Garden Room Design Help

Hi All,

After about 3 years I think it's time to start growing again. This time I have a much better potential place for my indoor garden. I have attached a simple pic illustrating the area I have. There are lots of different configurations I could do so I was wondering if some folks had any thoughts/ideas to help me out.

The setup:
I have a mostly finished basement. The only piece not finished is a long, but narrow "fruit cellar" directly under my house. Apparently the first owners had lots of fruit trees and would do a lot of canning. The fruit cellar is 4.5ish by 16 ft To access the fruit cellar you need to go through another room which is about 14' X 10'. You can see a generic picture illustrating the placement of important items such as doors, windows, concrete blocks and a 4'' intake.

My biggest question is what is the best use of space? Stealth is important as well as keeping things relatively small (personal use). My gut is to try and use the fruit cellar because it is surrounded by concrete instead of wood/drywall. How should I ventilate the area? Ideally, I would like to vent into the house and not outside.

Right now I have a 600W and a few t5 fixtures. I also have a 3x3 grow tent I could use for veg in the main 14x10 room. I have a 6'' inline fan for exhaust and a 6'' duct booster for intake. Should I install an air conditioning unit in the wall between the fruit cellar and main room? Or should i just use a portable one inside the fruit cellar? Would i benefit from a LED or another 400-600W HPS during flowering? I plan on using soil and then maybe switching to DWC further down the road.

Well.. thats about all I have. Feel free to post any ideas about how YOU would setup a grow with this space.

Thanks in advance!

Any ideas?

I came across this basement hydro setup in the past. Check it out, I'm sure you can get some good ideas.
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-room-design-setup/153039-memaws-big-hydro-basement-setup.html

To minimize floor space and maximize growth area, I would install an AC in the wall at a good height if possible. You dont want the cold AC air blowing on plants as they mature. As you add to and build your system you'll find that space will become a high commodity, especially when trying to be discreet.
When setting up rooms, I always start with installing ventilation ducting and develop a method to raise/lower lights with ducting attached to hoods. I usually vent into another part of the house and the intake comes from outside into another room. I never have a duct straight from the room to outside, I always have a 'middle' room to exchange air flow. Later in the flower stage I always use a carbon filter to scrub the air of any dankness being vented out to the adjacent room.

As for soil or hydro: Choose one or the other, I wouldn't suggest doing both in the same room. I run a DWC/Aero system and get super fast results. Aero is touchy and requires quite a bit of work, but is definitely worth it in the finished product. You could easily fabricate a system to fit your fruit room with a custom PVC hydro setup.
Here is an awesome thread going through every step to setup the optimal room with basic equipment. https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/116859-harvest-pound-every-three-weeks.html

I definitely have whole lot of ideas in my head for your setup. It all comes down to preference and how intense you want your system to be. If you want to set it up and do minimal work throughout the process, then choose soil. If you have the extra time and want to deal with lots the trial and error, then choose hydro/aero.

Awesome man, I really appreciate your advice. I am thinking soil to start off with while I get things up and running the first year. Then I might switch to hydro for faster results. If you have any other ideas about how to use my "fruit cellar" in the most efficient way possible please let me know.

Thanks again + ReP