40 foot container grow drow design help!!!

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Luckster7165

Member
I am trying to design a grow room in a 40 foot shipping container. Can someone give me ideas on what all I need in this container. Ideas to maximize grow space and production? I am looking at the 4 panel spider farmer leds for lights. Should I do auto watering? So many decisions to make. Can someone give me some ideas on what they think the most profitable set up would be and grow style. Thank you guys soooo much!
 
HydroKid239

HydroKid239

Well-Known Member
Luckster7165 said:
I am trying to design a grow room in a 40 foot shipping container. Can someone give me ideas on what all I need in this container. Ideas to maximize grow space and production? I am looking at the 4 panel spider farmer leds for lights. Should I do auto watering? So many decisions to make. Can someone give me some ideas on what they think the most profitable set up would be and grow style. Thank you guys soooo much!
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I would look into irrigation systems. Most importantly look at insulation, and environmental control.
 
X

Xsan

Well-Known Member
Luckster7165 said:
I am trying to design a grow room in a 40 foot shipping container. Can someone give me ideas on what all I need in this container. Ideas to maximize grow space and production? I am looking at the 4 panel spider farmer leds for lights. Should I do auto watering? So many decisions to make. Can someone give me some ideas on what they think the most profitable set up would be and grow style. Thank you guys soooo much!
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Do you have any ideas on what you want? One major grow area, split into two rooms for a perpetual setup? Hydro, soil, coco? Light types? @HydroKid239 mentioned you will need to decide on HVAC setup depending on your location as well as environmental control, titan and a few others have complete controllers. I have daydreamed about this idea many a nights and done low level research but there are others on this forum that will be able to advise much better as they are already running full grow rooms and such. You can also look at some of the pre-fabbed setups and look and what they have to get an idea of what you are trying to replicate, unless of course you have $50k us to pay for one of them already setup. With a 40 container and the proper funds the options are fairly endless. If i won the lotto i woud love to have the roof removable for natural sunlight in the summers lol
 
Thundercat

Thundercat

Well-Known Member
I've had this conversation with the guys I work with many times. There are many ways to do an excellent grow in that amount of space. There are also many variables to be considered like others have mentioned. How much growing experience do you have and with what type of grows, because that should play into the decision about how to proceed.

To start I would look heavily into getting an insulated reefer unit rather then a standard shipping container. You don't need the refrigerator unit to work or even be on the container, but the walls being factory insulated and easy to clean metal make it totally worth the extra cost in my opinion.
 
Thundercat

Thundercat

Well-Known Member
Best idea I've had so far to really maximize the unit, and be able to do maintenance, was a rack system. 2 layers (it would be tight I know) with trays filled with small plants and LED strip lighting mounted to the racks. You could flood and drain it, or top feed DTW. If the unit was on a roller it could be 5 feet wide and moved from side to side to allow easy access from either side.

I grew flood and drain for 10 years, and in a 5x5 tray you can fit 98-100 clones in 6inch pots that produced 20g per plant on a LOW average(30 per with the right genetics is easy). In a 40 foot container you get a little under 40 feet inside, and then you need space for equipment(dehu, AC, fans, ranks, CO2, air filtration) and movement, so lets count on 30 feet of actual grow tray space. That's 60'x5' of grow space if there is a rack with 2 trays, which is roughly 1200 clones in that amount of space. 1200 clones multiplied by 20g each is an estimated 24000g on average.

Originally my plan was just to do this same style grow but without the rack, allowing more breathing room and head space. 600 clones is still a lot of clones to have ready to fill a room, and the yields would still be awesome. Then the idea for the rack system hit me, and if it was operated correctly I really think it would be about the highest yield possible in the shortest grow period. You could obviously set things up were you cycle new plants in gradually and harvest gradually, but I don't really feel that would allow the room to fully be maximized. If I wanted to make this system perpetual, I would get multiple containers and stagger them to get a cycle.
 
L

Luckster7165

Member
Thundercat said:
Best idea I've had so far to really maximize the unit, and be able to do maintenance, was a rack system. 2 layers (it would be tight I know) with trays filled with small plants and LED strip lighting mounted to the racks. You could flood and drain it, or top feed DTW. If the unit was on a roller it could be 5 feet wide and moved from side to side to allow easy access from either side.

I grew flood and drain for 10 years, and in a 5x5 tray you can fit 98-100 clones in 6inch pots that produced 20g per plant on a LOW average(30 per with the right genetics is easy). In a 40 foot container you get a little under 40 feet inside, and then you need space for equipment(dehu, AC, fans, ranks, CO2, air filtration) and movement, so lets count on 30 feet of actual grow tray space. That's 60'x5' of grow space if there is a rack with 2 trays, which is roughly 1200 clones in that amount of space. 1200 clones multiplied by 20g each is an estimated 24000g on average.

Originally my plan was just to do this same style grow but without the rack, allowing more breathing room and head space. 600 clones is still a lot of clones to have ready to fill a room, and the yields would still be awesome. Then the idea for the rack system hit me, and if it was operated correctly I really think it would be about the highest yield possible in the shortest grow period. You could obviously set things up were you cycle new plants in gradually and harvest gradually, but I don't really feel that would allow the room to fully be maximized. If I wanted to make this system perpetual, I would get multiple containers and stagger them to get a cycle.
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Will be in oklahoma as far as location. I was thinking about the rack system. Would double my grow space. I also have been thinking about the flood and drain system. I would have to customer build the racks which is doable so they can hold water and drain. I have been looking into doing the grow style you just talked about. People tell me "but your growing tiny plants" I say well yes but then I'm growing a thousand or more and pulling more in per year than with bigger plants. I just need to figure out how to lay out the container and plan for all the equipment.
 
L

Luckster7165

Member
beercan said:
Sounds to me like there are alot of variables that weren't considered
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I have considered ALOT of variables. I have a lay out but reaching out for opinions and info from the community. There are amazing and knowledgeable people in this community and I love thier opinions.
 
Drop That Sound

Drop That Sound

Well-Known Member
I would suggest spray foaming the whole interior after you get the framing done how you want. Or build some kind of SIP like panels as walls that can be attached in various configurations, so you can change the layout of rooms at any time. Make it completely transformable on the inside. Look into thermal breaks, you have to be careful framing inside of metal structures, and need a thermal layer between the container and frames. Spray foam acheives this by itself.

I would do away with any propagation areas that take up extra space, and just take air layered clones right off the veg plants. Big ones, im talking like 24" tall already. Right before they go into flower, and keep a perpetual system going.

Because of the shape of the container, I would probably do super long Aero NFT boxes, like 20 footers, with spray bars. You could stack 2 systems, one on top of the other on racks, on each side of the long flower room, for a total of 80x2.5' of flowering space.

Then have 10' of the container for veg, and the other 10' for work area?

Like other said though, you cant go wrong with a mobile reefer. All insulated and able to be moved easily. 45 or 53' so more space too. Probably taller as well unless your getting a high bay container..
 
Drop That Sound

Drop That Sound

Well-Known Member
Or if your cheap like me, just get a standard 45' dry van (or your container), and look around in marketplace and craigslist for people giving away old cold storage boxes, freezer rooms, with all the closed cell foam panels you could ever need for free. Im even gonna use free 8x8 hot tub covers in the whole roof so I have 4"+ thick insulation, and the covers are already the perfect size to fit!
 
Drop That Sound

Drop That Sound

Well-Known Member
Last but not least, no matter what climate, energy recovery ventilators would be a great way to ventilate while saving your hot/cold air, if you are even going the passive route. Personally i would seal her up, but if you are handy enough you could build your own cores from pop cans and 3 inch sewer pipe. You could vent the whole thing or just a few rooms, while only losing maybe 10-30% of the heat as you bring in fresh air. Look up HRV/ERVs.
 
ilovereggae

ilovereggae

Well-Known Member
Luckster7165 said:
Will be in oklahoma as far as location. I was thinking about the rack system. Would double my grow space. I also have been thinking about the flood and drain system. I would have to customer build the racks which is doable so they can hold water and drain. I have been looking into doing the grow style you just talked about. People tell me "but your growing tiny plants" I say well yes but then I'm growing a thousand or more and pulling more in per year than with bigger plants. I just need to figure out how to lay out the container and plan for all the equipment.
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I love everything about the idea, have thought about doing a 2 shelf 2x4 rack recently... only thing with your plan im unsure about is doing flood and drain on racks. the idea of flood trays sitting right over top of the lower shelf lights scares me a bit. I would prefer containers with soil sitting in deep trays. maybe blumats or drip rings. still would need to account for runout and have an easy way to drain them so they never overflowed, but that being a rare situation instead of a daily one seems more manageable, if that makes sense. mind you ive never setup a grow that large so I am just thinking out loud and could be totally wrong.
 
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