20,000 Watt Medical Grow Op Construction
- Thread starter collective gardener
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mellokitty
Moderatrix of Journals
i second that.
TheLastWood
Well-Known Member
Yeah I'm a wood framer (semi-retired due to economy any lack of residential construction) so I kinda hate that steel stud shit. So weak and useless for bearing weight unless you use the "real steel" studs. Not that cheap aluminum looking steel. And now that I'm doing commercial electric I realise how much "real" framing is lost to steel stud. It would probably work great for a greenhouse tho. You make a lot of good points and reasons to frame the walls tho and I have also looked at the pre fabbed greenhouses amazed at the prices. I could never spend that much on something I could build myself. I've been thinking about building a greenhouse in my backyard but even if you couldn't see in I think it dtaws to much attention. I would love the space. I love some of the new exotic types of bud but am a sucker for some older well developed, legendary strains.
Romulan, c99, and many mostly to full sativas that I wish I had room to grow to their full potential.
Romulan, c99, and many mostly to full sativas that I wish I had room to grow to their full potential.
collective gardener
Well-Known Member
While I'm sure one use 100 watt/sq ft, I'm not sure it would be efficient. Keep in mind the diminishing returns factor. The heat load of that density lighting would be pretty gnarly. Could it be done? Of course. Would it yield double what 50 watt/sq ft would yield? No way.
collective gardener
Well-Known Member
You and me both.
collective gardener
Well-Known Member
The RO unit is a HydroLogic Stealth 200. (200 gpd). We love it.
collective gardener
Well-Known Member
I, too, am from the wood framing generation. However, I have seen what steel studs can do on many a commercial project. We can get them in just about any gauge for load bearing, and, once you get used to them, they're faster to put up than wood. They are flimsy as hell until you sheet them. Then they're stiff as fuck without the weight. The reason I went with wood on our warehouse is that I need to walk on the roof, and we have no weather concerns.
I'm a sucker for strains that everyone else likes. Lol. I do usually grow a 12 week sativa for myself and select friends. I just haven't started one yet in this grow. I'm going to order some of that Acapulco Gold from Barney's...se if I can get a good pheno from a batch. I don't have very high hopes. It would be fun, though, to whip out some AG during a quite evening with good friends. Talk about old school. Damn.
NorthernLights#5
Active Member
I just ordered the Acapulco Gold, and I thought i was the only one who wanted to bring and old school back, hope the BF wont let me down and i get a good batch from them.
collective gardener
Well-Known Member
Some new pics here. I've been testing a Bubba using soiless (like the whole room) and another using DWC. Here's the results. Wow.
Here's some pics of how we tie down our topped plants:
Here's 4 Lavander x Afgan x Purple Kush that we are test flowering. Ran out of room in the main bloom area, so I threw up this wing with a 600 just for these girls.
So, as you can see, the DWC plant smoked the soiless by far. I've never seen a plant do sooooo much better in hydro. That bucket is a simple home built DWC unit with an air stone and 1 small air pump feeding 2 buckets. The feed is the same as the soiless (Cutting Edge). We're going to test flower 2 DWC plants. If they continue to blow doors on the soiless, I may have to make a change already. DWC is my favorite hydro settup. I like that it's an individual res for each plant, so any water problems will be limitted to one plant. Moving them around is totally easy. I also like the simplicity of no pumps or emitters.
We've totally filled the entire 200 sq ft flower area. I have 2 - 1000 watt ballasts and 2 - 600 watt ballasts powered up and ready, but not much space. I think we're going to sacrafice some working/walking area and hang 2 air cooled reflectors for the 1000's and 2 Adjustawings for the 600's. I can then throw away that cheap wing in the pic. We still have plants in veg that are ready to flower, so it has to be done. Helper D said he doesn't mind the extra work of moving plants 3 and 4 times for every watering. While he's doing that, I'm going to start building DWC buckets!
I included a pic of how we tie down our plants. I have mixed feelings on this technique. It makes for a large diameter plant, but many of the growing shoots are small. I'll have to see how we yield to determine what changes we may want to make.
Here's some pics of how we tie down our topped plants:
Here's 4 Lavander x Afgan x Purple Kush that we are test flowering. Ran out of room in the main bloom area, so I threw up this wing with a 600 just for these girls.
So, as you can see, the DWC plant smoked the soiless by far. I've never seen a plant do sooooo much better in hydro. That bucket is a simple home built DWC unit with an air stone and 1 small air pump feeding 2 buckets. The feed is the same as the soiless (Cutting Edge). We're going to test flower 2 DWC plants. If they continue to blow doors on the soiless, I may have to make a change already. DWC is my favorite hydro settup. I like that it's an individual res for each plant, so any water problems will be limitted to one plant. Moving them around is totally easy. I also like the simplicity of no pumps or emitters.
We've totally filled the entire 200 sq ft flower area. I have 2 - 1000 watt ballasts and 2 - 600 watt ballasts powered up and ready, but not much space. I think we're going to sacrafice some working/walking area and hang 2 air cooled reflectors for the 1000's and 2 Adjustawings for the 600's. I can then throw away that cheap wing in the pic. We still have plants in veg that are ready to flower, so it has to be done. Helper D said he doesn't mind the extra work of moving plants 3 and 4 times for every watering. While he's doing that, I'm going to start building DWC buckets!
I included a pic of how we tie down our plants. I have mixed feelings on this technique. It makes for a large diameter plant, but many of the growing shoots are small. I'll have to see how we yield to determine what changes we may want to make.
collective gardener
Well-Known Member
We want it all back. Congrats to all breeders who put in the hours to get these strains back into action, PLEASE let us all know how the AG comes out.
NorthernLights#5
Active Member
when it gets here Im started a couple seeing that its Fem i should be ok on that end. when I start them Ill do a journal just for them and let ya know
P.S. give helper d mad props from me I dont think enough people on here give him as much credit as you dont want him felling left out is all
P.S. give helper d mad props from me I dont think enough people on here give him as much credit as you dont want him felling left out is all
rasputin71
Well-Known Member
5ga hydro vs 1ga soilless seems a little lopsided.
SCCA
Active Member
looking very nice gardener! that dwc plant is awesome, how big are those leaves? i just tied some plants down this weekend as well. you may want to super crop those inner branches to thicken them up. i usually give them a week to turn up toward the light then trim out any small, wimpy branches. do you have girdling problems from wrapping the tie all the way around the stem? if you have never seen it before, the tie can cut into the stem as it swells and damage it. it can kill the stem, but you pay much closer attention to your plants than that. 
budXL
Active Member
Just read the entire thread! great stuff!
Have you looked into chameleon plasma lights? I was just given one, but it was my first grow, ofcourse i was lucky with a 3500 dolar set up for a small grow lol they are a couple weeks from finished but the buds look amazing.
Do you know anything about these lights?
Have you looked into chameleon plasma lights? I was just given one, but it was my first grow, ofcourse i was lucky with a 3500 dolar set up for a small grow lol they are a couple weeks from finished but the buds look amazing.
Do you know anything about these lights?
TheLastWood
Well-Known Member
LiI've seen those plasma lights and the spectrum looks phenominal but with the 3500$+ price tag I doubt they'll be catching on anytime soon. Especially since hid,s have been around so long and are so trusted.
Yea those dwx vs soiless results are undeniable, especially considering the dwc won't get rootbound. But I know the soilless would have the same results over soil and will have a better taste than the dwc. I qlwo enjoy the simplicity and isolation of dwc. Have you ever seen a farm kit? Its basically a 4 inch drip ring that has a tube that goes down into the dwc bucket, and hooks up to the 2nd outlet on the airpump and turns it into a dwc drip system. For 15$ its a cool deal
Yea those dwx vs soiless results are undeniable, especially considering the dwc won't get rootbound. But I know the soilless would have the same results over soil and will have a better taste than the dwc. I qlwo enjoy the simplicity and isolation of dwc. Have you ever seen a farm kit? Its basically a 4 inch drip ring that has a tube that goes down into the dwc bucket, and hooks up to the 2nd outlet on the airpump and turns it into a dwc drip system. For 15$ its a cool deal
collective gardener
Well-Known Member
I'll pass on the kind words to Helper D. He truly is the horsepower behind this grow. Up until 2 months ago, he'd never grown. I knew he was a great worker, as he has worked for me for quite some time at my other business. But, this is his calling. He knows everything that is going on with every plant. I could call him right now and ask "when was plant # 4-7 pruned last?", and he'd have an answer. He's totally comitted to this grow. Since we started the construction, he's been there 7 days a week...some days until midnight. My commercial growing friends are already offering him additional work if he has extra time. He doesn't know it yet, but he's getting a BIG suprise on the first harvest.
collective gardener
Well-Known Member
Where do I get the farm kit? I've seen complete systems with that settup, but have never seen just the drip settup. I really want to try that.
collective gardener
Well-Known Member
While I may have gotten a tiny bit more growth out of a 5 gallon soiless pot, I doubt it would be anywhere close to that DWC. I have dozens of plants right now in 5 and 10 gallon soiless, but nothing has exploded in growth like that DWC did. Those clones have only been rooted a little more than a week, meaning the 1 gallon pot isn't anywhere close to rootbound. Let's see how they do in bloom.