I keep seeing posts that SOG / SCROG grows give better yeilds but as I see it they tie up my grow tent for the entire growth season and I would have to change lights for flowering. This would give a large harvest every 3-4 months and hopefully enough to carry me through for the next harvest or bust if the crop gets a disease and dies or whatever cause. I am planning a perpetual grow where I put 2 plants into flower every month and harvest 2 every month. This would give me a buffer on sick plants and still keep a steady, if reduced flow.Just a newby searching for ideas lol
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Well if you ask whether or not go perpetual (and adjusting grow method to this system accordingly) I would say that highly depends on personal taste.
With standard system you just have to do every 3 or so month a lot of work during just few days, because you need to harvest plants, clean the whole area, usually repot new seedlings and restart the grow.
With perpetual you do smaller chunks of work every week or every two weeks.
Definitelly you can do SOG with perpetual system - see Tick’s Sog Journal
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Mainlining works for me with the right strains for consistent yields, depending if you are growing from clone or seed more often. Doesn’t make a noticeable difference to total IMO, and is a lot of patient work during veg which takes a bit longer.
I have a small grow/prop tent (90x60x60) and a bigger 180x80x80 flower. Both only running 400W each.
I am running a 2 x 2 x 4" veg box with 8 23W 1600 lumen bulbs and a 4 x 4 x 7’ flower tent and 600W HPS air cooled. My stalling point is the diffent plant heights and maintaining them within the best light.
Hi Rongo,
Controlling the size can be tricky if you are growing different genetics in the same area.(or any seedline that has lots of variation)
If you are running only one strain and are running clones, it gets much easier. You can plan everything out much more efficiently without all the variation.
With all that being said, I run a perpetual with constantly changing genetic rosters. I have the luxury of having a lot of room at my current home though 
YOU, my friend, appear to be confined to smaller areas. You can still manage to run mixed varieties under one lamp rooms, but it takes lots of consideration and a little bit of experience…
Perpetual is awesome though. It’s just so much fun once it’s rolling along. Plus, like you said, much more room for error.
I would encourage you to stick with perpetual.
Do you have something in mind to mono-crop, or are you wanting to have variety in your life?
Stay Hazed,
Jake
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I have a bunch of Blue Cheese bag seeds but I am unfamiliar with the strain. I have a Green Crack near ready to harvest and 2 White Widow that just went into the flower tent with 2 more WW and 4 BC in veg. I want to try some various strains to grow and explore while I learn more about growing.
Another drawback’per say’ with perpetual growth is disease and pests can hold on much easier and ruin the run. with single genetic runs, the complete sterilization of everything and the room keeps this at bay, especially when you don’t use any pesticides. Can’t be a lazy farmer at all with perpetual. Like dairy farming, ya gotta do it EVERY day, NO exceptions.
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If your stalling point is height consistency then mainlining might just be worth a try. Depending on what you are growing. Like I say - aside from my breeding tent I don’t have a lot of space for actual production grows and with only a 400W in each I need to get a very even canopy. Tomato rings are the way forward. I don’t mind the extra time in veg it takes, since it is all training and pruning anyway and it brings the flowering and veg times to roughly similar lengths.
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My plan is to place 2 plants per month into flower and harvest 2 each month so my height problems will be from different aged plants. I am thinking of building an adjustable shelving unit with removable shelves to adjust for heights Has anyone else tried a system like this?
I usually use grow yo-yos to adjust lamp height during the grow.
Downside of your solution will be that there will be big differences in plant height (month). When combining different heights of plants it is usually good to form V shape (a.k.a. arena/colosseum) canopy.
So you will have 6 total plants? 2 entering flowering room, 2 in the middle of the flowering stage and 2 at the end of the flowering (probably at flushing stage). Indica plants require only 45 - 60 days of flowering usually.
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Yes. I was thinking of a shelf high at back and low in front with 3 main shelves adjustable by 2" increments for height. I just have to finalize my design. Untreated maple should be safe I hope.
I just use whatever is around (lumber, other buckets etc.) to equalize the canopy. Placement of plants, if you have room to move them, putting the shortest directly under lights and taller plants to the outside, can give you a concave profiled canopy, somewhat like the round (cylindrical) bulbs emit. Is another cheap way to maximize exposure. I’m not hung up at all about yields, so much as the health of the plant overall. Bamboo sticks and plant twist ties is a good way like the above mentioned tomatoe cages.
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Try a stack of old books. They are cheap…
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I found this old thread and thought it was interesting.
I operated a perpetual for three years. i had six 1000 watt lights at different heights and moved my plants in a circle from light to light as they got taller. When they were at the final light their stretch was over and i would finish them. I had plasma in between each hps and i think the extra uv helped with fungus and pests. In perpetual you have to have a pest management program going. You will have problems if you do it long enough. It is a lot of work daily. You must clean your rooms all the time. You have to keep your veg room just as clean as your flower room or you set yourself up for failure. I guess you could scale it down for smaller grows, but it would be a project.
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I’m running like this, but still evolving my room. On the pest issue, once a month I pull everything (60+ plants n clones at any one time, I feed 6 in a week,harvest 6 out) out, clean, bleach, and spray down with don’t bug me. I’m not quite at my goal of 9 in out yet, but hoping to be there shortly. A few disasters along the way have slowed me down…lol
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Fyi i have a 7.5ft x 8ft room broke down into flower/veg/clone running 4 400w hps n mh.
Some good advice. I run perpetual using one 4-tube, 4 foot t5’s for the veg area, with some small led reading lights for clones. I start the cuttings on top of the 4 tube t5 unit to take advantage of the heat it emits, then I don’t need heat mats. I put the clones in various small enclosures, such as a 2 gal pot, or a personal lunchbox. Once rooted the clones go into square 4 inch pots under the t 5’s. Usually I have way too many plants in veg, which also leads to too many plants in the flower room. The main reason for so many plants is I love variety. But if you can get into it, it leads to practicing pruning, training and defoliating. The flower room is 3.5 feet x 9 feet. All plants are rotated every 1 or 2 days. I stay away from fixed shelves and do as the peeps have mentioned, books, upside down pots, and my main one, empty 12 packs that had held beer. They are empty of beer, but have the bottles or cans inside of taped shut containers.They stack easily, and with a book or three, everything stays roughly the same height. Everytime the plants are moved and/or watered, I wipe the floor with some essential oils and water on a sponge and towel. The summer is the only challenge as then the spidermites are a danger. Keep your weapons in stock. I use Green Cleaner, neem oil, SNS miticides and azamax. Gave up using nets, as they are too unwieldy in the narrow space. But do a lot of bending, super cropping and some tying. Hope I’ve not spilled overly much wordage here.
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Im obviously still refining mine. I am about to go to a smaller 2 gallon pot, more manageable, less space. I have tried a few in the smaller pots, no issues, so i think im going to move into the plastic 2 gallon round pots.
I hear ya. What just happened with me is similar. Went from 3 gal organic to 2 and 3 gal organic with the addition of ewc, molasses, kelp and humic acid, and boy, did they grow! So, I’m getting bigger yields in some strains in 2’s than I was getting in threes without the ewc, etc. last grow. Best of luck.
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Just broke down n ordered 50 2 gallon pots. I think thats the way to go.