First time grower! Looking for some advice.

[DankB]

Hello Everyone,

 

I hope you all have enjoyed your weekends! Novice grower here from the Midlands, England and i have been doing shit tons of  research into growing my first stash so that I have the freedom of being able to enjoy a wider variety of strains and maybe pick up an awesome hobby along the way.

 

I have just moved into my first house with the GF and we have a pretty big outside sectional garage which has an asbestos corrugated roof . I am currently eyeing up the garage for a little project and have been given the all clear by the boss.

I am currently using the garage for tool storage and a workshop. I have already used expanding foam to fill all the gaps in between the corrugated roof and the side panels and used some foil bubble wrap insulation from good old screwfix to cover the clear parts of the Corrugated Roof, Walls,Windows and Double Doors. The environment in there has improved but im sure there’s lots of work to be done to transform it into a safe and cosey environment for some stinky plants as its still cold in there!

I have been making a list of what equipment I think I am going to need and would massively appreciate it if any more experienced growers can give me a hand in validating my list. I only want to grow a plant or 2 because I just want to have my own supply which will hopefully save me money in the long run and the garage is in between my house and my neighbors so I need to make it as stealthy as possible. Below is my list

-          Gorilla Grow Tent Shorty – 2ft x 2.5ft x 5.11ft

-          Ac Infinity 130w Iongrid T22 Light

-          Ac Infinity Extract 4”

-          Ac infinity Carbon Filter 4”

-          2 x 6” Circulation Fans

-          INC Bird Humidity Controller

-          INC Bird Temperature Controller

-          Reptile Tank Humidifier

-          Dehumidifier

-          Some sort of heating for Canopy

-          Some sort of heating for Roots

Now I know I will need to insulate my Grow tent and I don’t want to do much more to the structure of the garage as I will be knocking it down in the next couple of years and building a brick garage with a mate of mine, I have had a look through some other builds on here to get some inspiration and thought I could maybe make a Carcass out of wood which would be raised of the concrete base of the garage and also insulated to keep the grow tent toasty in the colder months and cooler in the summer. Is there any alarm bells ringing with my list above and has anyone made a build in a garage similar to mine and had successful runs?? Im a sparky by trade and like to think im pretty good with my hands when in comes to general building work so I wouldn’t find it a problem having to build my own enclosure. Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

Cheers  

[frank0420]

Hi @DankB I also started to grow in my garage and my first grow in the dairies section. I have a 2x2x5 foot tent and I built a wooden box called a lung room or box to fit the tent in. The box is 4x5x6 made from 9mm OSB board and fully covered with 50mm kingspan Insulation Board. Inside this box I stapled Double Aluminium Bubble Foil Insulation. The floor got a thick 20mm MDF and have to admit it works well. I have the back flap of the tent fully opened  as there is a small 800watt oil radiator at the other side and it has not been on at all day as its been warm today It will kick on when temps drop below 22c. The radiator is hooked up to an Inkbird temp controller. Most important at the back of the box near this radiator is a 4" hole and the foil ducting goes into the house supplying warm air flow. The 8 gang wall socket sits outside the tent in the box for extra safety. If you want to see my first grow here is the link.

http://www.uk420.com/boards/index.php?/topic/422020-first-time-grower-northern-lights-auto/

 

Best of luck with your growing as I'm still learning and making rookie mistakes. Check out the grow dairies as they are full of great info and the guys here are super at helping you out.

 

 

[DankB]

Thanks for the reply @frank0420 I will definitely check out your diary, it sounds similar to what I was thinking of doing myself but at least i have somewhere to start. Does the oil rad manage to keep your soil warm, or do you use a heated mat to do that? love the idea of pulling warm air from a central heated house. if only my garage was connected to the side of mine i would defiantly be doing the same but it looks like i will have to pull my air from the garage itself with maybe some type of filter to keep the creepy crawleys and the dust out. How did you manage to extract air from the wooden box? did you just saw a hole big enough for the ducting through the side of your lung room and the insulation? 

 

 

[frank0420]

1 hour ago, DankB said:

Thanks for the reply @frank0420 I will definitely check out your diary, it sounds similar to what I was thinking of doing myself but at least i have somewhere to start. Does the oil rad manage to keep your soil warm, or do you use a heated mat to do that? love the idea of pulling warm air from a central heated house. if only my garage was connected to the side of mine i would defiantly be doing the same but it looks like i will have to pull my air from the garage itself with maybe some type of filter to keep the creepy crawleys and the dust out. How did you manage to extract air from the wooden box? did you just saw a hole big enough for the ducting through the side of your lung room and the insulation? 

 

 

The 800w oil rad is only turned on half way up on its dial and seems to keep the lung box going at a temp of 20-26c with the inkbird set it does keep the soil at 20c as i do test it with a good compost thermometer.

 I used a "M3 Bi Metal Holesaw 102mm" to cut a hole in the back of the lung box and this pulls in warm/cool air from the house and then its extracted via the actual tent flap at the back up to the 4" extractor ducting that leads to an AC Infinity CLOUDLINE T4, Quiet 4” Inline Duct Fan with a Rhrino Pro 4" carbon filter.

In this pic you can see the oil radiator behind the tent. I check it every other week and it has not damaged the back of the tent heat wise as the box itself warms up with it and so does the tent. These two girls have received some LST at 4 weeks old.

 

Edited April 25, 2022 by frank0420

[DankB]

23 hours ago, frank0420 said:

The 800w oil rad is only turned on half way up on its dial and seems to keep the lung box going at a temp of 20-26c with the inkbird set it does keep the soil at 20c as i do test it with a good compost thermometer.

 I used a "M3 Bi Metal Holesaw 102mm" to cut a hole in the back of the lung box and this pulls in warm/cool air from the house and then its extracted via the actual tent flap at the back up to the 4" extractor ducting that leads to an AC Infinity CLOUDLINE T4, Quiet 4” Inline Duct Fan with a Rhrino Pro 4" carbon filter.

In this pic you can see the oil radiator behind the tent. I check it every other week and it has not damaged the back of the tent heat wise as the box itself warms up with it and so does the tent. These two girls have received some LST at 4 weeks old.

 

How is your setup on electricity? Do you use dehumidifiers and humidifiers aswell on controller’s? Just looking at lights now what do you think to these telos 6 Pro Mesh 180w led lights. 

[Should Know Betterer]

Put a box over the radiator with ducting from box to inlet and you should get sufficient heat from just heating the box 

[Baron von greenback]

I would build it as big as you can mate and even thinking ahead when you want a clone room veg room and flower room  i know you say 2 plants but i telling you it becomes addictive you will want to be doing all sorts breeding in the end  thats what happened to me and probably most on here as well good luck see adam site sponsor for lights mate he see you right

[frank0420]

9 hours ago, DankB said:

How is your setup on electricity? Do you use dehumidifiers and humidifiers aswell on controller’s? Just looking at lights now what do you think to these telos 6 Pro Mesh 180w led lights. 

Because its all contained in a insulated padded lung box it seems to be low in electricity and the 800w radiator is only turning on via the inkbird when it gets cold (below 20c) in the late evening through till mornings. I only use two small mushroom USB mister/humidifiers also low on electric and got a good 70% humidity for my seedlings and veg. The mushroom USB humidifiers are in 1ltr mason jars full of filtered water, they are on an intermittent mist spray and need to be rebooted every 12hrs. (See pic below ) Now I only use one as I'm in flower. Here is a pic of the set up in veg stage..saving electric again using a USB fan that can be moved up or down that is attached to 3mm plywood then simply zip tied to my poles. This brushless 80mm PC USB fan is attached to a 24 Hour Segment Timer Switch that switched on and off every 30mins. I do not have a lot of knowledge on lights or LEDs, I use the Viperspactra and according to videos I have watched there good.

Edited April 27, 2022 by frank0420

[DankB]

On 4/27/2022 at 0:30 AM, Baron von greenback said:

I would build it as big as you can mate and even thinking ahead when you want a clone room veg room and flower room  i know you say 2 plants but i telling you it becomes addictive you will want to be doing all sorts breeding in the end  thats what happened to me and probably most on here as well good luck see adam site sponsor for lights mate he see you right

 

I'm only growing for my own supply mate and don't smoke more than a q a month. just looking to be able to pick up a new hobby and grow the strains I am interested in smoking. all of these different strains you can buy nowadays look amazing. 

 

On 4/27/2022 at 7:56 AM, frank0420 said:

Because its all contained in a insulated padded lung box it seems to be low in electricity and the 800w radiator is only turning on via the inkbird when it gets cold (below 20c) in the late evening through till mornings. I only use two small mushroom USB mister/humidifiers also low on electric and got a good 70% humidity for my seedlings and veg. The mushroom USB humidifiers are in 1ltr mason jars full of filtered water, they are on an intermittent mist spray and need to be rebooted every 12hrs. (See pic below ) Now I only use one as I'm in flower. Here is a pic of the set up in veg stage..saving electric again using a USB fan that can be moved up or down that is attached to 3mm plywood then simply zip tied to my poles. This brushless 80mm PC USB fan is attached to a 24 Hour Segment Timer Switch that switched on and off every 30mins. I do not have a lot of knowledge on lights or LEDs, I use the Viperspactra and according to videos I have watched there good.

 Cheers for the info bud. i had most of my equipment delivered this week so i am about to start building my growdrobe for the garage. you have gave me alot of ideas! ended up buying the Telos 006 180w Led in the end.