well, i only need 11 starters, the way i see it is i can keep 18 spaces full with 11 of the same variety, the mom (easy to get 20 clones off of one mom in a "supercharged" setup) and have space for another mom for backup and a couple other varieties to experiment with.
i have run moms in the past in a similar setup and it only takes 400 watts to have vigorous growth per 8 plants. my setup had 4x400 over 32 sites in a 8x8foot footprint. the moms grew like gangbusters on very little nutes, sometimes pure h2o, a 16 hour day and i would have to prune between cuttings of clones or they would get too crazy. i also rootpruned to keep the system clean AND inhibit growth.
i plan to illuminate with a pair of xxl magnums and 1K blues. i want to be able to control zone lighting (1/2 table at a time) and i also want to be able to get super vigorous growth as the plants get ready to move into the main room.
moms can be pruned, trained, and transfered out to flower on a regular basis and replaced with a clone to become the new mom, no problem there. i have read in the past about a phenomena wherein the repeated taking of clones from clones from clones results in a weaker plant, but that is not my experience. my sensi Hashplant seemed to get stronger and stronger as the years went by, granted my skills have been improveing, but i cant say i notice a decline when cloneing clones.
so now in this MPB thread we are focusing on miniaturizing and slowing down the growth rate as opposed to supersizing and supercharging i guess.
i like the ability to do a drip topfeed, mpb and flood/drain in ONE system, that might be helpful in slightly retarding the growth.
i still think i would rather idle along at a moderate pace and if the plants got too big then just cut them to the size i like and plug them into the flowering bins.
