Finally, I would be remiss not to admit that I now enjoy marijuana on a daily basis. It has improved my mood, been a trusted pain reliever and anti-inflammatory, and a healthier option for altering my mental state than consuming mass units of alcohol (and yes, while the “munchies” are real for me as they are for many cannabis users, I have dropped twenty pounds as pot has largely replaced fattening beer as part of my daily routine). I hadn’t really intended to use cannabis much if at all, even when I had started growing. But it is a poor cook or vintner who doesn’t try his or her own product, no? There has also been an additional mental health benefit to growing that I have rarely seen mentioned: growing cannabis in your home with proper preparation is generally safe, easy, and inexpensive. But it is also deeply relaxing and even therapeutic. The time I spend in my garden most days is one of the most quiet and relaxing parts of my day. I genuinely derive a benefit from spending time with my plants, which I care for and about a great deal. You might be pleasantly surprised to find that this will happen to you as well.
But that isn’t to suggest that establishing and operating a home grow isn’t a significant amount of work. With that in mind, let’s turn our attention to the grow itself.
In terms of layout, I use a fairly compact grow space. The room is located in a small closet-like room in an unfinished basement. The basement itself is only about five feet high at its highest points which puts vertical height at a premium – I have to grow smartly and with good planning to ensure that my grow stays within the confines of my work space; particularly height-inclined sativas.
The entire grow room is lined by white polyethylene tarp to add to the reflectivity of the space. It is four feet wide and just over four feet high (though the ceiling is unfinished, so there is a bit of play there). It is ten feet long, divided into three roughly equally-sized chambers by polyethylene tarps secured by Velcro that allow each room to be easily accessed while remaining light-tight at all other times. The central area provides a small work area in the middle, which houses the power bars and other electrical equipment. The bud and vegetation rooms are accessed on each side via the tarps, and the whole set up is secured behind a locking door. It is as inconspicuous as possible from the outside and the area just outside of the grow rooms can be quickly tidied to remove most evidence that anything unusual is going on, in case someone such as a service worker must access the basement. In short, it is utilitarian: easy to clean, organized, and secure, with all necessary tools in easy reach.
Hang polyethylene tarps cut to fit your grow space. They are a snap to clean and can be quickly rolled up and secured with Bungee cords, and can be made flat with Velcro at the edges so that no light escapes.
Measure your grow space before purchasing an exhaust fan. Be sure to purchase one that will evacuate warm air frequently.
The walls and floor are concrete, which makes for a clean and cleanable workspace. However, it means that the plants must be raised ever so slightly off the floor so that roots won’t be too cold. Moreover, the room itself isn’t heated or cooled by the house’s forced-air system, basements tend to be cooler than the rest of the house in the summer. At times, this can make it difficult to keep the rooms in an optimum temperature range. This is one advantage of using T5 fluorescents: they don’t kick a lot of extra heat into an already hot space.
To keep plants from being placed directly on concrete, the rooms have a plywood floor in the veg room (painted and sealed to make for easier clean up) and rubber “play mats” (what kids in a kindergarten would use in a playroom to reduce fall injuries) in the bud room. These are superior to raised shelves because both the plywood and mats use less than an inch of the precious grow space on the vertical axis. Shelves to hold the plants would use up too much space to allow for a good grow with only four feet of play.
Simple tubing for a clothes dryer vent can double as an exhaust tube for your grow space.
Oscillating fans are set up in each grow room, also just off the floor to avoid issues in case of spills. An exhaust fan with a carbon filter sits on a shelf near the ceiling of the bud room – a must since it must filter and evacuate air that carries telltale odors when plants are near harvest. All wires are secured to walls using clips that are nailed into studs – it is literally impossible that wires will fall into water. Ventilation tubes have been constructed (out of standard exhaust tubes used for a clothes dryer) and placed behind the polyethylene on the walls to encourage airflow into and out of the room. These are curved to ensure that rooms remain light-tight: that is, no ambient light from outside the grow rooms can enter via vent access points.
For lighting, a band of T5 fluorescents, each a foot wide and four feet long that house four 54 watt T5 tubes apiece, are hung from chains to allow lights to be easily moved up and down as plants grow. The chains are in turn secured to ceiling studs – the lights are very secure and won’t fall or be easily disturbed. The work areas are also fitted with green incandescent bulbs. This allows work to be done in dark periods where the T5s are off and the plants are resting. The green bulbs access a part of the light spectrum that won’t disturb the plants. This is a must for any grower.
Lights should be hung from chains to allow fo r easy movement up and down. Secure chains to hooks that will safely bear the weight of your setup.
Outside of the grow rooms is a work area that doubles as a normal basement workshop. The tools and equipment help hide the true nature of this area’s primary use. All grow supplies are kept in secure shelves that can be cleaned up in less than five minutes. A separate closet nearby (measuring four square feet) is used for drying and curing bud, as well as storage of other supplies such as mason jars (for bottling bud), shelving (for raising seedlings closer to the T5s when other, larger plants must also be under the lights), additional nutrients (for feeding), and additional light bulbs as well as other miscellaneous gear.
Beyond this, I have also installed a good set of stereo speakers so that I can easily play music or listen to the ball game on the radio. This might seem like a small detail, but given that even a small grow can be a time consuming hobby, it is important to have such creature comforts ready to go when possible. Cold beer and a vaporizer are also steps away. As a result, I’m more than happy to spend hours each week in my secret garden.
Hot air rises! Raise your exhaust vent and be sure to make the exhaust tube light-tight so that no light from outside can disturb sleeping beauties.
The only real shortfall of this setup is the lack of easy access to water. There is no sink in the basement and consequently I must lug pails of water downstairs each day. This is something I want to address in the future. If you have a small work sink (as one would typically find in a laundry room) nearby for watering plants and cleaning up, that is a big plus.
Since I began this grow journal with some plants already partially