Soil sog grower needs mentor to switch to hydro

[Northwest Skunk]

jimbobthe3rd

Northwest, do you have any grow diaries or anything? I'm thinking i might be brave and do a mass SoG in the future one day like yours but really would need alot of learning before i attempt to setup such a thing. I'd love to learn from you as it is, you look like you know all the ins and outs with sog soil growing. I'm thinking maybe doing 3 4'x8' beds with 32 plants in each (to keep the count under 100), so that's 16 plants per 4x4. With two 1k's over each bed. Do you think i could effectively yield 2lb per 1k light with 16 plants under each 1k? That's only 2oz per plant, would i have to veg for 1-2 weeks before flowering also?

Any information you can contribute to help me learn, i will really really really appreciate XD. Thanks alot for your already inspiring pictures.

Thanks man. I don't think you would hit 2 per by doing only 16 per light and only vegged 1 to 2 weeks. For only 16 per light you would have to veg 4 weeks IMO to hit 2 per. If you did 32 per light and vegged 2 to 3 weeks you could hit 2 per and maybe even up to 2.3 per if vegged 3 weeks. I have done 40 per and vegged 2 weeks with clones and hit 2.3 before. I like yielding 2.5 to 3 per and I don't care about plant numbers so I go with 70 to 75 plants per light and only veg 2 weeks with clones. I also lollipop the bottom few branches off of each plant and prune all the big leaves off of each plant after I flip to flower. In a tight sog if you want all of the mid to lower buds to get hard and sugary you have to get light penetration and air circulation to them.

I'm not sure if the mods here would like me posting which forum I used to post on so if you'd like pm me and I can tell you that but so you know I removed all of my pics from that forum because of security issues at that time but i believe my grow threads are still there but with no pics.

antimatter

We were talking about vertical bulbs no shades with the vertical bulb hanging in between the plants, best done with large plants because you have to make up alot of height in order to maximize the light though some do sog octagons and stadiums with levels but its just a pain in the ass on a large scale going with the small plants in a setup like that.

Ya my mistake and I was thinking they were suggesting horiontal bulbs in reflectors, not verticle. I was mixed up there. Yes verticle bulbs with big trees or stadiums and no shades is suited for other types of growing but not sog'ing. I won't be changing my grow system at all except for maybe trying feeding hydroponically instead of the soil.

420blunts

i ran 4 1k on a 9x9 bed using magnum reflectors. at the time i was happy with my results since it was my first time growing ever. but since i barely did that much better on the next 2 tries it just wasn't worth the risk sogging anymore for me if i couldn't hit 2+ plus a light. now i'm close to hitting that 2 per mark with og with 18 per light vegged 3 weeks. i take them up to 1450 on a 5 scale meter. i will definetly let you know my buddies results in 3 to 4 weeks. keep it safe bro.

How many plants did you do on the 9'x9' bed with the 4k? If you did 70 to 75 vegged 2 weeks you could no problem get 2.4 to 3 per with the right food schedule and right grow room set up temps, co2 etc..
What do you mean by "5 scale meter"? I take my og up to 1800 ppm for consective feeds with no ill effects at all. I find them to be nute hoggs. I'll get some pics up of my current og they are the best I've done yet I think; super tight, big, frosty, and colorful. Very happy with the tweeking I did on my feed schedule with this current grow.

 

[jimbobthe3rd]

Northwest..how can you say 4 weeks veg for the 16 lights under 1 light? From my experience growing in soil, i've been doing trees and in 4 weeks i can get a plant 5' tall and 4' wide. Surely 16 5'er's won't fit under one light o_o? This is feeding 3 times a day for 7 litres per plant per day. Maybe it's due to my more regular feeding?

I just don't understand, i can barely fit one plant under one light with 4 weeks veg, i don't know how i'd do it with 16 for 4 weeks lol, which is why i thought 1-2 weeks would be sufficient. Instead of grow time, maybe you could specify in height and width? How tall and wide do you usually get a plant before flipping to 12/12 in a 16 or 32 plant sog per light. PM is sent btw :D.

 

[antimatter]

Northwest..how can you say 4 weeks veg for the 16 lights under 1 light? From my experience growing in soil, i've been doing trees and in 4 weeks i can get a plant 5' tall and 4' wide. Surely 16 5'er's won't fit under one light o_o? This is feeding 3 times a day for 7 litres per plant per day. Maybe it's due to my more regular feeding?

I just don't understand, i can barely fit one plant under one light with 4 weeks veg, i don't know how i'd do it with 16 for 4 weeks lol, which is why i thought 1-2 weeks would be sufficient. Instead of grow time, maybe you could specify in height and width? How tall and wide do you usually get a plant before flipping to 12/12 in a 16 or 32 plant sog per light. PM is sent btw :D.

5 feet and 4 feet wide from clone in 4 weeks is this real life they must be stretched like crazy? and what is this about soil and feeding 3x a day im confused that don't sound like a typical soil mixture.

 

[jimbobthe3rd]

My clones are about 20cm, well rooted when i put them into the coco. Then feed 3 times a day for short intervals (approx 2L per feed), it's an indica strain, and yea they get very bushy and thick approx 150cm tall and 110+cm wide. 4 Weeks is a long time to veg for me...the medium is coco with dutchmaster a&b grow + nitrozyme. Is this not normal for other people? I'm constantly raising the lights with the plants, the nodes are not stretched at all.

(I'm talking about 4 weeks from a clone that is already well rooted into a small coco pot ready to be transplanted into the 13gal pots. Maybe this is where the misunderstanding is? Cause i always have my clones ready to go between 1/2'~1' tall very well rooted before they go into the main veg room.)

 

[antimatter]

My clones are about 20cm, well rooted when i put them into the coco. Then feed 3 times a day for short intervals (approx 2L per feed), it's an indica strain, and yea they get very bushy and thick approx 150cm tall and 110+cm wide. 4 Weeks is a long time to veg for me...the medium is coco with dutchmaster a&b grow + nitrozyme. Is this not normal for other people? I'm constantly raising the lights with the plants, the nodes are not stretched at all.

(I'm talking about 4 weeks from a clone that is already well rooted into a small coco pot ready to be transplanted into the 13gal pots. Maybe this is where the misunderstanding is? Cause i always have my clones ready to go between 1/2'~1' tall very well rooted before they go into the main veg room.)

Those are plants lol and the OP is growing Purple Kush in soil not coco and vegging from baby clones so that explains the variance.

 

[Northwest Skunk]

jimbobthe3rd

Northwest..how can you say 4 weeks veg for the 16 lights under 1 light? From my experience growing in soil, i've been doing trees and in 4 weeks i can get a plant 5' tall and 4' wide. Surely 16 5'er's won't fit under one light o_o? This is feeding 3 times a day for 7 litres per plant per day. Maybe it's due to my more regular feeding?

I just don't understand, i can barely fit one plant under one light with 4 weeks veg, i don't know how i'd do it with 16 for 4 weeks lol, which is why i thought 1-2 weeks would be sufficient. Instead of grow time, maybe you could specify in height and width? How tall and wide do you usually get a plant before flipping to 12/12 in a 16 or 32 plant sog per light. PM is sent btw .

I've never actual done a 4 week veg in a sog because it just comes down to math; yield per light x # of yields per year. I am basing the 4 week veg on multiplying the less number of plants x a longer veg to get a fuller canopy thus the higher yield.
But yes like you say in the rooms with normal ceiling height of 8' you couldn't do it with a 4 week veg especially if you have your plants already as root set as you mentioned. I have seen med grows in warehouses with huge trees vegged 4 to 6 weeks in huge garbage cans do well up to 2.5 lb per light but again that is too little crops per year if you are doing it to maximize pay days per year.

And yes like Antimatter was saying my clones are only about 4" when I put them in and they barely have any roots showing yet; just poking through the peat pucks. So right there you are talking about a big difference in root structure and plant size when they go in.

I have never heard of feeding 3 times a day in coco. Is that normal? Do you have problems with nute burning your plants or ph problems? Have you ever taken a sample of your coco and tested it during your grow for ph and ppm content? I would think the salt ppm build up would be huge doing 3 feeds a day unless the plants are actually taking in a metabolizing almost all of the nutes you are feeding them like that. Sounds interesting if it works??

Different strains stretch and grow out differently too so that will affect the amount of veg time you will need to fill in a canopy in a sog.

With my og I can only veg 2 weeks max with my little clones because they will get too tall if I veg any longer than that. Especially with warmer temps og stretches like crazy.

With Purple Kush I did a 3 week veg awhile back with 30-40 plants aprox per light. If I remember right the yield was around 2.1-2.2 per light.

You gotta keep in mind that your heavy buds in a sog are your main cola and your next secondary tops of your first set of side arms down from your main cola. from that point on the plant downward the buds get smaller, airier, less hard, and less value.
So if you can create a sog with more main colas and more secondary colas you will have a higher yielding garden with better looking, better selling big ass nuggets. The less number of plants you fill the garden with the more you will fill the sog with smaller less valuable buds. (unless you grow trees with lots of light per tree).

 

[jimbobthe3rd]

I've had three runs under my belt so far with coco, all feeding 3 times a day o.o, 5~7 litres per plant per day. I don't really get much salt buildup at all, i change out my feed rings/tubing every run though. My yields have been pretty decent, 5.5lb from 4 plants on first try, 4lb from 3 plants on 2nd try, and the 3rd run is just about in completion but expecting 6+lb from 4 plants this time with some side lighting etc.

So SoG = no topping the plants at all correct? Just as many main colas as you can get?

And yea i have a separate room where i get my clones ready to 20-30cm tall in 1L pots very well rooted so they're ready to boom as soon as they go in lol. If i was to do a 100 plant SoG, i'd have the 100 all ready to go with nice roots to go in so the veg time would get cut alot.

2lb+ per light is something i really want to aim for.(2lb+ per 1000w light i'm talking.) I'd be happy with 1lb~1.4lb from a 600w also!

Aw heck i got alota thinkin to do on changing my style and plant numbers etc lol.

 

[420blunts]

did 256 total on two 4 1/2 X 9 beds. basically 64 per light. keep my temps around 79 first 3 weeks. 75-77 next three weeks. 73-75 remainding weeks. co2 start at 1000 and max out at 1600. i use a bluelab combo meter which says it's a .5 scale meter. 1450ppm on the meter i use might read around 2000ppm on a .7 scale meter. if you get a chance n remember, can u please let me know which brand and model ppm meter you use. thanks bro. looking forward to seeing your pics.

 

[Northwest Skunk]

jimbobthe3rd

I've had three runs under my belt so far with coco, all feeding 3 times a day o.o, 5~7 litres per plant per day. I don't really get much salt buildup at all, i change out my feed rings/tubing every run though. My yields have been pretty decent, 5.5lb from 4 plants on first try, 4lb from 3 plants on 2nd try, and the 3rd run is just about in completion but expecting 6+lb from 4 plants this time with some side lighting etc.

So SoG = no topping the plants at all correct? Just as many main colas as you can get?

And yea i have a separate room where i get my clones ready to 20-30cm tall in 1L pots very well rooted so they're ready to boom as soon as they go in lol. If i was to do a 100 plant SoG, i'd have the 100 all ready to go with nice roots to go in so the veg time would get cut alot.

2lb+ per light is something i really want to aim for.(2lb+ per 1000w light i'm talking.) I'd be happy with 1lb~1.4lb from a 600w also!

Aw heck i got alota thinkin to do on changing my style and plant numbers etc lol.

What strain are you growing? Yes if you already have your clones started and well rooted that will cut down a lot on your veg time. The yield in a sog will greatly increase also by larger size grows/lights because all of the plants that get double the light from shades being close together grow much larger than plants that don't get side light.
The key is to do multiple light sogs in shapes of squares or rectangles. I put all of my beds on wheels so they are all tight together and the plants are getting lots of overlapping light from all the shades. When I need to hand water I roll the beds apart to go between them.
A 1 light sog will not yield as good grm/watt as a square shaped set up sog of 4 lights. If I put 70 plants under just one 1000 watter I wouldn't expect a yield of better than 2lbs/light but once you start adding other lights/shades the side lighting increases and your yield/watt and yield/sq.ft goes up.

 

[antimatter]

Feeding 3x a day in coco is not something I do unless they need it I usually let them dry out a bit and water fully once a day at peak watering but sometimes twice a day is required in some situations, depends on how much coco your using : size of the plant.

 

[Northwest Skunk]

antimatter

Feeding 3x a day in coco is not something I do unless they need it I usually let them dry out a bit and water fully once a day at peak watering but sometimes twice a day is required in some situations, depends on how much coco your using : size of the plant.

Is it that the plants are drinking that much or is it that the coco doesn't hold a lot of moisture, or does it evaporate easily from the coco?

Here's some pics from my current og at day 56 flower. I'll get some good macro shots later. The resin's starting to pack on pretty good and the colors are starting to come out nicely with the drop in temps. Buds are very stinky, sticky, hard and tight.

 

[Sense I. Milla]

Wow, get r done bro, I'm rooting for ya.

 

[antimatter]

antimatter
Is it that the plants are drinking that much or is it that the coco doesn't hold a lot of moisture, or does it evaporate easily from the coco?

Here's some pics from my current og at day 56 flower. I'll get some good macro shots later. The resin's starting to pack on pretty good and the colors are starting to come out nicely with the drop in temps. Buds are very stinky, sticky, hard and tight.

Coco holds water very well unlike peat which requires a wetting agent and just gets soggy but we generally don't use nowhere near as much medium as a soil grower would so we do water alot more but peat mixes do get much wetter in my experience after you water than coco. Its like if you got a 10 gallon container of coco and a large plant in it that is gonna yield 1.5lbs its gonna need to be watered often.

 

[JUSTJR27]

Nothwest been reading this thread from the start and i can tell that u got this sog thing down to a science im planning to start a sog soon this is what im planning

drain-to-waste
room- 10'x10'
strain- the chruch
5- 1k hps
3- 4'x4'x7" trays each filled with hydroton and 32 rooted clones veg. Four 2 weeks
2- 10,000 btu a/c's
c02 for flowering


any help and opinion would be appreciated and do u think i could get at least a oz. Off each plant

 

[Northwest Skunk]

justjr27

Nothwest been reading this thread from the start and i can tell that u got this sog thing down to a science im planning to start a sog soon this is what im planning

drain-to-waste
room- 10'x10'
strain- the chruch
5- 1k hps
3- 4'x4'x7" trays each filled with hydroton and 32 rooted clones veg. Four 2 weeks
2- 10,000 btu a/c's
c02 for flowering


any help and opinion would be appreciated and do u think i could get at least a oz. Off each plant

Yes you'll have 5k over a small area that's a lot of lumen/sq ft and plenty of space for them to bloom out between each plant. You should easily be able to get an oz from each plant if they are healthy and fed well in a good grow environment. The Church is a potent strain nice choice.

 

[jimbobthe3rd]

Someone step on my toe if i'm wrong, but isn't Co2 only mainly beneficial to the plants during veg, not flowering? (Like, you use it for both BUT it's only really going to kick them up super during veg, and have not alot of added bonuses for flower? Idk i read this somewhere i could have read it from a retard posting, i just wanted to get it cleared up for my education sakes lol.)

 

[JUSTJR27]

Someone step on my toe if i'm wrong, but isn't Co2 only mainly beneficial to the plants during veg, not flowering? (Like, you use it for both BUT it's only really going to kick them up super during veg, and have not alot of added bonuses for flower? Idk i read this somewhere i could have read it from a retard posting, i just wanted to get it cleared up for my education sakes lol.)

you can use it in veg but the true benefits would be in flowering stages to max the growth potential of the plant but yes u can use in veg to remember the more they breath the better they are

 

[antimatter]

Nothwest been reading this thread from the start and i can tell that u got this sog thing down to a science im planning to start a sog soon this is what im planning

drain-to-waste
room- 10'x10'
strain- the chruch
5- 1k hps
3- 4'x4'x7" trays each filled with hydroton and 32 rooted clones veg. Four 2 weeks
2- 10,000 btu a/c's
c02 for flowering


any help and opinion would be appreciated and do u think i could get at least a oz. Off each plant

Build some racks in the room so you have 2 levels in an 8 foot height you will be able to double your growing space that way but the plants must be kept short.

 

[SRHninja]

Im blown away when i see that bed, it makes me wanna run upstairs and go to work i would def love for you to stop by my thread in general indoor titled "yezzir im back and i need direction" this is brilliant

 

[marski420]

That third pic is NUTS NWS.. I have to know the yeild you pull off of that mini forest.. do tell when you know

:bong-hits: