S
Snow Crash
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- 18
I think that the real gains in hydro come from the SOG style of growing. In 70 days from cutting, and only 56 days in the flowering space (I've seen it as low as 50 days), a grower can pull 350g/sqm. A 5x5 space pulling in 700 grams no problem, every 50 days. Now consider having a 10x10 area, fully lit, dialed with nutrients and environment, pulling down at least 2800 grams (like 6lbs) every 50 days for something like 40lbs per year out of one hundred square feet.
It's just a numbers game. When you can smash 4 plant per square foot, and you're running 400 plants in a grow room you only need to hit about 7 grams per plant. To depend on soil for this kind of quick turn around you're just not going to hit the numbers required.
I must state I've never actually done this, I'm not a commercial grower, or someone who feels like managing upwards of 400 plants at any one time in a 10x10 space... But you get the idea here I think.
Where the improved growth rates make a difference is in the clone to flower SOG grows. The plants get bigger, faster, and that's important because it's all about turnover rates happening in a relatively short period of time and getting the plants to produce to their maximum potential in that time frame.
In a 10x10 outdoor plot let's say you grow one large plant. This large plant is started indoors in late winter, moved outside in early spring, and isn't harvest until late fall. The total number of days being about 275. Let's say this big tree of a plant pulls down a nice big 12 lbs harvest in that time.
Now, indoors you have a strain that is running 55 days to completion. You're running 200 clones in the room and you're harvesting 14 grams per clone consistently. After 275 days this room would pull down 30lbs in that same period of time. Even accounting for losing an entire harvest to some mechanical failure or by adding in a few days between harvests and only doing 4 in that period of time, the hydroponic SOG SMASHES apart the outdoor organic when it comes to time and space.
This being said I think it is important to make all the allowances and compensations necessary. There is a cost to running all the pumps and lights and meters and CO2 and cooling, etc, etc. Compared to sunlight and fresh air... Dollar for Dollar... each method is about equal. Add in the extra labor though and outdoor, natural, soil organics has an advantage in that regard. I cannot imagine handling a 400 plant grow space but I imagine it would be neither cheap nor easy.
And that's how it all breaks down. Nature has limitations with regards to the time required start to finish in a given space. Hydroponics opens a lot of doors to efficiency of that time and space if supplemented with money and hard work.
A space full of these:
or these:
Shit... That's 300 plants in a 6x6 space. A person could run four of these in a 15x15 area and do 7200 plants a year. Just 7 grams per plant would be more than 100 pounds per year. An initial investment of probably $50,000 would pay off VERY fast in a grow space with these puppies. There would need to be an intense Mother/Clone area in addition to keep up with the ~25 clones per day requirement but worth it in the end I think...
or these:
These vertical systems are always going to out harvest nature day for day foot for foot because they are efficiently designed. Once the efficiency is there, and the gardening skill is there, the competition between man and nature when it comes to growing plants becomes a pretty one-sided fight.
It's just a numbers game. When you can smash 4 plant per square foot, and you're running 400 plants in a grow room you only need to hit about 7 grams per plant. To depend on soil for this kind of quick turn around you're just not going to hit the numbers required.
I must state I've never actually done this, I'm not a commercial grower, or someone who feels like managing upwards of 400 plants at any one time in a 10x10 space... But you get the idea here I think.
Where the improved growth rates make a difference is in the clone to flower SOG grows. The plants get bigger, faster, and that's important because it's all about turnover rates happening in a relatively short period of time and getting the plants to produce to their maximum potential in that time frame.
In a 10x10 outdoor plot let's say you grow one large plant. This large plant is started indoors in late winter, moved outside in early spring, and isn't harvest until late fall. The total number of days being about 275. Let's say this big tree of a plant pulls down a nice big 12 lbs harvest in that time.
Now, indoors you have a strain that is running 55 days to completion. You're running 200 clones in the room and you're harvesting 14 grams per clone consistently. After 275 days this room would pull down 30lbs in that same period of time. Even accounting for losing an entire harvest to some mechanical failure or by adding in a few days between harvests and only doing 4 in that period of time, the hydroponic SOG SMASHES apart the outdoor organic when it comes to time and space.
This being said I think it is important to make all the allowances and compensations necessary. There is a cost to running all the pumps and lights and meters and CO2 and cooling, etc, etc. Compared to sunlight and fresh air... Dollar for Dollar... each method is about equal. Add in the extra labor though and outdoor, natural, soil organics has an advantage in that regard. I cannot imagine handling a 400 plant grow space but I imagine it would be neither cheap nor easy.
And that's how it all breaks down. Nature has limitations with regards to the time required start to finish in a given space. Hydroponics opens a lot of doors to efficiency of that time and space if supplemented with money and hard work.
A space full of these:
or these:
Shit... That's 300 plants in a 6x6 space. A person could run four of these in a 15x15 area and do 7200 plants a year. Just 7 grams per plant would be more than 100 pounds per year. An initial investment of probably $50,000 would pay off VERY fast in a grow space with these puppies. There would need to be an intense Mother/Clone area in addition to keep up with the ~25 clones per day requirement but worth it in the end I think...
or these:
These vertical systems are always going to out harvest nature day for day foot for foot because they are efficiently designed. Once the efficiency is there, and the gardening skill is there, the competition between man and nature when it comes to growing plants becomes a pretty one-sided fight.
