My traditional farmhouse Michigan basement is cold with very low headroom. To fight the cold I built a set of cabinets based around a 2'x2' footprint, then insulated with reflective bubble wrap. Lights and seed-starter heating maps provide heat. Ventilation at the moment is simple convection.
All cabinets are built with 4" vent holes at the bottom, and adjustable vents at the top. Eventually I will attach a powered 4" downdraft ventilation system. Because the cabinets are solid, and ventilation tubing is solid, I can use 4" venting. To save room, lights are fixed at the top, and I adjust height with shelves on cleats. I have three 2'x2' cabinets, and a two-bay 2'x4' cabinet. I'm also building a 32"x64" cabinet for flowering. I start seeds in 3" peat pots, then cut the pots and transplant into10", 3-gallon pots -- four fit in the 2x2 footprint, then 18", 10-gallon pots for main vegetation and flowering. The final setup will allow me to finish a plant every 4-6 weeks.
I chose fertigation over hydroponics because I'm familiar with it. Using a 75% perlite/25% peat moss soilless mixture makes the pots light and easy to move around, prune and train. I custom mix my fertilizer with a base of Miracle Gro Vegetable & Herb Fertilizer. As opposed to the base Miracle Gro, this mix has plenty of micronutrients. It seems to work great. I use tap water I allow to sit for 48 hours and de-gas. Ph is not a problem here, so no prob.
Here is my Amnesia Trance (from Seedsman) plant at 6 weeks. I have just topped the plant beneath the third node, then pulled the lower branches toward the middle of the plant, and pulled the upper branches out in order to give me a fairly level canopy.
At this time, I'm building the cabinets and the plants are simply sitting against a wall in the basement. Very crude.
All cabinets are built with 4" vent holes at the bottom, and adjustable vents at the top. Eventually I will attach a powered 4" downdraft ventilation system. Because the cabinets are solid, and ventilation tubing is solid, I can use 4" venting. To save room, lights are fixed at the top, and I adjust height with shelves on cleats. I have three 2'x2' cabinets, and a two-bay 2'x4' cabinet. I'm also building a 32"x64" cabinet for flowering. I start seeds in 3" peat pots, then cut the pots and transplant into10", 3-gallon pots -- four fit in the 2x2 footprint, then 18", 10-gallon pots for main vegetation and flowering. The final setup will allow me to finish a plant every 4-6 weeks.
I chose fertigation over hydroponics because I'm familiar with it. Using a 75% perlite/25% peat moss soilless mixture makes the pots light and easy to move around, prune and train. I custom mix my fertilizer with a base of Miracle Gro Vegetable & Herb Fertilizer. As opposed to the base Miracle Gro, this mix has plenty of micronutrients. It seems to work great. I use tap water I allow to sit for 48 hours and de-gas. Ph is not a problem here, so no prob.
Here is my Amnesia Trance (from Seedsman) plant at 6 weeks. I have just topped the plant beneath the third node, then pulled the lower branches toward the middle of the plant, and pulled the upper branches out in order to give me a fairly level canopy.
At this time, I'm building the cabinets and the plants are simply sitting against a wall in the basement. Very crude.
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