Grow space question

[Pmoe90]

Ok i need help again. The pic below is the dimensions of my closet. Anybody got any suggestions on any good tents that would work in the area that I have? Or am I just better off using the space itself? My goal is to grow 6 plants together in the space that I have. Appreciate any info or advice given to me😁

[Campesino]

Hi Pmoe90
I wanted to give you an idea of what 6 plants in a similar square footage look like. These are my six plants in a 4x4 tent, last night.
You can do 6 plants in that size space, but it will get very crowded! One of my 6 barely gets any light!

Trying to fit a tent in there will further reduce space, so may try to seal and reflect the space you have. And maybe plan on 4...

[Redwasp]

Id fix the space and not use a tent. If your gonna use soil remember you need room to get in there and water each plant. 3 or 4 is more reasonable for a soil grow. If your using some other system im not sure.

And wow camp how do you work in there. That is a full tent.

[Campesino]

Redwasp fortunately, most of the "work" is now complete. I could reach over the front ones for most of the grow... And use the side windows. But now they are 48" tall and have grown right past the side windows, so I am up on tip toes trying to lean over and get to the ones in back! I am over 6' tall, but the plants are up to my shoulders (48" + saucer 3.5" + pot/media 12")!
My auto-drip system is making it easier also!

[Pmoe90]

Wow that is a full tent. Appreciate the pics and info I'll just make the room work. I plan on putting reflective paper on all the walls so the light can bounce off. I was plannng on doing the screen of green method just not sure how I'm going to hook that up just yet🤔

[Campesino]

If you plan to Scrog, 2 plants will be enough!
With 6 you may be closer to SOG than Scrog!
I Manifold my plants...
Nebula has wonderful tutorials on all of those training methods on the main GWE site

[Locrian99]

I think two would be great in a ScrOG in there. Especially with the 5’8” height limitation. If you do go just too and lst I think you could do 6 in 3 gallons pretty comfy in there since you’ve got 5 feet to do the row and two will be fine in the column. I’d do 3 gallons rather than 5 myself and would limit veg time due to the height.

[Pmoe90]

Still new to the game. Think I'll just stick with regular growing and lst them my goal is to get an even sized canopy

[Pmoe90]

So what' the best option? Screen of green or just a regular grow? I really just want a good yield. I'e only got the two strains blue cheese fem and candy kush. My last grow was my first and I think it went well but I know what to do and what not to do. Just wanna make the best choice

[Campesino]

They all have their advantages and uses.
I really like manifolds to maximize yield and maintain an even canopy.
Scrogs are good if you have vertical space limits as @Locrain99 suggests. You certainly need to consider that along with the lights you plan to use. There isn't going to be a lot of vertical space to grow your plants. ...My plants wouldn't fit in there, they barely fit in my 80" tent. I think you might still be able to do manifolds or other topping methods, but Scrog would be advised and then you're talking 2 maybe 3 plants max.
One way or the other, you will have to train the plants to maximize your yield in that space. Be sure to read all of those tutorials, I am sort of assuming that you already did.
Cheers

[Campesino]

What kind of light(s) are you going to use?

[Redwasp]

Campesino that 80 inches fades fast with taller breeds doesnt it. Lol.
I also have some 60 inch tents and use topping and lst and low plant counts and get great yields. But you have to keep up with your lst and may need to do some supercropping towards the end.

[Campesino]

Yeah, my silly plants kept stretching until Flower day 35! Thank goodness they finally stopped (fingers crossed)

Agree with your recommendations. Supercropping is my favorite! And a required skill to get a uniform canopy! Without supercropping I would have had to move my plants outside!

[Pmoe90]

My light is a 600 watt hp light. Im not sure what one will give me the best yield kinda leaning towards just growing the plants normal with lst I've done the topping before. I'm currently trying to figure out the difference between topping and manifolding. My plants won't get that big autofems tend to stay small and the other strain I have was listed as medium height. But if so I can always train them early. Yeah I have read the threads lol I'm constantly reading on the subject. My main research now is finding the difference between topping and manifolding. Seriously appreciate all your help

[Locrian99]

Depending on your reflector you will get about a 3.5x3.5 footprint out of your light. So you’ve got 2.5 feet of space that’s really not going to get good light coverage. I’d really look into the ScrOG I think myself. They are Very time consuming during the stretch to do right though so I’d take that into consideration. You could probably get away with four plants topped and lst’d And stay in that footprint. Could also look into some leds for supplemental lighting.

[Locrian99]

Depending on your reflector you will get about a 3.5x3.5 footprint out of your light. So you’ve got 2.5 feet of space that’s really not going to get good light coverage. I’d really look into the ScrOG I think myself. They are Very time consuming during the stretch to do right though so I’d take that into consideration. You could probably get away with four plants topped and lst’d And stay in that footprint. Could also look into some leds for supplemental lighting on the sides. Your hps will produce some awesome yields with manifolds too so you could do two in 5 gallons. Or you mentioned one was an auto you could easily do 4 of those in 3 gallons I think that’s what most do autos in. Anyways I’m rambling just sharing my thoughts. I don’t think I’d run auto and photos side by side as the 12/12 lighting will kill your auto yields.

[alltatup]

Porcha, I did LST for a couple of grows, then I started topping and I think I get better results with topping. After I top, I get 4 main colas coming up on each plant. I think if you do 4 plants with 4 main colas each, that would work good for your space.

How are you going to cool the space--especially during flower?

[Pmoe90]

Hmmm. So much to think about. You say I might be able to get away with the 4 plants in scrog? That's with the lst with it? If that's the case I can do 4 of the blue cheeses inside and let the candy kush grow outside. I'm glad you said that about the auto because I read where it wouldn't matter the light pattern.

[Locrian99]

Oh no I meant four with top and lst and that’s going to be tight. I myself would probably run 2-3 manifolds under that light. Run them in a row and focus on training them into the open area around so you make the most out of your footprint.

[Pmoe90]

I wonder if i could get away with growing both in there till the flowering period of the candy kush then just move the blue cheese outside? I have no clue what to do now honestly

[Campesino]

Yes, actually I would to.
I would do 3-4 manifolds, but the timing would be tight. 3 gallon fabric pots with Coco and 25% Perlite. Manifold plants and flip them in about 33 days from sprout, And I'd expect the space to end up about as crowded as mine is now.
Not sure if that is a good beginner's route, but we'll be here to help!

[Pmoe90]

I'll have to do more researh on manifolding. Don't really get the concept of it just yet. I'll start the grow with scrog and move the out the auto when its time to flower the candy kush.

[Chefbjy]

Do not manifold autos please.

[Campesino]

I agree Chefbjy
Certainly not on your first pass!

[Locrian99]

So here are two manifolds plants in a 32”x32” tent. These are short plants as the strain is. I don’t know how well you can see it but I trained them to go to the open area rather than towards each other or the side of the tent. Yield off those two plants wasn’t great, think I had my led too far away Got right around 50 grams each. Just wanted to kind of show you what I meant by training to the open area.

[DrPhoton]

You must also remember vegetation time plays a part on the desired plant number. Without any training which you typically find with sea of green, you would roughly find the following the ideal for a 4x4.

4 weeks veg (9-12 plants)

6 weeks veg (6-9 plants)

8 weeks (not ideal without plant training)

With plant training you would find the following to be ideal for a 4x4.

4 weeks veg (not ideal with plant training)

6 weeks veg (4-6 plants)

8 weeks veg (2-4 plants)

And so it goes without saying that if you want to reduce vegetation time and improve the utiliation of your light source, use more plants with less vegetation time. If you are limited on plant numbers or want to have less maintainence use less plants with longer vegetation time.

Each tent or light source has an ideal system to maximize the efficiency of the space and source. But usually this means more plants. So you usually have to compromise. For example. Campesion could have vegged for 6 weeks instead of 8 and be in a much better situation. He could of course use only 4 plants next time but he would miss out on the 2 weeks less time possibly saved with 6 plants.

I think the 2 plants with scrog is a good recommendation for a 7-8 week vegetation. As its been pointed out, a authentic scrog is where a plant is manipulated to grow across a horizontal trellis, where as a trellis where the plant just grows through and over the trellis, is just a support structure and not a genuine screen of green.

I am currently working on an article for plant training but my lungs are giving me troubles with pneumonia at the moment so i must rest.

Check my article out on using light efficiently.

[D.A.A.S.69]

DrPhoton, I sure hope that you get rid of that pneumonia, that's bad stuff !!!
Get well soon.

[DrPhoton]

Thanks daas, health problems are nothing new to me

[Redwasp]

Dangerdan what kind of yields do you get from 9 to 12,4 week old, SOG plants in a 4x4 space vs having 2 to 4, 8 week old, well trained plants? Have a hard time seeing getting the same or better yields from the SOG. Maybe in hydrophonics it would be worth it but i soil would require lots of work to keep those pot sizes watered.

[DrPhoton]

When a certain area of growth is obtained, the yield potential is the same. Only the time it takes to reach the stage of growth is different. Whether you spread the yield over few or many plants, the potential is mainly limited by the photosynthesis potential of the light source.

When you start with more plants, you start off with a higher potential of energy. This higher initial energy allows higher photosynthetic capacity early on. Imagine 2 plants with a specific surface area of leaves photosynthesizing say around 50umol of light. Compared to 9 plants. Thats 100umol of photosynthesis vs 450umol. So already your growth potential is higher because more initial energy is being produced from photosynthesis. Now this only really changes how long you have to stay in vegetation stage. As you can reach the desired stage of growth faster. But again, whether you use few or many plants. Once you reach an identicle surface area and canopy density, the potential for yield is also identicle. This is because the limitation of yield is not on the number of plants you have. Because you have already filled the canopy and capturing all possible light. But is limited by the light source.

[Redwasp]

Thank you Dangerdan. That really helps and makes perfect sense. I have always just made sure i used all available space/light. In the past I used more plants. I slowly just started growing fewer plants with a bit longer veg time. I really enjoy spending time with and training my plants. I can see why some others would rather just have more plants.

[DrPhoton]

Thank you Dangerdan. That really helps and makes perfect sense. I have always just made sure i used all available space/light. In the past I used more plants. I slowly just started growing fewer plants with a bit longer veg time. I really enjoy spending time with and training my plants. I can see why some others would rather just have more plants.

Yes, when using more plants to reduce vegetation time. You are matching your plants with the final light source. With less plants you want to match your light source to your plants. This is what i detail in my article on using light efficiently.

I have done both and find they both have their qualities, but like you i do enjoy the training aspect of growing. So much fun.

[Pmoe90]

Appreciate that info. Cleared a few things up for me.