Designing my medical grow room, and I have some questions.

Hey guys,

I have decided that I am done with the whole caregiver thing and I am going to grow myself. Luckily, I have a decent amount of room in my basement to grow in (12’4.5"x10’x8' Flower Room – 6’x11’x8’ Veg Room). I have some questions though that I think are pretty important. I am starting with a soil grow.

• Fresh Air Intake:
  • Do I need a blower and fans, or do I just let it happen naturally?
    • I am worrying about smell escaping and bringing in enough fresh air. I will have a HEPA filter as I am bringing the air from outside.
• Air Through Hoods:
  • Will I be able to have the fresh air go through the hoods?
    • The fresh air will be coming from underneath my back porch (more like an enclosed deck [it's weird]) and the air will be cool.
      • My logic is that the cooler air will cool the bulbs better.
• Light Coverage:
  • How much area will a 1000w in an air cooled hood cover?
    • Yes I know this has been answered many times, but I always see different answers. So I'm thinking if you're smart enough to answer my other questions, you will be smart enough to give an accurate answer on this.
  • About how many plants will fit under each 1000w?
    • Yes I know it varies, I'm just looking for an average number.
• Water:
  • My water reservoir (read trash can) will be on the floor, so will it be too cold for the plants and will I have to heat it up?
    • I would hope not, because that is one less thing I will have to buy, and the colder the water, the more oxygen can be dissolved in it!
  • Air stones, is more better?
    • More oxygen in the water means more oxygen to the root system during watering. I would like as much oxygen as I can get in the water.
• Heat From Lights:
  • Everything I have seen has said use your hand to tell how far the lights should be. To me this doesn't seem terribly accurate because everyone is different. My wife and I for example are polar opposites, I wash my hand with pure hot water, no cold on at all, and if the water is just a little to warm it seems to burn her. So using a thermometer, what is the best temperature for the top of the canopy be?
• Room Temperature
  • In a 12’4.5"x10’x8'' room with two 1000w bulbs, how much CFM will I need to move in order to keep the room the right temperature?

Well, that is about all that I can think of right now. I'm sure I have more questions, but I'm pretty baked right now and I can't remember everything.

Thank you all in advance for you help! It means a lot to me that we have a community that give good, solid advice. Without this community I would be screwed, because something tells me that the guys at the grow store (who keep telling me why the most expensive stuff the have is the only thing that is good) don't have my best interests at heart!

Anyone????

Bummer,
Sorry to hear nobody has responded to your post. I'm about to crop out for my second time, so I'm by no means an expert on this but I'll give you the best advise I can.

Unless the air quality is very poor where you're at, I don't personally think a HEPA filter is necessary.

Pretty much every hood I've seen (with the exception of some weird ones that looked like umbrellas) are designed for venting. The size varies with the hoods, mine are 6". You can purchase air ducting to circulate the air through your hoods to cool your bulbs. This air circulation is going to be an important aspect of keeping the room temperature. As far as 2 1000W, I assume HPS bulbs I wouldn't know off the top of my head, but you could certainly look on the side of the box for manufacturer recommended CFU's. This should be especially useful if your local grow store employees are money driven dicks. I'm lucky enough to have awesome fellow growers working at my grow store.

As far as light coverage, that's honestly what I logged in to check on as I'm drafting out an expansion to my grow. Estimates vary from person to person you ask, and honestly I think thats because some people like a bit of overkill to try to maximize yield per plant and some people under light their plants to try to get a larger number of plants to harvest from. Most of what I've read and learned (although I'm only on my second harvest, I've really had a great time and great successes--with the exception of cloning, but nobody's perfect), your plants will tell you if they're happy, or if they need something else, so regardless of the advise you get online, you're probably going to be best to tweak your set up dependent on how your plants grow. I personally have 2 600W HPS in a 5x8' room for 8 plants, which I think is cramped and overkill, and I think I'm going to get a third light but expand my room to a 10x6' for 16 plants.

I'm not aware of any cold limitations of water, but I basically try to do for my plants what I would do for myself or my pets. If it's uncomfortably cold I would personally leave it out for a bit until it warmed up a bit, but your logic for oxygen saturation at lower temperatures is correct. As far as a pumice for air bubbling, sure, I've seen lots of growers do it, although I'm not convinced it matters unless you're brewing a mycorrhizae tea or something of that sort.

As far as distance from lights I've read somewhere in the neighborhood of 8-12" for HID lighting, although I sometimes go less, my room is pretty short. Keep in mind that it's not just the heat put off by your lights but also the intensity of the light that can damage your plants. But again--they'll tell you if they're too close. I try to keep mine as close as possible not just because of my height restrictions, but also to prevent stretching and produce denser nugs.

Regarding CFM, thats usually for the ventilation for your hoods for your lights, not really for the room itself, most growers keep the air circulation for lights and rooms separate, but to each their own. For recommendations on CFM, I'd read the box labels for your fan, it will likely have specs for what it is intended to do.

Hope some of this was useful to you...

Cheers and good luck with your grow.