Planning to expand my current set up

H

HonestGR

Well-Known Member
So my wife will be getting her license to grow up to 25 plants. (Medicinal)

Please see my grow journal for my full current set up. In short, 5x5x7 tent, 2x MH 144s and a random blurple. (Pulling approx 900w from the wall in LED lighting.)

I am happy with my current set up. I feel it will either be used as a) Flower or b) Veg tent.

My goal:
I want a small (or combined) area for clones, a small area (or combined) area for seedlings. (I understand one can be used for both)

I want an area for veg, flower, and hanging (hanging may or may not be needed).

The main problem I am having is deciding how big a veg tent I need for 15 plants.

5 flowering (or 6)
15 in veg (groups of 5/6 for perpetual)
5-10 in clones/seeds. (Up to max of 25 plants total)

Every 2 months I plan on moving each a step up, taking clones from the plant next to flower or starting seeds.

So I guess the biggest question is how big a veg tent? Each plant will have 6 or more months to grow in veg prior to flowering, so it will need to be a rather large one. I plan on manifolding. Or perhaps just topping.

Will a 4x8 be large enough you figure? Or larger?
Thought?
 
After additional thoughts, I will probably purchase a 1000w hid for the flowering in the 5x5. Leds will go to the veg tent (possibly purchasing 2 more to fit the tent) The random blurple to seedling/clone tent.

That will cover lighting, just need to figure out the size of veg tent i guess. Ill change the number to 4 plants for flowering at any time. I would like to fit 2 mother plants in the veg tent. Bringing the total for plants up a little.

Flower - 4 (manifolded)
Veg- 10 Manifolded (minus mothers)
Clone/Seedling- Up to 11 (Incase some dont make it)
Seeding- I have an old freezer (stand up) That will be used as a pollinateing room. Sprayed with water after and cleaned. Pollen will be collected off the plants in flower using collodial silver (30ppm).

This will allow us to create mixes of plants that will hopfully work better for my wifes ailments.


They will probably be grown in soil, although I am debating hydro (dwc) although the investment will be quite high by this point!

Any thoughts of perpetual grow would be read and thought out thoroughly!
 
all kinds of tricks to growing perpetual,, no question.

most will be learnt by trial and error,, a lotto error

one point,, if you are growing multiple plants in a perpetual,, if they are all the same plant,, same strain,, then they will mature at the same time and the whole room will be ready for the next batch.

however,, if you grow more than one strain,, then they will be maturing at different times,, so prepping for the next round becomes much more complicated.. but certainly not impossible

karma sent friend,, a lot of plants = a lot of work,,
 
Once a grow moves to the size you’re intersted in I’d ditch the tents and just convert rooms or build them. Tents are great, I use them, but they have their limitations. Things get real quickly with the additional lights, heat, bugs, a/c, humidifiers, and other equipment. Also, in a perpetual garden, with 6 month old plants, you will be treating for mites, other bugs, mildew and mold regularly. Lots of maintenance and moving around, I’d hate the thought of falling over moving a big ass plant and bringing down my whole setup. Been there, done that!

Like Nivek says, it turns into work real fast.

Perpetual is cool because...it’s perpetual. But you lose lots of control. Like what has already been pointed out, doing multiple strain, that means different flower schedules. Your clones need to move out of their spot but the veg tent is full. Do you chop your flowering plants early, or give away stuff to make room?

Soil is my preferred method but if I was going perpetual, hydro would be my choice. After the initial hard work of setting it up, it will automate lots of the process and save you time. Hydro tends to grow them quicker as well and that’s very helpful when forced into keeping a schedule.
 
yeo,, what the fly said,, very well too

one more thing,, one must take notes,, some organized way,, of every important detail,, such as fert times, watering, spraying etc,, just cuz,, well, no matter how much one thinks they will remember something,, well, least me,, i forget stuff,,
 
Thank you all for input!

I cannot convert a room due to renting. As much as I would love to... Tents are basically my only option atm. I could talk to a few carpenters I know, see if they could build me a cheap insulated and removable "room". (Aka 4 walls).

Bugs, yes I know the pain. I can see one bringing down the whole process. There must be a way around this... other than introducing a bunch of lady bugs in each tent. They would keep them in check, but they would still be there...


I was planning on each of the 4 "batches" I will call them to be of the same strain. But with multiple batches. I know two strains that work for my wife. They would be the primary, however I always want to try new ones as well. So yes there would be some new types... so 2 that work, 1 experiment, 2 that work 1 experiment... etc.

If I had run into an issue with size with different strains... I wouldnt chop what is in flower, I would rather chop off parts in veg to make it more managable in the veg tent.

Notes, absolutely. Those would need to be a must.

Perhaps 4 flower, 4 veg, and whatever in clones this may be more managable (for now)

Hydro, i agree it would take away a lot of worrying. The biggest downfall I see with it is, I pay for water (not much) and nutrients are expencive. But soing quick math in my head... a full lineup of nutes vs the fox farm soil I got.... nutes are cheaper..

I appreciate the assistance!
 
Thats why i am looking at perpetual. Having 25 in flower would be far too much room. I can handle groups of 4-6 at different stages far easier than the full amount!

Regular harvests of 4-6 plants every 2-3 months pending strains :)

I am definitly looking at dwc for them all now however. Less bug issues with soils.
Plus if we need to take off for a few days will be much easier. 5gal, each with an airstone or two.
 
So that’s about an ounce per week. Rounding off a bit that’s in the neighbourhood of 4 pounds per year. A perpetual grow makes sense. Your thinking about different areas makes sense. I think you will need a seperate drying area. You need to give some thought to the medium.

I wouldn’t worry too much about the different types, so long as you keep track of them and can move them around. When a plant is done flowering you just harvest it. If you’ve got a bunch of plants in veg, you just add one to flower. Plants can veg forever. So long as you don’t have screens or fixed pots, you can adjust the height of individual plants to match the canopy (put something under the pot).
 
I figured it would make sense, though I do like the idea of perhaps tossing one in the flower room every week and just alternating them on the way out. It will save so much time on trimming. 1 Per 1-2 weeks vs the whole 4+ plants at a time! :)

Absolutely matching the canopy! I haven't given it that much thought just yet, but very valid!.

Separate drying yes, I do not want any moisture in the area.... well, not additional moisture ;)

Thank you for the reply's!
 
Because it's perpetual, you don't want things to be bumping into each other or on different schedules that you cannot reconcile. No reason at all why you couldn't do staggered harvests. It's all about documentation, planning, and some attention. You wouldn't have that many plants. I just harvested the 4 in my 4x4. It took a few hours to cut, wash, and hang them. I wash the buds before I hang them up to dry. That's really what took a bunch of the time. That's a pound. In your cycle you'd be looking after 3 tents at this point. You'd move 4 more into the flower tent. I'd guess you'd have 8-10 vegging. After a year of this all but 4 would be ready to flower. The stuff that's drying takes 2 weeks. Then another 6-8 for curing. By the time those are ready to smoke you'd be about harvesting your next pound.

Worst case scenario barring loss of everything you'd have a two month supply interruption. At some point it will happen. You will lose some or all of your flowering tent. So have a buffer supply of 3 months. I'm still smoking pot from 2 years ago. All of this is very doable.
 
I would try to get that surplus due to error. It would be an over time thing.

I have 4 going now, starting week 4 of flower, so I do have the general sense of growing, I will need to look at some perpetual grow journals to see any additional tips I can find (Yours are greatly appreciated).

I am thinking 2 months (full on veg) should be significant to move over (I am guestimating aprox 20-30cm tall when i bring them from the clone/seedling tent into veg, let them develop 2 months in veg, then drop them in flower... general times)

Where I have not grown indoors (or in about 11 years outdoors), I should need a tent or area slightly smaller than my current tent for drying?


Thank you again!:)
 

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