First post, First grow

[dj_greenthumb]

Hey guys, new to the site and to growing. Been reading up for the past couple months or so about growing and finally decided to take the plunge and buy some seeds

The footprint of my room is about 9x9x9 but it's an attic so there is much less height towards the edges of the room. The vegetative room will also have to fit in here along with equipment and reservoir.

Looking to start off with a basic horizontal 1x400w (400w) veg tent in one corner of the room and do a 3x600w (1800w) bare-bulb stadium grow in soil with the rest of the room (panda paper throughout). Still haven't decided on a soil mix nor my fertilizers so if anyone has suggestions, please let me know!

SO if you've made it this far into my intro, perhaps you can answer some questions:

1. The room has a window and we have a window AC unit (10,000 BTU) which would be great for cooling the room but is the Canadian winter air too cold to be bringing in? Will it shock the plants? Also, the exhaust from the AC unit will clearly cause steam (like a clothes dryer); will this be obvious to neighbours/cops? Should I just buy a fan/make a carbon filter and vent into the attic?

2. Are there any good (cheap) online Canadian stores? HTGsupply looked really good but they don't ship to Canada. Are there any sites that can match their pricing? If not, I'll probably just go to a local store.

3. How much can a standard breaker handle? At peak times, the room will be running at about 3kw total. Is this too much for my old house's electrical wiring? I assume this isn't enough to cause any concern from law enforcement/hydro companies as laundry machines/dishwashers run about the same (and I have neither)?

I will definitely have more questions along the way so if you value yourself an avid grower, stick around and help out the new kid! Going to start germing these seeds this weekend and hopefully have the room up and running by mid week.

Let's go!

 

[Arminius]

Climate is huge! Not sure about extreme cold intake air though.
Not sure about Canadian building codes, but most older houses down here usually have 100 amp service. If you could run a sub panel with 240, and run your lights during off peak hours, like doing laundry etc..., then you should be fine.
Good luck!

 

[RJ99]

As far as fertilizers go I have been doing my first grow with maxigrow and maxibloom and thus far my results have been amazing. Check out the KISS (keep it simple stoner) thread. Those nutes will save you hundreds of dollars. I think that when it comes to electrical a standard 15 amp breaker can handle a 1kw light and an outtake fan. My stepbrother is an electrician and he explained that you don't want to exceed 75% of your circuits capacity. If you end up forced to run extension cords don't ever use anything but heavy duty contractor cords rated for far more amps than you'll be running through them and make sure they're off the floor and well secured. I don't know much about how to do ventilation like you're talking about, being a bit of a noob myself but the amazing thing is that the experienced growers here actually enjoy helping us grow better and safer.

 

[Ichabod Crane]

If you vent to the attic you may have some bad things happen. One is the moisture build up which will melt when it warms up which can cause stains in your ceilings. The second is this moisture can cause mold. If you have to vent up put a bath fan vent on your roof and vent through that.

Your breakers should have a number stamped on the switch top which will tell you how many amps that circuit will handle. As stated you do not want to exceed 75% of the circuits rating. Most every thing that you buy now has the number of amps it will need to operate.

 

[dj_greenthumb]

Plans changed; ordered four (4) 400w HPS systems (@$145 each) and one (1) 400w MH system (@$90). Also added in a Temp/Humidity controller. I am running 6 different strains here (Ice, Crystal, White Widow, Big Bud, Pure Power Plant, AK47) and will cut down to four after I get a bearing with each. Grow design and purchasing decisions are under way. Seeds are being dropped into water tonight.

 

[dj_greenthumb]

All the seeds dropped nicely... went into moist paper towels and then into ziplocks last night. No sprouts yet but I'm holding out! Going to go shopping today and start construction on the room tomorrow. That's when I'll start updating with some pictures!

 

[all4theluvofit]

Sounds like a good start man, can't wait to see the progress! I would save the window/ac for the summer months. Could you maybe run some duct to your eaves of the house? Grab fresh air from one side, and pump out hot air thru a filter on the other side. That way it's passive, and you don't have to pump the heat on your roof ie snow melting/roof damage/cops noticing. If you need a lill more fresh air you could install a booster fan in your intake duct. When summer comes you flick on your a/c!
Well good luck, I'm hanging out for the ride!

 

[dj_greenthumb]

Thanks for stopping by all4; I like your "Insert bass drop HERE" tagline...

See what I did there?

Anyways, still deciding how I'm going to vent and what not. There's a lot of factors to take into account. Anyways, I have a few unrelated questions:

1. Is there anyway I can run normal appliances (HID lights) off of my 40 amp stove outlet?

2. What's the cheapest place to grab a high-volume fan (400+cfm)?

3. Vertical stadium or vertical donuts?

4. What nutrients are generally regarded as the best? I want an easy to use (but complete) line of nutrients that will produce a large, dense yield of quality stuff.

5. Does anyone know of a quality pH/PPM/TDS/eC meter?

6. Where do you Canadians shop online the most? I use a site based out of the States that had some great prices but I'm worried about customs (no idea why they call it a FREE trade agreement). So ya, is there anyway to circumvent the upcoming duty or perhaps just a Canadian site with great prices?

I feel like I'm kinda in the dark with the whole process so far. I thought I had read enough before I started (and do in fact understand the gist of growing) but the "nitty gritty" is proving more difficult. Answering the questions above would help me out a TON! Thanks in advance!

 

[Ichabod Crane]

You have to many things going on right now. You need to get a simple nute system. Something like the KISS, or heads 6ml/9ml. After you figure out your grow room then switch around on your nutes to find what works best for your plants.

Here is the KISS link:
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=191645

Here is the Heads link:
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=55683

You can get a controller box that runs off of 40 Amps that will run your equipment. But if it will run all of your equipment you need to add up your amps. On a 40 Amp box you can run at 80% so 32 amps max.

best of luck IC

 

[Chunkypigs]

dude, canadian winter??? heat your home, homie. duct the heat downstairs and save on your heat bill all winter and use that money for the AC come summertime.

congrats on the grow sounds like you have a great location and the winter is a good time to learn, heat's not a problem and bugs are mostly gone.

watts is watts as far as heat generated but a 400w will not project the light intensity as far as a 600w and a 1000 is better still at providing the intensity needed to produce dense buds at a distance from the bulb. if you are planning a stadium fewer large watt bulbs will probably be the best bang for the buck. you have a big room use big bulbs they
produce much more light for the energy used. my 2 cents anyways....
also more ballasts= more heat.
if there is a closet one floor below your room, see if you can put the ballasts there, it will help keep the grow cooler and another part of your house warmer in the winter.

heat your home with medical cannabis and we all win!

looking forward to another great vert grow, good luck!

 

[all4theluvofit]

Thanks for the drop Dj! How did you do that?

I would suggest as well something easy for nutes to start with. I do know a lot of growers use a mix match of stuff "my self included", and some just stock to one brand. Just read up on it and ask questions. Don't be afraid to try dif things to as time goes on. But as Ichabod said, just worry about building the room.

As for ideas for the room....
Do you want a perpetual harvest?

If not, the first idea I had was....
One room, 2 doughnuts, side by side, 2 400 watts stacked ea.
If you want perpetual, you could do the same thing, just to separate rooms.
Also it would prob work out well in your behalf if you could exchange those 400's for 600's, but oh well, this will still be sick!

That's a great idea chunkypig, great your house with your grow! I am curious on what what you would do in the summers?

Put your pieces out!
All4TheLuvOfIt

 

[dj_greenthumb]

Thanks for stopping by everyone.

@Ichabod Crane - I've seen some controller boxes but they're all very expensive. Do you know of any that aren't $350+?

@all4theluvofit - You just highlight the text, then click the "Insert Link" button and copy in the link. The text will now become like a button. You could even do it in your signature where people could click "My vertical micro closet project!" instead of having the long URL showing beneath it.

As for my fan, I ended up ordering an Active Air 6" inline duct fan (400CFM) for $110 shipped. I was thinking about spending the extra 60 bucks and getting a Tjernlund because I've heard so many good things about them but I'm really on a budget.

One problem that I've run into is that I didn't soak my rockwool long enough before putting the sprouted seeds in them, so the roots aren't penetrating but rather just pushing the seed up out of the rockwool. I soaked a new set of rockwool for 24 hours and am going to transplant most of them and hopefully that fixes it.

Still have some outstanding questions...

1. What's the best Canadian hydroponics/grow website?

2. Does anyone know of a quality pH/PPM/TDS/eC meter?

 

[Ichabod Crane]

Sorry I don't have a controller box as I hard wired my set up to the main power box.

 

[all4theluvofit]

How is every thing?!

 

[dj_greenthumb]

Well I made the biggest noob mistake ever... Forgot to label all the plants when I put them into pots. Also, my camera broke so the few pictures I was going to upload tonight are gone and probably won't be able to upload any for awhile. Going tomorrow to the store to buy the last of everything I need. Lights and fan still haven't arrived yet but I'm expecting and hoping for next week as my little 4 light CFL fixture won't be good enough for much longer.

But I'm rolling with the punches... most seedlings looked alike with their own strand so I think I've been able to identify most of them though I'm not sure.

Thanks for popping in!

 

[dj_greenthumb]

To be honest, I'm in way over my head. To say things are not going well is an understatement... Not a single thing has gone right.

I'm out of money and energy. I hope my next post here is a good one saying I triumphed through but it's going to be tough.

 

[HeartCooksBrain]

zzzz

 

[dj_greenthumb]

Thanks for the words of encouragement (and I really mean that). Sometimes you just need someone to say you can do it, no matter how deep in the weeds you are (pun intended). It's not totally the grow that has me upset; it's a long list of things that are piling up that only began coincidentally when I started this venture. Whether it was losing my job, losing my girl, or failing a midterm at uni... everything has decided to happen at once. The labeling mistake set me over the edge because I figured out of all the things I should be able to control and handle the most, the grow should be the easiest. Easier said than done!

Anyways, because I don't have enough money for lumber, I think I'm just going to do four donuts around each light for the first round. The problem with this is I will only be able to fit about 32 plants instead of 45 (which is about the number of seedlings I have going).

 

[HeartCooksBrain]

zzz

 

[HeartCooksBrain]

ok i just noticed this is in vertical / colisseum growing =)