3'x3'x6.5' growtent setup / plant count

[ericsson]

EDIT: If this should be in the Growroom design forum please move my thread and sorry for being a PITA

A up to all the stoners!!

It's been a while from my last visit here, but I'm finally back & able to lift off with my new grow. Due to current circumstances my setup is a 3x3x6.5 growtent and I'm looking for a word (or two) of advice.

I'll be running a 400W HPS in a cooltube, want do to some lst/supercropping and perhaps place a scrog of the girls in regular dirt, hand watered with biobuzz organic nutes.
My question is what would be a resonable plant count / setup for the tent?
In theory, if it'd like to squeeze them in a kind of sea of green way, I'd be able to fit 9 plants in either square, 11l pots (25x25x26cm) or 12l round pots (30x24.5x21cm), but I don't think it would be a good idea to will out the tent with 9 plants - what do ya say?

Another two visions I have is either 6 pots in two rows or 5 pots (4 corners and one in the middle). Personally I think the 5 pot setup might be optimal, but I'd like to hear some opinions from you guys - what would Brian Boitano do??

Thx fellaz & stay safe,
e.

 

[ericsson]

Is this too hard of a riddle, or too dumb??

 

[Granger2]

There's a relationship between necessary veg time/#plants/pruning or LST, etc. What you want is about 4 main bud sites per sq ft. How you get there is up to you, weighing veg time. Keeping them short is necessary so, in a 6.5' ceiling, you don't crowd the lights with maturing buds. The longer I grow, the fewer plants I like. I'm in 3x3 stalls, and I like 4,5, or 6 plants. How many depends on how many strains I have ready, or how many strains I want at the time.

Last run, 5 worked well. You need to keep them short enough so you don't have much larf on the lower plant. A 600w will penetrate about 2.5 feet down into the canopy. So figure height of containers + 2.5' plants + 24", better 30", distance between light and canopy, with lights up all the way. Allow extra for all these measurements. Good luck. -granger

 

[Starmstr]

9 is fine. It is all relative to the plant size at start and the stretch.

 

[ericsson]

There's a relationship between necessary veg time/#plants/pruning or LST, etc. What you want is about 4 main bud sites per sq ft. How you get there is up to you, weighing veg time. Keeping them short is necessary so, in a 6.5' ceiling, you don't crowd the lights with maturing buds. The longer I grow, the fewer plants I like. I'm in 3x3 stalls, and I like 4,5, or 6 plants. How many depends on how many strains I have ready, or how many strains I want at the time.

Last run, 5 worked well. You need to keep them short enough so you don't have much larf on the lower plant. A 600w will penetrate about 2.5 feet down into the canopy. So figure height of containers + 2.5' plants + 24", better 30", distance between light and canopy, with lights up all the way. Allow extra for all these measurements. Good luck. -granger

Thanks for you input and advice Granger. I'll try to focus on the "4 main bus sites per sq ft.", as having 4 plants in the tent it's 2.7 sq ft. for each on, meaning around 10 main bud sites per plant - and that seems to make sense for a scrog like setup. Again, I suppose scrog should also work well for the "keeping them short" purpose, therefore I've decided to go with 4 plant in 15L pots option. Anything not getting sufficient light I think I'll just snip off.. or perhaps try a bit of defoliation (although in a rather limited way, as I've never tried this technique /apart from removing old / yellow / damaged leafs).
Container high is 8.9" + 2.5' plants = ~3.5' + 30" distance between the light and canopy would take us to about 6'. Would you say I should assume a 30" gap, considering the light is 400W and in a cooltube?

Take care and appreciate the input,
e.

9 is fine. It is all relative to the plant size at start and the stretch.

Cheers buddy, after some thought I believe fully packing the tent with 9 big plants in 15L pots might be over-doing it, especially having in plan to do some training/lst with a scrog-like setup.
I might do 9 AF plants in 11L square pots my next run - as both the pots and their locators will be noticeably smaller

Thx,
e.