Final pot size for my 3x3 tent?

[Cobbyist]

Hey guys, been a long time lurker. Now Ive finally got my first indoor grow going (about 3rd altogether) and looking forward to sharing info with eachother.

So I have a 3X3 (to be exact 3'3"x3'3") grow tent with 400W (wall watts) of Vero 29 COB led's from Timber and ill supplement lighting at the bottoms of the plants in flower with about 150W of CFL's. This is for 4 plants that I will be training by mainlining and ill be using Pro-Mix medium. I will also be using AN's line of nutrients.

I was planning on either going with 5 gallon regular plastic pots or 7 gallon fabric pots and I'm wondering if I'm going over-kill on the pot sizes?

Thanks for any input

 

[CBudz420]

No need for seven gallons.

 

[Cobbyist]

Yes I am starting to think the 7 gallon idea is a little overkill.

Why I was thinking 7G is because I just transplanted my plants in to 3 gallons.

I’m not even finished topping them for the mainlining, so they still need to grow a fair amount before I flip to 12/12.

They are only 5”-6” tall but that’s because I’ve been topping.

 

[GroErr]

Not sure why you don't have 5gal fabrics listed but that would be my choice. After using fabric pots I'd never grow a plant in a plastic pot again.

 

[Chef420]

I have a 3 x 3 and for me, 4x 3g pots is the perfect fit. I’m using plastic pots and pro mix. Each pot takes exactly 1g of water/feed with a trickle of run off.

 

[Cobbyist]

I'm kinda liking the 5g fabric idea. I only thought of the 7g fabric for quicker wet/dry cycles with that amount of dirt, but I feel like GroErr is on point here with the happy middle ground here.

I'm sure 3g is perfect for the size of the setup I have going, but I like to go a little over with the "It may or may not help but it can't hurt" things.

 

[GroErr]

I'm kinda liking the 5g fabric idea. I only thought of the 7g fabric for quicker wet/dry cycles with that amount of dirt, but I feel like GroErr is on point here with the happy middle ground here.

I'm sure 3g is perfect for the size of the setup I have going, but I like to go a little over with the "It may or may not help but it can't hurt" things.

The reason I mentioned fabrics is you can grow huge plants in them without worry about root binding. Essentially in a 5gal fabric pot your could grow a single plant that would fill your tent so it is a bit of overkill, 3 gal's wold work well also. But you'll get a little more time between waterings which is about the only factor I consider now in fabrics, how long I'll get between waterings.

Here's something I don't normally do but this was a great example of why you want to grow in fabrics vs. plastic. Pheno hunt and I decided to let them go in the pots they were in. Those are 3 ft. plants, 1 gal fabric pots. (door knob is 37" from the floor). Pita for watering, every day, sometimes twice/day towards the end.

 

[Cobbyist]

Wow that's pretty impressive coming out of 1 gallon pots! definitely sending that post a like once my newbie status is up.

The wet/dry cycles. Even though I've always heard the quicker the cycles the better, I would like some buffer time just for reasons like being out of town / away from home etc. You have me convinced to order some 5 gallon fabrics. More root room than I need, plus some buffer time on the watering's.

Also I'm not liking that when I transplant, the bottoms of my pots seem to be root bound but the top area of the pot is always almost void of roots. Most of the roots are in the bottom 1/3 of the pot.

I would post a pic but I didn't take any when I transplanted.
Am I doing something wrong? or is that just how they form in plastic pots?

 

[Chef420]

That’s kind of the way it goes. You can transplant and leave about a 1/4 of the top of the root ball exposed but normally roots are like that. I think because it’s the top that dries out the fastest so they head down.
I think that medium choice will control watering intervals more than pot size. Coco is once a day. Pro mix is 3 days. Then you can add perlite to pro mix to add aeration and then it’s 2 days. If you need a buffer stay away from coco.

 

[GroErr]

Wow that's pretty impressive coming out of 1 gallon pots! definitely sending that post a like once my newbie status is up.

The wet/dry cycles. Even though I've always heard the quicker the cycles the better, I would like some buffer time just for reasons like being out of town / away from home etc. You have me convinced to order some 5 gallon fabrics. More root room than I need, plus some buffer time on the watering's.

Also I'm not liking that when I transplant, the bottoms of my pots seem to be root bound but the top area of the pot is always almost void of roots. Most of the roots are in the bottom 1/3 of the pot.

I would post a pic but I didn't take any when I transplanted.
Am I doing something wrong? or is that just how they form in plastic pots?

Yeah what you're seeing is normal when growing in plastic. The root systems in the fabrics with the air pruning avoid exactly that scenario and fill the pots top to bottom and side to side. Much better root systems which is essentially what we're growing.

 

[Cobbyist]

I have some 5 gallon fabric pots on the way. Thanks guys for the very informative information
My goal this go-around has been to work on improving the health and size of the roots.

Since I can only grow my plants so tall in the tent before the lighting falls off too much to help. It makes sense to me that if your root system is larger and healthier than another plant of the same size you will get improved yield/quality inside the same tent. Which is also why I like the idea of Mainlining as it slows the growth of the plant while the roots seem to just keep getting bigger.

I heard transplanting can be difficult with fabric pots. Would it make sense to go plastic all the way until the final pot size? Or is transplanting in fabric not that hard?

 

[Roger A. Shrubber]

i used cloth pots for a while, i like the results you get, but they do hang on to small roots when you transplant, and, at least to me, seems to hit them a little harder than transplanting out of nursery pots. i would recommend plastic till you put them in flower, go with the cloth pots maybe a week before you flip them, so they get a chance to get established before they go into your flower tent

 

[Cobbyist]

I figured as much. next round I may transplant in to 3 gallon fabric pots for the final pots depending on how the wet/dry cycles go.

 

[BCNeil]

For mainlining it is easiest to go from 1 gallon during veg then 5 for flower. I have only tried mainlining a few times. I found it easiest to do the training in a 1 gallon hercules.

 

[full of purple]

I would skip the fabric pots personal opinion
When I used them and tried to water. It would just run out the sides
I could see a problem with to much water on the floor of your tent if not carefull

 

[Roger A. Shrubber]

fabric isn't great with soil, but its works good with coco and pro-mix. if you're having that problem with coco, you're letting it dry out too much between waterings. you don't want to keep coco soaked, but you don't want to let it dry out as much as soil, either. that leads to dry pockets, that don't absorb water, and roots can't grow. pro-mix can have the same problem, but usually not as bad.
you can treat pro-mix pretty much like coco. unless you buy the....(can't remember which) pro-mix that has perlite added already, you'll need to add some, about 25% anyway. the biggest difference to me is i run coco at 6.1, and pro-mix at 6.3 ph. pro-mix also doesn't seem to need quite as much cal-mag as coco.

 

[BigHornBuds]

I would skip the fabric pots personal opinion
When I used them and tried to water. It would just run out the sides
I could see a problem with to much water on the floor of your tent if not carefull

I’m another vote for fabric pots .
You need to keep them on trays , because water will come out the sides , but the pot will suck it up, if there is still water in the tray 20min after watering, you have given to much. Cut it back next time.
I only use smart pots in flower and veg in plastic because it’s easier to transplant.
I transplant 5 times from start to finish.

If I was going to try to fill the space with 1 plant , I’d run 1- 10g pot
If I was going to do 2 , I’d pick 5 or 7
Or put 4 - 3 gallons in there.

I like to grow sea of green(but can’t because of my license)
I now grow 4 plants under a 1000w DE in a 43”x48” area

 

[Cobbyist]

I like to grow sea of green(but can’t because of my license)
I now grow 4 plants under a 1000w DE in a 43”x48” area

What kind of yields are you seeing out of the 4x4?

That's the one thing I wish I did differently is go for the 4x4 instead of 3x3. I think I'm going to have to grow smart if I want to supply myself completely.

When the new MJ laws come in to Canada, its looking like the legal limit will be 4 plants at 1 meter tall, which my setup will be based around those rules.

Oh well, after the setup starts paying for itself I will upgrade.

 

[BigHornBuds]

What kind of yields are you seeing out of the 4x4?

That's the one thing I wish I did differently is go for the 4x4 instead of 3x3. I think I'm going to have to grow smart if I want to supply myself completely.

When the new MJ laws come in to Canada, its looking like the legal limit will be 4 plants at 1 meter tall, which my setup will be based around those rules.

Oh well, after the setup starts paying for itself I will upgrade.

I’m not running a tent,
Tents will cut your yields, because they lack height, n space to setup, most people over pack them.
You bought a 3x3 to hold 1 light.
Where’s your fans gonna be? In the light path, where u going to put extra stuff etc .

My yields depends on a lot of factors, strain & veg time being the 2 biggest ones .
But I anywhere from 18-50 oz dry buds under a light. but usually it’s around 30-40
I don’t like growing poor yielding strains,
They get a run or two then are killed off

I heard they tossed the 1m rule...

mostly am looking for special girls that impress me. So I’m always pheno hunting
In the last yr, I’ve popped over 100 high end seeds , I’ve got 1 really special plant ,

If I was you, I’d be thinking flowering 2 plants at a time, having the other 2 vegging
When u cut start two more, for ever n ever

 

[Cobbyist]

Well as I said the 3x3 is too small for what I want, but the setup fits in quite nice actually.

Nevermind that theres 5 plants in the tent, I germed 5 fem seeds just in case some didn't make it, but come next weekend I'm going to keep the strongest 4 and give the one that's a bit behind the others to a friend.
The biggest problem is my plants wont be able to fill out as much as I would like, which is why I will be switching to the 4x4 and adding on to my Cob lights accordingly....may go up to 5x5.
As you can see in the pic, the fan blows against the lighting assembly and it actually buffets all of the plants gently without blocking light.

I'm not sure what u mean by where am I going to put my extra stuff? What stuff?

Also I didn't buy a tent to increase my yields per say. Purchasing the tent was so I can easily control the environment at a cost effective level. My shop that I grow in is 42' long by 15' wide, it is insulated but there are large air gaps that need to be fixed so its not cost effective to heat. I will probably build a separate grow room sometime in the future, but I just broke my spine at work 4 months ago so I still need more healing time before I can do bigger projects like that.

the small 400w heater only runs about half the day, if I didn't have the tent it would be crazy expensive to keep the shop at 27c in winter. The heater will fit in the middle perfectly once plant #5 changes homes.

Height isn't too much of an issue, with pot height, lights and the airgap you need between the lights and the plants I'm left with about 3' 8" which...is a bit short but I shouldn't be growing higher than that anyways with the amount of wattage my lights are using (400W of Vero29 Cobs and about 150W of CFL's hanging below the canopy but above the pots)

It seemed like the smartest setup I could get together in my current situation...it is my first indoor grow as well and only 3rd total so I'm sure I made some silly mistakes in there too, I'm open to suggestions.