Preparing for my Legal grow (Canada)

[UrsineAuto]

Hey Folks!

Glad to be a part of this awesome community - I have learned so much already just reading on the forums and various guides.

So you may have heard it will soon (oct 17th) be legal to possess and grow within Canada (with ridiculous regulations mind you...) and I would like to start preparing for my legal grow.

While the guides here are great I would like to make sure my understanding of them is correct, and get some canada-specific information.

So with that said, here are my thoughts on the initial setup:

Grow Space: Walk out Garage, bottom story of 3 story town home. Garage is well insulated but not connected to the furnace/AC.
Grow Tent: 4x4 VIVOSUN tent as its available from Amazon Canada
Lights: Looking for a good source, but would like an LED/LEC setup. Would like to avoid different lights for different states at this point.
Ventilation: Plan on using a carbon filter and exhaust fan but unsure of sizing for this setup.
Grow setup: Top Fed DWC. Unsure of brands/specifics at this point
Technique: Would like to try mainlining/manifolding to start.
Budget: Up to $3000 CAD but would like to stay well below that.

So I guess the first question is temperature control - the garage can get cold in the winter (0 - 10C range) so im hoping that tent with autoflowering seeds is enough to keep warm in the winter? Would upgrading to a thicker tent (gorilla tent?) help in that aspect? The summers I don't think I will ever have to worry being the bottom floor and have active ventilation - but please tell me if I'm wrong. Summer temps will be in the 10-20 C range.

Even though it will be legal I still want stealth to be a priority. Will a carbon filter be sufficient in reducing the smell to neighbors and passers by? Would putting ona-gel or other products like that around the window openings help?

Ventilation - is bigger ducting always better? does it have to be vented out a window or can it be vented into the garage (but outside the tent)?

Equipment sources - besides Amazon Canada, are there are any e-tailers I should be aware of that ship to/within canada? I am in a relatively big city so there are local hydroponic stores but im sure the markup will be high.

Brands - Specifically some of the brands on Amazon Canada. Mars Hydro, bloom grow, primegarden, idaoian...any comments on any of these is appreciated.

Now - the thought was to put this together myself and stay away from all in one packages offered. But perhaps that is the wrong approach for a first timer? I just know I like to have control and like to have better than average stuff, and most pre-builts have cut corners somewhere.

So that's a lot of questions I know - but any and all input is very much appreciated!

Cheers

[Sheesh]

Hi Auto, welcome and congrats on legal growing in Canada! I'll throw a few ideas out there. 0-10 is too cold for weed IMO. Keep the pots raised off the floor but even still you'll probably need a small heater, especially for lights off time in the winter. I have a gorilla 4x4 and it's a great tent but I doubt it will help much protecting against cold temps. For ventilation, it's best to have a fresh air supply and exhaust our a window, into an attic, into a chimney etc. 10-20 in the summer you may be OK but AC and a dehumidifier may be needed. For extractor fan and filter 6 inch exhaust would be great in a 4x4 but you can get by with a high quality 4" setup. definitely get a speed controller with the fan. A good carbon filter should control smell, need to change it every 1-2 years, IME.

Lighting is the biggest single factor in yield and quality I'd advise that you don't skimp there. Many growers buy cheaper lights to start and end up spending a lot on up[grades. People using 315 LEC have shown some great results on this forum. For LED, consider COB like the Spectrum Kong sk402, Timber grow Lights and other COB systems. Vipar Spectre PAR series is popular but California Light Works, Black Dog and others have high quality LEDs that will do great in a 4x4. Lots to consider and learn but going for quality equipment is a great way to increase your odds of success. Good Luck!

[UrsineAuto]

Hey thanks for this - sounds like I will be insulating the tent a little but and can then run heaters from there.

As for the lights, a lot of the recommended ones do not ship to Canada. Amazon canada does have Vipar Spectra though, and I was looking at this:

https://www.amazon.ca/VIPARSPECTRA-Dimmable-PAR700-700W-Light/dp/B01MA5TLU7/ref=lp_15411216011_1_6?srs=15411216011&ie=UTF8&qid=1529982297&sr=8-6

Let me know if you you have any thoughts on that one in particular, or know of some specific canadian vendors.

[Sparkee2017]

Welcome Auto and that's great news for Canada..

[TheOG]

Hi Ursine,

I'm completely new to growing cannabis, but not new to Canadian winters, growing, or building science, so I'll give you my 2 cents.

Grow Space: Walk out Garage, bottom story of 3 story town home. Garage is well insulated but not connected to the furnace/AC.
the garage can get cold in the winter (0 - 10C range)

Sounds just like my brother's place in Burnaby. I'll defer to others here on the proper temps, but working with 0-10C is certainly doable. I'm going to guess that your garage floor stays around 5-10C. I'd use the blue or pink XPS Styrofoam boards available at Home Depot or any other building supply store to keep the temps in the right range. https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.f...000155125.html They typically come in 1-2" thicknesses, at about 5R per inch, so 5 or 10 R-value. You can put them on the bottom to keep the floor warm and glue them together to form an insulation shell to surround your grow tent. I'd imagine that you could keep the temps in the right range with a 1" shell around the tent if using a 600W light, though it would be easy to add another inch to that if needed. I've got a 600W HPS setup that I'm familiar with, so you'll have to experiment if you use another light source. You can simply glue them together and place the tent inside, or you can build an external frame for the insulation. I've used the boards to beef up the insulation on incubators for hatching eggs and was able to get some free from construction sites, though it would be simplest to buy the 4x8' sheets from HD. You can also get an enerfoil product that has a foil layer on one or both sides, sandwiching XPS or foam ball material (the XPS is much nicer to work with). It's more expensive (maybe not), but the foil will also reflect radiation, cutting your heat loss even more. https://www.lowes.ca/insulation-acce..._g1363104.html Whatever you decide on, get it up and running before adding plants to make sure you can dial in the temp you need.

Duct size requirements are a function of air movement requirements, run length, and number of bends. The smooth ducting is much, much better for airflow than the plastic accordion ducts, but you'll have a very short run and only a couple of 90's at most, so you should be fine with 6" or even 4" ducting. I'd just vent into the garage.

Your budget seems quite high to me, but I'm a cheap bastard. I spent money on a good dimmable 600W ballast with cool tube and reflecting hood, but I'm going to cobble my grow room together. I would spend the money on lights first, carbon filter second, and then the rest. You could easily build an insulated grow area from the foil insulation, gluing it together at the joints with 3" cap nails for initial ridigity. That would get you insulation, an airtight grow room, and a reflective surface, though maybe not as reflective as a grow tent or even flat white paint but, having installed it on many houses, the reflection off of even the printed side is remarkable.

As far as manifolding/mainlining goes, buy or plant some basil and practice on it. Basil needs lots of pruning in order to get large, bushy plants, and it's a lot cheaper, and tastier, to practice on.

Best of luck.

[UrsineAuto]

Thank you very much for the insulation advice - I have access to some industrial stuff through work so I will explore that option.

Also just for the practice advice in general - getting the temps dialed in before growing and practicing on basil seem like no brainers but I would have never of thought about them. Thanks!

And dont get me wrong about the budget - I want to keep it well below that $3000 mark but that is where I can go if need be...

Cheers!

[Qwertywill]

UrsineAuto,

I would check out:

Https://www.growlights.ca

They will ship in Canada and offer full kits.
I ordered my exhaust system through them, also most reasonable priced I could find. I have my set up all gtg for Oct 27th. I also have a hydro system good to go...

I bought my tent 5x5x7 off of amazon, aprox 200 CAD (Wish I knew about the full kits prior)
Lights 2x Mars Hydro 744s- 400 CAD /each
Exhaust kit through link above 6" - 140 CAD
My hydro system- A kiddy pool (cheapest flood table you can find that fits the tent!) Water Pump, drain and flood valves, piping and a storage tote) Wont look pretty but for aprox 70$ and a bit of time, beats the insane prices of tables and resivoirs.
Cheap Heater - 20$ for winter in the basement.

Total: 1230 CAD.

Well below your budget, minus the nutrients , cutting tools, ph pen, ppm pen,timer, extension cords, power bar etc. Some of this stuff is generally laying around...


No practice needed on the manifold, follow nebulas tutorial. The only thing you may want to add is topping after the last cut... its pretty easy over all!


Any questions shoot me a message!

[UrsineAuto]

Have you heard anything about the quality of the full kits from growlights.ca? That is what I mainly worry about - hard to find legit reviews from people that know what their talking about. A lot of the cheaper tent kits on Amazon have reviews of significant light leakage, poor zippers, and I hate having to hassel with returns and the like.

But if you dealt with them for your exhaust kit I will count that as a major positive for them, thanks!

[farmerjim]

Hey Ursine, welcome! I'm a new grower also and only have 1 grow under my belt. Feel free to take a peek at my journals to see yourself in about 8 months! I got into this looking for a new hobby and was hesitant to try diy but following the gwe tutorials - it was a piece of cake..., so much so that i built my own 4 bucket rdwc for just under $200 for my 2nd grow. I would highly recommend giving it a shot unless you're really set on spending that type of cash. A nice summer hobby for ya!

somewhere in my first journal someone recommended tubular heaters... (I had a space heater that was working just fine until it tipped over one night) as others said, putting the money into lights is probably going to be your best bet. Get a journal going and keep us posted on your progress!

[Canuck147]

Hey UrsineAuto - welcome fellow Canadian. Here's my $.02 worth and I won't charge you anything. Tent is fine - Viparspectra 600 covers 4x4, maybe add a Viparspectra 300 just for fun if you have room. More the merrier.
Depends on which province you live in whether one can grow or not. Quebec is a naysayer.
This is how I geared up - bought everything I needed 3 years ago and been growing and learning since. Thought there could be a price jump once it becomes legal.
Growing autoflowers is a smart start in my opinion. They are easy to grow. True North Seedbank is fast and honest with a great selection of autoflowers. As for smell, buy a strain that isn't too high on the smelly scale. One you don't want I have growing for three weeks and already smells - Purple Stilton.
Buy on Amazon - they classify lights and such as horticultural equipment, so no sales tax.
I started this year in March - harvested 3 plants - have 3 more growing in the tent, 2 outside. Plan on a third grow and shutting down again for the winter.
Happy growing - October 17 is 2 days after my birthday.

[Qwertywill]

That was my guess, prices going up!

[UrsineAuto]

Wow - thanks for the horticulture equipment tip. Could save some real money there. Given your reccomendation of the 600W what about the 700W dimmable?

https://www.amazon.ca/VIPARSPECTRA-Dimmable-PAR700-700W-Light/dp/B01MA5TLU7/ref=lp_15411216011_1_6?srs=15411216011&ie=UTF8&qid=1529982297&sr=8-6

Would either of those setups be close to approaching the "plateau" of increased yields through increased lights? Or asked another way, what sort of wattage would it take to fully saturate a 4x4 tent approx?

And dont you worry - I am far away from those frenchies in quebec

[Canuck147]

Hey Ursine - me too, away from the East - I'm on the wet west coast. That 700 watter says it covers 4x3 and the size - you should get 2 they are dimmable. Might need a good circulation fan to keep the air moving, 2 lights will get the tent warm. But not as hot if you ran COB lights. Maybe a 700 watter with a couple of COBS - your choice.

[UrsineAuto]

Thank for you all the replies folks - I've still got a garage to clean out yet but I will get things going now. I'm sure ill have a bunch more questions as I go along.

One final thing I'm wondering about is disadvantages to auto-flowering or feminized seeds? For example, does any of the weird breeding/whatever that goes into making them affect the potency/yeild/profile etc?

Cheers

[Canuck147]

Disadvantage to autoflowers - I can't think of many.
With autoflowers you can have - overlapping grows and not have to worry about your light being on 20 hours a day. Or worry about any light leaks, cuz they won't hermie on you.
With a 4x4 I could grow six plants at a time - three grows a year (spring,summer,fall) 18 plants total with (plan low, hope for more) weight approximately 100 grams per plant = 1800 grams - which is 4 pounds exactly - 64 ounces. Party's at your house.

Best thing with autoflowers - most average 90 days from seed to harvest.

[TheOG]

I've found through experience (failure) that it's always best to get the system up and running to work out the bugs before you put it into use, especially if it's your first time using the equipment. I don't always manage to be that organised, but I try.