Hi fellow GC'ers. I've been growing over over a year in a pc case are are ready to jump in with a tent. At the end of the day It's gotta fit in my closet, so my two choices are either htg's mother keeper tent with T5 lighting OR a 2'x3'x5' tent with a Mh/HPS 600w dimmable light. At the end of the day I'm most interested in yield, that way I don't have to run cycles back to back if I don't wish for my personal use. I'll probably do single plants,not sog for the first run to get used to the bigger space over a pcmicro grow, but I'll switch to sog probably in4 months. If I scrog or do heavy lst'ing(as I do in my pc case) which of these options will work out best for me? I know hps lighting will give denser colas, but if the added 2'x3' of added floor space the MK tent offers will offset those hps gains? I appreciate any info or advice given as my self deadline is to get my purchase done by tomorrow to get the ball rolling. Thanks everyone!
You said that you are most interested in yield. So in that case I would go with tent number two because the light used in tent No.2 is MH/HPS which is going to give you better light penetration. Better spectrum and more intensity which will result in better yield. The T5's are great, but I like to use them for seedlings and vegging up to a point. I wouldn't mind experimenting with a zero veg micro farm with a T5 though. Zero Veg. from clones.
Thanks FD, That's my main issue, I've seen 1-2 grow journals using the mother keeper tent and more importantly t5lighting start to finish. I use 6 23w cfl's now, so the t5's will be a big jump up still for me. As far as light penetration goes, I would lst heavy so my canopy would be under 12 inches which would be strong enough for the T5's to work with properly. But how much can <400 watts of T5's really do compared to a hps light is my biggest worry. Also, a vet here told me running 2-250w hps lights in the mother keeper would cost me more than a single 600w light would run, but after doing the math I cannot run a hps in a tent thats only 4 feet tall. Thanks for the vote for the small tent and hps lighting, it's feeling like that's where I am going to end up tomorrow unless someone comes out in big support for the mk tent. btw... I was thinking the same thing, I got a bunch of fem'd seeds. Run 1 baby in my pc vegging, cut up 14-20 clones and once they root, pop them with maybe 1 weeks veg time in the mother keeper in a sog formation, then filp the switch n start flowering under 2700w t5's. It wouldn't be perpetual but growing and cloning in my pc is something I'm familiar with. It's this thought that makes me feell like the mk tent would produce more than the 3'x2' tent even if I tried to fit 6 or 9 plants in a sog in the 3'x2' tent.
In hopes of getting a few more responses here is some bud pics from 15 mins ago. Bubblegum,6x23w 2700k cfl's, FFOF soil and FF nutes. Agnes is currently in the middle of week 4 of Flowering.
Get the taller tent for sure! But 600w in a 2x3x5? That's going to be problematic to keep cool. Think a 400w would be a better fit in that tent? BTW, I veg with T-5's, the PL-L 55w, 2'-2tube from HTG. Great for vegging, but I flower with HID's. Wet
I'm going to buy a dimmable unit. That way I'll go 600w when I can but realistically I'm expecting to run it @ 75%(450w). The cost different between the 400 and 600 dimmable is usually a difference of 50 bucks.
How does the second tent stay cool. I used a 600w HPS in a decent sized beedroom last summer and keeping the temp. and the humidity right was an issue.
I would run a passive intake, using the floor vent flaps to allow air in, and then for the exhaust, I would put the 600w dimmable in a 6 inch cool tube, andrun the carbon filter and heat from the lamp through the exhaust out through a hv fan on the outside, pulling the hotair directly from the light out the tent. So that will help keep my temps down. As far as humidity goes, I've been growing with 20%or less in the pc, it's impossible to keep those levels up but I deal with it. On a good note, running in a tent helps you to micromanage and control your environment better. Since the light is enclosed in the cool tube, I'll be able to put it closer to the top of my canopy too, still atleast 12 inches away but every bit helps. I don't have to worry about being "to stealth" so I'll add an extra exhaust fan if needed, my compromise with the wife was I just gotta keep it in the spare bedroom closet, which nixed my original 4x4' tent and 600w light But at the end of the day If I need to run an a/c in july/aug I will, but I'll definately run the lamps overnight to help save on cooling cost over the summer.
Thanks I read alot, but it's the real world experience of others that I need now to figure out if the mk tent would outperform the small tent with the hps, and answers are pointing to computer says no.
I've never used one of those tents b4. I saw a grow cabinet probably online the other day that looked super cool. It was one of those hydro units. I forgot what it was but I see those things all the time and I'm seriously considering getting one.
A setup like this for your carbon filter and light in thecooltube is where I'll be going if I get the small tent. The pic shows what I was talking about above with venting the lamp heat directly out of the tent. The flow of air for the pic is tent air>>>carbon filter>>>inline fan>>>cooltube/light>>>out of tent through exhaust vent.
Tough call, T5`s are great for vegging a small number of plants but flowering with them will yield you smaller less dense buds. I veg under T5`s but flower under HPS. I got 6 plants around 4 feet tall veging under a 8 bulb 4 foot long 2 foot wide T5 and am just now slowly getting them acclimated to outside for my summer outdoor grow. If only doing a few plants I would go for the HID light instead of the T5. Where is your tent gonna be? That 600 watt light even dialed downt o 400 watts is gonna generate some heat like already mentioned so you would need to pick up a high velocity fan and maybe a carbon filter if your worried about smell. You would need to pull cooler air in down low and vent hot air out up top. My T5 light is I think 452 watts and even that does generate some heat.
tplat, but essentially i couldn't do my whole run, with hps lighting in the 48 inch tall mother keeper tent... which I was hoping to do, knowing also that the t5 flowered buds wont grow to their fullest potential has me definately going towards the small tall tent.
600w dimmable hps/mh setup. cooltube. and I went with a slightly bigger tent in the end 4'x2'x5' It's going to be a tight fit width wise but I'll make it work. Time to start deciding how many babies to run, especially when i got a handful of fem bubblegum&tangerine dream seeds then a bunch of ufo's from attitude. Kalashnikova(ak-47xHerrer), Widow, Red Diesel, Blue Cheese, Super Sour OG Kush,Grapefruit Krush, Super bud and Exodus cheese... decisions... decisions decisions... I'm thinking 2 dreams the kova and either the deez or the og kush. Thanks for everyones input once again, realistically I'll be starting the first run in 2 weeks with journal.
Best setup I have seen so far, for a self sufficient supply op, and this in a sub tropical climate where heat and humidity are already an issue, is; The guy starts in January/Feb, vegging with a t5 from seed, flowers one female that will contain 25-28 main tops LST by the beginning of April. With that grow, he may get 3-4 oz's with nothing but 400 w+ of CFL's and is done by the end of May or early June. He then shuts down for the summer and smokes off of those few oz's. Come fall, say late Aug, early Sept, he starts the process again, except this time, he uses his HPS to flower with. His logic is pretty good. When it gets cold, he uses the heat from the HPS to keep ambient temps up in his home by just venting less. In this way, he saves energy all the way around and doesn't have to fret with temp/humidity control as much. So he gets one really fat crop in fall/winter and a hold over crop of some pretty formidable buds with the cfl's. Possibly the smartest set up for a personal grow op I have yet to see once he got it dialed in. Edited to add: He uses a 400w HPS.