How many plants under a 1000W(HPS) to maximize the yield?

Hello guys, I wanted to get your opinion on how many plants to put under a 1000W (HPS) to maximize the yield? A 1000W covers a 5X5 space right?

I do not want to use the SOG technique cause it too much work and Iâ??d ratter be caught with fewer plants if something goes bad ... I heard it didnâ??t increase the yield anyways !

I was thinking about

16 plants (How tall should they be before the swich to 12/12)
OR
25 plants (How tall should they be before the swich to 12/12)

Thanks in advance.

P.S. I will be growing Blueberry â?¦ Is it any good?

I started with 8 plants in about a 4 x 6 space and a 1kwatt light. By the end of the grow I had five females which took up every single inch and needed more. Working around them became really hard; the branches got bumped and broken, and trying to do maintenance on them became an extreme hassle. Make sure you leave enough space at the beginiing if you can't move things around later. My plants got to be close to five feet high by the end and about 2-3 feet wide apart. They GROW.

I have grown the same way for years but the way I do it is tree style. I veg for two months and clip one or two times during. I use 5 gallon pots filled with Promix and when the plants reach about three and a half feet (not including the pot) I trigger. I place seven plants under each 1000 watt HPS and arrange them so that the plants in the center sit lower than the plants at the sides. If you were to look at just the bottom pales on the side you would see what looks like an inverted plate, with the middle highest. Also I place the plants 'around' the light so that it strikes them at about a 45 degree angle. If more than one light is used it maximizes growth. If only one light is used you will have to rotate the outside plants so that they receive light equally. Using this method I get 2 pounds bone dry after curing.

I have done numerous configurations and this is what seems to produce the most for me. Others have different methods, may be better but I have found it works for me.

I am in the process of changing the way I grow to utilize a perpetual garden setup. It will be quite different, but i'm sure it will work out great and pull off a crop every 6 weeks.

TGT

Tom do you have any pics of your room?

Yes I'd love to see a photo too. Do you use mylar or any sort of reflective stuff?

im using 2000w for my room which is 7x9x8 and im growing 17 plants. i know that if you plan on growing this many plants then you will need at least my size room or bigger cause i can see that my room is going to be a tight fit. it is more important to have 8 prime clones with space then 16 scrony clones. your yield will be about the same if not better and it will be easier to manage.

I do 15 plants per 1000 watt if they are growing large, or 30 plants per 1000 watt if they are planter box style single colas. I now use 600 digitals instead; growth seems to be about the same as regular 1000 watts, but less energy and significently less heat. Penetration seems just about as good too. Cant imagine 750 digitals or higher.

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Originally Posted by Racerx

I do 15 plants per 1000 watt if they are growing large, or 30 plants per 1000 watt if they are planter box style single colas. I now use 600 digitals instead; growth seems to be about the same as regular 1000 watts, but less energy and significently less heat. Penetration seems just about as good too. Cant imagine 750 digitals or higher.

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Forgot to add a picture. If you do large # of plants per light, then 12/12 them almost immediatly (week or 2 depending on how established the clones are and if they are used to HID lighting). If your doing less plants, veg longer.

Sorry I've been away for a couple days. I'll see what photo's I can find and post them soon.

TGT

I looked but can't find any better pictures as I recently changed computer hard drives. I will hook up the old one when I have time as there are some very good one's there that show my setup perfectly.

These photo's are kind of close because I was focusing on the buds and not the set up, but you can see how tall the plants are. Also, you can see that the lights are not directly over top of the plants. I find with this particular strain of AK47 that if the lights are directly over top it produces pop corn buds. If the lights are on a 45 egree angle with the big plants almost surrounding each bulb, it produces long fully developed cola's that ultimately have more weight.

What I have not done in these pictures is put up mylar or black & white. It was a quick setup and was far from perfect, but still yeilded almost 2 pounds bone dry each light. I think in this picture there were three 1000's in total.

This system works much better with multiple lights as when the plants are arranged in this way the light hit both sides, but still the outside plants must be swapped or rotated to keep the light even.

I have done this setup with 1 - 1000 watt HPS at a friends home because space was limited. We ended up yeilding 1 pound and a half bone dry. This smaller yeild was due to no cross-over light that you get with multiple bulbs. But even so, yeild still seems pretty impressive to me.

TGT