500 sq ft expediencies

Gwhiliker

Gwhiliker

Well-Known Member
soo as stated i have 500 sq ft at my disposal and im wondering what a good idea of yield would be per crop, my rough math is about a pound per 15 sq ft and 33ish pounds per crop. this is just based off hours of googling. medium will be soil, general hydro flora series nutes, LED's on the sides and HID's up top or something equivalent (researching these still) 5-10 gallon pots still haven't decided which would be best for yeild/quality. no cropping techniques or anything involved in this math
 
Depends on how you set up the 500 sq ft. What's your electric situation like on this space? Is the space insulated already? I had well over 10k in electric and insulation for a build not much bigger than this.
What are the approx dimensions of the room?
Do you plan to divide it up at all and have a place to veg?

What's your ceiling height?
 
10 ft ceilings, diesel commercial generator with solar panels aswell for power, insulated 2k sq foot garage (500 sq ft is the limit for a limited cultivation legally) and I hoped to divide into 3 sections for a perpetual grow hoping to not around 11 pounds every 2 months
 
Is your generator split phase or 3 phase? How many kilowatts? Does it automatically transfer power on an outage? Load shedding?

You may get some ideas from my thread linked in my signature.
 
Not sure about the generator yet, waiting back from the realtor we are in the middle of getting the mortgage going. That was one of my questions aswell. but we do know its to far off the road for normal power lines to be ran so that willl not be an option sadly, Also I've been reading your thread daily @Renfro think I'm on page 25 atm lol good stuff in there definitely learning about resin production from ur testing
 
Gwhiliker said:
Not sure about the generator yet, waiting back from the realtor we are in the middle of getting the mortgage going. That was one of my questions aswell. but we do know its to far off the road for normal power lines to be ran so that willl not be an option sadly, Also I've been reading your thread daily @Renfro think I'm on page 25 atm lol good stuff in there definitely learning about resin production from ur testing
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Well running an operation solely on generator power will be costly. It typically costs about 3 times more to generate your own power (depends on utility cost and fuel cost mostly). Good thing it's diesel as they run at a lower RPM and last MUCH longer. Make sure to schedule your generator maintenance so you don't have an outage when lights are on. Things like oil changes are a must when using a generator. Hopefully it is rated "Prime" since it will be the sole source of power. See how many hours it has and the maintenance records to see if it's been well cared for. Are you setup to haul the diesel?
 
Renfro said:
Well running an operation solely on generator power will be costly. It typically costs about 3 times more to generate your own power (depends on utility cost and fuel cost mostly). Good thing it's diesel as they run at a lower RPM and last MUCH longer. Make sure to schedule your generator maintenance so you don't have an outage when lights are on. Things like oil changes are a must when using a generator. Hopefully it is rated "Prime" since it will be the sole source of power. See how many hours it has and the maintenance records to see if it's been well cared for. Are you setup to haul the diesel?
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thanks for pointing that out! right now we are just in the planning stages of a legal limited cultivation, as for hauling the diesel there is a service from shoreside petroleum up here for rural diesel/propane delivery, as living off the grid is common in Alaska. we are hoping its at least a 22kw industrial generator but if not we plan on getting on that size or a little larger, we can go different routes if need be but right now we are trying to plan it all out. we also plan on having a backup generator for any unseen circumstances, but that will probably be a year into things. solar/ greenhouse is another option as we have over 16 hours of sunlight for roughly a third of the year. but basically we are trying to figure out what it would take to maximize our space and what resources it would take to do so. so if we can get a rough idea of the beginning and end capabilities of the grow we could try to plan accordingly. as for all the other info i will get back to you as soon as i know. but a new generator might be what we start with anyways
 
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also researching lights and trying to find out what or if theres any certifications needed for the lights we use and what would be the best way to run things overall, id like to personaly do like a cmh or hid up top with led side lighting but dont know how cost effective that is
 
Gwhiliker said:
trying to find out what or if theres any certifications needed for the lights we use
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Well I would assume your state has information available to licensed cultivators, detailing the requirements. You may be surprised at some of them. Good to find that information for your state and go through it with a fine tooth comb. Not sure about there but here in Colorado there are a lot of pitfalls that if not planned for can be a real headache and if not adhered to they can shut you down. Good bet that your lighting would need UL / CTL certification.

How much experience do you have with cultivation?
 
my parents and i are going into it together, ive been a landscaper for 10 years and my dad for 40, he grew weed for about 25 years and i helped my roommate grow for about 4 years, mostly was in charge of water and such while he was gone (he *my roommate* grew hydro and his weed never turned out good) and trimming, he never wanted me getting to involved. I am also starting a grow with leds (about 6 weeks in) to see how they (and i) do. so far so good. as for general farming/cultivation/landscaping i know quite a bit and the only new things really are the light spectrum and nutrient balances to me, as before i was just mixing his stuff as told and didn't really understand what it was. they wanted to go into bis for a long time and when they saw i was starting to grow we all decided to throw our finances together and get things rolling.
 
I hardly ever recommend led lights but there are enough people running them and pulling good weight that for an op run solely off a generator I'd have to say that's they way id go. I toured several rooms with the gavita LEDs and while they didn't make me switch from hid lighting they were impressive. The only thing I couldn't wrap my head around was the initial up front cost, he had several grows with 72 of the gavita fixtures and at 1k or more that has to add up.

If you do go led make sure to get proven tech like the gavita or fluence. A lot of these companies are selling lights without much real world testing and calling them good cause they hit good numbers on a meter. Also I've heard but don't know for sure that fixtures like the hlg ones with exposed diodes wear out way quicker than that company claims.
 
Gwhiliker said:
his weed never turned out good
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Gwhiliker said:
he never wanted me getting to involved
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A few signs that he wasn't a very good grower. lol

If you study your ass off on this site, learn who to listen to and who not to listen to, you should do well.
Gwhiliker said:
I am also starting a grow with leds (about 6 weeks in) to see how they (and i) do.
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Always a good idea to start small and work up, just because if you learn a hard lesson on a massive run it will cost you a lot more than if you start a little smaller. Especially since you will be using the generator and therefore increasing the utility cost.

Any supplemental power you can pull from solar will really help the generator.
 
Renfro said:
I agree here, the exposed diodes react with compounds in the air, diminishing output considerably. Manufacturers won't tell you this.
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Apalchen said:
I hardly ever recommend led lights but there are enough people running them and pulling good weight that for an op run solely off a generator I'd have to say that's they way id go. I toured several rooms with the gavita LEDs and while they didn't make me switch from hid lighting they were impressive. The only thing I couldn't wrap my head around was the initial up front cost, he had several grows with 72 of the gavita fixtures and at 1k or more that has to add up.

If you do go led make sure to get proven tech like the gavita or fluence. A lot of these companies are selling lights without much real world testing and calling them good cause they hit good numbers on a meter. Also I've heard but don't know for sure that fixtures like the hlg ones with exposed diodes wear out way quicker than that company claims.
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hmmmmmm i wanted to use the quantum boards but most ive seen like u said the hlg way are unsealed, is there a way i could seal them off and retain/magnify the light?! i wanted to do a multi tent perpetual setup to run a few different strains to do more of controlled area for cleanliness and so that we can narrow down the best tasting/thc producing preferable large yeild strains to focus on growing and breeding in our future larger cultivation if we choose to expand, and either way we would keep this method for a few strains to breed and test later on but alas these are all pipe dreams and for now im just trying to figure out the budget lol. If you look in my super tiny grow journal you will see some seeds that ive ordered, im quite excited to try the melon gum and think it will be a real winner!
 
Renfro said:
If you study your ass off on this site, learn who to listen to and who not to listen to, you should do well.
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thats what ive been mainly tasked to do is figure out how to attain our goal with common growin knowledge behind us. we arent looking to get rich, more or less to get away from the shit hole town we live in and be comfortable-to able to expand if we wanted with enough work
 
If you love what you do for a living, you never work a day in your life.

It's pretty true, there are definitely parts about growing I definitely don't love though lol. Lets start with trimming... some of the more back breaking work depending on your setup can really suck. but it's not a constant thing on a small scale, especially if you keep things manageable in your own way. Just remember that you will want a room to be empty periodically, preferably once a flowering run, so that you can clean it really good. Having a veg area to prep plants for the flower area/s is good.

Having flowering areas on a "flip" can reduce power draw on the generator in trade for it having to run 24/7, and it probably will unless you have a battery backup/solar power source for ventilation, dehumidification and whatnot even during the time all lights could be off, say max of 7 - 8 hours a day. Having things on a flip can provide heat from the lit rooms for rooms that are off.

Just something to consider. Also load shedding if you have a smaller generator acting as a backup set.
 
Renfro said:
but it's not a constant thing on a small scale, especially if you keep things manageable in your own way. Just remember that you will want a room to be empty periodically, preferably once a flowering run, so that you can clean it really good. Having a veg area to prep plants for the flower area/s is good.
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im hoping to do a bunch of tents on a cycle like this
spek9 said:
View attachment 4488088
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Anatomy of a Perpetual Grow Cycle

Synopsis: A perpetual cannabis grow cycle is a growing method where there are always plants growing in various stages (clone rooting, vegetative and flower), and where you harvest a batch of plants at regular, scheduled dates. Schedules: The easiest way to set up a perpetual grow is to use a...
www.rollitup.org


and with that being said the tents can be cleaned every time a group of plants is swapped, also i think will make control easier for different plants, not sure if possibly some plants like higher temperatures based off where they derived from originally or not but as most other trees and such work like that id assume its the same for weed. so theres alot of factors i think i can dial in and possibly gain from doing grows in this fashion, even if the tents are making me sacrifice a little space and cost me a little light i think in the long run they will save me from having spread problems and also doing this i can run different lights on different times possibly off different generators later on to minimize failures in that aspect as well.
 
Renfro said:
If you love what you do for a living, you never work a day in your life.
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i love working in the dirt and i love finding the best tasting and stoniest buds i can. so we figured why not just do that for a living. we just gotta figure out the finances before buying a bunch stuff blindly with no previous knowledge
 
Gwhiliker said:
we just gotta figure out the finances before buying a bunch stuff blindly with no previous knowledge
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I am glad that you appreciate the economic factors involved. Many fly blindly into something that ends up having to be re done correctly at extra expense. Taking your time and putting together a very detailed plan will serve you well in the long run.

When I build a grow I draw up a floor plan that includes everything, and I mean everything. Make the best use of your space. Build a workflow that you can use. For me the "light locks" you saw in my thread are critical.

You will know where you need power and how much. For everything. This will help your electrician greatly.

Do you have a form of gravity drain that you can use for this? Make sure that it's cool with the state too.
 
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