New grow op advice(experienced growers pls)

[Clsmooth415]

So the space consists of 2 flowering rooms each with 20 4x4 trays covered by 16 Gavitas 1000's. Veg space is 10 4x4 trays covered by 8 600watt blockbuster hoods. Co2 in flower, Hugos, 320 plants per flowering room(16 per tray), ebb n flow, GH nutes, 4 week veg, 8 week flower.

Anyhow, my question is how many man hours would it take to run this spot? Between weekly rez changes, light defoliation, Lollipopping, Organics sprays when needed, Clone cutting, transplanting, chopping plants, clean up and dump runs, and misc stuff. To me its a no brainer of 20-30hrs a week. My other friends swears he can do all that in 8hrs a week. So please chime in with opinions or questions. The monthly overhead is substantial. Also what kind of yields would a pro level grower expect. Currently our projected averages are 2 per light. Strains vary from Cookies, OG's, Zkittlez, Dosidos, Purple Punch, Forbidden Fruit, etc.

Thanks

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

LOL

Seriously, I wish you luck with the 30hrs a week and that's not including the harvesting and beyond. What's the largest grow op either of you have set up and run, to date?

 

[Clsmooth415]

we've both run way bigger spots, but havent been able to do all the things i like to do. Im trying to move away from letting all the smaller things slip thru the cracks. Trust me when i say I can rock this place easy with 20-30hrs a week. Idk how others work, but i got it down. But i cant do this op and spend time moving work, clones, teens, trade shows, dealing with trimmers, etc. So its up in the air who is gonna run this spot, and how many ppl/hrs it will take.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Sounds like you already know your own abilities. Now you'll have to learn what others are capable of doing and figure accordingly.

 

[Phaeton]

The first eleven years took about an hour per day per container with an average of twelve ounces yield per container.
In 2011 I went full time gardener and the time spent per plant dropped to a half hour each. Yields went down to nine ounces per container. Quality was close to the same but not quite.

The larger the scale the less time per plant.
One neighbor spends less than fifteen minutes daily per container with a five ounce per plant yield. Quality is down as well. Some plants are still gourmet while others are not, it takes time to groom plants to their ultimate, so overall the average goes down when less work is done.

This is an across the board truth, jobs done as fast as it is possible to do are generally less precise and of lower quality. With some endeavors this makes little to no difference, other projects are rendered useless if rushed, a lot depends on the attitude of both the worker and the recipients of his labors.

 

[Limeygreen]

SOG will help give more time per plant but more plants to tend to, automatic water would be a must, trimming is faster, harvest is faster, plant work on a per plant basis is faster but drying can be trickier with smaller colas so attention needs to be paid for the harvest and drying to maintain quality.

 

[Speed of green]

i would say early plant training and access around the trays could shave some serious time off.

doing yoga trying to reach the back of your 4x4's without breaking anything can make one hour of defoliation feel like four hours.

setting up trellising early and maintaining is something that if you dont do it early can really add the hours on later in the grow.

res changes and foliar feeding, are minimal effort and with the right setup can be done very efficiently.

 

[stoney917]

Can automate most things , so it's not really hrs per week job if ya don't make it one, it all about properly timed hard days . comes down to scheduling and knowing what needs to be done when on ya strains ...and willingness to put in a day or 2 or 3 of 24 hr of straight work every 2-4 weeks , then ya can do whatever. I spend a lot of time in my rooms more like a maintenance man , making sure the machine running smooth, cleaning n just hanging out it's a great place hide from the wife , so ya I'm in there 40hrs a week, , schedule ya clones transplants defoliations harvest etc. add the time for all that ya got About 14 actual real days of work... larger plant counts is actually easier and less work if ya clone game is good.
This is all based on having EVERYTHING on the same schedule no perpetual bullshit , 1 harvest every 60-70days, any other way double the work load... definitely consider dosetrons, they are key piece of equipment to being able to get away ...