I got a new home over the last couple months and my own personal stash has dried up as a result of having moved and not been growing. Luckily, I help medical folks grow, harvest, trim, etc. and have a nice little stock of buds to keep me cruising by until winter releases her grip and we can get back to growing outdoor photo monsters! In the meantime, here is my take on keeping things clean, simple, and creative/innovative to give anyone a step ahead in the world of growing cannabis. I was going to build a grow room in my garage to really help control the environment, but that would defeat my goal of simplicity. So, I built a deck out of scrap lumber and plywood to keep my setup off of the cold concrete floor and have been improvising since and believe I have now found some harmony without the need for extravagance.
My basic setup is this:
3'x3'x6' tent (90cmx90cmx180cm)
(1) Viparspectra Reflector 600 LED, 276W actual draw. 18/6 schedule.
(2) Mars Hydro 300W older style (full spectrum always) 126W actual draw. 18/6 schedule.
4" Hurricane exhaust fan mounted externally on a shelf to take weight off tent, plus carbon filter inside of course.
Remote temp and humidity monitoring station, I have probes in two locations and can add a third if wanted/needed.
Open intake flap with Canfilter foam cut to size and duct taped on to help keep the dust out.
Vivosun oscillating fan in a custom contraption for the lower canopy and down on the stems, another small oscillating fan for the upper canopy. Can add more if needed.
(3) 7gal "tall" black plastic horticultural pots.
(1) 3gal Bloem planter
KIS Organics Water Only soil just how it came out of the bag. I did use Mykos in the planting holes, but otherwise soil is non-amended and has not been grown in yet.
I am using a 750/1500W heater to keep my garage at about 65F, but it is on the 750 setting and all the way down at about 15-20% power, so I am guessing she is drawing around 100-150W maybe all day long, it's about like having a second light, yes, but once flowering starts I will only run it when the lights go off to keep ambient up slightly. So my garage is at 65F, but inside tent temps fluctuate between 78-81F with lights on and the exhaust running full time. 67-71F with the lights off and exhaust still running. The heater is on the right side of the tent with the intake flap sealed shut, so just radiant heat, its not really being drawn in by the exhaust per se. On the left side of the tent I have a Vick's Warm Air humidifier running in front of the open intake flap to help keep my RH just right. I was keeping it up close to 60%, but got reading about VPD and found that 45% is much better during early veg growth, so I just moved the humidifier slightly further away until my monitor shows 45% at the plant canopy level.
For genetics I have quite a few to choose from, so I grabbed randomly from the goody bag and rolled with what came out. (2) Royal Queen Northern Lights Auto's are each in one of the 7gal pots. One may need culling as it came out with a broken off cotyledon, but is still growing very slowly, hopefully she is just rooting like crazy. The other random grab pulled a 3 pack of Autoseeds Hijack. I have never seen seeds germinate so fast in my life, these are very fresh and very high quality genetics. All three were cracked in under 6 hours, I will post my method after my intro post is concluded. Anyhow, one of those seeds is in the 3gal Bloem pot, the other two are sharing the final 7gal. If the NL gets culled I will put something else in it's place as the Hijacks have been rooting for two days before popping the soil yesterday and will not be transplantable. All three came up within a 10 minute span. Talk about uniformity!
Other than what's mentioned above, my only inputs are filtered and dechlorinated/oxygenated tap water, daily through vegetive I will be foliar feeding a 0-4-0 crab and shrimp shell meal, and once pre-flowers show I will also foliar feed with a kelp bloom enhancer about twice per week. I am hoping to just let the Hijacks grow mostly naturally with just some leaf tucking, though the shared pot may need a little LST to keep them out of each other's arm space. The NL's might need a topping to keep their canopy height even with the shorter Hijacks, or maybe some supercropping depending on space.
Well, I think that's about it for now, ask away if you have any questions.