Calling all experts!

[Seamaiden]

@inthegorge, yes, you did receive a not-very-friendly reception and response to your queries. The thing is, we get a *lot* of similar posts, but much more usually from people who are just posting to post, not actually serious. I think you're proving yourself pretty damn well, and certainly well enough to shut up the naysayers. Good job!

 

[stonestacker]

@inthegorge, yes, you did receive a not-very-friendly reception and response to your queries. The thing is, we get a *lot* of similar posts, but much more usually from people who are just posting to post, not actually serious. I think you're proving yourself pretty damn well, and certainly well enough to shut up the naysayers. Good job!

Couldn't Have said it better Seamaiden.
Who is becoming the expert now.
I Have no doubt You will succeed.!

 

[Prime C]

Well thus far inthegorge has done well on the business side of things and helping others to boot!;)

Like @baba G said now comes the growing part. Good advice from a veteran grower and breeder of fine cannabis!

Bring on the BUDS!!!:wideyed:

 

[rvd]

I agree with baba on getting your system going good befor you try to many strains but keep the others ready to go when you are ready to try them I hope you kick some butt on the river. good luck

 

[inthegorge]

This is a full time job for myself, my daughter and one of my partners girlfriends, 10 hour shifts for each of us every single day and there will be someone with the ladies 24 hours a day with overlaps of 2 of us for a few hours each day and I think we can handle it. If we need more help for day to day operations we will have it since everyone I know wants to help and do this too. I do appreciate the actual advise that was given here and I do not mean to diminish that with my post. Some people gave good advice and no one here had any obligation to offer me anything anyway so my expectations were the issue, not the response from people here. As to naysayers...there will still be plenty here no doubt. Everyone has their opinion. I just don't put any investment now into other peoples harsh words as it only affects me if I let it:-) I never had a doubt that I would be able to make this work....doubting oneself is a bad place to start anything!

We have no plans to limit to specific strains at this point in the process as I have not even flowered a single one of these ladies yet so it is all a learning curve to see how they actually finish out and then we can make a call as to what to keep and what to get rid of. Hopefully we will find we have some decent genetics and can work with them moving forward. I am actually excited to see what I can do with each strain because what I like is not necessarily what the next guy likes and taking each plant to its optimum is what I hope to do:-)

Was up until 3 AM last night cloning and had to have my little dog to the vet for a pretty intense surgery at 8 this morning. Sure hope he comes through it OK or there won't be any happy in our house tonight:-/

 

[caveman4.20]

Are you cloning seedlings?

 

[KENT]

Well Im Kinda new to this forum, but this thread caught my attention. As I was reading, I thought wow a lot of people with nothing good to say. I didn't read all ten pages so if I repeat what other have said, sorry. You said you have a budget of 25000 in the beginning, and that you wanted to grow in a warehouse that has rooms set it it already. My first question is insulation...do you have any? I don't care how big your grow is or how much you put, trying to grow indoors in an uninsulated building is trouble, you won't be able to control your environment very well, and the constant change of temperature will stress the plants out. Also air conditioning, does the warehouse have it? If so how many units and how many tons? If not you will need to supply those as well, and I found 5-tons per 12 lights ok, but according to my a/c guy, i am making my a/c work a little hard, as he says 2000 watts per every ton of a/c. I ask these questions first as they will dig heavy into your budget. 5-ton a/c plus handler is 1500-1800 plus install and that varies per tech. Plus the electrical work that will need to be done to safely run a grow that large. This part could easy take 6k-8k from your budget from the start. Last thing you want to do is start something that can't be finished, that sucks. I have setup rooms for some time now, and for a 12 light setup, material cost alone ranges 12k-15K depending on the space I am outfitting. My advice is start small, and go somewhat automated, something that big you don't want to spend 3 -4 hours a day watering....much better things to do with your time. of the rooms you spoke of, your veg room seems a little smaller than the flower room, so start there. outfit that one room first, and get it up and running. getting in mind the electric bill will need to be paid for for a period of 3 months, and its gonna cost. After your first or second run, i would advice investing in solar panels. Enough to supply at least 600amps, giving you enough power to run a 50 lamps setup without being on the grid. plus you start saving money in about 6 months. The cost for this is around 12k, also you can sell any left over electricity back to the city depending of where you live. Good luck

 

[inthegorge]

Pretty much all your questions have been answered at one point or another in this silly long thread. My $25,000 turned to $80,000 so we are good on money...not swimming in it but we are good and will get us through till our first harvest. Building is insulated but we get HOT weather for 3 months of the summer. We have some air conditioning but that is not our focus. We put in two 25,000 CFM exhaust fans, one in the flower area and one in the veg area to exhaust heat with filtered air intake vents that are huge to keep the air cirulating. I have talked with a few HVAC people including someone here on the farm and have been assured that would be adequate but if we need to adjust then we will figure it out when we need to. We already have had $15,000 in rewiring done so that we have 3 phase power with 3 outlets per circuit running 208V and a dedicated outlet for every 1000W light fixture. Our landlord upgraded the building for us to 600AMPs so we could run the lights we need to. We will be watering all day long every day. That is what we signed up for, that is our jobs and I can think of way worse ways to spend my time:-)

We hope to look at solar panels next year and where we are located is one huge wind tunnel so we are also looking at putting in a wind turbine but that is in the future and who knows what that will hold. I would love to be a showcase of green energy with a very minimal carbon footprint as an example of what is possible in the future of growing this wonderful plant.

 

[inthegorge]

Are you cloning seedlings?

Sorry...missed this one. We have taken a few clones from some of the most desirable seedlings just because time is an issue now and all the seedlings are very big and need something done with them:-/ Can't put them into flower until we are officially licensed and lights are officially on so they could be freaking huge by then!

 

[caveman4.20]

I would tripple check my labeling and if one of the plants give you problems cull them all!

 

[inthegorge]

Will do:-)

 

[Texas Kid]

Looking good girl...I would paint those wood tables with the quickness, you'll thank me later, also they can add extra mold inhibitors at the paint supply store and I would highly recommend it..exposed wood will wear your ass out in the real short term and make you cry in the long term.....I would cut that strain list down to no more than 25, even though it seems like having a large lineup of strains is a good thing to everyone on the outside it really works against you in way you can't even imagine yet in a production environment..single strains per table and even single strains on complete rows is the best way to optimize yield and quality, not to mention trimming and curing logistics and overall expense..start with f1 seed stock where ever possible...a pile of open sourced clones have brought down more than a few people with good intentions of providing quality medicine to the masses for the long haul..order ballast at 277v or even 480v multi-taps, you can really stretch the amp load that way giving you way more bang for the buck..don't feel bad I just got a quote for $151,000 in a/c's alone in one setup..painful when you actually see it in writing..lol

 

[Prime C]

I really like those long tables. You might want to hook up a feed system so all you have to do is mix and turn on the pump. That's a lot of hand watering even if it is with a wand and hose. 1/2 inch poly and 1/4 inch drip line is is fairly cheap.

 

[inthegorge]

Those tables have been a bit of an issue for me unfortunately but I had the plan for the 4x8 size and then my boys (my two 24 year old partners and oh man are they boys:-) took it upon themselves to build one and before I got there they had gone and purchased $1600 of lumber and had about 7 of them already built before I even saw them. They took the initiative which was great since I pretty much have to come up with all the ideas here but....there is no way I would have used the materials they used but I kept my mouth shut and let them deal with it even though it was hard to keep my comments to myself. We did paint the whole tops with some very pricey waterproof/anti microbial stuff and they are sealed really well but then they put the plastic on it too for double protection or something. I sort of just let them run with it since it was their project and I am pretty sure we will be doing something different on our next harvest. Just could not afford to start them over after they had already spent the cash.

I hear you on the automatic system and definitely plan on it in our future. First time out I just don't want to trust anything to chance and if I water or feed then I know for sure it is done. Kind of a caveman approach I know but first crop is so critical I just am going with what I know. Second run will be much, much different and hopefully we will do some hydro as well if I can get it all dialed in.

If I could have actually chosen what strains to get, instead of just scrambling to get enough of anything and could have afforded exactly what I wanted we would probably have about 20 specific strains. Unfortunately that was not the case and I had to get what I could find. I know that is not optimal at all but it is what I have and I am pretty damned good at making do. Moving forward we will know how they all finish out, which are our favorites, which clone the fastest, which are the most resistant to pests and disease, which taste the best, which test out the best for THC, which produce the most, which actually sell the best, actual flower time etc. Then we will move forward with the ones that work the best for us. As any of you know....our budget, even though it seems like a fair amount of dough to a small grow, is tiny for this kind of a project. I am just happy I have as many starts as I do so I at least have something to grow and if some of them prove to be good enough that we can move forward with then I am very lucky. If not we will start over with specific strains moving forward and f1 seed stock is in our future to be sure. In my experience each persons different techniques bring out different things in each plant so we will see what our growing habits bring out in ours. For now that is just the best I can do and again I know it is not optimal....it is just our situation at this time and we just have to role with it. We are recording every single detail about each and every plant now and will continue to through the growing process and then we will have a clear picture moving forward of what works best in our situation.

We are installing the 32 security cameras now and I am really happy I did not scrimp on the system as it could not be easier to hook up and get dialed in:-) So far it has been amazingly simple and our camera coverage is really comprehensive. I am not into them at all really, don't feel I need them or at least so many of them with 24/7 human coverage but it is for the state requirements so we are jumping when they say frog:-) By Monday we will be ready for the state inspection, not quite done with all the growing components, but the state does not care how we grow, they just care about compliance, security, traceability and taxation. It is sort of surreal that we are ready for them and is just amazing to me that we are actually doing this and will be within the first 10 or so they license:-)

 

[Texas Kid]

100ft rolls of shower liner works great on the top side of wood fab tables..it is a thick ass membrane and then you can cut resest shower drains in the ends which seal up real nice..I hear on the "go getters" you have working with ya sometimes it can be a double edge sword..lol

 

[burn4me]

Holy crap!!
Nice looking room.
Really coming along there I'm happy for you. And sooooo many strains. I'd blow my brains out Lol
Happy farming

 

[Olyver]

Nice room but may not pass inspection, the ballasts mounted to 2"x4"s may be an issue. I would have used EMT pipe 3/4" or 1" and secured with wire rope or linkchain to the ceiling. The lamp cords from the ballast to the shades should be shortened to about 3' max, just long enough to cover the distance between.

 

[inthegorge]

Inspection by whom? All inspections are done other than the Liquor Control Board and they do not tell you how to grow, just how to do your security and traceability. All ready passed inspection by the State L&I for electric work.

My home made airoponic cloners are working pretty good:-) All 10 of them!

 

[Seamaiden]

Girl! You gotchaself a hell of a set o' chores now. Look at that mess of roots, DANG!

 

[inthegorge]

All I have is chores lately:-)

Yesterday the universe flipped on its head.....my youngest daughters boyfriend is one of my partners. He is a great guy and we are so lucky to have him as a part of our family.....his mom is a very nice lady, same age as me, but his whole family is pretty religious and VERY against drugs of any kind and they have always considered marijuana the bad stepping stone to drug addiction. His moms sister and her family live right next door to his mom and his younger cousin has had a serious drug problem since she was 15 but her drug of choice is heroin/meth combo and it nearly killed her multiple times. They have spent no lie over a million dollars in drug treatment for her and she is only 23 years old....Betty Ford center and I cannot even name all the different treatment programs they have put her into:-( It is terribly sad to see a young woman wasted so terribly but she is doing pretty well in southern CA in the latest program they found. Needless to say however they are very anti drug anything. They all do love my partner though and are supportive of him as a good family should be. He told him mom about our business right after we found our building and it was a bit of a struggle for her but she has accepted it and does not make negative judgements about it to him which is good. Yesterday it was his 24th birthday and since we are so close to our final inspection we needed him onsite working his butt off as he is my electronics expert for security cameras and alarm systems so.....since his family did not want to miss his birthday his mom, his 88 year old grandmother and his aunt (whose daughter has the serious drug issues) came out to WOW headquarters and I taught them how to cut clones and they filled 4 seventy station cloners with double cuttings.....540 new babies....and they were very happy to help us out!!! We had to take a few photos just to put in our scrap book and prove it had happened:-) They did a great job, saw how much work we have put into this endeavor and are proud of their son that he could help to pull something like this off. Not one of them would have thought they would ever do any such thing and we have opened their eyes to the reality of cannabis and 3 seriously closed minded people now have a different view of growing weed and that it is not an evil thing in and of itself. That is just all around wonderful in my book! Changing the world one person at a time...or in this case 3:-)

Lots of progress and we are for the most part ready for our final inspection. A few smaller things still to do and our file goes to the person that sets up the final inspection tomorrow!!!! Gosh...it is just freaking awesome:-)