How Many Plants Can Fit In A 4x4 Grow Tent
Tent size is one of the many catalysts that are going to decide you yield. Those who aspire to grow medicinal plants often do it in a confined space such as a grow room, or in most cases, a grow tent. These are important because they ensure that the growers get their privacy as well as are able to create the perfect space with the optimum conditions for growth of their plants. However, the one challenge that growers (especially the first-time growers) have is that they may not know how many plants will they be able to fit inside their grow tent (or how big a grow tent they need for their plants).
4×4 Yield Under Different Styles
At this point, how many plants you can grow on a 4×4 space? And what impacts it has on the total yield?
That brings us to the question that, what growing style you are going to follow? Is ScrOG, SOG, Bush, Mesh or low-stress training?
Well, the style and number of plants to grow in a 4×4 size really depend on the way you’re training your plants, the strain and so on.
The question of the moment is, how many plants in a 4×4 grow tent should you grow for a good outcome? Well, apart from some special cases, here are the best plant density for maximum growth in a 4×4 grow tent-
- If you’re growing SOG: 4-16 plants per m2.
- If you’re growing Pruning: 1 plants per m2.
- If you’re growing with low-stress training: 4 plants per m2.
- If you’re growing ScrOG: 1 plant per m2.
Sea of Green (SOG) — 1 sq/ft per plant
Sea of Green (SOG) training seems too good to be true. With just a simple adjustment to your lighting schedule, SOG promises large yields in a ridiculously short time. And if that wasn't enough, since SOG plants don't grow all that tall, home-growers could fit upwards of 16 plants in their 4' x 4' grow tent.
The strategy behind SOG is to trick your plants into flowering ahead of the recommended schedule. After only two to three weeks in the vegetative stage, cultivators will deliberately change the lighting schedule to a 12/12 cycle. The beginner will also trim their plants' leaves to ensure that " juice" is going into the buds.
Screen of Green (SCROG) — 4–6 sq/ft per plant
Screen of Green trains your plant horizontally forming these monster bushes.
If you’re limited on space, growing with SCROG is one of the best ways to make use of what you have.
Screen of Green (SCROG) is a training technique that increases bud production by exposing more branches to your grow light. In fact, it's not uncommon for experienced home-growers to use both LST and SCROG in their grow set-up.
It works by spreading the tops through a horizontal screen that’s placed above the plants.
Spreading the plant this way encourages bud growth on the branch stems that are normally neglected.
As the plant grows, it will reach for the screen that’s 8–12" above it.
But, instead of letting the plant grow through the holes of the screen, push the tops back through with your finger to make them grow across the screen-try to fill all the empty space!
Induce flowering when the plant has covered 50–60% of the screen for the best result.
Topping — 2–4 sq/ft per plant
Topping has long been a favorite of medicinal plants growers.
It’s easy and doesn’t require any extra setup.
If grown undisturbed, most medicinal plants will grow one huge top (known as the cola).
The idea behind topping is forcing the plant to grow more than one cola-which translates to more bud!
To top a medicinal plant all you need to do is remove the growth tip and it will split into two more.
You can split two into four, four into eight and so on.
Topping your plants once will turn it into a medicinal bush while topping it a bunch will turn it into an inverted Christmas tree with all the growth at the top of the plant.
Once topped, plants grow sideways more then up allowing you to control the height of the plant.
Low-Stress Training (LST) — 2 sq/ft per plant
Low-Stress Training is training your medicinal plants without the stress that topping or pruning put on the plant.
In case you didn’t know, the intensity of light from a source is inversely proportional to the square distance from the source (This is known as the Inverse-square Law of Light).
LST takes full advantage of this by slowly moving the top of the plant out of the bottoms way so it can receive more light.
More light = more bud.
You need to take your time training your plant to grow laterally, or in a circle around the pot, if you go too fast you can put too much stress on the plant.
To train it, use string or wire tied around plant branches and the planter to keep pressure on the branch while moving it where you want it to go.
HOW MUCH LIGHT DOES MY PLANTS NEED?
It’s not as simple as purchasing as many of the most powerful grow lamps you can get your hands on. Every grow space is different. But two factors always need to be tightly controlled and constantly monitored. Temperature and relative humidity (RH) are the key environmental conditions the indoor grower regulates. You need the right tools. Invest in intake fans, extractor fans, and if available, air-con or heating.
HID — HIGH INTENSITY DISCHARGE
HID light kits are a great source of illumination for the grow room and still favoured by most professionals. Unfortunately, MH and HPS lamps run hot and will significantly increase your power bills, too. One 400–600W bulb per m² is a good rule of thumb. Although, you may need to scale down to a 250W bulb. Consider improving side reflection with Mylar sheeting if you can’t keep temperature and RH dialled-in. Using high-powered old-school lighting necessitates the use of more powerful fans and possibly air-con, or else the grow-op may run too hot.
LED — LIGHT EMITTING DIODE
Modern LED grow lights run much cooler and more efficiently than HID. The main drawback with next-gen LED is the substantial investment required for a decent high-quality kit. Over the long-term, you can recoup with the savings you make on the power bill. Choose your LED kit carefully as not all LED’s are created equal. At present, 3W diodes and COB appear to be the most promising technologies. Less heat and more usable light per watt can also save you some money when it comes to selecting fans to regulate airflow.
CFL — COMPACT FLUORESCENT LIGHT
CFL can only take you so far. Sure, they are economic and efficient, but only to a point. In this writer’s opinion, cool white CFL is fine for vegetative growth and rooting clones, but nothing more. Using CFL’s alone for the bloom phase is not recommended. However, adding CFL as a supplement to HPS during bloom can be a winning combination.
If you have more issues with your plants, do not hesitate could contact us freely.
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