my grow is ever evolving, and I'll be starting back up in 25 gallon pots. I can legally grow 15 plants, but I will only be running 12 with the option of running some mothers in the future. I will be getting clones from a friend in the meantime. For now, I'll have 8 in flower in my 5x10 tent, and the other 4 vegging off to the side. I am attempting to run a perpetual, and since I've never ran a set up like this. I'm hoping others who run a similar set up can give me some insight on how much veg time would sufficiently fill my flower tent? Would 4 weeks of veg be ok, or should I add time? This will be in my no till mix. ft oly mt fish compost Peat moss Biochar Lava rock And the usual amendments recommended around here Also just started a 200 gallon worm bin! Castings won't be ready for about 4 months. This is a big upgrade from the 18 gallon bin I've been running for about 8 months. I'm excited to step things up and get some new strains going. Big thanks to many people on these forums where I've learned so much. Any and all advice appreciated!
this really depends on what strains you are growing. some stretch more some less, some branch out, some form a single cola. for example, these are 4 plants, transplanted and started flower as rooted clones (6" clones) with no veg time whatsoever. (they are all tied to the side cause they were growing into the lights) IMO your best bet is to start with less then what you think and adjust for round 2.
If you want a perpetual your vegging plants should be ready to go into flower within a couple of days of the last harvest, clones to vegging replacing those just cycled to flower. You need three stages. The rotation can be what you decide considering that most indoor hybrids will be prime for harvest between 8-9 weeks depending on varietal. All things being equal a plant that vegs for 60 days versus 30 days will produce more fruit, flowers, budZ, etc. per sq ft. - all things being equal and unencumbered. Sounds like a good project. I agree with sc00bZ that less is best until you shake things out. Err on the side of caution so-to-speak. An over crowded grow space is a set up for disaster on many levels. Good air flow, light penetration, and vigorous LST is the script for a small footprint grow. .... imo and ime anywho
I think the pot size is unnecessary overkill and more suited for outdoor grows. We run a setup close to what you are attempting and 10 weeks is our time frame. 10 weeks of veg gets us good size plants for flower and 10 weeks for flower gives me a nice mature plant and dense buds. I take clones off vegging plants to eliminate need for maintaining mothers. We run 4, 1000 watt HPS fixtures per flower room and run 2 plants per lamp. Giving plenty of space to spread during flower allows light to penetrate canopy and develop buds more below tops. 7 to 10 gal would be plenty of size as far as container. These plants mature quickly so tons and tons of soil isn't necessary. We use 7 gal mostly. A cloning tip in case you don't know. Pull your clones from the tender new shoots down inside and lower part of plant for faster roots. They just make roots faster than more woody growth on older growth. As I prune the plant during veg, I generally take new clones a couple of weeks before I harvest and have to restock the flower room with vegged plants. It takes 7 days to root new cuttings and the longer one can veg, the larger it will be when ready to flower. Just don't try to run more than your light will support. TWW
Thanks for the replies everyone! For pot size, what would you all recommend? I chose the 25s because through all my reading, i recall most recommending 15+ for a no till grow. I was growing in a 3x3 bed before this, but after finding out how extremely difficult that is to move when i had to move out of my last house, I decided to go to pots. Mixing extra soil doesn't bother me, I actually enjoy mixing it all up and I was able to source my amendments in bulk. My cost for mixing up 50 cubic feet is going to be just a little more than what I spent on mixing my first 12 cubic foot mix. I am new to growing in big pots, so I'm all ears to hear your experiences. I kind of figured I'd get the answer of veg time being strain dependent. I suppose I'll have to get things going to figure out how to best dial down. I should have plants in the soil by November 1st at the latest, hopefully a little sooner though.
Scoobie, that picture looks a lot like my last grow! 8 plants in my little bed, to much veg time and not enough support. Everything was falling over by harvest day
Soil volume is probably the only time where more is more. bigger soil volume is going to get you bigger plants, hands down. go as big as you can IMO, especially since you have a plant limit.
I almost went with 30s, but due to space I couldn't make the leap. I really do wish I could grow in 4x8 beds, but as I mentioned before finding out how extremely difficult a 3x3 was to move was motivating enough to switch to pots. I rent, and don't plan on being here more than two years, so the beds would have to be moved eventually. I managed to move the 3x3 without completely destroying my plants, only mostly lol, I wouldn't have the same results moving a 4x8. Thanks for the advice. Stay tuned, as soon as I can find some decent genetics I'll get things going. We have a broken system here in WA, clones are legal to purchase but as of right now there is no way to purchase them other than black market. The only strains I can find on the black market are the typical fads of today... Gorilla Glue, Dutch treat, C99, blue dream. I haven't been able to find anything interesting in awhile, and I'm not interested in growing what everyone else has
just curious but what about moving the bed did you find difficult? if its because you had to dismantle the bed itself may i suggest you look into oversized smartpots like the 100gallon or the fabric bed they sell (i think its called big bad bed? not sure but there are several different brands offering fabric beds). these come with a pvc frame that should be easy to dismantle. the soil you will have to move anyhow, one way or another. just something to consider.
The difficult part was the actual weight haha. I had a crop in mid flower that I really didn't want to lose. So I recruited a buddy to try to help me, and it didn't go well to say the least! If I were to move back I beds, I'd have to know when I'm moving so I can time everything correctly to avoid sacrificing a crop. Also I'd have To destroy the soil food chain, atleast temporarily, when I take out all the soil. With pots, I can grab them as is even with plants and move them anywhere
gotcha! if thats the case i would go with 20gallon pots. its an ideal size for one plant and should be movable. you can even get casters with wheels to put under the pots so you can roll them around.
I made up plastic 20 gals for a neighbor this spring. Bought casters to go under them. They roll in and out of the house, on the porch really slick. I bought ones with handles and they move up and down stairs easily, especially when allowed to dry out a touch. I would use these myself. but in my situation, they don't fit through a skinny door way. cheers os
Well the 25s just showed up at my house, so I'll have to stick with them! That's ok, the plan is to just fill them up about 20 gallons and leave room for topdress and mulch. I like the idea of the casters to help move them around. I had my 3x3 bed on casters, but I never ended up moving it because it turned out to be my only bed, I had plans for more. I'm almost done with the new worm bin, just need to get a load of aged manure delivered on Saturday and then in the worms go! By spring time I should have more than enough castings for my plants. I have never done a static bin before, but feeding worms food scraps takes forever and is inefficient so I'm excited to see them go to work on a static bin. I'm still saving food scraps, but they are being thrown into a 55gal compost drum and once this load of castings is finished, I'll mix the compost barrel materials into the new static bin. I also went out and harvested about 50lbs of horsetail, it grows everywhere on some trails near me. I'm to late for the stinging nettles but next spring I know where to find tons. Free supplies for the win you'll never go out and find a bottle of hydro growing in the wild, free for your picking!
Sounds like youve got a pretty good handle on things. I recently upgraded from 30s to 2x4 beds and though I love them I have to wonder if/when not having the girls in mobile pots is gonna bite me in the ass. I think youll do great in the 25s untill you have a more permanent space. In pots that big it should be easy to fill that tent with 6-8 plants depending on genetics and veg time. I'd definitely shoot for more than 4 weeks though. As you probably found in your beds young plants seem to take a while spreading their feet in big soil before growth really takes off.
Huh? What? I really couldn't disagree with you more. I just had plants that were all the same age and all growing in the same conditions. The only difference was pot size. Some were in 2g, 5g, 20g and finally 500g. It was more than obvious which plants grew faster and larger. The plants with more soil, of course. The only time this may not seem to be true is when/if you put root bound plants into a large bed. Don't make this mistake and the larger bed of soil wins every single time. Take a look at my thread and see what happened in a mere 6 weeks. RD
Hmm. I dont think were necessarily disagreeing. I do believe that the plants in bigger pots grow bigger faster. I just mean that in my experience a clone stuck into a 25 vs a 1 is going to take a little longer to start showing growth at the very beginning. Once it does however the growth is explosive and easily overtakes plants grown in smaller pots (Im curious whether your 2g pots had the lead for a bit at the beginning?). I think that in trying to fill a 5x10 tent Ashton should be shooting for 6x approx 2x3 plants. If going straight from clone into a 25g pot I think its going to take more like 5-7 weeks to do that as the 1st week doesn't show much growth for me.
I do believe we are on the same page. My apologies MN. My plants were all started in red cups and then into 2g pots. From there some remained in 2g most went to 5's. From the 5's they went into the big beds or into 20's. Eventually the 20's went into big beds too. I mention this only because I think the rate of growth would be even more dramatic if they were all put in different sized containers from clone. However, I do hear what you're saying about how it appears the clone stuck into a larger pot takes a minute compared to a smaller one. I chalk this up to the lil clone prioritizing roots over foliage. I think this is similar to root bound plants struggling initially when planted into larger beds. After going through the stress of being root bound, when it hits the large bed it once again concentrates on root mass as compensation for the stress. Same plant transplanted into a slightly larger pot, given aloe, kelp and some love might just continue praying the entire time! Maybe I'm slow, but this took me a long time to realize. Seems counter intuitive to me. My apologies again man. RD
I also agree with MN about running 6 plants in a 5x10. That's about as close as you can get to a perfect square for each plant. Too many variables for me to guess how long it will take to fill the space.