How many square feet for 42 5-gallon buckets in an ebb & flow?

[tj Wise]

I need to insulate a cage/frame in an unheated barn loft, so I'm wondering how many cubic feets I'll need to prep for. THANKS!

 

[Ambre]

What style grow? SOG, SCROG, LST, mainlined, trees, or...?

How big do you let plants get before flipping to 12/12?

What kind of plants are you growing? Indica, sativa, or a mix?

 

[tj Wise]

I plan on growing Big Bud with LST, not sure if 4 weeks veg is long enough. I have 7 cards and I can start around Halloween. I am trying to figure out if just lights in an insulated mini room can keep things warm in January, which depends on the cubic feet, etc. I cannot spend a ton on heat, sadly.

 

[Ambre]

For indicas, I allow about 2 sq feet per plant LST. Most indicas seem to increase to 1-1/2 to 2 times during the initial stretch after flipping to 12/12, which means that I flip to flowering when the plant is taking approx 1 sq foot of space in the canopy. For sativas, I allow about 4 sq feet or more of canopy if I know the plant stretches a lot.

If you can hang a double or even triple layer of plastic over and around the grow space, that will hold a lot of heat in. Plastic is actually a pretty decent insulator, especially used in layers that trap air between. You can get plastic drop cloth that is 20' x 25' fairly easily, 20' x 100' if you look around. The stuff Wally World carries is clear, so you probably would want a layer of Panda on the inside (the white side in to reflect light back to the plants - the black side will stop outside light sources from leaking in during the dark period).

What the plants can tolerate will depend a lot on how cold it gets there. If it gets really cold where you live, you might want to run the lights at night to keep the temp up during the coldest part of the day since the sun will raise the temp during the day. Just be sure that the dark period is cooler than the light period - having the dark period warmer than the light period will result in lockout of some nutrients.

 

[tj Wise]

Thanks Ambre, that was a lot of great advice!

 

[KiLoEleMeNt]

^^^^^^agreed^^^^^ Can not add much to that nice write up there @Ambre