What Method Would You Choose If Limited To 16 Plants For Maximum Yield?

[Olympian]

might be moving to colorado in the near future so i can finally grow again. my cousin is already a resident there so i can grow with him until i obtain residency. the discussion i'd like to have is on how you guys would maximize yield/cost efficiency with a 16 plant limit. i'm thinking scrogging some monsters would be best. but lets get down to specifics.

would you push past the standard of 50 watts/sq. ft.?
what type of hydro system would you use, or would you go soil?

looking forward to the discussion.

 

[St. Phatty]

might be moving to colorado in the near future so i can finally grow again. my cousin is already a resident there so i can grow with him until i obtain residency. the discussion i'd like to have is on how you guys would maximize yield/cost efficiency with a 16 plant limit. i'm thinking scrogging some monsters would be best. but lets get down to specifics.

would you push past the standard of 50 watts/sq. ft.?
what type of hydro system would you use, or would you go soil?

looking forward to the discussion.

One option is to copy Mr. Soul's set-up for a 16 plant 1 K light, though that was HPS and many years ago. I think he posted a picture where he showed 16 plants, 4x4, in hydro. Whether it was 16 square feet or a little bigger I don't remember.

One option is to use 1K Metal Halide for the first part of flowering, when the plant is mostly leaves. Then switch to HPS after about 3 weeks. HPS puts out a little more light, and at that point the plants will be bushy, and needing a little more space.

So then the footprint can change from 4x4 to 4x5 or 5x5.

Of course a person could always use a spotlight (even just a 10 watt warm LED) in the corners.

I think the soil/rockwool discussion depends a little on how well the situation tolerates DIRT (possibly everywhere).

So room-mates & pets need to be taken into consideration. I have a pet bird who headed for one of my larger house-plants this morning to dig in the dirt.

For media, I have done 6 inch rockwool cubes, cubic feet of shredded rockwool, and organic soil, store-bought and home-made.

Hydro involves getting into chemistry, e.g. pH. So does organic ... seems like there is a standard mistake we all make - too much nutes, turns the soil run-off acid, and nutrient uptake slows down. So a pH meter is helpful growing in soil too.