Advise on best hydroponic system for 1.5M x 1.5M tent and how many plants

Hi,

never posted but have read a lot of the advise over the years so many thanks to the advisers first off.

My
I have two 1.5m Square tents by 2M tall. It currently has a Atami Pot system for 8 Plants in one tent, and two 4 pots in other . Not amazed by these as so looking to change growing system.
2 x 600W Aircooled lighted flows to the outside per tent taking the hot air away. Separate Air intake and outflow on each tent as well as the aircooled lights.



There are a few rules i keep to where possible.

1)I wish to Veg to about 10 Inches as this has given me the results i like which is minimum plants that yield as much as possible. This is for legal reasons !! Not too many is a better plan for me.
2) Minimum effort Growing - I will be happy to lose some yield if needed to touch the system as little as possible. One tank system( supplying the two tents if possible )
would minimize changing water - sometimes i can only check 1 day a week...so this is the reason.
3) The floor space is just for plants, all the other things except air Blower(desk fan) are hooked up outside.

4) Overflows of any sort will cause damage so whatever the system is has to be not prone to system leaks.... that would make my life



So i have two questions for people who use tents -1) How Many plants ?

My personal views seems to suggest 12 would give one tent room to get a around the room ?? But your advise in using 1.5M tents would be greatly received. Could

2) Most Important - What system ??

I looked at AWS and multiflow systems that would give 24 (2X12) pots and a giant tank. I have water and drainage, all setup so filling and emptying should be no hassle.
Would like to separate the pots(No SOG) or tied in methods and be able remove plants...there is always something wrong with a 1 plant...mold or bugs, and again the minimum effort factor. These tents sit exactly next to each other ...

Budget would be sub £1000.00 so i reckon for a system so it looks rosy to pick a decent one ....which one !! ??



I read these posts all the time for tips and people don't often put enough info so hope that helps .... Any experiences of similar or any flaw i my thoughts ? Please give me a boost.

I was going to then going to start a journal to start really drilling into the minimum effort aspect as it's little covered in threads to any great level.

Go DWC man, all you need is buckets, lids, net pots, air pumps,PH and an ec/ppm meter.
Easy and fast imo

IWS - not AWS - They are scales ...sorry..

Also, last thing i use a Aeroponic X-Stream to get clones...So they pop out ready to be buried in something....Currently Clay pebbles..

You say plant numbers are an issue, and then ask us how many plants you should run. Then you go on to pick 12 as your magic number, and have already laid out guidelines such as, individual pots, can't be SOG, hydroponic, "one giant tank". Plus you have two separate tents, with 2/600W lights, and request that you veg until 10 inches. It seems you have already answered your own question. Only one type of system fits the qualifications you are looking for, which is what the man said, recirculating DWC. However, I think more details are in order such as, are the tents strictly for flowering or do you want to also veg in the tent up to 10 inches and then flip it to flowering? I would suggest putting both tents on perpetual 12/12 with a 1/600W on a flip-flop relay. Then put the other 600W ballast in storage, run some mothers and clones under fluorescent and a small system to veg out to 10 inches, and then throw that shit in each tent, stagger the tents and you should have a nice steady pull of 1 tent per month. Which should be pretty easy to maintain once started.

Fair point. I have 8 plants in each and it looks pretty bear. A friends runs a tank with 25 small ones and gets 1oz per plant. I can get about the same from my 8 plants, but i would like to know what would would suit the tent ? 12 or 16 ?? After a certain number I guess there is no real gains to be had...

they are both flowering tents. I have a smaller Tent to get the plants to a few inches before they go in. I have one tent up with kit in, and trying to perfect that before i copy it exactly, as i figure get one right and the second is fairly straight forward.

Cheers for the reply. Is there any specific makes of kit that have either been good ??? Or bad ??? IWS seemed slick with the video with the ebb /flow system but DWS would be fine(Just looked it up)

The one tank thing, is really down to it being less work. But it's not set in stone, and thinking a bout it it might serve me to have two smaller systems....not relying on just one place for failure..



I have no experience with DWS - I was looking at the Ebb flow versions - But i'm not set on either.

I personally love ebb and flow, and I also love top feed systems that drain to a reservoir. The tents you have are actually rather big, 1.5Mx1.5M and the 600W's footprint can basically cover the whole tent, so personally I would run 16. I am not sure how comfortable you are with building a system, or if you want to strictly outright buy a system, but I hate recirculating DWC, lol. I took your "individual plants" to mean something a bit more restrictive, so I would agree with you and go with an ebb and flow table. I like them because the temperature of the nutrient solution isn't as important, in my experience they don't seem to fluctuate pH nearly as much as with DWC, and a large reservoir is nice so that you can take long trips away from the garden without worrying. Plant numbers depend on a lot of things, but SOG really does out perform all other growing styles in terms of electricity used. If you had a big enough table you could literally throw 50 - 100 plants in one tent and pull a ton of crazy little fat single colas, or veg a very solid 16 - 24 plants per tent at 10" flip 12/12 and have a nice yield also. Did you have a particular strain picked out for the room already, were you running all one strain or multiple strains, and how bad do you want to smash your friend's grow? Lol.

Now the "long trips away" is something i want to incorporate in the equipment .......
Building something is not an option. I know my skills, and the macgyver ain't in the tool box......
SOG for me would mean plants not easy to move so that i will take the hit on

OG Sour is the plant on at the moment with AMS next on the run.... Trying a few strains...to find one that is "forgiving" when i dont come see it

Any recommended makes ? Atami stuff came in post pre-broke(i guess they all don't com that way but there rubbish quality....it has more tape on it than a kidnap victim) and filling the tanks and emptying them is a pain.

Any makes worth looking at or IWS the standard ??? Two tanks is looking good as a choice.... that way i can dose the tanks if they are at different stages which they may well be ...

I have never bought any premade systems so I can't really comment on the quality. Well you do have two tents, so two separate containers is nice especially if you are flushing one tent, while the other tent is mid-flower. SOG really isn't bad as far as accessing plants, especially if you end up going with an ebb and flow and literally have 50 individual 3" square pots, you can remove, add and adjust the numbers easily, and depending on the size of table use a 2" - 4" square pot to house your growing medium. It really is just going to take a few trial and errors, I would read some more reviews of ebb and flow systems with a reservoir, something kind of big 30 - 60 gallons and just decide on a plant number and roll with it. With such a large reservoir I have left my grow for 2 weeks at a time with no adverse effects, especially once the plants are done stretching.

I do like the DWC lack of medium, that could save a fair amount of work.

But the Ebb / Flow seems more popular ...??

50 Plants is more than my head could cope with.....too many cuttings for me to handle


Found this device that will be a good feeder system

http://hydroponicdealer.co.uk/index.php/hydro-systems/iws-systems/iws-vegigator.html