$15,000 Where do I start

[jackjo]

I just bought 15 acres and put up a new Shop/House on it. I farm for a living so I know and understand all aspects of commerical growing in the midwest to include seed genetics and agronomy.
I have a 40' long x 7' wide x 18' high area in the shop. I just took the back wall of the shop and put up a divider wall with one door in it that is hidden behind a mirror. You walk through the door and it's 7' to the back of the building and a 40' hallway right now that's 18' high.
I will be installing a second floor to utilize all of the space.
I have $7,500-15,000 dollars to work with and I need to know how to set-up a proper SOIL (don't like hydroponics) growroom in this space.

I am not concerned about physicial security as I live like a monk and have a gate on the property however I do need to adress the obvious smell issue. My biggest concern is with security is HEAT. There will obviously be tons of heat coming out of that area and my worst fear is that a state police plane will flyoverhead with a thermal imager.

I have watched all I can on youtube googlevids and done research on here. But it's time for me to make this post and get into specifics. The building will be completely finished within 2-3 months and the contractors will be gone. I would like to start purchasing supplies now so that this winter I can set everything up. And even run the lights/equipment for a few months to see if in fact anything will come of the power/heat coming from the building. Then this spring before I begin my legal farming I can start my illegal farming.

Thankyou so much everyone for helping me with this I know it's a huge task but with your help i'm sure I can accomplish this.

 

[HerbieSmith]

wow dude- big brass cohones im on my first grow so i cant offer you much advice- just GOOD LUCK

 

[GrowTech]

Talk to Snoopdogg621 - he has heavily invested in his grow, and his is set up right and tight. Also, check out the grow chat.

 

[jackjo]

I will look up snoopdogg621s name and see if he has any posts on his growhouse. Another issue which is power I already have a 3500watt solar system on the roof which is a battery one and not a grid-tie system so I just told the local co-op that it's broke

 

[stickyicky77]

I would definitely have central heating and air conditioning in your room to control temps and humidity year round and keep the heat to a minimum in your room. The cooler you keep your room the less heat signature will be detected with FLIR. Also good ventilation with a charcoal filtration system and a ozone generator will do the trick for odor control. Solar power for your building very cool.

 

[jackjo]

Well the building is more than just solar power.... I have infloor radiant heat throughout both the shop portion (1600 sq ft.) and the home on both floors (800sqft 1st 800sqft 2ndflr).
The beauty of the infloor radiant heat is that when I put in the hydronic tubing for it you have to make your zones i.e. one zone first floor of house one for 2nd floor but the shop area is alotta square footage so I split it into different zones.... one of those zones is the 40foot by 7foot area... it has its own thermostat for that zone so the heat part is already done.
As for cooling I have what is called a Mini-split ac system which is one box on the first floor and one on the second floor portion of the home. it's basically a box that sits on the wall but its a very expensive box and doesn't require any ductwork to be laid out so for the grow room it will be as simple as addng another "box" to the system.

I DO need advice on a good charcoal filtration system I heard those were the route to go with any decent size grow room... as I will be splitting it into a veg side and a flowering side at first I am guessing I will need two of them or Can I run ducting through both rooms? What brands are good again keep in mind I will need one large enough for 280SqFt of space. Also need advice on good ozone generators. Thanks

 

[jackjo]

Products

For the first grow there will be no second floor Just two rooms on the first.
1. 15x7ft flowering room
2. 25x7ft veg room

Don't know anything about ozone generators please recommend from the website provided i've seen this brand on some other grow videos so i'm pretty sure there decent. I just need to know which two I should get for the space provided. THANks for everyone input so far I'll post pictures of the space and what i purchase in the upcoming days/weeks.

 

[LostInSpace...]

Wow dude thats a pretty big grow. I think that most of us would be out of that league, but there are people in here who like to think big but grow small. I'd say u could utilize most of these ideas on a bigger scale. Just a note you say you want grow with dirt? Do you realize how much dirt would be involved? Could be worth considering hydro, as far as yeild and speed of grow, hydro is way in front..
Just a thought, good luck with your grow!!!

 

[potlike]

Something you may like to check out with your budget is Omega Gardens.


-potlike

 

[jadins]

I just finished up my 4th grow in a system somewhat like you are discribing, powered by 3650 watts to give you an idea of equipment purchases.

One observation I made was the issue of heat generated by the lights in flower, something for you to seriously consider how to manage. My grow room is being modified as we speak because I did not do enough planning ahead of time to compensate for this.

Two questions for ya: 1) Why so much larger a veg room than flower? 2) Why in the world would you not run hydro? Total time spent watering all 41 plants I had in dirt, not for me. I have pics of a clone that grew 32" in a hydro SOG in just 18 days, do that with dirt. OK, I'll be quite, best of luck to you in your farming.

jj

 

[hitme]

Ok i just thought of this but wouldnt it fucking AMAZING if you owned a big amount of land like that and on the land they had like a huge underground cellar!!! so you could just grow like a bat of hell and your underground so no worries mate! wow that would be awesome. but yeah dude you got the dough so go invest in some drough.

 

[FullMetalJacket]

I would go like 2 1000 watters HPS for flower with air cooled hoods. I would look at the euro hood on HTG .com.

A big as S&P TD-250 fan for just the light tube. Moveing out all this heat will also lower your heat sig. If you live in a hot area i would look into multple window AC's mofified for the room. If where you live is usually cool i would look into having an actual 3x7 room particioned off to just act like an air baffle box. Exhaust into that with a good ozone generator and have an internal fan in there to mix it up. Then exhaust directly out of that room. Lokks like you veg room has alot of extra space you can steal the sq ft from.

This is way out of my league but i love designing this stuff, But based on you question anyone who will be able to provide you a good anwer will want to know the temps where you live, method of growing (SOG ,SCROG, or just some big ass plants), and maybe some pics of the area to see what the possiblities/placement on access, vent, AC, Dehumid, fan the room offers. Goodluck.

Soil is cool but hydro/aero of some sort would be easier and require less maintenece.

 

[FLoJo]

with that much cash I would invest first in a nice air conditioning setup where you could exhaust your air into the rest of the shed and have it at a decent temp.. line the roof and walls with that thermal resistant film i donno what its called. and if you really wanna do soil all you need is

lights
pots
dehumidifier with controller
carbon filter
irrigation system if you dont wanna feed em by hand..

before you start settin out for equip you first need to ask yourself what are you trying to get out of this.. quality or quantity how much realistically because if you do it all yourself its gonna be a shitload of work to maintain

 

[potlike]

I would go like 2 1000 watters HPS for flower with air cooled hoods. I would look at the euro hood on HTG .com.

No. 3x600 watters are more efficient than 2x1000 watters when heat and light distribution are added as factors.. yes the 1000 watters produce 5,000 more lumens in this configuration but you have to figure that the useable lumens in the 600 watter will outweigh because of the spread that the 1000 watter will have to stretch.

1x 600 watt at 12 inches away is equivalent to 1x1000 watt in relation to useable lumens... refer to yield-o-rama

Seriously consider Omega Gardens as a viable option... Very efficient and I don't think it would be that hard to design yourself so that you can have 5 at the price they sell one volks garden.


-potlike

 

[Greenmonster22]

Hey, here is the soil recipe I found a few months back and love it.
I've done a few grows with it, and it rocks. You dont need any nutes or nothing, its all in the soil, read it, you'll love it. Also it has always produced top notch ganja too.
Good luck!

I just bought 15 acres and put up a new Shop/House on it. I farm for a living so I know and understand all aspects of commerical growing in the midwest to include seed genetics and agronomy.
I have a 40' long x 7' wide x 18' high area in the shop. I just took the back wall of the shop and put up a divider wall with one door in it that is hidden behind a mirror. You walk through the door and it's 7' to the back of the building and a 40' hallway right now that's 18' high.
I will be installing a second floor to utilize all of the space.
I have $7,500-15,000 dollars to work with and I need to know how to set-up a proper SOIL (don't like hydroponics) growroom in this space.

I am not concerned about physicial security as I live like a monk and have a gate on the property however I do need to adress the obvious smell issue. My biggest concern is with security is HEAT. There will obviously be tons of heat coming out of that area and my worst fear is that a state police plane will flyoverhead with a thermal imager.

I have watched all I can on youtube googlevids and done research on here. But it's time for me to make this post and get into specifics. The building will be completely finished within 2-3 months and the contractors will be gone. I would like to start purchasing supplies now so that this winter I can set everything up. And even run the lights/equipment for a few months to see if in fact anything will come of the power/heat coming from the building. Then this spring before I begin my legal farming I can start my illegal farming.

Thankyou so much everyone for helping me with this I know it's a huge task but with your help i'm sure I can accomplish this.

 

[VictorVIcious]

Folks trying to help you do not have large opeations, there isn't any way you can cover that size of grow are with 2-1000 watt lights or 3-600 watt lights. Just to put it in perspective, I made a stand for clones, its 1' by 2', I can put 150 clones in it. I have a 2' by4' table for mother plants, it can hold 15 mothers easily. You don't need 25' for vegging, propabaly less than 10', which leaves a pretty good area for flowering.
Flood and drain hydro would be better than soil because of the size of pots necessary. My suggestion for you is about the same as it is for everyone else, you need to work out the physical plant first. It sounds like you have the heat and air taken care of now you need to set up air handling systems, electric systems and plumbing systems, all of which you are probably familiar with as a farmer. You won't need a carbon scrubber in the vegging mother area, they won't be producing enough smell to bother with.
Read Al B Fucts Journal Get A Harvest Every Two Weeks. His room is approximately 10 x 10 and hes has at least 150 plants in there at any given time. Thats one full time job, yours would be about three. With $15,000, I would set up less than 1/2 that space and spend some time learning these plants, especially cloning, and expand as the money coming in allows. VV

 

[Woomeister]

Ok i just thought of this but wouldnt it fucking AMAZING if you owned a big amount of land like that and on the land they had like a huge underground cellar!!! so you could just grow like a bat of hell and your underground so no worries mate! wow that would be awesome. but yeah dude you got the dough so go invest in some drough.

A guy I once new bought a 44ft refridgerated lorry and buried the back of it on his land and grew in it, worked a treat!

 

[MrsMcGreggor]

spray foam insolation on the inside roof, air space, drop ceiling and batting....
hydronic heat is GREAT!!! don't ya love free heat in this cold weather climate.
make sure you have antifreeze in your lines for winter and or a back up generator.
ours runs on wood or waste oils....

you can install the hydronic heat right into your starting shelves...

you can make your start shelves a LOT bigger...
the pex tubes go threw are fed right in the base of the shelf.
drywall underside,,, pex makes its loop with 2x4 spacer in center
and metal shelf just sets over it... works GREAT....

have a shop not small {they usto store the farm machines in it} so have been thinking how to make it all work this shop is for wood working.

and last don't fool yourself... You will be suprised how many folks end up at your place
even when you think you have to be the most cloistered person in the world.
ther are feed lot inspectors, and folks asking to hunt on your property, the feller that fills your propaine tank, or farm fule tank, neighbors just swinging by, johova whitnesses, the mail man, some sales guy, and they all show up just when you think your like the maytag repair man the most isolated guy in da world....
Don't let yourself be fooled.... drop in a seed and they come they all come.........

 

[towlie]

My biggest concern is with security is HEAT. There will obviously be tons of heat coming out of that area and my worst fear is that a state police plane will flyoverhead with a thermal imager.

Jacko. If your grow area is temp controlled, then your biggest heat signature problem is the exhaust. If I'm envisioning your set-up correctly, I'd put an evaporative media downstream of your charcoal filter in your exhaust. This will act like a mini cooling tower. The effectivenss however is based on the entering air humidity. If you're planning on keeping your grow room at 70% RH then forget it. When you get the specifics of your grow room temp & humidity worked out, contact me offline and I'd be happy to help with this kind of thing. I've got a little experience here, so if you want to go this route, I'd be happy to offer any advice.

Good luck.

 

[potlike]

Folks trying to help you do not have large opeations, there isn't any way you can cover that size of grow are with 2-1000 watt lights or 3-600 watt lights. Just to put it in perspective, I made a stand for clones, its 1' by 2', I can put 150 clones in it. I have a 2' by4' table for mother plants, it can hold 15 mothers easily. You don't need 25' for vegging, propabaly less than 10', which leaves a pretty good area for flowering.
Flood and drain hydro would be better than soil because of the size of pots necessary. My suggestion for you is about the same as it is for everyone else, you need to work out the physical plant first. It sounds like you have the heat and air taken care of now you need to set up air handling systems, electric systems and plumbing systems, all of which you are probably familiar with as a farmer. You won't need a carbon scrubber in the vegging mother area, they won't be producing enough smell to bother with.
Read Al B Fucts Journal Get A Harvest Every Two Weeks. His room is approximately 10 x 10 and hes has at least 150 plants in there at any given time. Thats one full time job, yours would be about three. With $15,000, I would set up less than 1/2 that space and spend some time learning these plants, especially cloning, and expand as the money coming in allows. VV

Yeah, I should have made myself clear I wasn't meaning to suggest to use 3x600 watts. I was just stating that it would be more efficient than 2x1000w as an example. The lights he needs, however should give him anywhere from 8,000 to 10,000 lumens per square foot of the space he does utilize in order to maximize his potential. I would also consider a healthy supply of UVB in the flowering chamber(s).

I am a fan of Al B Fucts Journal too, maybe setup individual rooms within the room to maximize efficiency(light reflectivity in closer spaces) as well as making it more manageable. Be sure to grab TDS/PPM, PH meters... don't skimp here.



-potlike