Optimal Plants per Light for This Set-up?

[Shiva Blaster]

I hope you dont mind a few pics.... but this is the way I usually lay out a grow.

Each room has its own 5 ton AC that ducted with spiral ducting above the ceiling and spreads out to each corner of the room and the middles through vents in the ceiling..
View attachment 263855

Here's a panoramic shot of one room from the blueprint above.
View attachment 263856

Mind? Dude, that's fantastic..thanks so much! So you've got 30 lights in that room? Is that just one big flowering room?

So I'm guessing that if you had the space I did, you would build less/bigger flower rooms? ie Instead of having three 20x15 rooms, go with 2 bigger rooms or 1 huge flower room?


EDIT: saw the plans....is that 3 flower rooms or 2 flower rooms and 1 veg? how many lights per room?

 

[Elite Nugz]

You can kinda see the ducting here coming from the air handler. The condenser is on the roof outside

 

[Elite Nugz]

Here's another grow.... You can see some of my spiral ducting here...

 

[Shiva Blaster]

Here's another grow.... You can see some of my spiral ducting here...

View attachment 263859

I was confused why you needed so much A/C....I see you are going bare bulb. I am using air-cooled hoods, which will make a big difference.

 

[Shiva Blaster]

I am also in a MUCH cooler climate up here....lots of nice cold outside air majority of the year to keep the lights running nice and cool and to keep A/C power costs down.

 

[Shiva Blaster]

I'm having a tough time deciphering your plans, so you run 1 veg room and two bigger flower rooms? Maybe I should consider that route instead of 3 flower rooms.

 

[Elite Nugz]

Here's have of the 3D bluprint for the second room I posted.

 

[Elite Nugz]

I was confused why you needed so much A/C....I see you are going bare bulb. I am using air-cooled hoods, which will make a big difference.

Yeah... I run open bulb Adjustawings. For every 10 lights, you need a 5 ton ac to keep them cool.

 

[Shiva Blaster]

I'll have an 8" vortex for every 3 XXXL hoods, so will keeps things nice and cool with the outdoor temps here. From others growing up here in similar climate, and with the air-cooled hoods, I calculated a 24,000 btu mini-split to be plenty for each 15' x 20' room. I'll also have 8 x 18" wall mount oscillating fans per room blowing the air around.....I honestly don't think there is going to be a huge temp gradient at all, especially with the air-cooled hoods.

 

[Elite Nugz]

I'm having a tough time deciphering your plans, so you run 1 veg room and two bigger flower rooms? Maybe I should consider that route instead of 3 flower rooms.

These plans are only showing the warehouse portion of the grow. I still have offices inside the front of the buildings. Thats where I keep my mothers, do my cloning and vegging. The first grow is a 30 lighter. Three 10 light flowering rooms. Then inside the office I have one room for mothers and cloning and another office for my veg. For this spot I get a 10 light harvest every 3 weeks.

The other room is a 20 lighter. Two 10 light flowering rooms. Then I have a separate room for veg, and a huge bathroom that I keep my mothers in. For this spot, I get a 10 light harvest about every 5 weeks.

 

[Elite Nugz]

I use to run air cooled hoods too... but once I switched to open bulb adjustawings, I seen a huge increase in yield.... So I never looked back after that.



This is also the grow that I ran my mini-split in.

 

[Shiva Blaster]

These plans are only showing the warehouse portion of the grow. I still have offices inside the front of the buildings. Thats where I keep my mothers, do my cloning and vegging. The first grow is a 30 lighter. Three 10 light flowering rooms. Then inside the office I have one room for mothers and cloning and another office for my veg. For this spot I get a 10 light harvest every 3 weeks.

The other room is a 20 lighter. Two 10 light flowering rooms. Then I have a separate room for veg, and a huge bathroom that I keep my mothers in. For this spot, I get a 10 light harvest about every 5 weeks.

Very nice. We'll be starting with just the 3 flower rooms of 6 lights each...running a bunch of strains, so the eventual goal will be to segregate the strains by flower time and have an 8 week room for indicas, and some 9-10 week rooms for the sativas and hybrids.

 

[Shiva Blaster]

I use to run air cooled hoods too... but once I switched to open bulb adjustawings, I seen a huge increase in yield.... So I never looked back after that.

View attachment 263861

This is also the grow that I ran my mini-split in.

Interesting.....I've read that the hoods only cut light by 5-6% as long as you keep your glass clean, and that this is offset by being able to get the bulbs a lot closer with air-cooled lights.

 

[Elite Nugz]

Very nice. We'll be starting with just the 3 flower rooms of 6 lights each...running a bunch of strains, so the eventual goal will be to segregate the strains by flower time and have an 8 week room for indicas, and some 9-10 week rooms for the sativas and hybrids.

Sounds good.

Didnt mean to get off on the wrong foot with ya.... but if ya ever need any help, let me know. Its always better to learn from other peoples mistakes then your own.... And I've made a TON of mistakes and waste a lot of money through the years. Now I have things down pretty solid, but Im still learning new tricks.

And I can delete all the pics if you want. I dont want to bombard your thread, but pics are the easiest way to show things.

 

[Shiva Blaster]

I also much prefer working in rooms with air cooled hoods.....it's not scorching hot when working on plants under the lights, and you don't have to worry about burning yourself on a bulb or bulbs popping from getting mist or moisture on them somehow.

 

[Shiva Blaster]

Sounds good.

Didnt mean to get off on the wrong foot with ya.... but if ya ever need any help, let me know. Its always better to learn from other peoples mistakes then your own.... And I've made a TON of mistakes and waste a lot of money through the years. Now I have things down pretty solid, but Im still learning new tricks.

And I can delete all the pics if you want. I dont want to bombard your thread, but pics are the easiest way to show things.

Thanks a lot, I really appreciate that offer and will likely take you up on it. We are still navigating through the lengthly application process (it's a lot stricter up here), so won't be starting to build for at least another 6 months or so. I don't claim to know everything about growing, and would greatly appreciate any input and advice

And don't worry about the pics, it'll be nice to have them here as a reference.

 

[Elite Nugz]

Interesting.....I've read that the hoods only cut light by 5-6% as long as you keep your glass clean, and that this is offset by being able to get the bulbs a lot closer with air-cooled lights.

I use to clean my glass weekly. It was a huge pain in the ass. Specially with those big ass reflectors. I broke a couple pieces of glass. Those things are heavy.

I really cant tell you the science behind why my yields increased with the adjustawings.... but I went from 1 - 1.5 pounds per 1k light, using aircooled, to 1.75 - 3 pounds per 1k light with the adjustawings. Only thing that changed was the reflectors.

 

[Elite Nugz]

I also much prefer working in rooms with air cooled hoods.....it's not scorching hot when working on plants under the lights, and you don't have to worry about burning yourself on a bulb or bulbs popping from getting mist or moisture on them somehow.

My reflectors are 2.5 feet from the canopy, and I measure leaf surface temp to make sure things arent too hot. My tables are a foot and a half off the ground and my plants are usually 3-4 feet tall. So my lights are about 8 feet high. Im only 5'11", so I dont come close to touching them. I've never had one explode or pop either, and I've gotten them wet with sprays plenty of times.

I use Ushio bulbs, which are pretty tough bulbs.

 

[Elite Nugz]

Thanks a lot, I really appreciate that offer and will likely take you up on it. We are still navigating through the lengthly application process (it's a lot stricter up here), so won't be starting to build for at least another 6 months or so. I don't claim to know everything about growing, and would greatly appreciate any input and advice

And don't worry about the pics, it'll be nice to have them here as a reference.

Start with a detailed blueprint. It always makes things go soo much smoother. Blueprints that show room dimension, tables, reservoirs, electrical outlets....etc. Get it right on paper and the building process will go smooth.

I know dudes who just wing it and they end up having to run extension cords all over the place, cause they dont have outlets where they need them... space gets very tight and they dont have room for certain peices of equipment... Blueprints first are the way to go.

 

[Shiva Blaster]

My reflectors are 2.5 feet from the canopy, and I measure leaf surface temp to make sure things arent too hot. My tables are a foot and a half off the ground and my plants are usually 3-4 feet tall. So my lights are about 8 feet high. Im only 5'11", so I dont come close to touching them. I've never had one explode or pop either, and I've gotten them wet with sprays plenty of times.

I use Ushio bulbs, which are pretty tough bulbs.

Thanks for bringing that up, that's another question I have. On bigger scales, is it worth it to invest in expensive bulbs? I'm not familiar with Ushio, I'm normally a Hotilux Eye guy.