plant spacing advice

[noworries]

vegging critical mass a month to fill a 3x3 space under a 600w HPS.

How many would you put in to fill a 3x3 and pull decent weight? and what type of pattern?

I'd like to do something like:

x-x
-x-
x-x

(x's are plants - is empty space)

but it just seems like a lot of open space, or am i wrong?

 

[Green Supreme]

The arrangement is not as important to me, as making sure the plants do not touch. If they do, apical dominance can take over and the plants may become stretchier or lankier. Peace GS

 

[noworries]

so making sure plants dont touch is important?

A big priority for me is efficiency

 

[thefanfx]

well till they have same size and enough space for all to grow it's not a issue at all

use square pots instead of circle one to save space and it's easy to place them near each other

for example - if you grow 3 plants with enough space and 6 on same size space , you can get more stuff at the end from 3 instead from 6 because they will have more space to grow and less competition to fight for light , space etc.

so they can touch but with some leaves edges not to cross steams

as well you can always do some Scrogging , LST (Low stress training) etc.

more info here:
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=115377

GL and share the results with us

 

[whatsupdoc]

The term apical dominance, used above, caught my eye.

"apical dominance is the phenomenon whereby the main central stem of the plant is dominant over (i.e., grows more strongly than) other side stems" - Wikipedia

GreenSupreme - Could you elaborate on how 2 plants touching could cause apical dominance?

 

[VerdantGreen]

i would avoid the empty space and put 9 plants in there 3x3 (perhaps with slightly less veg). some kind of canopy management is good for efficiency... training or scrog.
true they may stretch more if they are touching but you need them packed in to get the yields imo.

 

[noworries]

Ya, my first run I used 12 plants and got 13.5 dry. My next run I used 2 and let and got 8. id like to pull 10+ but want to use less than 12 plants :-/

 

[noworries]

Lst* not "let"

 

[Avinash.miles]

verdants got the right idea, less veg more plants in a small space like u r using, best of luck!

ime:
apical dominance occuring from plants touching (even fan leaf tips, plants can be very sensitive!) mostly happens in veg, i havent noticed it flowering at all. thats why in lst and scrogs people defoliate heavily sometimes, to keep plants growing into each other from touching each other

 

[St3ve]

i would avoid the empty space and put 9 plants in there 3x3 (perhaps with slightly less veg). some kind of canopy management is good for efficiency... training or scrog.
true they may stretch more if they are touching but you need them packed in to get the yields imo.

+1

I would go 9 plants also... or at the very least 7 plants. And for that small of space, I would definitely defoliate hard to keep the branches and nodes as tight as possible.

so 9:
@@@
@@@
@@@

or 7:
_@@_
@@@
_@@_ and with this one remember to run the row of 3 plants inline/parallel with the horizontal bulb in the hood.