Grow Rooms and Greenhouses

Marijuana Horticulture

by Jorge Cervantes

The best location for a grow room is in an obscure corner of a basement, where the temperature is easy to keep constant year-round. Basements are well insulated by concrete walls and soil. A basement room can be enclosed and camouflaged with junk, a double wall, workbench, or shelving.

Added security is afforded by installing a false door in a closet. The grow room is located behind the secret door. Another good secret location, except the possible heat buildup, is the attic. Few people venture to an attic that is difficult to access. Some growers locate their gardens below a trapdoor covered with a rug.

Law enforcement cannot use the electricity bill as sole grounds for a search warrant. But they can use it along with other “evidence” such as remnants of indoor growing visible outdoors, thermal image heat signatures, snitch testimony, etc., to secure a search warrant. As long as marijuana grown is not sold or shown to a snitch, there should be no reason for any suspicion. Thermal image technology is easy to outwit. Just keep the lights n during daylight hours to confuse the technology. Or, cool exhaust air and expel it under the well-insulated grow house so it does not leave a heat trail.

Outbuildings, garages, and barns not attached to homes are some of the worst places to grow cannabis. Thieves and law enforcement often do not regard entering a barn or garage as a crime, though they would not consider entering a home. Security is much better when the garden is within the home.

Although less common, there are even grow rooms on wheels! Some innovative growers have remodeled trailer houses and buses int grow rooms. One of my favorite grow rooms was a tricked out trailer. Another was a 60-foot sailing yacht!

The grow room’s size determines the size and the number of lamps. High intensity discharge (HID) lamps that work well to grow marijuana are available in wattages of 150, 175, 250, 400, 600, 1000, and 1100. Smaller wattages from 150-400, work well in closets or spaces with 9-21 square feet of floor space. use 600-watt and larger bulbs for larger areas.

The most productive setups utilize two rooms. The first room is for vegetative growth, mother plants, and rooting clones. This room should be about one-quarter the size of the flowering room. When the flowering room crop is harvested, plants from vegetative room are moved into the flowering room.

Super productivity is achieved with a perpetual crop. Several clones are taken every day or every week. Every day a few plants are harvested. For every plant harvested, a new cutting takes its place.