Are 2 Grow Areas a Must? New Member + First Time Grower

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Godswrath

Godswrath

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Hi, guys! I'm new here (well, I've lurked for some time lol). Wanted to say thanks in advance! I've learned a lot just by reading through your own personal experiences that you were nice enough to share :D.

Some background info:
  • Thinking of buying a 2x4x6 feet tent(s)
  • Leaning towards two 5lb cloth pots (second option would be just 1 pot, perhaps 7lb?)
  • Will go for feminized photoperiod seeds
  • Want to scrog them to get the most out of my 2x4 footprint
  • Have been considering the Spider Farmer SF-2000 (was thinking just 1 light for now, but possibly buying a 2nd in the future)
  • Think I'll use "super soil" or organic soil for the medium
  • The rest is kind of obvious, will have an exhaust fan, timer, 2 small fans inside to circulate air, etc. Possibly a humidifier outside the tent for veg stage

And now here comes one of my first questions:

I have been researching a shitload for a lil personal grow and think I might pull the trigger soon. I was originally thinking of just 1 tent. However, this means I wouldn't ever be able to save any clones/cuttings, right?

Therefore, do you guys think I should go all out and buy a second tent with another exhaust fan and lights? If I go this route, should I get a much cheaper LED just for veg? (Maybe something like a Bestva 1000?) Or do you think it'd be better to get another nice LED quantum board that I can just lower the brightness on? Perhaps that's better for "future proofing"?

Would buying just another light but keeping the clones just in an open room work? That is, instead of being inside a second tent. Would the smell be "acceptable" since they wouldn't be in the flowering stage?

Otherwise, with just 1 grow area, I'd be forced to kill off my plant after every harvest, right? I mean, unless I wanted to reveg her, but I am thinking I'd like to go from strain to strain (I like variety). So I'm mainly just thinking about ways I can "preserve" some of the older strains that have already been flowered/harvested in case I want to regrow them in the future.

Thoughts?

Thanks!!
 
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LittleDabbie

LittleDabbie

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If you want to harvest every 2 months then a perpetual system 2 tents would be the way to go, clone veg in 1 flower in the other constant rotating every 2 months or so.

As far as light you might as well buy 1 capable of flowering as well cause if one of your big lights takes a shit in flower, your gonna wanna fix that asap, veg can be delt with but flower no one wants to mess that up..

I run 2 TSW-2000 mars hdyros in my 4x4 tent for my 3x3 veg tent imma get a spirder farm 2000 so if something happens i can just swap it into my flower tent and then order a new light from amazon and figure out what to do with veg for a cpl days.
 
boomgagem

boomgagem

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Sounds like you’ve done plenty of research. I’m in the middle of my first grow and I would get a couple of grows under your belt before adding a second tent. Understanding the plant and how she can respond to things has been awesome and I’ve already started planning another tent myself. But it’ll be a couple more grows I think.
And I’ve already got enough equipment to do it except the tent lol.

Keep us informed on your decisions!
 
Godswrath

Godswrath

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If you want to harvest every 2 months then a perpetual system 2 tents would be the way to go, clone veg in 1 flower in the other constant rotating every 2 months or so.

As far as light you might as well buy 1 capable of flowering as well cause if one of your big lights takes a shit in flower, your gonna wanna fix that asap, veg can be delt with but flower no one wants to mess that up..

I run 2 TSW-2000 mars hdyros in my 4x4 tent for my 3x3 veg tent imma get a spirder farm 2000 so if something happens i can just swap it into my flower tent and then order a new light from amazon and figure out what to do with veg for a cpl days.

Thanks! I get you. I can go more "back to back" with a 2nd tent. Hmmm... I'm still thinking my original concern would still exist, though, since I don't want to grow the same strain back-to-back (at least not always).

I guess my question is... Do you guys just keep tons of mother plants? Or do you more or less just get rid of them and keep growing new strains? I feel like I'm going to want an environment where I can "store" my old clones for future use, but that wouldn't work in a 2 tent system running back to back, right?

Would having a bunch of clones in an open room under a light keep them alive long term in veg state? And if I wanted to grow that strain again, I could just put it back into my grow tent? If this'd work, would smell be a huge issue?

Unless there's another option I'm not thinking of?
 
Godswrath

Godswrath

26
3
Sounds like you’ve done plenty of research. I’m in the middle of my first grow and I would get a couple of grows under your belt before adding a second tent. Understanding the plant and how she can respond to things has been awesome and I’ve already started planning another tent myself. But it’ll be a couple more grows I think.
And I’ve already got enough equipment to do it except the tent lol.

Keep us informed on your decisions!

Thanks and will do! I'll update my progress in this same thread :D
 
LittleDabbie

LittleDabbie

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Thanks! I get you. I can go more "back to back" with a 2nd tent. Hmmm... I'm still thinking my original concern would still exist, though, since I don't want to grow the same strain back-to-back (at least not always).

I guess my question is... Do you guys just keep tons of mother plants? Or do you more or less just get rid of them and keep growing new strains? I feel like I'm going to want an environment where I can "store" my old clones for future use, but that wouldn't work in a 2 tent system running back to back, right?

Would having a bunch of clones in an open room under a light keep them alive long term in veg state? And if I wanted to grow that strain again, I could just put it back into my grow tent? If this'd work, would smell be a huge issue?

Unless there's another option I'm not thinking of?


Take clones before flipping into flower, Grow those out keep in veg as long as needed clone before flower again ect ect. Rotate strains so you always have something new to smoke on but keep clones of the plants that grew fast as shit with the best buds ever ect. Cull the ones that don't pass the smoke test and pop new beans rinse and repeat.

If you just go with 1 tent and seeds its gonna be 4 months till the next harvest or longer depending on the seeds.
 
Godswrath

Godswrath

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Take clones before flipping into flower, Grow those out keep in veg as long as needed clone before flower again ect ect. Rotate strains so you always have something new to smoke on but keep clones of the plants that grew fast as shit with the best buds ever ect. Cull the ones that don't pass the smoke test and pop new beans rinse and repeat.

If you just go with 1 tent and seeds its gonna be 4 months till the next harvest or longer depending on the seeds.

So if I have a couple strains in the veg tent that I don't want to put into flower anytime soon, would I just keep trimming it down so I have plenty of space for the plant(s) in that veg tent that I am training to put into flower next? Sorry, this might be a stupid, obvious question lol.
 
LittleDabbie

LittleDabbie

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So if I have a couple strains in the veg tent that I don't want to put into flower anytime soon, would I just keep trimming it down so I have plenty of space for the plant(s) in that veg tent that I am training to put into flower next? Sorry, this might be a stupid, obvious question lol.

Yes. They would become your mother plants in that situation. From there you could take cuttings and grow those out while pushing the mother plants to the side or you could grow them out if you did a good job topping/fimming.

Or you could take clones, toss the plants and grow the clones out giving you another few weeks/months to make room :D
 
Tech4523

Tech4523

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Also what you can do is hunt for the best genetics since clones are a identical copy of that plant. So say you love Blueberry. You then grow how ever many your area allows to flower. You select the best plant bud structure quality colour smell yeild etc etc...you then take the buds and leave some growth and re veg this plant....now when you cut clones off her you know exactly what your getting.

lots of guys prefer to have their mother started from seed...but imo if a Clone is a 100% identical match there is no reason you can't continue the genetics by growing a clone up to mother and flower off the mother over time
 
Godswrath

Godswrath

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Any recommendations for feminized photoperiod seeds? I like dense nugs with a lot of crystals lol. Usually I buy indica or hybrid. Do you guys know of a certain strain that fits this profile that would be good for a first time grow? Maybe something more disease-resistant? Or something better suited for scrogging? I was looking here https://onelovegenetics.com/shop/ols/categories/feminized-photoperiod and the GG4/Cookies stood out just because I've enjoyed smoking those strains before, but there are so many options I've never even seen in person, so figured I'd ask. I'm worried some of these bigger names might be more hype than anything... For example, I'm chiefin on some "fatso" right now that I love and never even heard of it before lol.
 
Tech4523

Tech4523

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Any recommendations for feminized photoperiod seeds? I like dense nugs with a lot of crystals lol. Usually I buy indica or hybrid. Do you guys know of a certain strain that fits this profile that would be good for a first time grow? Maybe something more disease-resistant? Or something better suited for scrogging? I was looking here https://onelovegenetics.com/shop/ols/categories/feminized-photoperiod and the GG4/Cookies stood out just because I've enjoyed smoking those strains before, but there are so many options I've never even seen in person, so figured I'd ask. I'm worried some of these bigger names might be more hype than anything... For example, I'm chiefin on some "fatso" right now that I love and never even heard of it before lol.

Northern Lights, GG#4, Green Crack, White widow, are supposed to be the "easier" strains to grow just off the top of the head
 
Tech4523

Tech4523

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Also the SF2000w is a great light I would suggest the sf4000w or 2 come flower time....mothers don't need a ton of light and could stay alive under a cheaper blurple light imo. personally I'd just use quantum boards for everything.
 
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Dr.B

Dr.B

1,074
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I have two tents and manage 4 or 5 crops in a 12 or so month period depending on the strain. I clone from clones just before sending them over to flower. I run mostly low wattage LED's in the veg tent until the week before I move them. Then I put in a 300w led to help them get ready for bigger lighting. I use a small booster fan on a timer for exhaust, it vents to a room next to my grow room... No carbon filter, not really a problem... Passive intakes only and a circulation fan. Super cheap and it piggybacks off the heat/humidity from the other tents equipment.

Because of the downtime involved in mothering a new strain from seed, I tend to stick with a strain or two for a year at a time. For this reason I would like 3 tents lol. A mother tent, clone/veg tent, flower tent.
 
Godswrath

Godswrath

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Also the SF2000w is a great light I would suggest the sf4000w or 2 come flower time....mothers don't need a ton of light and could stay alive under a cheaper blurple light imo. personally I'd just use quantum boards for everything.

The sf4000w for the 2x4? That wouldn't be too much? Would that be better than 2 sf2000s in the same 2x4? I was thinking the 2 sf2000 would spread out the light a bit better (more elongated).
 
Godswrath

Godswrath

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3
The sf4000w for the 2x4? That wouldn't be too much? Would that be better than 2 sf2000s in the same 2x4? I was thinking the 2 sf2000 would spread out the light a bit better (more elongated).

So it seems like the sf4000 is essentially 2 sf2000 together in terms of the lights. The only advantage I can think of is 1 driver instead of 2, so less heat?
 
Godswrath

Godswrath

26
3
So it seems like the sf4000 is essentially 2 sf2000 together in terms of the lights. The only advantage I can think of is 1 driver instead of 2, so less heat?

Looks like I was mistaken! The SF4000 have two drivers lol. Saw them on this random video

Actually... that same video shows better light spread and higher par for the 1 sf4000. And it states it has lower energy consumption! So weird... So maybe I will go for the 1 sf4000 instead... Decisions, decisions!
 
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growsince79

growsince79

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Thanks! I get you. I can go more "back to back" with a 2nd tent. Hmmm... I'm still thinking my original concern would still exist, though, since I don't want to grow the same strain back-to-back (at least not always).

I guess my question is... Do you guys just keep tons of mother plants? Or do you more or less just get rid of them and keep growing new strains? I feel like I'm going to want an environment where I can "store" my old clones for future use, but that wouldn't work in a 2 tent system running back to back, right?

Would having a bunch of clones in an open room under a light keep them alive long term in veg state? And if I wanted to grow that strain again, I could just put it back into my grow tent? If this'd work, would smell be a huge issue?

Unless there's another option I'm not thinking of?
Here's an option. Buy regular seeds and make your own new ones.
 
cemchris

cemchris

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2 tents for sure if you plan on popping a bunch of seeds. If you intent is to run moms and clones with some occasional seed runs then 2 tents will def help but isn't required. You can do all of that basically on a shelf and veg them 18/6 to 24/0 since you wont be worried about the lighting schedule as much on those. Gives you a lot more flex in that terms.

All how you want to grow. If you are looking for 4-5 harvest a year you want 2 tents. You can push that with 1 but timing and veg upkeep will have to be spot on without another tent (not to say it wont have to be with 2)

As far as lights pick whatever you want. They all work unless you are trying to max out every gram per watt in the tent then I would start getting picky. Lights are like 10% of the equation that too many new people get hung up on spend way out of pocket skimping on other more important things. Light decision is prob the least amount of time I spend on something when setting up a room. Don't overbuy on things and get the bare necessities that will get you some harvests. Meters, game plan on medium and feeding, good genetics, all the support fans, pumps, timers ect. Skip the boosters, 9 bottles of nutes or "lines of nutes", timing controllers so they mimic the sun, co2 bags ect aka don't listen to the hydro store guys. Lacking in all of that wont do you a bit of good in 1 or 2 tents from the get go. Budget for carbon filters up front if you are worried about smell. Also worry now about humidity and how to control that so you know ahead of time and budget wise weather it be just fans to keep it in check or running a dehuey depending on your space and enviro.
 
Kanzeon

Kanzeon

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Working with flowering males and making seeds was more than I wanted to try and bite off initially, so I started with fem photoperiod seeds too. Still look to fems of strains that are new to me and regs of potential breeding stock.

Two areas aren't a must, but you'll likely be cutting some clonable branches off before flowering and it's more economical to save them. The cuttings don't have to be high maintenance, they can go in a lower light area as long as it's intense enough to keep them alive and on for long enough to keep them in veg.

As far as fem photo genetics, I've had the best luck with Kalashnikov's seeds and (by far) the worst luck with Green House. Look for a breeder that actually works and knows their strains instead of one that sells blind F1's of overhyped inbred skunk #1 crosses.
 
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