Expanding to perpetual harvest

[Dave_the_stoner]

I have a 1000w HPS which I have used from time to time as my lone source of light. However I have been thinking of expanding to a perpetual harvest setup. I figure the 1000w should be for flowering, then I'm gonna need a MH for mothers, and some flouros for cloning.
My question is if anyone has an opinion on what wattage MH and flouros I should buy to keep a steady supply of clones going into flower?

 

[Merfolk]

How many mother plants?



Im not expert, but 400 watt should be OK

 

[pray4pistils]

well... it depends

well... it depends

A 250 or 400W MH (or CMH) could do the trick. However, there's no way to advise you properly unless you describe how you intend to grow (i.e. SOG vs a few large plants with long veg times, hydro or soil...). With that said, I've got a 1000W flowering room and then also a 400W closet with my moms and clones.

Here's the last batch just after going into the main room:


And, here's the current group (flanking the moms) at 1 week after rooting:






This setup is as basic as you can get. Cooling and airflow is done by keeping the door cracked open 2" during lights on. I close it up during lights off to hold humidity. One of these days I'm going to build another door with full ventilation and such. That way I can control humidity and eliminate the glowing spare bedroom problem.

Btw, I did the actual cloning in those same trays but under a humidity dome. This was illuminated by a 60W CFL placed inside a kitchen cabinet. One can certainly clone under an HID, but you'd need to block light to them or keep them far away from the hood.

 

[greengorillaz]

nice setup!

 

[Dave_the_stoner]

Beautiful pray4pistols! Thats similar to what I was thinking, a 400w MH it is. I was thinking of having one cab with mothers and vegging clones, a small cab with a few t-5's for cloning, and put plants to flower in a 1000w cab at about 1 foot tall in soil so I can keep a steady supply of pot in my lungs. I guess I gotta see what a 400w HM is gonna cost me.

 

[pray4pistils]

Thanks very much for the compliments, guys. I'm just hitting my stride with equipment and facilities now. So, it's especially gratifiying to see it all come together properly.

Thats similar to what I was thinking, a 400w MH it is.

Dave, I now recommend a CMH (ceramic metal halide) over a standard MH. You get reduced heat, superior energy efficiency, more lumens, and VERY importantly more PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation -a.k.a. "the light that the plant actually uses vs what the human eye sees"). Another benefit is that these bulbs work with HPS ballasts. So, you can stock up on only one ballast type and thus use them more flexibly depending on needs.

Read up about CMH bulbs here!



By the way, I mentioned my cloning set up before. I had an entire home kitchen (stocked with micrebrewed beer) built around my clone chamber. :wink: It's illuminated by a 60W CFL. The light intensity is a bit too strong for unrooted cuttings. So, I slip a sheet of paper between the fixture and the dome's top to reduce and diffuse it.



In this tiny space I can get 25 clones prepared and ready for vegging within 12 days. That's plenty of output to statisfy a 1000W perpetual flowering area. I took just 15 cuttings yesterday (when this photo was taken) and that's because there just isn't enough room for more. The point is that you don't need massive amounts of clones to sustain a decent-sized veg/flower operation.



Keep the girls warm n' steamy, use cloning hormone gel, and don't feed'm any nutes until those gorgeous white tendrils pop out the Rapid Rooters. That's all about all it takes.

UPDATE:
The clones I showed off before are now at 4 weeks after cutting and 2 weeks since solid rooting/hardening off. They'll go into flowering in a week. I'm going to try a SOG-style grow this time. The bigger mom that was in the rear of the previous photos went into the flowering room yesterday. So, now only a single mom remains.





Currently growing in 3oz beer cups, these girls are feed 700ppm (1.0 EC). I water them daily to keep them from getting root bound and to maintain nute ratios/concentration. With more space to grow up, they're quickly growing taller and bushy.



This group will stay in the veg chamber for one more week and will then be sent to flower. I was going to transplant them into bigger cups today. However, so long as the frequent watering avoids the root binding (which makes'm grow tall and lanky) I think they can stay where they are for 7 days longer.

That's all for now!