Best 400 w setup

crawlintbss

crawlintbss

Well-Known Member
Well as most do when they start a grow, they wanna go bigger.

Just got a house with my roommate. Got a 3x3x6' tent with a 400whps and 4 girls going right now. thats almost too small for these 4 girls. luckily 2 are bushy and 2 are tall and skinny.

Next grow we are building a "storage closet" in the basement to move the tents into. What is the best idea tent size for a 400w hps. Looking more for max yield. Already have good quality seeds from previous products. the Closet will be 5x8ft w/ about a 7' cieling.( 5ft width, 8ft long ) We are looking to move everything in the closet to keep it a bit more quiet and not as noticeable if we have guests over ( being that no one can go in the basement right now without seeing the setup ). We would like to move it into a lockable room. Exhust will be vented out the top and ran into my dryer duct and vented out the house. Already have a inline with cannister and odor is no problem outside the tent.

4x4 the ideal size? Im looking to probably do a 2 plant SCROG next round to help with max yeild. Inevitably id like to pull about 8oz per flowering run. This is all for personal and that would hold me over until the next flowering is complete. Possible with a 400? and 2 plant scrog? maybe 4 plants? Unfortunately a 4x8x7ft tent wont fit in this room/ wont have enough space to build the tent inside and have space to walk around.

Any ideas would be great. If i do go with a smaller 4x4 that would still leave me enough space to have my 3x3 setup and running as well. possible perpetual grow then as well.

Thanks and much love!
 
droopy107

droopy107

Well-Known Member
You can definitely get 8 O's with a 400 W in scrog. That only works out to a little over 1/2 a gram per watt. If you can grow and have a good yielding strain you can do plenty better. I've scrogged under 400 W for a while now and I've done a personal best of 10.5 O's with a heavily sativa strain. I do 4 plants at a time.
 
crawlintbss

crawlintbss

Well-Known Member
droopy107 said:
You can definitely get 8 O's with a 400 W in scrog. That only works out to a little over 1/2 a gram per watt. If you can grow and have a good yielding strain you can do plenty better. I've scrogged under 400 W for a while now and I've done a personal best of 10.5 O's with a heavily sativa strain. I do 4 plants at a time.
Click to expand...
Just the kinda response i was looking to hear! Obviously my skill and strain will take a major role. What size area are you working with, for your 400w setup? 4x4ft? larger? Im only on my first actually grow but have read up for years and i work in a gardening/agricultural field for work so i know plants fairly well. Ive been doing alot of reading on scrogs and it looks cool along with the factor of getting nice even canopy and bud sites! This is all for personal, no sales. so the more the better, due to being a heavy smoker.

Thanks for taking the time to respond!
 
droopy107

droopy107

Well-Known Member
crawlintbss said:
Just the kinda response i was looking to hear! Obviously my skill and strain will take a major role. What size area are you working with, for your 400w setup? 4x4ft? larger? Im only on my first actually grow but have read up for years and i work in a gardening/agricultural field for work so i know plants fairly well. Ive been doing alot of reading on scrogs and it looks cool along with the factor of getting nice even canopy and bud sites! This is all for personal, no sales. so the more the better, due to being a heavy smoker.

Thanks for taking the time to respond!
Click to expand...
Technically speaking, 4x4 is too large an area for 400 W to produce well over the entire footprint of the space. However, I have found that with scrog and a little extra work I can make it produce pretty well for me in a 4x4 area.

I started out with a 7x4 area in an attic space.(I only used 4x4 of it under the light) my height was only about 6' max at the center because of the roof angle, but because I used scrog that was never an issue. What I found to be most effective for using 400 W was to use a separate scrog screen for each plant. I did this by building 4- 24"x24" screen frames out of 1/2" cpvc pipe and 2x2 wire mesh fencing I had laying around from another project. In each square frame, I put a tee in the center of two opposing sides of the frame. I used more cpvc pipe for legs that are inserted into the planter all the way to the bottom. This effectively attaches the frame to the planter and allows me to be able to move each individual plant as I like. I used 4 gallon planters. Each day I turn each plant 1/4 turn, that way every 4 days all the buds end up in the core, 2x2 footprint of the light. This is more work than most commercial growers would care to undertake considering all the other work that goes into a for profit operation, but for guys like you and me, who grow for personal use only, It's easily do-able and it sure beats the hell out of paying to run a 1000W set up to effectively use a 4x4 area.

Another thing to consider, temp control wise, is trying to push exhaust out through a 3" dryer duct. This may not be enough diameter to allow the fan to move enough cfm to keep your space where it needs to be. I'm not saying it won't work, but having made all the most common noob mistakes myself, I would tell you that airflow is a major consideration that can surprise a new grower by not being as easy as it seems on the surface and 3" is brushing up against the "it's not going to work" area of indoor cultivation. You'll see pretty quickly if a 3" duct will work for your situation or not. Have a plan B ready just in case.

This brings me to cost savings. Something to consider, at least during the heating season, is that if you're SURE you have smell under control, you could vent back into your basement and capture the heat energy to help keep your house warm and your utility cost down. Unless you have an air intake designed to pull from outside, every cubic foot you exhaust out of the house will have to be replaced by pulling air into the house through the cracks and crevices of the house. This air will be whatever temp it is outside and will have to be heated or cooled accordingly. This can be a surprising cost if you live somewhere that gets as cold as it does where I'm at. At least during the heating season, you can realize a significant savings on heating cost by capturing the heat. There are a few security details to consider when going down this road and I won't bother you with the details at this point, but I just wanted to toss out my 2 cents on the venting issues you might run into.
 
Banana444

Banana444

Well-Known Member
3x3 is about perfect for a 400w. If you try to cover a larger area than what the light can cover, your buds will suffer. You should definitely hit 8 oz, one of my first grows, only under a 400w in a 2x3 closet I got 9oz dried and cured. It is always nice to have a little room to moves stuff around and water though.
 
crawlintbss

crawlintbss

Well-Known Member
droopy107 said:
Technically speaking, 4x4 is too large an area for 400 W to produce well over the entire footprint of the space. However, I have found that with scrog and a little extra work I can make it produce pretty well for me in a 4x4 area.

I started out with a 7x4 area in an attic space.(I only used 4x4 of it under the light) my height was only about 6' max at the center because of the roof angle, but because I used scrog that was never an issue. What I found to be most effective for using 400 W was to use a separate scrog screen for each plant. I did this by building 4- 24"x24" screen frames out of 1/2" cpvc pipe and 2x2 wire mesh fencing I had laying around from another project. In each square frame, I put a tee in the center of two opposing sides of the frame. I used more cpvc pipe for legs that are inserted into the planter all the way to the bottom. This effectively attaches the frame to the planter and allows me to be able to move each individual plant as I like. I used 4 gallon planters. Each day I turn each plant 1/4 turn, that way every 4 days all the buds end up in the core, 2x2 footprint of the light. This is more work than most commercial growers would care to undertake considering all the other work that goes into a for profit operation, but for guys like you and me, who grow for personal use only, It's easily do-able and it sure beats the hell out of paying to run a 1000W set up to effectively use a 4x4 area.

Another thing to consider, temp control wise, is trying to push exhaust out through a 3" dryer duct. This may not be enough diameter to allow the fan to move enough cfm to keep your space where it needs to be. I'm not saying it won't work, but having made all the most common noob mistakes myself, I would tell you that airflow is a major consideration that can surprise a new grower by not being as easy as it seems on the surface and 3" is brushing up against the "it's not going to work" area of indoor cultivation. You'll see pretty quickly if a 3" duct will work for your situation or not. Have a plan B ready just in case.

This brings me to cost savings. Something to consider, at least during the heating season, is that if you're SURE you have smell under control, you could vent back into your basement and capture the heat energy to help keep your house warm and your utility cost down. Unless you have an air intake designed to pull from outside, every cubic foot you exhaust out of the house will have to be replaced by pulling air into the house through the cracks and crevices of the house. This air will be whatever temp it is outside and will have to be heated or cooled accordingly. This can be a surprising cost if you live somewhere that gets as cold as it does where I'm at. At least during the heating season, you can realize a significant savings on heating cost by capturing the heat. There are a few security details to consider when going down this road and I won't bother you with the details at this point, but I just wanted to toss out my 2 cents on the venting issues you might run into.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the great input dude! Deff going to take the scrog net per plant idea into consideration. Does make it a bit easier to deal with each one individually, tho my tent doesnt go all the way to the floor for the opening, so i wont be able to slide it out. maybe ill build it up on some 2x4s to fit a drip pan underneath.

Exhuasting should be fine. With it being winter here i do recirulate it back into the basement. temps stay at 71 with lights on and 65 with lights off, which makes a nice simulation of fall weather. Basement is heated and dehumidified so no problems with the exhuast setup. Running at 4" right now with good neg pressure. Right now the HPS is in a cooltube but not venting the tube since its colder here and its helping keep tent in 70s. I have a fan blowing across the lights and below the light so no general hotspots or anything.
 
crawlintbss

crawlintbss

Well-Known Member
Banana444 said:
3x3 is about perfect for a 400w. If you try to cover a larger area than what the light can cover, your buds will suffer. You should definitely hit 8 oz, one of my first grows, only under a 400w in a 2x3 closet I got 9oz dried and cured. It is always nice to have a little room to moves stuff around and water though.
Click to expand...
Thanks dude! Yeah my 3x3 is nice but i just feel like it will be too small if i do a 2+ plant scrog. 4 plants already is packed in and lower section of plants is pretty shaded .
 
Banana444

Banana444

Well-Known Member
Yup, I had 3 plants packed into a 2x3 closet. If you plan to do a bigger area then your light is too small. It sounds like you have enough room to add another light. I have a 400 and a 600 in a 5x5 and it doesnt cover all of the area well enough to completely pack the tent. Also the difference between my 400 and 600 was pretty significant, I saw larger buds and better penetration with the 600. To give you an idea, I am hoping to add another 600 and cover a 3x6 area in a 4x8 tent and will have about 8 plants under that.
 
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