pray4pistils
Member
Okay, guys. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention. I "need" to grow some herbs, so I've "invented" a way to do it in my lame space which is about 16' long x 4' high x 4' wide. 
Those dimensions don't sound all that bad until you realize that the space is triangular. It's hard as hell to work in there, but they call it a "crawl space" for a reason, I guess.
What you see in the distance is the flowering area. A 400W Hortilux HPS is used at the far end where the most mature plants that are flowring. Hidden and to the right of the oscillating fan is a 400W MH for the younger flowering plants. (Both lights are fixed in position; boxes are used to place plants at the optimal height.) The idea is/was to keep them bushy while they wait to be cycled towards the far end. A black plastic flap drops down and is velcro'd in place to block light from the veg & clone area (which is discussed below). I had my doubts about this at first, but it leaks no light at all.
Anyway, the builder of this house was kind enough to install a heavy duty extraction fan which can clear the entire air volume in about 3 minutes. Even better, they put it on a thermostat which I've got set to roughly 80degF/27degC. Another benefit is that this vents directly to a 4th story roof that's directly under a bunch of thick trees, so thermal sensor-equipped helicopters and smell aren't a concern at all. I suppose it'll help block heat during the summer, too, but all the walls were well-insulated (by me).
Here's what female #1 looks like at home in her spot. The small end is raised to help it catch up with the other side.
I use the long/narrow and fairly shallow 5gal troughs to keep the plants as low to the floor as possible. This calls for more careful attention to hand watering frequency -especially since I'm growing in 50/50 coconut coir/perlite. I'll leave her lined up like this for the rest of the grow because the big end is already almost touching the mylar. As the meristem grows I think it will curl towards the light and away from that wall (which will be a good thing). I just hope that the light penetrates all the way to the far end as the illuminated end gets taller/more full.
Next... let's look at my Veg & Clone area which measures about 5' high x 4' tall x 1' deep:
The basic elements are (A) clone mother, (B) clones, (C) seedlings & various cooking herbs (you know... the "other" kind). Air is taken in from the area behind the humidifier (1) and flows under the black plastic sheeting on the shelf. Then, it goes up via the fan in position (2), and then is pulled out of the box via the fan located in position (3).
That wall-mounted extractor fan is hidden behind a bit of cardboard to block the fluorescent light. This whole area is closed off via a big black plastic sheet with a layer of mylar. The sheet is held up and out of the way via a little velcro tab.
So, whaddyuz think? So far it's working pretty well.
Those dimensions don't sound all that bad until you realize that the space is triangular. It's hard as hell to work in there, but they call it a "crawl space" for a reason, I guess.
What you see in the distance is the flowering area. A 400W Hortilux HPS is used at the far end where the most mature plants that are flowring. Hidden and to the right of the oscillating fan is a 400W MH for the younger flowering plants. (Both lights are fixed in position; boxes are used to place plants at the optimal height.) The idea is/was to keep them bushy while they wait to be cycled towards the far end. A black plastic flap drops down and is velcro'd in place to block light from the veg & clone area (which is discussed below). I had my doubts about this at first, but it leaks no light at all.
Anyway, the builder of this house was kind enough to install a heavy duty extraction fan which can clear the entire air volume in about 3 minutes. Even better, they put it on a thermostat which I've got set to roughly 80degF/27degC. Another benefit is that this vents directly to a 4th story roof that's directly under a bunch of thick trees, so thermal sensor-equipped helicopters and smell aren't a concern at all. I suppose it'll help block heat during the summer, too, but all the walls were well-insulated (by me).
Here's what female #1 looks like at home in her spot. The small end is raised to help it catch up with the other side.
I use the long/narrow and fairly shallow 5gal troughs to keep the plants as low to the floor as possible. This calls for more careful attention to hand watering frequency -especially since I'm growing in 50/50 coconut coir/perlite. I'll leave her lined up like this for the rest of the grow because the big end is already almost touching the mylar. As the meristem grows I think it will curl towards the light and away from that wall (which will be a good thing). I just hope that the light penetrates all the way to the far end as the illuminated end gets taller/more full.
Next... let's look at my Veg & Clone area which measures about 5' high x 4' tall x 1' deep:
The basic elements are (A) clone mother, (B) clones, (C) seedlings & various cooking herbs (you know... the "other" kind). Air is taken in from the area behind the humidifier (1) and flows under the black plastic sheeting on the shelf. Then, it goes up via the fan in position (2), and then is pulled out of the box via the fan located in position (3).
That wall-mounted extractor fan is hidden behind a bit of cardboard to block the fluorescent light. This whole area is closed off via a big black plastic sheet with a layer of mylar. The sheet is held up and out of the way via a little velcro tab.
So, whaddyuz think? So far it's working pretty well.
