Should I go with two 4' x 8' or one 10' x 10' grow tent?

shizniz34 said:

Alright cool man thanks for the advice, glad I got the dimmables. Do you have any experience running 3 hps to 1 mh in flower?

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For sure but would be king of hard in your situation. You would have to rotate ALL of your plants everyday basically. Try this out...run your plants on MH bulbs for the first 2 weeks of flower then switch them to HPS bulbs. It actually does increase growth rates and healthier bud sites. Then if you are trying to get some mixed spectrum in the tent I would get those veg spectrum 125w CFL's and hang them around the room. Maybe 2 per light. Then just rotate your plants 90 degrees every other day.

That sounds good, you say two weeks do you mean switch when they start to show hairs? I def. see how using an mh while they are still kinda in veg for the first two weeks would help them since they will begin to grow faster once you flip. What about four hps and one 400/600w mh in the middle?

shizniz34 said:

That sounds good, you say two weeks do you mean switch when they start to show hairs? I def. see how using an mh while they are still kinda in veg for the first two weeks would help them since they will begin to grow faster once you flip. What about four hps and one 400/600w mh in the middle?

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I wouldn't say switch when they start to show hairs. I would just say switch at 2 weeks for an 8 week strain. If you have a 10 week strain then switch at 3 weeks and so on.

Problem with 1 bulb in the middle is that you will constantly have to rotate your plants to take advantage of it. That will get to be a pain especially in hydro. I like the CFL idea better. If you have the cooling, electrical draw, and budget then you have a ton of options. Hang 150-250w MH bulbs around the room. Get LED UFO's. Hang CFL's. Use T5 fixtures hung vertically along the walls. Options are endless.

Ya I like the 150w mh or t5 fixtures hung vertical. Which would draw less power/do you think is better: a 150w mh per 600w hps or a 4 bulb x 4' t5 fixture on each wall?

Say you do something like the setup below. You might be able to squeeze 8 per row if you can get them into a 14" squared space. I really think that is pushing it. I would even say that you may find that 6 per row is actually better. Anyway, if you set it up something like this then any lighting you put on the side of the tents will affect the one closest to the lights but since T5's have no penetration you would need to move the ones in the middle of the room towards the corners. Create some type of rotation. That could get to be a pain when the plants get bigger. I would still recommend the hanging 125w CFL's unless doing a rotation is not a problem for you. If you were going to do the rotation then I would put 4' T5's on the front and back walls of each side and 2 on each the sides (8 total fixtures). You won't need 4 lamp bulbs as you are only trying to get supplemental lighting to the lower branches. I would think 2 lamp fixtures would be fine. You want them at about the 1' mark on your plants.

That exactly how I had it drawn up, thanks for the visual man. And if you rec. hanging 125w cfl's ill do that. Where would I hang those/how many and would a 150w mh per 600 or two 600s be good/better than cfls?

The problem with a 150w MH is you are going to require a ballast. More expense for not that much more light. With the 150w CFL's you'll just need a mogul socket and a power strip for each side. Plug the sockets into the strips and hang them evenly throughout the canopy. You can do as amny as you want. The more the better. Totally up to you. Just hang them evenly throughout and if you need to rotate plants then do as needed. I would say at least 6 per side but you could do as many as 12 if you wanted to.

Alright so 6/12 cfls per side won't increase the electricity too much?
And do you think getting 2-3.5 ozs per plant is doable depending on strain?

Same draw on CFL's as any other electrical. You hang 8 per side at 125w per CFL and that's like adding 2 1000w bulbs. If you want supplemental lighting then it's going to cause electrical draw. If you added T5's it would be the same. Those 4' bulbs are 54w a piece.

3.50z. per plant on 3 footers in a small footprint is WAY pushing it. Be happy with 2.

Alright so would you hang 8 per side or 8 t5 4' for side light?

If you don't mind rotating your plants every day then go with the T5's.

Alright, I was just thinking at 42 plants x 2 oz I'd get 84 oz. What if I scrapped this idea and went with a ebb n flow sog. Either four 4 x 4 (harvest every two weeks) or two 4 x 8 trays (harvest every month). I could place roughly 3 plants per sq/ft and yield 48 oz per 4 x 4 tray (I've read you can do as much as 4 plants per sq/ft sog). Sounds like alot but is double the yield so I'd be worth it. This also still leaves me room to work and for equipment.

shizniz34 said:

Alright, I was just thinking at 42 plants x 2 oz I'd get 84 oz. What if I scrapped this idea and went with a ebb n flow sog. Either four 4 x 4 (harvest every two weeks) or two 4 x 8 trays (harvest every month). I could place roughly 3 plants per sq/ft and yield 48 oz per 4 x 4 tray (I've read you can do as much as 4 plants per sq/ft sog). Sounds like alot but is double the yield so I'd be worth it. This also still leaves me room to work and for equipment.

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Go for it. A 600w light per 4x4 tray is perfect. Or 2 per 4x8 tray. I never did the 2 week perpetual just cause it was such a pain having to mix 4 different nute formulas all the time. But if you don't mind then try it out.

I can tell you this though. You're not getting 48 zips per 4x4 tray. Maybe 4x8 tray is what you meant. On a 4x4 tray with a 600w light that would be 2.25gpw. That's not possible on a horizontal grow. It can be done on vertical grows but you REALLy need to have a dialed in setup and understanding of your plants.

Ya that would be so def. the two 4 x 8 is the way to go. If I went 1000 w would my yield increase? I read somewhere on here that a guy gets 1.5 elbows per 4 x 4 at 25 plants with 2-3 week veg. Which is 48 for a 4 x 8. Your right, got stop thinking so much when I'm blazed lol

shizniz34 said:

Ya that would be so def. the two 4 x 8 is the way to go. If I went 1000 w would my yield increase? I read somewhere on here that a guy gets 1.5 elbows per 4 x 4 at 25 plants with 2-3 week veg.

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Do an experiment. Put 1000w lights over 1 tray and 600w lights over the other. See if you get a better yield. I'm pretty sure you won't. I'm almost positive it won't make a difference. Especially with SOG. You don't need all that light. It's a waste. If you think that it will give you better results or you read somewhere else that it will and you are not sure then experiment man. That's what growing is.

Ya I'll prolly just go back to the original plan of soil. Much easier to take care of. How many plants you think I could fit if I go closed spaced? Ill def. go with 42 like in the original drawing if I make a walkway (might even make it 1.5').

hey man dont give up cause everyone is telling you you cant get two oz's pp (which even if you dont get exactly that much youll still have a huge yeild) you should still go for the hydro setup cause a croping out every two weeks is gonna feel pretty damn good and iam pretty sure will get you more bud in the long run then goin for a soil non 8 week plant setup.

imho

Thanks for the input Yukki. My plan now is to run a soil grow for the first run so I can work with multiple strains in search of some killer phenos for moms. Then run half the tent on an ebb n grow bucket system and the other half in an ebb n flo system. Compare the results and convert the other half of the room, for the third run, to the best one.