Hey guys, recently posted regarding equipment and finally got that nailed down. Going to be using a 4x4 tent with the hlg 550 v2. I initially planned to use coco as the grow medium but have decided to go with soil for this first time.
My question today is regarding seed planning. My wife and I have decided on 4: chronic widow, gelato, Girl Scout cookies extreme, California dream.
I’ve never grown before but I have raised many vegetables from peas to corn to turnips to tomatoes. That said I’ve been reading quite a bit over the last few months (I lurked here for over a year before finally ready to post about anything - so much info to take in). As a result I understand that everything depends on growers skill luck and patience.
My biggest question is if I’m in a 4x4 and want to grow 1 of each strain, in a divided scrog, would these 4 sync up ok as far as flowering goes. I understand it’s best to do one at a time to avoid having this dilemma in the first place but it’s not a challenge we’d necessarily back away from.
The goal is to have an overall lb of harvest.
Thanks.
Iam trying 6 different, only a month in though, one person suggested that if one starts to grow taller ,put the shorter one on something( milk create , or something along those lines)
I’ve never grown in soil, only hydro. I can’t really tell you how many plants, but I do a 4x4 scrog on my plants. I’m not sure about your light. @dbrn32 is the light guru. I’ve been using 1000w HPS for each net. LEDs on next run. I CAN tell you, however, that 4x4 is plenty room to get a pound with adequate lighting. Last harvest I pulled over 3lbs off 2 4x4 scrogs. I run one plant per scrog. However, @peachfuzz runs 6plants per scrog, and different strains on top of that. I’m thinking he can answer your question better than I.
I think as a general rule: one plant per SCROG in the event of a problem you can remove it to deal with it individually. I would maybe only run 2 plants in that space which will give adequate room for mechanicals like fans and dehumidifiers and such.
You should not have any problem getting to your 1 lb goal in that space.
What about not using a net this time and try some topping and LST on the 4 strains at the same time?
Im growing 3 pure indicas, 1 Sativa dominant hybrid and 1 Indica dominant hybrid at the same time in a 4x4…
Its getting tight, but having them unattached to anything makes working on them and moving them much easier…
I wish i could afford an HLG 550 V2 man, congrats on the light choice… Seems almost impossible to get any better for less money unless you are DIYing your own light
Thanks for the responses guys. Going through peachfuzz’s post history to see what can be done / what to expect.
As for the light, drbn I think it was posted in my initial thread a few days ago looking for insight on equipment to grab. I’d done a lot of research on led’s and the 550 definitely seems like the current ideal lighting platform short of building your own, which I just have no interest in. Growing plants. Yes. Love. Electrical work outside of putting together a computer rig? Not so much.
As for dealing with the inability to reach plants, I’d planned to make a different post but I can touch on it here I guess. I had the idea of basically building a lazy susan for the plants with wheel locks so I can turn it around and take care of the plants individually from the tent entrance.
I’ve got plenty of various thicknesses of plywood so that has been an idea I’d thought of if the plant heights weren’t even. My main concern regarding that topic was the speed in which the flower. I assume I could ultimately just harvest different ones a few days a part if they did have a few days difference in harvest time as long as they were the same height. Not sure the practicality of that; you folks will be able to provide some insight I am sure.
I may ultimately pair down to 2 plants but right now 4 is definitely the goal. As we get closer to starting the grow I’ll have a better idea of how much we want to push that idea.
The lazy Susan idea won’t really work - once your plants start to fill out, you’ll be placing them in a square pattern to utilize all the space of the square tent.
As far as the flowering stages go, this is why people mentioned staggering the heights of your pots. When your plants approach the flowering stage, they will go into what is known as “the stretch.” They will grow like crazy for a week or two as they transition from vegetative state to flowering. Every plant will be different, even ones from the same strain.
On a related note, this is why I am a fan of using multiple lights instead of one large one. I would personally use (2) HLG 260 XL lights in that space instead of (1) HLG 550. This allows you to have (for example) one light at 24" above the floor and another at 36" above the floor.
I agree with @Myfriendis410 that 4 scrogs are better than 1. But, I actually prefer simple LST (tying down branches) even better. Here is a photo of a 1-plant scrog setup using 1/2" PVC pipe, brass eye hooks and kite string, should you choose to go down that path:
If you do decide to scrog - at some point you will want to attach a hose to the end of your watering can, so that you can stick it through the canopy to water the soil underneath.
Also, regarding harvest time - you should actually hope they are all ready for harvest at different times. Otherwise, trying to harvest, trim and dry 4 plants at the same time could be pretty overwhelming - especially your first time.
At the other end, I put a bend in the pipe cleaner to hold it in place. The nice thing about this method is - I can adjust it (every day if need be) longer or shorter simply by adjusting the pipe cleaner and making a new bend in it.
I’m 28 or 29 days into flower i flipped to 12hr light schedule July 6. These make it easy to take a plant out to flush, trim, get dead leaves off train and tye up hope this helps you and good luck
I almost always grow 4 different strains. Right now i have a crystal, a gorilla glue, a bruce banner & a skywalker. I try to grow ones that will be around same height although i have one that will need a longer flowering time according to what ive read. I have a 4 X 4 X 6 tent & it does get a little tight at the end. Most grows ive averaged a lb & half.
Happy growing!!
Hey guys thanks for the added pics and info. I hadn’t planned to make one huge scrog with 4 plants. The idea was to make 4 2x2 stations on top of a lazy Susan hybrid though the lazy Susan idea sounds not so ideal now though. If each scrog station is able to be pulled out though I don’t think maintenance and upkeep will be too bad but I’m just theorycrafting the layout still. I’m sure some of you have tried something similar before, though it’s hard to find personal experiences with such setups on the forum. As it stands now wife wants to probably just start of with 2 plants for the time being anyways. Can always by a second tent and light if we need to for more variety.
