How do you know you are making the most of veg, and when is slow too slow?

Strains vary the whole way through the process but, after taking a step back, I will be focusing on improving/optimizing veg.

The biggest bottleneck is veg. Currently power conditions splitting separated veg and bloom spaces limits lighting to like 9 hours bloom, 15 hours veg. Cutting it close, definitely not ideal but an addition to the space will eventually resolve that. A par meter is needed. It seems like a plant grown in rockwool has a size/capacity limit far smaller than a plant in soil; but, for now, I just want to maximize rockwool (strain variety in the room also doesn't help).

Maine caregivers have a 30 mature, 60 not mature plant limit (I'm not one, it's just a point of reference). That seems close to what I'd want to do, potentially more in veg.

making most of veg is 24/0 IMO

rkymtnman said:

making most of veg is 24/0 IMO

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a par meter + longer light hours for sure. I can see going 24 for a phase/2-4 week period, but probably aiming for ~18 hrs. Next veg space will be under 5wall 16mm polycarbonate (sun) + LED supplemental lighting. I want to be able to grab up to 20 or 30 mature plants at a time. Crazy how I can't keep mature enough plants ready right now -- always waiting or sending them in too early. Spent a lot of time getting comfortable throughout bloom, need to drill down on veg. Veg needs help. Too slow.

if you are running 20+ plants, wouldn't a SOG approach be better for you? then veg is relatively unimportant

rkymtnman said:

if you are running 20+ plants, wouldn't a SOG approach be better for you? then veg is relatively unimportant

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because I'm paying for rockwool unislabs, I consider SOG a little wasteful considering my current yield on different strains. Ideally (in my mind), I'd have a large enough veg space that I could select 20+ at a time for bloom, but those 20 would've vegged for 3-6 months. I want a >3-month-old veg population to choose from every cycle/2 months to keep the space full without ever flowering a smaller/less mature plant (if that makes sense).

i gotcha now. you just want large, fully mature plants ready to go.
i'd be curious to see what would end up better for yield: your way with 20 plants at 6 months old or 120 plants vegged for 1 month. wish i had the space to figure that one out

I mostly grow 12+ week flowering sativas, so I run gaslamp (12on/5.5off/1on/5.5off) during veg to keep the girls manageable, unless I'm trying to get clones, in which case I'll run 18/6 or 24.

Every run is a little different.

I don’t think I would want to move 20 plants that had veged for 6 months. I only grow 3 at a time, veg for 10 weeks, and they fill a 9ft by 3ft space by the time they finish. I want to see this one play out, sounds like a challenge but doable. I do have my sips on wheels now.

Hook Daddy said:

I don’t think I would want to move 20 plants that had verged for 6 months. I only grow 3 at a time, veg for 10 weeks, and they fill a 9ft by 3ft space by the time they finish. I want to see this one play out, sounds like a challenge but doable. I do have my sips on wheels now.

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One of the reasons I prefer rockwool to soil is mobility. Rockwool remains light. Also in the Dark Ages when/where rootballs would be weighed -- rockwool would avoid some taxation in a worst-case scenario.