[mikessong]

I have 23 clones in 20sf, 8 feet height. I'd like to grow them untrained and tightly packed, more spaced out than a typical SOG but not bushes, height could get to 4 or 5 feet if they can handle it horizontally. I have mostly sativa dominants, and I'd like to test them out with fairly natural growth so I can see which ones I'd like to continue growing.

Right now the plants are veg'ing in 1 gal coco pots. They're 4-12" and the roots are probably getting pretty thick in there. I'll probably go to 12/12 when they're about 12-18" and I'm trying to figure out if I should flower in 2 or 3 gal. pots? Especially given what I read and am experiencing about coco's growth properties. I have the 3 gallons, along with a few 2's, and they can all fit in there. I don't mind the room being crowded, but will the plants growth get too crowded? Is constraining the roots in 2 gal. pots going to be better? Thanks...

20 SQFT!!! FUCK I GROW IN 16 SQFT and your not growing 23 plants....if you are it a really small SOG and "height could get to 4 or 5 feet if they can handle it horizontally"
not going to happend in 20SQFT...lol anyways im just high....im sure some experts will chime in... my point... 20SQFT is too little for 23 plants...



23 x 2 gal containers in a 20 SQ FT AREA?

so each plant has .9 SQFT!!!


I like to get rootbound in a 1 gal in veg and then transplant into 2gal veg another 1 week then set into flwoer... with 2-3 feet tall plants .... 5 gal would be a long veg...

[mikessong]

I thought one plant per sq. ft is pretty standard. Not so with coco? I usually see Sog's at like 4 plants per sq. ft. You flower when they're 2-3 ft? I definitely don't want to go that high.

So I guess the other question is how high should I let the plants get for 1 per sq. ft? And to get that height when should I switch to flower?

there going to want to spread out...my veg area is 2x3 and 4' tall....when the plants are to big for that area they go into the 4x4 table that has about 4x6 of area around it..they always out grow that tray into the walls...

[humble1]

i have a mix of twos and threes and so far (about halfway) the twos are doing just as well as the threes and have a smaller footprint.

i say go for the twos.

[mikessong]

humble1, that's interesting. so the 3 gallons aren't stretching out more than the 2's? that kind of makes me want to go with the 3's, since it seems they won't get much more crowded than the 2's. my hope is the 3 gallons will give me bigger buds but not much bigger plants. what do you think?

i would put them into the 2 gallon pots and veg them for a week, week and a half then flip them. 23 plants might be pushing it, I would'nt go over 20 personally even with taller sativa dom plants. These were in 2 gallon pots of coco and perlite, veg'd to about 12", finished up at about 35-37", yielded 2.5-3 oz each. I did'nt top them ones and did some very light training just to get my side branches up.



You will get alot of plant from 2 gallons of coco, I would'nt use a 3 gallon pot unless I was making some serious bushes.

[humble1]

I'm with supernuck on this one.

seems like i'm always agreeing with canadians... huh

anyway, i run a 3x6 tray with 24 plants and a 3x3 with twelve plants

if i only had two gallon bags in there i could fit an extra row of four to top out at 28 plants.

if you want to max the size out of the three gallons you'll have to do more veg, otherwise it's just wasted medium. it's not much medium but waste not, want not.

plus a little squeeze one the rootmass can increase the density of the rootball itself

I'm kinda partial to using the 3 gallon pots if you've got the room for all the plants. Hand watering once a day, the pots provided a larger reservoir for the young plants. For about a third of my grow, I could get runoff by watering with a liter a day. You're using a drip system but I'd think the larger pot size should still help maintain a more stable root environment even with multiple waterings. But even when I get my drip system set up, I'll still water only once a day, until I have to cure a rising ec.

I haven't grown like you're gonna grow though and I've also not grown 23 plants at once so I don't know if the added benefit of potentially larger plants due to a larger root mass would apply to you.

Peace bro

[mikessong]

Thanks guys, I guess the consensus is 2. I'll probably go for 2's or a mixture of 2's and 3's for my favorites. My question is why not use all available space for roots? If that would maximize yield, that's more important to me than if the extra medium, water, nutes, etc. aren't used as efficiently. To me, the best reason not to use 3's is if they will encourage the plants to get too big for the space they have and make them unhappy. But I am counting on the plant crowding and available light to limit how wide each plant streches out. Is that how it works? As you can tell this is my first grow.

So if I'm using mostly 2 gal's for 23 plants in 20sf, what height should I flower them at? Supernuck I know you said week / and a half but I got these clones at different times from different breeders. I'm not sure if I should start flowering all together or give the smaller ones a bit more veg time so they don't get dwarfed. For example I have a Kali Mist that's shot up to 12", and a White Widow that's around 9" - I hear certain pheno's of the Widow could strech past five feet if I flip now. But I have a few Bubba's that are only around 4", if I flip those now they'll probably be a foot and a half or two, right? I guess if you could tell me general veg heights and flower heights I should be shooting for around 1 plant/ sf, that would be a big help and then I'll research the individual strains and figure out which I need to adjust.