Should I go with two 4' x 8' or one 10' x 10' grow tent?
- Thread starter shizniz34
- Start date
bombasticson
Active Member
I was told by a very experience grower at my hydro store that if you are looking for more watts then you should get multiple 400 or 600 watt lights as this gives better growth then 1000 watt lights
bombasticson
Active Member
You should get the bigger tent
shizniz34
Well-Known Member
I agree, and prolly going to add a 600/1000 mh to the middle so 4 1000 hps and 1 600/1000 mh. I plan on vegging 49 clones to 16"-18" in 3 gal smart pots so I end up 3 footers. Is that gonna be too crowded? It gives each plant 1.25 sq/ft. I also plan on running a drip system. Not sure if that utilizes the space efficiently but looks good on paper.
phillipchristian
New Member
Hey man...just a couple tips for ya.
First off, running either 2 tents or 1 tent both have their advantages. Running 1 tent allows you to save on buying equipment for each tent like extra fans, a/c, dehumidifiers, etc...It also means you only have to control the climate in 1 space as opposed to 2. Running 2 tents will probably be a little more expensive but will let you do a couple things that may help you in the future. You could run the tents on a FLIP when you are in flower. This will reduce your electrical draw and allow you to play around with different strains and environments.
Also, with either the 4x8 or 10x10 you won't need 1000w lights. Trust me. Especially in the 10x10. I mean you can't pack the thing with plants or else you won't be ablt to get in there. In that big tent you would need an aisle down the middle at least. I think 600w lights would be better in a tent anyway. 1000w lights will limit the height you can grow your plants and will add a lot more heat to the tent. A 600w light has a footprint of 4x4 so they are more than enough to cover those areas.
Also, 1.25' squared for each plant may be a little small. Not sure if you are doing any training and what not but I would up that number a little if you can. Plants need room so they aren't falling all over eachother.
First off, running either 2 tents or 1 tent both have their advantages. Running 1 tent allows you to save on buying equipment for each tent like extra fans, a/c, dehumidifiers, etc...It also means you only have to control the climate in 1 space as opposed to 2. Running 2 tents will probably be a little more expensive but will let you do a couple things that may help you in the future. You could run the tents on a FLIP when you are in flower. This will reduce your electrical draw and allow you to play around with different strains and environments.
Also, with either the 4x8 or 10x10 you won't need 1000w lights. Trust me. Especially in the 10x10. I mean you can't pack the thing with plants or else you won't be ablt to get in there. In that big tent you would need an aisle down the middle at least. I think 600w lights would be better in a tent anyway. 1000w lights will limit the height you can grow your plants and will add a lot more heat to the tent. A 600w light has a footprint of 4x4 so they are more than enough to cover those areas.
Also, 1.25' squared for each plant may be a little small. Not sure if you are doing any training and what not but I would up that number a little if you can. Plants need room so they aren't falling all over eachother.
shizniz34
Well-Known Member
Sup Phillip, thanks for the advice
I plan on running a seperate 4 x 4 or 4 x 8 to try different strains and find new moms. So I should probably get the 10 x 10.
If height weren't an issue would you still advise using the 600 over the 1000? I'm trying to do a sog hybrid type grow so the plants would max reach a height of 3' or so, that's why I figured 1.25 sq ft per plant would be enough. Esp. since 4 per sq ft can be done in a ebb n flow. I'll have a seperate veg and clone room as well so I can harvest every two months. I also plan on topping.
Would I still need room to move in the big tent if I set up a drip system to auto water my plants like I planned? I've always made room to work in my tents so I thought a drip system would help me utilize almost all the space
I plan on running a seperate 4 x 4 or 4 x 8 to try different strains and find new moms. So I should probably get the 10 x 10.
If height weren't an issue would you still advise using the 600 over the 1000? I'm trying to do a sog hybrid type grow so the plants would max reach a height of 3' or so, that's why I figured 1.25 sq ft per plant would be enough. Esp. since 4 per sq ft can be done in a ebb n flow. I'll have a seperate veg and clone room as well so I can harvest every two months. I also plan on topping.
Would I still need room to move in the big tent if I set up a drip system to auto water my plants like I planned? I've always made room to work in my tents so I thought a drip system would help me utilize almost all the space
phillipchristian
New Member
Hey man, I would still go with the 600's. You could even get those Lumatek Dual ballasts. 2 600w ballasts for the price of 1.5 Or you could get the 1000w ones and runned them dimmed just in case you want to go bigger next time. I still think you are gonna need to move around in the tent. Plus you may need room for other equipment. I would make a row down the middle at least. Maybe 2' wide. Then you can have the plants on either side. If you keep the plants short like that you could probably squeeze them into a 1.25' square space. So if you did 3 wide on either side you could have 6 rows total of 8 plants.
shizniz34
Well-Known Member
Ya well the local shop sells the 1000s (lumatek dual) for 280 so I think thats a steal and kinda already bought 4. 600s are 190 though so what do you think of a half and half to compare?and ya that 48 number was one off the 49 I got when I drew it up, but I guess I won't really know till I get going and fine tune it to know how many is optimal. Do you think that would be better then growing larger plants?
phillipchristian
New Member
Just get 600w bulbs and run your ballasts at 600w on the dimmable setting. The Lumatek's can be dimmed to 750w and 600w. No need to do half and half. You could if you wanted to. See if you notice and difference in yield. If not then you just stick with the 600w and save electricity and cooling needs.
You will always get better yileds when growing more plants. That's why they always say that SOG has the highest yield of any horizontal lighting technique. I would stick with your original plan. When the plants are smaller you could probably get away with running only half the lights as well.
shizniz34
Well-Known Member
Alright I will go ahead and get another 600 to do a comparison then as I already have one actually. Its an older model (non-dimmable and been used 2 years, mostly flower), do you think this would be alright with another new dimmable or should I go ahead and get two new dimmables. They are cheap so I think I might as well get new ones.
I still don't understand why 4 1ks wouldn't do better then 4 600s because I thought the more light the better, assuming the temps are kept low. Esp. since the sun puts off 100,000 lumens per sq ft (so I've read).
I still don't understand why 4 1ks wouldn't do better then 4 600s because I thought the more light the better, assuming the temps are kept low. Esp. since the sun puts off 100,000 lumens per sq ft (so I've read).
phillipchristian
New Member
You gotta get away from using lumens as a measuring stick. Guys on here just love to talk about lumens and lumens per sq.ft. and blah blah. Google lumens. The reason lumens are listed on the bulb ratings is because they are the measured output of light that is visible to the human eye. Lumens means nothing when growing plants. More important is PAR value, footcandles and obviously spectrum. I'm not saying that having 1000's would hurt your plants; especially since they will not be that tall. What i'm saying is that you will essentially be wasting light and electricity in that space when you don't need to.
shizniz34
Well-Known Member
What up Sencha
Ya I'm going to go with the 10 x 10 and I've already got a separate veg/clone room so I plan on doing a perpetual every two months of 48 plants already (3 footers or so. If that's gonna be too much too handle at one time (two people for harvest) I might split the 10 x 10 in half and harvest half every month. But I also have a 4 x 4 tent I will using to grow out potential mother keepers and eventually breed so it will kinda be perpetual in a way.
Ya I'm going to go with the 10 x 10 and I've already got a separate veg/clone room so I plan on doing a perpetual every two months of 48 plants already (3 footers or so. If that's gonna be too much too handle at one time (two people for harvest) I might split the 10 x 10 in half and harvest half every month. But I also have a 4 x 4 tent I will using to grow out potential mother keepers and eventually breed so it will kinda be perpetual in a way.
drolove
Well-Known Member
i heard a 1000 watt bulb puts out more lumens then multiple smaller bulbs adding to the same wattage
phillipchristian
New Member
If you were growing some 5 footers then yea. But since you are growing 3' plants you don't need 1000w lights. It's a waste in my opinion. Plus, you won't get 1g per watt using 1000w lights cause you will have a ton of wasted space. 1000w lights have a footprint of 5x5 so in a 10x10 tent you would need the ENTIRE tent to be filled with plants in order to be using the optimal light footprint of 1000w lights.
shizniz34
Well-Known Member
Gotcha. So hypothetically with the 1ks I would average .75 g/watt because of wasted space. Whereas with 600s I would be closer to optimal 1 g/watt cause it would be the same yield. I would just spend more money on electricity with 1ks to get the same yield I could achieve with 600s for less right?
Mack Buchanan
Well-Known Member
Ask your bitch! Bigger is better!!!
phillipchristian
New Member
Exactly. You would be throwing light into your walkways with the 1000w lights. Just wasting it and electricity. The idea is to get all of your plants 5000+ footcandles. 600's will do that just fine in that space.
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