How would you personally grow and train plants in this situation?

Milky Weed

Well-Known Member
Your a new grower and started 20 plants thinking some would not make it. You have 2 450 watt draw led’s that have an “ok” 5x5 footprint. Your total space is about 5x12. The lights are an Agromax 550 raw 3k and sf4000. For height I have 6ft of solid room with the room being about 8-9ft tall.

The plants are staggered in growth, some smaller than others. Oldest ones are 30 days about.

How would you grow trying to avoid a SOG situation, and looking to do some type of SCROG or another better method but having never done it before and knowing they could not get too big.
They will finish in 5 gallon cloth pots so I don’t think I would want them too big anyways and getting root bound.
 

Tracker

Well-Known Member
Those two lights are really underpowered to each cover a 4x4 space, not to mention that the light distribution is not very good around the edges. You end up with a significant hot spot directly under the center. If you web search the models, you can see the ppfd/par diagrams to get an idea of what I mean.

I would say you could effectively covet a 3x6 canopy that will give you good nugs, oitside of that area, the nugs are going to be less productive the farther you go out from the center.

Are they fem seeds or regular? Do you expect to be able to cull out any males?

I havent had your exact situation before, but I imagine what I would do is put the shorter plants in the center, put the taller plants around the edges, and put the lights about 24" from the canopy to get a good spread.

I might consider culling out any stragglers or the least healthy plants. You should prob flip to 12/12 sooner than later because the plants are going to get significantly larger with the flower stretch.

Good luck! Peace :peace:
 

Milky Weed

Well-Known Member
Those two lights are really underpowered to each cover a 4x4 space, not to mention that the light distribution is not very good around the edges. You end up with a significant hot spot directly under the center. If you web search the models, you can see the ppfd/par diagrams to get an idea of what I mean.

I would say you could effectively covet a 3x6 canopy that will give you good nugs, oitside of that area, the nugs are going to be less productive the farther you go out from the center.

Are they fem seeds or regular? Do you expect to be able to cull out any males?

I havent had your exact situation before, but I imagine what I would do is put the shorter plants in the center, put the taller plants around the edges, and put the lights about 24" from the canopy to get a good spread.

I might consider culling out any stragglers or the least healthy plants. You should prob flip to 12/12 sooner than later because the plants are going to get significantly larger with the flower stretch.

Good luck! Peace :peace:
hey thanks I appreciate the response, they are all feminized photo seeds. I would feel pretty bad about culling some because of it was like $10-$20 a seed. But if that’s needed I do have a few worthy sacrifices.
I figured the lights wouldn’t cover even 4x4 very well, so 3x3 sounds like a good estimate and 3x6 total. That’s only using about half the room through I may have to put the lights closer together then.

I’m going to do my best to try and score a 3rd light, but no guarantees. Then ide have atleast 3x9 to work with.

I’m almost thinking in this situation to just grow each plant normally? They have been Fimmed once abit late so the tops will be bushy. I don’t think I will be able to effectively scrog anything.
 

Tracker

Well-Known Member
hey thanks I appreciate the response, they are all feminized photo seeds. I would feel pretty bad about culling some because of it was like $10-$20 a seed. But if that’s needed I do have a few worthy sacrifices.
I figured the lights wouldn’t cover even 4x4 very well, so 3x3 sounds like a good estimate and 3x6 total. That’s only using about half the room through I may have to put the lights closer together then.

I’m going to do my best to try and score a 3rd light, but no guarantees. Then ide have atleast 3x9 to work with.

I’m almost thinking in this situation to just grow each plant normally? They have been Fimmed once abit late so the tops will be bushy. I don’t think I will be able to effectively scrog anything.
For SCROG you need room to spread it out. Like 1 of those lights per plant.

I would put trellis net on top of them to help spread the tops out and give them some support for when they put on weight.

Can you post a pic, so we can see what youre workin with?
 

Johiem

Well-Known Member
I wish I had known about this thread when I was getting set up. Yes the thread is old, but get to the present and there are some deals or there for budget lights. I picked up a 400w for $120ish I think. But there are some cheap lights out there, just do your research.
 

Johiem

Well-Known Member
I fully get being budgeted, believe me but you are losing valuable real estate by not lighting part of your tent.
 

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
If you want to keep all those plants, don't veg them long and flip to 12/12 asap to control size. It's not ideal though, buy hey, you work with what you got. 5 gal pots take up a fair bit of space, have you set up 20 5 gal pots to see what that footprint is? If you stick with 5 gal pots, you'll prob need another light. If you grew in coco, DTW hydro, you could put them in smaller pots, 2-3 gallon, but the downside is you'd need to feed several times per day and you don't have an automated system going so it would need to be by hand-lots of time and effort daily. Just wanted to give you a few more things to consider. Good luck!
 

Milky Weed

Well-Known Member
Thank you all for your responses, and to Johiem it’s a small room not a tent, but your correct in I am loosing good real estate.

I will really push for a 3rd light I believe that will help, the total space I have to work with is 5x16 just about. My problem is now my lights footprints! I will likely do 3 plants in a row, and I will just barley be able to fit the 13” diameter fabric pots in a 3ft wide row.
Here are some pictures, I hope they help I don’t have any better ones atm.

the 3rd pic is roughly the amount of space I can use in that room, I took one of the tables out so far. The large ones on the ground are in 5 gals, and I used a lux meter to get them as even as possible. It ended up being a 3x3 square naturally just about.

I wish I had planted them all at the same time but I got seeds at a funny rate, this will make flipping to flower more challenging in a single room I did not think of that.
E71BE507-259A-4227-9B4B-15BB1B322846.jpegC20CD990-CF08-44BC-9375-BC196BB2CB21.jpeg6DF8C216-B85A-4E72-83B5-452A9285CD31.jpeg
 
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curious2garden

Well-Known Mod
Staff member
Your a new grower and started 20 plants thinking some would not make it. You have 2 450 watt draw led’s that have an “ok” 5x5 footprint. Your total space is about 5x12. The lights are an Agromax 550 raw 3k and sf4000. For height I have 6ft of solid room with the room being about 8-9ft tall.

The plants are staggered in growth, some smaller than others. Oldest ones are 30 days about.

How would you grow trying to avoid a SOG situation, and looking to do some type of SCROG or another better method but having never done it before and knowing they could not get too big.
They will finish in 5 gallon cloth pots so I don’t think I would want them too big anyways and getting root bound.
Just flower out whatever will fit under your lights and clone the rest. Pushing them into the future. That's what I do instead of keeping mothers. As they get root bound and start dying I clone them and repeat. Then flower what I want when I'm ready.
 

Milky Weed

Well-Known Member
Just flower out whatever will fit under your lights and clone the rest. Pushing them into the future. That's what I do instead of keeping mothers. As they get root bound and start dying I clone them and repeat. Then flower what I want when I'm ready.
i forgot cloning is an option, thanks for reminding me. That’s a good way to not loose any of the seeds overall. Thank you for the piece of wisdom homie!

I’m thinking I will have to sleep on this now that I have that new tool I forgot about, and how I want to do them. Game changer!
 

youraveragehorticulturist

Well-Known Member
Is there any way to divide your space and flower like your 12 biggest plants now while you veg 6 or 8 smaller ones for awhile?

That way you could keep your plants and immediately start a 2nd group of plants flowering as soon as your first group is finished.
 

Milky Weed

Well-Known Member
Is there any way to divide your space and flower like your 12 biggest plants now while you veg 6 or 8 smaller ones for awhile?

That way you could keep your plants and immediately start a 2nd group of plants flowering as soon as your first group is finished.
I was thinking about this also. But I would literally have to build some sort of cheap drywall to split that room in half. I would be worried about light leak in flower if I just tried duct taping something up.

that would also kind of mess up the airflow unless I made light proof vents. It would be ideal though to be able to accommodate the plants like that though.
 
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Milky Weed

Well-Known Member
I got the 3rd light too so now I have 3x9 to work with. I see why people have different rooms though for flower and veg.
 

Milky Weed

Well-Known Member
336F7FBF-CE11-46ED-BDB1-DC1BBEAA9C9B.jpeg
Does this look good for some LST? I don’t think I’ll fully scrog each one, but I’ll try my best given the space. It should atleast help them be abit bushier if I can tuck the new growth for alittle bit then flip.
 

neonfree

Active Member
I wouldnt clone to many times from a clone, they will start to lose potency and or hermaphrodite.
 

neonfree

Active Member
Suit yourself bud, depends on genetics. Do some more research dan. Cloning a mother sure, long time, cloning a clone then cloning that clone then that clone, depends. Good luck!! Definately nothing scientific out there, but some do clone forever, others say they get weaker each time, if there is any kind of variables such as viral etc
 
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Milky Weed

Well-Known Member
Suit yourself bud, depends on genetics. Do some more research dan.
Yes I’m sure a well known member named “Hydro” Dan dosen’t know his stuff about cloning.

I read some issues may arise when not having a mother plant and just cloning clones, but that’s about it.
 

neonfree

Active Member
Just because someone has a title for posts doesnt make them the all knowing, no offense. Im no rookie thats for sure, 20 yrs growing, 20-50k plants at a time. Usually its not so much potency, its pests and environmental resistances that start to present themselves. Weaker in that sense. No idea why though, maybe someone else can chime in with more experience hands on with long term cloning from clones. Not mother plant. Thats different.
 
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