1st grow room outdoors,... help with vent ideas and cooling.

I live in South Florida (humid, buggy, and rainy during afternoons) and building a plywood room to put outdoors but grow indoor quality. It is one panel plywood for floor and roof. 4' x 8' 1/2" plywood. The walls are 8ft sheets also. It's caulked air tight and treated with waterproofing sealant. I think putting vents around the top that are screened to keep bugs out will keep the temp decent with oscilating 16" fan or two. Since heat rises, should I put the fans low pointing up to push heat out top vents??? Also, I am interested in 2 400 Watt High pressure Sodium lights and was wondering if that is sufficient for an 8' by 4' floor area. Also, what should I do to prevent bug problems, mold problems, budrot, etc... thanks everyone in advance for spending the time to read this and hopefully respond. :cheers2:

 

The big problem I see for you is controlling the climate in there. Florida, I've heard, is super hot. If you jam 2 400w lamps( I would go with one 600W) in there, all you have is cooked plants. TBH, I think you'd need to get an air conditioning unit to make it work.

But, thats just speculating. Also, I'm sure you've made absolutely sure its stealth?

IMHO, you'd be better off tryingt o just do an outdoor guerilla grow or grow under an a frame of translucent greenhouse glass. to block your plants from view.

I just envisioin you cooking the crap out of your plants. I know you'll have fans, but if its already 90 degrees, fans only do so much.

Cheers

 

I miss read. for a 4x8 area, I would do 2 400 watters. 1 600 x for a 4x4

Cheers

 

disregard.

 

Thanks for the thoughts ahimsa, but the temp outside now is around 70-75 daytime and around 60-65 night time so I doubt that they will get cooked. I am trying to get a good idea of what would be most important to have initially for my extremely tight budget. And what I need to watch out for during the beginning stages.

 

For mj the most important thing for young plants when you start is keeping the stress down especialy heat stress so spending a few extra nuggets on a nice venting fan that will easily turn the volume of air in your set up 2-4 an hours especialy if your gonna be using hid's type lighting.

 

If you arn't going to use ac I would sugest closed hoods for your lights so you can get rid of most of their heat. It's amaizing how much heat a couple of HIDs can generate. Also what are you planing to do about smell? I would sugest a carbon filter it's more work to install, but will save you truoble on the back end.

 

Yea, I was planning on a carbon filter. Thank you for that info FarmerJ, much appreciated. I have decided to just buy a shed pre-built, something about 8ft. x 8ft. used costs about the same as the materials to build a wooden 8' x 4' box. I really want to get the highest yield I can out of the Ice strain I got from Nirvana (which might I add, I was quite impressed with Nirvana-shop's service). I also got the germination kit with the pallets and bacteria to put my seeds on and then I will plant that into the miracle-grow organic soil that I got. I hope that soil will do, it comes pre-mixed with peat moss and nutrients and everything so hopefully it will be sufficient. As for my lights I am still interested in High Pressure Sodiums but I will probably need about 4 of the 400Watts since it is now an 8 x 8 area. Are these lights sufficient throughout the entire grow or do I need other types as well? Also, for reflective material I was investigating and heard that flat whit paint was best although I thought that a reflective foil was best. Is this true? I figured a high gloss white might be better than a flat white. I really thought about lining the inside with mirrors so that the light can reflect numerous times all around. Any info?

 

Mirrors are no good, they accually diminish usable light through refraction. White paint is the best, because it reflects back the entire spectrum of light. Hps lights will work for the whole cycle, but seedlings might want to start under some more gentle CFLs for the first couple of weeks. I would stay away from miracle grow,or aleast amend it with a netural medium, as it is very hot.