I got fed up this winter! The few people I knew who could hook me up could only deliver ditch weed crap, it was mostly miss but an occasional hit. I had decided to grow in a county park near my house but couldn't find a spot where people wouldn't reliably be. It's loaded with deer and other critters and the thought of having to wander into the woods at midnight to water and tend to my ladies didn't appeal to me one bit.
I started researching and decided I could pull of an indoor grow. I have a wife and kids and needed somewhere they wouldn't mess with it. Turns out the basement is some kind of land of make believe to them and the back corner behind the water heater, furnace, water conditioner is a scary and dark area I don't think any of them has ever been nor will ever bother going.
So I had a location, I had a rough plan and I needed a setup. I did a lot of research and settled on LEDs. I managed to get into the California Light Works growers feedback program and purchased a Solar Storm. It'll be here next week so I needed to get on the ball and get my grow cabinet rocking.
I found a secluded little nook that was open, cleaned it up and started.
I attached a couple of before and mid-way pictures as of today.
I went with a 2 level area, the bottom for my active grows and the top for my clone mothers. I'm planning on doing auto flowers first, but will be moving to a perpetual once I get used to things.
So my list of what's left to do, probably won't get to work on it again until next week, but I have most of my hardware either in hand or on the way.
Cut vent holes from top to bottom Cut and mount lower intake vent Cut and mount upper exhaust vent Mount hanger/pully system for Solar Storm LED light Obtain and install oscilating fan in lower room build a carbon scrubber Prime w/kills Caulk caulk caulk Paint flat white mount power strip add a door Set up light timers get the ladies going
Hey Bro Welcome aboard! Sounds like you are a man with a plan. So does does your wife know? Cause that would be hard to pull off. Even if mine never went there, she would wonder why I was. Lol. How big is your area that the Solarstorm is going in? (Im trying to make sure you think of everything) Mine is in a 4x4x7, and it gets pretty warm. Of coarse mine is in a bedroom, and has a starting temp of 72. The room reaches 80 during the day. Another trick I did was run the exhaust through my floor then put a register vent in the ceiling of the living room below. (Maybe you can think of something similar) The wife loves the heat, and the room would get way too hot otherwise. Just some things to think about. Good luck with the grow!. h
No, she doesn't know yet. I'll tell her sooner or later. I'm down there a lot for random projects. Painting, getting stuff out of my storage boxes, lightbulbs, cat litter, etc etc etc. She won't care at all, but I'm not sure she needs to know right now.
As for the rest, I tried to think it through. It's not 4x4 square, I had an existing wooden shelving setup I didn't want to take down. I had a 3'6" deep and 4'6" wide area. The whole enclosure is 6' tall, I did a lower chamber just shy of 4' and an upper cloning/mothers/to be determined area around 2 and a half ft.
The ambient temperature down there is low 60s most of the year. I plan to have a 4" intake coming out amongst the heater cold air returns. And a 6" out with an inline duct fan down through my carbon filter and that'll probably just vent out near the top for now. It'll probably just heat our kitchen floor nicely.
It looks like a spot. My only concern is the size, my cabinet is 4x4x7, and I have a pretty nice extraction system, and it gets pretty warm. Keep an open mind, cause you may have to remove the middle shelf. I would put the light in, and do a test run. Also, make sure your area is sealed up good, there are lots of bugs in basements. Especially if your going to be using dirt. Peace. h
Yeah, I was/am worried about the air flow in that room. I don't mind taking out the middle shelf and made it so that I can remove it if I need to by just removing the screws and caulk.
I sealed everything as good as I can, I have to do a light/air test once I get the door on, but so far it's pretty tight. I used a wood adhesive that is put on like caulk along the outline of all of the wood framing where the playwood would meet. I also went over it once installed and caulked the hell out of all of the joints. Got a bunch of weather stripping for the door area too.
Our basement isn't too terribly buggy, it used to be but we now have a pest place come spray and set traps a few times a year as the spiders and bugs that get into an old house are rough to deal with in this area. So, that's been much less of a problem the last couple of years, time will tell on that one.
For the heat, like I said I've got enough venting and fans to pull/push quite a lot of air in. Once the light arrives I do plan to do a closed door test for 24 hrs, and the basement is a pretty cool area at all times, even on a hot summer day. My biggest worry about air flow right now is my carbon scrubber, not sure what kind of restriction that'll make and any kind of hit on airflow it'll cause. have to keep an eye on that later. I hope to have that built and installed before the light arrives as well, not sure I"ll make that
Tonight I should get the 2nd coat of primer on the inside and the doors, maybe even get the doors mounted, not sure about that just yet. Otherwise the doors will go on tomorrow, hopefully get the carbon filter and venting at least assembled, maybe not installed but assembled. Figure I can get a full coat of white flat on tomorrow night and another Tuesday and then start hanging and mounting the rest of the goodies on Wed/Thursday.
I picked up the rest of my dirt/moss/dirt starting nutes today, should start mixing that up one of these days/nights too.
Light shows up Wed, might have the seeds by this weekend to get things rolling by next week/weekend. I'd like to have seeds sprouted and in their planters within 2 weeks, not sure if I'll make it. It's tight.
I believe you said you had a 6" extraction which will be plenty. I would go ahead, and get your seeds going. You are not gonna want to put seedlings under that light, (its too intense for babies) just use a couple 100w 6500k household CFL's, and never closer than 8 inches away. 1 last thought, I think you said you were gonna start with autos. You dont want to re-pot those, your best success will be using 2.4gal. air-pots. They will give you excellent growth, and they wont become root-bound. Best 8 bucks you'll spend! I want you to be successful. Peace. h
That's great advice! I didn't know that about Autos but I'm setup for that. Currently my outdoor summer garden is rocking under some CLFs and a larger fixture of full size Flouros. I'll just pop them into that setup with my tomato, basil, pepper, onions, pumpkins, peas, cucumbers, etc while they wait for another month to go outside. By the time I'm on my 2nd grow I should have a CFL setup in the upper chamber to get things rocking.
Yeah, 6" out and 4" in. I figure with the restriction of airflow with the charcoal filter, they should work out. I'm hoping not to run my 6" inline fan at 100% for noise and longevity. Like to run it 50-75%. I'm not thrilled with my first run at a charcoal filter though. I used some of the many home grown tutorials with pencil holders and I can do better myself with some basic window screen and a frame. Not sure what the frame will be but I know I can do better than what I've got right now.
Pumped man! Totally pumped! Hoping not to shit the bed on grow number1 we sure will see.
Thanks for the tip on the planers, I've been trying to figure out what to use. I have a bunch of 5 gal buckets, but they seem a little large/high for my needs. Nothing local has any good planters that I like, might just have to order them online instead. I was looking at some areo pots that looked good. They were either 3 or 4 gallons. Kind of looked like those taxi cab style back rub beads for seats, but in a 3 or 4 gal pot. Not sure where the best spot to pick them up is though.