Man-hours per week for steady SOG perpetual?

Long time lurker / learner on this site. Love the information I have gathered. In fact, I have had several somewhat successful grows (DWC / areoponic in rubbermaid with overclocked fluorescene) thanks to you guys.

I am ready to take the next step (or prep and start the grow in the spring). I have gone through the trouble of building a very stealthy 4.5 x 8 ft room and would like to convert the room to flood tables with a mother / nursery. I want to perpetual grow on a 4x4 table and then expand another 2.5 x 4 ft once the first is tested and friends are happy.

My big question is how many man-hours a week does it take to sustain a 4x4 table? This would be me doing it all by myself. (though I might have a trim party once in awhile once this thing got tune-in).

• growing mothers
• cloning
• manicuring for lollipop style
• trimming
• solid method of curing (not just hang drying)
• cleaning between and during

My flood table will have a Lexan / ABS covering with holes for the net pots to hang from and it won't actually be an ebb and flow flood table, but a table with sprayers and the reservoir below. I want to make maintenance the easiest so the ABS covering will have multiple sections to lift out and easy to clean.

I have lots of other details planned out but my basic question is about man-hours per week. I have to be stealthy about access so my hours are limited.

Please keep this posting on track and with reliable information. Don't tell me it is a waste of time if you don't have backup information.

Obviously, If I am doing this for a sustained period, I want to shoot for maximum yield.

I will try to be good about responding daily and will make a grow journal once I get there. For all the work I have done so far, I am serious about this.

Thanks guys.

Once you get a cycle going other than the bigger days like cloning, transplanting if that occurs, cleaning and harvest etc. Systems can be maintained with little work needed.

My grow is much larger and even I don't have to spend much more than a few hours a day on standard daily tasks.

Thanks, Vilify. That is what I am looking for: roughly what does it take to maintain a 4 x 4 SOG. I am not trying to figure cost or some oz/per man-hour, but, because there is logistics involved, my time has to be well spent. Information would help me strategize, design the system, and plan the work.

Strategies to reduce workload:
Cloning: Once my seeds come in from Attitude, I will grow two seeds (not sure which) into mom's to start the clone process, but after that I hope to clone from the clones prior to flower. Have a clone system in place.

Grow style: Lollipoped SOG (maybe called mainline - each has one stalk of buds with no branches). From what I have read, this is the most productive with the least trimming (though need to spend time maintaining single stalkness).

Grow system: Right now it is two 27 gal rubbermaids fed by a 40 gallon rez. 1 pump per 27 gal. Basically an areoponic system on a timer that sprays 5 times a day for 15 min. Future plans are to do fence posts or a flood table with lexan basket hanger to and have better control over the stray period, but not there yet.

Plumbing - I plumbed it so I can turn a valve and the rez drains to a sewer line. I used to carry buckets and dump them in the garden and all over the yard. Lots of work and nute-burned plenty of bushes.

Have to plumb incoming water straight to the grow room to have it on tap. Right now, I have to pull out the hose, stretch it out, and drag it to the rez 40 ft away.

I have cured before and would want to maintain a 6 week cure. I am thinking if this 4 x 4 produces maybe 3/4 pounds a month, I would have to find a way to not burp tons of jars every day. Not sure how to dry and cure that much perpetually. Need a system. I know where to buy 5 gallon fiber drums. Maybe that would be easier.

Any thoughts? Rough estimates of time spent something like this?

Thanks in advance.

Ive been using the gavita bags for curing. Works great! I dont believe you have to burp with them bc they keep RH at 62%. I think its 14$ for a 10 pack and you just drop them in the jar and close the lid very easy. Nebula is who i learned that from.

My internet searches showed nothing on Gavita Bags - only Gavita lights and accessories. Can you give some detail, Jimmy?

I think hes talking about something like the boveda packs: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00JV27MF4/ref=ox_sc_saved_image_16?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A211C28GSC458

If you love growing, the hours are nothing to worry about once you get dialed in. Just go for it. You can always pull the plug like a loser if it is too much for you.

i used to do about 50~ flowering plants in 5 gallon buckets with a supporting veg/clone room (all soil) and it would run me about 20-25 hours a week on average.

Thanks, Uncle Buck. That is helpful. Anything change in design or behavior in particular that saved big on effort for some of the tasks?

I looked into those Boveda packs and that may be a viable option to reduce workload. I need some further reading and verify my assumptions vs some examples of them being put the use. Systematize the curing process.

Yeah, I do enjoy the small grow I have, but this isn't about a labor of love. This is about planning a system before the expense and effort. Because it is remote and stealth, my access and time available to work is limited. To me a loser would walk blindly into something. Been there, done that. Lesson learned.

My seeds came in and once I get some producing mothers I can start measuring activities. I am definitely going to get a bud trimmer. I have looked at several of the manual kind - salad bowl dome spinners. They seem to work well and also be a good bang for your buck considering the labor reduction. From what I have read, they work great on smaller buds and popcorn but not so well on main colas. I guess I will find out when the time comes.

JimmyTheNewb said:

Ive been using the gavita bags for curing. Works great! I dont believe you have to burp with them bc they keep RH at 62%. I think its 14$ for a 10 pack and you just drop them in the jar and close the lid very easy. Nebula is who i learned that from.

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When curing there's a gas exchange that happens as the composition of the cannibinoids changes. The air in the container needs to be exchanged, or burped, to help the process along. The product you're talking about will make sure that you maintain the right rh% and don't lose too much of the moisture by burping the containers but it's still necessary for a proper cure.

BillyPilgram said:

My seeds came in and once I get some producing mothers I can start measuring activities. I am definitely going to get a bud trimmer. I have looked at several of the manual kind - salad bowl dome spinners. They seem to work well and also be a good bang for your buck considering the labor reduction. From what I have read, they work great on smaller buds and popcorn but not so well on main colas. I guess I will find out when the time comes.

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I worked at a friends farm this year harvesting about a hundred pounds. They have a big mechanical trimmer. It does a great job on the small buds and they look great but it's terrible for even just decent size buds. As far as that goes if you're doing a good job of training and lollipopping you shouldn't have any small buds to deal with anyway.

BillyPilgram said:

My seeds came in and once I get some producing mothers I can start measuring activities. I am definitely going to get a bud trimmer. I have looked at several of the manual kind - salad bowl dome spinners. They seem to work well and also be a good bang for your buck considering the labor reduction. From what I have read, they work great on smaller buds and popcorn but not so well on main colas. I guess I will find out when the time comes.

Click to expand...

I was looking at something recently called "the trim bag" or something, it looked pretty bloody quick and had what looked like great results. Then I saw the price tag....

I saw the trim bag online. I like the idea of trimming dry bud but hope it doesn't have to be too dry. I have been looking for an image of what is inside the trim-bag but no luck. I figure I could make my own and wonder if the inside has a fabric mesh that snags the leaves.
As far as automating the burping, I do know how to set up a servo motor with servo trigger and a timer that could open on a set schedule.

BillyPilgram said:

I saw the trim bag online. I like the idea of trimming dry bud but hope it doesn't have to be too dry. I have been looking for an image of what is inside the trim-bag but no luck. I figure I could make my own and wonder if the inside has a fabric mesh that snags the leaves.
As far as automating the burping, I do know how to set up a servo motor with servo trigger and a timer that could open on a set schedule.

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From the reviews I've read, the material has to be cracker dry to work properly. Doesn't seem worth the $300+ to me! I have 2 flower rooms with an average of 60 flowering plants total in soil I have a large veg room also. I run a crazy number of strains and I spend about 40 hrs a week working it, and honestly I could spend another 10 hrs to keep things as I like them. Every plant needs to be checked every day for signs of problems...bugs, nanners, deficiencies, etc. You get out what you put in.

Thanks for you reply, Cindysid. That does help.

I understand the need to be diligent, but I am shooting for automation due to my limited access. Though I have may things to consider, I am looking into using an Arduino. Programming wouldn't be a far reach for me. In fact, there are visual programming tools that remove the need to know the language. Wiring sensors and relays wouldn't be to tough either. Taking that on would be a sizable projects, but in the end one would be able to monitor conditions, make adjustments, and set triggered events from one's phone.
Right now I am piecing together an auto-drain sump pump for the 5 gal bucket that catches the condensation from the small window AC. The back of the AC is outside the growroom, but not outside the building therefore it creates a perpetual condensation puddle which would soon create dampness issues. Basically it would look like this but not quite - I want it to be all 12v since I am not

My ROLS perpetual consists of 4x4 tent for veg and 4x8 flower space for flower. Every few weeks I am cutting clones and transplanting a few hours a day.

I've got my system down to minimal hours spent on maintenance. Check out my journal. https://www.rollitup.org/Journal/sirtwistsalot.976423/

Promix sog goin. Ive been doing about 1hr per night(watering, trimming, checkin for bugs etc)
Was a little more work when i was taking clones but i had a 64 site clone king so that made it pretty self sufficient. I have one last set of 32 clones to put in flower this wknd.
Because i vegged clones ~2 weeks, thrre idnt much to lollipop, just defoliated last night. I do have 6 strains though so some are better than others for SOG. My Gojis grow straight totem poles as you can see on the right of the pic