Maximise yield with a tiny grow tent

[raoulduke4]

Hey all,

so I've been trying to grow for a while now, ended up with two harvests but both with very small yields and tiny buds. Still exciting as it's homegrown but not as good as it can be.

 

First time in a makeshift cardboard setting in the corner of a room with a crappy LED light. Took ages to grow and not properly dark at night.

 

For the second attempt I bought a very small grow tent (50cmx50cm and 100cm tall) that I can fit around my place. I know it's ridiculously tiny but it comes with the benefit that I can reshuffle my wardrobe and move the grow tent into it, if I need to hide it. I also upgraded to a slighly better LED grow light with fake 150W output. It did improve but still no big buds.

 

Now i'm growing again and my little WW plant is turning into this lanky little thing again and I just think I must drastically improve my lighting for it to finally turn into something really good. I impulse-bought a Real 100W Fake 600W LED light to hang up and over the day it raised the temperature from an average 24 °C (the previous days) to a high of 32 °C. I tweaked my fan setup and got it down to 28

[Military Grade]

Probably some kinda of mainlining or manifolding

[ratdog]

get good genetics and veg for longer, try a scrog

[KC]

There are loads of good spec lights to choose from, even with small wattages, that would be a start. What size pot are you using? 

[Shumroom]

I would have thought you'd need about 150W for that size of space, 

but I'm no expert on micro grows

 

@MindSouphas experience with tight spaces iirc

 

Atb 

 

 

 

[raoulduke4]

Thanks so much for the responses so far. For some reason the end-bit of my original post was cut off.

 

What I was meant to ask was whether my new LED light was a waste of money as it might burn my plant or can I make it work somehow? Currently there's about 65cm of space between the top of the plant and the light but obviously that will get worse.

 

Should i switch to a different light? I read that 250W CFL lights might be an option?

 

Also do I need to switch to different strains? I bought a bunch of seeds (White widow, OG kush) and would be a shame if I wouldn't be able to use them.

 

In terms of pots: It's still in a tiny pot from seedling stage but I want to repot this weekend. I don't know about litre-capacity, but my options are 33cm diameter and 30 cm tall (that's the pot I used previously). I also found another one in the shed with 28cm diameter and 20cm tall. I guess this one might be the better option for my space?

 

[KC]

I think the 250cfl would make a lot of heat, although the plant can get very close to them it doesn't give much penetration, I'd stick with the led for now and see how it goes. Check out the micro diaries section for some inspiration.

 

No reason to dump your seeds either, they should be fine with some training or as ratty says try a scrog. Use the lowest widest container you can for your final, a washing up bowl with some holes drilled in is a popular option with microgrows.

 

Atb  

[MindSoup]

Maximizing yield in a small space is same as a big space optimal environment, food genetics and good plant husbandry. Your best bet is to find older micro grow diaries and read through them, then start your own and @ all the authors from them into it. I'm not too sure what your light is but i dare day thats a pretty key factor, quantum boards are the best option.  

 

My old diaries would be a good place to start as well as crow river, mullet, @growinggold @Zilla12

  

Sorry for some reason it wont let me @ everyone but you can search for the others

 

If you click on someone's name/avatar it takes you to their profile where you can find their old content and filter it to topics to find their old diaries. 

 

Good luck 

Edited August 29, 2021 by MindSoup

[growinggold]

Another good read would be @Alys. Great small space grower. 

[Alys]

Thanks @growinggold for the mention.

 

I doubled my yield in same tent from Grow 1 to Grow 2.  How?  For Grow 2  I got myself some Intense Organix Nutrients and a new light (£150). 
 

Well worth the investment.

[highgrower]

I have a slightly bigger space - 100cm height - 60 x 50 area with a scope 220w led and have had every grow at over 1g/w and pulling more than I did with a 250w hps in the same space.

 

Scrogging is your friend.

 

Edited August 30, 2021 by highgrower

[yabbah]

Grow photoperiods and top & lst them. that's your best bet! and as stated above by @MindSoup get some good LED's

 

This was from my old 40 x 40 x 140 cm tent

 

[MindSoup]

Another point about lighting. When you've got low headroom you tend to get really close to the ceiling, Any buds without the light directly above them get shade on one side (see below picture) I'm not 100% sure but I feel like that would possibly cut yield. So I'd recommend getting a light that fills the whole ceiling if you can, it will probably be a bit too powerful but you can run it on a lower power which will raise the efficiency over a smaller unit pushing the same wattage and you'll get really even coverage. 

 

 

 

E2A

Without knowing what your light is I can't say if its suitable or not but if it's a impulse buy of the big river of fleabay its likely that it will be a weak link, you can get a decent 100-150watt light for less than an ounce of weed and it will pay for itself first run if you get the other factors half right. 

 

We have a site sponsor that can offer good deals for a decent light again it won't let me @ them, look In the site sponsor section. 

Edited August 31, 2021 by MindSoup

[mister phlegm]

On 27/08/2021 at 5:50 PM, raoulduke4 said:

Thanks so much for the responses so far. For some reason the end-bit of my original post was cut off.

 

What I was meant to ask was whether my new LED light was a waste of money as it might burn my plant or can I make it work somehow? Currently there's about 65cm of space between the top of the plant and the light but obviously that will get worse.

 

Should i switch to a different light? I read that 250W CFL lights might be an option?

 

Also do I need to switch to different strains? I bought a bunch of seeds (White widow, OG kush) and would be a shame if I wouldn't be able to use them.

 

In terms of pots: It's still in a tiny pot from seedling stage but I want to repot this weekend. I don't know about litre-capacity, but my options are 33cm diameter and 30 cm tall (that's the pot I used previously). I also found another one in the shed with 28cm diameter and 20cm tall. I guess this one might be the better option for my space?

 

 

I expect your new light will be enough to get you to a decent harvest if it's working OK. I'd be concerned about the heat it brings, never experienced 30+ temps with an LED light though that might be down to your individual setup or something. It just seems out of place.

 

There are lots of tips and tricks to try and maximise yield, as others have said. I don't think you are at the maximising yield stage (nothing wrong with asking the question of course ) these generally work on top of a sound basic growing method, which is what you need first. Maximise the chances of a successful grow and see how the yield ends up. Best way of doing this is a diary, God knows where I'd be without mine. People love to watch and help. We've all been there.

 

Pot-wise, I'd pick the biggest cross-section to get the level lower for the same volume of compost, but I doubt it makes a big difference. I use rectangular troughs in a 40x40 (~2/3 the floorspace of your tent) to keep the compost level low:

 

 

Strain choice can make a big difference in the amount of work needed to keep a plant under control, but I'm sure all strains are viable with enough effort. My favourite is northern lights (left) always stocky, low maintenance and pretty bulletproof. Growing an amnesia alongside was not the brightest move, but live and learn

 

I know your tent feels small at the moment, mine did too to start with, but I hope you'll be amazed at what you end up pulling from it. I think about maximising stuff a lot, but in practice I'm lazy and plod along with a simple formula and it grows enough that I don't run out or end up with much more than I need. It works pretty well. 50x50x100 is a very viable space.

[MidgeSmith]

I'm not very experienced, but I have been forced to use VERY small growing spaces out of season. I've grown 2 crops in a 60 x 40 x 60cm grow tent under a 100W SF1000 and managed 1.5 oz from two small plants in 12 weeks.  Not amazing, but not bad, considering that as soon as the plants were seedlings, they started to breech the safe distance from the bottom of the LEDs. Thank god for dimmers!

The key for me was to grow plants with smaller finishing heights.  I picked autos as that seemed to be a sensible move for limited height plants, though as others have pointed out, it isn't necessary.  I also used extensive LST to keep the plants as low and flat as they would go until they were firmly in flower.

 

As others have said, you've the opportunity to deploy a scrog to help with the training and to keep the canopy even. At a metre tall, you have enough height to grow a fair bit of flower and enough headspace to use your 100W LED well, as long as you keep the plants low.

 

I don't suppose what I have said has added a huge deal to the discussion, but having recently grown small like you started, I wish you all the best!

 

Midge.

Edited September 11, 2021 by MidgeSmith