Indoor ALL ABOARD, the Atrain 420 EXPRESS!!!

[A-Train]

Hello guys it's about time to start up the new grow tent.....

Tent: 3x3x5

Lighting: 600w mh/veg hps/flower

Soil: pro mix bx with vermicompost I harvested today added

Nutrients: Advanced Nutrients pH perfect grow/micro/bloom

400cfm fan on speed control... air cooled hood and phresh carbon filter.

I'm going to need some assistance from the pros to get this thing started... a few questions to get things going. I have 5 gal smart pots and they will fit in the tent fine. Before I make the bean selection I was wanting some input from you guys... do I need to run 2 plants or can I run 4 in here?

I have the following beans idea like to run

Sweet seeds: ice cool auto
Short stuff: auto Spanish diesel
Dutch passion: taiga#2
Mephisto: sour Crack

In a perfect world I would love to run one of each. Bit if the ones in the know think I should grow fewer plants in the tent I can drop to two and go from there.

As soon as I am more informed (today hopefully ) I'll be making the final selection and soaking the beans and getting things started..

Thanks fellas, hoping with the help of those who made my first grow a success we can make it happen again

 

[Trapper]

Okay, here's my 2cents...

Since you are running traditional incandescent lights, that generate a fair amount of heat
and need to be (generally) further from the tops of the plants and...

Since you're running 5 gal airpots which are both taller and potentially produce larger plants and...

Since these two realities equate to putting a "premium" on available vertical space...

I would run either 2 or 3 and I would run small to medium plants first, to see where you stand
with available vertical and overall volume/space.

Hopefully, you'll find that with those 5 gal. airpots, you're getting into crowding issues
Because that will mean that you are dealing with some monsters in there. But, to my mind,
better to start with smaller plants and get your experiential data THAT way rather than
having to find out (and deal with) the fact that you don't have enough space.

4 big plants in 5 gal airpots in that tent with that light might get unsustainable at the end.

EDIT Sidenote (forgot something):

Also, while having variety (all different strains) is GREAT once they are in jars, it poses
challenges when deciding light height if they are all different sizes.

 

[Trapper]

BTW, Cute dog! LOL! I love the look on it's face.

 

[A-Train]

Yeah he's like ... damn you messing with this stuff again... let's go hunting dad.

So you would suggest running 3 of the same strain? That would provide a little extra room if they get too tall I'll be able to bent them over..

 

[Darth Vapour]

^^^ everything trap said

Another option would be to run 2 plants first than after week 4 or 5 start the other 2 strains either in that tent if they fit or start them in a small cabinet for a perpetual harvest

Sweet dog photo bomb! His face says "Put the camera down and play with me dammit!"

 

[Trapper]

Personally, I would run a pair of one strain and 1 of another, in that circumstance, to ride the
line between risk and reward a little more conservatively. I would try to select a single that
was generally considered to be the same size as the pair to hedge my bet further.

 

[Trapper]

2 Sour Cracks and a Spanish D is what I'd run

 

[A-Train]

Boom there it is....

Sour Crack X2
Spanish D x1

Just dropped them for a good soak before I leave out for work.

Another thing is the quantum ballast has a 50 75 and 100 percent power setting. Would it be better to turn the percentage lower than 100 when they first start to sprout? I have the light set to the top of tent so we're looking at about 46 inches to the top of the pots.... and after reading about the Spanish D it gets tall sometimes so I'll probably be bending and tie in like I did with the haze.

And after reading more into the worm compost I'll be starting for a week or two with just bx then using the compost to top dress after there established just a bit

 

[Trapper]

The Spanish D's I saw during the test grows were medium-sized but that's just the ones I remember.

As to the light, yeah maybe run sub-100% first to see whats up but 4 feet is a lot of distance.

You may run in to a scenario that your adjustable ballast can replace the physical moving of the
light. just adjust intensity based on proximity. That would be cool!

I don't know much about hps/mh so I may be talking out my butt on that one.

 

[elsamurai]

nice set-up and it sounds like Trapper has you sorted. I'd say 3 is the right amount. my tents 36x19x63 and 2 normal size plants is my realistic number, although I have 3 in there now Ooops LOL