The Great Debate

[GanjaRobPDX]

If you have a large grow room you want to maximize, are bigger plants the way to go?
Answer, YES!

When I grow i use flushed coco coir mixed 50/50 with perlite ( I have tried several other ratios, but this was the best) and i transplant 3 times total throughout the growing process.
From aero cloner to 1gal pots, from 1gal to 5gal pots after about 10 days. from 5gal pots to 30gal tubs about 20 days after that. 1 week of veg for them to get over transplant shock, and then into flower.
I can only fit 8 plants (2 rows of 4) in a 12'x16' room. leaves can easily touch all four walls. This creates a massive canopy and keeps my plant count down. This last part is really helpful if you are a medical patient trying to stay within guidelines. If you are one of those crazy growers reading, this filling a 20'x60' room with 300+ plants, you could EASILY stay under 99 plants using larger tubs and less plants while still filling the canopy space.

Another benefit is that you dont have to move so many plants around to do maintenance. After you lolly pop, there is a foliage tunnel that allows you to crawl between plants without having to move them ( too much). You do have to crawl though. Most of my plants were AK-47 from serious seeds. Plant height after cropping and bending (mostly done in veg) was around 5-6 ft tall and
4-6ft wide. sometimes the plants were pushed closer together than I liked, but the room was full. 8 plants. 8 600w hps lights using silverstar 6" ducted hoods, each plants pulled about 1lb as an average. some more, some less. My rule of thumb with large plants is simple, each plant gets its own 600w HPS light. no light movers.

Again, the big benefit to larger plants is less hassle, and less plants. It took me a few years to figure it out.

I use a simple A/B veg/ bloom + micro nutes from Zeta. RO water. simple and trusty. Flush well I do. Also, my myron L pH/TDS combo helped dial in pH and nute strength as well.

Hopefully this helps...

GanjaRobPDX Reviewed by GanjaRobPDX on 01-04-2012. The Great Debate If you have a large grow room you want to maximize, are bigger plants the way to go? Answer, YES! When I grow i use flushed coco coir mixed 50/50 with perlite ( I have tried several other ratios, but this was the best) and i transplant 3 times total throughout the growing process. From aero cloner to 1gal pots, from 1gal to 5gal pots after about 10 days. from 5gal pots to 30gal tubs about 20 days after that. 1 week of veg for them to get over transplant shock, and then into flower. I Rating: 5

[GanjaRobPDX]

I see a lot of growers growing smaller plants in smaller buckets. I understand it in small rooms or grow tents where smaller plants allow for a variety of strains.


Any growers using containers over 15 gallons? Pros/Cons vs. smaller containers? Opinions.

I want to learn from others experiences...

Also, two things I forgot to mention above. 1) I was using a co2 burner @1500ppm
2) number of plants is irrelevant to yield. light energy in the room is the determining factor. providing that you have enough foliage to make use of that energy.

Sooo....bump.

[williboy]

This is an interesting thread to me, but I'm not sure that I can help. The only indoor experience I have had was with autoflowering stuff when I was such a noob that I was sure that I was doing something wrong when stuff started blooming and I was still 18/6! Wow I kinda freaked and started doing all kinds of stuff trying to fix what wasn't broke. But I think I'll try following this thread too, thanks.

[CanGroIt]

Any growers using containers over 15 gallons? Pros/Cons vs. smaller containers? Opinions.

I've grown with both, large and small....

Pros for large 35gal+.... Less maintenance, bigger plants....

Cons for large 35gal+.... Takes longer to drain and refill, requires larger area....

Pros for 2.5gal bucket.... Fits in small spaces, very small amount of nutrient usage per grow....

Cons for 2.5gal bucket.... Daily nute and water top off in flower....


IMO....it's best to keep things as maintenance free as possible....(when it comes to water, nutes, pH, PPMs).... So a larger system would be ideal for those who have the space....

CGI::::::