Hi all, beginner grower. I'll be growing feminized northern lights seeds in a 2x2x4 grow tent. I was planning on getting 4-6 23 watt (daylight) and 4-6 23 watt (soft white) CFLs. I will be growing my seeds in 3 gallon fabric pots with black gold soil. I will be using fox farms trio formula and cal mag (maybe some kelp meal). I was wondering how many plants you think I could grow in my space while still maintaining a strong yield. Any tips involving nutrients or anything at all are very welcome.
Don't attempt to grow with CFL bulbs. You can use them to get started and veg small plants for a while but don't rely on them to flower your plants. You'll be disappointed. They just plain don't make good grow lights for flower. They're incredibly inefficient. HPS lights are 2-3 times the actual light output per watt and they're dirt cheap these days. In fact it's probably around the same price to buy those bulbs and the associated hardware to run all of them. I've seen 400 watt hps kits for $99 or cheaper. The easiest way for a rookie to get success growing. Get a cube of sunshine promix 4, get a large bag of perlite, get some fabric pots for finishing (5 or 7 gallon), get a bottle of GH floranova bloom, use it start to finish. Feed at 1-3 ml's a gallon depending on plant age/size in veg and 3-4ml's/gallon in bloom. There's no grow formula that's proven to be a success that is simpler then that.
I totally hear what you're saying I plan to work my way up to a HPS kit within a couple of yields. I have little choice but to start with a cfl set up. I'm hoping I can account for the weakness by using a couple extra bulbs especially during flowering season
IMO a 4x4 tent is 4 plants. 6 plants max if you bud them early and small. By those standards I don't see growing more then one in a 2x2x4. That is a tight amount of space. I would only use a tent that small for clones. My budding plants are near 5 ft tall. Those low headroom tents suck. 6'6" headroom in my tent or don't buy it. I'm not into growing small plants for small yields. You need 18" of light distance for the best lighting. If you add that you can only grow like 2ft tall plants. The light needs at least 4-6" between it and the top of the tent as well. If you add the height of a 5 gallon pot you're looking at a 12" plant height.
Actually I firmly believe that cheaper 300w led panels like the mars 300 are a better way to go then CFL's for extreme budget grows. They are $60 range on ebay. No way you can put together anything worth growing with cheaper then that even with cfl's. You have to get a bunch of light sockets as well or a light fixture for the bulbs. It's not free to set up to grow with cfl. By the time you do all that you'd be way better off with a mars300. They actually have intense enough light output to make 4oz's+ of dense bud each. I've never seen a CFL grow bud that I would even want. It's always stretchy and airy buds. Even though the mars300 is outdated and low on power it can grow some dense nugs that aren't half bad. Definitely a step up from CFL buds.
Correction my tent is 32x32x63. I know it's not much of a difference but I gotta start somewhere i figure I can eventually buy a bigger tent for harvest and keep the smaller for like you said clones and beginning plants
Headroom is huge. I just bought a new light and if you attach the stupid 16" long steel cables to the light and then a ratcheting device you can only get the light 20" from the top of the tent with the adjusters all the way up. If you need 18" of light distance and a foot minimum for a pot that doesn't leave room for a very big plant. I have to improvise all of my light hangers to get my lights right up to the ceiling for large plants. I'm using dog leash run clips and chains of carbines I remove one at a time right now. There's no room for those long light hangers in tents if you keep your plants healthy.
I agree. I've switched to 2 and sometimes I think I want to just do one in my 4x4. I have done 4 before though and it works if your veg routine is short. I also do DWC and promix. I have 6 DWC buckets.
People always want to hear the staggering number of plants they can grow and they're always disappointed when you say, "Grow one." That's what I would grow in a 32"x32" tent. If you're good about managing the canopy and plant size though and you bud them early you can do 4. There's no perfect plant count. It all depends on how well you train the canopy with a top in every available spot in the light footprint with just the right amount of penetration. Sea of Green has proven that large plant counts of small plants can have impressive yields. For some reason I do the opposite. I grow trees and bud two plants at a time now. I've been getting about 20oz's a run of good buds and about that much larf/trim in a 4x4 for a couple of grows now. I know I can do better too. I have a separate veg area that runs all the time so by the time I can move a new plant over it's at least 9 weeks or so old. That makes for large plants when you grow hydro. It's helped me up my yield. The larger the plant I bud the more I yield so far.
Im selling 2 of the 300 watt Mars Hydros right now that would give you solid yields. If interested I can let them go for $125.00 shipped. Only have 3 months use on them.