Perpetual garden design thread

[Banana444]

Starting this thread to get the final peices of my perpetual garden built. Would like to have everything ready for my fall/winter. I have a lot going on and appreciate any input, feel free to ask some questions, I will be keeping this thread updated at least until my project is complete. I will even throw up what I got going now to keep it interesting. Im hoping to find other growers with similar styles and setups. I have learned a lot reading on here and have almost a years experience indoor now.
So heres what im designing, diagram to come later. Also if there is already a thread like this or you have a similar setup and a grow journal I would love to check it out, so say whats up. So heres what I am trying to accomplish in my space. Maximize production with the space I have. It is a room 11x10x8 with a 2x3 closet. I have a 5x5x6.5 secret jardin tent for flowering. I built my 2nd flower space is 3x5x6.5 out of 2x2s and 5/8" fire retardent drywall, painted flat white, this essentially takes up half of the room and gives me plenty of space to work around the 5x5 tent. I chose to go with two seperate flower tents versus one big one because it gives me the option of using one of the spaces if I need to veg longer before flipping lights and am running out of space in my veg/clone/mother keeper that I have yet to build and get lights for.
What I got for lights.
2 lumatek 400w digital and 1 600w digi ballast
3 euro reflectors air cooled
454cfm 6" can fan
central air, idk the cooling rating but I am running the 400w and 600w in the 5x5 tent and I am doing just fine with temps this summer. I am playing with the idea of ditching the air cooled reflectore in the 5x5 and hanging the 600w vertical bare bulb. And then using one 400w ballast in the veg/mother keeper and one in my 3x5 flower area, and possibly get an area51 led light to help cover the whole area. I also heard area51 is supposed to be coming out with a 90w veg light. Eventually I would like to have all led for my veg and mother keeper and combo hid and led lighting in my flower areas. Right now I have a temporary clone station setup in my 3x5x8 with cheapo t8s, 4 32w 6500k I am using to practice cloning and starting my first round of seeds to begin my perpetual. I love these lights for clones and seedlings. I started my last grow under my 400w mh lamp and i toasted a couple. If you are still reading thanks, I have put a lot of thought and effort into this setup already, this will be a my garden for at least the next 3-5 years so I want to get it setup as efficiently as possible. I have a few ventalation and odor control questions soon to come. Which will basically be, whats better, one vent fan for the whole room or ventalation for each tent/room seperately? Right now my ventalation is effective but now very efficient. I have a long run of 6" ducting, cooling the 600w and 400w with a growbright bigboy 6" carbon scrubber and then about 8' of ducting to a hole in the cwiling to the attic and then my can fan. I will be changing this soon, to a semi rigid 6" duct going from the tent strait up threw the ceiling, instead of 8' accross the room and thru the ceiling. I am also thinking of ditching all my air cooled hoods, or at least removing the glass and get another fan solely for cooling lights and one for the scrubber. More to come soon.

 

[Banana444]

I will be running 2 more 20 amp circuits to the room, 3 total. Hopefully my next post will get some attention...

 

[SirSteely]

Im running a perpetual organic indoor urban garden and its not that hard if you set it up correctly. I use a clone cab, closet full of T5s for veg and SJ tent w 600w for flowering. best of luck!

 

[RetiredMatthebrute]

you will need a cloning station, then a clone station, then a veg station...

think aprox 3 weeks from cutting to rooted and growing clone. (usually at min 1 week in cloner then a week to be established in new medium, by the end of week 3 growth should be started.

12 weeks flower....everyone says 8 weeks but need to give more time for transition and plants that take longer than 8 weeks (most do, havent found one yet that is done in exactly 8 weeks) to finish flowering. transition can be anywhere from 2-4 weeks depending on strain.

you will have the luxury of having a mother plant so cutting clones can be pinpointed so you will have nice fully vegged plants to go into the flowering room..

my thoughts would be use one flowering tent for transition early flower then other tent for finishing...this way you can move things around as you feel appropriate.

perpetual sounds relativly easy in theory but when you get into it and have 4 monsters in veg and no room in flower cabs because the plants in one cab are taking longer than normal to finish things can go south fast with that picture perfect grow..the best part of having a mother plant is you will learn the genetic behaviors of the strain over time and be able to narrow down your vegging and cloning to be right where you want, just dont go too crazy at first, start with only a couple plants and as you learn how they grow you can increase or decrease as needed, never a sadder moment when you have to compost a 3 ft beauty in veg because theres no where for it to go..

 

[justugh]

sir

they are going to tell u clones and all this ..........count this as option b

1 room .............12x12x7
4 tents...........secret jardin dr90 2 dr120 1 dr150
a ......starting tent......dr120
b........veggie tent.......dr120
c........flowering tent.....dr150
d........drying tent .......dr90

now skip the whole PHOTO strains and go to Autos ..........yes autos why
the time period is shorten
u could do them all in one tent
and the biggie to keep it going u just stegger the start time every 2 weeks start a new set of plants after 2 months u will be pulling every 2 weeks (sometimes longer if u pick 90 day autos)

my set up is running on 2 15 amp breakers
tent 1 is a t5 and a 6 inch booster exhaust with passive intake
tent 2 is 2 300w led with a powered intake filter box (exhaust is passive with led...2 6 inch ducting one to flowering one to ac intake)
tent 3 is a 1000w HID with a powering intake filter box and a 400cfm exhuast
tent 4 is a 4 inch carbon scrubber (booster fan) with a 10 inch fan and a dehumidifier/humitiifer

outside is a 4 inch booster fan cooling the ballast for the 1000w ......2 23 w cfls for light .........6000 btu ac (window shaker)........1 air pump
.......most of that is on one breaker all but the 1000w hid that is on it own breaker

the tents allow u to control the light and timing to what u want ..........the one room is where u add in the AC to control the temps along with IR proofing the whole room to avoid prying eyes ..........the lights u can go all LED keep it on one breaker a 20 amp

the t5 light ............if u get the jiffy green house (the one with the plugs ) u use that set the tray on top of the light with in 3/4 days u move it to the soil /hydro system under the t5

 

[malicifice]

sir

they are going to tell u clones and all this ..........count this as option b

1 room .............12x12x7
4 tents...........secret jardin dr90 2 dr120 1 dr150
a ......starting tent......dr120
b........veggie tent.......dr120
c........flowering tent.....dr150
d........drying tent .......dr90

now skip the whole PHOTO strains and go to Autos ..........yes autos why
the time period is shorten
u could do them all in one tent
and the biggie to keep it going u just stegger the start time every 2 weeks start a new set of plants after 2 months u will be pulling every 2 weeks (sometimes longer if u pick 90 day autos)

my set up is running on 2 15 amp breakers
tent 1 is a t5 and a 6 inch booster exhaust with passive intake
tent 2 is 2 300w led with a powered intake filter box (exhaust is passive with led...2 6 inch ducting one to flowering one to ac intake)
tent 3 is a 1000w HID with a powering intake filter box and a 400cfm exhuast
tent 4 is a 4 inch carbon scrubber (booster fan) with a 10 inch fan and a dehumidifier/humitiifer

outside is a 4 inch booster fan cooling the ballast for the 1000w ......2 23 w cfls for light .........6000 btu ac (window shaker)........1 air pump
.......most of that is on one breaker all but the 1000w hid that is on it own breaker

the tents allow u to control the light and timing to what u want ..........the one room is where u add in the AC to control the temps along with IR proofing the whole room to avoid prying eyes ..........the lights u can go all LED keep it on one breaker a 20 amp

the t5 light ............if u get the jiffy green house (the one with the plugs ) u use that set the tray on top of the light with in 3/4 days u move it to the soil /hydro system under the t5

How does one do this and stay with in the law? The whole 6 mature 12 vegging thing? I'm still not clear on that, 6 or 12? My confusion doesn't stop me, it would just be nice to get clarified. Seems like start with 12 end with 6

 

[justugh]

How does one do this and stay with in the law? The whole 6 mature 12 vegging thing? I'm still not clear on that, 6 or 12? My confusion doesn't stop me, it would just be nice to get clarified. Seems like start with 12 end with 6

if u look at the auto strains the amount they make is different some are max of 120 others are up to 450

with the time period of it 78 days from seed to smoke to 110days

those 2 factors allow u to only need 4 flowering plants and 4 veggie .........the flowering will auto die off once the genetics of it ells u forcing u to harvest it

so under the law u are 100% legal making up to 2 lbs or more a month (hydro set up a must) .............my personal best is 26 oz 20 grams in 110 days off one plant
proof
https://www.rollitup.org/t/call-it-hydro-exp-gone-mad-imput-wellcome-autoflowering-strain-gone-nutz.764237/

i run 8 plants at once 4 veggie 4 flowering .................if they come in say when u are moving 2 more to flowering and moving 2 out of flowering to a dark period before cut u have your 6 flowering for 2 days then u cut and harvest back down to 4

 

[Banana444]

Thats my 3x5x6.5 with my t8s in it temporarily. And my 5x5 with some autos. The one thats about done is ch9 climax auto and the rest are Buddha magnum autos

 

[Banana444]

you will need a cloning station, then a clone station, then a veg station...

think aprox 3 weeks from cutting to rooted and growing clone. (usually at min 1 week in cloner then a week to be established in new medium, by the end of week 3 growth should be started.

12 weeks flower....everyone says 8 weeks but need to give more time for transition and plants that take longer than 8 weeks (most do, havent found one yet that is done in exactly 8 weeks) to finish flowering. transition can be anywhere from 2-4 weeks depending on strain.

you will have the luxury of having a mother plant so cutting clones can be pinpointed so you will have nice fully vegged plants to go into the flowering room..

my thoughts would be use one flowering tent for transition early flower then other tent for finishing...this way you can move things around as you feel appropriate.

perpetual sounds relativly easy in theory but when you get into it and have 4 monsters in veg and no room in flower cabs because the plants in one cab are taking longer than normal to finish things can go south fast with that picture perfect grow..the best part of having a mother plant is you will learn the genetic behaviors of the strain over time and be able to narrow down your vegging and cloning to be right where you want, just dont go too crazy at first, start with only a couple plants and as you learn how they grow you can increase or decrease as needed, never a sadder moment when you have to compost a 3 ft beauty in veg because theres no where for it to go..

Overgrowing my space Is what led to my outdoor grow this year.

 

[Banana444]

After these autos finish the seedlings are all regs seedism taste bud, will be cloning for a mother to run for a while. I grew one out already and I liked it, should have gone longer by about a week but it hermed late, likely heat stress and some light stress, it was my first grow. I will put up the gear I have to work with. I will be wanting to make a cross with some of the strains I have.

 

[purplehays1]

now skip the whole PHOTO strains and go to Autos ..........yes autos why
the time period is shorten
u could do them all in one tent
and the biggie to keep it going u just stegger the start time every 2 weeks start a new set of plants after 2 months u will be pulling every 2 weeks (sometimes longer if u pick 90 day autos)

If i hadnt had bad exp with autos this is what i would do with your space.

 

[justugh]

If i hadnt had bad exp with autos this is what i would do with your space.

we all have bad times with seeds .............and the ones that are chemically treated to be females little more so ( had 9 failures in a row until i figure out what was wrong )

here is mine
thc bomb .......day 46


ultre lemon haze.....day 62 (one of those 90 days)


auto somango.........day 46


La diva..............day 62 (she is getting cut and dried tomarrow )

 

[Banana444]

I dont really want to run autos. I have had good experience cloning during my first couple grows and I have had success with rockwool cubes, I have an aerocloner and have not had much success with that. I am going to be filling my flower spaces with one single strain at a time. I have 4-5strains I can run from seed before I really need to master cloning. Im in soil all organic,got a worm bin and compost bin that has been going for almost a year and this next flowering with taste bud will be the first soil I have my homemade compost along with worm bin castings. I have had good success with organics and each grow only gets better. Right now I have a mix of soil cooking for the next flowering run that will get mixed in with some rols.

 

[Banana444]

What kind of ventalation do you run when running multiple grow cabs in a single room. I just measured for my veg/clone/motherkeeper and I am going to make it 3'x6'x7' the cloner and seedling cab will be air and lightproof 4'6"x3x3 within that cab to accommodate my 2 cheapo t8s this can also be used as a sexing cab if I dont have a batch of clones.

 

[justugh]

me

room is a 12x12x7...........i poly wrapped the walls and IR proofed the ceiling

air is from the door.........i put a 12 inch box fan in the door itself.........plus the AC unit in the window...............only extraction is from the flowering tent at a 400 cfm rate

the starting /dry and part of the veggie (veggie is a passive exhaust 1 6 inch ducting link to the flowering tent and 1 6inch ducting to infront of the AC intake) dump back into the room the high rate of exchange allows me to do this

i am about to do a little rigging the room has a drop ceiling the ir proofing over laps by1 foot on 2 sections .............so rig up a extraction system for the hot air that collects near the fan for the flowering venting

oh the key to this is insulated ducting


your mix have u add in the micbros and fungi so they have a chance to get going ...................mix up the soil and put in a black trash can add a few gallons of water and give it 6 weeks in a sunny place after that the soil should be active .........this is assuming u are using composting spores or gel stuff

 

[Banana444]

Soil mix is good to go. I have been using organic ammendments some with bennies and I use mykos on transplants. I guess the main thing I need to figure out is how I should vent everything. I intake under the door and the ac vent into the room. 454cfm fan pulling air through a large scrubber in the flowet tent. Do I need the same thing in the 2nd flower area? I also noticed that my fan is venting cool air into my attic. I want to build a sealed room in the attic that the room will vent into and it will return air to the ac. This should make my entire environment more efficent.

 

[justugh]

Soil mix is good to go. I have been using organic ammendments some with bennies and I use mykos on transplants. I guess the main thing I need to figure out is how I should vent everything. I intake under the door and the ac vent into the room. 454cfm fan pulling air through a large scrubber in the flowet tent. Do I need the same thing in the 2nd flower area? I also noticed that my fan is venting cool air into my attic. I want to build a sealed room in the attic that the room will vent into and it will return air to the ac. This should make my entire environment more efficent.

sir do not do that
reusing all that air is not as smart as u think ...........part of the power of it has been removed

my system ..........the door adds in a large amount of fresh air (meaning the fan is always running on 3) ........it hits the door of my flowering tent and then is sucked up by a powered intake on both my flowering and veggie tent (they are about 210 intakes) ...........with the exhaust is on full that is 400 cfms i figure the connection between the tents pushes/pulls about 100 cfms ..............so i am only dumping about 100 cfms into the ac intake to be moved around in the room again that is about 1/4

the tent is cycling once every 30 secs so the plant is using maybe 1/8 of the power (oxygen or Co2 depending on the time of day it is in)


your talking about reusing the mass of it and each time it loses more power

 

[Banana444]

Heres the layout im working with. Not to scale but close.

 

[Banana444]

[QUOT="justugh, post: 10726947, member: 597604"]sir do not do that
reusing all that air is not as smart as u think ...........part of the power of it has been removed

my system ..........the door adds in a large amount of fresh air (meaning the fan is always running on 3) ........it hits the door of my flowering tent and then is sucked up by a powered intake on both my flowering and veggie tent (they are about 210 intakes) ...........with the exhaust is on full that is 400 cfms i figure the connection between the tents pushes/pulls about 100 cfms ..............so i am only dumping about 100 cfms into the ac intake to be moved around in the room again that is about 1/4

the tent is cycling once every 30 secs so the plant is using maybe 1/8 of the power (oxygen or Co2 depending on the time of day it is in)


your talking about reusing the mass of it and each time it loses more power[/QUOTE]
Even If the return is not to the room? I was thinking of making the return into a closet near the furnace cold air return, which exchanges with the rest of the house.

 

[Banana444]

I think I am just going to get a second can fan and scrubber for the 2nd flowering room. I dont use any type of thermostat to control my fans. Since its summer I just have the fan on full blast. Is there a temp controller they make to control the inline fans? I used to have a variable speed controller on the fan and I could run my fan on low last winter but the variable fan switch went out after about 6 months of use, it was a growbright brand.