I’m curious to understand what is the most common setup for commercial growers, from a plant count standpoint.
How many plants do you grow per light? (assuming a 1kw light)
Is this preference or compliance restriction?
More information can be helpful as well, such as size of pots used, medium, and type of light (LED, HPS, CMH, etc)
Thanks for your input everyone!!
I do 16 to 18 a light, vegged 3 weeks in perlite and coco (2 gal Smartpots) for most strains, SFV OG tends to grow pretty skinny plants so I kinda pack em in when they’re in trays. Bushier strains I give more space to.
I’ve been wondering the same thing, actually. The grow’s I’ve worked on have varied wildly. There doesn’t seem to be an “industry standard” for it. I wouldn’t be surprised if one emerged as the industry matures, though.
Yeah, this is the equivalent of asking which light do you prefer. I have been to many grows and they all have their own opinion. Plus there are so many factors (lights, budget, canopy space, quality of the room, automation, etc). I agree with @CIS-Erik, as cultivation moves further and further into a more structured operation and data becomes more and more available, we will begin to see a semi-industry standards emerging for medium to large scale operations.
Just out of curiosity, isn’t there some some kind of standard. For example, a 2500 sq ft room. 8’ ceiling.
1 gallon pots finished spacing 3X3.
Looking to use dimmable LED.
Any advice ?
Really it comes down to your available volume of clones. In a perfect world they’d be free and unlimited, but even if you make your own, they’re never free.
So, in an ideal world, a Sea of Green tends to yield the best for horizontal gardens. Vertical gardens usually yield more per light, or even rotary gardens like the Omega do very well. But Omegas and Coliseum grows both rely on large numbers of clones too, just the shape changes into a cylindrical SOG.
I’m of the firm opinion that veg time is overrated, indoors and out. We cultivate flowers, and their extracts, but the stems and branches are the only thing we spend time and money to grow that we actually throw away. 6 small plants can yield the same as one large one, but in a shorter timeframe. A shorter timeframe per crop equals more crops per year.
That said, I don’t have unlimited space for moms, cloning is relatively labor-intensive (and delicate work) but I run perpetual flower rooms, so i enjoy the comfort of outsourcing clones. I don’t have to worry about a batch being too small, or failing for some reason. Reliability and timing is critical, more than a couple days off throws off an entire crop, and not for the better.
Some of the “plants per light” you run is limited by your system, as most hydro systems (with the exception of trays) dictate how many plants can fit in a given space. NFT and aero use densely packed clones vegged just a few days. 2 gallon ebb and flow buckets need bigger plants, as you’re in ba 2 gallon container, vegged 2 or 3 weeks. Undercurrent systems come with you to 20 gallon containers, which are typically one or two a light, but can be packed with roots in 3 weeks.
Lots of ways to skin a cat, depends on how much you want to invest in gear and how cheaply you can make or get clones reliably.
