style filters should do the job

you might want to add a couple oscillating fans in the corners of the room to promote good airflow and all the benefits that come with it.

with this setup, i'd guess $150-250/month depending on a few variables.

If you don't have nutes yet, i'd recommend GH 3 part, except just buy a gallon of micro and a gallon of bloom and use the lucas formula as a starting point. You can use the money you saved (by not buying the GH 'grow') to get some hydroguard and maybe pick up a bloom booster.

---------

I said to add 2 more 400s because i don't know how your growing skills are and you should be able to get at least 4oz's per light even if you make a few mistakes. When your skills improve (or even right away) you could be pullin 8-16oz/light with a vertical system like this. Consider a perpetual system in which each individual light had the same age/size plants but the sepearate lights are 2-3 weeks apart depending on the flowering time of your strains.
This perpetual system might help to keep the heavy smells from all coming on at once and would make the smell easier to control wtih less filters.

I think you'd be happier with ebb and flow buckets as you'll likely experience less root problems due to high water temps.

 

[fatal1]

disclaimer. I'm just giving suggestions on what I might do. You asked for 2 cents, so here is the track my mind would follow.

If I had 2 grand to spend on equipment and a 10x10 room with ~100 bucks to spend in power a month I would do a perpetual grow with the room sectioned off (1 veg/clone/mom room and 1 flower room) with a 600hps for the flower room and a 8 bulb T5 for the veg room. ( or you can use the 400 mh you already have for the veg)
The grow medium would be coco and I would use coco nutes. I would get a good PH meter. An inline fan with a D.I.Y carbon scrubber would help with odor. If I was in the northeast US I'm guessing I would use central AC for the few hot summer days and maybe a small dehumidifier for the flower room.

That's just the rough outline that pops in my head. I'm sure things would change once I really started getting my hard list together, but the one thing that I would do for sure is make it perpetual. Those guys always have fresh smoke. They have a variety of strains. They seem to get the most out of their electric usage. It seems like an efficient way of growing.

I'm beginning to ramble so I'll quietly exit out of the back door and let one of the pro's chime in.

 

[fatal1]

This thread made made me think of something....... Why isn't there a used gear section on this forum. I might be going out on a string but I bet there is a lot of equipment (like the 400 watters you have) out there thats just sitting up collecting dust that could be getting a novice grower up and running. Not only that but you could use that extra cash to get your new 10x10 grow room spun up.
Has there ever been anything like that here?

 

[saintgr8one]

Thanks all for your responses, thats what i was looking for.
FIRSTTRACKS: Thanks for the input. As far as the ebb&flow goes, i'm on it. i saw a flood table and i started thinkin to myself i'm gonna do an ebb&flow w/ a kiddie pool as my flood table verticle lights, 1 gal. grow bags w/hydroton. first problem w/ my setup is my drawings call for 2 carbon filters-one after the stanley for the tube-one before the Dayton. This way leaves me w/ the MH conv. to use for veg.
Does anyone have any input on these ideas. I would scan and post my pic. but my 10 yr. old son has better drawing skills than me

 

[dontstepongrass]

used gear forum would be setting people up to get fucked... think about it.