Grow room

[dierichmotorsports]

My wife and I are wanting to build a low budget grow room. Interested in an ideas you guys can throw my way.

 

[oldfogey8]

Start with a tent(i’d get a 4x4x 6+ ft), air movement fans, exhaust fan, odor filter and most importantly, a light. I have cheapo ‘blurple’ LEDs but if you have a good budget, buy something of better quality. You need to decide on soil or hydro, organic or chemical fertilizers too. I do organic soil. Seems easier to me. I have junky lights in a 3x3 tent and I get over a pound a year. Really good hobby. Do some reading on this site and others and model your grow after some that look like you could do easily then you will figure out better and better ways to make a grow work for you. Good luck.

 

[2RedEyes]

Some things to consider...
Space, do you have a whole room or are you creating a room wit a tent or such...
Light, I use leds cuz I just got started and it seems to work for me...
Feeding, do you need automation or will it be manual feeding?
Lots of other things to be thinkin about...each of these categories opens Pandora’s box of grow goodies...
You should hear from some others soon as well...good luck and welcome to MP...

 

[Keef]

What OF said but I was gonna ask about space available ?- Are U up north or in the south - Different climates pose different problems - In the south we got the heat to deal with up north the cold -- I don't use a tent or filters I'm in the country - I got my aeroboxes and some plants in dirt just sitting in a room with the lights hanging from the ceiling and an a.c. window unit --I'm a cloner -- I run a continuous grow - for a continuous grow U need 2 grow areas or grow rooms !-- one for veg at 18/6 or 24/7 under light and one for bloom at 12/12 - I clone from clones a clone is nothing more than a rooted cutting !-- If U in a legal state U might want to just buy clones and avoid seed - or even get feminized seed ( everyone is a girl )--
Good luck on the grow !--

 

[oldfogey8]

Good genetics will give you good plants. I ave only grown photoperiod(as opposed to autoflower). Having cruddy genetics may leave you disappointed. A pack of 10 regular(as opposed to feminized) seeds can cost as little as $80 or go into the $100’s(probably but I wouldn’t spend that). Do you want sativa(generally more energetic) or indica(generally more Stoney) or a hybrid? If you know someone with bagseed, practice germinating with those. It sucks to spend $100+ on seeds and find that your germination method doesn’t work. If you can’t get bagseed, find a seed site with freebies. I bought from attitude seeds my first go-round and got more free seeds than the seeds I bought and got some pretty nice plants for ‘free’(lol).

 

[Locked]

I started 10 years ago and had no clue as to what it would really take to grow my own smoke. I began in my attic because it was winter and the attic is dark. Figured I could cheap out and not get a proper grow area. Thankfully I found this place and the kind people here set me straight without making me feel like I was a dummy. I still run a budget grow room 10 years later. Some tips that have worked for me.

Unless you are handy and have the resources, buy grow tents. Start with at least 2. One should be bigger than the other for flowering. Despite what some people will say budget tents off eBay work well and won't set you back a lot in the money department. The first 2 tents I bought off eBay lasted me years. I still only use tents off there.

Decide if you want to grow in soil or Hydro. I am a soil person. I have tried Hydro and it is less forgiving. If you do go soil find a soil that does not have nutrients added to it. I use Miracle grow Seed Starter mix. It only has a tiny bit of nutrients added to it for initial growth.

Nutrients. I have always used General Hydroponics 3 part system. Grow, Micro, and Bloom. They are cheap and work great.

A good PH meter. I can't stress enough how important this is. I would guess a good 90 percent of new growers' problems are PH related. This an area you can not skimp on. PH strips are garbage. I used to use a PH pen but switched to a meter with a PH probe because you can keep the meter and replace the probe when needed. It will be needed. I replace my probe once a year. Proper PH is the difference between a great grow and one plagued with problems. You can do everything correctly and if your PH is off enough you will have deficiency problems. Worry about the PH of everything that goes into your soil, not the soil itself. I have found that checking soil PH only sends you down a rabbit hole of chasing non-existent problems.

Get a good light and make sure you have enough light. When I started I tried to use these huge CFL lights because the alternative was more expensive HID lighting. I learned quickly that those CFL lights suck. Luckily for you, it is the age of cheap but good LED lighting. I switched from HPS HID lighting years ago and have not looked back. The time of buying and changing expensive hot bulbs is gone. There are a ton of choices when it comes to LEDs. It all comes down to your budget. I have my preference. My first LED setup was a Mars light. I still have it like 5 years later and it still works just as well as when I first got it. It is in my Veg Tent right now. I paid almost 300 bucks for it at the time. Then I had a custom light built where you could replace the light clusters and everything else inside the unit. It worked well for a grow and then I started having to replace the clusters quite often. Then I got a King LED, 1200 unit. I was so impressed with it my first grow that I got another, a 1500. I still have both of those units in my 4x4x6.5 flower tent. They kick the Mars units asss. I paid 135 bucks for the 1200 and 150 bucks for the 1500. I recommend them to anyone on a budget. You can get them from Amazon and if you are like me you get free 2-day shipping if you have Prime.

You will also need an inline fan for air exchange. This is also another critical item. Always have the fan pulling air from the tent and releasing it out of the tent. If you need to be stealth you will also need a carbon filter. I don't use one because I am lucky enough to be able to vent out the window of the grow room, which is on the 2nd floor.

Those are my basic must-haves.

Some key points. If you are growing in soil make sure everything you put into your soil is PH'd to 6.5. This gives you enough room on the 6.3 to 6.8 PH level for soil. I don't, however, PH any water until the first feed. Once you start feeding you need to worry about PH.
You should also have a magnifying device to check your trichomes towards the end of flower to know when to harvest. Sometimes I harvest at all cloudy, sometimes cloudy and amber. The more amber the more down the buzz.

Oh and the most important part. Don't tell anyone, especially if you are in a state where it is illegal. That cool friend might not always be your cool friend. Where I live I deal with a long prison sentence if caught. Even if you live somewhere where it is legal, word of mouth can get around and bad people will do bad things. Like rob your bud.


Good luck and Green Mojo. This site will be more than helpful with any questions or problems that ultimately will arise on your first grow.

 

[Keef]

I'm with OF on practice germinating on bag seed or something cheap !-- I also only run photos mostly indica or indica leaning -- and I use it to make my medicine - I also run those dam pink LED lights like OF --Had them long time !-- mars hydro 300 Watt reflector series -- I'm buy me new lights soon -- I'm looking at Spider Farmer LEDs 1,000 to 1,500 watts -- White grow lights !-- Someone see pink light it's a dead give away what U doing !-

 

[stinkyattic]

1. Read all the grow journals you can find. Look at the setups. Then answer some questions to yourself:
How much space do you have and how easy is it to control the temps in that space WITHOUT plants in it? What seasonal variations do you already see in that space? How handy are you? What time are you willing to put into initial build and daily garden chores? How many amps can your wiring take? Do you have kids, pets, or in-laws around hide a garden from?
2. Decide on a strain or two. Look for something reviewed well for ease of growing at first. Indoors, quick flowering, short plants are hardest to totally fail with. Afghanis in particular and their hybrids in general tend to be quite resilient, and are easy to find. Tropical sativas with a long flowering time and tall habit can be a race against the clock for a brand new grower. Start simple. You've got plenty of time to explore the wild world of weed!
3. Listen to the great advice here and don't be afraid to ask questions! We love growing and sharing info and inspiration

 

[stinkyattic]

Oh also I forgot one more:
4. Be very wary of posting under a handle you use on non weed sites, or can be traced to a business or hobby, especially one that posts stats or results. This site content will in fact show up in a Google search. Just looking out.

 

[Daxtell]

Start with a tent(i’d get a 4x4x 6+ ft), air movement fans, exhaust fan, odor filter and most importantly, a light. I have cheapo ‘blurple’ LEDs but if you have a good budget, buy something of better quality. You need to decide on soil or hydro, organic or chemical fertilizers too. I do organic soil. Seems easier to me. I have junky lights in a 3x3 tent and I get over a pound a year. Really good hobby. Do some reading on this site and others and model your grow after some that look like you could do easily then you will figure out better and better ways to make a grow work for you. Good luck.

Also a timer for the light, if you grow photo period plants. If it is an auto, the timer isn't absolutely necessary.