1800w Stadium Grow

[ColdNorthNights]

Just getting started here with a simple stadium grow. I was inspired by Northern Farmer, Heath, and some of the other verticle grow guru's.

I'm growing several strains from seed: Nirvana's Bubbleicious, AK47, and Lowlife's Auto Mix Pack. I just germmed 10 Nirvana White Widows yesterday and am waiting for them to sprout. I'm looking for decent pheno's to clone and fill the room up.

I'm using BlazeOneUp's soil mix. And so far am very happy with the results. Unfortunately my 600w HID's got back ordered and came in a bit late and so these guys all were stuck under 210w of CFL's for the first 3 weeks of the grow. However they are growing fast now. 2 more weeks of Veg tops and then I'm flipping them.

Here's some pics:



Pre-Transplant



Post-Transplant:

 

[Grizz]

looks good bro, I also grow stadium and love it, Im doing the same thing you are, looking for moms, so far the sour bubble bx1 and appalacian are my best canadates..

 

[ColdNorthNights]

Awesome man. Got any photos of your setup? Love to check out how you set yours up.

I'm noticing some pretty high temps during mid day if I put my thermometer directly in the bulbs heat radius. Like 89 degrees. But the air temp is only about 79 degrees. I'm going to make my passive intake hole larger from 4" to 8" this weekend. Wife is never happy when I cut or enlarge holes in the house but it needs to be done. I'm confidant that will fix my issue.

Does anyone think these 89 to 90 degree temps will stunt growth or cause other issues? I'm keeping a good breeze on them and blowing cool air from the floor directly up over the bulbs and extracting the heat from directly above them.

This is my first time not using air cooled hoods and I've noticed I can actually get the bare bulbs pretty damn close to the plants without any signs of physical heat damage.

 

[Moleculist]

Some sort of a cooltube for the lights would probably help a lot and let you get your plants considerably closer.

85-90 Isn't especially bad but it is the higher end of what you want.

 

[Grizz]

Hey cold I can't upload on my computer. But is exactly like N F pic in the first page of his thread, not trying to tell you what to do but with this set up about 1 to 2 weeks veg is enough,I really don't think your temps will be a problem as long as you keep that cool air moving on the lights ,

 

[ColdNorthNights]

Yeah I got a slow start with those CFL's. I just transplanted from small 1 gallon square pots up to 2 gallon grow bags. Was figuring I should give them at least a week and a half to expand the root system into the new medium before I flip the lights. I'm anxious though...

 

[Dr Dog]

OK I like you set up, but you are going to be fighting heat all the time, without them being cooltubed. The heat alone from 1 600 hps, can heat your sized room to 80 all by itself, then add a couple more lights, and you are in the 90's

I am not sure that you can combat this using lots of ventilation, the heat is still being expunged into your room, and as you said you can feel it in the lights radius, no different, that a stove really.


As for your repotting question, I try and give them at least 2 weeks after repotting before I flip lights, otherwise, by changing light schedule, the roots will slow down growth, and you will be left with alot of void of medium, that will help promote root rot, and you don't want that

patience is key when growing weed

 

[Grizz]

hey dr.dog,hate to disagree with you and ain't trying to start no shit but Im running two 1000w and a 600w in a 8x6x8 room here in the desert where temps get 115 this summer, Im running a swamp cooler right at light hight and my room never got over 85 this summer, right now with temps outside at 102 itsn staying 70 in room in the middle of the day with lights on. I also transplant stright from beer cups to 1 gl grow bags and stright into flower using coco, they literly explode with growth and no root rot, watering once a day by hand untill I get run off, If I went anylonger on the veg they would out grow the stadium, short single cola faat assed plants hopefully not over 2 ft tall to make the stadium work at its peak..

 

[ColdNorthNights]

I live in a very cold climate. Leaves are already changing and we'll most likely see our first snow of the season within 30 days or so. So I'm actually not worried about it for the fall/winter season. Right now the temps only climb up to 90 degrees when the sun is beating down on the house and it's above 70 degrees outside. This is only happening every other day and only for an hour or two. If I only have 1 light on it stays really cool in there. It's when I turn on a HPS bulb that I really notice the jump.

The air temp is fine in the room it's just that heat radius from the bulb. Any closer than about 16" and it gets pretty hot. Not really a massive problem I don't guess as I'm switching from 24 hours of light down to 18 hours of light today. The 6 hour darkness planned for the hottest part of the day will completely resolve the issue. Coupled with doubling the size of my fresh air intake will totally remove the issue. So I think I got it handled.

Now granted. Come next summer if I still have the stadium going I'll have to get some cool tubes or a portable A/C unit to keep things a bit cooler. But for now I should be good to go.

As for the plants getting beyond 3' high. I was actually shooting for a finished height of 4' for the bottom row of plants that sit on the floor. I'm right around 16" now and am experiencing a little bit more stretching then I'm used to but this is my first seed grow. I have always gotten clones from friends in the past.

I have to say Dr. Chronic's Nirvana Seeds must be damn fresh because I've now germmed over 40 seeds and still have a 100% germination rate. Got 10 brand new white widows waiting to sprout. As soon as I get more more plants in there I'm going to flip on the 3rd 600w Digi and things are really going to start rolling.

The 4 Auto's are budding out nicely even during a 24 hour light cycle. They flowered fast and probably only have a month left to go. So that will give me a little smoke while I wait for all the Bubbles, AK47's to bud out. Little being the key term there. They never got any larger than 12" each.

I'll do a picture update here later today. I installed my CAN66 filter the other day and am really pleased with it's performance. No smell at all unless I shut off the exhaust fan for a while.

Cheers!

 

[Dr Dog]

hey dr.dog,hate to disagree with you and ain't trying to start no shit but Im running two 1000w and a 600w in a 8x6x8 room here in the desert where temps get 115 this summer, Im running a swamp cooler right at light hight and my room never got over 85 this summer, right now with temps outside at 102 itsn staying 70 in room in the middle of the day with lights on. I also transplant stright from beer cups to 1 gl grow bags and stright into flower using coco, they literly explode with growth and no root rot, watering once a day by hand untill I get run off, If I went anylonger on the veg they would out grow the stadium, short single cola faat assed plants hopefully not over 2 ft tall to make the stadium work at its peak..

No offence taken Josey

We all have our opinions, I do have a question for you, this room in an A/C house?

I get temps in the 90s during the summer, and the room with nothing going would be around 85, it is not in an ac house. Add a light and bam, heat jumps massive here, right now under a 95 w cfl, it is 83 and outside it is 78.

I give most of my advice on my experiences.

 

[drelow31@yahoo.]

or you could supplement co2 then the plants can take an increase in tempature with no problems 80-100 degrees dre

 

[Grizz]

No offence taken Josey

We all have our opinions, I do have a question for you, this room in an A/C house?

I get temps in the 90s during the summer, and the room with nothing going would be around 85, it is not in an ac house. Add a light and bam, heat jumps massive here, right now under a 95 w cfl, it is 83 and outside it is 78.

I give most of my advice on my experiences.

No a/c Dr. just the nice swamp cooler and massive amounts of insulation. the cooler sits right in line with the lights, on the other end is the entry into the flower room. I leave this door open with light on and it pushes that hot air right out and up throgh 3 carbon 6in scrubbers mounted high on ceiling, I really couldent belive how good it worked this summer either but it did and does, of course people in high humidity areas won't get away with it but its dry as well the desert hear.
Love your attitude and thats all we can give advise on is your experiances

 

[maryj315]

I love stadium, vert, sog and all the other similar growing styles you guys should have your own section would not mind seeing some more detailed pics of your set up looks nice keep us up to date if you can have a good day.

 

[THRIPS AHOY!]

Hey CNN youre on the right path there.Just make sure u have a good air out and a fan blowing directly on the bulbs.It seems like the temps are really high early on when the room is empty too,but as tyhe plants fill out and get bigger temps seem to drop.I was the the buddy who northern farmer was helpin out when he started that stadium thread.Ive done more than a few of these so i can give u some advice if u need it.

 

[Grizz]

good to have you aboard thrips, another stadium man, is great to have your experiance, what strains are you guys running now?

 

[JamesChong]

I'll be sticking around for this one. I sure do love the stadium grows. Good luck and can't wait to see that room completely full.
Take care,
BG

 

[fumancu]

I allso do a stadium.One thing I really underestamated was drainage.Just wondering what you are going to use.

 

[Grizz]

I allso do a stadium.One thing I really underestamated was drainage.Just wondering what you are going to use.

I can tell you what I did and it seems to be working well, I got those 6in wide metal framing studs or actually there the top or bottom plates as carpenters call them, they have a 2 in lip on each side, I cut them to lenght for my shelves and cut and bent the ends to make them hold water, then I took a hole saw and put a hole on the low end of it and put a cheap sink drain in the hole, sealed with silacone, I have a giant rubber maid tub under my shelves on each side to catch the run off and reuse it untill its all gone then back to the main res and start the process again, watering every day I usally only have to refill main res about every 7 to 8 days.

 

[ColdNorthNights]

MaryJ - Thanks for stopping in! I'll toss some more pics up of both rooms.

Thrips - I've got a Vortex 6" Fan sucking from a Can66 carbon filter. The fan exhausts downstairs. This setup seems adequate for outside ambient temps 75f and below. This time of year our daily highs are 60f and lows are 35f at night. So I'm good to go but will need to put an 8" Vortex in next spring to deal with summertime temps. I just picked up a dual fan thingy the other day. It's setup blowing cool air from the floor directly up over the bulbs. Check it out... As for advice: How close typically can you keep your plants to the bare bulbs in these verticle setups?

James - Yeah I'm stoked to get her full as well! But I'm not seeing a bunch of female preflowers on these guys. Only about 4 or 5 so far . Worst case I'll have to clone the ones I'm sure are female while I wait to get the 10 White Widows that just sprouted going and sexed.

Fumancu & Joesy - Drainage hasn't really been an issue as of yet. I've got poly down on the floor and it's not gotten tore up yet. I've just been pulling each plant down individually and placing it over a tray and watering thoroughly every 2 days. Run off hasn't been too big of an issue as I let them drain for 30 seconds or so before I place them back on the shelf. The temps and airflow evaporate any standing water really quickly. The metal stud idea is brilliant btw!

Give me about 30 mins and I'll do a picture update...

L8terz

 

[Grizz]

cant wait to see your pics CNN, belive me when you get that roon full with your 100 plants you will want a drain system of some sort, makes watering so much easyer and lets you reuse those nutes.