Chapter 3: Necessities and Basic Installations
3.1. Preface
In this chapter, everything necessary for home-growing is
discussed. After describing the conditions required for your grow
room, we pay some attention to the materials you need to get
started. Two things are always important: proper climate control,
and complete safety. Growing plants indoors roughly involves
three things: light, air, and water. After listing the necessary
materials and equipment, we reveal the most important aspects
about how you can achieve the best results.
3.2. The grow room
The first requirement for a grow room is that it must enable
you to know how best to control the temperature, air circulation,
and humidity. In any case, for good climate control, it is
necessary prevent draught. For this reasons, a garage or a shed
are often less suitable. If you see possibilities to make a
garage or shed free of draught, then, of course, there is no
objection. The grow room must be completely screened off. Make
sure that everything not directly involved with growing is
removed. That way, you prevent the chance for moulds and insects
as much as possible. In fact, the grow room should be just as
sterile as the operating room in a hospital You can only expect
optimum climate control if the room is totally sealed. In
practice, that means taping up windows and don't forget aal the
gaps and narrow openings around doors and windows . In some
cases, it is advisable to place a wall as a screen between the
other activities in a room. When growing under artificial light,
it is important that the walls of the grow room absorb as little
light as possible. Experiments have proved that flat-white paint
has the best light-reflecting properties. So, cover the walls of
the grow room with matt white paint. This will maximize the
light-yield per lamp. The space must also be arranged in such way
that everything is within reach. That means you have to have room
to walk around the tanks or tables where you're growing. It also
means leaving enough space to take care of your lamps, and be
able to water all the plants. A garden measuring 3x3 meters needs
200 liters of water per week, or more. All that water is not
absorbed by the plants' roots, thus a drainage system is needed.
The floor must be a smooth material; concrete is ideal. With
other kinds of floor surfaces, it is advisable to use (white)
vinyl or linoleum. Also consider an upright brim, so that water
cannot leak to lower stories of the building. Finally, it's handy
to have a place to store the tools you're using. A small cupboard
(painted matt white!) in the grow room is best. There's another
reason to work in a well-sealed grow room: your activities should
not be seen. Also, make sure that the bright lights you'll be
using aren't visible from outside . . . in-/outlet
box
inletbox/outlet lattice
3.3. The shopping list
You don't need a lot of equippement to grow cannabis on a
(very) small scale. A grow tank, soil, nutrients, enough light,
and an agreeable temperature make growing hemp indoors quite
possible A good alternative for growing in soil is to fill
planting pots with lava stone granules, or with rockwool flakes.
In order to achieve a smooth growth- and floweringprocess you
must pay a lot of attention to ventilation, regular watering,
proper lighting, etc. Without appliances, you have to care for
the plants every day. Therefore, you have to choose between
growing in soil or in rockwool. Working on rockwool is
advantageous because you don't have to drag bags of soil around
Still, some weed growers swear by soil, because they think the
quality of weed isn't as good if you grow on rockwool. Others see
no difference. They would rather grow on rockwool, because they
can achieve a greater yield. There are, however, many factors
which affect the healthy growth and flowering of cannabis. 'Green
fingers' are certainly not the least important We've made a
shopping list for (semi-) professional growing on rockwool
substrate. Cheaper alternatives can be devised for many of the
articles. We'll return to the three aspects light, air, and water
later in greater detail. The materials listed below will cost
between 2250, and 3000 guilders for a grow space slightly larger
than two square meters:
- 3 armatures for high-pressure gas lamps;
- relay box for the lamps;
- 12 libra trays with water drainage;
- 12 rockwool slabs;
- 36 rockwool blocks 7.5 x 7.5 x 6.5 cm;
- irrigation system with an immersible pump, electric timer
clock, water reser voir, air pump, heating element
- ventilator for the intake and outlet of fresh air and the
discharge of humidity;
- measuring cups (100 and 500 ml);
- hygrometer;
- pH meter;
- EC meter;
- thermometer with indications for minimum- and maximum
temperatures;
- fertilizers;
- saltpeter/phosphoric acid.
Unfortunately, you're still not ready, even with the materials
listed above. Optimum climate control is needed for growing
indoors. A ventilation system can (and in some cases, must) be
added; varying from a simple bathroom ventilator to a more
expensive carbon dioxide box ventilator with a humidifying
system. You can go for a larger-scale approach by providing a
system to keep the CO2 content optimal, by installing
air-conditioning, or your own water purification regulated by
osmotic filters, or by using a computer to regulate feeding. You
can easily spend more than 20,000 guilders for a complete
home-grow system if you want .
CO2 computer
..........................................................flow-unit
3.4. Grow room layout
First, the lamps are installed. It's important to ensure enough
power capacity. The three lamps together require 1200 watts of
power, while the pump and the ventilator also draw current. The
safest manner is to allow a separate circuit in your tool
cabinet. With a 16-ampere circuit, you have 2800 watts at your
disposal. The circuit does provide more power than that, but you
cannot use it all. When the lamps are turned on, they use more
power than the 400 to 600 watts they give off. Too high a current
drain will blow the fuse The lamps must be distributed so that
the entire growing surface will be evenly illuminated.
lampheight
It's a good idea to build a wooden frame to hang the lamps, and
to hold the libra-trays. Other devices can be fastened to the
frame later. Second, the libra trays are arranged. libra trays
are well-suited for growing indoors, because they provide
drainage for water run-off. We can also use so-called drainsets.
These should be assembled first. When they're assembled, they can
be snapped onto the trays. If you don't have access to a drain,
it's wise to build a drainage tank. As an alternative to libra
trays, you can, of course, use ordinary pots. If you don't want
to use drain sets, you can drain water via gutters. The growing
trays are filled with rockwool slabs. Holes are cut into the
slabs for the rockwool blocks. The blocks are fastened to the
slabs with pins. The rockwool blocks are saturated with water and
fertilizer. After laying out the irrigation system, the rockwool
slabs are then cut on the underside in order to allow excess
water to drain. We'll set up the irrigation system. First, make
an electrical outlet (earth ground!). The outlet should be
conveniently located, right next to the fertilizer tank. We'll
put the fertilizer tank just next to, or even underneath, our
grow-table(s). The immersible pump is placed in the fertilizer
tank to pump the fertilizer to the plants. The pump is turned on
and off by a timer switch. This way, we make sure the plants get
their water and nutrients on time. A tube is attached to the
pump. This tube is connected to a flexible polyethylene hose.
This polyethylene hose is suspended over the middle of the libra
trays. The end of the hose is sealed with a cap. Punch holes for
the sprinklers. The next step is the installation of an air pump
with an aerator. The aerator is placed in the nutrient tank so
algae won't grow so rapidly. The air bubbles generated by the
pump and the aerator take care of that. This way, you also insure
that sufficient oxygen gets in the water, and that the fertilizer
components remains in motion. Next, put a heating element in the
nutrient tank. The element has to maintain the water temperature.
To be able to check the temperature, we place a thermometer in
the tank. Watering can now begin; the nutrient tank may be filled
with water and the proper amount of fertilizer. Pay attention
when you mix the fertilizer. Follow the directions on the package
accurately. They describe the correct amounts of fertilizer to
apply.
Ph
and Ecmeter
With too little feeding, the law of minimums comes into play;
delayed growth and flowering; unhealthy plants. With
over-feeding, the plants will burn . When you apply various kinds
of fertilizer (also called A- and B-nutrients), make sure the
materials don't make contact with each other. If that happens,
then a chemical reaction occurs between the phosphate in the one,
and the calcium in the other. Calcium phosphate forms, and the
fertilizer loses potency To find out whether or not the
fertilizer you're using has the right concentration, we use an EC
meter (see the chapter about water). With too low an EC
measurement, you should mix in more fertilizer. With too high a
reading, you should dilute the solution with more water. In
addition, the acidity of the water - the pH value - is important.
We measure this with a pH meter (see the chapter on water). When
the pH value is too high, we can lower it with
saltpetre/phosphoric acid. When the pH value is too low, we can
raise it with a solution of calcium carbonate. You must be very
careful with concentrated saltpetre/phosphoric acid. It will burn
holes in your clothes, and it will seriously burn your skin, too
The irrigation system is now ready to be tested. Always make sure
the water pump is never turned on in the absence of water. This
can burn up the pump's motor. Place a sprinkler in one of the
measuring cups and determine how much time it takes to pump
approximately 50 cc of water and nutrient into the measuring cup.
Program this time into your timer. It's intended that each plant
gets around 300 cc water and fertilizer, divided over at least 6
feeding times. If you have a timer which can be switched on and
off more often, then you can spread the 300 cc over more feeding
times. As an example, we'll consider 6 times. The first 50 cc
feeding is given at the moment the lights are turned on, and the
last, two hours before the lights are turned off. The other four
feedings are neatly divided, via the timer clock, among the
periods in between. Plants take in water and nutrients only under
the influence of light. This is the reason for giving water and
nutrients when the light is on. The last feeding is given
approximately two hours before turning the lights off; in order
to give the plants the chance to absorb the water before the dark
period. The quantities we refer to in this book are average
values. The starting point of every grower must ultimately be
raising healthy plants. So you also have to have green fingers as
you do the watering and feeding
Next month Chapter 4.
in-/outlet
box
lampheight
Ph
and Ecmeter