I am about to get a 24-plant grow going, and am trying to come up with the most optimal, cost-effective set up. I'm thinking about going with a couple of Mars Hydro 1200w's (not sure how many yet), and a few Gorilla Grow tents. Besides those things, I am pretty undecided on all other aspects. I'm looking for suggestions for equipment, set up, number and wattage of lights, size of tents, etc. Basically, I want to make the most out of my 24 plants, and want to have a dope set up that won't make me completely broke, although I am expecting to spend quite a bit. Lemme know what you think, and I appreciate all help!
There are threads all over the forum that contain the information you're looking for. There is a master search bar at the top of the "forums" page that will pull all threads related to any topic you need info on by putting in a key word or phrase. The beginner growers thread is also a wonderful place to get an idea of where to start. To flower 24 plants, you're going to spend the majority of money on lights. These lights, neither LED or HPS, can cover as many plants as you think. We flower with 4 1000 watt hps bulbs per room and right now, 8 plants is all I have room for. Each plant needs adequate space to relax and spread and allow light below the canopy or you just kill your yield because you don't get good development below the tops. It will depend on the strain you decide to grow...indicas tend to be a more short, bush-like plant with very tight nodal spacing and sativas are the opposite. Indicas don't like a lot of heat and are better suited for cooler climates...so if you're thinking heat will be an issue...and it will if you're going to set up a grow that will properly flower that many plants, you might stick with a sativa based strain. But the harvest from any plant is dependent on one thing...whether or not it gets enough light to make it give all it's got. Your standard is the sun...so you know there is no way you can match that. But the better lighting you give them throughout their entire life, the better plant you grow and the better buds you harvest...and more of them. You can harvest more from a single plant that gets all it needs and is tended properly than you can by growing 3 stuffed in the same space, so you have to be realistic about how many lights you'll need to get proper growth for 24 plants...and it will be a lot. The lights are the most important part of your grow setup, so I would buy the best quality equipment I could. The cheap stuff isn't reliable and if I'm going to spend money on something, I want to do it once and have the purchase last. But YOU need to take the time and do the work to find out all this information. It would take days to sit here and tell you everything you need to know. I would put a setup together and learn how to grow 1 plant before I got my heart set on growing "24." You must not have any previous indoor grow experience to speak of, or you would already know the answers to a lot of the questions you asked above. Everybody starts at 0 as far as knowledge goes when they begin to tinker around with this hobby, and before you go out and spend a ton of money with no real clue what you need and what you don't, it would be smarter to grow a couple of plants and get an idea of what you're doing before you decide to go all big. You'll end up being a lot smarter with your cash. What I thought in the beginning and what reality ended up being are two completely different things when it comes to our grow. Until you set one up and manage it, you have no idea what you're getting into. If you truly have no grow experience, stay away from hydro and go with soil. No experience and hydro together usually just turn out to be a ton of trouble. But like I said, put something together to grow a couple and learn how to do this and do it right. That will give you the knowledge you need to go bigger. TWW