Howdy, What would be the optimal amount of plants to have in a 4x2 tent? I’ll be growing auto’s under a 600 watt LED. I have not yet decided on a strain. I’ll be using a coco/pearlite medium. My googling leads me to believe that it would be either 3 plants in 7 gallon smart pots or 4 plants in 5 gallon smart pots. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Noob indoor grower. Cheers!
Personally, I'd go with the latter, but instead of 5-gallon pots, I'd go with 3-gallon pots. 7-gallons seems a bit overkill for an auto. Again, just my 2 cents.
I've had 2 autos in 3 1/2 gal pots and filled every inch of my 2'x4' with around 750 watts and pulled 6 ozs between them. 3 1/2 and 2 1/2. Though if yours stay small like some on GC, 4 can definitely fit
I grow 4 plants at a time in a 2×3 I also grow in coco . I was growing in 2 gallon but switched to 1 gallon for this grow. With coco you can increase the frequency of your feeding to meet demand.
i have a 2 x 4 tent. I only grow auto's I'm on my 4th grow. I've used various sized pots and hydro vs soil. in 5 gal hydro DWC buckets I did 3 plants. the hydro grown tends to be larger and two would have been better - i had to move the third plant out to a second tent to finish flowering. Than I switched to soil and went with 2 15-gal smart pots. nice size pots to work with and lots of room to LST but overall way overkill for autos and wasted a lot of unused space in the tent I than switched into fitting 3 7-gal and 2 5-gal smart pots in the tent. The 7-gals are a good size I think generally for an auto. I'm not liking the 5-gal at all and to be honest, I kinda figured I'd be unhappy with them after the luxury of the 15-gal pots. The smaller pots do allow more plants in the tent, whgich is why I moved down from the 125-gal pots, but 5 gal is just too small for my style. Once the plant gets older it requires watering every day or every 36 hours. the 7-gal ones can last an extra day or two longer than the 5-gal. I only went with the 5 gal because it's how I could try to run 5 plants to see what happens and this is what fit. So far my conclusion is that unless you really need to go small because of wanting/needing to get more plant count in the tent, go as large as a smart pot as you can fit. I'm going to see if I can get 3 10-gal in for next grow. Possibly 4 7-gal if that will fit, but i think the 10-gal would be the best compromise overall. enough room for good LST, large enough soil volume for water retention so I don't have to water every single day and so their are enough nutrients to last the grow other than basic topdressings or foliar. I don't bottle feed. If growing in soil I think 3-gal bags are way too small, unless you are doing a SOG, but than the plants tend to be smaller that way. - you are just squeezing a lot in the tent to make up for it. having said that, if you bottle feed in a hydro medium like JoshuaE does you can get away with 3 gal bags (or smaller) on an auto, no problem. still no room to LST but in the smaller container you probably won't need to..... and needing a larger soil volume is no longer an issue. but again, the smaller the pot, the more you need to be active and water unless you set up some type of automatic watering system. hmmm, don't you just love a nice easy, straight answer....?? LOL
I am finding with fabric bags, size of bag to a large extent determines size of plant. Yield is determined by buds per square foot. Many plants covered with buds are the same as two big plants covered wall to wall with buds. Growers choice, how you like to grow, a few big plants or more smaller plants. In organic soil, my autos would only use about 7 gallons max for a 110 day grow. Unless you are pushing, a typical auto in about any size container will take up about 2 square feet. In a 2x4 tent you can do a very nice perpetual auto grow by planting one seed each month, preferably on the new moon. Then you can find the method and size container that suits your personality. Some growers like to devote a whole day or two to a big harvest. I'm the other way and not opposed to harvesting just one mainlined cola per day. You know, one is always pretty good and others could use a few more days. For a beginner you can't go wrong in a 3 gallon smartpot. Just keep the fabric moist and let the medium air out. Just keep planting a new one after you get the current one vegged (28 days on an auto) until you run out of light.
I run a 4x2 tent and once you get flowering it'll fill up quick. I like 3 plants when in 2 or 3 gal pots or 2 plants when in 5 gal pots. You can defo squeeze a bit more though but I personally like my plants to have space.
I have a dedicated 2x4 space and find the 5 gallon fabric pots to be 'good for me'. I've used two gallons pots, but *I* found the root balls root-bound at harvest time.
Oh, In fabric? Not root bound, just expertly pruned by air, but I hear ya on the 5 gallons. They grow big plants. Totally agree with you on the "good for me". I'm over my big plant phase. They sell a lot of things to make bigger and better plants. I like to grow the plants that are not bigger or better. The final 5 gallon took up the whole 2x4, and it was not pretty. It may as well have been scrogged. It started as a 4 top mainline, then I had to supercrop it, and then after everything was all tied there was string everywhere. So I put them on a one gallon leash and went to 8 tops.
Not sure if anyone’s already said it but when going fabric — grab a square pot. The shape is conventional for the grow space (tent) , easy to keep them close together when they are seedlings, and also — it’s pretty damn hard to have root CIRCLING in a SQUARE
Yield depends on the strain and environment.... If you Google your strain it will tell you what it should give you in a square meter, do the math after that.
I buy my bags from 247garden. They have square bags, rectangle bags, tall bags, bags with handles, bags without handles. They really like to sell bags over there. I was afraid if I used square bags it wouldn't look cool.
I think you're asking the wrong question. How many tops/buds can I grow in my tent would be a better question. You could fill that tent with 1 plant by splitting/topping / bending and shaping as the plant grows or if you want 2 strain's then split the space and do the same but any more than 2 for me at least would be too crowded. I like to veg mine for 2 - 2.5 months and I fill my 5'x5' room with 4. With each plant having anywhere from 16 to 32 tops. I use Ice Cream tubs about 3 gallons each
Man you were not kidding they got all shapes and sizes. I was looking for some taller 1 gallon fabric and they got it . I think they have over 200 products in the fabric containers section Lol