I was looking to work my way up to grow many plants at once but for my first go round I wanted to grow about 4-6 plants...I am highly interested in having a perpetual cycle...cause this being my first grow I'm excited so I'm going to be checking daily anyway (really every constant few hours lol
) But I also read plants grown hydroponically taste better and are more potent, idk how much truth is in that. My real thing is with the constant clones and vegg'n I'm going to have two different plant setups in one box basically? And I'm looking to grow some sativas but I'm going to go heavy on the autoflower strains. I am going to be using the electricity from my house so I want to be as inconspicuous as possible...I want to be stealthy but I want a tall enough unit that I can harvest a nice quality crop.
I haven't compared personally but most of what I read says that the best tasting and most potent weed is organic. Hydroponics are known to produce bigger yields and a little quicker turnover. I don't know that I would ever tell the difference other than visually the stems are smaller based on what I have had and known to be da dro.
As for autoflowers, I would read up on them. There really isn't any need to do an autoflower plant indoors. they aren't better in any way. Outdoors, to pull extra crops per year or to harvest before typical harvest dates and avoid detection/frost, it makes sense but indoors no. You can't clone them so only from seed and the quality and growth charactoristics will vary. The ruderalis plant (the genectical cross that makes them autoflower) is impotent hemp so you aren't getting top quality, and it is super easy to keep a normal plant very low. My one experience with AF's was a friend who grew one. He harvested a whopping 2 grams off that plant! He found out later that the height of the plant is proportional to the depth of the pot. I am no expert on them, but do some research... I have no interest so I've only looked a bit.
If you are looking for a test run you could always do a rubbermade growbox. They aren't overly stealthy but if you could stick it in a closet and hide it it may suit your needs. Plenty of people pulling quality our of simple rubbermade setups.
Doing a full op in a box with clones, moms, veg, and flower is a little tricky. You have to keep the flower area light proofed from the outside of the box as well as the other chambers. You also have to vent the chambers independently or use a system of dampers to adjust flow from different areas. Certainly doable though, and fairly common. I don't see any like that on ebay!
A propper built box costs some dough. I am in the process of designing one for a friend and for a 4.5' x 3' x 1.5' box that is set up for a 220w PL-L scrog, a drying area, a 27w mom/clone area, and an 80w veg area, my cost to build it out of plywood that he already has is about $500. If I was going to build something like that to sell, it would be 2-3x that. When I see the boxes on ebay for $1500, I'm not surprised and that seems like pretty good value to me if they actually work and are stealth. The ones I see available are not perpetual but set up to veg and flower in the same box. If you pull a fatty plant out at the end though, that is all good except for the 4 months you wait on the first crop! If you are looking to produce enough for more than yourself, skip the boxes and do a room. Boxes are mostly for personal use grows. Well... I'm sure it's done.
Jed