Grow Room Planning Stages!Opinions!

Mudslide9791 said:

I've finished the lab, just waiting for a couple more things to come in. Everything is in route and has a scheduled delivery of early this week.

I've decided not to go the tent route as I really like my setup and think I can produce a good crop. I've allocated room for 6 plants in 3 gallon grow bags sitting 6 inches or so apart. I picked up 3 round metal support screens that sit roughly 2 feet above the plants. These screens will allow me to semi-scrog/train the plants while allowing me to keep my lighting 15" or so off the canopy the entire grow.

I like the idea about the hepa filter/charcoal box. I certainly have more time now than I do money so definately keep me posted on that project and I'll let you know how my ONA buckets work on my grow. I have plenty of time to get those built, I'm guessing roughly 4 weeks until it may become an issue.

Yeah my biggest fear is getting light/airy buds man, thats why I bought the plant supports, to keep the height manageable so I can always have all my girls in the light footprint.

On a high note, I have begun germinating my 10 Widows. I put them in paper towels Friday night and checked them this morning, still nothing =(

I'm going with a clean top soil and lightly fertilized perlite medium for the seedlings and will transplant them over to a 1 part clean top soil, 1 part Ocean Forest, 1/3 part perlite medium for veg. I didn't want the seedlings in the Ocean Forest medium to start to reduce the possibilities of the seedlings getting burned by the rich FF soil.

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Paper towels are a 50/50 sort of thing. Sometimes they germ, sometimes they don't. Sometimes when they do germ if you don't catch them late enough, when you touch and move them you'll jack up the little root nub and kill off the seed. They're very fragile. This method does work and I said 50/50 because I personally had a 50% success rate with paper towels in the past. I've since switch to rapid rooters. Simple, fast and more germination success rate. Rapid Rooters are SUPER easy and you get 50 in a bag for about $15...
Give those a shot sometime. Your grow room sounds sweet man, all the plans sound like they'll unfold nicely. Keep up the good work, take care.

you will need carbon scrubbers in every room, imo. Even 2 week old plants can make the house/apartment stink with that very unique, identifiable odor.

Don't do a 400w as veg. If you're concerned about heat I'd rock some T5's and only have to worry about cooling your 600 in flower

ColoradoLove said:

Don't do a 400w as veg. If you're concerned about heat I'd rock some T5's and only have to worry about cooling your 600 in flower

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Excellent Idea CoLove.

Ha just some experience man. I wanted a 1K but ended up getting a 600. It was a struggle keeping that thing cool in the heat of the summer and I'm med legal so I don't even really have to worry about stealth that much. I couldn't even imagine trying to cool a 1K or if I had multiple lights. I'm a big fan of lower electric bills too!

Looking forward to seeing this in effect!

And on the topic of thoughts and opinions on your grow, go perpetual! It's hard to start slowly and get all your plants spaced out, but once you hit that first harvest and every couple of weeks get another one, you'll be glad you did. Perpetuals really max out what you can do with only a few plants.

I harvest every 3 weeks, how many more harvests is that than someone who harvest every 8 weeks? More strains cycling through my garden!

Thanks for the great advice guys, I REALLY appreciate it. Money concerns stopped me from purchasing a nice T5 fixture. I would really like one but currently can't afford it. I have since adjusted my grow to only one room until I can successfully cultivate and harvest my first grow. I have a switchable 400w MH/HPS Ballast light that I will be using for this entire grow (other than propagation) I held off on ordering the 600w HPS for now. For the seedlings first couple weeks of life, I have a 2 foot T5 seedling fixture that I will use until I feel my plants are healthy enough to move into the FF soil mix and 400w MH. I still have the other room allocated for Veg and will be expanding once I'm satisfied that my thumb is green enough. I've decided since I'm growing a sativa mix strain, I will be trying the FIM technique and a partial scrog/training with a couple 2 ft screens I purchased at Home Depot. My goal is a good yield while learning how to keep my sativa's from being unruly in a semi-tight grow space. It will be interesting and alot of fun. Going to try and secure myself a camera and start a journal soon. I have 6 seeds popped with tap roots and they have been planted in my seedling media and put under several CFL's (to keep the soil warm) I have 4 other seeds beginning to split, still under paper towels.

Really I guess the grow has officially started =) Very excited!

I haven't run across perpetual growing in my studies yet. I'll be researching that tonight, Thank you Love!

I started a perpetual grow with one WHite Widow curently in flowering.

I took 7 clones from her and will veg them out and keep the 6 best.

From those 6 I will take 2 clones from each plant making 12 clones.

I will veg them out and keep the best 6.

From those 6 I will take 2 clones from each plant making 12 clones.

So on and so forth.

With the extra clones I can sell them to a dispensary or gift them to my friends.

I am limited to 12 plants, thats why I have 6 always in the flower room and harvest 6 plant every other month give or take a few weeks.

I have a similar grow in my apartments. My major issue was with heating(the smell wasn't that bad). I too am growing WW I'm about 14 days from harvest. I built a new grow box that had more room inside for air to move and to keep it cool. Check out my apart. box for some inspiration, https://www.rollitup.org/grow-room-design-setup/378355-building-new-closet-box-because.html

jesus of Cannabis said:

I started a perpetual grow with one WHite Widow curently in flowering.

I took 7 clones from her and will veg them out and keep the 6 best.

From those 6 I will take 2 clones from each plant making 12 clones.

I will veg them out and keep the best 6.

From those 6 I will take 2 clones from each plant making 12 clones.

So on and so forth.

With the extra clones I can sell them to a dispensary or gift them to my friends.

I am limited to 12 plants, thats why I have 6 always in the flower room and harvest 6 plant every other month give or take a few weeks.

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I want to do something similar. I'm trying to stay legal so after this harvest im going to veg 7 plants under a 6tube T5. Take my favorite and make her my mother(I have a spot for her) Then I'm going to switch the other 6 to flower under a 400w hps while taking clones from the mother every two weeks planting two then selling the rest. Hopefully I will be harvesting two plants once a month.

jesus of Cannabis said:

I started a perpetual grow with one WHite Widow curently in flowering.

I took 7 clones from her and will veg them out and keep the 6 best.

From those 6 I will take 2 clones from each plant making 12 clones.

I will veg them out and keep the best 6.

From those 6 I will take 2 clones from each plant making 12 clones.

So on and so forth.

With the extra clones I can sell them to a dispensary or gift them to my friends.

I am limited to 12 plants, thats why I have 6 always in the flower room and harvest 6 plant every other month give or take a few weeks.

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Ok here is my question. Doesn't flowering typically take longer than Veg? So you take your clones at whatever time in flower that you plan to veg the clones? I mean, yeah that sounds kind of confusing. Say you like to veg 6 weeks, you take your clones say 7 weeks prior to your flower harvest so you can keep a rotation? I'm confused........... I need to roll a joint and ponder this a little bit.

Mudslide9791 said:

Ok here is my question. Doesn't flowering typically take longer than Veg? So you take your clones at whatever time in flower that you plan to veg the clones? I mean, yeah that sounds kind of confusing. Say you like to veg 6 weeks, you take your clones say 7 weeks prior to your flower harvest so you can keep a rotation? I'm confused........... I need to roll a joint and ponder this a little bit.

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Yes flowering usually takes around two months for my White Widow while I veg for one month. Its pretty simple you just veg your clones for a month or so and then put those vegged clone in your flower room. I am a legal grower so I have three two month old(ready for harvest) plants and three one month old(recently vegged clones) flowering. Then two recently cut clones starting veg. Thats pretty much a still picture of my cycle. Just adjust the amount of plants flowering and vegging to your size grow. I think your just over thinking it. Whenever you put a clone in your flower room take new cuttings and start vegging them.

I've been reading about sog grows this evening and considering I'm currently running only one room for veg and flower, it may be worth my while to go with 10-20 plants sog style. I don't mind the extra work watering etc. My question would be. Can I do this without keeping a mother plant and take say 1 clone per plant each sog run that way I'll always have fresh clones for the next?

I would just keep a mother in a cabinet or something because the branches you would take to make a clone, you need for flowering. During a sog the plants don't have a lot of vegetative growth, so they dont really create that many more branches or budsites. They would need every branch to stay healthy. Plus if your planning on taking a clone during flowering just dont do it.

Mudslide9791 said:

.................. My question would be. Can I do this without keeping a mother plant and take say 1 clone per plant each sog run that way I'll always have fresh clones for the next?

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Take your current babies and veg them until 1.5ft. Pick the best four and pull 5 clones from three of the four you choose. Root the 15 clones and keep the 4th girl (the healthiest looking) for a mother. Continue topping the mother so next time you're ready to pull clones you'll have a ton of sites you can choose from. Perpetual will obviously begin to unfold at this point. You are right on the timing though: It takes roughly two months (depending on strain) to flower and only a month to veg. SO you will need to have some babies begin the veg stage while you're a month in to flower with your others- if you choose NOT to have a mother than you would have to pull clones during flower; unless your popping more seeds. Which it sounds like you won't be

xstation420 said:

....................Plus if your planning on taking a clone during flowering just dont do it.

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If your mother plant gets disease, mold, insect infestation or any other crap than you can most definitely pull a clone from a flowering girl! Just pick two or three tiny popcorn buds with 4" green stems (not woody stems) from the bottom of the flowering girl and root those puppies. They'll grow just fine and before you know it that popcorn bud will slowly turn in to more branches and fans as long as she's in the veg stage. If you keep her in flowering cycle you'll end up with a mini flowered plant. Youtube has some pretty hilarious videos of super tiny pot plants I have to admit.

Mudslide - Not sure if you've considered this but if you do a SOG instead of a SCROG you could potentially do a re-veg & flower. Here's a link I just found on rollitup searching through google. Maybe do a little research on re-veg and flower, it's a pretty wicked technique but I've never tried it myself....

Thanks for sticking around with my onslaught of questions guys! I have decided to stick with my original plan and go ahead and Veg my plants 4 or 5 weeks (or until I can sex them with preflowers) then FIM/ scrog those plants. I'll chop all but 1 of the girls at harvest. The last one I'll harvest the main buds, trim, and top leaving a few of the lower popcorns and set her back into Veg to keep as a mother. I was thinking of building a cardboard box home for her with 3 or 4 blue CFL's and keep her in the locked room outside my grow room until I can figure out a way to keep one mom in the "lab" without screwing up light cycles. How small could I keep a mother? She'll be vegging idle for a couple months while the others flower. Can I just keep topping her and prune until I need clones?

I have been reading about my local laws here and will be keeping no more than 4 or 5 plants. In the event I get caught I can claim all personal use and take the misdemeanor. SOG could put me in jail for a long time, (they go by number of plants here) 20 plant sog would be a very stiff jail sentence possibly.

Higher note - The grow room is finished (completely self contained in a walk in closet with a padlock, the bedroom it's in stays locked 24/7 also. I'm picking up the material for 3 ONA bucket filters to place in the room just outside my grow. Landlord/maintenance would have to illegally go through 2 locked doors through my private property before finding my babies. Water heaters and fuse boxes are on the opposite end of the condo, so no way to justify going through my locked doors. 3 ONA buckets should easily conceal/neutralize 4 or 5 plants behind two locked doors. Lights are on a digital timer for 18/6 and will be again for 12/12 I'm very happy with the outcome. The grow room is very tidy, propagation area on one side and 400w switchable MH/HPS silent digital ballast on the other side of my 25sq foot room. ROom should be big enough to use fans for circulation and opening the door for periodic C02 replenishing. I'm very proud of it, very stealth and efficient =) It's like going from a normal everyday room straight into a laboratory, lol.

Also, update! 6 out of 10 White Widows successfully germinated (I was hoping 8 but oh well) 2 of those 6 seedlings have already poked there little heads from the ground and are loving the propogation humidity dome and CFL's!

Sounds great! It is better to be safe than sorry when it comes to your local laws, and keeping a mother plant is a great thing to have in the case of an emergency and such. Cant wait to see your grow. You should post some pics of your grow room.

Thanks Xstation, yeah I'm trying to get my hands on a camera. My previous nice digital camera was "borrowed" and never returned about 4 months ago from a pissed ex-girlfriend. (An ex-girlfriend who knows nothing of my "hobby" mind you, lol. Anyway as soon as I get my hands on it, or suck it up and buy another I will definately post pics. I'm going to want to show off my little squirts popping up under the T5 propagation light I've got them under. Seriously, sounds dumb but they seem to love that thing! As soon as I removed the dome and dropped the lights to a couple inches above them, they almost instantly perked there little heads up and dropped the outer seed casings, lol, I found it pretty amusing =)

ANyway, they will stay under the 2ft T5 for a couple weeks or until I feel they are strong enough to hit the 3 gallon bags of FF mix and bask under the MH lighting =) I'm just trying to feel them out at this point. I'm using a squirt bottle to dampen the soil and mist them currently.

ANy recommendation on nutes? I have a relatively strong (IMHO) 20-20-20 blend "Jack's Classic" that I would like to use during Veg. I was thinking of rocking a 1/2 strength mixture. Not sure if I should wait and let them acclimate to the richer FF soil after transplant to the big bags or start while they're in the 8oz nursing cups. What do yall think? Maybe 1/4 strength in about a week or two then slowly work up to full every other watering after they hit MH lighting? I have "Jack's Blossom Bloomer" for Flowering. (It was cheap and I read some good results from another thread on these nutes)

Seriously though, I really want to thank you guys for sticking around! I'm having alot of fun and learning tons as I go =)

Had to throw in an edit real fast before bed while it's on my mind. On the topic of Mother plants. If I kept my mother in a 3 gallon grow medium, put the light on 18/6 and just watered her every couple days with plain H20. How long will she last? I would also have to keep her pruned down to about 2ft tall maximum. Can this be accomplished through topping and pruning without kicking her ass from a health standpoint? Thanks!

Mudslide9791 said:

Thanks Xstation, yeah I'm trying to get my hands on a camera. My previous nice digital camera was "borrowed" and never returned about 4 months ago from a pissed ex-girlfriend. (An ex-girlfriend who knows nothing of my "hobby" mind you, lol. Anyway as soon as I get my hands on it, or suck it up and buy another I will definately post pics. I'm going to want to show off my little squirts popping up under the T5 propagation light I've got them under. Seriously, sounds dumb but they seem to love that thing! As soon as I removed the dome and dropped the lights to a couple inches above them, they almost instantly perked there little heads up and dropped the outer seed casings, lol, I found it pretty amusing =)

ANyway, they will stay under the 2ft T5 for a couple weeks or until I feel they are strong enough to hit the 3 gallon bags of FF mix and bask under the MH lighting =) I'm just trying to feel them out at this point. I'm using a squirt bottle to dampen the soil and mist them currently.

ANy recommendation on nutes? I have a relatively strong (IMHO) 20-20-20 blend "Jack's Classic" that I would like to use during Veg. I was thinking of rocking a 1/2 strength mixture. Not sure if I should wait and let them acclimate to the richer FF soil after transplant to the big bags or start while they're in the 8oz nursing cups. What do yall think? Maybe 1/4 strength in about a week or two then slowly work up to full every other watering after they hit MH lighting? I have "Jack's Blossom Bloomer" for Flowering. (It was cheap and I read some good results from another thread on these nutes)

Seriously though, I really want to thank you guys for sticking around! I'm having alot of fun and learning tons as I go =)

Had to throw in an edit real fast before bed while it's on my mind. On the topic of Mother plants. If I kept my mother in a 3 gallon grow medium, put the light on 18/6 and just watered her every couple days with plain H20. How long will she last? I would also have to keep her pruned down to about 2ft tall maximum. Can this be accomplished through topping and pruning without kicking her ass from a health standpoint? Thanks!

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Your nutrient decisions have to be personal. I recommend you go organic if you're doing soil; you'll get the best tasting and smoother smoke that way. There's truly nothing better then organic when it comes to taste. Some can't tell the difference but a connoisseur can. Regarding fertilizer choice, you'll need to do some research. You'll find good and bad reviews about all of them but really, bad reviews come from people that have no clue what they're doing; in my opinion... People that overpower their plants with far too many nutrients are the ones that complain about what they're using and switch to something else. Fertilizer comes from different locations but that doesn't matter. If a substance you're using has X amount of Potassium or X amount of nitrogen.... it's still potassium & nitrogen. There's only ONE WAY those elements can be made. You don't have different types of nitrogen or different types of phosphorus... So really, who gives a flying crap what agent theyre delivered in. Water from Maui or soil from Mt.Everest it doesn't make a damn bit o' difference. When it comes to fertilizing, success is 100% based on the amount of each mineral or nutrient you're providing the plant and the dosage of each nute that specific breed enjoys based on size and genetics. Your plant will tell you what's wrong with it and thanks to scientists and other horticulturists we can understand what our plant is going through. THIS LINK HERE represents a f!cking gold mine for beginners. Rollitup is the sh|t but we all know it's not the only place for information...

As far as feeding your mother only water... I can tell you it will have pathetic results but then again with that FF you should be ok. I've attached some photos of my very first grow. It was beyond lazy for a grow... I just put some dirt in some home depot pots, drilled holes in some pvc pipes and rammed sections into the soil for watering and added NO nutrients only using reverse osmosis water... Organic soil with no fertilizers or manure and my lights were 150wMH 3500k / 3-t5's at 3000k and one more 200wMH at 3000k.... Not only did I provide zero nutrients but the light spectrum i had was completely inappropriate for flowering. I just one day got some bag seed and thought, even though I'm broke... "derr, I can grow, i got these here lights, derr" ...what you see is what I got. As you can tell they were pretty beat looking and I yielded a pathetic amount of airy buds. Just over an ounce and I had four plants. This was before I spent 3 months researching everything I could feast my eyes on. I'm designing a new system at the moment. A hybrid organic soil in an aero / shallow water culture; perpetual none the less, I'm tired of buying from bullshit dispensaries. I've acquired one hell of a green thumb now anyway. However, I know very well there's still much more for me to learn. Good day gentlemen -


EDIT: For anybody that sees this post and feels inclined to comment on the other obvious issues with this grow like potential over/under watering evidence then save your fingers the effort of typing. I know everything i did wrong with this grow and I know exactly why it turned out the way it did. Thanks!

jesus of Cannabis
+ Rep for good knowledge

Mudslide
+ Rep for your research and kickass setup

I read that entire thread you linked Growface and you were right, it's definately got alot of great information in it. I've added that to my list of fav's in case I run into any problems. I'm still working on getting my hands on a camera. It kinda bums me out that I've gone through this much planning that I can't even post pictures of my plants!!!!

I'm currently out of questions for the first time since I started up this hobby! That's such a great feeling.

So here's an update on whats going on at case de grow lab.

All six seedlings are looking very strong! They are getting little to no initial stretch as I have the T5 sitting about 1/1/2inches above them. They're currently on day 3 (I'm counting the days since they broke ground, not since germination) and look very green and perky! I'm giving them exactly 1/3 cup of PH adjusted water every two days (the soil is dry to the touch every two days and they seem to like that) I'm using tap water that has sit out a few days and my PH is currently sitting at 6.0-6.5 (I use a liquid PH test solution, not a meter). Seems to be working really well. They have not been fed any nutrients. I've decided to start the nute blend on the two week mark. Since I'm using chemical ferts, I'll only be giving them 1/4 dosage then graduating them to 1/2 dosage during Veg (I don't plan on ever going to full strength since they are chemical based)

My HID light system was scheduled to be delivered today and I got off work to see that UPS left me a note and will re-deliver (I was thoroughly bummed out) I'll have it tomorrow though =)

Promise I will have pics soon!!!!!!!!!

Thanks so much for the great info, I have peace of mind that this grow will be successful thanks to folks like you guys!