How do you make hydroponic grow rooms?

Grow Box Quiz

Ron, Have you heard of a product the will move the light rays from one area to another? What I want to do is have the grow light in one room and the plants in another. I have a problem with heat. When have 30 - 1500 watt bulbs running and the room gets rather warm. I am trying to find a way maybe with fiber optics or a light pump to transfer adaquate light into the plant room. Place, power and money are not the problem. Heat is. We have a 2500 sqft underground bunker we are using beside a stream that we have used to generate powerwith. Have you heard of any body pumping light from one room to another. CJ

Yo, Ron;

Can you please explain the "Yeast and Sugar Fermentation in a Bottle" trick? I would like a good, but cheap way to add CO2 to my 24" x 24" x 6' grow room, and don't spend enough time with the plant to breathe on it enough.

Fermentations is a way to add CO2 to small grow rooms if you can handle the smell. Use a one gallon plastic milk jug and mix one cup of sugar and a packet of brewers yeast with about three quarts of warm water. This concoction is changed one to four times daily as needed. Half of the solution is poured out, then 1 1/2 quarts of water and another cup of sugar are added. Add more yeast if needed.

This is for the person that was asking about lighting. Yes street lights and most other outdoor lights used for for lighting large parking lots are HID grow lights. But there is a few things you need to now for safety reasons if you are going to operate one of these indoors. I currently use a 400 watt high pressure sodium that was made to be used outdoors. Although these are not recommended for indoor use the can be successfully used if you pay attention to what you are doing. First these units are made to be water tight so the ballast is part of the unit sealed inside. This makes the unit run very hot a lot hotter than the ones made to be run indoors. Outside they get plenty of good cool air and heat is transferred. If you decide to run one of these indoors you need to make sure you suspend this unit from the top of the ceiling hanging down somewhere in the middle of the room so it has good airspace all around. if have mine suspended from the ceiling using two 4' 3/8-16 steel rod and toggles to mount it to the ceiling. Make sure it is anchored well because these units can be very heavy I think mine is about 45 pounds. Next you need a fan to be blowing on this unit continually so you can transfer the heat away from this unit and out your growroom. I use A 20inch oscillating fan and snap the button on back so it stays still. It sits on a stool at the back of my room right behind the light so it vents the heat out the front and pulls cool air in the bottom. It is very important you transfer the heat away or the unit could over heat and ruin the ballasts and start a fire. If you are able to obtain a light and you are sure you can vent heat properly you next need to wire it another import step that needs to be done properly. The power demands in the ballast of this type of light can be 110v or 220v this is something you will need to check before using. on the light where the power supply wires go in there is a cover with screws normally the ballast is under this cover. Remove the cover the three supply wires going into the cover cover should be black white green make sure the black wire is attached to the wire inside the unit marked 110v and not on the 220v wire going to the ballast a big rectangular box, sometimes its marked on the ballast next to the supply terminal. you need to what the terminal is marked that the black wire is going to 110v or 220v a lot of these ballast have four terminals and give you the option to wire it either way. But most regular three prong household outlet are only 110v that's why this is important. Some places use them 220v volt because it uses less amps and is cheaper to run but this you need a 220v service and most households aren't equipped with this so be sure to what your light is wired to draw before using. Next you need to get power supply cord no smaller than 14guage wire remember the bigger the number the smaller the wire. I use a heavy-duty air conditioner supply cord if you call somewhere to find it ask for a pigtail it make it easier for the person to understand what you want. After you get the cord you'll find that most of the time the wires on the light and the wires on the pigtail are the same. then just match them up and connect with wire nuts. black is usually power, green is ground, white is common. sometimes the common can be red and the ground can be blue or just bare wire. once your SURE all of this has been done your light is ready to be plugged in and put to work. I don't recommend this type of light for really small grow rooms because heat could be a problem and may result in a buried out light or worst of all fire. this cove

The 3 - 400 watt MH factory lights I bought at the flea market did have the 220 watt ballast connected to the top of the light but being a jack-off of all trades I dismantled them and ran a long cord from the light to the ballast so I could remotely place the hot ballast outside the room, eliminating the excess heat. I once read a book about electricity. You must have read the same book.
Ron

I have built a 4'x8' raft table. I have designed a hood that is 8'x4'x4' made of 1" white styrafoam,j bead and metal studs, the light hangs in the middle of hood and can be lowered with or without the hood. A few questions I have before I build today are; -is white styrafoam a good reflector? -If I paint will it be more reflective? -does it ignite easily? -If styrafoam is out would mylar work in a system like this? -will I have a heat problem? if so will a fan blowing from one end cool it enough? Any pointers are appreciated. I will be growing basil and such which should top out at 2'. Thanks in advance

Slow start: I kept my plants under 2 4' fluorescents until they were about 1 1/2 feet tall. Lower branches are small on all plants three plants still 1 ft. tall the rest 2 1/2 ft. are they bad plants or is it due to low light. now I have a 400 MH for the last week. Will they get bushier under the new light.

It's the different variety of plant is what determines if a plant is bushy or spindly. Some plants do poorly no mater how good your grow rooms is because good indoor plants are bread. When you get a plant with good characteristics clone it over and over again to keep it going. You can take a clone from a clone for a couple years before losing it.

hi ron
regarding CO2 enrichment
know of any home remedy where i can enrich my growing area with CO2 ?
burn something ?
alvarez puerto rico

CO2 is one of the by-products of combustion. Any hydrocarbon fuel can be burned to produce CO2, except for those containing sulfur dioxide and ethylene which can be harmful to plants.
You can use dry ice. Two pounds of dry ice will raise the CO2 level in a 10-by-10 grow room to about 2000 ppm for 24 hours.
Fermentations is another way to add CO2 to small grow rooms if you can handle the smell. Use a one gallon plastic milk jug and mix one cup of sugar and a packet of brewers yeast with about three quarts of warm water. This concoction is changed one to four times daily as needed. Half of the solution is poured out, then 1 1/2 quarts of water and another cup of sugar are added. Add more yeast if needed.

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