Veg time needed for my plants with pictures 5x5 space help.

I'm a noob and need some help with the veg time in my 5x5 space. I think many noobs like myself get confused when people talk about max yield/number per plants in a space. You read posts like 4 plants or 25 plants which I now think are all correct. What I think people really need to ask is what will give me max yield in a year in my space. Correct me if I am wrong but the part that often gets left out is how much extra veg time is needed on each grow (I understand strain matters with other variables). I may not know what I am talking about and am just basing this from the experience on my first grow. See pictures below.

Something to note is about a week ago I swapped a Vipraspectra 1200 dimmable for a DIY 12 Luminus CMX22 3500k 90 cri setup and placed them on 2 frames of 6. Only one frame is in right now because the light spread is even based on my lux meter and I am only in veg. Lighting should not be my issue for an amazing yield in the end.

I don't mind adding an extra week to my veg for less effort but I don't want to add months and have a much lower yield per year in the same space. I will invest in an RDWC system or something else for the next grow because I couldn't imagine doing more than 12 individual DWC buckets if people suggest adding more sites.

The questions I now have are the following.

1. It has been about 3 weeks since my royal queen northern lights seeds poked through. How much longer do I need to veg to fill my 5x5 space based on my pictures all things equal?
2. Is it even worth waiting or should I just flower them and start over with 16 or 24 sites investing in a better setup with more sites? My plants are way more dense than I am used to seeing in photos. I can't see them ever growing wide enough to use this space based on photos of other grows.
3. How many sites do you recommend if I were going to do the same thing for my next grow?

The 2 pictures are a week apart. The first one was after one COB LED frame I made was installed. The second is a week later after 3 weeks of growth (based off seeing the seedlings poke through the hydroton). The reason I changed lights was because even with the buckets touching I already saw the center plants were growing better. The center plants look about a week more developed. The others are now keeping up at the same rate. I am no expert but they look healthy to me just way more dense than I am used to seeing in photos. Topping them a week ago was hard to find the spot since stem length is minimal.

iruleyou1 said:

blah blah

1. It has been about 3 weeks since my royal queen northern lights seeds poked through. How much longer do I need to veg to fill my 5x5 space based on my pictures all things equal?
2. Is it even worth waiting or should I just flower them and start over with 16 or 24 sites investing in a better setup with more sites? My plants are way more dense than I am used to seeing in photos. I can't see them ever growing wide enough to use this space based on photos of other grows.
3. How many sites do you recommend if I were going to do the same thing for my next grow?

blah blah

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lol
welcome!

1) about 45-60 days
2)worth? I dunno, only you know the answer. you can flower at any time. you will rock it now, or rock it heavier later.
some training during veg will maximize your endz. I've seen one plant scrogged in that space fill it right up with single colas, hundreds of them. its always worth it, you have to decide how large a plant space can you manage is all.
air flow, c02, temps, ac unit, odor control, water temps, pests, light, humidity, feeding.
its going to get hot and wet in there real fast i promise. issues will arise in flower with bigger plants likely.
3) how many buckets can you fit in there is all that would matter to me if I was chasing yields

chemphlegm said:

lol
welcome!

1) about 45-60 days
2)worth? I dunno, only you know the answer. you can flower at any time. you will rock it now, or rock it heavier later.
some training during veg will maximize your endz. I've seen one plant scrogged in that space fill it right up with single colas, hundreds of them. its always worth it, you have to decide how large a plant space can you manage is all.
air flow, c02, temps, ac unit, odor control, water temps, pests, light, humidity, feeding.
its going to get hot and wet in there real fast i promise. issues will arise in flower with bigger plants likely.
3) how many buckets can you fit in there is all that would matter to me if I was chasing yields

Click to expand...

Thank you so much for the reply. I actually started low stress training yesterday with pipe cleaners. Maybe a stupid idea but I took 4 pipe cleaners and twisted them together to make one longer one and placed it around the circumference of each bucket near the top. Then I had a place to tie off individual pipe cleaners. All I have to do is slide them under and make a kink. These plants already have many main top branches. I did it this way so if I want to check inside a bucket i can remove everything fairly quick.

I HST the plant a week ago and topped them. Made them denser for sure but they still aren't really taking up more area. I am waiting for one day to wake up and see them start growing out of control. this always happens in my vegetable garden. They do almost nothing for weeks and one day bam.

My 0 experience is telling me to veg 2 more weeks anyway and next time add 16 sites but get a system that can do 24 if desired.

The reason I don't want to scrog is because I think it would be a pain to manage if I have to change the nutrients on each bucket every 2 weeks. I read some people use a shop vac but getting in there to check the ph on every bucket would make me hate life. Next grow I will do an upgrade where this could become a possibility.

My friends will chip in and buy the gear for me if I give them some of my grow. I just need to veg long enough that I break even on my initial investment which I am trying to determine now.

Would it be crazy talk for me to take clones from a few big side stems on my strongest plants and turn this into a 8 or 9 site DWC? I have 2 more buckets that came with my kit. If needed later on I could always adjust my other light fixture to a different height. This would also even out the larger plants with the smaller ones?

I veg 4 plants 4-5 weeks from seed and they completely fill a 4x4 tent.

Here is a little tip, you can ponytail the taller parts of the plant and it will help the short branches catch up.
It involves bunching the tall parts of the plant together like you are going to make a ponytail, then tie them up with a pipe cleaner or something.
Do this at the start of the light cycle, and remove them by the end. repeat as required.

iruleyou1 said:

1)Would it be crazy talk for me to take clones from a few big side stems on my strongest plants and turn this into a 8 or 9 site DWC?
2)This would also even out the larger plants with the smaller ones?

Click to expand...

1- no
2-who knows

to get the most out of your lights surround them with plants
to get the most out of your plants surround them with lights.

Here is an updated picture as of today. I decided to veg longer and think I have to be getting close to flipping 12/12. Height is not an issue since these plants are only 10" tall at the highest point. They don't seem to get taller they just fill out more . I put my weakest 2 plants in the center and resolved the issues that they were having.

The bottom center one had root rot which is now gone. Advice to new growers would be to cover the stupid blue level indicator tubes because they do let light in. Also make sure you fill the net pots with hydroton all the way up because there is a lot of space for light to get in between the rocks. I did a few days of hydrogen peroxide and added hydroguard a day after stopping the peroxide. Worked like a charm,

Tonight I low stressed trained the plants for I believe the last time bringing them all down to the same height. I'll probably leave the training wheels on for 2 days, clean up the bottoms, and flip to 12/12 2 days after that.

Does this seem like a good plan or should I wait another few weeks? The outside leaves are a few inches from the tent walls at this point.