$15,000 Where do I start

BCtrippin

Well-Known Member
I am seriously considering going vertical.



| |
| |/
| .../
| ./
| |
| |


Hope that worked, Those green sewage piping, Im thinking a stack of them with a 8" Diameter, then I could put 8" pots in the hole and surround a couple 1000W lights, Could probably get 60 plants easily in 4x4ish space!!
 
Last edited:

jackjo

Active Member
Okay so I need to know where I can buy square PVC tubing i've been searching on the net and I can't find it anywhere only round. Anybody know of a supplier lemme know.

I also have a 7' 6" wide x 12' long x 6' high body of an old iveco truck that I just took off the axle today woot woot. I'll probably use that to house the air scrubbing/ac room... which means I should have enough space for another flowering room. It'll also help alot because I won't have pipes coming out the side of my shop i'll have this next to it which will conveniently look like a storage unit. It will also house the 3-6K silent diesel generator I will need...
 

potlike

Well-Known Member
jackjo it is called PVC fence posts and you can get them at homedepot/menards/lowes.. relatively cheap and I believe usually in 4 inch and 5 inch wide sections.


-potlike
 

Mr. Maryjane

Well-Known Member
I don't really have any experience, so I probably can't help you at all. but I was wondering if you want a roommate. I'd be willing to do all the work! anything to have access to that much weed!!!!!!!
 

RuBnTuG

Active Member
well if you build the room with a space between the walls to let air flow in and over the room to dissipate the heat and a wood floor over the concrete floor as conceret holds heat .so its like your putting a box with in a box .central ac is a must to cool the room and use that polymer white black pvc to line the walls that they sell in grow stores .now soil use sunshine #4 in 10 gallon buckets .lights get extream sun balist ( there 240 and 120 volt in one) and hydro farm cool tube lights (hoods) with fans ,use 1000 hps and a 240 watt timer lights.get a can in the fan carbon filter to scrub the air and move it out of the room .you can also insulate the walls on the outer part between your room and the outside wall with blue foam board . i also read that flir does see threw graphite
 

antipythium

Well-Known Member
Jackjo growing indoors can become a nightmare of hands-on management. If you're going to do soil, it's assumed you're going to find some decent home mix recipe and mix it together with a tractor bucket or something.

Hang the lights vertically, Jackjo. You can turn on the chloroplasts of a whole plant at once, actually several plants at once, raising general metabolism and creating a certain amount of self training in the plants; leading to good bushiness and heavier weight. The more vertically the limbs grow, the more apical dominance Auxin control within the plant turns down the growth rate of nodes - hence bud formation sites, back from the terminal tips of all the limbs.

if you hang the bulbs vertically you dispense with need for management of reflectors and footprint in the more classical sense, you'll create bushier plants, and the heat management will be easier than running the bulbs horizontally since the heat chimneying upward will aid the fans. You just run some flex down to the floor on the bottom and put air intakes along the wall for air in, and you can heat the rest of the building with the heat since it's not mixed.

Jackjo big growers grow with bulbs hanging vertically a lot. That way all they have to do is walk through the room and spin the plants once a week or so to keep things going evenly. As you probably already know 600s are the most efficient light for the watt-dollar spent. It's more initial cost in ballasts & bulbs but it gives a lot more flexibility every time you make a run.

It also helps when it comes time to tie up the plants. You run clothesline across the roof of the room or some chicken wire on the ceiling, and tie up limbs by looping string through the wire.

Hang the bulbs. Have some way of tying the limbs up. I do know that what some people do is they stick uprights into the pot, like... 3 or 4 of em, 2X2s or whatever; and they'll run eyelets or screws into em, and surround the plant with clothsline or kite string, and use that to hold up limbs. That way you can spin the whole plant, all the way around. If you tie to the ceiling though you can still spin the plants enough to even growth. 90 degrees one way, back around, and 90 degrees the other way the next time, is how I think people do them. I think people do like that until it gets to be too much trouble then they just leave em in one place; i dunno; all I know is, trees are a lot less trouble generally speaking. The reason is, you can just put em into full size pots right off.

Look up air pruning pots, too. They stop the plants from getting root bound so you can put the things straight into a big pot and never have the spiraling around the pot problem. They make them for trees. It's real tree growers' pots.

Like I said it can get to be a management nightmare very fast. You need to think easy, easy, and more easy. You also need to think about yeild per man hour and dollar invested of course, and I know you know this.. but don't start going equipment crazy.

Ozone generators don't produce as much if they make their ozone in humidity and there's gonna be a lot of humidity. That means making the ozone out of the room, where it's dry, and letting your fan pull both grow-room air, and the ozonated air in: to mix inside then get let out. You know this, right?

I know you said you don't like hydroponics so ok. Since you've got an actual farm, I assume you can put the pots onto a tractor front end loader, fill em, drive em into the building and stop at the door; carry in and set em down. When it comes time to take em out the reverse of that.

Figure out a way to water them with the turn of a faucet handle. Don't even use a pump. Set a 40 gallon plastic drum up on a 2X4 framed box you build with 2 2X4s across the top, so the bottom of the barrel's right about plant-pot top level, and let gravity flow the water when you turn a spigot you put in the bottom. fill it with a water hose, and check the water by draining some out into a cup from that spigot. Stand on something if you've gotta access the top. Like a 5 gallon bucket upside down. Get yourself an irrigation tubing setup with a bunch of cheap Tees and a few little cheapo irrigation valves to even out the flow. Speed's not important.

You know how to set up an intake duct that's thermostatically controlled so you can keep the room temps decent, right? When it gets cold you're going to want to be able to manage the air in temps.

If you get mites it's not going to be funny and it's not going to be time for any of that hippie organic OMGWTF planet earth bullshit. The planet survived the vikings and WWII it'll survive you buying enough no pest strips to slap those bitches NOW if, when, they show up. Fucking around for 2 weeks wondering why you can't kill borg is gonna get hectic. Buy some ahead of time. It doesn't take many and you keep them in the package till you get borged. You pull them out, hang them in the incoming airstream for about 36-40 hours, and put em back away. It's those yellow no pest strips; the shit's kinda dangerous so don't mess around of course.

The humidity is going to create condensation if you're continually letting it out into the rest of the building so you'll be taking care of that in the winter. In the summer I guess you'll just let the air go outside.

If you've got that hydronic system, can you make a leg off it so you can pass some of the hydronic water through a couple of hundred feet of irrigation tubing, to pick up the heat off the humid air you release outside? If you build a leg off it, and pick up a lot of that heat with the hydronics, you can save yourself some heat, save yourself some concern over any kind of wintertime signature, and all that. I dunno.

Ballasts and bulbs are gonna be the major expense. Run em on 240 so you can get by on smaller wire; less current per bulb.

The latest iteration of bulb people are using are Ceramic Metal Halides. They're bluer AND redder than an HPS, yet run cooler: and run on an HPS ballast. Thing is though, they don't make real big ones yet; I could be wrong but I think the biggest they make might be 400s. Find a big thread about them somewhere and check them out. A big advantage to em is they're not ''alien orange'' in color so if anybody ever saw some light leakage it would just look like normal light.

Any chance of throwing a couple of fiberglass roof panels on that end up on the second floor, putting the moms & veg plants up there and supplementing the sunlight coming through with some lower power lights? Heat from room below might be able to help heat it in winter; I dunno, like I say, I'm not a big grower and I dunno shit about it; but I know if you're going to grow a bunch of plants and use big bulbs, it costs a lot less, and takes a lot less handling to hang the bulbs vertical and feed the air through flex.
If you pull your grow room intake air out of the main building, you might be able to skip an air conditioner depending on where you are, by running an evaporative cooler in that main building. If you cool-tube bulbs vertically and take the heat up, into the upper floor, and clean it there, the amount of heat hanging in the room is gonna be reduced but that leaves a lot of heat up in top in summer; unless of course you arrange it so there's enough air flow it keeps that part blown out fairly well. One thing about keeping the moms and clones overhead, is since they're not in flower you won't be quite so worried about heat but I realize everything that happens is a trade off. Naturally warmer clone/veg/mom room in winter probably means lots bigger heat problem in summer & all that.

another advantage of pulling your intake air out of the main building is in fall, & spring, you might be able to heat that air more effectively as it comes in. I'm not sure about your local humidity levels but if you could bring the air into the room - excepting the cool-tube air - from the main building, it seems like you'd have a little better control of it in general, temperature wise.

Anyway.. I'm no big grower as I said so i'll stfu.

Good luck.
 
Last edited:

alphabibbiddy boo boo

Well-Known Member
first order of business, stop talking about it online. you obviously have the resources and ambition, dont jeopardize it with nonsense. get large reusable buckets.. over 5 gal, you have some head room.. or bags but something reusable wouldnt be bad. lighting will be pricey and electricity will suck too... your main issues arent with nurturing thet plants, but with nurturing your safety. thats serious shit and if you think infared choppers are an urban legend then you should stick to corn man. but with proper ventilation or if you can somehow grow seasonally under the sun (ideally in a greenhouse with your budget) than you can avoid these risks.

start small and be ready
 

joefish

Active Member
shit yeah theres alot of good ideas in there VERTICAL LIGHTS being one of them, think about the ratio of bud you get on the top half of a plant vs the lower half at least 3:1, as antipythium said it also affects the nodes on those lower growth sites. mmm bumper crop :)

also, make use of the water pipes as natural cooling is a whole heap cheaper than trying to cool down a hot room
 

antipythium

Well-Known Member
I understand the main thing you talked about was the massive, massive heat problems that you see occurring. And that means the suggestion about the fiberglass roof panels on the end there, might not have seemed to make sense. I was really meaning more on the order of being able to keep them up there when temps were good for doing it, which should be at least a third of the year, maybe half.

One more thing man. If you use white poly to form yourself some walls, you can keep the full flexibility of the space you have and save a lot of money AND ensure a very high reflectivity of surfaces your light falls on, which will reduce the heat in the place ultimately. You might not want to start out with both sections being huge; and if you curtain off the room using white poly dividers you can reduce the light lost, reduce the space you temperature manage, and altogether have more flexibility.

Another thing about pulling the heat in for the lights: having had a small shed next to my house, and thinking about converting it for a grow, one thing that was on my mind the entire time, was sticking some kind of cheap, but spacious cabinet against the end of that shed, so it looked like a tool shed, but actually functioned as an (in my case) air out/filtration cabinet.

If you're concerned about vents being seen, and I would be, there's several ways around that. First, for an air-in cover, I'd screw/bolt/affix some kind of 'tool shed' item even if it was just a plywood box you built, and put some hinges onto a door in front, with a hasp and lock. This can give you a lot of space to let air in.
If you consider putting the thing inside the shed, then that same concept would give you a lot of cover and plenty of light trapping. Either way, if it were me, and I realize it's not, I'd be putting an air in concealment tool cabinet looking thinglie. You can additionally line it: with carpet or with fiberglass insulation inside for silencing.

Jackjo remember about how a real big fan, run slow, can run much, much quieter for the same air movement and amperage. A full-size squirrel cage like the one for a household evap unit could run so nearly silent if properly boxed, and it comes with a three speed motor typically. The thing about one of those is you can box it inside the grow room, paint it white for good reflection, and fasten it to that concrete floor: line the inside with insulation you glue: paper side to the wood inside - and almost totally silence it. If, on the other side of that wall, there was a tool cabinet which was also silenced the same way: the CHEAP yet EFFECTIVE way: you could pull huge air in, with near total silence. For instance, if the tool cabinet's inside, pull the air in, through it's roof: by simply cutting a huge hole in it. A few light baffles later that air could go in very quietly.

Back to the air in: if you have to pull air in for the lights, you can go one of two ways, but it's easy to fasten flex duct to a plywood box. And you can simply duct a plywood box on the floor easily. If you make the box of MDF and it's bolted to the floor the silence would be pretty golden.

Also, you could build two: one, next to the outside wall where your outside 'tool cabinet' was: for pulling in air from outside for the lights; and the other, over next to the wall facing the main building: right on the other side of wall from THAT 'tool cabinet'.

One other thing. I'm not saying take ANY of these suggestions and just go run do them with the least consideration, the least genius; but with a lot of thought for using the whole space wisely: realizing all kinds of neat stuff like the fact that if you release the heated air from the grow room that's been scrubbed up, into the roof area of the main building, - it's only a total of about - what 7,000 wats max? You could very likely get away completely fine using three of those rooftop attic ventilators, the spinning ones, and see hardly any actual temp increase down around where you'd work. Just put em up on the peak, let three of em spin around in winter, nobody'd notice. And if you released that air gently, after scrubbing, RIGHT UP at the roof level, it could be done without even coming from a detectable vent space. It would also give you some more time for mixing, and also, release it right up at the peak of the shed. Maybe it's not particularly a lot better, but it's not particularly worse, either, to release the air up high.
Something I'd do Jackjo is avoid expensive hoods, and expensive, wall partitions inside the main room. I'd look around till I found some fuggn white poly plastic and line those insides and keep it like a REAL pro would do it: FLEXIBLE and LOWEST cost with HIGHEST reflectance and washability. It shouldn't break your mind to figure out how to put a little 2X2 frame up and staple some plastic to it. That'll save thousands AND keep flexibility for future plans. Remember: the KEY to flexibility is INdecision. INdecision: DON'T COMMIT to permanence till it weighs so heavily on your mind it's pure, uncompromised genius, you eventually feel you simply cannot live without it.

Get your fans oversized: drastically oversized, and use that space you have in there to run them on low. Buy them from the furnace shop or get them free, add a 50 dollar three speed motor for each and have two double oversized fans and run them on low/medium.
Build your own boxes and go buy a masonry bit: drill some holes in the concrete floor near where you put the 'tool cabinet' intakes on the end, and also main (real) wall separating your room, and throw together fairly cheap simple mdf particle board boxes you line with batt insulation: bolt those to the floor and encase the fans and let THAT be the most permanent things you put in initially: that sort of thing.

It seems like you'd put maybe two 'tool cabinets' on that inside real wall. One, for a main, grow room intake. The other though, an air intake where you can suck in ozone that gets made with lower humidity air than that from the grow room. Mix those two in the room, let it go out the top into the upper story: creating more time for mixing: and after it travels around a little let it out, right up at the peak, back into the main part of the building; that sort of thing.

I think you should save on:
(1)interior walls: don't LINE them, don't even BUILD them at first, until you've used the whole space throughout several seasons, and you're SURE how you want it.
(2)fans & silencing
(3)specialty horizontal hoods and grow vertical
(4)wintertime growing by maybe, putting a room above where you can keep vegging plants most of spring, fall, winter, augmenting your light with sunlight through roof panels -maybe.
(5)Soil. Make your own
(6)Temperature management using the main building as a buffer against outside weather. If it's hot, blow an evaporative cooler in there when you can, and let the room intake be from low in the room. If it's cold, on your air intake 'tool cabinet' have the top be openable so your intake air, into the room, doesn't come in on the floor; indeed, you might get slick in the winter by pulling so little air out you hardly need any air in, at all. I dunno where you live.

Anyway I'm just talkin baked sorry to go on & on
 
Last edited:

jackjo

Active Member
Okay pages 7 8 are some big posts that i'll read tonight when I get done with work. But heres an update...

1. I AM going to go with an aeroponic/nft system because it will be alot ALOT easier to manage for me.

2. 4:20 guy is posting those images in the forum because he is helping me with the design layout.

3. All of the construction portion of this operation will begin December 1st this is the planning stages so I do appreciate everyones input and by the middle of november when i'm out harvesting my corn/beans i will be taking a break to hopefully take the completed plan for the growroom and pickup all the supplies.

4. Soil will be to difficult to manage... outdoor growing is a negative because of neighbors. This will be a commercial venture with some serious financial backing from my business partner.... so the budget of 15K is out the door.

5. The issues I am dealing with right now is a.) Getting a good air flow/air scrubbing/a.c. without heat signature layout... Heat is already taken care of during the winter. b.) wehter to go with a flat aeroponic table lights hanging horizontally or building a cube type system that goes vertically...

6. And when I say serious financially backing i'm talking about we ordered a 3.7kw wind turbine today when we were at one of the largest farm shwos in the midwest and it will be installed before years end... So we are just trying to get the most efficient use of space... and really get clean air out the exhaust because of smell... and how to probably Exhaust because they do have flir planes and helos around here...

K off to manage the slaves lol Peace ladies and gents and again thanks for the input.
 

FLoJo

Well-Known Member
first order of business, stop talking about it online. you obviously have the resources and ambition, dont jeopardize it with nonsense.
you are giving out waaaay to much information.. :wall: if the laws around your area wanted to research
the largest farm show in the midwest
who purchased a 3.7kw turbine
road that has several similar buildings
someone that grows corn and soybeans
get a hold of your ip...

granted some of this is vague info but lots of vague info coming together makes specific info.. not to mention you are publicly stating this is a commercial venture and you are getting financial backing.. not smart man this site is for HOBBY growers and MEDICAL growers.. nobody on this site grows for commercial gain :rolleyes: and even if you do your not supposed to say it.. loose lips sink ships my friend and your digital lips are spraying shit all over the internet.

now I am not trying to dog on you and i understand that you need help brainstorming this project... but keep your info to yourself or your going to sink this ship before it even gets out of the harbor. be safe and be smart :peace:

FLo
 

BCtrippin

Well-Known Member
I agree, a wind turbine is rare, wont be difficult to spot that. If you have a budget like that a couple massive A/C units properly installed with an environment controll unit and you will be Fine.

It may be a long way off but I agree, your giving a lot of info, any police on this site are all over you by now, they are probably looking up the turbine purchase right now.

It would be in your best interest to stop using your current RIU account, change ISP and stop talking about this PERIOD!!!

At this point if I was you I would be more worried about getting robbed than police. Nice secluded farm, Just look for the turbine and follow your nose.

It may be a year away but investigations for commercial grow ops can go for years.

Also have you been thinking about how your going to move the product? Growing the weed is easy enough, but noone wants to sit on 50lbs of weed for any amount of time, especially if word is getting around that you have cheap pounds, I wouldnt want anyone knowing how much product I have at any given time, and a farm usually means you got a lot.

Grow ops are getting robbed by gangs and dumb kids with guns more and more lately because noone is going to report it.

I would just be careful, It sounds like you got some good info, a financial partner, the last thing you need is a bunch of kids on a weed forum going over your whole plan with you.

This is Clearly going to be a long term operation so stealth and discretion as an absolute MUST.

Personally I dont grow in one house more that a year, maybe 18 months TOPS!! Its not worth the risk, once you get comfortable you get lazy and then you get screwed.

Just be careful man, theres a lot of oportunistic assholes out there who would love 20grand worth of gear, and maybe some bud to top it off. Not to mention the police, its nice to think we have a good comunity here but there I would imagine the police love forums like this where people talk about and post pics of here grow ops.

Anyways, just my opinion, would hate to hear about a giant grow show getting raided next year.

Good luck, keep it simple, and keep it quiet. I dont trust anyone further than I can throw them, If i dont trust someone 110% they dont know what I do or where I do it.
 
Last edited:

jackjo

Active Member
Well I am being discreet... the place I use this comp as well as this laptop aren't mine... there are tons of wind turbines in the area so it's not like one could spot mine easily... they sold 20 - 40 or those turbines at the show... it's all farmers round here... but message received i've got enough info from you guys and i appreciate it...
how do i d/l my account and this thread? also didn't realize this site was for hobbyist and medical growers...
 

BCtrippin

Well-Known Member
Not tryin to give ya the boot or anything, just might wanna be more careful with a grow this size. Theres been loads of info that could potentially identify you and your location if it was a professional looking.
 
Top