August 05, 2020
When growing medicinal plants, the aim, of course, is to get as many fat buds in the jar as possible at harvest time. Growing too many or too few plants can affect the yield and take an undesirable amount of time. Growing several species that have different growth characteristics can disadvantage plants with a smaller stature. It can be a bit of a balancing act, but one that can be easily mastered.
So, how many plants can you grow in a square metre of grow space? This question has a layered answer, which depends on a number of factors.
The first thing to consider is the type of medicinal plants you’re growing—the strain genetics. Sativas tend to grow tall, while indicas are stocky and bushier. Autoflowers grow particularly short, with some varieties reaching only 50–60cm.
Even those without significant spatial limitations tend to choose shorter medicinal plants varieties when growing indoors. After all, you are responsible for providing illumination, so you need to account for the space taken up by your grow lights. Moreover, if you’re growing different strains and some end up being much taller than others, this can deprive smaller specimens of light, resulting in stretching and reduced final yields.
If you don’t plan on training your plants, consider growing the same type of strain, or two strains with very similar heights, to avoid running into issues with spacing and lighting. Of course, the smaller and more compact your plants, the more you can fit per square metre. It’s up to you to decide if you’d rather crop several small autoflowers or just one or two ultra-vigorous hybrids.
When it comes to light source, bigger isn’t always better. High-powered HPS and MH lamps aren’t always ideal for a home grow. First, they can increase the temperature in your grow space to unbearable levels. They’re also expensive to operate. Full Spectrum LED Grow Lights can address this issue. They’re expensive to buy, but cheaper to run. Additionally, they give off less heat. When determining how many lights you need in your garden, use 400-600W per square meter (about 10 square feet). Keep in mind that dividing this wattage between several lamps would be more effective than when using just one – a couple of light sources would provide better light coverage than a single bulb.
When plants photosynthesize, they cause humidity levels to rise. Too much humidity in your garden can leave them exposed to a plethora of health problems. Plants also give off heat, which can cause the temperature of your room to rise to dangerous levels. As a result, if you pack too many plants into a small area, you’re asking for trouble. Proper airflow can help mitigate these problems. Additionally, you can use a dehumidifier to combat high humidity and air conditioning to correct the temperature in your garden. Always make sure the temperature is around 20-25°C (68-77°F) and that humidity levels don’t exceed 40-60%. For exact requirements, always check the recommendation of your seed bank.
The size of your grow space determines the amount of containers that will fit in. Depending on the growing style, this can mean a large number of smaller containers—as in a SOG setup—or a few large containers for bigger plants in a ScrOG or a DWC grow, which take up space by nature.
This depends on the strategy that you want to use. If you want to keep the medicinal plants small and follow the so called ‘Sea of Green’ method of growing, we advise you to put 25 nurtured baby plants per square meter, and induce flowering early.
If you want to grow the medicinal plants a bit larger, having more harvest per plant, but also a longer growing period, you can think of about 9 or even 4 plants per square meter. It is not advisable though to have very large medicinal plants in an indoor space, because the longer growing period will increase the chance to get insects and pests in your beloved crop. Besides this, plants will fall over, making a jungle out of your indoor grow room, increasing the chance on fungus, and also the larger medicinal plants will eventually form a tight bush, blocking the light for the lower branches, which will turn pale and will not develop nice buds.
It is best to keep the medicinal plants rather small in indoor situations(best indoor grow tent kit for your consideration) , creating clean, healthy grow rooms where you have a good overview and control over all your medicinal plants. Whenever you see an insect or pest problem, you can still do something about it, before it has infected the whole room.
Remember, there’s no one rule about how many plants you should have per square meter in your grow. Experiment with the training techniques, keep the conditions right, and you’ll soon find what boosts the productivity of your setup the most.