20,000 Watt Medical Grow Op Construction

Shivaskunk

Well-Known Member
Great thread man looking real good. i did a 12k room back in the pre medical days and that was a full fucking time job doing batches. a perpetual of your size takes dedication. I love your use of soilless mediu instead of a more revved up hydro op. It definitely sucks to lose a room with 40 to 50 girls halfway through a run because yure running nft and your idiot partner knicks the strip with your pumps out f the wal
I havenr run commercial in year nd am just about to start a conservative 3 patient med grow up here in the PNW and im taking notes from your journal here. Thanks.

Keep vigilant down there got a coisin in the laytonville /legget area who had his entire outdoor coop grow bagged by the feds even though they were following california atate law.
 

Humboldt14

Well-Known Member
Keep vigilant down there got a coisin in the laytonville /legget area who had his entire outdoor coop grow bagged by the feds even though they were following california atate law.
No charges were filed thoe. They just took the plants. Feds flexing there muscles to say they dont give a fuck about Mendos sherriff tagging program
 

Shivaskunk

Well-Known Member
you are right humbolt. No charges.shiva.jpg Picture of an old room of mine nft....super shitty canopy. tried to run a sper super stretchy pheno of a skunk variant with some shiva skunk..back is the skunk variant
 
I've been promising to share this experience...so here goes:

Myself and some other patients decided to start our own collective. I had been retired from growing for several years, but a visit to a friends grow room sparked the fire back in me. I had grown for about 20 years, indoor and out, hydro and organic, commercial and personal. The only way I was going to do this was the right way...both legal and technical.

I pitched the idea to a friend and patient who agreed to loan the money to the collective in order to get us on our feet. After a month or so of getting my head back in the game I came up with a plan and a budget of $60,000. He said yes, and away we went.

The first step was a visit to a cannabis attorney. After a 2 hour consultation we decided that a "Collective Association" was the right vehicle for what we wanted. The cost to form said association was $3,000. We also decided not to grow more than 99 plants. There were 2 reasons for this: I have a doctor's recommendation for up to 99 plants, meaning that even without using the collective's total plant numbers, I was still a legal grow. The other reason is that under 99 plants keeps us safe from the Fed's 5 year prison sentence.

Once the legal was complete, we found a location. It is a warehouse in an industrial park. The unit measures 24 feet wide x 65 feet deep. It has a small office in front and the all necessary bathroom. We decided to utilize the back half for our grow op...30 feet x 24 feet. The front half and office is used by my business.

I was able to utilize the 2 side walls and the back wall. All that needed to be built was the front wall and the partition between the veg and flower rooms. We made the ceilings 10 feet and sheeted the entire room with 1/2" OSB (similar to plywood). I had built enough rooms to know that attaching all that cool growing stuff to drywall SUCKS. Once the sheeting was done, we busted out the brand new airless and shot 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of white paint on everything.

View attachment 1429152


View attachment 1429153The electrical in the shop is a growers dream: A 400 amp panel. We pulled 4 - 20 amp 120v circuits and spotted outlets 4 feet and 8 feet high all the way around both rooms. We then put in 3 sub panels for the lights, and a future 50 amp 220v circuit for the split air conditioner coming later. Rather than trying to place outlets in specific places, we just put a bunch in all over the place.

It was just about this time that I got a phone call: My buddy had 30 - 12" Bubba Kush plants that he didn't have room for and wanted to donate them to the cause. The only condition was we had to take them in 20 minutes. Now, my original plan was to complete the room 100%, including atmoshpere testing prior to bringing in the first clones. That plan just got shot to shit. I grabbed a couple light settups I had from a previous grow, talked him into just bringing 20 until the next day, and we were growing.
View attachment 1429162

It was great to have this head start, but completing the room was going to be much harder now. Oh well...we were GROWING!

Over the next few days we transplanted, did some bending, and worked on the venting. For now, we're holding off on the CO2. I want to have a ductless split AC before installing CO2, and that won't happen for a few months. There are 2 1500cfm exhaust fans installed in the roof. We use one to exhaust the rooms and the other to route the light cooling ducts into.

View attachment 1429171

For lighting we currently have 2 - 1000 watt Hortilux Daylight Blues in Adjustawing reflectors lighting up a 4 x 8 table in the veg room. We have 2 - 1000 watt Sun Pulse Pulse Start 6.4k Metal Halides in Block Buster reflectors lighting up plants on the floor in the veg room. The flower room has 2 - 1000 watt Digilux HPS in C.A.P reflectors. For clones we have a single 4' T-8 4100k flouro. There is also a 4' T-5 with 4 bulbs for hardening off clones prior to goin g onto the 1000 watt table. We have just been adding lights as the plants need them while we complete the rest of the room.
View attachment 1429186
This will be the main vegatation area.

View attachment 1429191
The table will contain small plants prior to going into large containers

View attachment 1429195
Looking into the flower room from the veg room

View attachment 1429202
11 of the Bubba Kush in the flower room

View attachment 1429203
Bubba after to bending and super cropping

View attachment 1429204
The flower room will have 12 - 1000 watt lights when complete.


Once completed, the flower room will have 12 lights and the veg room will have 8. I have skipped many details, but will be happy to answer questions. I'll keep posting as we progress.


Lemme get this strait:
You only grow 99 plants and have over 20k watts in you're warehouse?
And you had a 60k budget... With 20+ years exp... hmmm >.>
 

Shivaskunk

Well-Known Member
To Nothingreallymatters.....

A lot of the dispensary growers that i know up here grow 1 plant per 600-1000 watts in order to keep in strict compliance with the 15 per patient limit. These guys are old school pros from the Wild West days. One of them gets around 2 lbs a plant/light albiet with a long veg. Im sure he could pull closer to 3.5 with more plants.

Its all about priorities.

Not to mention I usedto use the same amount of flowering watts totalled in 2 rooms and we never went over 99 plants. In fact we had 88 plant sites.

Why do so many want to question CG? Jealous?
 
To Nothingreallymatters.....

A lot of the dispensary growers that i know up here grow 1 plant per 600-1000 watts in order to keep in strict compliance with the 15 per patient limit. These guys are old school pros from the Wild West days. One of them gets around 2 lbs a plant/light albiet with a long veg. Im sure he could pull closer to 3.5 with more plants.

Its all about priorities.

How could you focuse all that on one plant? Seems like a waste..
Anyhow, even dispensaries are being picked off one by one, EVEN IN CALI. I don't care how old you are, or how long you've been growing, if you wanna huge yield, grow more in less time? If you get busted, you're fucked anyways
 

Shivaskunk

Well-Known Member
How is it waste when you still get .8 to 1 gpw? Yes veg time slows stuff....but if you have a tree vegged and ready you can still pull 5 crops a year. One dispensary i deal with has had the mayor in their op. The feds hit about 17 other dispensaries few months back, but not them. AGAIN priorities. Some people believe it or not actually grow this as medicine for sick people.
Anyay sorry to Collective Grower for straying off topic.
 

hellraizer30

Rebel From The North
How could you focuse all that on one plant? Seems like a waste..
Anyhow, even dispensaries are being picked off one by one, EVEN IN CALI. I don't care how old you are, or how long you've been growing, if you wanna huge yield, grow more in less time? If you get busted, you're fucked anyways
Your clueless! Less plants = less risk! More light = more product! Trolls jeez
Plus alot less labour! Easyer to control pests, less out going cost on nutes and
Medium!
 

dapio

Well-Known Member
How could you focuse all that on one plant? Seems like a waste..
Anyhow, even dispensaries are being picked off one by one, EVEN IN CALI. I don't care how old you are, or how long you've been growing, if you wanna huge yield, grow more in less time? If you get busted, you're fucked anyways
This is a perfect example of why marijuana remains illegal. It's criminal minded people like yourself that give growing a bad name. As a result of the recent California Supreme Court decision of People v.s Kelly, a patient may grow any amount of marijuana that is reasonable to his or her needs. However, if you don't have a lawyer, or knowledge to defend yourself in a court of law, you are always in for a wild ride. Although, state police in general are not looking to bust anyone that is not a nuisance to the public. Avoid trouble makers, and people who are looking to bring you into their misery, and all will be fine.

Therefore, being conservative with your growing is always the better decision. If you choose to commit criminal acts, please to do not influence others to do the same.
 

collective gardener

Well-Known Member
How could you focuse all that on one plant? Seems like a waste..
Anyhow, even dispensaries are being picked off one by one, EVEN IN CALI. I don't care how old you are, or how long you've been growing, if you wanna huge yield, grow more in less time? If you get busted, you're fucked anyways
I'm not sure what your point is. Plant count is very important. Yes I have grown as many as 9 plants per sq ft before. Yes, NINE. And yes that was some serious yield per sq foot. If I did that in current op my total plant count would be around 3200. Let's look at Fed Law: Under 99 plants: No Mandatory Minimum Sentence. 99-999 plants: 5 year Mandatory Minimum Sentence. 999 Plants to 9999 Plants: 10 Year Mandatory Minimum Sentence.

So, my choice is to grow at around 75% max potential and stay under any mandatory minimum prison sentence, OR, grow at 100% potential and get 10 years even if the judge was my dad. Hmmmmmm. Buddy, I've done my prison time with the feds.

As for the comment of I'm fucked anyway. You're totally wrong on that. My buddy was just visited by the cops at his op down the street from mine. His op is twice my size. After a 2 day investigation with 6 detectives, they determined he was within State Laew and left. He's dealing with some costly code violations, but that's it. We have the same attorney who set us up the same way.

I don't really need to hear about how I'll be fucked. I've been fucked...and fucked good. There will be no more fucking here. I don't need to hear that I could get more yield with more plants. I am fully aware of that. I wrote it at least a dozen times in this thread. So what exactly are you trying to say? I'm full of shit cause any 20 yr grow vet would be growing 500 plants in an op this size? Sorry, that's for 10 year vets. 20 yr ex convict vets know better.
 

theexpress

Well-Known Member
I'm not sure what your point is. Plant count is very important. Yes I have grown as many as 9 plants per sq ft before. Yes, NINE. And yes that was some serious yield per sq foot. If I did that in current op my total plant count would be around 3200. Let's look at Fed Law: Under 99 plants: No Mandatory Minimum Sentence. 99-999 plants: 5 year Mandatory Minimum Sentence. 999 Plants to 9999 Plants: 10 Year Mandatory Minimum Sentence.

So, my choice is to grow at around 75% max potential and stay under any mandatory minimum prison sentence, OR, grow at 100% potential and get 10 years even if the judge was my dad. Hmmmmmm. Buddy, I've done my prison time with the feds.

As for the comment of I'm fucked anyway. You're totally wrong on that. My buddy was just visited by the cops at his op down the street from mine. His op is twice my size. After a 2 day investigation with 6 detectives, they determined he was within State Laew and left. He's dealing with some costly code violations, but that's it. We have the same attorney who set us up the same way.

I don't really need to hear about how I'll be fucked. I've been fucked...and fucked good. There will be no more fucking here. I don't need to hear that I could get more yield with more plants. I am fully aware of that. I wrote it at least a dozen times in this thread. So what exactly are you trying to say? I'm full of shit cause any 20 yr grow vet would be growing 500 plants in an op this size? Sorry, that's for 10 year vets. 20 yr ex convict vets know better.
i hear ya.. i understand... do you have enough scripts for the plants ur doing now? or do you have a edibles rec? i plan on running 150 s.o.g. plants under 6000 watts when i get to cali... but i will be in the middle of nowere..
 

YouGrowBoy

Well-Known Member
I know this is a grow thread so I don't want to get too far off topic but here's what's going on presently that I know. Most state and local court cases are losing big time and the CA state law we passed works when properly enforced by police and ruled on by Judges. I hear lots of stories of cops walking away due to compliance just like CG said. However, we just saw in Long Beach, one Judge took it upon himself to tamper with things to get a guilty verdict from a jury (google joe grumbine for all the sordid details). Fortunately, another judge threw out the jury verdict and we're waiting to hear if charges will be refiled. So, state wide were fine, sortof. We're seeing smash and grabs by some local authorities. They go into the dispensary take stuff and never file charges and tell owners if they want their stuff back they will file charges or turn if over to the feds.. Local cities (like Costa Mesa) are also calling the Feds because that's the only way to bust those following state law. The feds have been sending landlord notices to shut down their tenants or risk prosecution and also doing their share of smash and grabs. We need legalization but that opens a whole other can of worms, at least it stops people from going to jail.
 

hellraizer30

Rebel From The North
Dude i think its best you take this to toke n talk cause this is a grow thread not a political banter of sorts.
I know you see it the way you do but like cg said real vets know better!
 

curious2garden

Well-Known Mod
Staff member
Lemme get this strait:
You only grow 99 plants and have over 20k watts in you're warehouse?
And you had a 60k budget... With 20+ years exp... hmmm >.>
Yeah that about summed it up nicely. CG supplies me with his Bubba and that alone has eliminated 80mg of Morphine I had to take daily for chronic pain. But he doesn't need my defense but I find it offensive when the rare real deal is trolled.
 

ballin174

Well-Known Member
I'm not sure what your point is. Plant count is very important. Yes I have grown as many as 9 plants per sq ft before. Yes, NINE. And yes that was some serious yield per sq foot. If I did that in current op my total plant count would be around 3200. Let's look at Fed Law: Under 99 plants: No Mandatory Minimum Sentence. 99-999 plants: 5 year Mandatory Minimum Sentence. 999 Plants to 9999 Plants: 10 Year Mandatory Minimum Sentence.

So, my choice is to grow at around 75% max potential and stay under any mandatory minimum prison sentence, OR, grow at 100% potential and get 10 years even if the judge was my dad. Hmmmmmm. Buddy, I've done my prison time with the feds.

As for the comment of I'm fucked anyway. You're totally wrong on that. My buddy was just visited by the cops at his op down the street from mine. His op is twice my size. After a 2 day investigation with 6 detectives, they determined he was within State Laew and left. He's dealing with some costly code violations, but that's it. We have the same attorney who set us up the same way.

I don't really need to hear about how I'll be fucked. I've been fucked...and fucked good. There will be no more fucking here. I don't need to hear that I could get more yield with more plants. I am fully aware of that. I wrote it at least a dozen times in this thread. So what exactly are you trying to say? I'm full of shit cause any 20 yr grow vet would be growing 500 plants in an op this size? Sorry, that's for 10 year vets. 20 yr ex convict vets know better.
Well said!
 

collective gardener

Well-Known Member
OK! We done? Seems like no matter how hard we try to keep this thread positive there's always a negative force out there trying to bring it down. This one was my fault. I shouldn't have even bit. I'll try to swim by bait like that in the future. Anyways, back to the growing!

I made some great observations. As you know we just added CO2. There were crops at around 2 week and around 3-4 weeks when we added it. The 3-4 week crop isn't showing much difference. However, the crop that was only 1 week is looking radical. The CO2 seems to make the biggest differe3nce early in bloom...not later as I would've suspected (by later I mean weeks 3-5).

One side benefit of sealing the op is all the new free water! Between the A/C and the 2 dehumidifiers, I'm making about 40 gallons/day. My average water usage per day is around 60 gallons. Basically, we're recycling 2/3 of our water. That's awsome.

I would include pics, but wife took camera to girls weekend cabin camping trip. An even I like to imagine includes pillow fights and oil wrestling, but more likely will include wine and karaoke.
 

InsaneMJ

Well-Known Member
Hey cg, I'm curious on how your feeding schedule came out when you were using connoisseur in-between feedings? Atleast I remember reading something about that, lol. I just stepped up to sensi bloom an started usin co2.
 
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