5 strains, 40(ish) plants and not a lot of room..

[greenpriest024]

40 plants in 1.1 square meters, overkill...?
i'm growing in a 2mt tall closet (width 180cm depth 60cm) with a 400 watt and a 600 watt HPS in cooltubes, so height isn't really an issue. The thing is, some plants like to grow up, others out, right?
i know what you're going to say, you're the grower so its up to you how your plant grows... but this is my first time with All of these strains (in fact it's the first time i'm moving up from 250w HPS and more than 2 plants, lol), and i'm concerned on their behaviour as they grow, and don't want to end up overgrowing the relatively restrictive room i already have..

originally i'd planned on germinating all 40 seeds, counting on 35 germinating succesfully and with a 60 - 70% female count i'd end up with somewhere around 25 big green babes. Now that the closet is assembled i'm looking at it with none too much hope, so i'm asking for your advice, gentlemen and ladies..
should i germ less seeds?
were i to add another closet (2mt square total), how many plants would be most efficient to have..?
also, it's going to be tight squeeze however it goes, so will training the plants to go Up and not Out work out efficiently, or would i get the same yields from half the plants given more room to branch out?

btw, strains are: Recon*, Master Kush*, Mazaar, Super Skunk & Swazi (the * indicates what i am most intent on growing)

Guys, im sorry im a n00b and bombarding you with questions already, but it's for a great cause :D so i hope you'll bear with me and in a few months' time be drooling over my pics

 

[revfunk]

hey my friend......keep in mind that going UP had alot of downsides......first, alot of space in between nodes (budsites).......second, your lights lose an INCREDIBLE amount of lumens for every foot they are from the plant......if you are growing UP, the whole bottom of your plant is going to be popcorn.......

want a suggestion......screw 40 beans man........pop ten at first.......flower out all of the gals and keep your favorite(s) for mothers..........then just clone clone clone and you can put 20 8 inch tall clones into your 2M space, flip the switch and watch the SOG grow ;)

good luck,
bf

 

[greenpriest024]

if you are growing UP, the whole bottom of your plant is going to be popcorn.......

that's what i was thinking - give them a scrog pruning without the screen to concentrate growth in the top sites.. but i guess its a waste of altitude...
thanks for the advice man, i cannot Wait to get to cracking the seeds :D

any other advice would be appreciated, also doing a lot of reading on each individual strain but input from people with first-hand experience is greatly appreciated...

and another thing, can i clone from a clone? i was thinking of turning a clone into a mother in the future, and i can't seem to get a coherent answer whether the plant loses potency or not. I know from first-hand experience shrooms can do a good 20 flushes always starting from clones, and then you do lose potency.. so what's people's opinion?

 

[Green81]

definately clone from a clone, thats not a problem, just make sure your original clone is very healthy otherwise you'll have problems later down the line.

 

[greenpriest024]

thanks for the info man :)

 

[leadplant]

For a tall closet with a squarish base, consider hanging the light(s) vertically and do a coliseum style SOG. There are some good threads out there on vert. lighting. Your cool tubes will help alot in a vert. setup. No reflector needed. It is a bit trickier to get the pot size, plant size and positioning all synced up right which is why most growers don't do vert. setups.

 

[greenpriest024]

I remember having seen a few "coliseum" style setups being advertised on a couple of sites a while back, and to be honest i had been considering vertical lighting for a while since the spread on the cooltubes is shit (sorting that out by replacing the in-built curved reflector with a standard one with wider range).
My concern is that since i'm starting from seeds, to get the most out of the plants they are going to need to be a bit bigger than were they clones with nodes from day 1.
At the moment i don't have time to do enough reading on the topic to see some way around the size problem, if you can suggest a source it would be great.
Otherwise, it's a good alternative i hadn't really considered for my 2nd run from clone - although i should have picked more compact strains to do it. I know even Durban can be grown SOG, but the first time round i'm assuming i'd be getting in way over my head!

Thanks a lot for the suggestions guys..

[edit] did some quick reading on omegas as well as coliseums, and although it is Pimp i don't like the idea of skipping veg - clones are fragile and although it would give me a greater surface to work with, i'm not sure how much more efficient it would be compared to letting the clones fill out a bit in veg before going 12/12. I am saving time, but my next planned investment setup-wise will definitely be aero + CO2 reg - faster growth should compensate for area loss, no?

or maybe i'll just rent a warehouse or two and give the omegas a run after all, lol....