Filling the SPACE

[ORGANinc.]

I do not think I've seen too many topics or conversations to this regard. Could be helpful to some. 

In my mind, 1m2 is almost the most ideal space for 4 plants, or even 1,2m2. The whole idea obviously when it comes to growing and being as efficient as possible is to fill the space per say. And this will give you the best result. Fill the canopy rather. Then many factor come into play. The power of your light(s). The coverage. The strain. Do you have your environment in check? all the rest... There are unlimited options when it comes to growing plants for a desired outcome and this all comes back to relevance in your current space, ours being South Africa. In the states, you see many people adhering to a plant count and making sure they are somewhat abiding by the amount of plants they may have. Not all cases are relevant to the topic and some people are doing what they have been doing and will not change until by means of force if that day ever comes or these matters are taken that seriously over there. I see our government are still serious about locking growers up all in the name of intimidation as these things go nowhere, based on the seriousness of the offence. 

This is all in the name of feasibility in our current situation with the unreasonable guidelines we have been given. 

So back to filling the space. We are allowed 8 flowering plants. I've seen some growers absolutely smash it out of the park with 8 plants. I don't think I remember there being anything said about how big the plants are allowed to be, but then again, time elapsed would balance things out quite a bit. For a bit of a conversation base or some back and forth. Lets look at a very specific example. and Give 3 scenarios for this set up and see what would prove to be the best result. Yes this is for growing the most possible cannabis, as we smoke a lot and there is only so many Gs you can harvest at one time. 

The tent size is 1,2m2 - 480W bar LED for best coverage.

Scenario #1 - 4 plants, each plant is in 20L pots (organic or salt nutrient)

Scenario #2 - 9 plants, each plant in 10L pots (organic or salt nutrient)

Scenario #3 - 4 plants, each in 40L pots (organic or salt nutrient) 

There is no right answer, there is however 1 illegal one (not yet actually), but I cant imagine 8 plants making a perfect square. These are the types of things I like to think about. More plants obviously mean quicker cycles and more harvests, significantly easier to fill the space. 

Growing few big plants can prove time consuming, but rewarding at the end of the day. But do you actually fill the place, more importantly, is your concentration of buds the same if were grown sea of green, also quality of bud. All these pros and cons, if anybody would like to add in any additional information, please do. 

There is not right or wrong answer once again, this is all just for conversation. I've seen 20 x 10l pots in 1,2m2, and honestly the thought of that management makes me sick, with my style of growing. But I don't think you would be disappointed at the end, given everything goes smoothly.

If you have some scenarios that you think could be absolute winners, lets hear them.

[Naughty.Psychonaut]

I like this! Exciting topic! Growing weed is no competition and we shouldn't create stress for eachother, however you all know I am guilty of this hahahah but for more important reasons and in the spirit of not wanting to waste money or space or time it's always been a good thing to look at every interaction as constructive rather than destructive and take notion in the fact that the very very very best grower in the world is literally trying to figure new and improved methods to better his growing all the time. that's what makes them the best, knowing there's always room for improvement and doing something about it!

I am showing a old friend of mine how to grow and he keeps showing and telling me about people that he knows who grow weed and how they did it and it always comes down to "who spent more money and who used more resources in comparison to who's grow performed the best in their respetive situations."  one guy filled the floor with pots and bought a kak load of expensive soil, didn't even have a full canopy. other guy mixed his own soil, had a couple 30L pots spaced out nicely in a smaller space, plants nicely trained and spread out over the foot print, couldn't see the floor through the canopy, yielded more weed in a smaller space with fewer resources in a shorter amount of time.

now the question I ask him, which of those two examples you wana follow?

My main focus was always max yield in the space I have. Good genetics comes after at least knowing how to grow first! I am using a 1m2 for flower space so I couldn't really make the veg space bigger than that, would be impractical, the reason I got the 1m2 is because when I first got it, that's all I has space for. Would have loved to flower 8 big plants at a time from day one, but didn't have the time, naturally I got the best I could work with at the time and pushed it.

I think a setup that can accommodate a perpetual cycle would be ideal, or a "conveyor belt system".
3 different spaces = Mother+Clone space, Veg space and Flower space.

With flower space being the main focus. If you can have 8 mature/flowering plants and have them as big as you can it would be ideal to get them as big as you can in the space that you have.

IMHO, a plant shouldn't be flowering in a pot smaller than 20L and not without a veg time for at the very least as long as the flowering period is or idealy twice as long. a plant needs to become a certain size before it can really fully express itself, but really just my opinion. no real merit to that statement, I just wouldn't do it. I feel I have never grown a small plant that has delivered the same results as the same plant grown out to full size, the bud never fully developes.

The minimum space to cover with 8 x 20L flowering plants, I would say, is a 1.2m2 flowering space. then the plants get squeezed in and they stay relatively small. again my opinion.

Let's say you have a 3m2 flower space or bigger, the rule stays the same - Only 8 flowering plants. All that needs to be done to fill the space is increase pot size. Keep the amount of pots at 8, but make them 60/80/100L pots. this will easily fill the space, if it's indoor even easier cause you can veg them how ever long you want.

If you have a smaller space than 1.2m2 I would flower less than 8 plants, because like you said, you could fill that 1.2m2 space with 4 plants in 20L pots. Just veg them a little longer. bigger pots will help too

You could do every thing in one room from clone to veg to flower, if you have the time. so really all the rest here is about saving time.

Veg space - the only way I see this is, however closer to the same size the veg and flower space is, the quicker your perpetual cycle will be, because this allows you to use all of the 8 to 12 weeks of flower to veg your veg space wall to wall, giving you an already filled flower room once the previous batch comes down. the bigger the difference in room sizes the longer the gap in over lap, and you might have to switch your flower room back to 18/6 sometimes for extra veg time to fill the bigger room. this is wasteful in my opinion.

Idealy one would like to keep both rooms on their set times, 18/6 and 12/12, and keep them there. but still make sure not to move the plants over till the space is filled.

Mother and clone space - this can take up quite some space, however you can do this outside and do not need the best lights and all that. you could also make clones and leave them in your veg room somewhere between pots or in the corner under the 18/6 light cycle.

once space is used properly and minimal time is wasted I can starts to focus on adding another flower space and later another veg space and staggering the harvesting every 4-6 weeks, first one room then 4-6 weeks later the other another 4-6 weeks later the first one again. remembering that 8 plants is the limit and I can just increase pot size and extend veg time to fill bigger space.

excited to see what others say?

[ORGANinc.]

1 hour ago, Naughty.Psychonaut said:

I like this! Exciting topic! Growing weed is no competition and we shouldn't create stress for eachother, however you all know I am guilty of this hahahah but for more important reasons and in the spirit of not wanting to waste money or space or time it's always been a good thing to look at every interaction as constructive rather than destructive and take notion in the fact that the very very very best grower in the world is literally trying to figure new and improved methods to better his growing all the time. that's what makes them the best, knowing there's always room for improvement and doing something about it!

I am showing a old friend of mine how to grow and he keeps showing and telling me about people that he knows who grow weed and how they did it and it always comes down to "who spent more money and who used more resources in comparison to who's grow performed the best in their respetive situations."  one guy filled the floor with pots and bought a kak load of expensive soil, didn't even have a full canopy. other guy mixed his own soil, had a couple 30L pots spaced out nicely in a smaller space, plants nicely trained and spread out over the foot print, couldn't see the floor through the canopy, yielded more weed in a smaller space with fewer resources in a shorter amount of time.

now the question I ask him, which of those two examples you wana follow?

My main focus was always max yield in the space I have. Good genetics comes after at least knowing how to grow first! I am using a 1m2 for flower space so I couldn't really make the veg space bigger than that, would be impractical, the reason I got the 1m2 is because when I first got it, that's all I has space for. Would have loved to flower 8 big plants at a time from day one, but didn't have the time, naturally I got the best I could work with at the time and pushed it.

I think a setup that can accommodate a perpetual cycle would be ideal, or a "conveyor belt system".
3 different spaces = Mother+Clone space, Veg space and Flower space.

With flower space being the main focus. If you can have 8 mature/flowering plants and have them as big as you can it would be ideal to get them as big as you can in the space that you have.

IMHO, a plant shouldn't be flowering in a pot smaller than 20L and not without a veg time for at the very least as long as the flowering period is or idealy twice as long. a plant needs to become a certain size before it can really fully express itself, but really just my opinion. no real merit to that statement, I just wouldn't do it. I feel I have never grown a small plant that has delivered the same results as the same plant grown out to full size, the bud never fully developes.

The minimum space to cover with 8 x 20L flowering plants, I would say, is a 1.2m2 flowering space. then the plants get squeezed in and they stay relatively small. again my opinion.

Let's say you have a 3m2 flower space or bigger, the rule stays the same - Only 8 flowering plants. All that needs to be done to fill the space is increase pot size. Keep the amount of pots at 8, but make them 60/80/100L pots. this will easily fill the space, if it's indoor even easier cause you can veg them how ever long you want.

If you have a smaller space than 1.2m2 I would flower less than 8 plants, because like you said, you could fill that 1.2m2 space with 4 plants in 20L pots. Just veg them a little longer. bigger pots will help too

You could do every thing in one room from clone to veg to flower, if you have the time. so really all the rest here is about saving time.

Veg space - the only way I see this is, however closer to the same size the veg and flower space is, the quicker your perpetual cycle will be, because this allows you to use all of the 8 to 12 weeks of flower to veg your veg space wall to wall, giving you an already filled flower room once the previous batch comes down. the bigger the difference in room sizes the longer the gap in over lap, and you might have to switch your flower room back to 18/6 sometimes for extra veg time to fill the bigger room. this is wasteful in my opinion.

Idealy one would like to keep both rooms on their set times, 18/6 and 12/12, and keep them there. but still make sure not to move the plants over till the space is filled.

Mother and clone space - this can take up quite some space, however you can do this outside and do not need the best lights and all that. you could also make clones and leave them in your veg room somewhere between pots or in the corner under the 18/6 light cycle.

once space is used properly and minimal time is wasted I can starts to focus on adding another flower space and later another veg space and staggering the harvesting every 4-6 weeks, first one room then 4-6 weeks later the other another 4-6 weeks later the first one again. remembering that 8 plants is the limit and I can just increase pot size and extend veg time to fill bigger space.

excited to see what others say?

Nice points, I have read and think I understand all your views which is good info, and valid stuff.

So if you talking perpetually, then there are other factors that come in as well, so veg to flower, with all considerations is where I’m thinking to have it solely based on performance in that space kind of. However, either way you look at it. There is more than likely a transplant that will happen, I’ve seen really good results transplanting into the bigger sizes from start, however I’m not feeding. I would ideally like veg and flower to be in the same place, which will definitely maximise probability of higher yields. 
 

Then have tents overlap in harvests,