Dealing With Height Restraints in 3600 Watt Grow - Advice Appreciated

Packed 3600 watts into a small room with 7.75 foot high ceilings - I know many of you have bigger height problems but when dealing with this amount of plants it's pretty damn difficult.

To date, I've ran six cycles, my very FIRST one being the best when I simply had them on the ground in three gallon buckets. I gave them extremely low amounts of run off, if any... and still it was my best run!

I've since built tables 15 inches tall, so I can throw my 100 gallon resi underneath.

The Problem: After the 15 inches for the table, 8 inches for the lamp, and 14-15 inches in between my light and plants (my strain seems to act best when about 14 inches away) Im only dealing with under five feet and my plants just end up too small really, it's a bummer! I usually flower a bit too early, they end up 5-6 inches too small because I'm worried about them just getting too big.

Possible Solutions

--I'm considering making any changes to my room that will enable me to grow them taller. It's odd, sometimes I flower them at the right amount, and they seem to know they can't grow as large as when I had them on the ground... so they stay small.

--In short, I'm considering just going back to putting them on the ground with little run off, or maybe a flood and drain... I could likely just use a buncha small Rubbermaids that are like 6-7 inches tall and lowering my tables.

--I'd really like to go back to just putting them on the ground but I got lucky my first time, and didn't have any nute problems...so no huge need to flush until the end... I'm not sure I can count on that everytime.

Do any of you grow them just sitting on the ground with 60-70 plants? How do you water them? I don't have time to do it by hand... but I figured if I could find space in my room for a garbage can and then set something up where I flip a switch and the water gets pumped out of the can and through the drips. I could have them like 3-4 inches off the ground on a cinder block, and allow a bit of run off.. but if I run into a must flush situation it could get tricky in there. My friend does something similar with a garbage can holding the water, and said he uses some sort of sprinkler contraption to get them watered... he just plugs it in for a minute or two nightly and then unplugs when done.

Any suggestions? Also have considered adding chicken netting and when they pop through the net, just pull them back down. If you are pretty diligent about doing that while they are stretching, can you add alot of vertical growth without going into the lights? Any advice appreciated.

Next CycleDoing White Widow next run... any advice with that is appreciated too. How tall do you grow yours, etc?

pix pix. please.

What would ya like pics of? This question has more to do with numbers, and how tall I can grow my plants than what the bud comes out looking like... but I will upload some pics of my Purps in a day or two... it's drying right now.

Forgot to add, the pots take up a foot too... so I'm dealing with 3.5 feet of available vertical space after all is said and done.

just remember that your plant will double in size in the 10 to 14 day transferance period from Veg to Bud

My Diesels always more than doubled up, but I just did a purple strain that did not come close to doubling in height.

I think I need to mom a strain and stick with it... get to know it in and out. Is WW a big yielder?

My basic question to you all: If you had seven point five foot tall ceilings would you just screw the tables that are off the ground enough to fit the resi under it... and pump the water from an external area into your drip system or do you think the benefits of being able to quickly flush out with a drain to re-ruse system combined with lots of run off suberscede the lack of height you can achieve?

hello m8 with that much light i would do sog how much floor space you got?i would put 50 clones a m2 flower clones when they have 6 nodes and you will get about 1oz per clone:thumbsup:

Is this your home, or a rental? If it's your home, you could keep the res in another room, with a couple of hoses poked thru the wall.

Or, you could top the clones to stunt vertical growth a bit, or go with the bending and tying, but with that many plants, would be a bitch. Have you tried using MH during first couple of weeks of flower? (tiz supposed to slow stretch early in flower)

Or, you could figure out the mean average of water intake before run-off, (2 cups, a quart, a gallon...) keep 'em on the ground, and water each accordingly. I've always restricted run-off, but I do monthly flushes which helps to alleviate salt and nute build-up.

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Originally Posted by xxxhazexxx

hello m8 with that much light i would do sog how much floor space you got?i would put 50 clones a m2 flower clones when they have 6 nodes and you will get about 1oz per clone:thumbsup:

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I am American and thus use the dumb system... to give you an idea of how I run things I put 15 under each 1000 watt lamp which has a tray under it of 4X4 feet. The clone supply has been less than ideal but I was considering doing a shit load of tiny plants for each light, but lots of friends discourage me from doing any more than 1 per square foot thus giving me a max of 16 under each light.

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Originally Posted by Rusty Trichome

Is this your home, or a rental? If it's your home, you could keep the res in another room, with a couple of hoses poked thru the wall.

Or, you could top the clones to stunt vertical growth a bit, or go with the bending and tying, but with that many plants, would be a bitch. Have you tried using MH during first couple of weeks of flower? (tiz supposed to slow stretch early in flower)

Or, you could figure out the mean average of water intake before run-off, (2 cups, a quart, a gallon...) keep 'em on the ground, and water each accordingly. I've always restricted run-off, but I do monthly flushes which helps to alleviate salt and nute build-up.

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Home is a rental... so I can't really be putting things in other rooms. Even if I did, the table needs to be higher than the resi in general right?

As for the MH during flower, I've done that once... didn't notice a huge different really. My plants aren't stretching a ton... the nodes are fairly tight they are just too damn small.

As for putting them back on the ground... I think this seems like the logical option here if not a SOG with tons and tons of tiny plants under each lamp. I have a FloTec pump that empties a 100 gallon resi in about 15 minutes that I could use to pump the water outta a trash can or something. Would this work? Send it into my drip system and cut it off at the average amount of water needed to get some run off.

As for your flush... do you take them outta your room to flush them or just give them Ph'ed water? When I did my first run with them on the ground I brought them into the bath tub and it was an absolute nightmare and I'm not so willing to do it again.

Apparently DripClean by House and Garden eliminates the need for both run off, and an end flush to get rid of the salts - you should check it out.

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Originally Posted by xxxhazexxx

hello m8 with that much light i would do sog how much floor space you got?i would put 50 clones a m2 flower clones when they have 6 nodes and you will get about 1oz per clone:thumbsup:

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A meter squred is like 10 squre feet right?

Bueller?

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Originally Posted by razzapiggy

As for your flush... do you take them outta your room to flush them or just give them Ph'ed water? When I did my first run with them on the ground I brought them into the bath tub and it was an absolute nightmare and I'm not so willing to do it again.

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I don't grow nearly that much, so I do the bathroom tub thing. If you do 20 or 30 per week, it would split the burden and likely help lower the ambient humidity versus doing them all at once. No doubt about it tho...it quickly becomes a buzz-kill of a chore.

Regarding the pump...I'd make sure to have an overflow prevention/management strategy, as Murphy's Law dictates you will soak everything at least once.

Auto drip sounds good, but don't the plants directly under the lights need more than those twords the outside?

I personally can't justify the expense for salt leechers or flush solutions. Takes a few days, but pre-harvest flushing works well for me, and I can spend the extra cash on stuff like......bills. :thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by razzapiggy

A meter squred is like 10 squre feet right?

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3ft3"by3ft3"

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rusty Trichome

I don't grow nearly that much, so I do the bathroom tub thing. If you do 20 or 30 per week, it would split the burden and likely help lower the ambient humidity versus doing them all at once. No doubt about it tho...it quickly becomes a buzz-kill of a chore.

Regarding the pump...I'd make sure to have an overflow prevention/management strategy, as Murphy's Law dictates you will soak everything at least once.

Auto drip sounds good, but don't the plants directly under the lights need more than those twords the outside?

I personally can't justify the expense for salt leechers or flush solutions. Takes a few days, but pre-harvest flushing works well for me, and I can spend the extra cash on stuff like......bills. :thumbsup:

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Thanks for the suggestion but having several phases of plant growth to break up the work would likely create more problems than it solves for me. That may not be true for everyone else.

As the plants on the outside needing more water than the ones on the inside, sure... but I don't think any significant portion of extra water will be needed. If I need some extra water to one or two isolated situations, I can always just throw another dripper in that plant though I don't see that being the case.

I think I've decided to grow the plants on the ground almost for certain on this next cycle. This requires me taking down all the tables I built and figuring out the logicistics of watering 60 plants with a drip system working against gravity to get the water both out of the resi and then returning the waste water TO the resi.

Haze thanks for the reply. My clone supply is far too small for something like that as of right now, but I will consider a SOG method in the future. As for now, I am going back to basics and replicating what I did the very first time I grew pot, only this time I will be setting up an irrigation system instead of doing it by hand (huge pain in the ass!) I got a pound per 4X4 area my very first time growing grass, so I figure the new technology should help that number out a bit!

Will the pump seen at Amazon.com: Flotec FP0S1300X-03 Tempest 1/6 HP 1,500 GPH Utility Submersible Pump: Home Improvement work to power my drip system with the water being held in a garbage can? Thing can pump 1500GPH so I would assume so

Quote:

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Originally Posted by xxxhazexxx

hello m8 with that much light i would do sog how much floor space you got?i would put 50 clones a m2 flower clones when they have 6 nodes and you will get about 1oz per clone:thumbsup:

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Your Approach sounds great in a vertically challenged room as well, however I need a hefty clone stock ready to rock... then I'll try that way too.

Just measured my plants just cut and most of them were 19-22 inches tall when they were dropped. Jeez, I vegged the things for like two weeks - wonder why so small.

I'm trying to figure out if I should just do one more cycle with the tables the way they are and try to get the extra height available *with the tables where they corrently* because heck I mean I should be able to grow them about

Err, I always love harvest times, but it sure gets me thinking about what adjustments I should make in the next week or so.

It's troubling for me, because still, two years after I got into this thing... my very first run through was the best, most simple, I had the least logic, and even still... I have not been able to touch it. Pissing me off!

goodluck m8 when your up and running post some pics:thumbsup:and check out my cheese grow in indoor growing :jointsmile:

I simply can't decide weather or not to cut the tables down or not... last time I only grew them to 19 inches, I could do another 10 or so inches even with the tables still in place.

How much growing space do you guys have *after* tables and lights and space between lights are accounted for?