How many plants and what light for an 8 x 8 tent?

[Bob Zawatha]

My flowering tent is 8 x 8. And my veg tent can be as big as 6 x 8. How can I maximize the space to grow as many quality plants as possible? How many plants am I looking at and what size would my veg area need to be to best accomodate that number? And what size lights to use in both tents?

Thanks!

 

[Oldgrowth]

Wow you ask a lot more than you know. I run 1000 watt hps in 5x5s and grow 9 plants each. i top them so there are 4 main branches on each. my plants are about 2 foot tall at harvast(above the 5 gal pots). I veg for 2 weeks before flowering. I average 1 1/2 -1 3/4 pds per light. Since i use cuttings your veg area would need to be large enough to house your pots with this method. 18 pots.
Some of my friends in oregon who r med growers can only have 7 mature plants so they use large trashcans for pots and veg longer to produce bigger plants and yields but the best they do is 2 1/2 pds and it takes quite a bit longer than my method. You would need a bigger veg area to do this. i turn a crop every 9 weeks or so...
2 1000 watt hps will work in your area and 2 600 watts would to too of course you will need a seperate light, lights in veg area too. one 1000 watt MH would prob be good in veg area dependeing on how long you veg
this really depends on what your trying to do. I dont run mother plants instead i take 3 cutting off my plants before I bloom. so i veg my cuttings till they have 6 strong branches and take the main branch and top two as cuttings. two weeks to root the cuttings and 5 or 6 weeks to get started under 6000k flouresents. when i put them under the hps they are ready to take off and do! I like this method as i get hard sticky buds all in the top layer of good light and in my experience the strongest bud is closest to the light source. Good luck and let me know if you have more questions

 

[jawbrodt]

In the 8' x 8' tent, if you're serious about getting some nice buddage, you should go with 4 lights, at least 400 watts each.(and that's stretching their output) 600's would be even better, and 1000's...well, you get the idea. Number of plants? Depends on their size. If you just grom regular stlye,(work with me here.lol) with no SOG, SCROG, etc... you can expect plants to be around 18" wide, each. That'd give you 6 rows of 6, or 36 plants. 8 rows of 8 is doable too, but keep in mind more plants = more jailtime.

 

[Bob Zawatha]

Thanks for the replies. That's a little more light than I wanted to use, so maybe I'll start smaller and grow into it. With that in mind, though, if I get the 8 x 8 tent, but only use part of it, should I find a way to have reflective surface close to all sides, or will it not matter that much? Say for example I only grow nine plants under 1 1000w light to start?

Also, what type of watering system do you use? I'm still thinking all this through and haven't completely decided. I know this is not the best circumstance, but there are times when I have to go out of town for 4 days and I would like to not have anyone else know about it, so ideally, I'm trying to construct a system that can be as automated as possible, understanding that things like power failures happen....

Any suggestions?

 

[jawbrodt]

If you're not going to go with hydro, use as good sized pot, as it will not need watered near as much as a smaller one. Go with real 5 gallon buckets(they're alot bigger than so-called 5 gallon pots.lol), and fill them to within 2" of the rim, and that'll hold moisture for quite awhile, certainly 4-5 days. If you go with 1000 watts, 5' x 5' is max coverage area, and if you add a light mover, you can extent that a couple feet in one direction. That might be a good option. I use one, but don't really use it for more coverage, I use it to hit all the shaded areas,(under the fan leaves) and only have it moving 10" or so. I'm just getting started again, myself, and hope to get some good results. They're going on 12/12 tomorrow or the next day, so it won't be long...

Back on track....I solved the reflection problem, because my situation is similar to your's. I took thin plywood, covered it with mylar, and suspedned it from the ceiling, creating a false 4th wall, retaining any reflections that would've been lost. Works great, and is removeable too. I have it suspended by wire hanging from hooks, which can easily be removed if I want to. That might be an option for ya.

 

[BumpMe]

, but keep in mind more plants = more jailtime.

Oh man that's hillarious . . .

 

[OZUT]

Give yourself some room in there for a/c, can filter and maybe a dehumidifier. If you want to run a single 1,000, you might be better off with (2) 600's....You'll use an extra 2 amps but will get 200 more watts. Plus you can put them closer to the tops. Your veg area doesn't really need to be more than about 30% the size of your flower room. You have a bunch of options. If you're gonna go with soil, you might want to start by hand watering them. May not think it's a big deal but you'll get to learn a lot about your plant and notice things when you're down at soil level hand watering. It's also more rewarding since it's your first time instead of hooking up a drip system and just adding nutes to water.

In your veg tent, a single 400 or a 600 should be enough. Again, it depends on how many you wanna throw into the flower room and how long you plan to veg. If you're gonna veg 10 while 10 are flowering, then you have a full 2 months to clone and veg, which is a fairly long time. A 400 will work out nicely but keep the height of your flower room in mind when you choose a strain. A good stretcher will triple and quadruple in size and a 4-6 week vegged plant will easily get 6-8 feet by the time it stops stretching in flower...