Tent size and how many plants - First grow - LED

[Joshindoor]

Hello everybody, this will be my first grow but need everything to be as precise as possible for my first grow to get best possible yield. Budget is a little bit of An issue. I am trying to grow 3-4 plants still can't decide whether they will be Autos either. I would like the tent to to be no bigger then 3x5 smaller the better. I was thinking about buying 2 300w old series Mars hydro but finding out that would not be enough light it would be best to get 2 600w but wondering if this will work in a bedroom, electricity wise with outlets an such I will obviously have an extension cord or 2 if necessary considering I have tv, bed fan an such but on other side of room. I think it should still be okay. Trying to grow 4 plants though I know auto plants are different but in same tent could i ever grow 4 autos with same lighting or no? Sorry for the long message but anything will help!

 

[jhfhklsnhfldk]

Hi Josh,

Welcome. I have a 4x4 tent and use only about 3x3 of it. As you seem to already know, its more a matter of what your light will cover than the size of your grow room. You mentioned 300w old series Mars Hydro. I have 4 of these and together they will cover my 3x3 area. Each is good for an area of about 2x2 in veg and 1.5x1.5 in flower. They are nice because you can hang the 4 lights in a configuration that covers a much larger area than a single light of the same size. I have a single Mars 1200 hanging and do often miss the 4 small ones for exactly that reason. I grow 4 autos at a time and actually won POTM with those 4 lights. So onto the specifics. If you purchased 2 of those lights and had a space 2feet deep by 4feet wide, with 3 plants, you should be able to set the lights up to favor the 2 plants on the end. The overlapping light between should be enough to give the center plant plenty of light. 3 of these light would give you a light per plant and would work out to about 52.5 watts/sqft. With LED, a good guideline is over 30w/sqft. In a 4x4 tent you could place 4 favoring the outside edges of the 4 plants, placed in the center, and the overlapping light in the center will cover the middle areas of the plants. You get the picture.
I suggest Autos. I run only autos and my average time from seed to weed is about 70 days. I have had strains such as Buddha Haze ready to chop in as little as 49 days. You can grow fewer and harvest more often. In 3 gallon fabric pots, it is not difficult to yield 3oz/plant. So it depends on how fast you smoke it. In this case, 2 of the old school lights would be perfect for 2 plants in a 2x3 space. Oh, one thing to remember...these light actually pull only about 140 watts each. They are rated as 300 but that is never the actual draw. Use the actual draw in your calculations.

I'll stop here, but let me know if this answers some of your questions.

 

[Joshindoor]

Wow! Thank you so much seriously helped out a lot right there. I think I would like to get the 2 300w old mh lights an put them in a 2x4 with 3 autos in 3 gallon pots. Let me get your thoughts on that please. As I feel this might be the best way to get overall yield for money I am spending and faster process. I see you won POTM, maybe I could message you about tips if u could be open to that for soil at least as I am a first time grower. Again thank you very much!

 

[jhfhklsnhfldk]

Feel free to message me, but I don't think you will be able to until you have 50 posts. The best thing to do would be start a journal when you start your grow. The growers in this forum are very open with methods and info and are always concerned with helping new growers. I will be starting a journal in the near future. Mine is geared toward new growers using autos and a water only method that requires no nutes. I will be using coco loco from fox farms and kind soil as the only amendment. It will be my first time trying this, but I need a system I don't have to babysit. This one will allow for water only, and no flushing.
I appreciate your vote of confidence, but still encourage everyone to do the best research they can do and when you run out of resources, try looking at similar research done with tomatoes. They are legal and have been studied to death.

I also favor the 2x4 room. Right now I grow in a tent, but within next 1-2 years we will be building a new house. I will be adding a nice room with a shelf area that is about 30" deep by about 60" wide. I like my plants 1 layer deep and easy to get to. I also don't like having a door in front of them.

Also, I do all my vegging under CFL and Fluoros. I switch to LED at 4 weeks after flower has started.
You can feel free to ask anything you like. If I don't have the answer, I'll try to help you find it. Glad to help. If you start a journal, let me know I will definitely follow and help as much as I can.

 

[Dave Groomer]

I have a 3x3 tent with a Mars 900 over the plants and 4 mars 300 giving side lighting from the 4 corners.