Designing a 15000sqft facility....please help

Well paperwork and tracking and all the admin stuff would be done by someone else, not the grower. Grower's job would strictly be to oversee the growing from seed to harvest. Of course he would have a team working with him. He would over see all the growing, including nutrients, pest control etc..

Why not have one veg room that you cut clones from and then do several massive sog or Scrog? That way it is perpetual. Cut the clones then once rooted veg them for 3-6 weeks then flip the switch. Then repeat.

shawa said:

Well basically, he suggested that we have many isolated grow rooms. So you would veg one strain in that room and when its time for flowering, you convert that room into flowering mode. That way you do the veg to harvest without moving plants.

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OK, that's what I would do, too. If you're using electronic ballasts, all you would have to do is change the bulbs and reset the timers. I would suggest ebb & flow, top drip has inherent reliability problems. Damn drippers are always moving around or getting clogged.

joe macclennan said:

lol...there aren't' that many "top notch master growers" here red

and I doubt those that are would run a 500k room for free.

come to think of it...with all the headaches the op is talking about with paperwork and tracking and the other

100k$ doesn't sound like enough either. With a 100% profit sharing incentive yes.

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I agree. As a business owner you get what you pay for.

Truly very few master growers indeed.

Anyone that would work for peanuts is desperate and thus almost couldn't be a master anything.

Red1966 said:

Whenever I drink, I get arrested. Not sure why that is. So I quit drinking 30 years ago. Smoking doesn't have that effect on me. P.S. I may not always be right, but I'm never wrong.....lol..

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alright a smoke then..not much of a drinker either.

and I thought I was wrong once....turns out I was mistaken

SnapsProvolone said:

I agree. As a business owner you get what you pay for.

Truly very few master growers indeed.

Anyone that would work for peanuts is desperate and thus almost couldn't be a master anything.

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how to vet someone like that is what I'm wondering... I mean awards and degrees and references aside...what a risk to put all your eggs in one basket so to speak.

joe macclennan said:

how to vet someone like that is what I'm wondering... I mean awards and degrees and references aside...what a risk to put all your eggs in one basket so to speak.

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That's what networking is for. Lol

I agree. As a consultant I see way more fails at growing. One mmc out here never had a harvest in almost 2 years due to bad grower. Pm got them. Mites got them. Stupidity got them (left door open to flower room). Combine that with an assload of bag seed and all they ever harvested was seeds. Now their closed up. 70/30 rule.. they bought all their nug from other mmc's in the springs.

The BEST growers are like I was. They are living in states where it's illegal and they aren't getting recognized (except awards given by law enforcement)

Only after moving to Colorado did I come out of my cave.

good god damn point.

only someone without an unlimited budget can really grow into this bus...imo.

I knew a guy once who thought he could throw money @ every problem in a grow. He came around eventually and finally understands this doesn't work most times.

No substitute for experience with success.

Thing is, OP's consultant is not very experienced imho. Suggesting 50kw in a 1200 sqft room doesn't account for ability to move around a little. Very important. What if you have employees working and there is a fire and you need to evacuate. You need clear paths. I am not feeling trees too, the labor required to support all those branches would be off the charts. Drip rigs plug up. I mean really, does his consultant have any experience being successful at large scale? I believe if so the aforementioned issues would be known to him.

I agree..most of those didn't make sense to me either. But what do I know? I'm no master gardener...if I were I probably wouldn't be on here

or maybe I would I dunno.

all that sounds like waaaay to much work...especially if there is no plant count limit.

I mean not only the work factor but what if god forbid there were some sort of bio breech. Pm or bugs or the like...

or what if a timer malfunctioned?or a watering pump went down and went unnoticed somehow? I mean the time invested in large plants just doesn't pay if there are no plant count limits...imo.

Red1966 said:

How about they fire your lazy ass. Is that incentive?

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Let me put it this way. You own a grow. You like profit.

Say you offer the grower 50k/yr & 2% of the gross.

Now based on my conservative estimate of 2880 lbs a year being based on 1.5 lbs per light (I do 2).

Lets assume your grower likes money. If he puts out 2 lbs per light, your 2880 lbs/yr just became 3840. Now giving up a mere 2% to motivate your grower is smart huh?

SnapsProvolone said:

No substitute for experience with success.

Thing is, OP's consultant is not very experienced imho. Suggesting 50kw in a 1200 sqft room doesn't account for ability to move around a little. Very important. What if you have employees working and there is a fire and you need to evacuate. You need clear paths. I am not feeling trees too, the labor required to support all those branches would be off the charts. Drip rigs plug up. I mean really, does his consultant have any experience being successful at large scale? I believe if so the aforementioned issues would be known to him.

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Well 50kw based on 1kw covering 16sqft is 800sq feet. That leaves 400 sq ft for spacing everything out in that room. Were leaving 25% of the room for clear paths between plants. As well, the type of hydroponics is no final. This is something that the grower will have input on. Were only creating the blueprint for the building.

As well, monetary incentives for the master grower for good production is on the books. That is something I were in agreement with.

My point is the building should incorporate a lot. If using tables I want my reservoirs in the cement floor with inground plumbing. Just one example of why your putting the cart before the horse imho.

SnapsProvolone said:

. If using tables I want my reservoirs in the cement floor with inground plumbing..

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that's what I would want.

how would you connect the table drains to the floor stubs?

the best thing I came up with was fernco fittings. They are a little flexible to allow slight adjustment if needed and cheap enough. and easy to unhook.

Table drain connection is non existent just gravity. The flood fitting pump connect is 3/4" tubing. One large master pump and reservoir for a 32'x4' tray row.

you misunderstand me.

for fill lines i'd use sch80 unions to disconnect for a f&D system.

but for the drains?? I use bulkhead fittings in my trays with a male adapter screwed into both top with holes drilled in for drainage and bottom with fernco fitt's to attach to the pipes stubbed from floor returning to res. With large drains I don't have to worry about them getting plugged or a tray overflowing somehow either.

also having a large 2" drain with a bulkhead fitting allows me to drain a full tray in a matter of minutes which pulls any errant leaves or root matter to the end where it can be cleaned up. all I have to do is unscrew the top male adapter and she siphons out fast. 1 1/2" would be plenty I know.

another benefit I see to large drain and fill lines is the ability to flood and drain FAST. leaving less soak time allowing for more frequent floods.

what am I missing here snaps?

edit: you have to be able to unhook everything to split the trays and do maintenance

The tray sits above reservoir. Overflow fitting needs no stub, gravity does the trick. The feed is a barbed stub with 3/4" flex tube going to the barb on the flood/drain fitting. When pump cycle ends the trays drain back through pump. One set of fittings every 8 feet.

I got ya now. See I was thinking about having a totally separate water room so all nute levels could be checked even when lights are out. also all res would be closer to any water filtration and such. making for easier changes to my way of thinking.

it would entail substantially more plumbing and more shit in the way ie an extra drain line though.

thoughts?

edit: never mind....I got it....draining back through the pump eh???

have to chew on this one for a bit

Here is an above ground example of a 4x8 160 gallon.