Well, this is my first grow, and I've done alot of research, but I still cannot come to a conclusion to how many plants my setup can support, and no clue what the possible yield of this setup could be. Firstly, I have a 2x8x8 room to use for my setup, I can potentially fit 16 plants in there, but am not sure if my setup can take it, and what the results would be (if it would be worth it to grow fewer plants instead), well here it is: 600w Hortilux HPS light Reflector & ballast (analog) Seasoil (organic soil, like fox farm) Coco noir (using a 70/30 mix) Oscillating fan Reflective mylar on the walls PH meter PH Water filter Nutes: Flora Bloom, Micro and Gro DNF Leach prior to harvest The seeds are: Big Bud OG Kush Blue Cheese I'm also using an SCROG setup, and I would really appreciate an estimate of how much my plants could potentially yield, and how I could get there.
What's a pH water filter??? How are you going to reach the plants in the back of your garden for trimming or watering? If the room is packed, and then you scrogg it... It depends on how it's setup though, because if we are talking about a standard double-door on rollers kind of closet then I guess you will be able to get to the plants but if it's a single door walk-in then you have a work space issue. The 600w HPS will only cover 4 feet to 5 feet of space, so you're going to need two lights for one that long (that's what she said). A 600w would work well in a 16sqft 4x4 but not a 16sqft 8x2. My suggestion, since you're doing a scrog anyway, would be two 400w lamps. You could use supplemental CFL lighting with your 600w system if you've already purchased it. I think you have enough space to start 10 plants, and then hopefully widdle that down to 4 plants or so in your scrog setup. Young plants will eat up 1sqft in under 4 weeks and then you'll have crowding and you have hardly started. A problem here is that you only want emale plants and you need to scrog during veg. So your options are to: scrog all the plants and remove the males once you know to open up more scrog space, flower your plants prior to scrogging remove the males and re-veg and scrog, or to flower then re-veg then clone then scrog the clones for flowering. Personally, I'd go with the last option. Grow several plants in your area, sex them, and then clone your best plants. Use 4 of the best clones for the scrog and then you have a real opportunity for a decent harvest. So... If you just go from seed with 16 plants, then 8 female plants under a 600w bulb in that area I think you could expect about 20 grams per plant of good nugs with another 8 grams or so of trim and popcorn nugs. Total yeild is about 8 ounces or about 220 grams. Somewhere in that neighborhood. The problem is you just don't have enough light for the space and you'll run into issues scrogging all those plants. side by side If you establish a mother plant for each variety and then grow 2 Big Bud, 1 OG Kush, and 1 Blue Cheese all from clone with two 400w lamps in pure coco then I think you're looking at more like 75 grams per plant with another 20 grams of trim and popcorn. Total yield would be around 400 grams, maybe just shy. Now, let us suppose you get some super awesome advice, and you don't eff up anything during the grow. Perfect conditions with those strains in 16sqft is probably 500 to 700 grams. I definitely would not expect this as a new grower with new beans. My advice is to go 100% coco, increase your lighting, and to establish mother plants for cloning. Also, seems like you've put some thought into this... but what about ventilation and circulation. Air is as important as everything else, maybe even more important than other factors.
Well good job on your setup bro. Looks like you really got this figured out and you did your homework lol. As for plant number though i always follow the 1 plant per sq foot rule. Im in tents too and its always worked for me(i use a 2x4 with 8 plants). I grow them to 12" tall and then flower. Usually end up with plants between 2-3 feet tall and yielding 1-2+ ounces depending on strain. Branchier strains you have to grow less of, like skunk, sativas, etc that need more space. I usually pick nice growing single cola strains though and it works perfect!
I would just take cuttings from your best plants of each strain and label them as so. Then you can go to flower, identify the males and destroy them and associated clones. Now youre left with good females for your next crop and you can also pull one plant or so as a mother.
er, sorry i didnt mention, but my seeds are also fem'd, and a ph water filter is basically so my water is ph perfect every time (400 dollars, used for drinking originally )