Trying to figure out the best set up

OK so it'll be my first grow and I've decided to use the DWC system. I plan on getting two 4x4 tents with 600 watt hps grow lights in each. I want to use one tent for my clones, mother, and vegging. The other tent will be for flowering. I want to be vegging 10-12 plants and then choose the best 8 to flower. My question is, what would be the best way to do this? Should I use 5 gallon buckets for each plant or maybe another way? Pls any help or suggeations at all is appreciated
Thanks!

Do you want to use soil or hydro?

and why have HPS in the mothers/clones/veg tent - MH or CFL's are more suited.

NorthofEngland said:

Do you want to use soil or hydro?

and why have HPS in the mothers/clones/veg tent - MH or CFL's are more suited.

Click to expand...

I want to use hydro for this setup

I'm currently working with a 4x4 tent and hydro setup (though this would apply for soil too) - that trying to get 8 full size flowering plants in it would be a bad move. I have chosen to go with 4 plants (each having a 2x2 footprint). I'd think going for fewer plants with larger yield is the way to go (in fact, doing 1 or 2 plants would possibly be just as good if not better). Unless you're going for multiple strains at once I wouldn't want to exceed 4 in the tent - unless you were doing a rapid turn over and not growing them out to a decent size (see of green style). And definitely go for MH, CFL or fluro for the veg tent. You might also consider using a smaller tent for clones/veg and not bothering with a mother by running a perpetual grow of clones from veging plants pre-flower.

What size of a tent would cover 8 4-5 feet high flowering plants (my goal at least)

When you say this is your first grow, do you mean ever (regardless of indoor/outdoor hydro/soil)? Not to pass judgement at all, but I think you might want to adjust your ambitions a little. Is there a reason to go specifically for 8 plants? As for size, it all depends on the strain (Indicas will be bushier, Sativas taller) and then how you prune/train them. At 4-5 feet tall, I'd be giving each plant 2/3rds the height in width - but again depends on how soon you flower them too. If you were to go ahead with your plant, I'd be looking at around 20 square feet. Checkout some of the journals to see how others have gone about it for some specifics/ideas.

Edit; just a thought, with two 4x4 tents, you could run a perpetual grow of 4 flowering plants at a time, or even successive harvest spaced 2-4 weeks apart with your veging plants. Guess it depends on if you needed/wanted to harvest 8 (or in this idea 4) plants at once.

I use a 4x4 100 gallon res with 12 sites. A lot eaiser and more stable than maintaining 12 - 20 five gallon buckets.

Rawbo, if you're looking to grow 4-5' plants indoors then you are gonna need LOTS of space, you gotta allow them room to bush out otherwise it's gonna be tight in there, especially if you don't run a system that has an easily accessible control bucket to add your nutes / fresh H2O. As Canna said, you would be better off growing 4 plants in a 4x4 tent and if you scrog em out you could simply do two. If you're really looking to do more than 4 large plants I would recommend a 4x8 tent. Ideally you would have a 4x4 tent for veg and then a 4x8 tent for flower. Hope you have a large grow area picked out! All this being said, if this is your first time growing, you might want to scale it back a bit. I know it's easy to get wrapped up in thinking about huge buds and massive yields but as hardy as cannabis plants are, it's also extremely easy to mess up a grow, especially when you have more than just a few plants. My suggestion would be to start modest, find a strain you really like and go with it. Start off with four plants and veg em out, when you transfer them into your flowering room take as many clones as you need and continue veggin those clones till your flowering tent is open for the next batch. As you get to know the strain, what it likes as well as dislikes, and you think you've got it dialed in properly so you're getting the most outta each harvest, then would be the time to bump it up and start producing more. My first time I grew 1 autoflower Bubblicious from Nirvana seeds, I didn't have a constant read meter and was just using general hydroponics 3-part nutes. It finished but boy did I have issues along the way. Anyone can grow cannabis, but it takes careful preparation and a watchful eye to get connoisseur bud. Anyway, I hope this helps, you can check out my grow "girl scout cookies rdwc scrog grow" to see how I setup my system (I'm running only two plants in a 4x4 tent and they gonna be monsters!) I only run one tent as I don't have the space to do two but maybe it'll give you some ideas! Good luck!

The grow space I have to play with is about 10x10(spare bedroom) I want to start with 8 plants in each stage because i want the biggest yeild possible and know its my first (very first infact) so ofcourse some arent gonna make it so I'd rather have 8 plants and end up with 6 harvested or something instead of having 4 plants and having only two make it. I'm very inexpirienced when it comes to the actual practice of cannabis cultivation so ANY SUGGESTIONS WITH MY GROW SPACE WOULD BE HELPFUL. (Roughly about 10x10)

I totally get that you're hedging your bets on what you are planing - but I'd bank that for a first grow you'll do far better from growing fewer plants and looking after them better. Keeping track of multiple plants can get tricky and time consuming. Growing Cannabis isn't hard, but doing it well takes practice (and I'm still learning, as I'm sure we all are). The general goal is to equal grams harvested per watt of lighting used, and isn't necessarily going to happen on your first grow (I'm yet to see what my first indoor setup does for me, normally grow outdoors). You could just as likely start with 8, end up with 6 that still don't produce much decent bud - perhaps producing the same amount as 1 decent plant, but you'll have spent much more time, money and space on getting there. With a 10x10 room, you could easily do a few plants and learn with a few quick successive grows. Ambition is great - and trust me mate, I've got so many ideas and dreams of what I'd like to do in time - but starting with something reasonable/manageable would suit you better. I've been doing as much homework as possible (it's become an obsession) schooling myself on all I'll need to know to do DWC, indoor growing (and there is a butt load to cover, and I'm sure plenty more I've yet to uncover). To that, you're also gonna need to get down the basics of growing, training, harvesting etc etc that goes with doing any kind of grow. I don't want to put you off, but I can relate to how easy it is to get carried away. As one of the members on here keeps telling newbies -> K.I.S.S "keep it simple stupid".