CannaBossX
Member
Hi Everyone, I live in Florida where medical marijuana becomes legal tomorrow (January 3rd) thanks to overwhelming support of Prop 2 in the November election. I've been waiting for the day when it would be legal to grow in Florida and finally have my opportunity.
For those who are not familiar, the Department of Health has 6 months from tomorrow to develop the infrastructure, card system, limits, etc... for Florida medical law, which means it will be at least 6 months before any legal dispensaries open here. My goal is to get in on the action with my own commercial grow, so I'm starting small with a "proof of concept" or "case study" grow in a 10x10 room for several investors I've lined up, to make sure we are ready to hit the ground running in 6 months with a proven, scaled model.
I ordered mostly Cannabis Cup winning strains from TheAttitude Seed Bank. I have to give these guys props for the quality of the seeds they sell. Not all of my seeds have turned into seedlings just yet, but every seed I germinated and then planted has popped and is growing. Hard to beat 100% germination rate - so thanks guys! Y'all rock!
I have divided my room into two sections, Autoflowers and Photoperiod plants. For my autoflowers I have 4x THC Bomb, 4X Mazar and 4X Blue Cheese. For photoperiod I have 2x LSD, 2x Sweet Tooth, 1x C99, 2x GDP and 1x Cotton Candy.
I will be running a recirculating DWC "bubbleponics" system from CCH20.com, with 18" spacing from center to center on each bucket. The autoflowers will be divided 2 plants per bucket (6 buckets) and the photoperiod plants are 1 per bucket (8 buckets). Both systems are auto-filled by a 60 gallon reserve reservoir. The reserve reservoir is auto-filled by a 150GPD RO System with an electronic shut-off valve. This way if I need to leave for a week I have nothing to worry about. I had to plumb a new water outlet into the room as well as feed and return lines for the RO system. Well worth the two days it took to get it done. I'll be running a tri-meter to monitor the PPM, EC, PH, Temp, etc.. on each system, they just haven't come in yet.
In each "Epicenter" of the CCH20 systems I have placed a wort chiller (normally used in distillation), which is connected to a small 10 gallon reservoir. This reservoir is cooled by a 1/10hp water chiller, and also feeds a water-to-air cooler attached to my carbon filter and fan. The water cooler (the AC for the room) is connected to a thermostat so that when the room rises above 88F a pump turns on pushing water through the water-to-air cooler which will cool the room. To make sure the chiller does not contribute to heat in the room and operates as efficiently as possible, I am making a 6" duct attachment for the front and rear. The air being pumped through the chiller is 76 degrees (from the house) and is pulled from another room through the chiller, then exhausted outside the room (an external closed loop system).
I have placed the air filter on the floor of the room so it recirculates falling CO2. The 6" fan on the filter is attached to insulated ducting which I've run across the entire length of the room, poking 2" vent holes every 8". On the opposite wall are two 35lbs CO2 tanks that will be enriching the room at 1200ppm. 4 "Hurricane" 16" wall fans will keep air circulating and provide good wind for the plants.
For lights I will be running 14 Alpha LED fixtures from Hydro Grow (one over each bucket), but they haven't come in yet. Supposedly they will arrive in about 2 weeks (we shall see), and pull about 200W each. I have installed a dedicated 20 amp circuit into the ceiling and a second 15A circuit for additional fixtures. To get me by until my lights arrive I have a couple of Alpha prototypes I can use. Hydro Grow loaned me the prototypes on deposit until my new fixtures arrive. They're bright as hell!
The goal for our first run is to achieve an average of at least 4 ounces per autoflower and 8 ounces per photoperiod plant. This would equate to 7lbs of finished product using about 2800W of LED. The rest of the system (chiller, fans, pumps, etc...) consumes about 800W-1000W. Worst-case scenario if we ran everything 24 hours a day (which won't happen in bloom) it would pull about 2800KwH or $310 in electric per month (about $900 per cycle). The start-up cost for the space is about $13k, and a 7lbs harvest would bring in about $20k at wholesale. If we can truly achieve 100% ROI and profit an additional $6k in only one cycle it will be a no-brainer for my investors. Now we just need to wait about 3 months to see the results.
For those who are not familiar, the Department of Health has 6 months from tomorrow to develop the infrastructure, card system, limits, etc... for Florida medical law, which means it will be at least 6 months before any legal dispensaries open here. My goal is to get in on the action with my own commercial grow, so I'm starting small with a "proof of concept" or "case study" grow in a 10x10 room for several investors I've lined up, to make sure we are ready to hit the ground running in 6 months with a proven, scaled model.
I ordered mostly Cannabis Cup winning strains from TheAttitude Seed Bank. I have to give these guys props for the quality of the seeds they sell. Not all of my seeds have turned into seedlings just yet, but every seed I germinated and then planted has popped and is growing. Hard to beat 100% germination rate - so thanks guys! Y'all rock!
I have divided my room into two sections, Autoflowers and Photoperiod plants. For my autoflowers I have 4x THC Bomb, 4X Mazar and 4X Blue Cheese. For photoperiod I have 2x LSD, 2x Sweet Tooth, 1x C99, 2x GDP and 1x Cotton Candy.
I will be running a recirculating DWC "bubbleponics" system from CCH20.com, with 18" spacing from center to center on each bucket. The autoflowers will be divided 2 plants per bucket (6 buckets) and the photoperiod plants are 1 per bucket (8 buckets). Both systems are auto-filled by a 60 gallon reserve reservoir. The reserve reservoir is auto-filled by a 150GPD RO System with an electronic shut-off valve. This way if I need to leave for a week I have nothing to worry about. I had to plumb a new water outlet into the room as well as feed and return lines for the RO system. Well worth the two days it took to get it done. I'll be running a tri-meter to monitor the PPM, EC, PH, Temp, etc.. on each system, they just haven't come in yet.
In each "Epicenter" of the CCH20 systems I have placed a wort chiller (normally used in distillation), which is connected to a small 10 gallon reservoir. This reservoir is cooled by a 1/10hp water chiller, and also feeds a water-to-air cooler attached to my carbon filter and fan. The water cooler (the AC for the room) is connected to a thermostat so that when the room rises above 88F a pump turns on pushing water through the water-to-air cooler which will cool the room. To make sure the chiller does not contribute to heat in the room and operates as efficiently as possible, I am making a 6" duct attachment for the front and rear. The air being pumped through the chiller is 76 degrees (from the house) and is pulled from another room through the chiller, then exhausted outside the room (an external closed loop system).
I have placed the air filter on the floor of the room so it recirculates falling CO2. The 6" fan on the filter is attached to insulated ducting which I've run across the entire length of the room, poking 2" vent holes every 8". On the opposite wall are two 35lbs CO2 tanks that will be enriching the room at 1200ppm. 4 "Hurricane" 16" wall fans will keep air circulating and provide good wind for the plants.
For lights I will be running 14 Alpha LED fixtures from Hydro Grow (one over each bucket), but they haven't come in yet. Supposedly they will arrive in about 2 weeks (we shall see), and pull about 200W each. I have installed a dedicated 20 amp circuit into the ceiling and a second 15A circuit for additional fixtures. To get me by until my lights arrive I have a couple of Alpha prototypes I can use. Hydro Grow loaned me the prototypes on deposit until my new fixtures arrive. They're bright as hell!
The goal for our first run is to achieve an average of at least 4 ounces per autoflower and 8 ounces per photoperiod plant. This would equate to 7lbs of finished product using about 2800W of LED. The rest of the system (chiller, fans, pumps, etc...) consumes about 800W-1000W. Worst-case scenario if we ran everything 24 hours a day (which won't happen in bloom) it would pull about 2800KwH or $310 in electric per month (about $900 per cycle). The start-up cost for the space is about $13k, and a 7lbs harvest would bring in about $20k at wholesale. If we can truly achieve 100% ROI and profit an additional $6k in only one cycle it will be a no-brainer for my investors. Now we just need to wait about 3 months to see the results.