How much space between pots in a rail?

[Prodaytrader]

I nearly made a huge mistake and put too many pots on a new rail system I am building. I have 3 square tubes 4.75" squared. I'm running them on a fog/aero and the tubes are in a series so that it's like a giant loop. At any rate, the sections are 32 inches long which is nearly 3 feet and like I said there are 3. I almost put 5 on each rail then decided 4 on each rail and now I think 3 is a better number. I have seen some of these roots balls that come out of these systems and even though my rail is slightly larger at nearly 5", if I jam the pots on top of each other, then I will likely end up having to throw everything out because I didn't leave enough roof for the roots. So, about how many inches of a 4.75 does each plant need? Assuming 4 inches for the pot, how much on either side do I need to leave room for in the rail? I should probably be very aware of when I start flowering too. I can see how the rails might become very crowded if I tried to veg to much so what's a safe height for starting flowering in a system like this?

[Farmer Rich]

Hey Prodaytrader,

I used 15" centers for the plant sites on my flower systems, basically 2 x 3 systems, for a total of 6 sites each. On the veg system I put the sites on 7" centers, for a 6 x 2 system for 12 sites. All systems use 3" net pots (same ones the aeroflow systems).

If you're going with 1 system for start to finish, I'd go with more room (15" spacing.. or so), because what is a 10-14" plant in veg can stretch up to more than 36" in total height and be fairly bushy dependent on how you do things. The reason I bring this up, the frames I use put my channels, 26" up, so this is a consideration in terms of total height, which and be over 5' if you're growing a tall strain.

Hope this helps.

Peace,

Farmer Rich

[Prodaytrader]

At least I put some thought into this prior to drilling the holes. Like you I was concerned about total height so I made sure I kept my starting height as low as possible. Now that I think on it, it's probably right there at 26" too. I think I needed 20" clearance for under the table so with the table top and the rail, it's probably right there.

[Farmer Rich]

Here's an example for you.. Sorry for the out of focus, and HPS lights, but this may give you an idea or 2.

Peace,

Farmer Rich