SOG - Pot Size 4" or 6"

[ledtime]

Hey all!

I'm trying to plan a 2'Dx4'Wx4'H flowering box. I'm going to take clones and flower them at 2"-3" in height looking to just end up with single cola budsicles. They should finish 14"-21" (strain dependent, but heavy indica).

With this style of growing in mind, do you think I can get away with a 4 inch pot or must it be a 6 inch? I'm going to use Floraflex pots with a fully automated drip feed system.

Floraflex says their 4" pot is: .22 gal, .85 L, 28.5 oz.

Their 6" pot is: .5 gal, 1.9 L, 63.7 oz

I'd like to be able to use 4" pots for the sheer fact of being able to fit more in the space.

The ambient air temp coming in through the passive intake will be 74-75 degrees all day, every day. I'm running a 480W-ish (600W dimmed down at 70%) LED light make from LM301B diodes, with the driver mounted outside of the box. That light won't make a ton heat. The box will be carbon scrubbed and vented with an adjustable fan and that should easily handle the small amount of heat that it puts off. I'm custom building the box.

I know that frequent watering would be in order due to the size of the pot, but knowing that I'm not growing trees....what do you all think? 4" or 6"?

Thank you very much for your input!!

 

[gr866]

Just hope the trunk of the plant does not grow to large as it will move the floracap and your water distribution will not be even.
I don't use them but have heard from folks that tried them that it is hard keeping the floracap level and watering the pot even.

 

[ledtime]

I'm still kicking it around. Not completely sold on the Floraflex stuff. Honestly I'd like less diameter and a taller pot. Maybe 3" max diameter, 7" deep? With that I could just have a 1/4" drip line straight to the container and it should saturate the entire container.

I called Floraflex today to get their pot dimensions. The 4" pot is 4.5" x 4.5" at the top and 3" x 3" at the base. The six inch pot is 6.5" x 6.5" at the top and 5" x 5" at the base. Both pots are 5.5" tall and have 1" spikes on the bottom included in that measurement.

 

[f-e]

8 foot of space... I have 5x 6" pots in that, of scrog. I couldn't get through with daily watering, as that much coco holds 3.5L at a real push. Not enough for 24 hours. I would need 8x 6" to get through a day

I'm finding the water might last 24 hours, but the food gets eaten in 6. So the goal isn't sizing pots for a days moisture. If your grow is anything like mine, you will be fertigating more often.

My grow.. ~400w of lm301h in that space, about 6" from the tops. Not 18/24/36. Just 6. With a ppfd of 1100 in places, and 600 in the 'out the way' places.

 

[ledtime]

I am firmly believing I'll be watering three times a day. The goal with this light, which was made for a 4 x 4 space, crammed into a 2x4 was to get the ppfd at 800 evenly. I'm looking for 50 budsicles in that space. If I used 20oz. Bottles I could get 50 in with 1.5" between each bottle. Would be tight in there but the light is there. With a pico manifold and it all automated to feed several times a day I am hoping it could be done.

 

[Driver 8]

4" sounds like all that could fit.

 

[AOD2012]

Hey man - I am currently using red solo cups right now at 4 per square foot. I am doing a simple open ended drip system to waste. Basically what I did was take a sheet of 3/4 plywood, and I drilled holes just big enough to let the cup sit in it & the lip stops it from falling through. I put (3) 2x6s underneath to lift it up & let the bottoms of the cup just float and drain that way.

I am currently on my 4th run of this at the moment. I am running multiple strains right now, only because I do not have big enough mothers to mono crop a run. My lat run, which was arguably my best netted me a little under 2lb in a 4x4 space under a homemade LED light using Samsung quantums.

Current run has (2) 4x4s, with the two runs being offset about 4-5 weeks. Going to start a journal in a week or two..

**EDIT** just read you were going to water 3 times. I was doing that at first, but I noticed with the smaller pots, I actually am getting better results only watering twice a day. But I was also not using any pearlite, which I just started using again. I might try bumping up another feeding or two and see how it works out.

aod

 

[ledtime]

Hey man - I am currently using red solo cups right now at 4 per square foot. I am doing a simple open ended drip system to waste. Basically what I did was take a sheet of 3/4 plywood, and I drilled holes just big enough to let the cup sit in it & the lip stops it from falling through. I put (3) 2x6s underneath to lift it up & let the bottoms of the cup just float and drain that way.

I am currently on my 4th run of this at the moment. I am running multiple strains right now, only because I do not have big enough mothers to mono crop a run. My lat run, which was arguably my best netted me a little under 2lb in a 4x4 space under a homemade LED light using Samsung quantums.

Current run has (2) 4x4s, with the two runs being offset about 4-5 weeks. Going to start a journal in a week or two..

**EDIT** just read you were going to water 3 times. I was doing that at first, but I noticed with the smaller pots, I actually am getting better results only watering twice a day. But I was also not using any pearlite, which I just started using again. I might try bumping up another feeding or two and see how it works out.

aod

aod,

How much water were you going through daily with those two feeds and no perlite?

 

[AOD2012]

Hey - usually went through roughly 25 gallons a week, give or take a day or two.

aod

 

[ledtime]

8 foot of space... I have 5x 6" pots in that, of scrog. I couldn't get through with daily watering, as that much coco holds 3.5L at a real push. Not enough for 24 hours. I would need 8x 6" to get through a day

I'm finding the water might last 24 hours, but the food gets eaten in 6. So the goal isn't sizing pots for a days moisture. If your grow is anything like mine, you will be fertigating more often.

My grow.. ~400w of lm301h in that space, about 6" from the tops. Not 18/24/36. Just 6. With a ppfd of 1100 in places, and 600 in the 'out the way' places.

I never followed up on this. I did get through this SOG. In the end I wound up with 37 out of the 40 plants and yielded 22oz dried. I was going through about 25 gallons of nutes a week feeding 3 times a day to waste. I had a few hermies, but overall I was pleased for sure with the yield.

I won't be doing that kind of plant count again though. Too tough to defoliate. So I've started mastering mainlining. just as effective as SOG, but manageable with regards to keeping it all tidy and having room for airflow.

 

[f-e]

22 is good in a 2x4 area. Did you use the wattage you expected to?

 

[ledtime]

22 is good in a 2x4 area. Did you use the wattage you expected to?

I kept the plants on a 2x4 flood tray and had to move them to a 4x4 tent as I couldn't keep VPD in range in the smaller space. I wound up finishing them at full 600W hitting them with about 1000 PPFD.