Sea of green 3x3 1k watt hydro grow!!!

toris1981 said:

Exactly like it. The tray that fits in the terarium is circular, also. Or better yet, is filled with about thirty round holes for the plugs. It was pretty nice but I think rockwool would do tje same... A little more expensive than the cubes, but they worked great!

Click to expand...

good word on that brother, i appreciate it. i believe im going with rockwool and i can snag it for relatively cheap from a friend. i will have my journal up and running relatively soon, thanks hoss

Ok so here's the deal. My ladies are THRIVING and thats the problem. I haven't posted pics yet but my roommate has a bigger tent. Its about 3 feet by 4 1/2 feet. It currently has two plants in soil that he has been growing for mothers. They're bushy as hell and looking great also! But I digress.... We originally were going to use this expanded space to start our little girls out in, and keep the mothers going strong. Anyways, I've never done a "sea of green" before and I've just way undershot my expectations. I should have topped a week earlier, and flowered a week earlier. Also, I would have a scrog in place. The one I have up now I just put in last week, and the ladies are having no problem whatsoever in getting past it

So, moving forward.... we're going to switch the places... We're running a 1k watt HPS currently in the veg room. Ideally I'd like to have Metal Halide but se la vie.... hopefully soon. Either way, the mama's are going up to the 3x3 and the ebb and flood setup is coming down to the larger tent. Its not the square footage that I'm worried about, its the height. As you can see in the pics, I have an a-frame roof which is restricting my height. I think that if I get the scrog in place now, and trim the girls up, I can move it over and have more space to stretch out in... Check back because I'll be sure to post some more pics tonight!!!! Here's a look at what I'm working with... Two pics, one with the flap open. I left the bed in perspective so you could see the size. Its taller and should serve a better purpose

So after two hours of chores, I finally got the ladies downstairs and into the larger grow tent. Its not too much bigger, but its a lot taller, which is the area i need most!. If they continue to grow too much, I'm gonna have to saw off a couple inches from the legs. I'd really rather not do that. Moving the plants also allowed me to redo the scrog which is getting important... the plants are definitely top heavy. I can't wait till the buds start to show! They're definitely beefy where the nodes are, they're just not plumping up yet. I am not the patient sort

Anyone have any other ideas/ways of crowd control, please feel free to post! Thanks for looking and be sure to check back!

toris1981 said:

Ok so here's the deal. My ladies are THRIVING and thats the problem. I haven't posted pics yet but my roommate has a bigger tent. Its about 3 feet by 4 1/2 feet. It currently has two plants in soil that he has been growing for mothers. They're bushy as hell and looking great also! But I digress.... We originally were going to use this expanded space to start our little girls out in, and keep the mothers going strong. Anyways, I've never done a "sea of green" before and I've just way undershot my expectations. I should have topped a week earlier, and flowered a week earlier. Also, I would have a scrog in place. The one I have up now I just put in last week, and the ladies are having no problem whatsoever in getting past it

So, moving forward.... we're going to switch the places... We're running a 1k watt HPS currently in the veg room. Ideally I'd like to have Metal Halide but se la vie.... hopefully soon. Either way, the mama's are going up to the 3x3 and the ebb and flood setup is coming down to the larger tent. Its not the square footage that I'm worried about, its the height. As you can see in the pics, I have an a-frame roof which is restricting my height. I think that if I get the scrog in place now, and trim the girls up, I can move it over and have more space to stretch out in... Check back because I'll be sure to post some more pics tonight!!!! Here's a look at what I'm working with... Two pics, one with the flap open. I left the bed in perspective so you could see the size. Its taller and should serve a better purposeView attachment 2208179View attachment 2208180

Click to expand...

This is exactly what happened to me. As I was reading this thread and seeing the pics I was thinking that those little monsters were going to grow out of that tent, I flowered in a 3x3 for a while and the reason I didn't do hydro was because my ceiling heights are low and most 3x3 tents are 6 ft tall, so you really do have to have short veg times and scrog, it took me a while to figure that out and I'm even growing in soil so I got an extra foot, those 4x4x7 tents are the way to go but My ceiling height is a little under 7 ft so I found the same manufacture yall bought yalls 4x4 tent from (with the green trim) and I believe its 6 ft 6in which maximizes my space, if I had 10 ft ceiling I would be in dreamland.

Anyways kinda funny from reading this thread, I'm prob going to start experimenting with hydro finally, Ive always thought about doing flood and drain, i already have the trays and pumps I just need a resevoir, Ill continue to use one side of the tent for soil just in case.

Anyways great Grow and I def looking foward to seeing how this turns out, as for advice on taming them down, you already know if you have to cut sum tops for the greater cause then make it happen, the sooner the better, and the scrog won't do much now for holding it down but if the situation gets really hairy you could get some 2in or 3in hole chickin wire, it would hold them down, ive never done it personally but Ive seen people have to do it and it works
Good luck and Ill be staying tuned

Thanks for the great post.... whatever happens happens, but its great to see people going through the same problems I am! Luckily my problems seem centered around them doing well

The tops are still growing up, I think I have about a foot and a half to work with before they start burning from lights, and I only plan on keeping them flowering for 8-10 weeks. If they do grow too tall and I'm out of options, I think I'll just tie them over for the remainder of their stay in the tent. Again, thanks for the post and I'm always interested in hearing about other ways to do the same thing! Keep checking! I'll post some new pics in a day or two....

On a side note, we transplanted the two mothers today. They're soil and much easier to take care of. Working on a 18/6 cycle, again keeping the lights off through the hottest part of the day. Thanks everyone, for reading, and please, keep the ideas, praise, or constructive criticism coming!

New pics coming soon.... mamas are doing well and the girls are the same.... gave them a haircut and moved them around a bit, but still looking great. I'll post another update sunday. I am not good at waiting, this is getting hard... :/

Update Time!!! So since my last post, I've run into one main problem, the girls don't want to stop growing A couple of the tops burnt and shriveled, however the buds were still fine. After adjusting the lights to the highest they can be in the tent, I then took the advice of a recent poster and got some chicken wire. It seems to be working great, the plants are healthy, and you can see the nice bud development going on. One thing I am pleasantly surprised at is the amount of secondary and undergrowth still going on. I'm still keeping the idea of sea of green going on, and I have 45+tops. I also went and picked up the next stage of nutes, the "soil" blend from botanicare. The smell is starting to get stronger too! I'm excited about this one! Temps are still holding between 73 and 88.... wish I had an air conditioner but at my altitude we really only need it for a couple weeks out of the year. Anyways, here are some fresh pics! Enjoy!

Hey everyone! As I hit the half way mark for flowering, I thought I'd throw a question out to any readers. Please feel free to post any of your thoughts or ideas. My question is this: Does anyone have any tricks or tips to maximize yield over the last half of the flowering stage? For instance, someone told me to switch the lights back to 24/7 for the last two or three days. I'd love to hear any different ways people really push their ladies to excel The buds are really looking nice, I never thought I'd say this, but I can't wait to start trimming!!!

I just read your journal through, and I started laughing out loud right away! That's because I have the same table as you, and the same size tent (i'm assuming you bought that brand of table because its the ONLY one that actually fits in a 3x3 tent?) Anyways, the first time I ran it, I put way too many plants in there. I didn't lollipop vigorously, and although it was a fun problem to have (I was covered in resin for 2 months trying to take care of those ladies.) I made some changes too. Anyways, beautiful setup, and happy looking plants!

I ended up getting the Netwell insert and planting in every other hole, covering the others. Still finishing up my first flower in this setup, but it seems like the sweet spot. The roots form a mat, the whole table is covered (very little water evaporates.) The net pots are easily covered with foil, and I have not seem ONE fungus gnat. There are always fungus gnats at some point, which is easily controlled, but my point is that sealing off everything below the main stalk is an amazing load off the grower as far as maintenance. If there was never an issue, there was never stress, therefore... more harvest?

Anyways, keep it up, glad to have a different experiment to look at!

looking awesome brother, i think it was a good look throwing that chicken wire in there. will definitely keep them shorter as you finish out flowering. I have always put my ladies into a dark tent for 48 hrs before harvesting..ive noticed it really increased trichome production and flavor...i always flush for 2 weeks as well to ensure a good flavor

You got so many plants out there. Maybe a little too much for the tent size don't you think? Anyway good job so far

ok, long time since posting.... here's an update... tear... So I almost killed the plants by keeping the pump running for four days straight. Anyone reading this post and working out there own eb and flow design remember my advice! ALWAYS CHECK YOUR TIMERS AND CONTROLS! The problem was, as you can see from my previous posts, we moved the plants down to my roommates room, for height constraints. There, they didn't get the day to day attention they were getting in my room. No blames placed on others, it was totally my fault. GRRRRRRRR. Anyways, we saved over half the crop, and cut out the rest, and have some promising results. I'm really encouraged by the undergrowth, it seems to have survived the best. After viewing and seeing firsthand CO2 extraction, and the new "rempen" design from my local dispensary, I think I'll take this as a lesson well learned and turn most of my crop into oil and hash. The mothers I posted earlier, we flipped to flowering. Sorry for the news, but we wanted a good harvest and electric bills were getting expensive. On the plus side, I was experimenting with the "FIM" technique, and managed to get 17 tops from one plant! The buds are coming along nicely.

Since starting this escapade, I had the best of hopes. But like all perfectionists, we're never happy with our results. I wish I could say I got the best of this adventure, but a stupid mistake made it impossible to tell what the max output could be. However, as anyone following along could tell, we read these posts to see others mistakes, and to revel in there successes. I've talked with many people, and plan to adapt my tent in the following ways:
1. I am trading my 1k hps lamp for a 600w hps. After extensive research, I feel confident that the 600w is the most efficient and easiest to maintain. It can get closer to lights, and maintain the most positive of lumens to heat ratio in any ballast other than LED. I'm not that far of a disbeliever yet I'll post pictures soon, really close to harvest on the plants that survived.
2. I am definitely NOT waiting the three weeks prescribed in my feed chart. They are getting one week veg and going straight to flower. I plan on topping two days before flipping and staking every plant to grow as vertical as possible.
3. Height will be controlled, and the idea behind the SOG be upheld.... all tops, no bottoms. I got greedy topping the plants. Next time around, all 24 plants will be staked and trimmed to reflect a top/ft squared method.

I also plan to implement a CO2 regiment as the temperature drops more and heat is less an issue. After talking my roommate into hydro, and he being a soil lover, he plans to go back to soil, and try organics. I remain a believer that hydro is an answer to any question, because you can break a question down to individual parts. The idea similar in my mind to a soundboard controller... You don't just put them all to the max, for the best output you must adjust each level. I'm sorry for the delay, and I promise pics to come soon.