Growing 2 different strains under one light, possible?

[mashikag]

I have 1.2mX1.2mX2m grow tent and I want to grow 5 feminized aurora indica plants and 5 feminized ak48 plants as my first grow in it. I have one 600watt lamp and I was wondering if it was possible to grow them two next to each other considering that one grows taller than the other and I would have to raise the lamp together with the ak48 which grows taller, so is this viable to do?

Also does anyone know how tall does the nirvana's ak48 grow and if it suitable for my 2m high tent?

 

[silverrocksta]

It should be fine I would just top the ak48 and let it bush out a bit. Remember that they get 3 x times(on average) as big as they are at the time that you switch to flower(12/12) not sure on average heights of the AK 48 but it can be controlled with topping, bending or defolating. All three methods are posted throughout these forums. Hope I helped

 

[silverrocksta]

I have 3 different under one right now and all is fine tho they are still small. I will manipulate them tho

 

[trichomes]

Nothing to it! Bend, tie & train (the plant that is taller) to keep the plants at the same hieght, I bend the shit out of mine everyday, to keep all tops equally close to the bulb/s. Here's a pic of a roped plant I had to keep from going over the fence! Love to see some pictures of your strains.

 

[Rodrigo]

Hi, Mashikag

(this is going to be a little extensive so bear with me for a sec)
I actually grow the same strains, currently I have AK-48, Aurora Indica and Blue Mystic. So I think I can speak with 'some' authority here.

The AK doesn't normally triple in height unless you put the light very far away at the beginning of the flowering cycle. They DO double in size so that's the minimum distance you have to keep in mind.
Even so, doubling in size CAN be an issue if you let it grow too tall during veg (1" taller during veg equals 2" taller during flower, so 10" equals 20", so on and so forth)
For example I allow my AKs to grow to about 35-40cm (14"-16") tall during veg (mainly for space restrictions) and they grow to be about 65cm (26") and yield about 45 gr per plant and there's still room for improvements (can yield more under better conditions).

I keep the plants from growing too tall or stretching too much by putting the light as close as I can to the tops, in the case of the veg plants I keep the lights (T5s and CFLs) at about 4" or less from the tops. This helps to make it bushier and with a lot of bud sites very close together.

As for the Aurora, keep in mind that this is an Indica strain so it WILL grow much bigger than the AK, which is Sativa dominant.

I have a similar size tent (1x1x2) and I'm planning on flowering 6 at a time, I'll give it a shot with 9 at some point but I think it will be better with only 6, this is because if you put too many plants too close together (as you would have to if you put too many in there) the don't grow as good and light doesn't reach the bottom branches all that well so you end up with a lot of popcorn bud, still very nice and smokable but very small.

So moving into your tent space. It depends on how you're setting up, if you put buckets directly on the floor then you have to take than length (maybe 40cm??), add the distance the light is going to use (from the ceiling down to the bottom part of your light fixture, plus about 35cm of clearance between the bottom of the light and the tops of the plant, so after doing the math you can grow a plant to be between 1,2 and 1,4 mt tall, so you can't let it grow bigger than 60cm during veg. All this measures of course are rough estimates but you can get the idea so you can make your own calculations.
In my case I grow hydro in an E&F system so the plants start at about 60 cm from the ground and I still have plenty of vertical space available so I'll try to grow them a little taller for the next run.

I would recommend you going with 9 plants tops in a 3x3 configuration, that way they'll have plenty of room to grow and you'll end up with a bigger yield than if you had more plants in there. In your case I'd probably try growing only 8 (four of each) and arrange them in the same 3x3 config but leaving the center space empty where you can put a secondary light down so it provides light to the bottom parts of the plants, this will increase your yields considerably.

So back to the height of the plant, you can control it up to a certain point by keeping in mind that the plant IS going to double in height during flower but once the budding starts it'll stop growing taller at the main cola but the branches are still going to keep growing for a bit to get closer to the light.

I grow under a 400w HPS so if you use a 600w you should get better yields. Watch out for the temps! don't let it get too hot. Also make sure you have plenty of ventilation as RH can build up to be 95% if you don't use an extractor fan.

Also, and this is somewhat unrelated, you have to think that if you don't plan on selling (dealing) or providing for medical purposes then you don't need growing that many plants because there's no way you can smoke all that by yourself. I'm a serious user and I consume about 1-2 grams a day everyday, given that I run a perpetual cycle (harvest every two months) I only need at the very most 70-80 grams (two plant's worth) per harvest, or a little more taking into consideration that I give away a lot.
So my point with this is that you're gonna have better yields AND better quality if you grow less plants.
I'd go with the 8 plants idea if I were you and I'm positive it will be better for you.

This is a picture of my AK-48s, these photos are from 2 or 3 days ago (about day 54 of flower). (More photos in the gallery)

Well I hope this helps and if you have any question regarding these strains I'll be happy to help if I can.

Good luck and happy growing!

 

[mashikag]

I would recommend you going with 9 plants tops in a 3x3 configuration, that way they'll have plenty of room to grow and you'll end up with a bigger yield than if you had more plants in there. In your case I'd probably try growing only 8 (four of each) and arrange them in the same 3x3 config but leaving the center space empty where you can put a secondary light down so it provides light to the bottom parts of the plants, this will increase your yields considerably.

Well this is what I would go for but I mentioned wrong when I said that I have 5 feminized seeds of both. I have only feminized seeds of AK-48 and then I have 10 seeds of Aurora Indica(not feminized) so if i grow those 4 seeds I could end up with 2 or even 3 females if I was very unlucky and at the flowering stage I would have been left with only one AI and 4 AK-48. I was thinking of maybe starting with 4 AK-48 and 6 AI ?

Also thanks for the exhausting reply. It's really helpful.

 

[Rodrigo]

Also thanks for the exhausting reply. It's really helpful.

Not exhausting at all, I'm happy to help.

To be honest and since this is your first grow, I'd start with only a few plants (probably 4). But before going into this, what are your plans for the future, are you planning on running a perpetual cycle as well? (separate vegetative and flower rooms or tents) or you're gonna do everything in the one tent? keep in mind that unless you keep a veg room on the side, you will always have to start from seed (no cloning) and you'll have a harvest every roughly 4 1/2 months, so 3 harvests a year.

That's an important decision so let me know and I'll help you with a growing plan.

Good luck!

 

[mashikag]

Now I am actually considering running 2 tents. I could try to sell mine and get 2 1mX1mX2m tents instead of the one that I have at the moment 1.2mX1.2X2m. I am still at the stage of setting everything up and I am waiting for final parts to arrive which should be here by the end of this week(i.e. 13L polypots, fan speed controller, oscillating fan). Also I am going to be running it together with my flatmate who still didn't make his mind up in what he wants to have as his half. Myself I went for Indica but he is considering now pure sativa instead of the AK-48 and is thinking of saving them seeds for later and going for laughing buddah although I am not sure how this would work out with growing it together with AI unless we had separate tents for flowering and vegetative as you said.

Another thing that would be worrying for me with setting up another tent would be the electricity usage. If I was to run 2 tents both with 600w hps' in them it would be quite an increase in my bills.

 

[trichomes]

I agree with Rodrigo, start with 1 tent it's amazing the number of things you learn from every grow. I think most would agree that the First was the Worst! I'd say one tent for first grow, you'll know so much more about whaT YOUR GETTING INTO AFTER THE FIRST

 

[Rodrigo]

Well you don't need to have 2x 600w HPS, for veg you can go cheap with CFLs. which are more than enough for vegging.

I wouldn't recommend selling your tent because that's a good size and the 1x1x2 will only cost a fraction less, so selling the one you have will not be enough to get two.
Also for veg you can go with a much smaller tent, depending on how many plants you want to keep vegging, because you use a lot less space.

Based on a quick calculation, in my case I use about 340w an hour using 4x 65w T5 (I think they're 65, might be 85) and 4x 20w CFL for my veg room.
So with 18 hours a day times 30 days, I use roughly about 184 kw a month (half as much as one 600w). Where I live that translates into about USD$35 a month. For my flowering room I use a 400w HPS, with the same math I come up with about $28, for a total expense of roughly USD$65 a month. This math is backed up by the actual electric bill, which went up about the same amount.

So not really a big expense (where I live anyways, 1kw is about USD$0.20) and definitely not enough to draw attention to yourself. Although I would recommend you to start using more power so the electric bill goes up gradually and not jumping to 10 times what you normally use from one month to the next. That's gonna draw attention probably.

As for the strains, AK-48 is a sativa dominant and for what I can tell from its growth and overall characteristics, including the high I get from it, are very consistent with sativas.
Also, regardless of what strain your flatmate goes for, what you need to figure out is the timing. For example, the AI has a very similar flowering period (7-9 weeks) as the AK-48, but the Blue Mystic I'm growing has a much shorter period at about 5-7 weeks. So flowering at the same time will mean harvesting one weeks before the other, and they grow at different rates, etc. may factors have to be considered depending on the strains.

So in short go for a second tent (80x80x160 should be enough, it all depends on the setup) with a few CFLs for you veg and you're looking at a total expense of about probable 250-300 to build and setup a veg system.

Hope it helps.

 

[mashikag]

It helps indeed although I am not quite sure as what's the best way/ how to mount the cfl's. Do I need a reflector for them as I have seen some people using them and some not and does every light bulb require one plug space? Could you point me somewhere regarding this, i.e. setting up cfl lighting?

Also regarding the AI, I know you use hydroponics but would you have any recommendations for me when it comes to soil or fertilizers?

 

[Rodrigo]

Unfortunately I don't know much about soil or fertilizers. I use a hydroponic one-part organic nutrients (Iguana Juice from Advanced Nutrients) GigaBane knows a lot about that, maybe he can help.

As for the CFLs mounting.
Reflective surfaces are always a plus and I recommend using them everywhere you can.

CFLs use the same socket that a normal incandescent bulb would so get a socket that fits your space, there's several kinds so that's something you're gonna have to figure out for yourself.

The wiring is quite simple, each socket has 2 leads, let's call them inner and outer (because one is on the center and the other connects to the side of the bulb, you'll see this when you get the socket) so all you have to do is connect all the inner leads together and the same with the outer leads (don't mix them), make sure the length of the cable you use for this allows you to move them around if you need to. After you've done that you'll end up with only two leads again (the bundle for the inner and the one for the outer) then you connect those to a long cable ending in a plug for the socket.

If you're not comfortable with wiring, you might want to get familiar because as your operation improves you will be doing more of this.
Another option is going straight for those bulb sockets that allow you to put more than one bulb, then you can put 3 or 4 CFLs in a single socket so you'll only need one cable, you'll have to wire it, though.

I think I may have made it sound more complicated than it actually is but I didn't know how else to explain a simple wiring, lol.
You can also google for diagrams on how to wire things.

Good luck!