Perpetual garden, pot sizes

Hello guys, so i have ”build” a perpetual garden in an ikea wardrobe.
i have 2 rooms 1 room for germination/grow, (3x2 x2,5height) 200w t5 lights
and 1 for flowering (3x2 x5) 400w quantum board light.
At moment i have 6 plants, just transplanted to 3 gal pots, mainlining, at 60 days, and I’m switching to flower today.
My question is, because now i have 2 months to grow other plants, should i go bigger pots like 5gals?
in my space i can fit 6, in 3gals or 3 in 5 gals.
what would harvest more?
anyway i can already see roots coming out the pot holes, can i leave them in their pots for other 2 months of flowering or they’ll get rootbound?
should i just move back 3 plants in the growing room, move the other 3 in 5 gals and flower just 3?
sorry im really confused, hope someone could help!
peace!

I assume your are using a soil/peat base?
Go with the three gallons and some sort of runoff tray, at least that is what i do when I want variety
BTW you really can't do perpetual until you settle on specific pheno's

yes, it’s soil. And yes...with perpetual i basically meant that i have 2 rooms, so i can save myself some times for the veg state. (Sorry my eng is not perfect)
thank you for your answer!
so I’ll just keep it like it is and flower them today.
what about the roots coming ot the pot holes?
will they handle other 2 months?
i have a feeling that if i move them to a bigger pots they would become monsters! But at the same time I’d feel sorry to flower just 3 of them...

Er gazza said:

yes, it’s soil. And yes...with perpetual i basically meant that i have 2 rooms, so i can save myself some times for the veg state. (Sorry my eng is not perfect)
thank you for your answer!
so I’ll just keep it like it is and flower them today.
what about the roots coming ot the pot holes?
will they handle other 2 months?
i have a feeling that if i move them to a bigger pots they would become monsters! But at the same time I’d feel sorry to flower just 3 of them...

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I use pots that trim the roots automatically but I never had an issue where roots coming out of the pot were a problem ...your English is fine

400w of QB over a 3x2 sounds very OTT.
Roots will find a way out of holes, doesn't mean they are root bound.
With a 5gal pot I can very easy fill 2x2 per plant, I wouldn't go bigger than 3gal if you want that many plants

is 400w hps equivalent (as they announce), from the wall is like 200w.
anyway yes, i think in my space i could fit just 2 with 5 gals.
the question is, what would yield more,
2 plants vegged for 2 months in 5 gals, or
6 plants vegged for 2 months in 3 gals?
if the harvest would be similar,I’d of course go with 2 for the less effort...

Er gazza said:

is 400w hps equivalent (as they announce), from the wall is like 200w.
anyway yes, i think in my space i could fit just 2 with 5 gals.
the question is, what would yield more,
2 plants vegged for 2 months in 5 gals, or
6 plants vegged for 2 months in 3 gals?
if the harvest would be similar,I’d of course go with 2 for the less effort...

Click to expand...

200w is ideal for you. Forget about equivalents..

They would both yield the same more or less, because you would run out of space with 6 and chop them back ..
You could do it quicker with 6 in 3gal than you could with 2 in 5gal but if you have 2 month time slot then lower plant count would suit you.

another question, for my small veg room (3x2 x2,5) at moment I’m using 2 t5, 55w each for a total of 110w.
i think is great for seedlings and the first weeks, but not enough to fully veg.
what lights would you add? I was thinking maybe a couple of cfl 50w each?
or do you think I’m ok how i am?
i do mainlining, so the canopy is always short and flat.
id buy led if i have to, but I’m scared it would get to hot coz I don’t have extractor in there
thanks!

Er gazza said:

another question, for my small veg room (3x2 x2,5) at moment I’m using 2 t5, 55w each for a total of 110w.
i think is great for seedlings and the first weeks, but not enough to fully veg.
what lights would you add? I was thinking maybe a couple of cfl 50w each?
or do you think I’m ok how i am?
i do mainlining, so the canopy is always short and flat.
id buy led if i have to, but I’m scared it would get to hot coz I don’t have extractor in there
thanks!

Click to expand...

I think given the height you might be best sticking with what you have.
If you change then a couple of hlg 65's would work or build a cheap led strip build with 2ft gen2 eb strips around 100w
But I would see how it goes with what you have for now.

rather than worry about your veg time gap why not essentially eliminate it? thats pretty much the point of growing perpetual... like I currently run a stealth tent thats overall size is 3x2x5 with a 2x2x5 bloom room, running 4 plants in 2 gal pots using coco/perlite mix with a floraflex watering system ( which is essentially just drip to drain but with better spread) in the remaining 1x2x5 area, which is split with a shelf to create a 1x2x2 and 1x2x3 areas, i use the 1x2x2 for clones/early veg and the 1x2x3 to keep small "bonsai" mothers. this way i can keep multiple strains (4-6 usually), i take clones from each mom about every 2-3 weeks even though most of them will end up in the trash i still take them just to keep the moms from overgrowing plus gives me a good selection so i can pick the best looking clones and toss the rest, then I gap the flowering plants by appx 25 days so each time i cut one down i put a new one in and the cycle continues. hope that helps

thanks for the reply! i like the idea, but sorry if I don’t get it, if in one u have clones, one mothers and one for bloom, where do you veg them?
I’m really liking the mainlining method, and 2 months is approximately how long it takes.
at the end i have found a used qb from a friend 6500k wich is great, and I’m gonna dimmer it to 30/50%. It’s the perfect size being 2x1.

I veg in the same area as the clones, they dont take much space when theyre that small, so i do the 4 plants in bloom at any given time offset by appx 25days, i keep 4-6 mothers just to have a variety of strains to choose from. when i take clones i typically take 2 from each mother at a time so i have 8-12, i give them 1-2 weeks to get good roots down, but then i only keep the 2 best looking clones and veg those for 2-3 more weeks before 1 of them ends up in the flower room, the timing all comes down to when one plant is ready and gets chopped down to make space for the next to go in so its just a matter of dialing in your grow and always having a new plant ready to go into bloom. if youre really tight on space you could even just keep 1 or 2 mothers and keep the mothers, clones, and veg all in one spot.

Also just as a side note, i used to do all kinds of training on my plants and i always keep journals of my grows, throughout my various trials and tribulations ive found that training never made that big of a difference, in most cases a majorily trained plant produces barely a 1/4oz more than an untrained plant in the same environment, the one exception to that would be supercropping but that takes a good bit of effort and ends up taking twice as long start-to-finish because all the shock and healing time, at least thats been my experiences. now i top everything at its 5th node and just let them grow naturally after that, ill do a mild fan leaf removal mid flower when i feel they need it to keep lower nodes from being over shaded but thats all. Remember to grow smarter not harder and K.I.S.S.