New Grow...and Grower "Help Wanted"

I have a 8x10 restaurant walk-in cooler out side under a covered shelter that is now a "soon to be" grow room. I have a boat load of cfl's that I mounted into a heavy duty A frame style canopy. This morning I decided to purchase 3- 300watt led light sets, a 150w hps, nutes, and a bunch of other stuff from a guy that was getting out of growing. I have an agricultural background and I'm really thinking hard about going DWC. Am I biting off more than I can chew??? I would appreciate input. I can say that so far ALL of the seed(bag) that I have tried to germ is unsuccessful....looks like a purchase of viable seed is in the future. The down side is that my state is not a legal or med state. Input here too would be helpful. All thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Cheers

Hey there!

Sounds like an ambitious project you have in the works. What kind of background do you have in ag, and how much? I hadn't grown much other than tomatoes before trying my hand at this, and I killed my first few seedlings!

Is the walk in cooler air conditioned? You need to be able to keep your reservoir cool all the time so your roots don't get problems, so keep that in mind. Also, with DWC, you need more stuff. Hydroton or some other type of medium to hold the plants upright, nutrients that work with DWC, air stones, air pumps, ect. Lots of work goes into that type of growing! If you havent tried it before, id start with soil good way to learn!

Sounds like you have a ton of different lights to play around with, so that should be fun. I like LEDs personally, it just costs a lot more up front. Please keep in mind that other lights (even CFL and T5's) put out heat. It builds up quickly, and it can really be a problem. So, be ready to deal with heat!

Kind of spacing out right now... >.> let me know I missed anything.

gr!!nch123 said:

The down side is that my state is not a legal or med state.

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How noisy are the neighbors? Tell no one! Not even me! (ha)

Might be a no-brainer, but what about the smell? Carbon-filter (scrubber) and/or odor neutralizers?

As to the seeds how did you germ them?

dwc is almost idiot proof cant say the same for soil but to each their own as there is no RIGHT way lol

the grow cooler sounds cool if you got neighbors within eyeball distance youd better have an excuse to go to your "SHED" several times a week
and smell cause eventually what ever you grow.in there has to come out into.my bong lol jk
also you might be better off trading the cfl for a larger light unless you have them very close if this a frame solves this then dis regard
hope this helps

my head hurts

Thanks for all of the responses thus far. I have a pretty good handle on the soiless side of things as I worked on a farm and was in charge of raising in excess of 10m plants from seed to transplant. I have "some" experience in the drip irrigation side of things too. With regard to the cooling/air conditioning, I'll be cutting a hole in the cooler and mounting an AC unit for cooling.....at least this is the thought. I purchased a 5000btu unit last year so I thought I'd use it. It may not be enough in the summer months but should be ok for the mild winter of my area. The guy I bought the lights from included some Fox Farm nutes and rooting jel. Thankfully, I always hang out in my shop/cave so hanging out there won't seem out of the ordinary. I fabricated a charcoal filter that should work pretty well but If I have any issues, a trip to the hydro store should fix the issue. Any thoughts on getting seed online? My thoughts are that I should get a better stand versus bag seed. The flood and drain setup really seems straight forward. any thoughts here too? Cheers

gr!!nch123 said:

Oh, and with reference to how I germed? I dropped some in a glass of water for a day. Then, did the plate and towel method. Pretty much the standard. Thoughts?

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K for the seed im in the boat of A SHORT like less then 6 hours soak and strait into a sterilized rapid rooter or whatever your comfy with. I know the paper towel meth. Works I used to do it but I learned a lil patience lol. As long as you getem growin your cool.
As to the bag seed some of the best have come from it but then again the opposite can be said I say get the bag seed growing AND get some decent seeds. Pop and veg those properlly while the bag seed gets you smoke.
Then you can decide which is better

cool about the man cave I like the idea of walk in freezer

Hey man, welcome to RIU! Sounds like you're in for a great adventure with good ambition. A walk in cooler is great for a grow space, easy to seal and well insulated. DWC should be forgiving for your first time, as long as you don't over nute! I'm just wrapping up my first grow (ebb and gro) and it was honestly a breeze! Keep your nose in these forums, learn as you go, always be willing to learn and correct things and you will be fine!

Thanks for the help and words of encouragement. I'll keep you all posted. Cheers