need advice on medical grow

V

voe

Member
I'm in the planning stages of my next medical grow, and I'm looking for some advice as I've never done something to this scale. I currently have 2 patients which allows me to have 36 rooted plants, and I may or may not expand to 5 patients (72 plants) later on down the road. For this reason, I would like to keep my setup modular, or something that is just easily expandable if I need to scale up. I am thinking about staggering my crop, so i can have a harvest each month or so. I'm looking at ebb n flow systems, I think I would like to go hydroponic so that I have precise control of everything. Looking for any ideas from room setup to shopping lists. Thanks for your ideas!bongsmilie
 
a mongo frog

a mongo frog

Well-Known Member
just get 5 patients flower 60 plants in 3 gallon pot with sunshine mix #4 and some good nutes. get 6 1000 waters, and u know how the set ups go.
should be enough meds for every one.
 
potpimp

potpimp

Sector 5 Moderator
Welcome to Rollitup Voe! It sounds like you have a very sound plan already. The staggered harvest thing has been done many times and works out great. There is at least one great thread here (just use the search feature) about that; I think it's "Harvest 2 lbs a month" or something like that. I believe GardenKnowm wrote the thread.
 
V

voe

Member
okay I've made some revisions to my plans, and wanted to get some input to see if I'm on the right track or if I can make any improvements.

I'm thinking a 400w veg room for 6 plants at a time. after vegging they will move to the flowering room with 2x1000w hps, and another 6 will start vegging. I will repeat this until I have 24 plants total, 6 in veg and up to 18 in flower.

would that much lighting be sufficient? or would increasing my wattage be a better idea? i'm just looking to maximize my per plant yield as I'm limited by law as to how many I can have at one time.

i have also been considering t5 side lighting to try and increase bud size throughout the plant instead of just focusing on top.

the plants will be grown in an ebb n flow type setup with 3-5 gallon buckets, and I'm looking into using CO2.

I welcome your comments and critiques, and please challenge my setup if you see something that could use improvement. this is not my first time growing, but it will be my first grow of this size, as well as my first hydroponic grow. thanks in advance!
 
potpimp

potpimp

Sector 5 Moderator
What about this: keep those in veg under the 400w and use them as moms. Take clones from them and put them directly into flower under the 2,000w and keep the moms for your next batch. When you are about 2 weeks from finish, take more clones, put them under a little flou shop light and give them 2 weeks to get their roots then you're 2 weeks ahead of the game and no additional outlay for more seeds.
 
V

voe

Member
I'm definitely not going to be using seeds, will be putting together a clone station shortly. Wouldn't putting the clones directly into flower result in smaller plants as opposed to vegging them? Also, what are your thoughts on the 2000w for flower my flower room. Would 3000w be overkill?
 
potpimp

potpimp

Sector 5 Moderator
Using clones is by far the best way. My bud, "Professor Marijuana" (Dana K. May), is said by High Times magazine to be one of the top 5 growers in the world. He roots his clones and puts them directly into flower. He says vegging is a complete waste of time. He is after one big fat-ass cola, not a bunch of popcorn buds that take forever to trim and yield next to nothing. He prunes off the bottom 1/3 of the branches which allows much better air flow, redirects the plants energy to the main cola and makes maintenance easier. Also, the bottom 1/3 of the plant gets almost no light anyway so the bud is just pretty worthless. He uses 2,000w for a 4 x 8 area. 3,000w might be overkill but that would put a big smile on his face too because it just means more bud. It's hard to overdo light. :)
 
V

voe

Member
Interesting. I'm going to do some research before I make a decision, but what's especially appealing to me is how I could cut the electricity bill by not have to veg for 18-20 hours a day. I greatly appreciate your input, potpimp. Thanks!
 
guy incognito

guy incognito

Well-Known Member
voe said:
okay I've made some revisions to my plans, and wanted to get some input to see if I'm on the right track or if I can make any improvements.

I'm thinking a 400w veg room for 6 plants at a time. after vegging they will move to the flowering room with 2x1000w hps, and another 6 will start vegging. I will repeat this until I have 24 plants total, 6 in veg and up to 18 in flower.

would that much lighting be sufficient? or would increasing my wattage be a better idea? i'm just looking to maximize my per plant yield as I'm limited by law as to how many I can have at one time.

i have also been considering t5 side lighting to try and increase bud size throughout the plant instead of just focusing on top.

the plants will be grown in an ebb n flow type setup with 3-5 gallon buckets, and I'm looking into using CO2.

I welcome your comments and critiques, and please challenge my setup if you see something that could use improvement. this is not my first time growing, but it will be my first grow of this size, as well as my first hydroponic grow. thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
I do a perpetual in soil. I clone like 4-6 at a time, then put them in 6 inch pots for a couple weeks, then 3 gallon pots for a couple weeks, then move them into flower when space is available. I have about 450 watts going in a 4x4 tent for veg. I have 2 flower tents, both 4x4 and 1000w hps in each. I also run co2.

At any given time I have about 8-9 plants in each flower tent. Then I have a set in 3 gallon pots, a set in 6 inch pots, and a set in the cloner, all in the veg tent. This runs me pretty close to my 36 plant limit.

I do about 10 weeks total flower time and harvest every 2-3 weeks staggered. If I harvested an entire tent at once it would be a little over a pound, but I try to stagger it so at most I harvest half a tent. My electric bill maxes out at $400/mo in the summer with the AC. On average I get 18 ounces every 5 weeks.
 
V

voe

Member
Thanks for your input guy! Even though I'm not doing soil, your information is still helpful to me.
 
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