Lighting a 5x5 Veg/Mother Tent

Hey guys,

I'm going to be setting up a second tent to keep a mom or two, as well as a starter area and starter veg spot. I'm looking to keep 9-16 or so plants starting for SOG to shift into my other 5x5 to finish off. I drew up a rough idea of what I was thinking in paint, still somewhat undecided on how to use up the space seeing as I've never had another area to work with before:



How exactly would you light such an area? Anyone have experience with a setup similar to this?

Thanks in advance

velcro tape and a thick tarp are what i use to section off a tent, separating veg from bloom (i.e., different light cycles). probably not the best approach, but it seems to work. not sure if that's what you're asking.

Apostatize said:

velcro tape and a thick tarp are what i use to section off a tent, separating veg from bloom (i.e., different light cycles). probably not the best approach, but it seems to work. not sure if that's what you're asking.

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I have a separate flower tent

flipwon said:

I have a separate flower tent

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right, i read that, in your design, you'd separate seedling from veg. otherwise, you'll get tall, spindly seedlings. seemed to be the only question presented; if you have a separate bloom tent, perhaps you've already lit seedling and veg. idk. if you're asking about lights, there are a bunch of threads on here and light recommendations. everyone has their preferences.

Apostatize said:

right, i read that, in your design, you'd separate seedling from veg. otherwise, you'll get tall, spindly seedlings. seemed to be the only question presented; if you have a separate bloom tent, perhaps you've already lit seedling and veg. idk. if you're asking about lights, there are a bunch of threads on here and light recommendations. everyone has their preferences.

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Sorry, you said bloom and figured you'd misunderstood, but it was I who misunderstood. Yeah my main question is what kind of light power I'd need, I figure I'll need two separate lights for the mom/veg was just unsure of how to configure this sort of area.

I guess It will probably just be easier to keep my domes outside of the tent and have the second tent purely for mothers/vegging

nice, yeah. personally, i use a 2-tier seedling station by itself; a veg station outside a tent; another veg station inside a bloom tent, separated by a tarp; and another dedicated bloom tent.

RIU is pretty cool. you can probably find some good nuggets on here in existing threads -- as a place to start -- when you're planning something or considering a purchase.

I am also looking around at lighting options for a 5x5 veg tent. I have a separate seed/clone tent, strictly veg. Did you end up getting anything yet?

Yes, but seedling/clone station is just two 2' x 4' shelves in a rack of shelves frames. I bought 3 sets of these racks, but the other 2 have all 5 shelves each that they came with; leaving room for lights, I only put in two shelves for seedling/clone: 1 for indica-dominant strains, 1 for sativas. Each strain has its own section.

The best thing is that I got all the shelves for free. I got my largest tent for free, too; in both instances, I'm better at lodging complaints with customer service than I am for growing.... For all 3 shelving rack frames (that I got for free), I replaced the cheap press board with real plywood (not the most expensive, not the cheapest. No, I did not get the plywood, polyurethane, glue, or protective plastic for free....

For lights ... although I have Fluence lights everywhere else, each level of the double-decker seedling/clone station is lit with these inexpensive 4' 50W lights. They're clipped in together for one timer ... I got them for like $75 total. Each has two long bulbs. It'll do for now.... The seedling/clone station is straight up in the kitchen. Currently, it's covered with a tarp; but I have a large roll of Panda paper and a couple rolls of velcro tape to go under the tarp. It will look sharper eventually.

Eventually, I might have a double-decker seedling/clone station for sativa-dominant strains and one for indicas, because I want to have more mature plants ready for bloom whenever there's a vacancy in a bloom tent. I think I recall you asked about the seedling station on another thread. Because I haven't wrapped the area in Panda paper yet or finished some other details, I'd be subject to ridicule on RIU if I'd sent photos yet. It's functional but arm-chair experts may disagree.

I ended up switching to a 4x8 for my flowering tent with (2) 2x4 tents, one for early veg and one for mothers and clones.

It fit my room better and I figured the couple extra square feet was more important for flower than other stages.

I use a 9x5 for flower, and currently a 3x3 and a 2x3 for veg. Looking forward to the extra space of a 5x5 for veg

flipwon said:

I ended up switching to a 4x8 for my flowering tent with (2) 2x4 tents, one for early veg and one for mothers and clones.

It fit my room better and I figured the couple extra square feet was more important for flower than other stages.

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makes sense. I was thinking, in about a 6x6 bloom shelves (with 3 shelves on that level, leaving 2 gaps to the flood tray where I put plants I don't top), I could fill out the top better than if it were stacked blooms ... just because I was thinking the veg space would be shorter, smaller generally, to ensure no light leaks up or down.

And organizing by development makes sense. Organizing by strain's a little more where I'm going, I think, because I want to ensure I have enough ~ 4-month veg plants at all times for each strain I want to focus on. Currently, my two, single-level veg areas are pretty big. To replace them ... Idk, when I do this, I was hoping to end up with ~6'x`12' space for each blooming indicas and another 6x12 for blooming sativas.... Eventually!

Powertech said:

I use a 9x5 for flower, and currently a 3x3 and a 2x3 for veg. Looking forward to the extra space of a 5x5 for veg

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My veg areas are long, on the floor right now. One's outside the larger of two bloom tents, it just runs along that side of the room. Improvised rack of shelves there ... just a frame for the lights. Idk, that space must be like 4x8. The other space I just built within a bloom tent. I know, what? I hung a thick black tarp as a divider (using velcro tape) and hung two 66" bar lights. Currently, have that one filled with just Gelato an Taskenti. Taskenti's flowering time's longer but these two clone, veg, and look structurally similar; so, they're coming up together and in similar #s....

flipwon said:

Hey guys,

I'm going to be setting up a second tent to keep a mom or two, as well as a starter area and starter veg spot. I'm looking to keep 9-16 or so plants starting for SOG to shift into my other 5x5 to finish off. I drew up a rough idea of what I was thinking in paint, still somewhat undecided on how to use up the space seeing as I've never had another area to work with before:

View attachment 4915400

How exactly would you light such an area? Anyone have experience with a setup similar to this?

Thanks in advance

Click to expand...

so you can see my veg room in my grow thread. I have a 4*8 for veg. I'm not able to fully light it rn, just about a 4*6 area. my domes/ clones in solo cups go on the far side and sit on totes or a 20 gallon pot.

I really like this set up, I can have two sets of clones at diffrent vegging stages, and keep a few mother's. I keep my mother's on the reflective side ( cause only one side has light hit the wall). I got the just yellow and black totes from Costco. has a perfect spot for a heat mat underneath and can have 2 10*20 clone domes on top. I keep my fabric pots in there to. I would say the plants raise up about 2 feet they are higher than my halfway down veg canopy.