Too many plants - should i remove some or grow on?

[greenops]

Considering the general rule of 1 plant per sqf, then theoretically I could grow up to 16 plants in my 4 x 4 tent.

Expecting a 50% female ratio I germinated 31 regular beans.
To my surprise I ended up with 26 females.

Grown under 600w HPS, 1 gal pots, multiple drip feed, DTW system, it got packed real quick so I removed 4 female plants. Now I got 21 females left.

I flipped the switch 23 - 27 days after they sprouted, currently 38 days total, 12 days in 12/12, see pictures below.

This grow is still pretty manageable.
As my objective is to find keeper phenos, whose clones ill be growing after this, it would be ideal if i could grow out all 21 of them.

I'm just concerned that a packed tent may be more prone to pests and diseases. I lost a crop to PM once, i'll do anything to prevent something like that from happening again.

Any advice from experienced growers are appreciated!
Especially if anyone has grown in a fully packed grow tent. How did that turn out?



Additional info:
They were 7 to 10 inches tall when i flipped them.
The strains are:

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]2 Dedhead OG
3 Vortex
5 Cheeseberry Haze
5 Chucky's Bride
4 Cheeto Kush
2 Pineapple Diesel
[/FONT]

 

[5th]

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=217229

This dude packs 'em in pretty good.

 

[Photosynthesis]

The only down side is air movement, or lack there of. Pest's, mold, etc are a lot harder to deal with when things are that packed. However, if you pay attention you can also get bigger yields.

 

[Hundred Gram Oz]

You're plants look nice and healthy pal, DTW FTW! That was a great m/f ratio or in your case a shitty one lol but fear not, you'll be fine growing 21 plants in a 4x4, I'm currently working with 25 plants per 4x4 these days. As said already, make sure you have good air movement, keep temps and humidity in check, also keep an eye on your plants leaves to see signs of pests. Throw an old pair of the wifeys tights over your intake, have a sulphur burner and other pest controls on hand to gas the lil mofos if they do appear

The only real problems that you might run into is canopy height with running all them different strains beside each other at the same time but you should be fine. G'luck in finding some dank keepers brotha.


Here's one of my trays, 25 per 4x4.

Cheese Tray 4x4
25 Plants

​

Peace,
HGO

 

[gaiusmarius]

for testing as many females as possible this is fine, don't remove anymore, even if it gets crowded, as long as you have a good climate they will be fine. my sogs are always interwoven like that with the plants branching into each other. you just vegged longer then needed, otherwise you could have left all the females in there. lets hope you didnt remove the winners lol. no more culling till you smoke em Bro!

 

[CheeseFiend]

hi HGO your 25 plants per 4x4 look excellent can i ask what size of pots they are ?

 

[Granger2]

For your purpose, finding keepers, this is OK. On future crops, cut back on plant numbers. Keep in mind that 600w in a 4x4 is only 37.5w/sq. ft. Marginal. You need a 1000w in there. Good luck. -granger

 

[Hundred Gram Oz]

hi HGO your 25 plants per 4x4 look excellent can i ask what size of pots they are ?

Hi, CheeseFiend. Thank you. That's 25 Cheese clones under a 600w lamp in a 4x4, pots are 3.5L, 60/40 coco/perlite mix. The room yielded an overall average of, 25oz per tray.

Peace,
HGO

 

[CheeseFiend]

dam hgo thats a dream yield for me i am gonna run a 9 plant soil grow soon if i get 10oz
of great dank i will be happy thanks for the info...cheesefiend

 

[papaduc]

The big difference between growing 20 odd clones and 20 odd seeds is there's always the chance of a hermie and in a space that packed hooked up to drippers it's almost impossible to check each plant for male flowers. A strong breeze from underneath and the whole lot can be pollinated.

Personally on a seed run like that, I'd defoliate heavily and keep the air circulation just above the top of the plants, then if any male flowers do open and drop pollen underneath the canopy, it won't be all out seed carnage at harvest time.

 

[gaiusmarius]

anyone growing from seed that is not checking each plant at least once a week during flowering, is asking for trouble.

all you do is lean over and shove plants aside a bit so you can see in to the bottom of the plant you are checking, then work your way up each stem with your eyes. the branches will settle again np, specially if you are gentle. but yeah, decent genetics don't normally hermy in a good climate.

edited to add: 4by 4 foot is just under 1meter by 1.50, which is the foot print of all the best quality 600 watt hps. sure you can use 1per 1 sq meter, but you will have a much harder time getting those gpw numbers up to 1 and over.

 

[Hundred Gram Oz]

SOG and Cheese have been a blessing to me....everytime Ive grown chesse in a mukti strain grow she has out yielded everything. You ever try Livers Gaius?

 

[papaduc]

anyone growing from seed that is not checking each plant at least once a week during flowering, is asking for trouble.

all you do is lean over and shove plants aside a bit so you can see in to the bottom of the plant you are checking, then work your way up each stem with your eyes. the branches will settle again np, specially if you are gentle. but yeah, decent genetics don't normally hermy in a good climate.

edited to add: 4by 4 foot is just under 1meter by 1.50, which is the foot print of all the best quality 600 watt hps. sure you can use 1per 1 sq meter, but you will have a much harder time getting those gpw numbers up to 1 and over.

One male flower is all it takes to pollinate a whole room in that space depending on the type of circulation in there and where the flower pops up. The best growers with the best eyes can miss a flower or two on a plant. It's happened to me in a similar setup where I was checking plants regularly and it's happened to a lot of decent growers.

As a precaution, on a seed run with 20+ strains in a space like that, I would defoliate to minimise the need for a lot of airflow between the plants, and keep the circulation underneath down to a minimum and keep a gentle breeze across the top of the plants. It's an insurance measure to go alongside checking for male flowers, not instead of.

When I said checking for male flowers is almost impossible, that's an overstatement. What I meant is if a plant pops one flower or two in a crowded grow where you can't remove the plants individually, it's like finding a needle in a haystack.

 

[PinkMagic]

excellent post. good looking gals greenops. You can probably get away with that many, a lil bit of some training.

 

[greenops]

Thanks for all the advice!

Okay, I'm glad that most of you are saying i can grow these 21 ladies out.

Thanks Gaius. I know it would have been easier if I switched earlier. But I had to veg until all the plants grew side branches long enough to take as cutting. I flipped right on the day I cloned them.


Nice setup HGO! Impressive yield too. But I guess the difference is that you got a batch of clones and so you're able to flower them earlier. 25 plants tho.. that for sure gets packed.


Papaduc, thanks for pointing the hermie threat. I will pay extra attention. Also I'm planning to select maybe 1-2 phenos of each strain to undergo some heavy defoliation. I don't wanna do it with every plant because not all plants react well to it IME.
When do u recommend I should start?

As for the height, i know it may become an issue. I started to LST some of them, plus i'm gonna use a trellis net, maybe two nets!

 

[Hundred Gram Oz]

Nice setup HGO! Impressive yield too. But I guess the difference is that you got a batch of clones and so you're able to flower them earlier. 25 plants tho.. that for sure gets packed.

Exactly, it doesn't really matter how many plants are there (to a point of course) It's all comes down to when you flip 'em, if you have 25 plants in a 4x4 and let them get too big, you will be over crowded later on and run into problems, but if you flower them at the right height (genetics & training will dictate this) then you will be fine.

Peace,
HGO

 

[papaduc]

Papaduc, thanks for pointing the hermie threat. I will pay extra attention. Also I'm planning to select maybe 1-2 phenos of each strain to undergo some heavy defoliation. I don't wanna do it with every plant because not all plants react well to it IME.
When do u recommend I should start?

Sorry for the late reply.

It's up to you. Personally on a grow as crowded as that I'd strip them all now and maybe again if I felt they had gotten crowded again later on. Some people aren't comfortable doing it and I can understand that.

You don't have to defoliate to keep things in check. Just select individual branches which you want to become colas and cut everything else. You'll find the colas you do keep will be bigger doing in that way, as oppose to leaving the plant to sustain them all. Keep the thickest branches to be the biggest colas, give it what you think is adequate spacing, and then cut anything which crowds it or occupies the space you've allocated for it. It'll make a much more manageable grow in every way.