Maximising yield in a commercial grow
- Thread starter SamWE19
- Start date
Renfro
Well-Known Member
Select for whatever criteria you are after.
Clearly you didn’t have energy to read after the first post as you’d clearly see I make a decent profit off my business already. I was looking for opinions on maximising yield in a given space which I got and took on board and I’m implementing it now. Why even post at all if you don’t have the “energy” to offer any useful advice.
Frank Nitty
Well-Known Member
This is where things could get ugly... Let's not screw up a good thread... PLEASE!!! Smoke something and CTFO!!!
There we go. Wasn’t so hard. As always I value everyone’s input. Others have mentioned the clone route which I’ve took on board and started.
Now many mistake me questioning advice with lack of experience etc but I call that business...
If you owned a shop and someone advised you to start selling a new product you would want to know why and what market research or evidence this person has in regards to this advice.
What’s your reasoning behind getting rid of the vertical grow, I gained 4m2 of canopy doing this
Keesje
Well-Known Member
Vertical grow has to many practical problems.
Just one for example: How will you get the lights closer or further away from your plants?
Moving your wall?
If you want high yields you have to find the soft spot for height. Not too far, not too close. With horizontal grow this works well.
How are you supporting heavy tops?
Just one for example: How will you get the lights closer or further away from your plants?
Moving your wall?
If you want high yields you have to find the soft spot for height. Not too far, not too close. With horizontal grow this works well.
How are you supporting heavy tops?
I built my lights with that in mind. A par meter shows 1450 ppfd at the canopy of plants that grow 45cm out from the pipe. I am considering some sort of tomato cage to support tops atm
Unlikely to move them but the lights are mounted on caster wheels too
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Flowki
Well-Known Member
Nothing wrong with going vert imo. Instead of moving the lights, put the pots on wheels. This would ofc mean the vert cage/net you are using is also mounted on the same mobile fixture. It doesn't even have to be individual, you can connect 4 pots together on the same wheel system with a continuous net across them all. If such a set-up best utilises the space you have then go for it.. that's the point of the thread.
Forgive me I didn't read into where you get your seed supply so will assume you buy them.
Cons of that is they cost, obviously.. but more importantly you can't control outcome. Seeds of the same strain will have variance in end weight, even flower time. Run enough seeds you will also see occasional herms.
Pro is that seeds are easy to do, as is variance of strains. While cuttings eventually become more reliable it takes a few generations of culling to get to that point and if people get bored of it? time wasted. You also need a place to keep mothers or veg the next cycles plants, that could be very difficult to transition them into your verticle flower room set-up. More importantly on this part is that if you use space for mothers or veg, that is space you could have had more seeds going. In other words multiple flower rooms going direct from seed. This could be a good strat but entirely depends on the stability, quality and price of your seeds.
You won't need a lot of space to have a separate little seed starter system, under the stairs, under the bed.. what ever, just a place to get some roots going in tiny air pots 2 weeks or so prior to the flower room/s finishing. Essentially getting the seeds to the point where they can hit the ground running as soon as the flower space/s is free. Run enough seeds and you won't need much veg, sog can work vertically, on shelves.
If you do get into mothers (lol) you need a good space and set-up. You can't just half arse it, the plant needs to be as healthy and well looked after as possible for what should be obvious reasons down the line. Just putting that out there, since a lot of people seem to throw down the ''just use a mother'' statement too lightly.
Forgive me I didn't read into where you get your seed supply so will assume you buy them.
Cons of that is they cost, obviously.. but more importantly you can't control outcome. Seeds of the same strain will have variance in end weight, even flower time. Run enough seeds you will also see occasional herms.
Pro is that seeds are easy to do, as is variance of strains. While cuttings eventually become more reliable it takes a few generations of culling to get to that point and if people get bored of it? time wasted. You also need a place to keep mothers or veg the next cycles plants, that could be very difficult to transition them into your verticle flower room set-up. More importantly on this part is that if you use space for mothers or veg, that is space you could have had more seeds going. In other words multiple flower rooms going direct from seed. This could be a good strat but entirely depends on the stability, quality and price of your seeds.
You won't need a lot of space to have a separate little seed starter system, under the stairs, under the bed.. what ever, just a place to get some roots going in tiny air pots 2 weeks or so prior to the flower room/s finishing. Essentially getting the seeds to the point where they can hit the ground running as soon as the flower space/s is free. Run enough seeds and you won't need much veg, sog can work vertically, on shelves.
If you do get into mothers (lol) you need a good space and set-up. You can't just half arse it, the plant needs to be as healthy and well looked after as possible for what should be obvious reasons down the line. Just putting that out there, since a lot of people seem to throw down the ''just use a mother'' statement too lightly.
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Renfro
Well-Known Member
Whew, no signs of light stress? I cant go past 1200 without problems.
Keesje
Well-Known Member
Measuring light with a meter is very unreliable.
If you keep the meter at a slightly different angle, the values are different.
Also, for measuring PPFD you have to do several measurements on different spots.
So then it is even more important for doing it right.
Which is almost impossible.
If you want to do a reliable measurement you have to put your whole light in a Ulbricht sphere.
Measuring light with home devices is nice if your hobby is photography or if you want just some indication.
If you keep the meter at a slightly different angle, the values are different.
Also, for measuring PPFD you have to do several measurements on different spots.
So then it is even more important for doing it right.
Which is almost impossible.
If you want to do a reliable measurement you have to put your whole light in a Ulbricht sphere.
Measuring light with home devices is nice if your hobby is photography or if you want just some indication.
Not yet as my plants dont grow to that close as they seem to grow up rather than out without the supports.
When I get my individual cages we will see.
Plants will be forced to grow at the 45 degree angle I want which will mean a 60cm plant should theoretically be 45cm away from the pipes.
When I say my ppfd measurement that is an average taken across the entire canopy not just a random section.
Since I have 4 cobs per sqft the light spread is very uniform
You take accurate measurements with a meter by making a mount. For example if I want to measure the canopy 60cm from the floor you take a 60cm piece of timber with another piece screwed to the end at a right angle. Slide it across the floor and take measurements repeat for 50cm 40cm etc the angle of the meter won’t change
Matt1983NS
Member
12/12 from seed won’t start flowering right away. They won’t start flowering until they’re mature.
I run 12/12 from clones as soon as they root in 6 inch pots of coco coir. I hand water 56 plants at a time doing it this way.
I have a disassembled steel garden shelf laying on top of two kiddie pools and it’s drain to waste. I put 6-18 plants in every two weeks for a staggered harvest but you could do one big crop. A problem I see with seeds is that even if they’re the same strain, the flowering times can be very different. If that’s not a problem for you then go for it. But optimizing you’re space leads to more harvests per yer. Waiting an extra two weeks for 6 plants to finish up would throw off my schedule.
I do flower different strains at the same time but I know the flower time of each strain within a day or two. A small 2x4 veg/clone tent keeps me with enough room for mother’s and clones to keep perpetually harvesting.
Anyway, of my 56 (give or take) clones flowering under 1600 watts, I yield between 12 and 30 grams per plant depending on strain. They range from a height of 14-30 inches tall, with one main cola. And it’s soooo much less time consuming to trim, so it works for me.
I would definitely run with clones. But yes it can be done straight from seed.
coreywebster
Well-Known Member
Do you use co2 Sam?
Yeah I have a co2 burner with ac units. It’s not completely dialled in yet. Only started it one harvest ago
Love to see a photo, 10 per sqft sounds extremely crowded even for single colas
I agree with that mate. The main reason I used seeds was I personally believed I was saving valuable space that I would need for mother/clone room