So I don’t have much experience with the typical trade skills or anything and I’m kind of new to what equipment I’d need for this type of set up. I have an empty bedroom with hardwood floors and about 10x8 of space to grow I want to run an open room (no tents) and ideally automate irrigation for about 100 plants if not more.
Will pool liner suffice to protect the floor from water damage?
Any recommendations on what I should use as a reservoir?
I’ll be using an aeromixer to mix up my salts and I might use the aeromixer to hand water with a hose but I’d like to be able to automate watering to each pot.
I’m kind of concerned about hanging heavy lights from the ceiling due to possible placement issues and my house being old (don’t want the ceiling collapsing or something) I’ve thought about using the metal frames of tents to hang the lights but not having the fabric of the tent around them.
I’m going to be running small pots (another reason I want automated watering) and pruning branches if necessary so I can hunt a larger number of plants
Brute trash cans work well for reservoirs. Just bought a couple myself. You can get fancy with 55g drums or even hit up your local feed store usually that have some pretty cool options.
A buddy of mine also didn’t want to mess with his room so he built a frame inside the room itself. Not hard to do if you have the tools for the job.
Hopefully you’re on more than 1 - 15amp circuit in that room. Otherwise you’ll be blowing your breaker.
I use a pond liner in my 5x5 flower tent and it has done well. I used it for around 3 years before replacing with a new one. They can get little holes when moving around so I would suggest a quality one. I bought one from Amazon that you looked at it the wrong way and it would rip. The ones I got from home depot work much better, alot more durable.
I use blumats for my flower tent, they are the reason I use a pond liner. They are prone to runaways (overwatering a pot with possibility of emptying your res).
I’ve done around 30 in a 5x5 and it was tight but doable. 100 would probably be pretty tight.
When I did my 30 I put them in 1 gallon pots and flowered when they were only like 6 inches tall if that.
@Soonami Really excited for you bud, aahhh man an entire room, 100 plants, what a dream setup… you’re very lucky!
@Justblazin Man 5 years from now I bet auto-watering systems for soil beds will be standard, cheap & never malfunction.
Like it has to be a simple fix. A tiny electronic water-wheel inside the line, that if still spinning from water movement after “X” seconds/minutes, block the line. There has to be a simple emergency shut off solution for these systems
Good call, you can even get the optional wheel dolly that the can sits on, not attached wheels, this fits the bottom of the can.
If you ever need to move it, you will not regret the extra purchase, but I guess you need to have the extra cash in the first place.
If someone has not said it yet…go big on the dehumidifier if you can afford it.
This was definitely a thought. But I’m just going to end up plumbing everything in for my automated watering and everything will have a permanent home other wise you better believe I thought about those dolly’s. They aren’t cheap though that’s for sure. It was bad enough two 44g brute cans cost over $100. lol
i believe that if i were going to run 100 plants at a time in a room i would build an ebb and flow system and not use pots. you could just root the seeds or clones in rockwool cubes and put those in a holder on the table and flower when they get a foot or so tall if all you’re doing is chasing phenos. i wish i were able to help you out with this room. i’ve helped several folks setup small grows but never this big. it would be good practice for my farm i plan on setting up inside containers. hell i was only gonna run 100 inside a 45’ container but if you can do that many in this size room i may have to rethink my scale.
For mounting the lights I’d screw some 2 by 4’s to the studs in your ceiling and hang your lights off those. For lights I’d use the bar style like Fluence spyder style. They give a more even light foot print and the plants can grow all the way up to the lights. I’d build a box with filters for your intake air and create a positive air flow to keep unwanted mold spores out of the grow room. Unless you’re using CO2 then you’ll want a closed system. I’d probably put some insulation sheets under the pond liners so you don’t create condensation and ruin your floor. You can buy a trolmaster that will hook up to your lights to control them, CO2, dehumidifier and other things up to it so you can keep your environment dialed in.
Another cheaper option is a plastic 55 gallon barrel. Some have a locking lid and other have a couple of bung holes. If they just have the bugs, I just zip the top off. I can find food safe ones on fb market place for usually free -$20 each. They are much more durable than the brute trash cans also.
pond film (pool liner) has the benefit of not being heatscore to clean in your driveway. cleaning panda film or a tent out there attracts a bit of attention. im a big believer in the pond film now, but it does heat up insanely easy and fast so i do wonder how it would do in a tent pushing 90F? im currently only using it as a failsafe under my res (20 gal garbage cans).
my idea this go-round was to try the all-inclusive ac infinity route as best i could (my humidifier, purifier and light arent from them but everything else is) and make use of their advanced controllers (i have the 69 PRO model).
what i didnt know before (been almost a decade since doing indoor) was how crucial VPD was, didnt figure it out til i had a strain recently (apple fritter) that was very sensitive to it. the A.I. controller is very nice at minimizing any additional operator error that can come from monkeying around with the environmental inputs and controls too much. dont need a tent to use their controller, its bundled with a fan for a good price (around $120-140) and im thinking that is my best purchase so far. the viparspectra ks3000 sure seems great, need to see them blooming under it to see for sure.
if you do get any gear from ac or vipar buy direct, i got better prices and they actually shipped the items with foresight which is nice to know when youve experienced a fan crapping out at week 7 flower. vipar light was way cheaper direct as well, arrived in 3 business days.
love the instinct to go sea of green though, 1-2 strains tons of clones flip em fast and see what happens. no better way to get the feet wet.
So if you want to grow in a 10x8 space you got 80sqft. Typically for LEDs you want 35-45watts per square foot of lighting. So lighting for that room should be around 3000W. You will need fans and ventilation. If you are cooling the room with AC you will need an AC that’s 15000BTU to deal with all that.
Pond liner is a great idea. Poly won’t do it. It will tear and definitely ruin the floors and trap moisture under there. It’s going to be important to keep your humidity pretty low even if you Poly up the room the humidity gets to the drywall after a while. I would definitely budget on having to redo the room after you are doing growing in it.
For electricity you will prob ably want to run a 240V line to the room. Because at 120V the lights alone would need 25amps and not counting fans, AC or dehumidifer.
For automation there’s lots of option. I use Floraflex bubblers with each set of bubblers have a pump that gets triggered from my Trolmaster relays.
If the room is intended to be sealed you will have to add CO2 or provide enough ventilation to change the air once per minute keep a fresh CO2 supply for the plants. 100 plants would eat a rooms CO2 in no time.
