How many plants will my 400w switchable sustain? 4'x4..?

ItsJohny

Member
I've been reading up a bit and have seen that generally a 400w will work good up to 4x4. With that being said that's 16sqft. So I could technically veg 16 plants giving them each 1' of there own? I'm not planning on 16, I was thinking 12 during veg and giving the 50/50 of male / female I will kill off a little more or less than half. Leaving me with 6 (+ or -) plants in flowering. I'm just trying to find the max it will sustain during veg / flowering. It will not support as many plants during flowering correct?..

Peace In The Middle East....:leaf:
 

shrigpiece

Well-Known Member
I gauge my plants as 100 watts a plant. 4 nice plants under that light is a good amount in my growroom
 

bajafox

Well-Known Member
I run 600w in my 4x4 and feel it's not enough, IMO. You should be ok through veg but you'll probably want a bigger light during flower or at least supplemental lighting (CFL, LED, etc.)

Good luck :leaf:
 

shrigpiece

Well-Known Member
I didn't read the post properly. I veg 10 plants under my 400. Space it not what i use as an indication as what light is suitible. When ya come to flower they are gonna fatten up big time. Like i mentioned in the first post 100 watts per flowering female is how i measure what light i need. So i don't tend to judge by space. Bah im rambling, hope this helps anyways.
 

shrigpiece

Well-Known Member
I run 600w in my 4x4 and feel it's not enough, IMO. You should be ok through veg but you'll probably want a bigger light during flower or at least supplemental lighting (CFL, LED, etc.)

Good luck :leaf:
Same, 6 Flowering females = 600 watts
 

del66666

Well-Known Member
I run 600w in my 4x4 and feel it's not enough, IMO. You should be ok through veg but you'll probably want a bigger light during flower or at least supplemental lighting (CFL, LED, etc.)

Good luck :leaf:
enough will never be enough.........
 

bajafox

Well-Known Member
I know what you mean...if I had the funds and it wasn't summer, I'd try to run dual 600w hps in there
 

CHUCKTYLAH

Active Member
Depends how you plan on trimming /training your girls. In SoG setup you can get 4 plants per sq.ft. at .5 to 1 oz. per plant. In the hydro stickies is a great example. If your scrogging you may need even more than 1 sq. ft. per plant but the yield will be higher with some smaller buds. Too many ways to list.
 

jdizzle22

Well-Known Member
Depends how you plan on trimming /training your girls. In SoG setup you can get 4 plants per sq.ft. at .5 to 1 oz. per plant. In the hydro stickies is a great example. If your scrogging you may need even more than 1 sq. ft. per plant but the yield will be higher with some smaller buds. Too many ways to list.
I agree. SCROG is the way to go with a 400w system in a 4x4 space especially if you want to use more than 4 plants (I wouldn't go more than 4 vertical with a 400w HID)
 

ItsJohny

Member
Thanks for the quick responses and good info.. I'm going to do 10 veg, and hopefully 5 flower. With supplemental cfl lighting on the sides to for a little insurance, if anything will produce bigger yields :D. Only my 2nd grow, this time dwc. Bagseed again.. But practice makes perfect, so might aswell get good with the cheap stuff!
 

webb107

Well-Known Member
I run 600w in my 4x4 and feel it's not enough, IMO. You should be ok through veg but you'll probably want a bigger light during flower or at least supplemental lighting (CFL, LED, etc.)

Good luck :leaf:
Yeh i would do a 1000w ina 4x4 space, I currently have my 600w in a 3.2x3.2 tent and my plants are loving it
 

ItsJohny

Member
I've read about sog, but I have 9 5 gal buckets I was planning on using for dwc. Scrog seems like a viable option, but I wanted to grow more than four for more bud production? Or will it make up for less plants?
 

CHUCKTYLAH

Active Member
Thanks for the quick responses and good info.. I'm going to do 10 veg, and hopefully 5 flower. With supplemental cfl lighting on the sides to for a little insurance, if anything will produce bigger yields :D. Only my 2nd grow, this time dwc. Bagseed again.. But practice makes perfect, so might aswell get good with the cheap stuff!
If you do 10 veg 5 flower each time you harvest and fill up the the flower room again your plants are going to be alot bigger. How long are you gonna veg?


I've read about sog, but I have 9 5 gal buckets I was planning on using for dwc. Scrog seems like a viable option, but I wanted to grow more than four for more bud production? Or will it make up for less plants?
Scrog won't be very friendly with those 5 gallon buckets that you will be wanting to take the tops off of (if your doing hydro bubble buckets). How many 5 gallon buckets can you fit in your flowering room? Is the 4'x4' including veg and flower rooms?
 

ItsJohny

Member
If you do 10 veg 5 flower each time you harvest and fill up the the flower room again your plants are going to be alot bigger. How long are you gonna veg?

Scrog won't be very friendly with those 5 gallon buckets that you will be wanting to take the tops off of (if your doing hydro bubble buckets). How many 5 gallon buckets can you fit in your flowering room? Is the 4'x4' including veg and flower rooms?
The room its self is around 10 by 7. A little shed out behind the house really. I have a home made 4x4 grow tent made of pvc with tarps around it with mylar linning the inside. I will probable veg 4 weeks. Just depends on how tall they get. I will probably start flowering around 2' give or take. Then put in my HPS bulb and flower in the same tent. Will be a first experience using DWC and a HPS/MH 400w so i assume it will grow alot faster during veg than they did with my whimpy CFL set up... Good point on the bucket / scrogging.. I wont we able to work with the resivour well with the screen above it.
 

CHUCKTYLAH

Active Member
Can you use the entire 10x7 area? put the 4x4 house in the corner for clones and vege use the 3x4 space for supplies and the 6x7 for flower? Home depot sells rolls of this reflective insulation thats like 1/4 inch think.(reminds me of some kind of space bubble wrap) with a roll of that and a bunch of sticky velcro you could insulate and add reflection easily. A 4x4 vege room and a 6x7 flower room can produce some serious weight. I've had a setup similar to this with a 125w CFL in the little vege room and 400w HPS in 5x5 flower room. Stick plants from the vege room in to the flower as soon as they have roots coming out the cubes. The plants vege for 2 or 3 weeks getting about 3 ft tall yielding 2.5 oz a plant on average after the 3 rd year of fine tuning. Hard to tell how many I can fit in the flower room because they are all at different stages of flowering but I have had more than 15 plants under a 400w. When I tried using a 1000w light I got a 205 bigger yield and a bit denser buds............not worth the extra 600w not to mention extra expense keeping the space cool. 400w doesn't even need a cooltube 1000w does. for that amount of space anyways.
 

irieie

Well-Known Member
i think it more depends upon the space you are using. 4x4 might be a good space to veg under a 400 but when you flower you sill want more light. i would suggest using a space that is no more than 10 square ft for flower under a 400, that is about 5000 lumens/ ft sq which is on the low end of ideal. and as far as how many plants, it depends on how big the pots. i think your canopy size matters more than your plant number. and that is dependent upon veg time. you could flower straight from clone lollipop and pack them in 4 clones/ ft sq. or you could veg for 2 months in 7 gallon pots and fit 1 plant/ 4 sq ft. but keep in mind the light penetration of the lamp you are using. there is no point in growing a 5 ft tall plant if only the top 2.5 ft are gonna have fully developed bud. hope this helped a bit. good luck.
 
Top