4x12x4 Vertical Grow (made a mistake while making the tittle. to much trees XD)
Introduction and Overall Plan
Gday gents, this is my first post and first real attempt at growing mj. My sister and I are both legal medical marijuana caregivers in Michigan and everything will be done in abidance to the laws here. I've been reading up for months on this website about the different techniques and methods for growing this beautiful plant and I'm really excited to put all this knowledge to use. Unfortunately, im confined to the crawl space under my house, hence the 4 foot height restriction. This is what made me decide to grow vertically. I figured that(if grown horizontally); after the height of the pots and the distance the plants had to be from the lights was taken into account, there was only about 2 1/2 feet for the plant to grow, which is not nearly enough. My plan is to grow 3 different strains. (Still to be decided). I'm looking for a very strong, body stone Indica for maximum pain relief. A sativa that makes you euphoric and giggly. And an exotic, multi-colored, super tasty, 50/50. I'll start 24 plants, 8 seeds from the 3 strains, from seed, and let them veg in the center room for a month. I plan on topping a week and a half before sexing so i'll have an easier time tying the plants to the screen while flowering. After sexing I'll cut out the males and pick mothers to cut clones from. The other girls will go into the flower rooms to start budding. I'm going to have screens on the outer part of the beds to tie the plants too. All the side branches will be spread out along the screen and the topped colas will also be put behind the screen. Like a menorah. The idea behind this is that it will turn the 1.5 m^2 of canopy that a horizontal grow would have; into 4.5 m^2 of canopy per room. Thats 9 SQUARE METERS TOTAL!!! Most strains say they grow around 450 to 500g of bud per meter cubed in a scrog setup. Since this is technically a vertical scrog, i should potentially get 4,050g of bud once the flower rooms are full, or to put it in laymens term, a FUCK load of bud. I don't expect to get this much but i think at least half that should be reasonable. I'll cut clones from the mothers when the ladies flowering are a month and a half away from finishing. They'll be in red solo cups for the first 2 weeks, then a 1 gallon pot until being transplanted to the flower room. At the one month point, all clones will be topped. Then when the first girls are ready to be cut, the clones(well plants now ) will go into the flowering room. This will all be done perpetually so as to have a constant supply of bud. Sounds pretty good right?
Now for explaining the grow room...
The rooms will be built out of plywood and reinforced with 2x4's. They'll all be adjacent, with the veg room in the middle. My reason for doing this is because the heat from this room should keep the flowering rooms at a more constant temperature to put less stress on the bud. All will have a 2ft door in the front for easy access. I'll be using 600w HPS bulbs for the flowering rooms(Is this enough for the space? or would a 400w or 1000w be better?), hung 2 1/2 ft off the ground. They'll be in homemade 6in cooler tubes without a bottom. This should work as the exhaust for the room and for cooling the light. Genius right? . The vegging room will have the same setup but with a 600w MH(Same question as the HPS). I plan on finding an exhaust fan that will change the air twice a minute. Will this be enough to keep the light cooled and temps down? Or should I get a stronger fan? All rooms will be exhausted through the top of the rooms and connected together, with a carbon filter at the end. I want to have 1 6x6 vent for airflow per box. Is this enough? Or should I have more? The vents need to be light proof also. Anyone know how to do this? I have some ideas but I would love to hear from someone who has done this. The flowering beds will be built out of plywood? I'm still not sure on this because of rotting concerns. They would have drain holes in the bottom and trays underneath to catch the excess water but I haven't found anything on using wood for potting plants indoors. If it is done with wood, it will all be reinforced with 2x2's so its totally stable. I'll have dividers in the soil so the roots don't grow together(you can see how i have them placed in the sketch) and screens on the outer side of the beds to tie the plants too. The grow medium will be soil. Still haven't decided on soil or nutes yet. Any Ideas? I have no knowledge in this area of growing as this comes with experience more than anything. I'll have a ph tester and will be using tap water for watering. I read there's chlorine in tap water? If this is true then ill have a bucket of water sitting out (to evaporate the chlorine) that will be replaced every other watering. One of my good buddies is an electrician so I'll have him do all the wiring and circuit breaker stuff. And yeah...I think thats about it.
Questions...
What would be some good strains to grow? I'm looking for maximum yield from all strains. I would like a body stone, pain re-leaving indica. An up-beat, euphoric sativa. And an exotic, colorful 50/50
What wattage light would you recommend? Each grow space will be 4x4x4 so I'm worried about heat and getting the most amount of lumens to the plants.
Will my exhaust idea work? I haven't seen anyone do it quite like that before and it should kill 2 birds with one stone. (cooling the light and venting the room)
What CFM fan would you recommend? The cubic foot of each room is 64 and it needs to cool the light and maintain good airflow.
Will one 6x6 vent be enough to maintain good airflow? Or should there be more than one vent?
Also how can you light proof the vents?
Is wood an okay thing to build the beds out of? Or will the wood rot because of the moisture in the soil. I would really like to be able to build the beds out of wood so if it would rot, is there any way to protect it? Maybe a plastic liner or something?
What kind of soil do you recommend? I'm looking for convince here so i just want a brand I can grow straight from the bag. No added ingredients to the mix.
What nutrients do you recommend?
Is there chlorine in tap water? and if so would leaving it out for a couple days in an open container get rid of it?
I think that about wraps it up. I'm looking forward to hearing back from all of you at the RIU community. All feedback is welcome and if you can answer any of my questions it would be very much appreciated! I plan on starting this in a couple months and will be posting a grow journal if there's enough interest.
Sorry for poor sketch quality, I'm not an artist and thats the best i could do The total length of the rooms will be 12', not 16'.
Introduction and Overall Plan
Gday gents, this is my first post and first real attempt at growing mj. My sister and I are both legal medical marijuana caregivers in Michigan and everything will be done in abidance to the laws here. I've been reading up for months on this website about the different techniques and methods for growing this beautiful plant and I'm really excited to put all this knowledge to use. Unfortunately, im confined to the crawl space under my house, hence the 4 foot height restriction. This is what made me decide to grow vertically. I figured that(if grown horizontally); after the height of the pots and the distance the plants had to be from the lights was taken into account, there was only about 2 1/2 feet for the plant to grow, which is not nearly enough. My plan is to grow 3 different strains. (Still to be decided). I'm looking for a very strong, body stone Indica for maximum pain relief. A sativa that makes you euphoric and giggly. And an exotic, multi-colored, super tasty, 50/50. I'll start 24 plants, 8 seeds from the 3 strains, from seed, and let them veg in the center room for a month. I plan on topping a week and a half before sexing so i'll have an easier time tying the plants to the screen while flowering. After sexing I'll cut out the males and pick mothers to cut clones from. The other girls will go into the flower rooms to start budding. I'm going to have screens on the outer part of the beds to tie the plants too. All the side branches will be spread out along the screen and the topped colas will also be put behind the screen. Like a menorah. The idea behind this is that it will turn the 1.5 m^2 of canopy that a horizontal grow would have; into 4.5 m^2 of canopy per room. Thats 9 SQUARE METERS TOTAL!!! Most strains say they grow around 450 to 500g of bud per meter cubed in a scrog setup. Since this is technically a vertical scrog, i should potentially get 4,050g of bud once the flower rooms are full, or to put it in laymens term, a FUCK load of bud. I don't expect to get this much but i think at least half that should be reasonable. I'll cut clones from the mothers when the ladies flowering are a month and a half away from finishing. They'll be in red solo cups for the first 2 weeks, then a 1 gallon pot until being transplanted to the flower room. At the one month point, all clones will be topped. Then when the first girls are ready to be cut, the clones(well plants now ) will go into the flowering room. This will all be done perpetually so as to have a constant supply of bud. Sounds pretty good right?
Now for explaining the grow room...
The rooms will be built out of plywood and reinforced with 2x4's. They'll all be adjacent, with the veg room in the middle. My reason for doing this is because the heat from this room should keep the flowering rooms at a more constant temperature to put less stress on the bud. All will have a 2ft door in the front for easy access. I'll be using 600w HPS bulbs for the flowering rooms(Is this enough for the space? or would a 400w or 1000w be better?), hung 2 1/2 ft off the ground. They'll be in homemade 6in cooler tubes without a bottom. This should work as the exhaust for the room and for cooling the light. Genius right? . The vegging room will have the same setup but with a 600w MH(Same question as the HPS). I plan on finding an exhaust fan that will change the air twice a minute. Will this be enough to keep the light cooled and temps down? Or should I get a stronger fan? All rooms will be exhausted through the top of the rooms and connected together, with a carbon filter at the end. I want to have 1 6x6 vent for airflow per box. Is this enough? Or should I have more? The vents need to be light proof also. Anyone know how to do this? I have some ideas but I would love to hear from someone who has done this. The flowering beds will be built out of plywood? I'm still not sure on this because of rotting concerns. They would have drain holes in the bottom and trays underneath to catch the excess water but I haven't found anything on using wood for potting plants indoors. If it is done with wood, it will all be reinforced with 2x2's so its totally stable. I'll have dividers in the soil so the roots don't grow together(you can see how i have them placed in the sketch) and screens on the outer side of the beds to tie the plants too. The grow medium will be soil. Still haven't decided on soil or nutes yet. Any Ideas? I have no knowledge in this area of growing as this comes with experience more than anything. I'll have a ph tester and will be using tap water for watering. I read there's chlorine in tap water? If this is true then ill have a bucket of water sitting out (to evaporate the chlorine) that will be replaced every other watering. One of my good buddies is an electrician so I'll have him do all the wiring and circuit breaker stuff. And yeah...I think thats about it.
Questions...
What would be some good strains to grow? I'm looking for maximum yield from all strains. I would like a body stone, pain re-leaving indica. An up-beat, euphoric sativa. And an exotic, colorful 50/50
What wattage light would you recommend? Each grow space will be 4x4x4 so I'm worried about heat and getting the most amount of lumens to the plants.
Will my exhaust idea work? I haven't seen anyone do it quite like that before and it should kill 2 birds with one stone. (cooling the light and venting the room)
What CFM fan would you recommend? The cubic foot of each room is 64 and it needs to cool the light and maintain good airflow.
Will one 6x6 vent be enough to maintain good airflow? Or should there be more than one vent?
Also how can you light proof the vents?
Is wood an okay thing to build the beds out of? Or will the wood rot because of the moisture in the soil. I would really like to be able to build the beds out of wood so if it would rot, is there any way to protect it? Maybe a plastic liner or something?
What kind of soil do you recommend? I'm looking for convince here so i just want a brand I can grow straight from the bag. No added ingredients to the mix.
What nutrients do you recommend?
Is there chlorine in tap water? and if so would leaving it out for a couple days in an open container get rid of it?
I think that about wraps it up. I'm looking forward to hearing back from all of you at the RIU community. All feedback is welcome and if you can answer any of my questions it would be very much appreciated! I plan on starting this in a couple months and will be posting a grow journal if there's enough interest.
Sorry for poor sketch quality, I'm not an artist and thats the best i could do The total length of the rooms will be 12', not 16'.