Help setting up 5x3.. Which option for greatest yield??

cannaman421 · Aug 25, 2022

Hey Farmers, I'm setting up a 5x3 tent and considering a few options. Hoping to get some recommendations.

Light: Two Spider Farm SF1000 LED lights (4x2 coverage)
Soil: BuildASoil Potting Soil Version 3.0
Compost: Cover crop, top dress, warm castings

I'd like to grow 4 plants, maybe 2 autos and 2 fems.. or, would I get better yield from 2 or 3 plants?

Option #1: Four plants in 4x2 fabric soil bed (~50 gallons)
Option #2: Three plants in 4x2 fabric soil bed
Option #3: Two Earthboxes, each with two plants
options #4: Two Earthboxes, one plant in each + 1 or 2 15 gallon fabric pots

Any advice welcome.. thanks!!

BigCube · Aug 26, 2022

Much much much much much much more light to start with.

Rule of thumb is 35w per sq ft.

5x3x35=525

Your 2x sf1000 fixtures only put out 200w all together. Not even half of what you would need to light that tent.

You would need 4 more sf1000 fixtures just to meet the 35w per sq ft average.

I would suggest at least 2x250w quantum or bar style setups.

With 2 sf1000's in a 5x3 you'd be lucky to get 300g of fluffy popcorn buds.

cannaman421 · Aug 26, 2022

Thanks, that would make sense for a 5x3 bed, but the grow area for the soil bed is only 4x2x35=280 and the two earthboxes would be even less at 2.4x2x35=168

Provided I have enough light, any recommendations regarding the 4 options?

pilto · Aug 26, 2022

I would put 3 plants, each in their own pot. Just checked out those Earthboxes. Neat! I would get 3 for your space and put one plant in each. For lighting if you are absolutely fixated on your particular brand, I would get 3 instead of 2. I have flowered 3 plants in a 2x4 grow tent with a Spider Farmer SF2000, which is pretty much EXACTLY what you are talking about with 2 X SF1000's. I needed a little more space and a little more light to have a GREAT grow. I had an OK grow in there. And if you have 3 plants and 3 lights, you can adjust the lights independently for each plant. If you are open to suggestions, I would take a look at HLG kits. I have a pair of their 260W Rspec kits in my 4x4 and they are knocking it out of the park.

And just as a heads up, when you are talking about growing area and measuring it by the area of your soil, you are forgetting that plants do not grow in the shape of a box. They grow in a bush so your tops will usually be MUCH wider than your potting area.

cannaman421 · Aug 26, 2022

Thanks, Pilto - that's great info!

Any thoughts on this Birdies™ Self-Watering Metal Raised Bed, 2’ x 4’ (link) as an alternative to the Earthboxes?

pilto · Aug 26, 2022

I am currently doing soil, but not the BuildASoil stuff. I have watched their videos though! RIght now I have 3 indoor tents. A 2x4, 4x4, and 5x5. The 4x4 has 2 HLG kits, the 5x5 has a mix of Mars Hydro bar style lights and a couple of the Spider Farmer SF2000s. The 2x4 has the first lights I got ripped off for by Amazon and I don't mention them. I use the 2x4 for a veg tent currently. All of my plants are in a pretty basic off the shelf potting soil mix and I use the Jack's 321 + Mr. Fulvic + PowerSi for nutrients. If I understand the concept, you will only be watering yours with the BuildASoil stuff, right? NO NUTRIENTS? I just scale up to a 5 gallon pot and then flower in those. I have a very cheap Lowes based soil mix that I don't publicize because it is embarrassingly bad. HAHA but it grows nice buds!

Personally, I would want to be able to move my plants around, dick around with them, be able to see them from all sides and my space wouldn't allow that with one big bed. If you can still access from 3 sides, a single big planting bed might be good. Cleaning it out would be a pain in the ass.

RootsRuler · Aug 26, 2022

I'm running a 5 x 5 tent with 6 plants. Each plant is in a 7 gal cloth pot. Each plant has its own tub so that I can move it around if need be and also check for runoff PH for each individual pot and be able to adjust accordingly. I like using Roots Organic Original potting mix I didn't order enough and was too lazy to order more so I had some bags of Kelloggs Potting soil laying around and just used that. I supplemented the soil with Xtreme Gardening MYKOS mycorrhizae.

I'm using two 2000w LED lights from Bestva. One is a blurple and the other is a white light LED. I'm going to retire the blurple and order another white light LED after harvest. Each light uses 390w. That's 780w of total light in the tent. 5 x 5 = 25sq/ft.

35w sq/ft x 25 sq/ft = 875w needed to reach the rule of thumb mentioned.

I'm on the lower side of ideal but I have to factor in temp and humidity control so more light generating more heat and humidity keeps me from adding in that extra 95w. The Lux readings are in line with where they should be so I'm hoping the wattage in the tent is sufficient to optimize plant production.

cannaman421 · Aug 27, 2022

What do you think about supplementing the two SF1000 with a Horticulture Lighting Group HLG 150 PATRIOT? That would give me ~350w for the 3x2 grow area.

Thinking I could configure it with the HLG in the middle with the two SF1000 on either side.

Aqua Man · Aug 27, 2022

If your lighting a 4x2 imo 2 sf 1000 is good. The 35w per sqft. To me is way overkill these days as LED has become much kore efficient the it used to be when that recommendation was used.

25w per sqft is plenty imo. Especially if growing autos that dont need to get all their light in 12 hrs

pilto · Aug 27, 2022

cannaman421 said:
What do you think about supplementing the two SF1000 with a Horticulture Lighting Group HLG 150 PATRIOT? That would give me ~350w for the 3x2 grow area.

Thinking I could configure it with the HLG in the middle with the two SF1000 on either side.

Get 3 of these: https://horticulturelightinggroup.com/collections/kits/products/135w-qb-v2-rspec-led-kit They are on a bit of a sale right now.

pilto · Aug 27, 2022

RootsRuler said:
I'm running a 5 x 5 tent with 6 plants...

That looks really nice and clean. Right now, I have 3 Cherry Gar See Ya, 3 Mandarin Cookies (both ethos) and 4 Expert Guerilla (Expert Seeds) in my 5x5 and, as usual, it's a damn jungle in there. Smells like armpits, fruit and dirty athletic socks right now but I really need to reduce my numbers and get things more manageable. I am planning on running 3xCrescendo (ethos) and 3xSuper Lemon Haze (also ethos) in there on my next run and i am going to try to sort my situation a little closer to how you have it set up there. VERY NICE!!!

Oh, and P.S. I am running 2 Spider Farmer SF2000s and 1 Mars Hydro SP3000 (700 total watts) in my 5x5 and I don't see any shortage of big fat donkey dicks sticking up out of my canopy about 3 weeks from harvest. I am expecting 3+ ounces per plant on all 10 plants. And they are NOT airy buds.

Madmax · Aug 27, 2022

Aqua Man said:
If your lighting a 4x2 imo 2 sf 1000 is good. The 35w per sqft. To me is way overkill these days as LED has become much kore efficient the it used to be when that recommendation was used.

25w per sqft is plenty imo. Especially if growing autos that dont need to get all their light in 12 hrs

Yep ..i keep seeing it over and over this 35w sq ft is bullshit..only have to look at what @Peat_Phreak is getting ea harvest using just 2x200watt leds in a 4x4 space..

BigCube · Aug 29, 2022

Madmax said:
Yep ..i keep seeing it over and over this 35w sq ft is bullshit..only have to look at what @Peat_Phreak is getting ea harvest using just 2x200watt leds in a 4x4 space..

It's an average. In a 3x3 I get a pound off 315w of led. 3x3x35 is 315. I run the same strain in the same 3x3 tent with just 240w and I barely reach 350g of usable bud. The sides and corners buds are fluffy airy and useless to me, it gets tossed with the trim.

With 315 it's full thick hard nugs edge to edge, corners too.

In a 3x3 right now I'm running about 400w and it is nowhere near too much light.

Do a couple runs, then try one with 50% more light then tell me how it is.

Sameperson775 · Aug 29, 2022

Are you absolutely dead set on a 5x3 space? If you can manage a 5x5 tent and a spider farmer se7000 you won't regret it. That being said if you are doing 5x3 check out spider farmers se3000. Amazing light I use for clones and seedlings. Get 2 for a 5x3 and run them at about 60%. I always believe in buying a bigger light than you think you need now. If you can do a 5x5 get the 3x3 bed from build a soil. The 3.0 is a great option, they are working on a auto flower mix at the moment. Keep in mind a 3x3 soil bed can't be moved with urgency if needed. The earthboxes can. Good luck with your grow, the sources you are getting your information from for soil are top notch. Check out MIGRO and Justintime2grow on YouTube for lighting.

Blastfact · Aug 29, 2022

I've never understood the minimalistic way some folks look at there lighting.

Madmax · Aug 29, 2022

BigCube said:
It's an average. In a 3x3 I get a pound off 315w of led. 3x3x35 is 315. I run the same strain in the same 3x3 tent with just 240w and I barely reach 350g of usable bud. The sides and corners buds are fluffy airy and useless to me, it gets tossed with the trim.

With 315 it's full thick hard nugs edge to edge, corners too.

In a 3x3 right now I'm running about 400w and it is nowhere near too much light.

Do a couple runs, then try one with 50% more light then tell me how it is.

Thats not bad.. a p under 315 .. id keep running that if its yielding better than 400w in same tent..youll get there with it...

BigCube · Aug 29, 2022

Madmax said:
Thats not bad.. a p under 315 .. id keep running that if its yielding better than 400w in same tent..youll get there with it...

I get more out of 400w obviously. In a 3x3 on 400w I get around 700g.

Madmax · Aug 29, 2022

Im getting a tad over 2 out of 5x4 area using 625 watts from the wall so our grows would b very close if you had the same area..im cheating a little though as its a 5x5 but using finned heater ,fans and a dehuey taking up the first ft of the room..ive taken the lumatek out actually and running the se7000 spiderfarmer now and so far has suprised me how they are going under it..running it just under 80% 580watts .pretty good light for anyone on a budget..

BigCube · Aug 29, 2022

Madmax said:
Im getting a tad over 2 out of 5x4 area using 625 watts from the wall so our grows would b very close if you had the same area..im cheating a little though as its a 5x5 but using finned heater ,fans and a dehuey taking up the first ft of the room..ive taken the lumatek out actually and running the se7000 spiderfarmer now and so far has suprised me how they are going under it..running it just under 80% 580watts .pretty good light for anyone on a budget..

I've built up my own custom fixture, it's basically a 240w kingbrite quantum board with 2 aluminum u channel bars bolted on the sides. The u channel then has holes drilled on the insides to captivate 6 aluminum rods that allow me to hang other lights depending in what I'm doing.

Separating all my lighting types so I can run them off separate timers and swap out uvb/ir/fr and supplemental light.

That's why I said about 400w. Cause it changes depending in the configuration.

Madmax · Aug 29, 2022

Thats a pretty smart setup.i havnt got the brains or know how to custom build what is needed..seems to b working pretty damn good looking at your grows under it..itried these fr 6watt pucks few grows back and was getting crazy stretching.like 2' a day so i had to take them out..i think the 15mins after lights off was too long.they did bring on bud onset a little quicker and shortened flowering time a little...

Help setting up 5x3.. Which option for greatest yield??

Help setting up 5x3.. Which option for greatest yield??

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