How Many Plants To Grow Per Square Meter?

“How many plants do I need in my garden?” It’s a question that might not seem obvious at first. However, the number of plants you keep in your space can make or break a garden. Too many and your grow can quickly become unmanageable. Too few and your yield will suffer. So, how many plants do you really need per square meter? 

Important Aspects Of Your Growing Space

Factors like light, air circulation, humidity and temperature affect the health of your cannabis garden. The number of plants you put in your growing space will influence all of these variables. When you’re trying to determine how many plants to grow, you’ll need to take these elements into account.

Light – A Crucial Factor

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. LED 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.

Fresh Air, Fresh Buds

The number of plants in your grow will also affect how much airflow you need. Without proper air movement, your plants can fall prey to disease. As a result, adding more plants to your grow will necessitate more fans. By placing rotating fans in the corners of your room, you’ll achieve proper air circulation and ensure that there are no spots of stale air. Aim the fans to blow gently across the top of your canopy as they rotate.

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Ambient Conditions – Temperature And Humidity

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.

Marijuana Feng Shui: How Many Plants Should You Keep?

There’s no general rule regarding how many plants to grow per square meter (about 10 square feet). Depending on what types of plant training techniques you use, it may be possible to maintain a successful grow with just a single plant. Methods like pruning, topping, low-stress training (LST), screen of green (ScrOG), sea of green (SOG) and FIMming can help you manage the space in your garden. We’ve organized these techniques from the fewest number of plants required per square meter to the most.

Green Screens – Not Just For Movies

Screen of Green (ScrOG) involves spreading the branches of one plant out when it’s still very young. You can either use a plastic net placed horizontally across your canopy or tie your branches down. This will cause new growth on the branches to turn upward and develop into their own colas. Using this technique, you can maintain a highly effective grow with just one plant per square meter (about 10 square feet).

Topping – Two Is Better Than One

Topping is a technique that growers can use to minimize the number of plants in their garden. When a grower tops a plant, they cut off the very top of their main branch. This causes the plant to send the same amount of energy to the next highest branches. The end result? Instead of having one main cola, the plant will have two – a perfect scenario for when you have only one plant. However, be careful! If you top a plant too many times, you can end up causing too much stress for it, thereby decreasing your total yield.

FIMming – Topping’s Cousin

FIMming is a similar technique to topping. However, where topping involves a single clean cut to the apex of a branch, FIMming instead involves pinching the top of the plant and leaving about one-quarter of the plant matter behind. Like topping, this is a great way to manage space in your garden. Professionals use both topping and FIMming extensively in commercial grows because it lowers the total number of plants in their gardens to a single yet highly productive plant per square meter.

Pruning – Keep Your Plants In Check

Pruning is an essential technique for any cannabis grower to know. Pruning involves cutting away your plant’s lower branches. This helps the plant focus its energy on new growth. Pruning is an effective way that you can use to cut down on plant mass within your garden, allowing you to keep more plants in your garden by making more room for new growth.

Sea Of Green – Swimming In Plants

The Sea of Green (SOG) technique is one of the most popular forms of plant management in the legal pot industry. In contrast to SCRoGging, you’ll want to pack as many plants as possible into your garden. Using this technique, you can cram between four and sixteen plants into a single square meter (about 10 square feet). You don’t need to worry about pruning or any other plant management tactics when SOGging.

Don’t Stress Out – Low-Stress Training Can Help

Low-stress training (LST) is a great technique for beginners. It’s relatively easy to perform and isn’t dangerous for your plants. LST involves bending or tying a plant’s branches down during its vegetative phase. Using this technique, you can fit between two and four plants in a single square meter (about 10 square feet). It’s also a good way to manage how many plants you need per square foot, and can help to keep your plants short if you’re growing indoors.

Final Countdown

As you can see, by using these methods, you can dial in your grow with as many or as few plants as you like. 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.

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