Where to start: Your opinions wanted!

[Meadowlands]

Well I just signed a lease on a new place with an acceptable basement for a project.

Being newly returned to town, I am rather "underemployed" and therefore the budget is currently minimal.

So let me give you a list of what I DO have, and then I would love to hear your opinions on what style grow I should go for.

For starters I have all of the accumulated knowledge from this site, I have been a member and avid reader for months now. Also, I have Mr. Cervantes grow bible which I have been studying like a textbook for 2 months or so.

As far as PLANTS I have 4, all unsexed, under my 160w flouro rig. 3 Pure power plants and one afghanXstrawberry-diesel.

They were showing some signs of P and K defeciancies which I'm hoping the recent transplant will cure (they are roughly a foot tall, 7 to 9 leaf sets, and they were until recently in 6 or 8 ounce little plastic cups with drainage holes.

SEEDS:
1.strawberry-diesel(coughxsourIBL)/afghani(father)xsourdieselIBL
2.Pure power plant
3. silver pearl
4.afghani(father)xsourdieselIBL
5.northernberryxwhite russian
6.AfghaniXNL#5

LIGHTS:
I have 2 small (2ft.) flouro's which I figured I would use for seedlings/clones. I just bought a big flouro fixture which contains 4ft 40w bulbs (both cool and soft to cover the spectrum). Lastly, I have a 1000w HPS ballast and fixture, still waiting to get the reflective hood from the seller and I need to buy a bulb. After reading up, I wish I would haev gone with a different wattage, but I'll work with what I have for now!

I have a cheap run o' the mill timer with one socket space, some power strips and extension cords.

METER: a 2 pronged pH meter, but I don't think it works...everything I test reads 6.5-6.8 (it got wet in my trunk once, i think it's shot.)

FERT: fox farms grow big(6-4-4 as well as big bloom, and a few ounces of indonesian bat guano(.5-12-.2)

I have a flat tray with 72 slots, and a drainage tray to go underneath. these are small slots, maybe hold one or 2 fluid ounces and are 1 inch across.

I also have about one cubic foot each of composted cow manure(.5 -.5 -.5) and composted mushroom soil. also plenty of vermiculite. just ran my self out of perlite.

Things I must get:

HPS bulb

lumber and drywall

white paint or mylar

pots

potting mix. I would like to go with moonshinemans organic mix, but the "light warrior" soil is not available in my town, nor have I found coco bricks, but that is lighted enough to be cheaply shipped...as opposed to the bag of soil.

I am sold on the mini osmosis thing too, you know, the converted Mr. Clean car sprayer. see it here.

I figure I should also find a damn tester that works. and perhaps an EC meter.

I would also like to get trichoderma fungus to ease the trauma of transplanting...any tips where I can order some of this?

OK friends, let it fly.

 

[Gangsta Lean]

read n do searches

 

[Guest]

Opinions on 'what to do'?

Mine is grow them... use hydro. Good luck!

 

[Meadowlands]

I'm wondering how tall I should let them get for the 1000w, and how many to do at a time. I hear that wattage needs to stay further from the plant because of heat issues.

 

[Guest]

how much vertical space you have will determine how tall you can let them get.

 

[Guest]

Wait till you see the electric bill from that 1000 watt system.

But its hard to beat the results from that size light.

 

[TrustNoOne]

depends on where you live and your electric rate but a 1k grow still won't be expensive considering the end results.
build the room first and then post more threads for the growing part.
and search and read, it'll only help your grow.

 

[Mackawber]

first things first

first things first

Number one rule (besides don't tell anybody) is check out your electrical supply capability, capacity and condition. If the supply is dubious / questionable then you need to fix it. An electrical fire because you overloaded 50 year old wiring with a load twice the rated capacity will ruin everything.

 

[TrustNoOne]

Number one rule (besides don't tell anybody) is check out your electrical supply capability, capacity and condition. If the supply is dubious / questionable then you need to fix it. An electrical fire because you overloaded 50 year old wiring with a load twice the rated capacity will ruin everything.

without a doubt man.
a 1k grow should be able to be run on one 15-20 amp breaker as long as there's nothing else or no other rooms on the same circiut. unless you want to add dehudifiers and ac's, then you'll need two breakers to run safely.

 

[ourcee]

I'm wondering how tall I should let them get for the 1000w, and how many to do at a time. I hear that wattage needs to stay further from the plant because of heat issues.

you can get 1000w close to the tops, just look in my gallery, that NYCD is growing incredibly vigorously (albeit just a tad light bleached now)

only thing about how much to let em veg depends on how much they are gonna stretch, a lot of plants will stretch over twice their size, some will hardly stretch at all

I'd build as many bud sites as possible, top them, fim, LST, etc, get a lot of budsites, basically have a canopy of budsites, then flip to 12/12, if one or two start to stretch too much, pick up a small bottle of Bushmaster and do a foilar feed, thats the same thing I'm doing right now.

 

[Meadowlands]

TrustNoOne:The place is a relatively modern building, perhaps built in the 70's at the earliest. where do I read how many amps the individual breakers are? I see there are only 2 outlets in the basement, which is on it's own breaker. perhaps I could route it from another breaker for some of the auxillery stuff like fans and whatnot.

by the way bong ripper: the rafters start at about 8ft with another foot between them and the first floor.

Not looking forward to sterilizing the place. not that the landlords did a bad job, but they definitely aren't considering the same uses for the basement that I am.

It is a 2 bedroom without the 2nd roomie, and aside from not having a computer (energy sucker) and rarely using a tv, I am pretty efficient, keeping the stereo, tv, and microwave on surge protecters so I can disconnect them when not in use.


I wonder if that electric stove is draining energy when not in use?

 

[Guest]

No load that I know of uses power when not in use..

 

[Meadowlands]

microwaves use power when not in use. so does anything with an AC adapter unless you unplug it or swtich off its surge protector.

 

[TrustNoOne]

if you have space in service panel i'd run two new circiuts to an intermatic t103 and take a couple of outlets out of that for 24/7 power.
you'd be set up nice powerwise.

 

[ourcee]

where do I read how many amps the individual breakers are?

it should say on the breaker, often times it will say a number on the part you'd flip, the switch. I've got a bunch of 15 amp breakers, a 50 amp for a water heater, 30 amps for w/d etc etc...

should say on it, find the corresponding plug, and your good to go

a 1000w draws a bit over 9 amps on a 120v plug, you can have a 1000w along with a couple small(er) fans running on just one 15 amp 120v outlet. Just make sure you know how many amps each piece of equip will pull and keep it a few under.

 

[gromer]

Ha ahhhahaha!!I dunno of anything that draws power when not in use I tell ya I love comin here for a laugh.That and the omg just imagine the bill from that !k what about 10 or 20 cmon guy 1000 watts yer wifeys hair dryer draws more juice.Oh yeh like EVERYTHING these days uses power even when its off.Does the stove have one of those new little digi readouts /clock and whatnot if so,it does and so does yer tv,vcr,stereo,dvd some clocks and little gadgets all can be plugged into power bars that are shut down when not in use youd be surprised at the money youll save.As for the grow 1000 watts Id build at least a 6x6 enclosure to give you plenty of room to move.May I also suggest consider the future If you ever could imagine expanding somday take that into account today and build the room accordingly.Plants under 1000 watt can get like 3 ft b4 you start getting soo tall that the light doesnt penetrate properly remember light fades to the square of the distance.Veg em to 1.5 ft theyll double youll be all good.That and go air cooled when you order a hood,more money but youll thank me in the end.Get at least a 300 cfm to pull air out and half that pulling in.Id build a small table or tray that plants containers can set on anything to get em off the floor.Keeps it clean helps airflow and keeps plants off the cold basement floor.Hope this is a start.PM if ya need any help,built a few rooms in my day Ill help ya out if ya need it.Peace,Gromerr Pott!!

 

[Meadowlands]

Thanks for your help gromer!

 

[Meadowlands]

unfortunately I can't PM until I leave 50 comments on this site. which is part of the reason I started a thread!. I don't think I'm even halfway there yet.

 

[Meadowlands]

How much do those air cooled hoods cost? I have a standard sun systems hood and was hoping to outfit it with 4in. ducting straight to a filtered exhaust. anyone had success with a DIY aircooled hood?

I finally got my bulb in and fired it up just to take a look (ha! although I couldnt really "look" at the beaming beast), and sure as shit, that baby runs hottt.

It's looking like the room will be 10x10, and the rafters start at 7 feet and then there is about one more foot of space before the cieling.

Also the venting situation is as follows. the dryer vent goes outside just 6 inches off the ground. i could filter it and shoot it out there, but seeing as winter was coming I thought I could balance my electrical bills (the house has electric heat) by filtering and keeping that warm air in the house. Otherwiese, it would take a feat of engineering on my part to get a exhaust tube to the attic from the basement without leaving a trace for the landlords to find after the lease is up. I'm ruling that option out for now unless the house gets stinky during flowering.

My big question: where the hell does fresh air come from when people seal up their houses for the winter?
the door opening when we come in and out? is that all?

 

[Meadowlands]

egh. it seems the landlords have grossly mislabeled the service panel insofar as which breakers correspond with which outlets. I am going to do a test: flip one, go run around the house plugging in my alarm clock into every outlet, see which ones are off, take note, and repeat with the next breaker.