Best setup for a 5x5 tent?

[Smudged]

So basically my weed prescription has shot up recently and i’ve decided to start growing. I just bought a 5x5 grow tent and everything, just waiting to get a grow light (aiming to get a mars hydro fc-8000) and wanted to know what the best set up would be?

Ive read into the sea of green and that seems to be the best bet in my case but not 100% yet so wanted to ask around on a few forums. Just wanted to see if anyone could give some advice on what’d be best for my set up, basically aiming for a large yield with a little turn over time. This will be my first grow so not sure what expectations are realistically so thought fewer, smaller, plants would be good but i’m also thinking maybe a few bigger ones would be good in the long run.

I want to aim for a perpetual harvest once i’ve got the hang of things but assume i’d need another tent, not sure if growing autos would get around this (maybe planting 4 a month, not sure how manageable it’d be with one tent and plants in different stages of development)

Also want to plant multiple strains as i get strain lock pretty quick but know the genetics are important. As a very quick idea of what i’m thinking - maybe 16 smaller plants, 8L fabric pots, maybe 4 different strains? Still not sure on feminised or autos tho so it’s hard to plan properly without that set, so not sure if the yield would be worth it.

Thats all i’ve got so far, any advice is much appreciated, happy to answer any questions. Thanks a lot

 

[Fromunda506]

I have grown a whole bunch of autos and photos. For people starting out, I would suggest photos. Particularly if you had some pretty defined expectations about time, strain, and you. Auto plant, even from the same batch of seeds, will tend to have its own thing. It will decide what size it wants to be, how soon it wants to flower, when it wants to finish. You get the idea. You have way more control over photos. Despite popular belief, autos really aren’t necessarily small. If they are grown well, you could fill that tent with four or five plants depending on the strain.

If I were you, go with photos. Especially if you are considering a SOG. You have way more control over how large they are going to be and you control when they start flowering by changing the light schedule. Once you get the hang of it a bit, you find a good plant of the varietal you want to grow and take cuttings off of it, which is way easier than it may seem, and pop them into your containers. That will give you plants that are carbon copies of one another. You know, everyone will be virtually identical in all of the relevant variables. In my opinion, those are great for when you are growing for fun and recreational purposes. For medical needs or for commercial purposes, they are just way too unpredictable for my liking.

Oh, that said, you might consider running four or five plants from seed that you veg for 30–60 days and flower them to get the hang of it. Flowering in small containers can be a little tricky. You also might find a couple you really like that. You can keep to take clones for your sea of green. Just my $.02

Good luck. Cheers

 

[RGWD0202]

Autos will be really difficult to do them 30 days apart. Multiple strains would be easy enough they will just need different watering and feeding but for the most part should be fine. I would consider a Scrog

 

[Smudged]

I have grown a whole bunch of autos and photos. For people starting out, I would suggest photos. Particularly if you had some pretty defined expectations about time, strain, and you. Auto plant, even from the same batch of seeds, will tend to have its own thing. It will decide what size it wants to be, how soon it wants to flower, when it wants to finish. You get the idea. You have way more control over photos. Despite popular belief, autos really aren’t necessarily small. If they are grown well, you could fill that tent with four or five plants depending on the strain.

If I were you, go with photos. Especially if you are considering a SOG. You have way more control over how large they are going to be and you control when they start flowering by changing the light schedule. Once you get the hang of it a bit, you find a good plant of the varietal you want to grow and take cuttings off of it, which is way easier than it may seem, and pop them into your containers. That will give you plants that are carbon copies of one another. You know, everyone will be virtually identical in all of the relevant variables. In my opinion, those are great for when you are growing for fun and recreational purposes. For medical needs or for commercial purposes, they are just way too unpredictable for my liking.

Oh, that said, you might consider running four or five plants from seed that you veg for 30–60 days and flower them to get the hang of it. Flowering in small containers can be a little tricky. You also might find a couple you really like that. You can keep to take clones for your sea of green. Just my $.02

Good luck. Cheers

Thanks a lot for the quick reply, definitely a huge help. So would you say sea of green isn’t the best idea for a beginner and probably should start smaller first?
For the 4-5 plants idea, as a rough estimate, what would the time frame from seed - ready to harvest and cure? And what sort of yield would i get?
I know the numbers are completely random i’m just trying to get some time frames down as i won’t be able to afford my prescription for a little and rely on it a lot, so would like to see how long this will all last me. I smoke maybe a 3-4g a day, but am alright growing less plants, taller and for longer if it the harvest would be worth the wait.
Thanks a lot again for the response

 

[Smudged]

Autos will be really difficult to do them 30 days apart. Multiple strains would be easy enough they will just need different watering and feeding but for the most part should be fine. I would consider a Scrog

I heard Scrog isn’t too beginner friendly? What would you say? I’m cool trying whatever as long as i don’t fuck it up lol.
Also about the autos being difficult, you saying feminised is the way to go?

 

[RGWD0202]

Scrog is pretty easy actually, only concern would be get to the plants in the back could prove challenging depending on how many “doors” are on the tent. Other than that when the branch grows taller than the squares are wide tuck in the next opening. Feminized is definitely the way to go. Autos have their place but photos are easier. If you mess up with autos, easy to do especially your first grow, you don’t have time to fix the mistake. They are a ticking bomb, once the seed is in the ground the clock starts. If it takes you a week to get the issue fixed, you’ve lost a week of growth. With photos you can take your time to fix the issue and just veg it an extra week or however long it was to fix the problem if you want to.

 

[Smudged]

Scrog is pretty easy actually, only concern would be get to the plants in the back could prove challenging depending on how many “doors” are on the tent. Other than that when the branch grows taller than the squares are wide tuck in the next opening. Feminized is definitely the way to go. Autos have their place but photos are easier. If you mess up with autos, easy to do especially your first grow, you don’t have time to fix the mistake. They are a ticking bomb, once the seed is in the ground the clock starts. If it takes you a week to get the issue fixed, you’ve lost a week of growth. With photos you can take your time to fix the issue and just veg it an extra week or however long it was to fix the problem if you want to.

That’s great thanks a lot. How many plants would you recommend growing in a 5x5 with Scrog? If i’m going with that id probably maybe grow 1-2 plants of each strain. Not too sure tho since online i’ve read people saying anything between 10-100 plants is ideal for Scrog.
Last thing, if your able, could you give a very rough timeframe of seed to harvest so i know how long the process is

 

[RGWD0202]

That’s great thanks a lot. How many plants would you recommend growing in a 5x5 with Scrog? If i’m going with that id probably maybe grow 1-2 plants of each strain. Not too sure tho since online i’ve read people saying anything between 10-100 plants is ideal for Scrog.
Last thing, if your able, could you give a very rough timeframe of seed to harvest so i know how long the process is

Once the seed has sprouted veg for 4-6 weeks longer if you want, and then I would expect 10 weeks in flower all strains are different but 70 days give or take 10. The breeder will list approx flowering time, go by the higher number, if it says 8-10 weeks it’s gonna be closer to 10. So 14+ weeks. You can Scrog 8 comfortably in a 5x5 really could possibly do 12 that’s a big space. If you watch buildasoil on YouTube he is in a 10x10 but does 5x5 quadrants, you could get a good idea of how much you can do in that space.

 

[Smudged]

Once the seed has sprouted veg for 4-6 weeks longer if you want, and then I would expect 10 weeks in flower all strains are different but 70 days give or take 10. The breeder will list approx flowering time, go by the higher number, if it says 8-10 weeks it’s gonna be closer to 10. So 14+ weeks. You can Scrog 8 comfortably in a 5x5 really could possibly do 12 that’s a big space. If you watch buildasoil on YouTube he is in a 10x10 but does 5x5 quadrants, you could get a good idea of how much you can do in that space.

cheers for the info that’s helped out a ton. One finally thing about Scrog i’m not too sure about is the netting choices. Ive seen individual nets that attach to each plant so you can still move them independently but i’ve noticed they’re usually quite a bit lower so assumed they wouldn’t be as effective, and would probably need a net for the whole tent when it’s time for flowering?

 

[HerbalEdu]

So basically my weed prescription has shot up recently and i’ve decided to start growing. I just bought a 5x5 grow tent and everything, just waiting to get a grow light (aiming to get a mars hydro fc-8000) and wanted to know what the best set up would be?

Ive read into the sea of green and that seems to be the best bet in my case but not 100% yet so wanted to ask around on a few forums. Just wanted to see if anyone could give some advice on what’d be best for my set up, basically aiming for a large yield with a little turn over time. This will be my first grow so not sure what expectations are realistically so thought fewer, smaller, plants would be good but i’m also thinking maybe a few bigger ones would be good in the long run.

I want to aim for a perpetual harvest once i’ve got the hang of things but assume i’d need another tent, not sure if growing autos would get around this (maybe planting 4 a month, not sure how manageable it’d be with one tent and plants in different stages of development)

Also want to plant multiple strains as i get strain lock pretty quick but know the genetics are important. As a very quick idea of what i’m thinking - maybe 16 smaller plants, 8L fabric pots, maybe 4 different strains? Still not sure on feminised or autos tho so it’s hard to plan properly without that set, so not sure if the yield would be worth it.

Thats all i’ve got so far, any advice is much appreciated, happy to answer any questions. Thanks a lot

I would avoid running plant at different stages, as well as plant from different strains inside the same tent in SOG.

you will prefer plants from the same strain all at the same stage of growth to keep an even canopy, and even like that sometime you'll get some noticeable difference in height with some strains and some phenotypes within those strains.

with 16 plants in a 5x5 i think you can use 11-15L pots.

(my SOG set up is equivalent to 16 plants 6L pots in a 3x3)

you can easily grow 25 plants (5x5) or 36 plants (6x6) in a 5x5 tent in SOG

 

[HerbalEdu]

Thanks a lot for the quick reply, definitely a huge help. So would you say sea of green isn’t the best idea for a beginner and probably should start smaller first?
For the 4-5 plants idea, as a rough estimate, what would the time frame from seed - ready to harvest and cure? And what sort of yield would i get?
I know the numbers are completely random i’m just trying to get some time frames down as i won’t be able to afford my prescription for a little and rely on it a lot, so would like to see how long this will all last me. I smoke maybe a 3-4g a day, but am alright growing less plants, taller and for longer if it the harvest would be worth the wait.
Thanks a lot again for the response

SOG is perfectly fine for begginer.

the main downside is watering plants in the back with bigger tents

nothing can beat a SOG well done in term of gr/W/m²/"time spent veg flo" ... longer veg kill that ratio ...

 

[Smudged]

SOG is perfectly fine for begginer.

the main downside is watering plants in the back with bigger tents

nothing can beat a SOG well done in term of gr/W/m²/"time spent veg flo" ... longer veg kill that ratio ...

That’s great thanks. My tent has “doors” on most sides so hopefully i’ll be alright for access. From the replies i’ve had i think i’m probably going to do a couple of SOG runs just to get some buds before moving to SCROG for a more long term thing. As a rough estimate what would you say the sort of yield i’d be looking at for a SOG in my setup? I know the real numbers aren’t predictable just looking for a guesstimate. Thanks again for the reply

 

[HerbalEdu]

That’s great thanks. My tent has “doors” on most sides so hopefully i’ll be alright for access. From the replies i’ve had i think i’m probably going to do a couple of SOG runs just to get some buds before moving to SCROG for a more long term thing. As a rough estimate what would you say the sort of yield i’d be looking at for a SOG in my setup? I know the real numbers aren’t predictable just looking for a guesstimate. Thanks again for the reply

well it's hard to say,

it could vary noticeably from one strain to another, also depending how you fill the tent with colas depending how vigorous is your growth the first few weeks of veg and flowering stretch and how many plants you've decided to grow.

with 16 plants in a 5x5 if you don't have a noticeably vigorous growth with auto you may not fill the area, same with photo they could require longer veg before the flip if not enough vigorous on start up

with more plants you will usually fill the tent faster and that can temper the fact of how vigorous enough is your growth on start up.

 

[Natep]

I would do 4 or 5 30 gallon living organic pots. I believe it is the easiest way to grow.