Yea I'm thinking perpetual might be a little over my head right now. I just got to think that way based on the comment of another forum where I member stated "a just started flower cycle room is about 20% full so when you avg it out your room is only ever 50% full, with perpetual small plants in the center and large plants to the side to create a sorta natural stadium. Can get your room constantly at 80% full this way"
Makes a lot of sense if you think about it like that but maybe not so easy in practice.
it does indeed make sense of a sort but in a vert setup the point is kinda moot, ...and perpetual just means never ending, that's not to say it is required that you pull every 2 weeks, a 2 week cycle or a 9 week cycle, as long as you have plants ready to flip and replace the plants you are harvesting it works out the same.
actually, for me at least, i've found that fewer, larger plants is not only way easier to work with, my yields are better.
anyway, below i'm quoting a post i shared in another thread that while not entirely applicable to our discussion, much of it will help explain what i'm talking about and also a little about where i've come from so you know i'm not just talking about stuff i read about.
hope this helps, bozo
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...here are some pics of my old cab inside which i ran a high-density micro-SOG with 55 plants in 1liter soil DIY smartpots that i made from landscapers fabric and staples so you can see i'm familiar with your desire to grow 'budsicles'.
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...now, as to a description of a hempy bucket i would say that any water tight container can be made into a hempy, ...the most common size would be between 2 and 3 gallons so you'd start with say a 3 gallon bucket from Lowes and to make it into a hempy you put a single drainage hole about 2 inch's or so up the side of the bucket from the bottom of the bucket, ...what you are essentially doing is you are creating a mini-reservoir in that bottom couple of inchs, say maybe about 15 % of the buckets volume at the bottom.
...actually i'm getting a little ahead of myself, normally i wouldn't explain like this i'd just point you to a thread where it is already explained but i'm new around here so i don't know where such explanation might be.
anyway, as i said, almost any water tight container can be used with the caveat that one of the advantages to the technique is that you can grow larger plants in smaller pots with less media so there is kind of a rule of diminishing returns which is why, in most situations, nothing larger than 3 gallons is ever needed, i personally use 6liter trashcans i picked up at the dollar store, oddly enough, for a buck each, lol.
here you can see i'm using hydroton in the bottom 2 inchs, i also use grorocks or 3/4 inch gravel, lava rock, or even perlite although perlite is messy post harvest so i no longer use it, ...the point is that you have to put something in the bottom different than the growing media, in my case coco, and by different i mean they have to have different properties of absorption if that's the right word, ...lol, this is way more difficult to explain like this than it is to actually run the damned things!
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...and with the coco added.
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...if still have questions feel free to ask but if you do a google for 'hempy' i promise you you will find more info than you need and you will be amazed at the results you'll see.
peace, bozo