Making the most of maximum plant count

Hey guys,

I'm a semi-experienced DWC farmer who may or may not become legal soon. If so, i'm looking for some advice on the best way to make the most of a given plant count (probably somewhere in the neighbourhood of 25-50). My knee-jerk plan is to grow trees, and split the count in half for a veg+flower room to keep crop times down to 2-3 months. I would like to get the most yield per plant logically, so i'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions?

I'm pretty married to the hydroponics thing, I don't really think grow medium has much to do with it so much as grow design and lighting. Any tips would be great!

grow trees, in a scrog setup in DWC. if your legal, get as many 1000watters as you can. if space isnt an issue, scrog them in like 4x4 or 5x5 screen with a 2 month veg. if done right, you will have a crop every 8-10 weeks depending on strain.

in DWC you get more grams per watt than in soil

ElectricPineapple said:

grow trees, in a scrog setup in DWC. if your legal, get as many 1000watters as you can. if space isnt an issue, scrog them in like 4x4 or 5x5 screen with a 2 month veg. if done right, you will have a crop every 8-10 weeks depending on strain.

in DWC you get more grams per watt than in soil

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I was seriously thinking about scrog as well, and I think it would work well with each plant in its own 5 gallon paint bucket, or perhaps something even larger. Anyone have any experience in using scrog vs just growing trees? I've seen some really nice tree type grows using vertical hanging 1000w bulbs that rest between each tree rather than above it, then the plants are quarter-turned every day for light exposure.

Any other thoughts would be appreciated

well scrog, is to make the best and biggest canopy, with the least amount of plants. if you just grow a bunch of trees, you will get a better yield, than a few scrogged.

ElectricPineapple said:

well scrog, is to make the best and biggest canopy, with the least amount of plants. if you just grow a bunch of trees, you will get a better yield, than a few scrogged.

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Thank you once more. I have a good understanding of scrog works, but do you have any suggestions on how to impliment a vegetative room with a screen? Would I do something where I would have a whole seperate set of screens in the veg room, then maybe just wheel them into flower once time to flip? It seems a bit tricky. I would ideally like to have the screen stretched after about 1.5-2 months of veg then roll them over, chop the flowerd plants and plant new clones the day after sort of deal, to maintain a 8-10 week crop cycle. Any thoughts? I would have to have to crop every 4 months

just have two rooms, and then start one, let it veg for 2 months, while the other room is flowering, then when the room that is in flowering is done, start the other room on 12/12 while you put the other room back in veg. you wold just have 2 rooms, switching them back and forth from veg to flowering. so the plants will stay in the room 4 months, but you will get a harvest every 2 months

Awesome, yea I think that's the way to go. Probably do one or two plants under 1 400w each or something like that. shoot for 16 or so smaller lights in each room would be nice, but well have to see. Thanks for the tips, time will tell and plenty of brainstorming involved

id do a 4x4 scrog with a 1000 watt on each of the 4x4 screens. you will get way more yield per plant. or two 600's, whichever is you fancy

ElectricPineapple said:

id do a 4x4 scrog with a 1000 watt on each of the 4x4 screens. you will get way more yield per plant. or two 600's, whichever is you fancy

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I understand that a 1000w is perfect for a typical 4x4, but wouldn't it be overkill on a Scrog, simply because not much if at all vertical penetration is needed? I figured because all the buds were right at the top a 600 or even a 400 would work.

well you could do a 600, but you will get bigger buds on a 1000 watter, also you will also have leaves below the buds, that will produce energy to make the buds. so too much light penetration is usually never a bad thing, but i cant knock on the 600's, they will pull nice weight

It appears so far that the winner will be a MPB system. (med patient bucket). A gentleman named DoubleDs got 42+lbs off of 10 plants using this system, and i believe 12 1000w bulbs, so, trees.

Here's the link: http://www.thcfarmer.com/forums/f131/doubleds-med-patient-bucket-diy-mpb-buckets-7883/

I vote for sog, if you still are looking at around 25 50, do two tables 25 small plants on each.an Al.b type set up.

42 lbs of ten plants is cool. And I'm shur the gram per what is good. But I bet thed total gram per kwh isn't so great.

With a sog set up you will be harvesting your first few lbs in as little as 9 to 10 weeks.

DoubleD's tree system is the way to go IF you're legal and aren't worried about the power consumption. Gram per watt is not part of the strategy here. Highest production per plant is the name of the game in a legal med situation
The capitol investment is quite high with these, so be prepared.
Fred

Yea I. Understand wanting to stay at or under the suggested number of plants.but wont you be wwaay over you maximum lbs?

fred flintstoned said:

DoubleD's tree system is the way to go IF you're legal and aren't worried about the power consumption. Gram per watt is not part of the strategy here. Highest production per plant is the name of the game in a legal med situation
The capitol investment is quite high with these, so be prepared.
Fred

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Precisely what I was thinking. From what I'm reading it looks like it'll take 15-20k to get a complete 10 bucket system going, which is where the 42 lbs came from (not that im expecting to get that any time soon). That includes a 5 ton ac, a 1/2 hp water chiller, all the gear for the buckets, co2 system, dehumidifers, etc etc. I haven't seen a better indoor setup to date, still looking and listening to other opinions.

I can't see how SOG could be considered in the contest for making the most of a plant count, but thanks for the suggestion

Its a bad ass system, I just don't get why you would drop that much cash to stay under one guide line when as soon as you harvest you will be wwaaayyyyyy over another guide line.

I just can't see it dusint mean its not there though, if you got the balls and the. Money to jump head first into hydro trees I'm down to watch

ah but you see, you can only have a usable amount, who is to say, only 2 ounces of that bud is usable as medicine. the remaining amount isnt.

I thought the guide lines where pretty clear on useable plant material.

But that's. Neither here nor there. This Guy found what will work for him. So ill stop talking as hydro. Tree's are beyond me

sogalax said:

I thought the guide lines where pretty clear on useable plant material.

But that's. Neither here nor there. This Guy found what will work for him. So ill stop talking as hydro. Tree's are beyond me

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I hear ya. It's a grey area. I know many legal growers who follow their plant count to a T, but very few who follow their storage limit. From what I understand, if something should happen and police find themselves in your home with a bunch of extra medicine, but within your plant count, they'll simply destroy the medicine. Don't quote me on this, but I've read this experience from a couple different people. I've never personally known any med patient that has been in any sort of legal trouble adhereing to their plant counts. I have, however, seen many different legal ops dismantled, and people losing licenses because of people completely overgrowing their counts. One example comes to mind: A guy with a 50 plant license was caught with 1,150 SOG plants in his home. Honestly, what a moron, and he deserved what he got... which was simply losing his production license!!

I don't mind investing the coin, because I know hydro pretty well, and have had some real success with it, producing some world class medicine. I kind of have a love affair with the idea of RDWC, since my only experience is with just normal DWC... but imagine that... a monster chiller, all that circulation, all that dissolved oxygen, sealed room... gets me all giddy.

hell MMJ as a whole is a grey area, greed=trouble, and your not being greedy at all. its a bad ass setup have you thought about using a flip flop double you bulb numbers and flop every 2 hours to get better cover age and only pay for the extra cords and bulbs,

lets see if i can draw that out

1 2 1
2 1 2
1 2 1

so 1's are on for a time, then switch to the 2s.

im shur theres a better way to set it up but you get the idea.