Design help please

At least four mothers can fit under a 400w. Since you don't want mother plants to grow fast, you don't want to give them maximum light. A few 5000k, 26w spiral CFL's would be fine.

Home Depot can help you with making walls. You can go the standard household route and use 2x4's and drywall. You can use any of a number of types of fiberboard, preferably also with a 2x4 frame. Some people just hang mylar with weights attached to the bottom.

 

They can be considered to be the best for mothers because they're often the best for all vegging plants (arguably). Whoever says they're the best is talking about the light that causes the most & healthiest growth. For some growers, especially those with large grows who frequently take clones, this might be ideal. For growers keeping their moms small and only taking a few clones at a time, CFL's are the way to go imho. They produce little heat, use little electricity and can keep growth down. If you're going to have one or two mothers under a foot, use CFL's. Bigger and HID's become more useful. A 150w MH would be more than enough for a single mother under 1.5'.

 

The sizes plants grow to always refer to flowering. For example, Original Haze grows to over 6' in flowering, even after topping multiple times. In veg, however, Haze can be kept as small as you like. Afaik any pot plant can be a tiny, half a foot bonsai mother if trained & cared for properly. Larger-scale growers need larger moms because they take clones frequently and usually take many more at a time. Your plant that grows to 6' would only need to grow that big during flowering.

Sorry, I have no experience with LED's yet. Atm I'm extremely happy with my latest GE Lucalox PSL/XO and wouldn't trade it for any other light. Unlike standard HPS's that make a very yellow-orange light, this enhanced spectrum HPS makes beautiful light that looks like real sunlight.

 

I think jellyman's got you on the right track with framing up an actual wall...I've seen people just hang plastic and work with tarp zippers and is about the same cost to just build a wall and frame a door.

I'd personally use alot less wattage for mothers/clones. I run about 20 mother plants 70 watts of cfl and can take at least 5 clones off of each a week(wayyy more then I could ever use). The whole deal fits into about 4 cubic feet.

I'm not saying that's what you should do. I'm just trying to give you an idea of what's possible in such a small area. If you really focus on keeping stretch to a minimum on mother plants by keeping the lights close and properly topping them to make them bushy then you will be able to save a ton of light ($) and space on your veg area.


edit:
I've used LEDs a bit too...only one brand though - HGL.. I have a 63w penatrator that works awesome for veg...I'd say it's equal to about 150w cfl or so..but just for veg. Make sure to research LED companies very carefully as there's alot of shitty ones out there. I'd highly recommend finding some great unbiased results with a brand of LED (with canna) before you consider buying it. I've heard great things about lumigrow leds also.

 

So the # of plants is determined by the style of your grow. SOG=sea of green is where you pack as many small plants into the grow as you can and barely veg them at all. SCROG=screen of green where you grow a smaller # of plants and train them under a screen to create a canopy of flowers.

Advantage of SOG is that the turn over time is faster because you veg for a very small amount of time.

Advantage of SCROG is that you get more bud per plant.

I've got a 4x4 tent too. Just finished a 6 plant SCROG. Now I'm trying a SOG. I'm starting from seed. Starting with 35 seeds. Hopefully I end up with a shit ton of females. I could see 25 2 gallon pots in a 4x4.

 

You might be able to squeeze 4x4 5gal buckets in there. You may need to shave off the reinforcement collars on the buckets to do so. An 800w HID would supply maximum light to the whole area and is the best lighting choice for that size tent imho. You could get away with using a 600w, particularly if you decreased the plants from 4x4 to 3x3.

You'll need about 1.5' for containers, reducing your 6' 7" to 5'. If you use a 600w-800w HID, you'll need around two feet for the lamp and room between it and the plants. You'd end up being able to grow plants up to about 3' tall.

 

If you plan on doing pure coco..I highly recommend using the h3ad formula..which is gh micro and bloom at 6:9 ratio...I've had incredible results with it and will never go back to soil. I'll be happy to help if you're interested....it's so simple I feel like I'm cheating sometimes.

I'd do probably 4 plants in 3-5 gallon smartpots..the number of plants is kinda up to you and what you have available and how many plants you feel comfortable running. I'd definitely do smartpots instead of plastic containers or buckets though.

 

hmmm I'm not sure about the N issue. I have very small bonzai style mother plants in 4x4 containers that are about 6 months old...and a few more mothers in the smaller size fiji water bottles....I'm not having any problems with nitrogen.

smartpots are a fabric container to hold the coco...it allows it to get alot more air to the roots and increases growth and stuff. Waterfarms are a dwc hydro system with a little bit of recirculation....I've seen great results with them, I also see alot of people modify them to recirculate the water better. I've done a few styles of hydro...I always end up back in pure coco hand watering though...it's given me the best (consistent) results overall.

 

No idea, sorry. I've never used LED's for growing. There's probably some info on distance in the lighting section.

 

Potency is the main concern with street bags but, not usually with pot you grow well, imho. How much you enjoy the high is much more important.

First off, there are strains that will knock people unconscious in one or two hits. While these would be called "potent", in my opinion they're terrible to smoke. I grew some Sensi star years ago that fit this description and I just got rid of it. Why grow weed you don't enjoy smoking, even if it is incredibly potent.

Secondly, there's something to be said for not having to stop smoking after a hit or two. I like smoking weed and don't want my strain choice to decrease how much I can smoke while still knowing my own name.

When potency is the only concern, Hash is usually the best way to go. You can get much more than that 32% THC into your smoke, even without growing the strongest strains.

 

I've never heard of cripit .. I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss some random seed company though. My friend ordered some seeds from a company and gave me a single feminized cheese seed. I didn't expect much at all from it but it turned out amazing...I mean seriously potent and grows great...stinks like crazy..I was amazed to find a "keeper" out of some random cheese seed. I've spent plenty on seeds from ghs, bog, rez, dgs, tga, and at least a dozen more breeders, but that cheese is right up there with the best of em. I haven't started buying all my seeds from that site but I think you get the idea.

I prefer sativas myself..I have a few heavy hitting indicas that I grow, but I don't enjoy passing out after a few hits...not really my idea of getting "high" ..others enjoy it though...so, to each their own..I just have alot of things to do on a daily basis and prefer a more uplifting smoke. Just grow what you want to smoke. Most of it's in yer head though

..and no offense but 32 is just a # .. just like listed flowering times and all that. I pick my seed purchases more by flavor then the #'s or pics or anything like that. Seed companies aren't subjected to some standardized testing regulations....as jellyman said, you can always make some hash if you want super potency. Even if the mother plant was actually 32% you'd not only have to pop tons of seeds to find something comparable..but you'd also have to get it tested to verify that it's not mind over matter