Sativa Grow Planning

[SwarfMule]

What grow technique would you suggest for a less experienced guy wantin to grow sativa? And given yer suggested technique how many plants would you start in a 4ft x 4ft x 7ft tent? I intend to grow in 5gals of soil with a drip system under 1500 switchable watts LED.
And what the heck... what strain would you suggest?

 

[laddyd]

I like SIP pots they are easy and cheap. You can make one with a 5 gallon bucket and 10 coke cans.There are several videos on You tube. I would use Pro-mix HP for my soil and Maxi grow and Maxi bloom for nutrients. As far as drip systems go I am not the person to ask. Hopefully one of our resident experts will chime in with some guidance.
4 plants in a 4x4 would be good, I have learned that a 2x2 space is good for 1 plant. So a 2x4 two plants and a 4x4 four plants. your mileage may vary.
You do know that sativa's tend to be long running right? Some take more than 16 weeks to finish flowering while an indica might go only 8 weeks.
If you are bound and determined to run sativa's try some of the Haze varieties like Super Silver, Amnesia or Lemon haze. Strawberry cough, Durban poison and Blue dream are some other popular sativa dominant strains.
Have fun and welcome to Rollitup.

 

[TheWholeTruth]

What grow technique would you suggest for a less experienced guy wantin to grow sativa? And given yer suggested technique how many plants would you start in a 4ft x 4ft x 7ft tent? I intend to grow in 5gals of soil with a drip system under 1500 switchable watts LED.
And what the heck... what strain would you suggest?

Do you mean 5gal pots in a 4x4x7 with a proper sativa ?

 

[SwarfMule]

Do you mean 5gal pots in a 4x4x7 with a proper sativa ?

Yup. Thats what I mean

 

[SwarfMule]

I like SIP pots they are easy and cheap. You can make one with a 5 gallon bucket and 10 coke cans.There are several videos on You tube. I would use Pro-mix HP for my soil and Maxi grow and Maxi bloom for nutrients. As far as drip systems go I am not the person to ask. Hopefully one of our resident experts will chime in with some guidance.
4 plants in a 4x4 would be good, I have learned that a 2x2 space is good for 1 plant. So a 2x4 two plants and a 4x4 four plants. your mileage may vary.
You do know that sativa's tend to be long running right? Some take more than 16 weeks to finish flowering while an indica might go only 8 weeks.
If you are bound and determined to run sativa's try some of the Haze varieties like Super Silver, Amnesia or Lemon haze. Strawberry cough, Durban poison and Blue dream are some other popular sativa dominant strains.
Have fun and welcome to Rollitup.

Thanks.
The drip system, soil, light, and pots has been proven over a couple of indica grows now and Im comfortable with em. Im aware of longer time with sativas, but Im lookin for that ol get stuff done buzz from back in my day.
My main concern is plant height and light penetration. The top foot of the tent is occupied with fan, filter and light and the top of the soil is a foot off the ground leaving 5ft for vertical growth.

 

[TheWholeTruth]

Your going to have difficulty managing them. Proper sativas can still veg for 6-9 weeks when flipped to flower. Your going to end up with trees.

 

[Fatjoe]

I'd make sure your training these girls or planning on a screen. I'd keep the plant numbers down too.They can get leggy and overgrow a space but they are well worth the labor. I'd even consider 11/13 if she's a real vigorous stretcher.
All kinda of ways to tame them tall girls. Pop that bean n let's see ya work it.

 

[MissinThe90’sStrains]

I’d try 2 plants, each in a 30 gal pot of organic supersoil type soil. I’d flip after sexual maturity and use a cage to lst and support each one, giving them some room to stretch out. Some like to stretch to 3x the size and throw long spear buds. Some are also light feeders, so constantly available food in a slow release format might keep some of the fussy types happier, and big enough pots will feed them for a while.

 

[TheWholeTruth]

Thanks.
The drip system, soil, light, and pots has been proven over a couple of indica grows now and Im comfortable with em. Im aware of longer time with sativas, but Im lookin for that ol get stuff done buzz from back in my day.
My main concern is plant height and light penetration. The top foot of the tent is occupied with fan, filter and light and the top of the soil is a foot off the ground leaving 5ft for vertical growth.

For your first grow with sativas i advise 2gal pots at the most. I go smaller myself as it helps control size and finish time. You could probably do 4 2gal pots in your space. And for you first time i would recomend a worked sativa leaning type, something like the pannama from ace as its more manageble and still good potencey and you can probably finish them in about 12-13weeks tops. With the 4 plants you wont have to veg long. Once you actualy get the experience and get in the flow of things then you can push the boundries alittle more and get a more longer flower sativa.
Your soil idea with the drip feed on a timer should be fine if you can work out wen they need waterin and increase as they fill out. But with that size pots hand watering for the first grow would be better as you will see yourself how their requirments change as they grow.

 

[SwarfMule]

I'd make sure your training these girls or planning on a screen. I'd keep the plant numbers down too.They can get leggy and overgrow a space but they are well worth the labor. I'd even consider 11/13 if she's a real vigorous stretcher.
All kinda of ways to tame them tall girls. Pop that bean n let's see ya work it.

Heh yeah!
So with all that training to horizontal(?) go with two plants for that space?

 

[chuckeye]

For Sativa's I top above the fourth node and usually take off the first node.

Then I train horizontally until the plant is 24" wide.

Lollipop after flipping to flower and remove any side branches that won't make the canopy.

Some will still need super cropping to keep the height down but I usually can manage to keep them around 4' high

I use 5 gallon pails and GroBuckets, Mega Crop one part and 600w MH/HPS.

This is a Cafe Racer (+5') and a Malawi x Panama (+4'), 50 days of veg for a total of 144 days !



The extra time and training is Well Worth It

Malawi x Panama rough wet trimmed last night...



Cheers

 

[crimsonecho]

i’d start with 20gal pots and i usually do 4 in that area and flip earlier compared to hybrids. you will need support for sativas so screening or having shit ton of yoyos will not hurt.

as for which sativa you want to grow it all depends on what you are looking for in a sativa, my long time favorite sativa for example is destroyer from cannabiogen because of razor sharp focus and limitless energy it gives.

it is not available anymore because cannabiogen got raided by the spanish police but dutch passion desfran is destroyerxdestroyer if you want to give it a go. its a finicky girl but finishes fast for a sativa (around 14weeks).

 

[TheWholeTruth]

For Sativa's I top above the fourth node and usually take off the first node.

Then I train horizontally until the plant is 24" wide.

Lollipop after flipping to flower and remove any side branches that won't make the canopy.

Some will still need super cropping to keep the height down but I usually can manage to keep them around 4' high

I use 5 gallon pails and GroBuckets, Mega Crop one part and 600w MH/HPS.

This is a Cafe Racer (+5') and a Malawi x Panama (+4'), 50 days of veg for a total of 144 days !

View attachment 5397811

The extra time and training is Well Worth It

Malawi x Panama rough wet trimmed last night...

View attachment 5397812

Cheers

Are those modified hempy buckets ? Good grow they look nice and very neat.

 

[chuckeye]

Are those modified hempy buckets ? Good grow they look nice and very neat.

Not quite, with the GroBuckets you drill a drain hole a couple of inches up from the bottom of the pail so there is always an air gap of about 1" between the top of the reservoir and the water level...

With hempy the roots are fully submerged below the drain hole until they use the water and the level drops, no air gap.



Cheers

 

[TheWholeTruth]

Not quite, with the GroBuckets you drill a drain hole a couple of inches up from the bottom of the pail so there is always an air gap of about 1" between the top of the reservoir and the water level...

With hempy the roots are fully submerged below the drain hole until they use the water and the level drops, no air gap.

View attachment 5397814

Cheers

I usual use somthing similar i do myself which is why i asked. I too have the air gap but a bigger reservior at the bottom, works good. Can get some big plants from smaller pots. I didnt know they now make a insert too, thanks for putting them up.

 

[curious2garden]

1500 switchable watts LED.

I'm not sure what you mean by switchable watts but if you mean actual draw from the wall that's way too much LED for a 4x4 in my opinion.

 

[SwarfMule]

For Sativa's I top above the fourth node and usually take off the first node.

Then I train horizontally until the plant is 24" wide.

Lollipop after flipping to flower and remove any side branches that won't make the canopy.

Some will still need super cropping to keep the height down but I usually can manage to keep them around 4' high

I use 5 gallon pails and GroBuckets, Mega Crop one part and 600w MH/HPS.

This is a Cafe Racer (+5') and a Malawi x Panama (+4'), 50 days of veg for a total of 144 days !

View attachment 5397811

The extra time and training is Well Worth It

Malawi x Panama rough wet trimmed last night...

I'm not sure what you mean by switchable watts but if you mean actual draw from the wall that's way too much LED for a 4x4 in my opinion.

The light is advertised as switchable between 1200 n 1500w (veg n bloom spectrums I guess?) but the current draw outta the wall is 2.3 amps. Bout 280w

 

[laddyd]

I'm doing pretty much the same with the SIP's 1 inch air gap and all.
You can definitely grow some big plants in them.
Here's a Mexican sativa in a 4 gallon SIP 2x2x8 grow box, had to extend it because this plant wouldn't behave. I topped her and supercropped her and still almost ran out of room. So yes height can be an issue with sativa's.

 

[Kindbud421]

The light is advertised as switchable between 1200 n 1500w (veg n bloom spectrums I guess?) but the current draw outta the wall is 2.3 amps. Bout 280w

You will need more light for coverage. 480-600 true watts.

 

[Tolerance Break]

What are the genetics?