Why do I see people growing so many small plants?

I must be missing something. I am on my 3rd grow, the last 2 being indoors. My last crop was 8 plants in a 5x5 area using a 1000w hps and soil. I flipped when the plants were 24 inches tall and they grew another 24 inches. all the main colas were about a foot long and the buds were bigger then most colas. I found out 8 plants takes up too much room with the amount of light that i had to grow properly so this time i am growing 6 GG#4 plants with a scrog.

so here are my questions...why do so many growers grow bunches of little plants (often dozens) in the same space they can grow several large plants? it seems there is a lot more room for error when dealing with so many pots not to mention the law in MI says i can only grow 12 but 12 plants can be a shitload of weed.

Does it make sense to use a tent when i have a whole bedroom for growing?

If I run my ballast for my 1000w at 75% does that equal 750 watts?

Do I need 1000w for a scrog? Will 600w be just as good being I don't need the penetration?

Should i fill my screen before flipping or just fill it halfway with the expectation of my plants doubling in size?

I have a billion other questions but I'm curious why it seems 90% of growers grow houseplant size plants.

my last crop.

i use a 400w HPS, have an area about 2x3 to grow in, and don't grow huge plants because of the light/room restrictions. everyone has a different indoor environment and skill level, so that contributes to it a lot. nice grow.

Hey Butch, you and me must be missing the same thing. I think it has to do with a lack of patience in veg...

I grow pounders, it's easier. From fresh cutting (I'm clone only) to bloom ready takes 10-12 weeks.

Laws usually count stems, not weight, so growing fewer bigger plants is far more legal than Sea of Green techniques.

Makes sense to use tents to contain the mess or the light. Otherwise, don't bother.

Run your thousand watt ballast at full outer our even overboost if it has such a setting. All HID lamps are designed to be run at their design rating- shocking coincidence!- and therefore the necessary engineering tradeoffs are optimized for that setting. Dimming the lamp- that is, running it at less than full rated output- will cause much more than proportional lumen losses. Think 63% of the light at 75% power, below fifty percent at 60%. Spectrum suffers too, think red end low pressure sodium.

It's even worse for MH lamps run under their rated wattage, you'll wear them out A LOT faster.

The above comes from Philips who's been known to make a bulb or two and can thus be a trusted source for best use and care practices.

Thouies vs sixes is a debate as old as most of these forums. Gonna have to figure that one out on your own! I chose thouies, they were fine, but I'm going to LED now.

Fill your screen, but not to overflowing.

Ninety percent of growers just follow someone else's lead.

My line of thinking is fewer BIG plants yield more. And my state has a max of six in flower rule.

I normally veg plants to about a foot, foot and a half with LST and then flower them, normally get at least 2 zips dried weight per plant and run 6 plants in 3 gal pots in a 1.2x1.2x2m tent. I don't scrog though I may as well, I tie all my plants down so the canopy is even scrog style, normally keep tieing them down until 3rd week of flower.

I don't think I could ever get pounders in my space and feel like getting 1/2-1lb per m2 is still efficient enough for me.

I use 400w coolvent hood with hps and 2x 145w 2700k photography CFLs.

If you gave me a warehouse and it was legal I'd much rather give ea plant a m2 of 600-1000w of its own light. Imagine 12 plants, ea with it's own 1000w light and a scrog screen <3

I wonder the same thing. I see a lot of folks showing pics of plants in the 5th or 6th week of flower that are only a foot tall or so. Let them baby's veg a little longer.