What will yield more, bigger pots but less plants, or smaller pots but more plants?

[1love1earth]

So I'm flowering soon, and I've got more than enough plants, and more than enough strains to choose from.

My plants are growing in canna brand coco, with canna brand "A" and "B", along with a number of additives, floralicious plus (just started this), botanicare cal/mag+, rhizotonic, generic silica (soon to switch to rare earth), hygrozyme, hydroguard, etc etc. Obviously I don't use all of these with every watering, only cal/mag+ and A/B are all the time. I always feed with every watering, and it ranges from .8 to 1.3 EC, PH'd at 5.7 to 5.8

The plants are about 2 months old now, all from seed, and all sexed. I have numerous safari mix, some big bang, some hashberry, satori, a couple swiss miss, one early girl, and one haze x skunk #1 cross. In addition, I've also got some younger 1 month old seedlings, AMS, Mandala #1, and lemon skunk, all fem'd, but lets not worry about those right now.

Currently I've got about 30 females in various sized pots, but nothing over 3 gallons, and many are in 1 gallons still.

They are all still in veg.

I've got 2 cabs that I've created inside a closet. Both are currently being used for veg, at 24/0 light cycle.

One of them will be the flowering room. It has 2 400 watt CMH lights in super sun 2 reflectors, which are aircooled with a 8" vortex fan. I've done the math, and it's about 50 watts per sq ft.

The flowering room has dimensions of 2.5 ft wide, by 6.5 ft long, by 5 ft 8" tall.

The veg room has the same dimensions, except it only is 4.5 to 5 ft long or so. It has two 2 tube shop light floros, and two 'true' 105 watt 5000k CFLs.

Sorry for the lengthy bit of info, but I like to provide information to those I ask for help.

So my question is this, given my limited space in my flowering room, should I run alot of plants, but smaller pots, or fewer plants, but larger pots?

Basically, I could run a bunch of 3 gallon pots, or 5 gallon pots but fewer of them. OR I could even run 7 gallon pots, and even fewer. I've yet to see exactly how many of each I could fit, I'll do that tomorrow.

I'm thinking 3 gallons would be stupid in my case, as I'm hand watering. It means more plants, which means more work watering, and most of all, it becomes very difficult to dose nutes, and to maintain an even canopy.

So really it comes down to: 5 gallon pots or 7 gallon pots?

I picked up two 5 gals and two 7 gals, just so I could see exactly how many I could fit of each.

Keep in mind these guys have been veg'd for 2 months and are in coco.

I'm likely going to transplant in the next 3-5 days, and I'm thinking about giving them 1 week or so more of veg after that before switching to 12/12.

During that last week of veg and maybe the first week or two of 12/12, I'm going to try to do anything and everything to encourage root growth. That means high doses of rhizotonic, which I haven't much at all in the last 2-4 weeks.

I'm also going to use GH "sub culture" and "rooters mycorrizhae" blended into the coco.

 

[Care Free 1]

I am really trying to picture 30 two month old plants in those small area's. You must have them crammed in there. A lot of those 1 gallon pot plants would be rootbound by 2 months.

I would up pot as many as I could to 3 gallon pots, and trim many of the lower branches and go for the bulk of the plant weight on the main stem, IMO. I run my grow cabinets that way in almost a SOG type setup cuz I want to pack em in and still get yeild without depriving them of light.

Here are 30 mother plants in 3 gallon pots at 6 weeks old from seed. I would trim those lower branches and stuff them in the closets, then use the cuttings for the next crop if I had your setup.

 

[1love1earth]

my plants are no where near as beefy or happy. Not that they are terrible or anything, but it's my first grow, and they've been far from dialed in the whole time.

At least not at 100%, I've got some that look real nice, but those are in the larger pots, once I bumped the pot size up, they got real green and nice.

However I don't really have room to run all of them.

We'll see what happens, but I think running fewer plants will be easier for me, whereas more plants means more difficulty.

I dunno, I guess I'm really deciding between 5 gals or 7 gals. I may run a few 3 gals in there as well.

EDIT: looking at my plants again, and seeing the number 30 for your pic, I'd really have to see a profile pic of only 1 plant by itself to determine how my plants compare.

What I will say is that I was not feeding every watering, nor watering every day, until 3 weeks ago. Mind you I'm running coco, and this is supposedly critical to success.

However the plants are not super super stocky/bushy, they do have thick stems and big fan leaves, bigger than my palm+fingers by a decent bit, at least the larger potted plants do.

They 1 gallons are likely pretty rootbound, and they'll be getting transplanted.

I do have a shitton of plants crammed in, and I had even more before I chopped the males, which really only started 3 weeks ago, and finished yesterday when I decided to chop my hashberry male and haze x skunk male, and take clones of them.

I was planning on an outdoor grow, and still may drop some clones outside, but not nearly on the scale I was planning.

Some will have to go, at least outside the rooms.

I've learned a ton this grow, and really just want to make it through flowering with at least .5 grams per watt, though I'd love .75

 

[bosshoggin]

why did u veg em so long?? just wondering...how tall r ur htplants now cuz they will triple in size wn thr done flowering..i would opt 4 the 5 gallon pots and i would cut it down to 6-8 plants too each lamp, the best of the best so to speak.it seems ur really concerned bout weighnttach plae e-i am to..hand waterin is the best 4 me-i get to se1e each plant



50 wts pr sq foot is great!!!

 

[1love1earth]

I was mainly growing them for outdoor clones, but now plans have changed a bit.

I was always going to flower them, but wanted to keep them under HID for more clones.

However now, my main concern is flowering indoors.

 

[yukino_asano]

However now, my main concern is flowering indoors.

what size lights and space you using for flowering?

Has a big factor to play in determining optimal yields for plants numbers and heights. (for example a 1000 w can penetrate more than 400w)

The strain also has a big part to play.

does it stretch, does it grow straight up or out with alot of shoots?

Also veg time is a big factor.

Here are some examples. Same strain same room.

1000 watts over 4'x4' area

32 plants less than a week of veg. 1.3lbs very high quality no popcorn
8 plants vegged to 18-20" 2.3 lbs quality!! also popcorn and loose bud on bottom
16 plants vegged to 12" 1.95 lbs quality but popcorn
6 plants vegged to 24" ran out of room, 1.5 lbs worst yield.

Some strains will not work with these numbers. This strain stretches.

When I grow a strain that doesn't stretch much, I usually go with higher plant numbers.

hope that helps. Give a little more info and hopefully we can help you out.

 

[1love1earth]

check out my first post above, it has all the answers about room dimensions, lighting, age, strains, the whole meal deal.

 

[Microwido]

I prefer fewer in larger pots.

 

[1love1earth]

I prefer fewer in larger pots.

I think this really might be best for me, my skills in managing a canopy aren't the best, and lots of plants means lots of maintainance, especially with all my different strains.

This isn't a commercial grow, but I'd like to yield as much as I can, obviously, but my primary concern all along was variety, that way I can smoke a bunch of different stuff, and figure out what I like the best.

I'll have to see how many 5 gallons vs. 7 gallons I can fit. Though 7 gallons might be a waste, unless I can really get the root growth to go crazy nuts with sub-culture, mycorrizhae, and the highest doses of rhizotonic safely possible.

I'm thinking my next grow will likely be from seeds, as I haven't had the skills to determine which plants are better than others, even within one given strain.

Though I may go ahead and keep flowering these guys as I harvest. Just moving plants from the veg room, transplanting them into bigger pots, and then into the flowering room.

I think I'm likely going to only do 2-3 crops out of the room I've got now. They do rental inspections once a year (not for some time yet), and I should really have this all stripped down before then, just to be safe.

So the next setup I do will likely be in a grow tent or two, something easy to break down and setup.

I really do want to grow from seeds to find that wonderful clone mom, but I'd really need to be growing the same strain, so I could compare quality.

I've got so many different strains now.

 

[Jon]

Sounds like you're pretty adamant about watering being a lot of work for yourself. Since they been vegging for so long, go with the 7 gallons. You may have to throw some females out but it will be worth it. Next time around don't veg for so long and use more plants in smaller pots.

 

[Maj.PotHead]

rootmass = yield

larger the rootmass larger the yield strain also depends on yield some yield heavy some dont. i can pull 1 oz of sugar shack in 2 liter soda bottle with 4-6 wk veg in container same shack in 1 gal bag 2 wk veg average 1 oz. length of time in veg determines rootmass coco will grow faster then soil hydro grows even faster

 

[B.C.]

Somethin ta think about...

Somethin ta think about...

Transplanting a plant from a 1 gal to a 7 gal is gonna be a waste imo. Goin from a 3 gal to a 7 would be a good thing tho...... If you think you couldn't handle watering 3 gal pots, you could go ta Lowes and buya cheap pond pump, a tub, a manifold and some drip lines and be set. Even if ya ran it manuallay once er twice a day, it would be so simple. From what I've seen of cocoa, it'll grow a big plant ina small container. So a 3 gal pot would grow a whooper! lol and you could run more of em that way too. Jus pointin it out fer ya ta think about is all. Good luck whatever ya decide on! Take care... BC

 

[bosshoggin]

try b cuzz 's root stimulator-wrks great-o-o-7

 

[1love1earth]

well, I may go ahead and drop multiple plants in a few 7 gals, as long as they're the same strain, and about the same size, is there any reason I can't get away with this?

Especially since as of my last two transplants, I'm pretty much out of space in my 2 cabs. I literally don't have enough sq. ft. to do another transplant.

So taking multiple 1 gallon plants, 2 or 3 maybe? and putting them in one 7 gallon pot, seems like a decent option, no?

will it increase yields, or will it stunt the plants, and be worse than just putting 1 plant in a 5 gallon pot? I was thinking maybe a few 5 gallons with 2 "1 gallon plants" each, and maybe a few 7 gallons with 2-3 each.

 

[Microwido]

5 gallon is better than 7 gallon in alot of ways. I grew to 5ft with 5 gallon buckets before root bound, ended up with 4 ounces a plant ish. The larger the container, the more you will need to water every single time.

Also i would like to warn you about growing different strains at the same time. I personally will never do it again. Because different strains need different watering schedules, and need to be different distances from the light. Also they have different flowering times, so if you only have 1 grow room this is the biggest concern. I had to grow my white widows longer than I wanted to let the Light of Jah finish up. I ended up getting nanners and loseing probably an ounce to pre-mature seeds that i cannot even use. Its a real pain in the ass to grow vastly different strains properly when you only have 1 grow room

 

[B.C.]

Yes 1 Love, I think that would be a very good idea! I've done that many times with smaller clones in 3 gal pots and it works jus fine. I don't know why I didn't think of it before, sorry, my heads up my ass I spose. LOL! Anyway, yeah, keep the same strains in each pot and I don't think yul have any problems. Jus don't over crowd everything in yer cab, besure ta give a lil room fer growth, air and light penetration and think yer yeild will be a lot better than runnin single plants. Good luck to ya! Let us know how ya do. Take care... BC

 

[CheifnBud2]

Multiple plants in 7gal is not so great.
at this point just transplant to 3gals and flower as soon as they get over the shock.

If it gets too crowded chop one of those early girls or swiss miss because they are nothing too special anyway.

 

[hoodini]

I dont think I would grow multiple plants in one pot either. From what I've read it sounds like the roots would enangle and strangle each other out fighting for space and food.

 

[CheifnBud2]

I suppose if the plants were small and you flowered immediately it would be ok, but dont fill the pot all the way up or the roots wont even reach the bottom.

 

[B.C.]

I dunno guys, 3 one gallon pots goin into a 7 gal pot gives them all 4 extra gallons of coco ta do there thing in. The roots will mesh together, just as they would if they were growing ina bed, like Soma does. There are several threads on here of folks growin in beds also, this is nothin new. As I said earlier, I've done this many times with clones. These clones aren't always that small by the time I get to em, so I really can't see that much difference between that and what he's wantin ta do. Maybe one of yall has had some negative expirience with this type of growing you could share with us? I'm always open ta learning somethin new. Take care... BC