20,000 Watt Medical Grow Op Construction

drgreentm said:

beautiful rooms, impressive as always CG. im pretty interested in the inductive lighting, been looking into them for a little while now and havent really been able to find a good side by side grow journal so far, maybe i will just bite the bullet, grab one and try it out.

keep up the great work and happy growing.

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Dr Green,
Thanks for the props. I've been scouring the web for some QUALITY info on inductive lighting and have come up empty handed. Lots of info from people clearly selling inductive lighting...they're so fucking obvious. Have not found one single good looking REAL grow with pics using induction lighting. Did find several real growers who tried them and were not impressed. Seeming more and more along the lines of LED's. I'm with you...may have to just shell out some cash and buy the biggest one made for a test run. I really want them to be great. Most commercial growers I know are very reluctant to change anything in their op...myself included. The thought of laying out 10k+ for lights that may give you a sub-standard yield is not too appealing. If anyone has a link to a REAL grow of a decent size using induction lights, I would love to see it.

C.Indica said:

Looks beautiful, how old are the Mothers?
How do you not risk a fire with that clone box setup?

Can you put something next to the 50 tray for size? Like a bottle of wine or a basketball or something simple?

Amazing job, the fact that you all manage each and every one of those plants is intense. Keep at it!

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The big flowering mothers have been vegging for several months. We've taken hundreds of clones off of them and I removed the entire top foot off of each plant a couple times to keep them out of the lights...with hedge clippers!

I'm not really sure what you mean about a fire hazard. I mean, it's 2 regular clone domes with a flouro grow light over them. It probably has less fire potential than anything in the whole grow. It's really not much compared to the 200+ amps the big lights and the AC draw. What exactly is your concern?

There's a bunch of stuff in the pic of the 50 tray for scale. The Hugo blocks (bottom rockwool blocks) are 6" x 6". The Hugo block + the 4" block on top total 10" in height. The potted plants are in 2 gallon pots...10" tall also. The framing on the tray is made of 2 x 4's. Next round of pics I'll try and put something down for clear scale.

Managing the plants...even with hand watering each one everyday...is not that big a deal. It's all in the irrigation and drainage settup and equipment. I can mix nutrient solution and water every plant in well under an hour. Each plant is watered for 15-20 seconds. That's 15 minutes for 50 plants. The big mothers are watered for 60 seconds. We have a 1" suction hose hooked to a diaphram pump for the waste water. The pump is actually a bilge pump designed for work boats and will pass anything that will fit in the hose. The waste water pump discharge is plumber directly into the sewer. It will suck a 5 gallon bucket dry in about 20 seconds. Keep your fingers clear!
We work around 2-3 hours everyday: An hour for watering, and another 1-2 hours either spraying, taking clones, transplanting, pruning, cleaning, etc...Trimming at harvest is the real work. We have a trim crew of 6 people. During harvest we will work 6 people 8-10 hrs/day for 2 days. I will then dry and cure the buds. It's the one thing I insist on doing personally. Helper D does everything in the grow EXCEPT drying and curing. Anyways, there's a day in the growroom.

hellraizer30 said:

dam CG going back to what you know has paid off in a big way!!

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Hellraizer! Long time, brother! How goes the battle?

its going good! on my first run with growdan/rockwool and I got to say im impressed with it over hydrotron, its alot less labor intensive.
glad to see you got the mites out of your rooms. so from what I can see is your using green house roofing to chanel the water to a water
ducting? you on a recycling system?
ive posted up some pics in the hydro section under ebb&grow thread if you want to check it out.

Why is it that some people hang air conditioners in windows and what is the difference in "tons" of the AC unit is it just standard that a certain amount of weight in the air conditioner keeps a building cool do you guys have to install separate breakers for each unit installed? I always think about all the other things involved in getting the process together it seems like a big headache compared to salvaging whatever I can out of my little closet grow.

It seems you guys have your setup dialed in though mad props on this grow its one of the most well designed on this site.

hellraizer30 said:

its going good! on my first run with growdan/rockwool and I got to say im impressed with it over hydrotron, its alot less labor intensive.
glad to see you got the mites out of your rooms. so from what I can see is your using green house roofing to chanel the water to a water
ducting? you on a recycling system?
ive posted up some pics in the hydro section under ebb&grow thread if you want to check it out.

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HR,
We are top feeding the rockwool in a drain to waste system. I'm falling back in love with rockwool. Are you using slabs, blocks, loose, or what? Do me a favor and post a link to your pics here. Thanks.

dapio said:

Why is it that some people hang air conditioners in windows and what is the difference in "tons" of the AC unit is it just standard that a certain amount of weight in the air conditioner keeps a building cool do you guys have to install separate breakers for each unit installed? I always think about all the other things involved in getting the process together it seems like a big headache compared to salvaging whatever I can out of my little closet grow.

It seems you guys have your setup dialed in though mad props on this grow its one of the most well designed on this site.

Click to expand...

A ton of AC is equal to 12,000 btu's of cooling capacity. Most small window units are 8,000-12,000 btu's, or 3/4 ton to a ton. A 1000 watt grow light requires 3,000 btu's of cooling capacity to offset the heat produced. An air cooled ducted light needs only about 1000 btu's to 1500 btu's depending on how much air you're moving through the light fixture. Yes, every air conditioner and every light has its own dedicated circuit breaker. We over design the electrical and always allow for expansion. It's great to have a dozen spare outlets on 6 seperate 20 amp circuits for all the stuff you didn't plan on...like the 4 additional high volume fans we just installed to increase air movement and ward off PM. Extension cords and power strips are an accident waiting to happen. Remeber...a burnt grow room is a busted grow room. Even if they made grow ops 100% legal tomorrow, most would be shut down for building code violations. We should all be looking to the future and building our ops to code. The ops that can pass an inspection will be in the best position. Can you imagine what would happen to your crop if you had to shut down for a couple weeks to bring everything up to code?

Collective... you seem to be very knowledgeable... whats your take on adding special lighting like UVB..?..

pattykakes said:

Collective... you seem to be very knowledgeable... whats your take on adding special lighting like UVB..?..

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Is that to increase resin production? I've heard of adding some sort of UV for resin production, but have never tried it, or seen it done first hand, or seen the effects documented in a real side by side test. I really feel like most of the big discoveries with high value crop production have been made over 20 years ago. I can see checking out new tools for better quality/production once all the basics are perfect. I mean, once you've cranked out several harvests with CO2 and you feel like you've truly maxed out your yield and quality for the op. That, my friends, is easier said than done. I've been at this for a long time and have only reached full op potential a few times. As with all grow technology, we have to watch out for the hundreds of shills out there claiming they used this and that and how great it was. The LED sales fucks are among the worst...and the dumbest. Those cock slobbers use the same cut and paste sales pitch on everyone's threads: "My friend used the Ass Blaster 5000 Super LED Power Punch Light and harvested 8 pounds of Krypto Skull Fuck from a single 200 watt light". Fucking tards.

Anyways, I have not used UVB...nor would I consider ANY technology I'm not familiar with until this op is consistantly producing what I know it can with zero problems and very little time invested. Does that make sense?

pattykakes said:

Collective... you seem to be very knowledgeable... whats your take on adding special lighting like UVB..?..

Click to expand...

Hey CG, glad to see you around and producing again. You've been an inspiration for me to grow big and now it's a bit ironic for me to see you go smaller. It must have been a tough decision to scrap your crop and start fresh but now that you are on the other side of it, it must feel really good. When you were fighting the mites and spraying; what did you use to apply the solution? Was it one of those atomizers or a hand pump sprayer?

As for the UVB, I've been doing it for a couple of grows now. It definitely has an effect on the plant tissues and not so much the amount of resin production but as I understand it more on the conversion of cannabinoids into THC. I've done grows with MH through bloom and HPS (with same strain) and found the potency increased enough to research UVB. Now it's dedicated reptile lights for me when growing indoors with HPS. It's the best of both worlds (aside from natural sunlight).

Here is a great video about THC and UVB. also rosecitypapa, how do you incorporate your UVB's with your HPS. Can you scetch a diagram of layout or explain???


[video=youtube;lfiI78uN3Ks]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfiI78uN3Ks[/video]

"My friend used the Ass Blaster 5000 Super LED Power Punch Light and harvested 8 pounds of Krypto Skull Fuck from a single 200 watt light".
Oh we love you CG, we really do.

"Can you imagine what would happen to your crop if you had to shut down for a couple weeks to bring everything up to code?"

That quote made me shudder. It's not easy being crammed in a little residential home to grow, bringing myself up to code is one hell of a task. But you better believe it's up top on my things to do list, besides kill pm, kill pm, and kill pm. I see mildew all over my deck outside, and I'm about to tear that bitch down and rebuild. I don't know if it can spread to my plants, I don't know if it is the same fungus, but I sure don't want to be living around it.

Jozikins said:

"Can you imagine what would happen to your crop if you had to shut down for a couple weeks to bring everything up to code?"

That quote made me shudder. It's not easy being crammed in a little residential home to grow, bringing myself up to code is one hell of a task. But you better believe it's up top on my things to do list, besides kill pm, kill pm, and kill pm. I see mildew all over my deck outside, and I'm about to tear that bitch down and rebuild. I don't know if it can spread to my plants, I don't know if it is the same fungus, but I sure don't want to be living around it.

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rent a pressure washer and take it off. id think that would kill it. or it might just spread to wherever the water goes haha

collective gardener said:

A ton of AC is equal to 12,000 btu's of cooling capacity. Most small window units are 8,000-12,000 btu's, or 3/4 ton to a ton. A 1000 watt grow light requires 3,000 btu's of cooling capacity to offset the heat produced. An air cooled ducted light needs only about 1000 btu's to 1500 btu's depending on how much air you're moving through the light fixture. Yes, every air conditioner and every light has its own dedicated circuit breaker. We over design the electrical and always allow for expansion. It's great to have a dozen spare outlets on 6 seperate 20 amp circuits for all the stuff you didn't plan on...like the 4 additional high volume fans we just installed to increase air movement and ward off PM. Extension cords and power strips are an accident waiting to happen. Remeber...a burnt grow room is a busted grow room. Even if they made grow ops 100% legal tomorrow, most would be shut down for building code violations. We should all be looking to the future and building our ops to code. The ops that can pass an inspection will be in the best position. Can you imagine what would happen to your crop if you had to shut down for a couple weeks to bring everything up to code?

Click to expand...

Well thats logical one thing I have always failed to understand especially when I think in terms of a large grow operation is how air cooled hoods actually work to their full potential. I would think that you have one fan that is taking air in from a separate environment so say one wall of a building in a house is sucking air in from the outside going through the hood cooling the bulb and at the end of the stretch there is another fan that is helping to push the air out of that environment into another in this case the other wall in the building to the outside.

Is there some type of a standard on how many lights you could hang in a line, and based on how the ducting is run through the operation do you lose more air movement? Also do air conditioners "cool air" run through the lights as well or is it just run through vents and used to cool the temperate of the air around everything inside? Everytime I go to my gym I notice how the air conditioner inside was set up its basically on a controller and it looks like there is two of them attached to the wall every time the temperature hits over 74 the unit turns on and the building begins to cool and I imagine how a plant would feel if exposed to the same environment hehe... a little silly but I use my imagination.

When you refer to building codes you are talking about fire prevention or is there more to this I was taking classes for firefighting a couple years ago and switched to criminal justice so I do know a bit about the building codes.

collective gardener said:

HR,
We are top feeding the rockwool in a drain to waste system. I'm falling back in love with rockwool. Are you using slabs, blocks, loose, or what? Do me a favor and post a link to your pics here. Thanks.

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shit I dont know how to post a link to it lol! anybody know how or can post the link to the ebb&grow thread in the hydro section would be great.

Jozikins said:

"Can you imagine what would happen to your crop if you had to shut down for a couple weeks to bring everything up to code?"

That quote made me shudder. It's not easy being crammed in a little residential home to grow, bringing myself up to code is one hell of a task. But you better believe it's up top on my things to do list, besides kill pm, kill pm, and kill pm. I see mildew all over my deck outside, and I'm about to tear that bitch down and rebuild. I don't know if it can spread to my plants, I don't know if it is the same fungus, but I sure don't want to be living around it.

Click to expand...

Jozikins, get some Spectracide. The stuff is magic for PM and very easy on the plants. Spray that shit all over the deck, your grow room, your plants up to week 4 of bloom, and anywhere else you think it may do some good.

dapio said:

Well thats logical one thing I have always failed to understand especially when I think in terms of a large grow operation is how air cooled hoods actually work to their full potential. I would think that you have one fan that is taking air in from a separate environment so say one wall of a building in a house is sucking air in from the outside going through the hood cooling the bulb and at the end of the stretch there is another fan that is helping to push the air out of that environment into another in this case the other wall in the building to the outside.

Is there some type of a standard on how many lights you could hang in a line, and based on how the ducting is run through the operation do you lose more air movement? Also do air conditioners "cool air" run through the lights as well or is it just run through vents and used to cool the temperate of the air around everything inside? Everytime I go to my gym I notice how the air conditioner inside was set up its basically on a controller and it looks like there is two of them attached to the wall every time the temperature hits over 74 the unit turns on and the building begins to cool and I imagine how a plant would feel if exposed to the same environment hehe... a little silly but I use my imagination.

When you refer to building codes you are talking about fire prevention or is there more to this I was taking classes for firefighting a couple years ago and switched to criminal justice so I do know a bit about the building codes.

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I like to use at least 150 CFM per 1000 watt light. Also, I never run more than 3 lights in series. Otherwise the air keeps getting heated by each succesive light and the last light in line gets pretty hot.

I'm talking about local building codes...making sure that the grow is constructed just as if you pulled a permit and had the whole thing inspected. This applies mostly to the electrical: wire sizing, load calcs, etc...

https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/269859-all-cap-ebb-grow-users-184.html

page 184 CG hope this link works

rosecitypapa said:

Hey CG, glad to see you around and producing again. You've been an inspiration for me to grow big and now it's a bit ironic for me to see you go smaller. It must have been a tough decision to scrap your crop and start fresh but now that you are on the other side of it, it must feel really good. When you were fighting the mites and spraying; what did you use to apply the solution? Was it one of those atomizers or a hand pump sprayer?

As for the UVB, I've been doing it for a couple of grows now. It definitely has an effect on the plant tissues and not so much the amount of resin production but as I understand it more on the conversion of cannabinoids into THC. I've done grows with MH through bloom and HPS (with same strain) and found the potency increased enough to research UVB. Now it's dedicated reptile lights for me when growing indoors with HPS. It's the best of both worlds (aside from natural sunlight).

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Rose City,

I use a high quality sprayer and soak the living fuck out of the bottoms and tops of the leaves, the whole plant, the area around the plant, and basically the whole grow. We sprayed once per week while we were fighting massive mites. Now, we're down to once every 10 days.
We did go smaller...smaller plants...2 less lights in bloom...yet almost tripled our yield! Grow smart, not hard. We started the op using brute force...lots of light, big ass plants, and just kept piling plants into the bloom room. This was ok to get some $$$ going. But, now we want to maximize our space. We are thinking about expanding, but are waiting until the current op is operating as efficiently as possible.

How many lights are you running now? Got some pics?

https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/407048-20-000-watt-medical-grow.html