Sea of Green...well maybe a pond

I have 3 nice big Big Bud plants. They were getting WAY to big for my grow room (about 3.5x5x4.5). So, I took one out just before I started to flower, took a bunch of clones off all 3 plants (20 total), and have the clones and the one I took out of the grow roon in a separate room I'm using for cloning and for the extra plant that I'm using as the mother. I also bought a 24 site aerogarden which is working beautifully (roots starting to show after 3 days).

I want to use the sea of green approach but I have a couple questions. My 18-20 clones will not fill up the whole area and I want to utilize as much of the space as possible. Once I root the clones and put back under the HID, can I top the plant and prune so I have 2 main cola's only per plant? One main cola will leave empty space and hey, 2 are better than one right?

My plan is to top after about 1 week of veg, wait antoher week, prune all but top portion of 2 largest branches (palm tree looking), change to 12/12, and 2 weeks after that prune all lower flowers and leaves/branches.

Depending on what y'all say (always have received a lot of help here), I may use this approach, or something to this effect, on all or most of the plants. I want to at least try it on 1 and see what happens. I figure the plant should be 2-2 1/2 feet tall at harvest, maybe a little more.

For lights, I have a 400w switchabel HPS/MH, using BC nutes, temp is around 76-77 with 45-50% RH. Lots of ventilation.

Please let me know if you guys think this would work. Thanks in advance!!!!!

subscribed, I want to see what people have to say.

Any help would really be appreciated here. I thought it was a good question. I know someone on this site must have tried or at least heard of this. Even if you haven't heard or tried this, opinions are more than welcome.

C'mon guys (and girls). I thought this was a good idea and I'd at least get a "hey, give it a try", if no one has ever done it. Let me know what you ya think.
yet.
On antoher note, I just bought an areogarden for cloning. It's a 24 spot cloner and I'm not that familiar with it. It's been a couple days and nothing yet. Stems are just suspended, not rock wool cubes or anything. I've read on this site that I should be concerned with stem rot. Is this true? The stems are getting a good spray of water on them. Should I block a couple of the misters?

Help/input would be much appreciated!!!!!!!!!

you dont have enough light and you cant veg under your 400 if your going to try and do a perpetual harvest..you will need your flower light to be on 12/12 all the time and another light for veg...imo

Thanks for responding. I do have some fluoro's for the clones and maybe a couple more 26 w cool tubes I could use as supplemental lights in addition to the 400 once they're rooted. With this and maybe a couple fluor's think that will be enough?

Any comment on my idea about 2 cola's for SOG? Comment about my aero cloner?

Thanks again!

I dont like aero machines but thats just me...I like to go with one cola and lollipop the plants in SOG. and im not sure if floros are enough but they could be..I would go with a t-8 fixture from walmart..they are 8 bucks..

it sounds like you should have just enough room to fit 20 plants if you do it in the 3.5 x 4, cause in sea of green i believe 1 plant per square foot is about average a little less or more depending on preference. i also dont think the 400 watt is ganna be enough if you plan on using the whole space, being that if you put a 400 watt under you area of about 20 plants being one per square foot(keep in mind with the one per square foot you would actuallly only be able to use 17.5 plants, technically ), you would need about a 1000 watt light to fully cover your plants. the actual watts work out to about 875 to cover the area. maybe use less plants so you wont have to buy another light, or buy another light and sell the old one, buy a mh to cover your mom and clones maybe, that will help with compact buds also.

Might want to consider a light mover, sounds like one would be perfect for this situation. They can increase your garden by 30% under the same amount of light.

Well the SOG I'm working with is hydro, 2 400w hps with 12 plants under each one, in 2 different stages of flower. Single cola lollipops. Mothers and clones are under 300w of tubes and a few CFLs. Flower area is 4x3x5, close to your dimensions.

Try topping if you want, might work out for you, but I don't have enough room for 2 colas per plant, so I don't, so ppl do but I want all energy on that one bud. I would do it to one or half or whatever and not to the others and see which has a better yield, nothing beats experience.

since your closet isnt very high, would you want to use a mh for the mom and the clones to keep them short and the nodes real close so when there ready to go in the flower they will stay short and dense. im thinking thats what i want because i would like to have pretty short dense spear plants at the end of flower. using a mh during flower also is a good idea if your want to keep them short. what do you think about using the mh for mothers and clones and then throwing the clones in at like 6 or 7 inches under a hps? since your using a mh for cloning the plants would be just as mature just shorter right?

thanks guys. Yea, I was thinking wit that many plants I might need more light. I think I'm gong to not use as many clones this time and try topping one or two and see what happens and compare yield. Yes, you can't beat experience. I might not use as many clones either. We shall see. I'll have some pics of the flowering plants, 2 weeks or so, for ya soon. From what I've seen (growing at a GOOD friends house), buds are forming quick and doing good. I bent them pretty good last weekend I think. We shall see. Thanks again.

Ok. It's been a couple weeks. The 3 mig planys are 3-4 weeks into flower. I trimmed one plant of all but the top 1/3 of the plant so it could fit into my growspace and under the 400w switchabel MH/HPS. The plants seem to be doing really well and bud formation is moving long nicely. The plant I topped has 5 nice colas forming. The one I didn't top is going nicely as well. The one plant I lollipopped (my version anyway), well I'm going to get one nice long, thick bud off of it.

It took a while but 13 out of the 18 clones had about 1 inch long roots in the aerogarden. I bought some FF soil and a bag of perlite and mixed (about 90% soil, 10% perlite). I also bought some B1 Solution and the micochondriza or what ever the fuck it is and used as intructed. Since I didn't have any lights at all for the clones. i bought 2 T12 40W cool fluro's. Hopefully they'll get me by until bigger plants are done. I transplanted into soil today. I also bought a ph meter and found the water I was using had a high ph (7.7-8.1) which I brought down.

The blooming fert I'm using is kabloom or something like that. Its says to use 1/4-1/2 teaspoon per gallon and water as normally scheduled. Does this mean to use for every scheduled watering? Doesn't seem like alot of nutes to be using every third watering (which is what I've heard is best). I used 1/4 2 waterings ago and am going to up it to 1/2 for the 3rd. Should I use these nutes for everywatering? Label is kinda vague.

Pics kind of suck but let me know what y'all think!!! Comments welcome!!!!!!!

pics? what pics?

Sorry here are the pics.