Need Advice On Grow Room

[medmanmike]

About to put together a grow room and would like some advice.  The area is underneath the basement steps.  It's already boxed in and covered with foil sided insulation. The underside of the steps and the door are also covered with foil-sided insulation. Size is 38" (3') X 9' X 7' high, or 189 cubic ft.   Given the nature of the space (e.g.. stair slope) I really only have 1/2 that or 95 c ft. The floor is dirt, by the way.

 

I'm thinking of two possible designs:  1.  a 3 X 3 area immediately inside the door.  I know I can find a light to fill the space, which should accomodate 6-9 plants.  The downside is there is no way I can get behind the 3X3' space due to the narrowness and the declining height of the slope of the staircase. This would also dictate that I could only have one grow - for all practical purposes - at a time.  

 

Option 2. would be to build shelves along one side. They would be 1.5' X 4' total. I would probably divide the space into two 1.5' X 2' spaces.  This would give me one area for veg (2 plants) and one for flower (2 plants).  It would also give me space to get to the back of the room where I could set up a small area for seedlings and clones. Admittedly this is a more limited space, but it allows me multiple areas for different stages of growth.

 

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Regarding lights:  if I go with option two, which would have a veg and flower area,  I'm considering using  parabolic clamp lights with a 4 socket adaptor and populating them with CFLs of the proper color.  I'm thinking a total of 400-600 W of lights per plant.  Thoughts?  

 

Thanks in advance!

 

 

[Celliach]

You're growing for yourself, right?

 

Cover the foil to prevent hot spots.  White paint is best.

 

If you're going to put both stages of growth in the same place, you have to separate them so they have different lighting.  The space seems too small for that too me.

 

Doing all one grow at once could put you over the limit of 2.5 ounces.  I wouldn't recommend that.

 

Isn't there another closet you could use?

[Highlander]

One option is to find a CG who doesn't need your plants. Get rooted clones from him and put them into flower right away. That way you only need one grow room. Harvest 1-2 plants at a time and replace them with fresh clones.

[medmanmike]

One option is to find a CG who doesn't need your plants. Get rooted clones from him and put them into flower right away. That way you only need one grow room. Harvest 1-2 plants at a time and replace them with fresh clones.

@Highlander, great idea. Now, if I could only find a caregiver! Know any available cgs within 50 mi of Holland?

[solabeirtan]

This seems to be somewhat of an afterthought? ...your choice of locations? Its not appropriate for any type of serious growing, in it's current condition. If Access is through the 38 " dimension, makes it impossible . No floor ? Any elec ? Good luck...

[medmanmike]

This seems to be somewhat of an afterthought? ...your choice of locations? Its not appropriate for any type of serious growing, in it's current condition. If Access is through the 38 " dimension, makes it impossible . No floor ? Any elec ? Good luck...

No, not an afterthought. It's really the only "enclosed" space available short of a space out In the open, ie, a tent. The space I described has an old irrigation well, hence the dirt floor, etc. it has a door (so its lockable)' electricity (220v) so there's plenty of juice and there was a 4" PVC pipe that distributed the water outside to the sprinkling system (which could easily be converted for ventilation, etc.). It's not perfect, ie, small, but not that much different than a small "tent" and it does has significant infrastructure built in as I mentioned above. Thanks for your comments.