Different strategies in perpetuals. Cyclic vs. Piecemeal

ShiggityFlip;2699339 said:

Pigeon you have very wise words on setting up a perpetual. The key for me in a perpetual has been to focus on veg. Most of our girls can be vegged indefinitely and kept nice with the proper care. So having a full veg area is key. Just keep trimming down the veg plants if they get too big.

There are really two kinds of perpetuals, piecemeal and cyclic. Each has their particular place.

In a cyclic perpetual we group plants together. Batches come out and batches of the same number of plants go in. We usually stagger the cycles for how often we want to harvest and trim. Some do all plants and then cycle in the next round. Some do half and half and some do more cycles. This way we can harvest once or twice a month or even have a harvest every week. For me the sweet spot in a medium sized set up has been once a month harvests. This style is especially suited for clones. Do all of one batch as one type of clone. They will all behave the same way and all flower and finish at once because they are genetically identical. It is also easier at harvest because they will all trim the same exact way so you get in the groove. It is also easier for those of us whom change the nutrients during different times in flower. Having all of a batch being ready for the same feeding is really helpful.

The negatives of a cyclic grow are that it is best to stick to one cloned strain at a time for each small cycle. You can vary the strains each cycle but to get best results keep all in one cycle the same. For those that like variety this may not be possible though you can wait several cycles before doing the same strain again. You can do several strains in one cycle if you plan though. For example, I can just choose a few strains that have the same flowering time and similar stretch characteristics. Keep the shorter ones directly under the light and the taller ones to the outside, creating a stadium effect. Tall plants are the bleachers and short ones are on the football field so to speak. Most commercial grows will utilize a cyclic method. Many non commercial grows will use it as well. It takes good planning and good organization. And it produces excellent results with less effort overall.

The other style is piecemeal. Piecemeal is to flower new plants whenever there is space. You just have ladies in veg and when you harvest one you out the next one in. You harvest five put five in or more depending on their individual growing characteristics. The beauty of this system is that you are always full. Cyclic systems you sometimes will have empty space as some plants even in a monoclonal will finish at slightly different times. With piecemeal the moment room opens up it is gone.

Another advantage to piecemeal perpetual is that new plants will take less space in the grow. So we can expand the spacing between our larger finishing ladies while the new plants start the stretch. So lighting efficiency can be higher. Though sometimes that is counteracted by the fact that many different strains at different stages can be vastly different in height. We can stagger light heights to try and help with this. You can also put risers under the shorter plants to keep everything the same level. So the main pros with piecemeal are the ability to grow many strains at once and also being able to take advantage of different growing times to utilize space more efficiently.

What can make it hard is if you use different nutes and treatments at different times of flower. The organizational level you need to accomplish that is very high if your set up is bigger than a few plants. But as SweetSue can tell you it can make even a 4x4 grow very challenging indeed. It can be a great garden for organic growing styles that pretty much use water like LOS grows. I have also seen a grow with a piecemeal ebb and flow. Three separate tables. One early flower, one mid and one off to the side for flush.

Most grows end up being a hybrid of these two styles. For example right now I am going full cycle cyclic because I have started a pheno hunt. All of these phenos will finish at different times however. But I will have enough of a time examining each one and evaluating them that I will wait until it becomes at least one third empty before adding the next batch. These one third will eventually cover one half by the end of stretch. When the rest of the first harvest finishes I will add the next ones and move two a staggered cyclical. But I have some new strains coming in as well. So this complicates things and I might add them piecemeal here and there haha. But that is the joy of it all. Figuring it out is half the fun as pigeon has said. Wow this must be good herb this morning because I have been going on and on!

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