Which Growing Method is best for a 2000 sqft setup?

researchkitty

Well-Known Member
I've got an opportunity to use a 2000sqft space, and was curious what everyone thinks the best method for growing is. I'd like to stay away from soil because I have no experience with it and really like Hydroponics.

My experience is mostly with Ebb Buckets (CAP Style) and flood trays with 4" rockwool cubes.

Setting aside any differences with cost, what methods do you think are the best for this size operation? It would be around 24-ish 1000w lights.

Thanks!

Kitty
 

reggaerican

Well-Known Member
hmmm that sounds like fun...
i personally like the tables with the 4" cubes.. easy, low maintenance if set up right and very productice...
 

meezy4tw

Active Member
Wow, I would shit myself a few rainbows of happiness if I had that much space lol

I think the ebb and flow tables is probably your best bet, having 24 of the 1000 watt bulbs is a bit too much maybe though. But the way the floor plan is also comes into effect of how many lights your're going to use, is the 2000 foot space all one room? or is it made up of multiple?
 

tjizzle

Member
way too much water for that kind of room,tooo much moisture tooo high humidity.But hey you seen how many" videos ".The lights and water pumps are the cheapest part of the plan ,you just gonna feed some mold.
 

Brick Top

New Member
For a grow of that size I would say whatever you are most experienced in is the best way for you to go, with the possible exception of some minor alterations to save setup money and make things easier to run/operate/keep up, like large trays over smaller trays or individual buckets and larger reservoirs, etc.

If you are a bit of a DIY chick, or have a handy handyman or two to rely on you can check out Greenman's instructions of how to build your own hydroponic setup using materials mostly able to be found at local home hardware and garden supply stores. All you would need to do is up-size some aspects of it to fit your scale or make more units of the same size, which I would not believe would be as cost efficient.

He made a video called "I Grow Chronic" and he walks you through everything from building a very basic grow-room to building the hydroponic system and all the way through harvesting ... which marts of it you would not need to know since you already have experience. But the making of your own system part might be worth watching and then considering altering/up-sizing to fit your needs.

The video can be watched online at several sites ... just Google Mr. Green I Grow Chronic .. and possibly the video can be purchased too .. but I do not know for sure. YouTube also has it, or at least it did when I last looked, and the first parts are called I Grow Green and the rest are called I Grow Chronic, but all 9 parts can be found there.

Good luck.
 

Wohjew

Well-Known Member
Im sure kitty is aware of the risks lol 24 lights ist small potatoes , I'd assume your in a commercial space . Check out kittys 6000w grow. With a grow like that size I'd would start learning vertical growing with low plant numbers . I would also assume cost ain't an issue here . Google the undercurrent system , I think it fits your need
 

researchkitty

Well-Known Member
I'd like to ask everyone to refrain from the "Watch out for DEA" (I'm in Canada, first of all :)). Every single one of us is breaking the law by growing marijuana. I'll take the jail risk. Lets focus on the GROW now. :) :)

My 2000 sqft is really 2400sqft, but 400sqft will be for mushrooms the rest for pot.

Undercurrent system - All the latest craze right now. The systems are really expensive, and they are much better setup for a very long veg time and less plants per light. A 3 light system would cost you about $1500 just for the buckets/controllers/parts for 3000 watts of light. Eight setups for 24 lights is expensive! Plus, the water is all localized and depends on pumps on 24/7 PLUS how the F would you drain the rez on each one all the time so often? Refill nightmare.

Ebb & Grow buckets I'm doing now, very easy. I dont like the Hydroton cleaning. It takes a while to scrub down so many buckets, especially after considering 24,000 watts of buckets to clean. 16 * 24 = WORK! Much easier to space plants out though if some get bushy instead of tall etc......

Ebb & Flow trays with rockwool I've done in the past but the Hugo sized rockwool is like $3 each and the bigger ones are about $7 each. That's a LOT of $$$$$$$$ for consumables. 16 * 24 = $1152 in rockwool cubes if I use the hugo blocks, or $2688 if I use the big cubes! I save money on Hydroton but I can reuse it.

That's where I'm at dillema wise. :) Thoughts?
 

researchkitty

Well-Known Member
Im sure kitty is aware of the risks lol 24 lights ist small potatoes , I'd assume your in a commercial space . Check out kittys 6000w grow. With a grow like that size I'd would start learning vertical growing with low plant numbers . I would also assume cost ain't an issue here . Google the undercurrent system , I think it fits your need
The vertical stadium setup also was appealing, and easy to retrofit if I do just flat bucket rooms. A 3 row high room would need 3 controllers one on each level to be PROPERLY done, but that's OK they are about $150 to build one from AquaLab.
 

researchkitty

Well-Known Member
By the way -- power isnt a concern. We have a Generac 24kw generator that we'll be using as a flip flop for everything. I'll get more details to everyone on this as the grow progresses in a new thread, for now I just wanted to figure out what growing technique to commit to.
 

mrmadcow

Well-Known Member
For a grow of that size I would say whatever you are most experienced in is the best way for you to go, with the possible exception of some minor alterations to save setup money and make things easier to run/operate/keep up, ......Good luck.
I would say this is the best advice.Never saw anything that big but I would guess it would take 40+ hours a week to maintain,never mind how many hours to harvest.
 

researchkitty

Well-Known Member
I would say this is the best advice.Never saw anything that big but I would guess it would take 40+ hours a week to maintain,never mind how many hours to harvest.
Good, if it takes 40 hours a week for two people that's exactly what I want. :-)

i would run a hyrdo or aero setup with that much space.
Probably leaning towards the Buckets.

The space is setup as six rooms, 4 for flowering 6 lights per room and one for veg and one for harvesting/equipment/storage. Plus a mushroom room.
 
I would suggest getting ballast that will run on 480v would help lower the amperage load and reduce the wiring and cost for breakers etc .
 

watercooled@

Active Member
...
Undercurrent system - All the latest craze right now. The systems are really expensive, and they are much better setup for a very long veg time and less plants per light. A 3 light system would cost you about $1500 just for the buckets/controllers/parts for 3000 watts of light. Eight setups for 24 lights is expensive! Plus, the water is all localized and depends on pumps on 24/7 PLUS how the F would you drain the rez on each one all the time so often? Refill nightmare.
...
Just to keep things straight, there is no need to drain the rez on the UC. If needed the epicenter has a drain with a hose fitting, a pump is not needed, but can be used if you wanted to drain very quickly. Seems like you will be going with buckets since you've mentioned your budget on several occations.
 

Brick Top

New Member
i would run a hyrdo or aero setup with that much space.
Aero would consist of a tremendous number of micro sprayers to worry about becoming clogged and keep spraying correctly. A grow of that size needs to be an exercise in simplicity. The most reliable hydro system possible is what would be best, since kitty does not want to play in the dirt, which does seem a bit odd too me since it is a natural instinct for kitties to 'dig in the dirt or in kitty litter,' and instead she would prefer to go hydro.

For something of that size you have to consider and accept that some give and take needs to occur. If the very best of the very best when it comes to production per plant growing methods will, on that scale, be a pain in the butt, some slight loss of production needs to be sacrificed in the name of proven reliability. Is it a natural desire to attempt to squeeze every last gram out of every single plant but there are inherent risks associated with attempting that on a grand scale. When a chosen system has glitches, even minor ones but ones that are not all that uncommon, that might in the end, end up costing you pounds considering the scale of the grow. Choosing such a risky route could end up being an example of stepping over a dollar to pick up a penny.

Wherever and whenever simplicity and proven reliability can be made use of, it has to be made use of when someone is talking about such a large scale operation.

I will give an example from way, way, WAY back when I was a kid, back when dirt was new and dinosaurs roamed the earth and history wasn't taught in school because there hadn't been any yet.

Family friends owned a home in Florida and nearby an experimental outdoor hydroponic research center sprang up. It made many errors, errors that were not even considered to be possible errors at the time, though they should have been, but it was very close to being an example of simplicity and reliability at its best.

Long combination tables/growing trays were formed from poured concrete. That was one unforeseen error in that deteriorating concrete releases a great deal of acidity and that eventually caused pH problems. The long table/trays were filed with a small gravel of sorts, similar to what is called pea gravel, with something like similar to perlite or possibly more like vermiculite mixed in. After each grow the 'pea gravel' and perlite-like or vermiculite-like growing medium was removed from the trays and spread on large concrete pads and first some sort of antibacterial and anti-fungal cleaning solution was sprayed on it and then the sunlight and rains, or if it did not rain enough water was sprayed on it, and that cleansed the mixture so it could be reused. Some of the perlite-like or vermiculite-like material did need to be added at times due to it deteriorating and breaking down but the 'pea gravel' and most of the perlite or vermiculite was reused and contained nothing harmful that would damage the next crop.

The research unit was built next to a canal that had a slow but constant movement of water and a waterwheel turned a pump that filled a low but wide water tower. A second smaller water containment unit was next to it and of course connected with a series of pipes and that one had water soluble nutrients added to it.

One timer set to a regular schedule would open a valve and the trays would be flooded by gravity rather than pumping. Another timed valve on the end of the drain pipe would later open and allow the flooded trays to drain. The draining water was directed together into one large pipe that would pour out onto the water wheel further powering it to run the pump to refill the water storage.

When feeding was called for manual valves would be closed and opened to redirect the gravity fed water through the second tank with the water soluble nutrients and then to the flood trays and then again out to further power the water wheel that operated the pump to fill the water tank.

Until a few unforeseen problems reared their ugly heads, like the deteriorating concrete's acidity causing pH problems began and the nutrient runoff caused aquatic growth to choke off the canal and greatly limit the water flow to a point where it was not adequate, and a few other problems, the system worked tremendously well and it was extremely reliable.

The moral of the story is when you go big, simplicity and reliability are more important than having what would be the very best of the very best if being done on a small scale. The large scale alone will result in major profits and those profits are not worth risking by attempting to go too high tech and with it factoring in all the common problems that goes with it.

Going simple saves you some start up costs and also saves you some maintenance costs down the road and most importantly, reliability is built into the system and in a large scale system reliability is of utmost importance.

That's just something to ponder on for a while.
 

researchkitty

Well-Known Member
Just to keep things straight, there is no need to drain the rez on the UC. If needed the epicenter has a drain with a hose fitting, a pump is not needed, but can be used if you wanted to drain very quickly. Seems like you will be going with buckets since you've mentioned your budget on several occations.
Sky is the limit for budget. I didnt see the advantage to UC, for the price it costs. It will cost me a thousand more per 3 lights, but will it yield me $1000 more or save it in some way? Thanks for clearing up the rez issue on UC, I didnt realize it didnt need to be changed.
 

mrduke

Well-Known Member
hey kitty what if you made some jumbo E&G buckets out of some rubbermaid totes stacked on top each other, then rock some huge trees with the lights hung vertical between them. just a thought I know I'd like to see it.

You mentioned a stadium style, thats how I'll be setting up my new room with the E&G. using the bottom row as normal the the upper rows on drip and returning to the brain bucket vai rain gutters then recirculating to the res.
 

cvbud

Well-Known Member
i thought it would be cool to use a 55 gallon drum ebb and flow. grow a huge tree with 5 or five lights. but, i also have 30' ceilings in my shop. and i would need to sell the other business to occupy the space. but hey, i thought about it. and it sounds cool.

anyway, another option might be huge Aero tubes. a friend of mine built some aero tubes out of 8" pvc tubes. used inch and a half for water flow in the tubes. A SB type system only on a huge scale. not sure how it went. but it looked really cool when it was set up. but you might end up needing a third person on staff just trimming roots all day. i guess that also depends on how big you grown them. i think he was planning on trying to grow some monsters. I know Brick top just ade a great point as to why not to use them. but the only problem i could come with was the bloody res changes. the simplicity in it could be built, its just a huge amount of water. but why wouldnt it, they are plants. as far as the sprayers, thats easy. those things can be changed out easily, and they hardly ever clog. with aero, ive noticed that as long as your water is always in motion, its harder for salt build up like in flood systems. there is always residual standing water in flood systems that just grows whatever it feel like growing.

good luck with your quest. it sounds fun. and i thought building a 3000w room was big. cant wait till i get to build a big one and these are the questions i will be asking.
 
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