G.K. I Want Your Suggestions On Designing A Commercial Grow Room.

As some of you already know I am starting a Medical Marijuana Collective. We have been searching for a commercial building to house our office and grow area. Unfortunately we don't live in the coastal counties of CA and we are finding that it's next to impossible to find a suitable building in a location that allows MMJ businesses to operate. So we are going to probably go the way of the Home Based Delivery Service and Collective Grow. I have a space that is roughly 10' x 10' x 7' with a 4' x 6' closet that I want to set up as my Flowering Room. I was thinking I would be able to use somewhere around 6k watts of HPS light. I'll use an appropriately sized exhaust fan to vent the reflectors. We are going to try and seal the room off from the rest of the house. I'm going to silicone and use the spray in foam to seal all the walls and corners of the room (it's a 40 year old mobile home so it's kind of drafty) and seal the ceiling with a thick layer of latex paint. We are going to run A/C to control the temps and I want to enrich Co2 as well. I know we want to grow hydroponically, but I'm unsure of what style exactly will best suit our space. Our ceilings are only 7' high so height is an issue for growing big trees in DWC style. I was thinking SOG w/ebb and flow tables but I wasn't sure. We'll be getting a small R/O system. We're going to filter the intake and exhaust.
:redbong:


I would like your input GK. Here are some things I want to get your take on:

1-What brand of ballasts and Reflectors are the best?

2-What style of Hydro system would you suggest? ie: ebb and flow, NFT, DWC etc.

3-What nutrients would you want to use. ie: Useless' 3 part, General Organics, Fox Farms etc.

4-How would you enrich Co2? ie: Tank & timed regulator, Co2 Generator--Nat Gas or Propane, cheap Co2 tubs or Co2 tablets etc.

5-How many lights/watts would you run? (I want somewhere around 5-6k) ie:5 or 6 1k lights 9 or 10 600 watt lights etc.

6-insert you other input or questions here.

Thanks in advance for any and all replies. I look forward to getting all your guys' input on this subject. Hopefully a couple of the hydro Gurus will check in as well as anyone with any experience with a grow over 5k watts.

This :hs: grows :growin: :thumbs-up:

 

if you have exhaust fans, you really dont need co 2, they get it from outside, actually you could have one fan blowing in and the other out, if its legal for you to grow why worry? i grew in a town house once that had a corridor paralell to my grow room, people doing laundry etc,, my basement had a opening where the foundation met the ceiling. plenty of air and co 2, had 6 foot cal skunk growing in 3 months

 

Some folks out there may want to steal it.

 

7 by 10 foot area?


2,000 watt lights with the maximum for that room The more i think you'd wasting like

 

no, no... a 10' x10' area with 7' ceilings and an attached walk in closet that is about 4' x 6' so all together we are looking at 124 square feet. My thought was to do 1 ebb and flow table under each 1000 watt light so I can keep the lights as close to the tops as possible and still get an adequate light footprint to cover the tables evenly.

 

Thanks for your input GG. so far you are the first one to actually address all my questions.


I am curious as to why you would not enrich Co2? I have never used it myself with my small room, but in a commercial setup it seems like all the bigger commercial growers are doing some kind of Co2 enrichment. I was under the impression that it would increase yields. I wanted to seal the room off from the rest of the house to try and eliminate any pests. I have lots of dogs and a cat and as I said I live in a drafty old mobile home. I have had problems with spider mites and was hoping that by sealing the room and only exhausting it once or twice a day and having the intake filtered it would maybe eliminate my problems. If the cost of purchasing the Co2 generator and sealing the room won't be offset by bigger yields then maybe I just want to go with a system like what I have now. I am using a large inline centrifugal fan to constantly exhaust the room pulling fresh air from outside the room through a passive intake by just having my fan attached via flexible ducting to only one side of my reflector.


Now for the nutrients. I know Useless' 3 part is a proven system (I have no personal knowledge of it) I have not even read how it works. I have also never done any hydro other than Hempy. I understand how it all works and have what I believe is a good enough skill set that I can successfully grow hydro on a large scale. I was thinking that it would be nice to go Organic. I was thinking of trying the General Organics line but I know there are a lot of parts. maybe I should try and perfect my Hydro style using a proven easy to follow formula. What about Useless' formula makes it so much easier than others?


You would go 600 watters huh? Is that because in a SOG the plants stay shorter and therefore the extra light penetration of the 100 watters is not necessary. I know that 600 watt lights are more efficient than 1000 watt lights in producing lumens per kwhr right? 600 watters would mean more reflectors but a better light footprint.


Thanks for the redundancy suggestion. I plan on having extra pumps and timers as well as extra ballasts and bulbs. I want to do this right. Luckily with it being at my house it will be easier to keep a close eye on things during my first runs through.

 

Right, no worries there! This will be my job so the room will rarely be left unattended for any length of time. I will take that to heart nonetheless.

 

My advice, gather your buds and also gather thou reputable vendors. If you get popular and run outta the ganj your popularity will run out right quick! Patients will quickly find another resource. Stick to county and state laws or you are fucked.... Best of luck! Irie!

 

10'x10 flower area will only accommodate 4KW. You gotta have room to move in there dude. if you use four 4'x4' tables or two 4'x8' tables, that's 8'x8' of grow area. This only leaves 1 foot on each side of the grow to walk around so you can tend the plants.


As to your questions...


1) Lots to choose from. I have used electro/mag ballasts for years with no issues. I have had one of them for over 8 years, and 2nd for over 5 years. Zero issues. On reflectors, well, if you are going with a sealed room with CO2, then use the bat wing or adjust a wing reflectors, as they don't "capture" as much heat.


2) EnF or RDWC or mini-KFB. If using EnF, SOG style with 1 plant per sq. ft. Flower at 12". If RDWC, then 4 plants per light, circled around the bulb, hanging vertically with no reflector. Mini KFB would be same bulb and plant arrangement as RDWC.


3) Of course I am going to say my formula, at least to start with. It's a solid baseline to get your plants dialed in with, and then you can compare with other nutrients etc. Not saying my formula is the best, just that it is a great baseline because it is proven stable.


4) In that space, a propane fired, water cooled CO2 generator would be best. However, a tank and regulator will work wonder in there as well. Either way, a CO2 PPM controller is going to be required. *You didn't discuss A/C for cooling. In standard building designs you need 3750btu per 1000 watts to cool efficiently and effectively.


5) See above.


Hope that helps.

 

Can't address most of your questions but i do personally know two people around here that have warehouse sized rooms and they both grow in soil. They are completely freaked out about hydro because of all the things that can go wrong. I have been told that if you have a power failure for any length of time you are screwed. That seems to be the number one thing that both of them are concerned about.

 

Yeah but I would hate to see how much they spend on that much soil and I wouldn't want to have to deal with all the old left over soil after each grow. Most professional commercial growers are doing Hydro because it's more efficient on a large scale.

 

So Useless if you check back in I was wondering what you think of adding light movers into the equation? I was thinking of using 4 1k watt lights on 3.5 ft. light mover rails. 4 4x4 EnF tables (homemade using concrete mixing tubs I saw it done in a video) SOG 1 plant per Sq. Ft.


My goal is to harvest 1 pound every 16 days or so. Does that sound feasible with that setup? That means 2 ounces per plant under each light or approx. 1/2 gram per watt of light used.


A/C question. We were planning on using a window unit for ease of installation as well as initially they are cheaper (I know they are less energy efficient). I would need to get one that will recirculate the air inside the room in order to keep it sealed (I think they all have that ability?). So I was going to mount it up high at the top of the window and mount a fan next to it to evenly distribute the cool air throughout the room. With enough air movement do you think I'll be able to keep the temp even throughout the room and avoid any cool spots and hot spots. I don't want the side of the room farthest away from the A/C to be significantly warmer than the other side. I could get a portable A/C unit and place it in the middle of the room if that would work better, but in my limited space I wanted to conserve floor space.


I may end up using the Useless formula, but I still am considering going fully Organic. I'm still undecided. I want results but my heart tells me to go Organic and my patients will appreciate it. We'll just have to see when that time comes. I'll be talking to a lot of medical patients to see what their preference is. Personally I DO like to know that y buds are Organic.... Not that I won't smoke buds grown using chem ferts as long as it was done right and flushed properly.

 

Commercial growing is over my head, but from what everyone around here tells me about growing in a trailer, is mold issues, powdery mildew. I don't know. I never grew in a trailer. Something to think about.


peace.


G_B

 

Organic is best IMO.


peace.


G_B

 

Ummm.... Well it's not a trailer exactly..... It's a double wide mobile home. It's 3 bedroom 2 bath approx 1100 sq. ft. overall. It's older and a little drafty but I have been growing here indoors for over a year and never once had any mold or mildew issues. But thanks for your concern.

 

Personally I don't use light movers. I had one, and stopped using it because I saw no real benefits. Sure, the buds on the outer edges got a little bigger because they got more light, but the buds in the middle lost some size. Overall yield was the same. If you are worried about hot spots, then they can be beneficial.


1/2 gram per watt should be easy to do. Course it's strain dependent. I only got 1.5 lbs from the Bubba Kush table, but cleared 1047 grams with the Casey J on the other table last round.


Like I said about using my formula, it's a good baseline to go from. Have some friends talking up the Ionic line recently though. Gonna have to test it out.


Won't get into the organic vs. mineral nutes, been through it a thousand times and to me it's futile, there is no difference. I could send you a buds of the same strain grown organically, or grown hydro, and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. But I understand people have their beliefs and views, so use whatever is going to work best for you.


A/C window unit is fine. Just do like you planned and have a couple fans providing airflow in the room. You want one fan about mid room (oscillating) and another on the opposite end of the room from the a/c blowing back towards the unit. That should keep the air in the entire room mixed well and a steady temp throughout.

 

Sincere Thanks!!


Useless, thank you for all your input my mentor, I truly do appreciate all you r advice.


I also thank each and every one of you that contributed anything to this thread. I took it all to heart and it's really appreciated.


i will leave this thread open for more suggestions in the weeks to folllow but construction has begun on the room. My father is here doing the electrical work and we will have a total of 5k flowering and 2k vegetative and I am going to start a new thread to document the build so stay on the look out. Once I post the thread I will post a link here fro those who would like to watch the build and results of this venture.


Blessings GK! :angel5:

 

This is a great thread for those of us, like you ResGanJah, who are just getting into this type of grow operation.


I'm anxious to see how this turns out to be.;!


Great info everyone!


:alienwink: