Dr. Funkenstein

Hello everyone! I'm about to set up my Prop 215 Grow-Lab/cab within a closet and I'm looking for as much feedback as possible on my new closet Grow-Lab design. For starters, I'm going to post a few images of the blueprints I have put together to see what kind of response I get. As I get more feedback, I will add more details from my agenda to the post.



ROOM SPLIT ISSUE#1:
Well the totall length of the grow space is 4'/2.5", but I'm not quite sure how I want to divide the space exactly. I know the Flowering Room needs more space to grow and branch out, so that must be bigger than the Vegging Room as depicted. Just unsure of the exact measurements I should go with, that would best fit the number of plants I want to harvest per month. (1/2-Lb. per month, ideally.)

Exaust/Ventilation:
Now I realize the temps must remain fairly similar in both the flowering and vegging rooms, so the current exaust system doesn't appear to be a problem, but considering the humidity levels differ in both grow chambers, I'm wondering if I should either move 'InLine Fan#1' above the grow chamber(or lower 'InLine Fan#3') to exaust the vegging room seperately, to enable more control over humidity levels?

Also, the 'sky-blue' color at the bottom of the grow environment represents the cool air coming thru the intake. The 'red' color represents the flexible ducting that will exaust the hot air. I am debating on whether or not I plan to use a passive intake or non-passive. I am still confused between the differences of the two. My intake will be drawing air from another room on the other side of the closet and I will also be exausting into this room.

Lighting/Electricity:
In the Vegging Room you will see I have my light of choice listed as either a CFL or MH light. Any advice on that would be tremendously helpful. As for the Flowering Room, I am positive I want to use an HPS light, yet still unsure of what size or the number of lights I want to use. I aim to run the most energy efficient system, while producing the most quality medicine I can (without burning the house down)



ROOM SPLIT ISSUE# 2:

Now here is another 'Room Split' issue. The room that my Grow-Lab closet is in has carpeting. Even though I plan on removing the carpet from the closet itself, there will still be carpet right outside the closet space. I have pets, and I am concerned about pests invading my Grow-Lab. So my question is, should the depth of my grow chambers be only 2 ft deep, to allow for a 1ft margin of uncarpeted, sanitized work-space/walking-space before the start of the carpeted room, the closet is in? As shown in the image above? Or should I utilize that extra space, and use it for plant growth? As shown in the following image:

Sure, most would say to sacrifice the sanitary issues, for more plant space, but I also have minor security issues I have to deal with. I'm assuming by leaving 1ft of walk space, I would also have the option of adding more insulation, thus containing any undesirable odors within the grow environment. Or do you think with such a small space, and the level of odor control I have instore, that this will not be a problem?
Also, I must remember that I need room outside of the grown environment to mount my controls and possible breaker box( which I need more help on, obviously) There may be times when I want to monitor things while my babies are sleeping. So I am slightly stumped here.


Thanks for your help. Any help, advice, or suggestions on how I can improve my current designs to be top notch would be extremely appreciated. Help me, and lets watch this project grow. I've been researching things for about 4 months now, read a couple books, spent many nights trolling forums, websites and a grip of videos/tutorials, and hopefully will be ready to launch soon. It's so close I can smell it!


Dr. Funkenstein

Batting1000

i would maybe go with ONE large fan, maybe 400 cfm or so. Definitely CFL in a cab for the veg...much less heat..

The odor control seems a bit overkill.. If you have a good strong fan, it will create a negative pressure and no air will escape except what goes thru the filter. The ozone is unneccessary. So are the other 2 fans.


Light seems overkill too...In a cab that size, a single 600w would do just fine..or 2 400's....whatever u like
Slim down and Maximize your hight in the flower box. After hanging lights and lifted plants (for hydro), you are really gonna wish you had more room

Dr. Funkenstein

Thanks heaps, Batting1000! I really appreciate your constructive crit. Very hard to come by sometimes. Ok, so here is what I have so far:

- I should ditch the Ozone Treatment Box, along with 'InLine Fans#1-2'

- Use 1 STRONG, possibly a 400 cfm fan for where 'InLine Fan#3' is. Is the placement of this fan good where I have it now, or should it be placed between the vent and the carbon scrubber? I read that it's best to have caddy-cornered from the intake vent to help create the negative pressure you spoke of, which is why I have it where its at now.

- I will also raise the roof of the grow chambers themselves by a foot, making them now 7ft high within a 8ft high closet. I do not know how I could go any higher than this, considering I need to partition off the closet space for both chambers, ie humidity/temp control.


- As far as lighting goes, you are right about that. I'm probably going to go with a 600w HPS or two 250w HPS for more coverage in the Flowering Room. I've read elsewhere that growers will often opt out of using a single 1000w HPS in order to use two 600w HPS. This some how works out better, energy-wise/grow-wise? If you could shed some light on that, it would be much help. I will most likely use CFL in the Vegging Room, I'm just concerned about the slow growth rate. When mentioning the yield I was going for, I was told that 1 month would not be enough time.


Thanks for your time, Batting1000!

Much RESPECT!

Dr. Funkenstein

poison widow

lookin good man i reckon 2 250w hps' and just loadsa fluros for veg as for working on them at night it shouldn't be done but if you can keep the veg room closed when in the flower room at dark u can use a green bulb make sure its green glass and not just painted plants dont use green light and therefore can't see it.
as for the fans just 1 will be enough get a big arse one and suck through the carbon filter not really a nessesity but seems toi be more effeciant ime
hope u get what ur after happy smokin

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few herbs and a bit of benson

Batting1000

Look into high output flourescents for veg...Called tech lights. I use and love em..super short internode spacing and ultra cool so you can get them real close to your plants

Dr. Funkenstein

Hey everyone, I've been doing more research, and have some updates for you:

Considering the spacing issues, I'm thinking about investing in a similar sized(2Wx4Lx6H) portable wardrobe from one of them handy Home Builder places to use as my Vegging Room for my mothers,cuttings and clones. I think this will solve a lot of my problems. I will build a shelf within the 'store-bought wardrobe' for my cuttings, leaving the floor space available for the mothers and clones. How does that sound? I figure if I'm going to be using all CFLs for the Veg chamber, it wouldn't be that big of a deal to relocate shop elsewhere, and still keep it underwraps. Now I will be able to utilize the full 8ft in height of the original closet grow space for strictly flowering, while making it that much easier to maintain that chambers temps and humidity levels, without putting the vegging chamber in harms way.


Batting1000, do you have a link for these TechLights? I've been searching for them but have been unable to find them.

The Flowering Room is now 3Wx4Lx8H, and the Vegging Room will be around 2Wx4Lx6H. How many plants can I comfortably fit now, would you say?


Now I just need to figure out which lights I should use for the Flowering Room. I've received a lot of feedback. PoisonWidow, you said two 250wHPS for the Flowering Room. Batting1000, you said 600wHPS. Someone else said a 600wHPS would be just perfect, not too warm. Another friend said 400wHPS. Now this was all for the original measurments, mind you. Not for the NEW " 3Wx4Lx8H" measurements.

Once I make my lighting decisions and figure out which make/models I'm going with, I will need to decide on controlers to control the system. I almost forgot, I also want to set up a c02 rig for the Flowering Room. I figure I will have the freedom and the space to do so now.

They all seem fairly simply to understand, but the only issues I have when window-shopping online is, there arent too many 'all-in-one' devices. I don't even know which brands are reliable and worth their price in advertising and there are not many that are reasonably priced. I don't think I'd spend as much as I'd spend on the entire operation on one controler alone. What if it were to get damaged or break?


What do you think?

Dr. Funkenstein

nigel

love a man with a plan; prefer one like you who can alter them. lol carpet in a grow space hides bugs and will go mouldy?

if you want some clues on building spaces, go to Matt Dreads Goes Sour in the soil grow journals - he is currently constructing spaces with nice pics. got a lot of the toys you are talking about. [bit high tech for me lol]

my tip for the day is 'access to plants' - moving them from space to space, maintenance, training, and being able to get near and breathe on them; they like the co2.

shelving or some way of adjusting plants height, for different age groups and strains.

what growing style are you going to grow? catcha later in the movie. lol nigel

lol nigel

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"There are no problems; there are only solutions." Bill Mollinson

Dr. Funkenstein

Hey Nigel! Thanks for the generous encouragement. Haha. Access to the plants is a must, something that definitely has been in the back of my mind since the jump. I plan to have a some sort of shelving system within the Vegging Room to deal with any runt plants and varying strains. Good idea, btw. I'm planning on going with an Ebb&Flow Hydroponic system in the Flowering room. I've seen this chain-and-bar method in another forum, might've been this one, where the grower used chains and wooden rods to train branches. SCROG I guess they call it. Still unsure what I plan to use for the Vegging Room. Possibly a manual water set up for the mothers(RockWool/Hydrotron), and a Aeroponic system for the clones. Still debating on that. Any suggestions?


Dr. Funkenstein

nigel

clones seedlings start at top, as they go down steps their destiny is decided. lol

Yes Stick and chain training by Scrub, i am a big fan of his. He is a bright man, very nice.

Another good place is 'cloning made easy' by Lou Cypher and follow links in signature to his 'perpetual grow; that will get you thinking. lol nigel

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"There are no problems; there are only solutions." Bill Mollinson

Batting1000

Splitting the two rooms is a great idea. That way you can get 0 light leakage in the flowering room.

I have a very healthy "cough" plant. It is Skunk #1, G-13 and Hashplant. It gets very tall, so i veg 5-6 weeks, top(3-4 times) and bush it out, then flower it at about12-15 inches. Still gets up to my eyeballs. It is hydro so its lifted 15in so the res can fit underneath. I put 7 of these in a 3x3 tray with 1-1000w over top. All of them are in 3in rockwool cubes, then on rockwool slabs and each has 2 drip stakes.

You could use 1- 1000w over a 3x3 tray or 2- 600w. I prefer the 1000w.

CO2 is gonna be a problem. If you use a 1000w, you will HAVE to air cool that small of a space. with the negative pressure created from a powerful fan like we talked about....It will just suck all the Co2 right out of the cab.. BIG waste of money.

So i say go bigger with the light to max out the lumens and use that to compensate for the lack fo CO2. if It still gets hot, get a bigger fan.

Ive noticed major differnces between 600 and 1000 and certainly prefer the thickness and density of 1000w.

That should give you about 1-2 lbs. per harvest

Oh yeah...Advanced nuteients dont hurt either!