8x12 Double Flower Rack Setup

T

TropicsGrowz

New Member
Hello,

New to posting on these forums but have been reading here and on other forums for well over a year now. I've completed two indoor and two outdoor grows, and I am now in the process of designing and sourcing the items for my new grow setup.

Currently I have a 4x4 tent with 4 x 240w QBs 3000k with UV IR for flower, and a 2x2 tent with with 1 x 240w QB 4000k. I also have 1 more 4000k QB to expand my veg setup later.

I am moving end of this month and will have an entire room with an attached bathroom for my setup. My intention is to get shelving 9 feet high (ceiling height) with a shelf in the middle. It will be 4x8 or 4x12 depending on measurements after I get the keys. Each layer will have 4.5 height.

I will be growing SOG style with plants going from clone to a very short veg time to flower. I will be running C02 and AC.

I will add more details later as I finalise the plan, and of course pictures of the setup and grow when the time comes.

For now I'd appreciate help with the lights. I plan to buy strip lights off Alibaba (hortibloom, meizhi, etc..). Assuming I have my humidity, temps, etc... All in check... What is the max power LED strip wattage I can benefit from?

The 620w to 650w strip lights don't seem like quite enough to max out yield with c02. Would the 1000w be overkill? Each light will be for a 4x4 flower area with plants 6 to 12 inches away.

I am in Southeast Asia so non-Alibaba lights are not an option.
 
bk78

bk78

Well-Known Member
TropicsGrowz said:
Hello,

New to posting on these forums but have been reading here and on other forums for well over a year now. I've completed two indoor and two outdoor grows, and I am now in the process of designing and sourcing the items for my new grow setup.

Currently I have a 4x4 tent with 4 x 240w QBs 3000k with UV IR for flower, and a 2x2 tent with with 1 x 240w QB 4000k. I also have 1 more 4000k QB to expand my veg setup later.

I am moving end of this month and will have an entire room with an attached bathroom for my setup. My intention is to get shelving 9 feet high (ceiling height) with a shelf in the middle. It will be 4x8 or 4x12 depending on measurements after I get the keys. Each layer will have 4.5 height.

I will be growing SOG style with plants going from clone to a very short veg time to flower. I will be running C02 and AC.

I will add more details later as I finalise the plan, and of course pictures of the setup and grow when the time comes.

For now I'd appreciate help with the lights. I plan to buy strip lights off Alibaba (hortibloom, meizhi, etc..). Assuming I have my humidity, temps, etc... All in check... What is the max power LED strip wattage I can benefit from?

The 620w to 650w strip lights don't seem like quite enough to max out yield with c02. Would the 1000w be overkill? Each light will be for a 4x4 flower area with plants 6 to 12 inches away.

I am in Southeast Asia so non-Alibaba lights are not an option.
Click to expand...
The 650’s are definitely enough for each 4x4 space.
 
NukaKola

NukaKola

Well-Known Member
First thing I would like to mention is 4x 240w QB in a 4x4 is quite overkill @ 60w/sq ft. They could realistically cover a 4x8. ~30w sq ft is the general rule of thumb, or ~40w if you are running co2.

Secondly, I wouldn't recommend going 2-tiered with only 9' ceiling. By the time you factor in the height of the lights, pots, shelf, and distance from light to canopy you are left with an inadequate amount of canopy height. About 5" for both lights, 12-24" for the combined distance from canopies, and say around 12" for the height of pots/shelf only leaves you around 2.5-3' of canopy height for each tier, and that is if the lights are flush mounted and you used >6" pots. The bottom of the plants usually have at least 6-12" of bare stem as well which leaves even less room for actual buds.

If you have a 4x12 I would just run 4x8 for flower and 4x4 for veg and Scrog them. Your 240w QB's will work perfectly fine as well, might as well use them if you have them. Run 2 for veg in the 4x4 and 5-6 for flower in the 4x8.

For vegging running 2-tiers is certainly doable with 9', but for flowering would be more of a headache then it is worth. You would have to have super squat indicas and 12/12 from seed or flower as soon as the clones were rooted without any training which would reduce your overall yield from not maximizing canopy space. Having plants stretch too much and having all of your buds get light bleached from running out of headroom is certainly a possibility as well.
 
T

TropicsGrowz

New Member
NukaKola said:
First thing I would like to mention is 4x 240w QB in a 4x4 is quite overkill @ 60w/sq ft. They could realistically cover a 4x8. ~30w sq ft is the general rule of thumb, or ~40w if you are running co2.

Secondly, I wouldn't recommend going 2-tiered with only 9' ceiling. By the time you factor in the height of the lights, pots, shelf, and distance from light to canopy you are left with an inadequate amount of canopy height. About 5" for both lights, 12-24" for the combined distance from canopies, and say around 12" for the height of pots/shelf only leaves you around 2.5-3' of canopy height for each tier, and that is if the lights are flush mounted and you used >6" pots. The bottom of the plants usually have at least 6-12" of bare stem as well which leaves even less room for actual buds.

If you have a 4x12 I would just run 4x8 for flower and 4x4 for veg and Scrog them. Your 240w QB's will work perfectly fine as well, might as well use them if you have them. Run 2 for veg in the 4x4 and 5-6 for flower in the 4x8.

For vegging running 2-tiers is certainly doable with 9', but for flowering would be more of a headache then it is worth. You would have to have super squat indicas and 12/12 from seed or flower as soon as the clones were rooted without any training which would reduce your overall yield from not maximizing canopy space. Having plants stretch too much and having all of your buds get light bleached from running out of headroom is certainly a possibility as well.
Click to expand...
4 x 240w QB is definitely overkill in my 4x4. I have them dimmed to about 60%. Some of the plants can take a bit more, while especially one needed a bit less. I'm a week away from taking down two plants from my first run with these lights (used a blurple for my first run). Two more plants are going to need another weeek or two. The harvest is looking to be awesome - I'd say easily 700gm. Will have to see once all is dried and weighed in a couple weeks. I went overkill on these lights because the spread of 3 240w lights didn't satisfy me. At the time I did not have an option to use AC so I was also hoping to bring the heat down a bit by running the lights on far less than max.

I will incorporate these lights into my new setup, but I will also want added lights for each 4x4. I'm not interested in trying to use these lights for a 4x8 as I know I can definitely benefit from far more power considering I will be using co2. I will probably use 3 of them for a 4x4 and sell one to a buddy. As my setup is going to be larger, I don't want to deal with a bunch of small lights. I'd like to simplify things and don't mind spending the cash. One harvest will easily cover things.

I will have a different area for vegging, mother plants, and cloning. It will be in the same room, but inside the tents I currently have. I most likely will be setting up 2 layers for veg inside my tent, but let's discuss that part of my plan later. For now I'm focusing on my flower setup and then I will see how the rest will work around that.

I plan to run two strains and keep a mother plant for each (maybe 2 mothers of each if needed). I intend to buy aerocloners for the clones. I'm not sure if I will be going straight to 12/12 from roots or if I will need a short veg time - but yes I am looking to go into flower very fast with little to no training. Right now I am planning 1 plant per square foot. These are all plans I'd love to discuss with all of you, and I very much realize that it's going to take a few runs to dial in the exact time needed for clones to root, time needed in veg for appropriate stretch later, nutrients, light levels, etc.... This is all stuff I look forward working towards. I am very much decided on wanting 2 layers with many small plants SOG style though.

I'm open to any and all suggestions and/or advice on this project. Some things are set in stone though - like getting lights from Alibaba. I'm running Kingbrites right now.

My main question right now is - based on my setup plan, what is the max power LED strip wattage I can benefit considering environment, co2, and all other parameters are dialed in....
 
E

eminiplayer

Well-Known Member
Given you're in SE Asia, I'd advise against SOG. All other things being equal, more plants usually means harsher punishments. Given that fact, surely it makes sense to keep plant numbers to a minimum by growing bigger plants? Nobody plans to get caught growing, but sometimes shit happens. Better to get caught with 10 plants than 50.
 
T

TropicsGrowz

New Member
eminiplayer said:
Given you're in SE Asia, I'd advise against SOG. All other things being equal, more plants usually means harsher punishments. Given that fact, surely it makes sense to keep plant numbers to a minimum by growing bigger plants? Nobody plans to get caught growing, but sometimes shit happens. Better to get caught with 10 plants than 50.
Click to expand...
Its by weight here - no specific laws about plant numbers. This pretty much doesn't exist here.
 
NukaKola

NukaKola

Well-Known Member
TropicsGrowz said:
4 x 240w QB is definitely overkill in my 4x4. I have them dimmed to about 60%. Some of the plants can take a bit more, while especially one needed a bit less. I'm a week away from taking down two plants from my first run with these lights (used a blurple for my first run). Two more plants are going to need another weeek or two. The harvest is looking to be awesome - I'd say easily 700gm. Will have to see once all is dried and weighed in a couple weeks. I went overkill on these lights because the spread of 3 240w lights didn't satisfy me. At the time I did not have an option to use AC so I was also hoping to bring the heat down a bit by running the lights on far less than max.

I will incorporate these lights into my new setup, but I will also want added lights for each 4x4. I'm not interested in trying to use these lights for a 4x8 as I know I can definitely benefit from far more power considering I will be using co2. I will probably use 3 of them for a 4x4 and sell one to a buddy. As my setup is going to be larger, I don't want to deal with a bunch of small lights. I'd like to simplify things and don't mind spending the cash. One harvest will easily cover things.

I will have a different area for vegging, mother plants, and cloning. It will be in the same room, but inside the tents I currently have. I most likely will be setting up 2 layers for veg inside my tent, but let's discuss that part of my plan later. For now I'm focusing on my flower setup and then I will see how the rest will work around that.

I plan to run two strains and keep a mother plant for each (maybe 2 mothers of each if needed). I intend to buy aerocloners for the clones. I'm not sure if I will be going straight to 12/12 from roots or if I will need a short veg time - but yes I am looking to go into flower very fast with little to no training. Right now I am planning 1 plant per square foot. These are all plans I'd love to discuss with all of you, and I very much realize that it's going to take a few runs to dial in the exact time needed for clones to root, time needed in veg for appropriate stretch later, nutrients, light levels, etc.... This is all stuff I look forward working towards. I am very much decided on wanting 2 layers with many small plants SOG style though.

I'm open to any and all suggestions and/or advice on this project. Some things are set in stone though - like getting lights from Alibaba. I'm running Kingbrites right now.

My main question right now is - based on my setup plan, what is the max power LED strip wattage I can benefit considering environment, co2, and all other parameters are dialed in....
Click to expand...

650w Strip fixture is plenty for a 4x4. Thats 40w sq ft which is perfect for running Co2. A 1000w would be 62w sq ft which is way overkill and better suited for a 5x5.

How do you plan on running irrigation?


During a pheno hunt I've flipped clones 5-7 days after transplanting into 1 gallon pots of coco from an aero cloner and they were ~8-12" tall at flip and most ended around 2.5-3.5'. Flipping sooner and using Rockwool blocks or smaller pots like the 5x5 square pots will make things a bit more achievable.

I would get strains that are heavy Indica dom to minimize stretch.


IMG-2318.JPG
IMG-2523.JPG
 
Thundercat

Thundercat

Well-Known Member
I ran SOG in a 4x4 flood tray with low ceilings for 10 years. I think with low profile shelves and lights 2 tiers would be doable but it will be tight, you will have to manage things.

However you will want more plants then you are thinking. In a single 4x4 I was running nearly 4 plants per sq/ft usually 45-48 plants under a single 1k hps light. I used clones that were only vegged for 7-14 days to allow them to root into their 6inch pots. They went into flower about 7-8 inches tall and ended up around 24 inches usually. I preferred hybrids that had nice night nodes but formed longer spear shaped colas. I removed a couple of the lowest branches early on to keep the plants growing mostly as single colas and depending on strain I averaged 20-25g dried per plant. With the right strains I would pull 30+.
 
T

TropicsGrowz

New Member
NukaKola said:
650w Strip fixture is plenty for a 4x4. Thats 40w sq ft which is perfect for running Co2. A 1000w would be 62w sq ft which is way overkill and better suited for a 5x5.

How do you plan on running irrigation?


During a pheno hunt I've flipped clones 5-7 days after transplanting into 1 gallon pots of coco from an aero cloner and they were ~8-12" tall at flip and most ended around 2.5-3.5'. Flipping sooner and using Rockwool blocks or smaller pots like the 5x5 square pots will make things a bit more achievable.

I would get strains that are heavy Indica dom to minimize stretch.


View attachment 4706531
View attachment 4706532
Click to expand...
Thanks for the confirmation on the lights. I figured that range would be enough power to max out, but as I have not used c02 yet I thought best to ask.

Right now I'm planning to order a flo and gro system off Alibaba. The company specializes in controllers, and many of their items are very similar to other Titan products. I have faith it will be of quality =) The system comes with up to 48 buckets which measure 9.6 inches wide and 12.2 inches tall. I could fit all 48 into a 4x8.

I realize Ebb and Flo tables would be more ideal to maximize height availability, but I like the automation and 'cleanliness' of a bucket system.

It's very possible that the ceilings are 10 feet high, which would give me a bit of extra room. I won't know until near end of this month.
 
Thundercat

Thundercat

Well-Known Member
Personally I would not try to do a 2 tier bucket system. That sounds like a nightmare to maintain.

Top feed DTW or flood and drain I think would be the best options.
 
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