Grow closet design...steppin up

[StayHigh149]

Thanks to IC Mag & OG, I've gained a ton of knowledge (compared to where I used to be) & began my own small grows. I have been able to pass that knowledge on to 3 other people that have started growing in Rubbermaids themselves. So the Overgrow movement continues to work.....
Now, I'm ready to move into a more stable grow enviroment & I am looking for some help designing a REAL grow room. My knowledge is still very limited tho & I know there are some very, very knowledgable people here on IC. I have been growing in 18gal Rubbermaids in soil. I'm running some of TFD's "Pure" in there at the moment.

NEW ENVIROMENT:
I have a "long closet. It's 3 feet wide, 7.5 high with a drop down ceiling & can be adjusted to 5 feet long. I can snap pics if needed. Basically it is a blank slate & I am totally open to design help/ideas. I'm looking for a "clean" setup but I am not an engineer/scientist & would love to have some help with a "real design". I do not have a hps yet but can purchase up to a budget 600w.I know there is a wealth of knowledge in these forums. I can basically make this as permanent as I want to. I can cut holes in walls of whatever I need to do to make the most of my grow area. Please help...anyone..LoL

I will have to piece this together over time because of budget constraints but I'm chomping at the bit to get started. I keep running out before my next grow is done, so I need to get this room going. I can continue to use the Rubbermaids for veg if necessary too.

If anyone can lend design diagrams, ideas...anything it would be appreciated greatly. Thanks in advance for any help!!! k+

 

[StayHigh149]

I'm going to a local electrical supply store this week to what I can pick up. I have a friend that is an electrician....gonna see if I can find a 600, if not I'll go with a 400. Will try to diy a cool tube but I am totally open to design options & grow methods...

 

[Villain]

Well you have choices and only you can make the one that best fits your style. If you want something with easy maintenance then DWC is a good choice, on the other hand you will be lugging around 10's of gallons of water. There are many different systems and thats were you may want to start. Look into TAG, ebb n flow, and NFT, see which you think suits you best. Once you do then you will need to figure out how you want to grog (SOG, SCROG, LST, etc). Sea of Green might be a good way for you to grow, you could have a nice NFT table about waist high seeing as you have 7' of hight.
After you figure out what system you want and how you want to grow then you need to start making plans and layout designs. Post back when you have a better idea of what you want to do and we will chime in with a few ideas

PS I am sketching you up a 3D design for the dimensions to your closet I will post it when I am done. It is an ebb n flow type design and I think you will like it. Here is what you can expect but with your environment instead of mine.

 

[StayHigh149]

Thx Villain.

Actually, I have 4 Pure from TFD in veg rite now so I'm hoping to finish those in the closet.

Either way, the 1st grow or 2 will be in Fox Farm soil...just becase my 1st 2 Rubbermaid grows have been soil. I would then like to switch to DWC because of the ease.

I think I can vent thru the dropdown ceiling into a carbon scrubber in another walled off area.

I've never ran a 600w, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to cool that enuff in a small space like that. May need to go with a 400.

 

[PGW]

If you want to increase your number of plants in a given space you might consider coco once you've used up your Fox Farms. I'm currently ramping up a room similar in size to yours except mine is 8' long. Once it's fully stocked I'll have 64 plants in there--perpetual--with a 16 plant harvest every two weeks. If the site would let me post pics I would, but my post count is still too low.

An attempt at explaining my setup:
I run four 400 watt HPS lights each suspended from eye-hooks in the ceiling. I have two rows of plants on each side of the room. There is a row just off the floor and running the length of the room, and another 1.5' above that one. Same on the other side (think "wall of green"). With the lights hanging straight down between them. I AM gonna have to run cool-tubes though. My A/C window unit is new, but it's not big enough. So either I buy a bigger A/C and use more electricity, or run cool tubes and keep A/C as it is.

If you are creative enough, you can really take a small space to another level, but unfortunately growing is like racing....In racing they say speed costs money, how fast ya wanna go? In growing it can be same way. If you wanna harvest big or start chasing the illusive "gram/watt/month", then it starts adding up. Everything in my room was analyzed to death and done the cheapest way I could do it. I bet I have spent seven to eight hundred bucks in there and will have twice that in it once I'm satisfied. All with less than 32 square feet.

Any how.....just more food for your thoughts.

 

[pinecone]

There are a few things more fundamental than growing medium that you are going to have to give some thought to before you start buying equipment.

- What do you want to accomplish? Do you just want enough weed to smoke 24/7 or are you intending to sell some of your crop? The former would argue for a smaller light.
- How do you plan to exhaust the hot air generated by your light and ballast? Can you cut holes in walls -ect? If you can't cut holes you might be better off with some sort of enclosure within the closet so that you can leave the closet door open and exchange the air around the enclosure without letting light out - otherwise you are just going to be recirculating warm air.
- How secure is your location? - do you own the home? Fans make noise - not a lot of noise, but maybe enough to cause problems if you live in a building with other people and have nosy or noise sensitive neighbors.

Pinecone

 

[StayHigh149]

If you are creative enough, you can really take a small space to another level,

This is exactly what I'm trying to do. Well, actually more of a tailor fit job for my space. I can cut holes, build shelves, whatever I need to do so I'm looking for something that's gonna what I would call "semi permanent".

Your grow sounds awesome, by the way!!!

 

[StayHigh149]

- What do you want to accomplish? Do you just want enough weed to smoke 24/7 or are you intending to sell some of your crop? The former would argue for a smaller light.

Looking to pull somewhere around 8 ozs or more per run.

- How do you plan to exhaust the hot air generated by your light and ballast? Can you cut holes in walls -ect? If you can't cut holes you might be better off with some sort of enclosure within the closet so that you can leave the closet door open and exchange the air around the enclosure without letting light out - otherwise you are just going to be recirculating warm air.

I can make any changes to the room that would be necessary including holes, shelves...anything. The room has a dropdown ceiling so tiles can be removed to raise the roof. If a cool tube is used in the design then it could be vented outside of the growroom under the stairs to the basement.

- How secure is your location? - do you own the home? Fans make noise - not a lot of noise, but maybe enough to cause problems if you live in a building with other people and have nosy or noise sensitive neighbors. Pinecone

No other people. Location is very secure but would still like to keep it low odor & to keep the noise to a minimum.

 

[PGW]

pinecone is right on. Get your room designed/laid out first. You don't have to build it yet, just get a design on paper. Once you have that, add one variable at a time into your design and see if any of the other characteristics you previously decided upon needs to be changed. If you go about it on paper first you can reduce the number of times you find yourself saying "awww SHIT!"

Good luck, and keep us posted.

 

[george j warner]

hey man ,right first things first whats the room and rooms layout i need whats behing the other walls etc ... your gona have to explain logically ..ie

my room is 3ft wide and 5ft deep , though the right side wall if your looking straight in there is the stairs which the cupboard is 3ft wide by 7ft deep(looking from up the stairs)... through the left wall is my bathroom which is blar blar blar

ok sorry you have to do this also i need which side is the vent out side ... is there power in side ? whats above it ? and whats below it ? are they cavity walls or are they plasterboard and which side /back front?

just us something to work with and illl design it 2d or 3d up to you

 

[StayHigh149]

George, thanks for joining in!!! I will snap some actual pics b4 Thurs & put them on here.

DETAILS:
The closet has 2 french doors. It is extremely long but I am only growing on 1 side of it. The side I'm going to grow on is 3 feet wide, 7.5 high with a drop down ceiling & can be adjusted to 5 feet long. On the other side of the drywall is my "under the stairs" space, which contains an electric water heater & ac unit for basement. The area wraps around the long side of the closet & also the short side of the closet in an "L" shape. Man, I wish I knew how to draw something that I could post up here but I don't know what program to use to do that. Now, above the drop down ceiling is alot of duct work, so I may be able to vent out that way by tieing into one of them, but first I have to figure out which ducts are which. It may be easier & less of a hassle to just vent into the "under the stairs" space thru a scrubber. I can cut a hole in the wall & run the ballast outside the grow space also.

Also, the 400watter will be here this week with a mh conv & hps bulb. I will be switching over to a ceramic mh at some point cuz I've been reading some awesome things about them!

Peace & Blessings,
Stay High 149

hey man ,right first things first whats the room and rooms layout i need whats behing the other walls etc ... your gona have to explain logically ..ie

my room is 3ft wide and 5ft deep , though the right side wall if your looking straight in there is the stairs which the cupboard is 3ft wide by 7ft deep(looking from up the stairs)... through the left wall is my bathroom which is blar blar blar

ok sorry you have to do this also i need which side is the vent out side ... is there power in side ? whats above it ? and whats below it ? are they cavity walls or are they plasterboard and which side /back front?

just us something to work with and illl design it 2d or 3d up to you

 

[StayHigh149]

when I enter the FULL closet thru the french doors...I will be growin on the rt side of the french doors (or 1/2 the FULL closet)....so I will have to enter the grow space thru the short sided (3 ft wide) left wall od the grow space. (confused yet? LoL). So, basically I will step into the full closet & do a right face (military right face), straight in front of me will be the 5 ft long portion of the grow space. Now if I step into the grow space...thru the wall on my left is the water heater & stair space. straight ahead is a continuation of the unused under stair space which is the other 3ft wide wall. Now thru the wall on the right is office space/living area. My entire under stair space can be accessed thru a door that has a padlock on it also & covers the length of the whole closet which would be approx 12 ft & the short side of the "L" shape is approx 6 ft & that is where the door to the under stair space is located.

If y'all need anymore info...plz lemme know & again, thanks a TON for the assistance!

 

[george j warner]

yes majorly confused lol you got a camra? well draw it on some paper then take a picture then add it here ..it will save you time with computer programmes ... but i use photoshop

 

[StayHigh149]

LoL, I knew it was way too confusing when I typed it!! LoL

I'll get pics this weekend. I just need to clear a couple of bookshelves outta there 1st.

Thanks a million George!

 

[StayHigh149]

yes majorly confused lol you got a camra? well draw it on some paper then take a picture then add it here ..it will save you time with computer programmes ... but i use photoshop

1 step better, i hope. here are pics of the exhaust space under the stairs & also shots of the closet.

1.here are the french doors going into the closet. The actual grow space is to the right inside those doors.


2. ok, i didn't clear it out yet but i will on saturday when I get off work. This is the view from inside the french doors looking into what will be the grow space. the far wall is 3ft wide. it's 5 ft from the far wall to the door frame, so I can shorten that length if necessary. To the left (on the backside of the bookshelf) is where the "under the stairs space is with a water heater (electric) & a/c condensor.


3. drop down ceiling in grow space. this ceiling is 7.5 ft from the floor with ducting & beams above it.


4. this is the room that wraps around the closet. the wall on the left, where the studs are, is the "far wall" of the closet.

another pic of same space


5. water heater with under stair area behind it. to the left side of the water heater is the left wall of the grow space. the left wall of the grow space is the one on the backside of the black bookshelf in the closet pics up above.


6. 4 of TFD's "The Pure" vegged in a Rubbermaid. These ladies thank y'all for all of the help cuz they deserve better than what they have now...LoL.


Drawing of space coming in a minute.

 

[StayHigh149]

here is the drawing of the closet & the surrounding room.


By the way my light is a sun system 10 with a 400 mh conversion bulb & a 400 hps bulb. I plan on switching to a cmh after this grow...or maybe I'll wait till one of these bulbs stop working. Also I have an adjustable maximizer reflector.

 

[FRANKENBLUNT420]

thats an awesome space! i hope good things for you bro. i still gotta rely on closet space that i build though. maybe one day i can do an inhouse, then i can control my temps alot better.

cant wait to see what comes outta that!!! good luck and grows speed.

 

[george j warner]

k nice paper plan explains it all , this is the basic layout.




given the light is a 400 :
1)how many plants you normally grow at a time?
2)how much weed do you smoke a month ..average.?
3)you grow for personal smoking or do you want it for other reasons ? hint hint
4)and the biggy how much money is ok to spend or do you just want the design not the full set up?
ie
carbon filter
fan
ducting
ducting accessories
light accessories..timers etc
hydroponic meters..ph and ec
ferts
pumps
air pump if dwc
hoses
(unless you want to continue with soil?)


i will start designing the air flow and basic set up as it doesnt have anything to do with the system
laterz

 

[george j warner]

got it 8 oz per harvest 9 plants under 400 in 3ft x 3ft square

 

[StayHigh149]

I will stay in fox farm or happy frog for the 1st grow or 2. I really wanna get away from soil tho! Soil is messy plus gnats get on my nerves.
I'm just not sure about what I would like to switch to. I had consider coco but I'm not a "high maintenance" type of grower. I don't wanna have to provide plant maintenance every day....every 2 or 3 days I could live with but not everyday. Cost & low maintenance are the 2 biggest factors in the medium tho. I really don't want to spend 200 every cycle on nutes. I'm researching DWC & ebb n flow. I'm also thinkin that coco on a wick might work.

I would prefer something that I could fill up a res & just go. I know there's more to it than that but i'm sure y'all know what i mean.

Thanks again!!