First off, I would like to thank all the experienced growers for their wealth of information, and for all the help they have given noobs such as myself! I have read many threads and studied many teks, which I could not have done if it wasn't for all your hard work. Now, I just need a little bit more help from you... please and thank you in advance. Also, I hope I'm posting this in the right place haha.
I will give a little description of what I have so far. I bought a 4 tier mini greenhouse, an ultrasonic humidifier, a mini fan, a hygrotherm, two pc fans with 12 v adapters, timers, and a waterproof 6500 k rope light. This is not including the materials, ingredients, and other supplies to actually cultivate. This is just the stuff for the Martha. I can post pics if needed, just would have to take them. It's not at my house so it might take a little while if they are needed/wanted.
I set up the GH on legs to raise it, put a layer of plastic on bottom with a hole in the middle, and placed a weight in order for the condensation to drip into a pan. The US with a mini fan blowing up are on the bottom shelf, while they are both hooked up to the hygrotherm. They both turn on at the same time so that the fan rotates the humidity from the US. The rope light has a sticky back that sticks to the plastic of the GH extending from the bottom of one side, goes up along the top and back down to the bottom of the other side. This is hooked up to a timer for 12/12 on/off. I already have the fans wired to the adapters, and also put DAP silicon around the exposed wires. They are not hooked up to the GH as of yet, but will also be put on timers. I was thinking of turning them on for a few minutes about every 4-6 hours. The rooms in the building each have their own thermostat, and the heat in each room can be different from the others. So for that room I would just keep it at where it needs to be during colonization and then for fruiting.
Now, for the questions. I was going to cut holes for the fans in the GH, but did not want to make a mistake in doing it after all the money and effort. They are 120 mm fans at 74.48 cfm, two of them. I was thinking of putting one at the top right blowing in, and one on the bottom left blowing out (I read that doing it the reverse is hard on the fans as the air inside the GH is heavier than normal air). I was wondering if I should cut big holes the size of the fans, smaller holes, maybe just slits or poke holes where the fan is at? Should I use some sort of filter? Will the filter get moldy from absorbing the moisture? How long should the fans run (dimensions are 62Hx27Lx19W inches) and how often for FAE?
I know Martha's are best for bulk, but I want to start out with pf tek cakes with added gypsum (not many, just to see if I'm successful). The hygrotherm allows to get up to 95% humiditiy. I would dunk and roll the cakes, and then put them in trays on top of perlite. After being successful, I would move to bulk using Damien's Coir tek with added gypsum to trays, and Hawk's 50/50 casing tek. Also, I would lower the humidity as I read not as much is needed for bulk trays. Curious about whether to keep them in the trays, or take them out of the trays after colonization though? I will do my first bulk with pf cakes as I already have all the stuff needed for that, then I will do another grow with wbs cakes.
I'm starting with the Martha tek as i really like the idea, the automation, to tweak things, and I'm an electronic/gadget freak haha. I would love any other recommendations, even if not pertaining to my questions. Any type of criticism is acceptable. Although, I decided against the coolmist for FAE as space and finances are factors, and already had the pc fans with adapters. If this setup does not work, I will consider the coolmist. Thanks again for any and all help! And of course, this is for legal edible mushies...
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