Question: Growing Two Crops Under One Set Of Lights

I've got 10 plants growing under two Tek Two T55 HO 2' lights.

Things are getting pretty crowded in my little grow room, and the lights are not intense enough to cover all the plants any more.
It is time to switch to 12/12 on four of my plants.
The other 6 plants are about 5 weeks old and 8" tall.
I have to make a decision on whether to let 6 of my plants die, or leave the lights on 24, and move the plants every 12 hours.
Does any one have experience doing this?

I know I've heard of people removing plants from their veg room to induce 12/12 on plants they don't have the extra tent or room to flower in.

There are several problems with this, but it may work for you.

1) Your veg area will get cramped up a lot, as your plants begin to flower they tend to take up a lot more room than the vegging ones, thus making you raise the light higher, which brings me to another problem, stretching.
2) As your flowering plants begin to grow they will need more room and you'll end up needing to raise the lights. This will cause the smaller plants that are vegging to stretch towards the light since they will be smaller than the flowering ones.
3) The moving of flower plants can be really tough as they get older, the more branches, the more weight, etc. Take this into consideration as every time you move them you'll be banging them on things or a branch might snap, or worse you'll drop them and kill them.
4) Timing, unless you make it fit your schedule you can forget to move your plants from light to dark or dark to light. This can either make your plants re-veg or cause them to hermi as you continue to put them back in and out at random times that don't really fit their schedule, only yours. You could be out, partying, at work, at a family or friends, or just forget. That 12/12 turns into 15/9, 18/6, 24/0, 11/13, etc.
5) Light spectrum, unless you're using double spectrum lighting it can affect your yield, not by much, but it could hurt you.

I suggest just getting another light and a smaller tent to veg, and use the current space you have for flowering. That way you have a easier setup, and you can do a perpetual grow.

bamboofarmer said:

I've got 10 plants growing under two Tek Two T55 HO 2' lights.

Things are getting pretty crowded in my little grow room, and the lights are not intense enough to cover all the plants any more.
It is time to switch to 12/12 on four of my plants.
The other 6 plants are about 5 weeks old and 8" tall.
I have to make a decision on whether to let 6 of my plants die, or leave the lights on 24, and move the plants every 12 hours.
Does any one have experience doing this?

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Or think about finding a little spot(Small cupboard/Cabinet) whatever you can find that is say 20" Tall? buy a Cheap CFL or couple? stick your 6 x 8" ones under the Lower watt CFL(s) in the smaller Grow Environment(Closet/Cupboard) don't Kill em...if they in Veg they don't need to be in a light proof environment..and you could probably keep in on hold for a little while? maybe a couple of weeks untill you can sort them a NEW home..Depends on your Funds and your Space...just try and adapt..good learning process and Vegging for a little bit longer I don't think will cause you any problems..

Peace

Thanks MedicatedGrow.
I think you are right. It would become quite a commitment and hassle to keep moving things back and forth day after day for the next few months.

Thanks cc2012. I guess I already knew it was a bad idea, just wanted to see what others thought. Maybe I'll go get some cfl's and keep 'em going. Do you know how many I would need to keep 6 plants happy?

bamboofarmer said:

Thanks cc2012. I guess I already knew it was a bad idea, just wanted to see what others thought. Maybe I'll go get some cfl's and keep 'em going. Do you know how many I would need to keep 6 plants happy?

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Hiya bamboofarmer, sorry taken so long to get back to you..had to go and give my Ladies 1st pt of their Feed/Watering..

Depends how long you want to keep them "On Hold" Happy..In the UK Giant CFL are quite cheap, but in the States I think they cost a little(??) more so a Lot of CFL Growers I've chatted to use multiple Lower Wattage CFL setups anything from 26w (True watts) ~ 42w (Again True watts) never equivalent.. for six and this also depends on how close to the Ladies you can get em without issues and also on how close the walls of the Grow Cabinet are to the Lights and Ladies(Reflective Distance) also how you hang the CFL(s) tip down OR on their Side makes a difference..

I'm waffling(Baked!) for 6 Ladies at 8" in height I would say at bare minimum 4x 26 or even better 4x 42w(or close) I mean in a Perfect world you need to be shooting for at least 50w(True) per plant...some peeps say you need about 5000 Lumen per plant for good growth...but others have done Great jobs and had pretty good results from less...like I say many things affect the final outcome..but to just keep em Happy I think 4x 42ish Watt will see you good..

Peace



EDIT: And you also have the knowledge(Data) that you collect from doing this(Keep em alive) for future Grows..which can't hurt...I'm still learning New Stuff everyday..

Thanks again cc2012! I went down to Lowe's and bought (eight 23 watt cfl's. 4 of them are 3,500k and the other 4 are 5,000k. (Those were the closest I could find to my other veg/bloom lights.)

I also picked up a couple of those aluminum clamp-on fixtures along with the splitters which allow me to stick two bulbs in each one.

You mention a difference between hanging the lights with the side exposed vs the tip, so I'm wondering if I should just make my own fixtures to hold the lights instead of using the fixtures I purchased. But for now, they seem to be doing the job.

And I've decided to go ahead and just put all my plants into flower some time this week. Seems easier in my case to just expand my grow room a bit rather than setting up a new space with ventilation, fans, and heat. Some people go straight to 12/12 from day one, so I figure mine should be ok. My youngest plant is 39 days old and about 10" or so.

Pictures below are with my Tek Two's and 4 cfl's, and I will be adding the other 4, and repositioning all the lights later today after expanding the grow area a bit.