Soon starting new grow in new tent: 60x60x160, 4x cheap LED's from e-bay – one central '360w' full spectrum UFO (36x'10w' double-chip LED's) with three surrounding full spectrum 28w (28xLED's) E27's. It's anyone's guess what the hell that really means in terms of actual light output, but I'm confident it will suffice. We'll see, in any case. Please don't comment on lighting here. (Unless you really do know exactly which lights I'm referring to and really do have real-life experience of using them.)
The question here is about pots: whether to put five plants into one big – 17gallon (⌀45cmx35cm depth) or 7 gallon (⌀35x30); or 5x small – 2 gallon (⌀20x20) or 3 gallon (⌀25x20) white fabric pots. If going the 'small' route, I'm afraid 5x ⌀25cm would be a bit too tight in the 60cm2 space, so I'm inclined to go for the 2 gallon pots (unless someone knows why 3 gallon would be better). If going the 'big' route, it's a question of how much room I'm going to need to the side over the edge of the pot for manifolding. I can put the plants closer together in the middle of the pot, so I'm inclined to go for the bigger pot, unless someone can think of a reason why the 7 gallon pot might work better). I want to put all the pots, or the one big pot, into a cage, like a plastic laundry basket: a) to catch run-off from the plants after watering; and b) to provide a frame for (LST) training to manifold them.
There's a question of height, as well: to keep the lights 30-45cm above the canopy I don't want the canopy to grow above a metre or so from the floor. This isn't a problem in the smaller pots, which are only 20cm deep – I just put soil in to 5cm from the top of the pot, so the top of the soil is 15cm from the floor. Is 15cm depth enough for the roots to grow sufficiently to feed a metre-high manifolded plant? If I left 5cm between the top of the soil and the top edge of the pot in the bigger (biggest – 17 gallon) pot, the plants would start 30cm from the ground, which means by switching to flowering when they're 40cm high they'll stretch to a height of ~80cm they'll be ~1.2m from the floor, leaving ~30cm (subtract (at least) 10cm from the overall height of the tent to allow for fixtures) between the canopy and the lights. I'm afraid that's a bit tight. How much soil do they actually need in the bottom of a big pot (⌀45 or ⌀35cm)? Will 20cm from the bottom of the pot be enough, so that they've got another 10cm distance from the lights? If I've got the pots in a laundry basket/catch tray/manifold frame, I'll put clay pellets in the bottom to avoid wet feet. That's going to add another couple centimetres (4-5cm) to the height.
Thoughts, ideas, suggestions, comments, feedback, descriptions of similar experience – please.
The question here is about pots: whether to put five plants into one big – 17gallon (⌀45cmx35cm depth) or 7 gallon (⌀35x30); or 5x small – 2 gallon (⌀20x20) or 3 gallon (⌀25x20) white fabric pots. If going the 'small' route, I'm afraid 5x ⌀25cm would be a bit too tight in the 60cm2 space, so I'm inclined to go for the 2 gallon pots (unless someone knows why 3 gallon would be better). If going the 'big' route, it's a question of how much room I'm going to need to the side over the edge of the pot for manifolding. I can put the plants closer together in the middle of the pot, so I'm inclined to go for the bigger pot, unless someone can think of a reason why the 7 gallon pot might work better). I want to put all the pots, or the one big pot, into a cage, like a plastic laundry basket: a) to catch run-off from the plants after watering; and b) to provide a frame for (LST) training to manifold them.
There's a question of height, as well: to keep the lights 30-45cm above the canopy I don't want the canopy to grow above a metre or so from the floor. This isn't a problem in the smaller pots, which are only 20cm deep – I just put soil in to 5cm from the top of the pot, so the top of the soil is 15cm from the floor. Is 15cm depth enough for the roots to grow sufficiently to feed a metre-high manifolded plant? If I left 5cm between the top of the soil and the top edge of the pot in the bigger (biggest – 17 gallon) pot, the plants would start 30cm from the ground, which means by switching to flowering when they're 40cm high they'll stretch to a height of ~80cm they'll be ~1.2m from the floor, leaving ~30cm (subtract (at least) 10cm from the overall height of the tent to allow for fixtures) between the canopy and the lights. I'm afraid that's a bit tight. How much soil do they actually need in the bottom of a big pot (⌀45 or ⌀35cm)? Will 20cm from the bottom of the pot be enough, so that they've got another 10cm distance from the lights? If I've got the pots in a laundry basket/catch tray/manifold frame, I'll put clay pellets in the bottom to avoid wet feet. That's going to add another couple centimetres (4-5cm) to the height.
Thoughts, ideas, suggestions, comments, feedback, descriptions of similar experience – please.
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