Dual Autoflowering/Photoperiod Scrog Box

[sooth]

Howdy, y'all,

This is my first post and my second grow. My initial plan was just to have a fully autoflowering box so I could be lazy, but that seemed silly after I read all about scrogging.

My plan is to put eight (8) 3.75" netted pots into a DWC tupperware resevoir in a box approximately 4.5' wide, 2.5' deep, and 5.5' tall. The front face will feature double doors and all other walls will have a screen for scrogging ~1.5" from the wall. All of the surfaces in the box will be mylar coated, obviously. I will be using a bank of CFLs with a total output of ~27,000 lumens.

The pots will be arranged in a 2x4 array:

X X X X = A B B A
X X X X C D D C
Doors Doors

where plants A are photoperiod plants (height not terribly important), plants B are short autoflowering (max height ~1.5'), plants C are tall autoflowering (max height ~3'), and plants D are medium height autoflowering (max height ~2'). The light bank will sit mainly over the shortest plants with some over the medium height plants at a safe distance from the scrog screen ( ~6")

The goal is to have the photoperiod based plants veg while the autoflowering variety do there thing on a 20/4 schedule. Once the autoflowering are harvested, or the photoperiod is large enough, we'll switch to a 12/12. Then we can throw a new batch of autoflowering plants in to grow on that 12/12 cycle. The autoflowering won't produce as large a yield on the 12/12 cycle, but I'd rather not have empty pots.

The photoperiod plants will be topped to produce 4 colas using uncle ben's topping tech to slow them down during their 2 month veg. If necessary they'll be topped a second time.

This is the basic plan, but if there are any inherent flaws in it, please let me know.

What I'm really wondering about are these things:

1) Can I extend my screen to the ceiling and scrog over that too?

2) What sort of nute mix should I use since I will have plants vegging and flowering simultaneously?

Any input would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

- Sooth and Tac

 

[ImWaldo]

Sounds sweet! What's the color temperature of your CFLs? What's your grow medium?

 

[TorturedSoul]

The front face will feature double doors and all other walls will have a screen for scrogging ~1.5" from the wall.

Not sure I understand you. Are you proposing a... vertical scrog... on three walls? With the screens 1½" from those walls? If so, will you be growing from the center into those screens with the expectation of a bunch of 1½" buds? Or growing up in between the walls and the screens and you expect to be able to move around enough within that 1½" space to do your training?

I take that back. I'm quite sure I don't understand.

Or is what you're proposing not a scrog at all, but more like a vertical (or, possibly, arena-style) grow with the screens simply used as support devices?

Or... something else? I'm trying to picture it, but am having difficulty.

EDIT: Is this a "bog" instead of a "scrog?"

a bank of CFLs with a total output of ~27,000 lumens.

That seems like a small amount of light for 11¼ square feet of area. Especially if you're going vertical with three flat panels, which might (depending on what you're actually talking about) mean that instead of utilizing reflectors in order to direct as much of your light as possible in one direction from as close to the plants as possible, you are instead planning on running the lights to cover all three non-door walls.

Could you possibly draw a diagram for us slow-learners, lol?

where plants A are photoperiod plants (height not terribly important), plants B are short autoflowering (max height ~1.5'), plants C are tall autoflowering (max height ~3'), and plants D are medium height autoflowering (max height ~2'). The light bank will sit mainly over the shortest plants with some over the medium height plants at a safe distance from the scrog screen ( ~6")

Now that sounds like a more traditional grow. But that only leaves me more confused.

The goal is to have the photoperiod based plants veg while the autoflowering variety do there thing on a 20/4 schedule. Once the autoflowering are harvested, or the photoperiod is large enough, we'll switch to a 12/12. Then we can throw a new batch of autoflowering plants in to grow on that 12/12 cycle. The autoflowering won't produce as large a yield on the 12/12 cycle, but I'd rather not have empty pots.

You could, I suppose, go with the first part, harvest your AF strain(s), and then continue vegging until your other plants grow a little more. Since you'll have a stretch period during the first 40% of the flowering period, it probably wouldn't require that long of an additional vegetative period (depending, of course, on their size at that point, your light-levels, and the strains themselves). It's not so much the number of pots as the size of the canopy.

1) Can I extend my screen to the ceiling and scrog over that too?

I don't understand.

2) What sort of nute mix should I use since I will have plants vegging and flowering simultaneously?

It's almost never a good idea to run multiple strains in the same reservoir unless you've worked with them enough to know that their nutrition requirements are the same (or very close to it). As for trying to support plants in vegetative and flowering phases from the same nutrient recipe/strength... I'd probably remove the "almost" qualifier from the above statement, lol.