Hey Ween, all caught up here.
**Hey Van! Great to see you round these here parts!
Didn't see anyone really address your perpetual issue so allow me to attempt, but I will need to ask you a few questions to get a feel for what you are working with.
**Thanks! See below.
1. Do you have a plant limit? And how many plants are you thinking about growing at one time?
I know you are talking about dropping down to 7s.
**My limit is that I need to keep it reasonable, not go over board. I feel like my space limits me to 4 veg, 4 bloom in the two 4x4 and then seedling/early veg in the 2.5x3.5.
2. How long are you wanting to veg each plant? (very important for factoring time between popping beans)
**I'm using the kit so it's advised to get a very Healy root mass before flip which is somewhere in the 8-10 week range.
3. Do you need to reduce plant counts during the summer due to heat?
**im thinking I may need to consider this due to my current bloomers that are doing ok but could be much better, been struggling with high rh but think I have it under control, still I don't think having a 4x4 jam packed in this heat and high rh is a good idea.
4. What is your lighting situation?
**i have a Perfect sun Goliath which may soon become my veg light, making room for a new addition of an even better light. I also have two 600w HIDs with both MH and HPS bulbs, 2 Mars Hydro LEDs 205w 96 LEDs.
If you give me those basics, I can give you what my recommendation for you would be based off my experience in perpetuals.
*Thanks, much appreciated!
Garden is looking great my friend!
Thanks again Van! Looks can be deceiving sometimes, I'm concerned about my flower girls flopping everywhere, hope I can limp to the finish line!
Ok, so perpetuals. Lots of things to consider and even then you can only use baseline info that breeder provide us. The first thing you will need to figure out is what your high limit on plants is going to be. For me, I have a 12 plant limit so I used a 2 to 3 week as baseline for each new seed drop. I run a week in the seedling phase and then generally about an 8 week veg but I have gone as low as 6 weeks (for the Stankberry) and as long as 12 weeks for the main lined White Widow but that was more of a space limit.
Sounds like you will be vegging about the same amount of time. So depending on how many plants you intend to have going and if you plan on taking and growing clones, will depend on how much time between dropping seeds. For regular seeds I generally drop 2 seeds at a time.
Generally I have 4 plants in Veg and 4 or 5 in flower (I tend to get in trouble with clones which is what I have going on now). I find that using a 10 week flower time works for a scheduling, with the understanding that some will be faster and some will be slower but unless you are running a bunch of pure Sativas....you should be good using the 10 week flower time.
You have a lot more flexibility in your set up with that third tent. I think maybe with me, I would be vegging in one 4x4 and flowering in one 4x4 and then you can use your smaller tent for either vegging clones or smaller seedlings, or for running autos or even smaller shorter plants in flower. Most likely I would use it for additional flower since thats where you generally want more room.
So if you wanted 8 plants......and you are vegging an average of 10 weeks (I always lean toward the higher number) you would probably want to drop new seeds every 3 weeks and when a plant hits that 10 week mark, you move it to the flower tent and drop a new bean. Discipline is really the key to not having a perpetual getting out of hand. Its a real struggle to not drop a new shiny bean that I see someone else growing out. Essentially when you get it rolling with the perpetual, you want to drp a new bean about the time you are harvesting a plant (or two if you are dropping regs). Harvest a plant and drop a bean.
Understand that the plants work on their schedule and not yours. So you might have the best laid plans but if you have a plant that grows crazy fast or tall or takes forever to finish flowering, there isn't much you can do and you have to just roll with it Thats where that 3rd tent of yours gives you so much more flexibility. You can change the lighting hours real quick and go from extra veg space to extra flower space.
So to summarize.....the main things you have to decide are:
How many plants you want.
How often would you like to harvest.
Stick with your 8-10 weeks of vegging. I think that is about perfect. Be prepared to deal with plants that have a mind of their own. When you answer those two questions above......that will determine the best way to run your perpetual. Very interested to see what you do!