My first post here! I'm getting my own place relatively soon and I've been planning a tent. Currently, I own 2x 400w hps/mh lamps with one cool tube. I have a 6 inch vortex, and a filter. I am close to selling my lights and tube, with the intentions of buying a 1000w with a square glass hood. My first question, is 1000w overkill or even unmanageable in terms of safely venting all that heat out of an apartment? I can't decide if I should just save my money and stick with the 600. Would keeping my 2 400w for a 2x8 tent be either more efficient or as cost effective as switching over to a 4x4 with a 600w or 1000w? Originally, I wanted to grow as much quantity as I could as quickly as I could just out of impatience, but I have recently been putting a lot of thought into producing the best quality I could. Nugbuckets' mainlining technique has caught my eye. Does anyone have any experience with growing multiple mainlined plants in a tent? Pot size for mainlining is another topic that I've gotten mixed ideas about. I noticed Nugbuckets using 7 gallon pots, but I've also heard of people pulling it off in two gallon buckets with more plants and a similar yield. I realize there is a longer veg time for mainlining but can't the process be expedited by throwing more of them into flower earlier on in smaller pots? I want to fit as many as I can, but I also want to leave room since it's my first time topping and training so intensively. Would it be reasonable to assume that I can fit either 1-2 7-gallon plants, or 4 2/3-gallon plants? I'm assuming the pots themselves will be just less than a foot high, and either just over or just under a foot in diameter. My tent will be 80 inches tall, and with my lights hanging at maximum height, I am expecting about 4 feet for total allowable plant height. I'd appreciate any and all thoughts! I'm excited to finally get involved in this awesome community Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I can save you a lot of time and frustration here... There's very little interest in mainlining. I personally tried it once and it was more of a PITA than it's worth. I also have a 1K in a 4x4, but my tent is right next to the slider in the bedroom, so on cool days, I instant ventilation if it gets too hot. Sorry I can't really help without seeing your particular situation, but I can tell you mine is similar and I can easily have a $400 electric bill, but I also run two tents and live in a VERY old house so the energy efficiency isn't the best. GOOD LUCK!
Springing for the 1000w wouldn't be an issue. What is the benefit of using a 1000 over a 600w in terms of yield / bud quality? What kind of setup should I be aiming for to maximize my yield. What catches my eye about the mainlining are the huge buds! Popcorn sounds like a PITA for all the effort, but I understand if forgoing will increase my harvest rate.
1kw is perfect for a 4x4. 160,000 lumens, 16 sq ft, 10,000 lumens per sq ft. (same as natural sunlight) 600w puts out 90,000 lumens, or 5,625 lumens per sq ft. in a 4x4. Intake temps would be the biggest factor to consider, 70f-74f you're fine with a 1kw as long as you have enough airflow. Anything approaching 80f and you'll need a dedicated air conditioner on that 1kw, whereas you could get by without a/c with a smaller light and the same ventilation. (dimmable ballast?) Your goals are something to consider as well. Once you have to add a/c to a 1kw light you're more than doubling your electrical usage, that's the point at which it becomes inefficient for me, since I'm not a commercial grower and only want to break even with my expenses. Might be a different story for you though, in which case I'd go a bit further to squeeze every single gram out of my sq footage. Benefits of a 1kw over a 600w, faster growth rates, bigger buds, and bigger harvests. As long as you can handle the heat there are no drawbacks, unless too much bud is a problem for you.
Some great advice! I will be in a building that I'm assuming will have no air conditioning, and my first attempt will happen over the summer. I'm trying to envision my setup, and I think i'm only going to have one main window to run my ducting to/from. In the past, I bought myself a window a/c unit that kept my bedroom cool enough. I'm wondering if I will be able to run a small a/c unit at the bottom of the window, and then perhaps a stealthily built exhaust, sitting right above it. I'm thinking the heat will rise right above the a/c unit and allow the room to cycle in cold air and expel hot air decently efficiently. A 4x4 sounds kind of large, but if i'm comfortable running a 3x3 whats the big deal about bumping up to a 4x4. Basically, the ambient temps in the room will probably be higher than 80 over the summer without an a/c, so Im leaning back and forth between the 1k and the 600 almost entirely dependent on the temps, now that you bring up that point, so thank you for that! My last question would be, how many square feet should I assign each plant in each situation. I was thinking i would either do 4 plants or 9 plants in a scrog, giving each plant 1.5 sq/ft or 2 sq/ft each. And for a scrog, each plant should be topped once or twice correct? Also looking at Nirvana shop right now, i'm looking at a couple of their indicas. Any recommendations would be awesome!
I would go with 2 sq/ft each. You will be able to fill that thing up, then wish you had more room. I had a small plant in a 24"x18"x6' and it filled up the screen faster than I could keept up with. Once I realized that it was going to run out of vertical room, I had to harvast it. You can go with 1.5sq/ft if you want add another strain. Either way, you can only grow so much in a certain amount of space with a certain amount of light regardless if you have 2 plants in there or 4. Remember, you can alway adjust. Worse case scenario, you can alway get rid of a plant if it's getting too crowded... Or you can just another plant next time if you feel like you had enough room to grow more.. Oh yeah, I prefer not to top. I let the main stock grow through the screen, then tuck it. That goes for all of it's off shoots too. Believe me, it can get challenging trying to find open areas to tuck the branches in. Be nice to your plants and they will be nice to you too.. E
If I was possibly looking at 80f temps for part of the year, I'd go with a 600w and (2) 6" inline fans. One for the light and one for filtration/air exchange. Even that's cutting it close, but it's enough to squeek by if everything is perfect. A 400w with the same ventilation would get lower temps, but again it comes down to your goals. If you give each plant 1.5-2 sq ft each you won't need a screen, that's a sea of green grow. Each method has it's share of labor, but if you add a trellis to a sea of green then it becomes a lot more work for minimal gain. Which one produces the most over time? Couldn't tell ya, but they're both a lot of work on their own and combining them won't double your yield, so it's not worth it to me. Some people define efficiency as grams per watt or sq meter, I define it as the highest yield for the least amount of work. (again, not a commercial grower, just a hobbyist, but I'd be interested in your results) Cheers!!
I have a 1000w hps in a 3x6 room with two plants in 15g pots. I made the tent myself. using a 6mm thick black tarping with mylar taped to the oneside. two walls are tarp two walls are house walls with mylar attached. im using a 6'' hyper fan with an aircooled sun system hood. the ceiling hight is 6ft so my grow height is very limited. my next grow I will be using the scrog technique to see if it helps boost yield. I am in flower right now and have some time left before I know how this setup will do. I very hastily set it up and will be doing drywall later. but as for temp. right now its cold as fuck where I live my room is at 67 with a 50% humidity. have not seen any hotspots on my mylar, no powdery mildew, no issues really other than me being inexperienced at growing. I used bottled nutes during veg. (genral hydro) but I have switched to organics in flower. not sure if its gonna stress the plant but I flushed with just water as I transitioned. oh and my energy bill isn't shit. its went up maybe 30 a month. I think either would work fine as long as you vent it and keep airflow.