Soil vs Hydro yeild question...

ive been growing in soil for over a year now and am kicking around giving hydro a go. i've read a good amount now, and understand less root space is needed per plant when growing hydro. correct? i'm planning on building my own system, but have looked at complete systems to get some ideas. my growing area is 4X4, so i'm likely going to go with a 3X3 tray. here's where my curiosity lies... right now i'm growing 4 plants in 3 gallon pots in this tent with just a little space all around. i tried growing 6, but it was way too tight. the complete systems i've looked at are coming with 1 gallon pots. i imagine 9 of those in a 3X3 growing space would be about right, though the space could hold 12. my question is, what kind of yeild can i expect from plants grown in pots 1/3 the size i'm using now? i'm reading hydro increases yeild, but i would be going from a total of 12 gallons of growing space to 9 gallons of growing space. any input would be greatly appreciated!

http://growhd.tv/video/Big-Bang-Grow-Video-2011-HD/2a22927cdd23eb4c362b9dd91f7e916e

^ that is a video from greenhouse seed company showing the growth of their strain "Big Bang". They grow the plant both hydroponically and in soil. The pots are the same size but the hydroponically grown plant far exceeds the one in soil.

Yeah hydro is faster and requires half the medium space to grow the size u would expect from that size in soil

ok to answer a few ?'s for you, i cant tell you exactly what you would yield but i can tell you how i would do it, i would cram 4 per square foot in a 3x3 (34-36 total) and veg for only a week (sog style) if each plant pulls 1/4-1/2 oz each your looking at anywhere from 9 to 18 oz's (strain and light dependent of course) another thing you could do is a scrog with a couple plants to really maximize your space.

hm. interesting... that would be packing them in there. 25 7" pots wouldn't be bad either. 11 less pots to deal with and 11 fewer seeds at $12 - $14 bucks a pop. i'm trying to find a balance of cost/managability and yeild. how big would a hydro plant get in a 6" pot, roughly? i know strains would be different. i'm trying to get a visual... is this how most people do hydro? based on 7" tray height, it looks like 8" would be as big a pot as one could use in an ebb and flow. is that right, or am i mising something? thanks for the input dr. much appreciated.

My last grow using E & F system with 5 inch rockwool slabs (6 inch slabs cut down) inside small 1.2 liter square pots each plant was just over 3 feet in overall height at harvest time. The only limiting factor to my height was more from lack of vertical room than of the plants ability.

In my current grow (4x4 tent, 3x3 tray) I started from clone and vegged for about 3 weeks. These are being grown in 6 inch RW slabs and set inside slightly larger white pots to ease moving them around. They are approaching 4 weeks flowering and are 28-30 inches from the top of my medium. I expect them to grow another 4-5 inches before they stop entirely and focus on increasing flower production.

I think my next grow will be a SOG grow; I've read that it's the most efficient method of increasing yield in a fixed environment.

PS - Not sure what you mean on tray height since your flood depth doesn't necessarily fill the entire flood tray. Most hydro mediums can wick water up quite well so on my RW slabs I only flood up 2-3 inches. One could use a 12 inch pot in a flood tray, fill it with RW or other similar hydro medium, and flood just the bottom 1-2 inches for 15 minutes and have a fully watered medium by the time it drains back into the reservoir.

Go vertical! Look up el blastido vertical setup how to. I did mine for around 1500 for everything and I get 1.5 ozs a plant with a 2.5 week veg. 1.5oz x 30 sites(1-1000w hps)=you do the math!

All in a 5x5 secret jardin!!

encomium, i guess i imagined flood depth would mostly fill the tray. now i know otherwise. thank you. lol it must be a site to see so many plants that size. i'll have to do more hydro video searches. most of the stuff i've seen only covers how to build one, not so much how to operate one. i've learned a bunch just from this post.

noris, love that math! i'll definetly check out the vertical setup. thanks!

Yo lucky i would recommend going with a 4x4 tray. every 3x3 tray i have ever seen only has a 4 inch side (like mine and i regret buying them). if you bump up to a 4x4 you can get a 6" or 8" side which i believe is better because you get the 2 inches of extra room for your medium (for those mediums that don't whick). most pots for your medium are going to be taller rather than wider so it just gives you that little bit extra which i would personally prefer.

I run a 4x4 tray 64 5.5" square pots no veg at all. Straight from clonebox to flower. I havent filled up the table only have about 40 on now, but 64 will work. I run Sour Bubble and Free Leonard (and soon Dumpster when my cut is big enough to gift me clones) together and Plushberry and Grand Daddy Purp together. I'm expanding to a 4 table perpetual sog grow like Al b Fuct demonstrated with the addition of CO2 and light rails. I'm aiming to get 10 grams of Sour Bubble per plant (I take 8" clones, they stretch to finish at 25-26" combined with tight internodal spacing and lollipopping the plants 1/3 up to create nice thick colas, every bud is bagged) which would be 640 grams on each table. I would also suggest Dyna Gro nutes for the ph stability and overall performance alone (another member Homebrewer has a few side-by-side grows you should check out that are very informative). I feel I am able to keep the area more sterile and orderly, growth is explosive, and although it contradicts many of the opinions of more experienced growers and smokers I feel the taste can be sweeter and although perhaps a little less pronounced it eliminates a fair share of the earthy tones of some strains (say GDP) and comes together better in the palate. With no veg time, smaller pots, bigger yields (I friggin hate soil gnats) I'm happy I switched.

thanks robert. i dug around a bit and have been able to find the 3x3 tray with 7' sides. i measure the inside of my tent and even though it's listed as 4x4, it's actually more like 46". i agree, the 4x4 would have been better if i could fit it in.

springtucky, i've been watching homebrewer's dyna grow thread, and am going to use it on the soil grow i just started, which i hope will be my last... i like everything i'm reading about hydro, like the no veg time, smaller pots, and bigger yeilds...

Really!?! Cool, do you have a link? I might be interested in getting a couple as well.