Far, FAR too many noobs decide to grow weed, plant seeds and then go build the grow op. As a bit of an afterthought, these same noobs will then skim over a grow guide and have some coarse idea of how cannabis grows, perhaps have a vague idea of what a plant in veg and flower might be.
No.
Nononononono.
Please don't do this. It's like blowing half-dozen bonghits and then going out looking for the party.
There's lots of knowledgeable ppl around this board, but if you do try to grow without first acquiring basic cannabis plant knowledge, planning the scale of your op and building the physical op facilities-
BEFORE you even THINK about dampening a seed, you make the catch-up work for your mentor/s MUCH harder.
If you're going to grow, you may as well grow as much as you can smoke. Micro grows are certainly possible but a 1-2 plant closet or cabinet grow just won't make much weed, even if you're using the highest performance lighting and watering system available.
Noobs should plan on 1/4-1/2 oz per plant. Experienced growers will get 3/4-1oz per plant in a SoG operation. If you smoke 1/4oz a week, noob growers would need to harvest 1-2 plants a week or 2-4 plants every 2 weeks in a 2-week rotation style SoG op. It's up to you to then decide how many plants you'll need to grow to suit your smoking needs. When you know how many plants you need to grow, plan on giving each plant an 8-12" circle to live in. SoG style growing means pruning off all branches on the lower 1/3 of the plant, leaving only the mainstem with a big fat top cola and some nice golfball sized buds on the mainstem itself. The lower branches produce only small, wispy buds and restrict airflow around the plant, crowding other plants, so you may as well not grow that part of the plant at all. For the SOG style of plant, an 8-12" circle is plenty. Plan on around 40-50 watts of HPS light per square foot of flowering space.
Minimum requirements for a
functional grow op (one that will yield enough to be worth doing, i.e. at least an oz or two every cpl weeks) include a clonebox, a mother plant vegging area and a flowering area. You can keep as little as one mother, but more mothers is an insurance policy. I keep 6-8 mothers to provide 30 cuttings every 2 weeks. Divide up your available space accordingly and work out how you're going to keep light from the clone and mother areas from interrupting the 12 hour dark period of the flowering plants.
The next consideration is the
location of the op. You need to be able to ventilate the space- and that does NOT mean leaving a closet door open part of the day. We're talking about intake and exhaust fans with appropriate ducting to avoid recycling 'used' air back into the op. If you can't install proper ventilation, you will have high air temps and high humidity- which will give you low yields and other problems such as powdery mildew which can simply kill the plants outright.
The space needs to have enough airflow to both remove heat from the lighting, moisture in the air put there by the plants
and provide adequate CO2 for the plants. This means a ventilation system that will exchange the entire volume of the room air in about 3-5 mins max. Work out your room volume by multiplying room length x width x height and then go shopping for exhaust fans based on that figure. A 1000 cubic foot room needs a 200 CFM (cubic foot/min) exhaust fan. If you can't ventilate the space, you can't grow in it.
The floor needs either to be a durable surface like concrete or tile or must be protected against water leaks and spills. An old waterbed liner under your grow will do OK if there's no holes in it.
Grow room fires are usually caused by stupidly overloading electric circuits or using cheap power outlet strips on high-current devices. KNOW how many watts you're drawing and how many you can safely draw from each circuit. LEARN how to calculate watts from your line voltage and the amount of current (in Amps) your gear will use. (watts = volts * amps). Smart growers only use 80% of a circuit's capacity (i.e. 8 amps on a 10 amp ckt)
If you're going to do hydro, you MUST have a nutrient meter (measures nute strength in ppm, CF or EC)
and a pH meter. You get what you pay for. Cheap meters don't last long and are often inaccurate. I use the "Truncheon" nute meter and Eutech brand pH meters, both which last many years with no worries.
Don't fear hydro. If you can follow some basic procedures, hydro is more reliable than potting soil and will ALWAYS yield more. For my hydro media, I use rockwool in pots. It's cheap, lightweight, sterile and easy to dispose of. Soil weighs 10x more than rockwool. If you're growing a number of plants, the amount of soil you need quickly becomes cumbersome.
You MUST have a good thermometer/hygrometer in your growspaces. Digital thermo/hygros with peak memories are very cheap these days- and you will KNOW what goes on in the room.
You don't need recirculating plumbing to do hydro- you can use a wick system, which just has a bit of rope leading from the bottom of your plant's pot into a tank of nute solution. The water & nutes wick up the rope & wet the media as the plant removes the water. However, recirculating systems like flood/drain (aka ebb/flow) and drip system can carry more dissolved oxygen to the plant's roots. Aero and NFT systems are better yet. I use a flood system because there's no drippers or sprayers to clog with dried nute salts.
A grow op must be designed to maintain certain environmental conditions (24-27 deg C @ 30-50% humidity), but it also conceals your op. It must not permit any light leakage and it must not attract attention with scent or noises. Scent control is best done with big blower fans and carbon filters or UV ionisers. Ionisers are expensive to buy but run for years with no maintenance. In addition to killing scents, they also kill mould spores in grow room air. Don't put your op in a place where you can be seen entering and leaving if you can avoid it. If neighbours can see you coming and going, they
will notice you eventually. Know them as well as they know you and go in/out when they're not around or automate your op so you need not go in every day.
Do your homework before posting queries:
- KNOW how the cannabis plant grows with regard to cuttings and how light cycle affects veg & flower modes.
- KNOW the temperature and humidity figures you need to provide to the plant. You should run a freshly built op with no plants in it for a week or so and see how it does with noise, temps, etc.
- KNOW that your proposed location meets the basic physical requirements for power, ventilation and temp control, security and accessibility.
- BUY the basic equipment- especially good metering gear- and have it ready to go before you sprout anything.
- Have a GOOD idea of how many plants you need to grow and build your space to suit. It's easier to overbuild now and grow a smaller number of plants than will fill the space than to try to expand an op later.
Yes- setting up a COMPETENT grow op (not some silly goofaround thing) requires a little investment, but it'll pay you back many, many times over.
Avoid the temptation to buy "packages" from hydro shops- you will spend several times as much as you would if you take the time to learn what is needed and buy things to suit from other vendors. 95% of what you need for a grow op can be had at hardware and aquarium shops.
Now go to it!
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