First Grow - 1000W Flowering Room in Garage. (Vid attached - more pics tonight!)

My flower room:

Area: 7 x 8 x 8 = 448 cubic feet

Light: 1000W HPS Digital Ballast, large air-cooled "Big Kahuna" reflector, cooled by my exhaust fan. I run my lights from 10pm to 10 am because its hot and I wanna use as less energy as possible.

Strains: TGA Subcool's Jack the Ripper in 2.6 gal pot, Seedsman Seeds White Widow in 2.6 gal pot, Emerald Triangle Seeds Emerald Jack in 2.6 gal pot, 2x "the purps" in 5 gal smart pots. JTR was in veg for 4 months nearly, the rest a little over 3 months. The emerald jack/white widow are from seed the rest are clones. 5 plants total. Plants have been at 12/12 for less than 3 days, so this is before the stretch.

Ventilation: One 300 CFM duct intake fan, and a small 6,000 BTU A/c provide my intake. My exhaust is a 590 CFM GrowBright high velocity fan. I exhaust through the room's ceiling into my garage. At first I only had the 300cfm intake fan running when the light was on, because during the day this caused my room to intake 100 degree garage air forcing my A/C to do more work. Humidity was still 65% with it running today.


I'm growing in a framed, sealed room in a garage. The room is insulated all around with R-13 insulation and 6mil thick plastic as a vapor barrier. I use dry wall and silver foam reflective insulation as walls. I live in Michigan and thought I could run this room without an A/C. I was very wrong, maybe if the entire garage was insulated and well vented it'd be possible.



I used a white garage floor paint that's mildew resistant, same with the paint on my dry wall.

Problems and concerns:

I have thrips and other soft-bodied insects that live on my plants and soil, I've used sticky traps throughout veg to control them. I released 300 ladybugs in my garden this morning. Overkill? Hope not.

Yesterday and today I have humidity readings over 60%, should I get a better intake fan? There are 440cfm models instead of my 300cfm, or will I need a dehumidifier?


Air flow kind of sucks, I'm looking for a mountable fan with the performance of an Air king for the price of a Growbright. The Lasko fan in my video is weakk. I'll let you guys know what I come up with, can you tell me the best place to mount it in my room? Check the vid and let me know!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=274fblysfHU




Just an FYI, I knew nothing about growing marijuana in February.

Tell me what you want me to take better pics of, for clearer views. I'll take pics of the outside showing you the intake and elbow I've used tonight. Also I made the same poor-mans carbon filter as I did on my HPS for my intake, so I intake clean air.


Opinions, constructive criticism and general insight is all I ask

Instead of dehumidifier i use an AC works twice as good.

looks like a nice setup hope you got lots of vertical space those are going to be monsters.

tpsmc said:

looks like a nice setup hope you got lots of vertical space those are going to be monsters.

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I was just going to ask who long they were vegged for as they will likely double and alot triple thier height during flowering. I happened to make the mistake of counting on them doubling this grow and learned my lesson. As long as he LST he should be fine even if there are height issues

View attachment 1720456

I will tie down some JTR branches and let you guys see, more pics coming soon. I let 300 ladybugs loose this morning without removing my sticky traps. I hope I didn't just genocide my ladybugs rofl

CanadianDank said:

Instead of dehumidifier i use an AC works twice as good.

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I've got a window A/C, is that what you have? How does the window Ac reduce humidity?

Wow well today my light bulb blew, after three days. There were some fingerprints on it I think that's why, it still emits a very dim light. Will one day of this light hurt my babies?

Edit: Tried turning it off to fire it back up - it's a goner. Not even turning on.

Heading back to HTG store tomorrow morning to get my bulb replaced!

Nice setup man. Those plants are really tall for just entering flowering. They are going to get much larger in flowering so be prepared. Also, do ladybugs take care of Thirps??? I have not heard of that before so I hope it works out for you.

soo HTG replaced my bulb this morning, all my equipment was purchased from there and I couldn't be happier.

MidnightJoker said:

Nice setup man. Those plants are really tall for just entering flowering. They are going to get much larger in flowering so be prepared. Also, do ladybugs take care of Thirps??? I have not heard of that before so I hope it works out for you.

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Well they eat all "soft-bodied" insects.... Btw update, the Hot shot no-pest strip in there killed 60% of my lady bugs. Lets hope I don't accidently breed super lady bugs with the survivors, haha. They've been in the dark for 36 hrs now, that's why I haven't taken pics. I will tonight though, I bet they've stretched a bit

what kind of lights you using, seems like a lot of veg for the size of the plants, my plants are about the size of yours and you should see the budding on them compared to veg, they are going bud crazy.
i vegged for 4 weeks and have been flowering for 5.
8 mixed breed plants inc barneys farm lsd, under 2 x 600w hps dual spectrum sylvannia grolux.
the plants you have look like thay are going to be monsters, and take over your room when you flower.

sounds good. just flip your intake with your exhaust. you want the air to get brought in faster than taken out. so its sits for a while. best spot for foliage fan is above the canopy high enough so it wont be too low during budding. and enough so all the top colas will be swaying. good luck on the op. Pe@ace.

also try to use 1k lights per 4x4 area. makes lumen output same as the sun per sq ft.

Jtoth3ustin said:

sounds good. just flip your intake with your exhaust. you want the air to get brought in faster than taken out. so its sits for a while. best spot for foliage fan is above the canopy high enough so it wont be too low during budding. and enough so all the top colas will be swaying. good luck on the op. Pe@ace.

also try to use 1k lights per 4x4 area. makes lumen output same as the sun per sq ft.

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Maybe I'll add a blower to get more intake? too late now.... might get the 440 cfm intake model to replace my 300cfm.


Wow so my new bulb didnt even turn on, it sounded like a fuse blew I don't know if it was the suction of my ducting though.....Looks like I'll be heading the htg again in the morning to replace the ballast..

going on 60 hr of straight dark during 4th day of 12/12, is this going to hurt me? I had a cfl on in there so i could see earlier.. after 10am though, (after sunrise).. but it was only on for a few minutes. Am I going to hurt my plants? Possibly herm?


Is it possible that my inline fan might be causing my hood problems? Since I've got a 8" to 6" reducer directly attached to my 8" centrifrugal, am I creating too much suction and messing up the bulb? Look at my vid again to see, stop at 1:07 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=274fblysfHU) and you can see my reducer attached.

Just wanted to check in to see how those ladybugs are working out for you. I read you lost 60% of them, but are they doing their job with the Thirps?

They have been in darkness for 60 hrs, I don't know lol heading to HTG to replace my ballast..


btw, this happened to me:

https://www.rollitup.org/grow-room-design-setup/22064-digital-ballast-problem.html

EXACT same scenario



Update:

Never been so frustrated! My bulb broke this morning due to it sliding out of the box after I put it in, 60$ loss. They replaced my ballast, got it working now. Waiting till tonight to resume light sched at 10 pm.....


In the mean-time, trying to keep humidity below 70 in there... running my intake seems to increase humidity? maybe because I'm intaking humid, hot air. I don't know.

By the looks of your room you have an AC unit in the wall and you have you lights exhaust venting your room. What you should do is run your lights "intake" to a hole in the wall, that way you're not venting the cool air from the AC to exhaust. The next issue would be a CO2 deficiency (since your no longer venting the room with the light exhaust) so you will need a very small fan to bring in fresh air or you could put in a CO2 generator. With a CO2 generator and a somewhat sealed room you should be able to keep temps under better control. Sorry to hear about the bulb and ballast problems hope you get that straightened out before it stresses them.

tpsmc said:

By the looks of your room you have an AC unit in the wall and you have you lights exhaust venting your room. What you should do is run your lights "intake" to a hole in the wall, that way you're not venting the cool air from the AC to exhaust. The next issue would be a CO2 deficiency (since your no longer venting the room with the light exhaust) so you will need a very small fan to bring in fresh air or you could put in a CO2 generator. With a CO2 generator and a somewhat sealed room you should be able to keep temps under better control. Sorry to hear about the bulb and ballast problems hope you get that straightened out before it stresses them.

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I do have an intake, do you see the 8" intake using the elbow? Its 300 cfm. If I duct my light like you say, will that one intake be enough? Here are some pics:




It intakes the ambient garage air...

Here are current readings, my 590cfm centrifugal light exhaust is on. Though the lights off, I leave the exhaust running 24/7. Maybe with your advice I can save some power lol... my 300cfm intake fan is also on because I figure the more air moving in, the less the RH, right?

Inside room: 78.8 temp 68% RH
Outside room: 88.8 temp.. I don't have a hygrometer to tell me the RH of my garage but I can assume its comparable..

Outside temp is 86 and RH of outside is 58% according to weather.com

tpsmc said:

By the looks of your room you have an AC unit in the wall and you have you lights exhaust venting your room. What you should do is run your lights "intake" to a hole in the wall, that way you're not venting the cool air from the AC to exhaust. The next issue would be a CO2 deficiency (since your no longer venting the room with the light exhaust) so you will need a very small fan to bring in fresh air or you could put in a CO2 generator. With a CO2 generator and a somewhat sealed room you should be able to keep temps under better control. Sorry to hear about the bulb and ballast problems hope you get that straightened out before it stresses them.

Click to expand...

besides i don't think temps are as much an issue as supplying them with enough co2 will be after i close the exhaust tho.. and my intake alone wont be enough if theres no exhaust right?... so i guess i'll be better off beating up my A/C a bit and a 30$ increase in my power bill....right? :S


I can't seem to figure out if my AC is contributing to increased humidity or not, if it does contribute to the humidity i'm going to try energy saver mode at a higher temp during the day so it runs less, i had it to 77 earlier.



after some tinkering it seems I get lower RH when I turn off my 8" intake

Just fired up my lights... all of my plants look a little less healthy... JTR is wilting but she always wilts when shes thirsty. White widow has yellowish green tops with a yellow bleaching effect coming from the center....will try and take pics... monitoring RH now



70% rh this morning.. turned off intake waited an hour and its 72 rh now... so turning intake back on now I guess. I think there is nothing I can do besides lower RH like 8% from outdoor temps....So intake for less rh or more?


I guess what I am trying to ask, is my 8" intake helping my humidity go down? or is intaking humid air going to keep my room humid?

OK first the AC will remove the humidity in the air, so you want a sealed room and leave the AC cooling it.Then just run the ambient air from the garage to cool the light and exhaust it outside or back into the garage. As for the co2 issue I am not an expert but I would be willing to bet that a 120 mm computer fan would bring in enough fresh air to keep them growing no exhaust for the room should be needed and when you get some extra cash just remove the 120mm fan, seal u the hole and add a co2 generator.