Perpetual means never-ending, and if you consider yourself a hardcore consumer of cannabis, then surely an endless head stash is what dreams are made of? There is nothing worse than running low on flowers, your remaining bubble hash seems to be getting smaller by the hour, and your friends are all in the same boat. The time has come to elevate you as a grower from the usual 3-4 harvests per year to an endless supply of buds. In this article, I explain just how simple and effective working with two tents and a drying room can be and how it’s a serious game changer for the indoor enthusiast.
What is a perpetual harvest?
The easiest way to understand the differences between a normal harvest done back-to-back and a perpetual crop rotation is to break down each style. For example’s sake, I will base this on 2 growers living on the same street. Both are using the same strain, which has an 8-week flowering time.
Normal cannabis harvest: Neighbor Bob
Neighbor Bob had never heard the term perpetual harvest before reading this article. His usual way of doing things would be to leave his plants in a vegetative stage for 4 weeks and flower for 8 weeks before starting the drying process for 2 weeks.
He uses the same tent to vegetate, flower, and dry his crop, and he has to wait 14 weeks from seed until he can smoke the dry buds and start a new crop.
An infographic showing the difference between normal growing and perpetual growing of marijuana plants
Perpetual cannabis harvest: Neighbor Sarah
Neighbor Sarah has a different style of growing. Instead of working with one tent, she uses 3 different tents simultaneously.
This means that Sarah can take her plants from Tent #1 every eight weeks and move them to Tent #2. Then she takes the mature plants from Tent #2, cuts them down, and takes them to the dry room in Tent #3, repeating this rotation every 8 weeks.
What are the benefits and disadvantages of a perpetual grow?
Perpetual harvest advantages
Harvests will occur every 8 weeks based on a rotation, compared to 12 weeks.
Working with fast-flowering strains results in even more harvests per year.
Plants will experience a longer growth period of 8 weeks with a perpetual harvest cycle.
Your jars of buds will be full to the brim and get a chance to cure properly.
Hash makers and extract artists will have consistent material to work with.
Commercial-scale operations will work with crop rotations for a constant flow of product.
A stealth grow box to house your seedlings or clones is not expensive or difficult to make and is an ideal starter environment for a perpetual grow
Perpetual harvest disadvantages
The time required in the garden will increase, taking away from social time.
You must have a constant supply of pots, growing medium, and nutrients.
Rooms of plants can be lost due to hermaphrodites or a seeded crop.
Not everyone has the space for three separate tents in their bedroom or attic.
There will be an increase in electricity and nutrient usage.
Harvesting a room of plants every eight weeks can be arduous.
Clones may sometimes root differently than planned, setting you back weeks each time.
The number of plants in your house will double, making it uncomfortable for some.
How do you set up a perpetual harvest?
I prefer to work with easy-to-set-up growing tents suitable for all types of projects. That’s just how I do it. You can still create the ideal veg space using a converted spare cupboard, old cellar space, attic, or stealth grow box made from foam insulation boards. It all depends on your personal situation. Inventory the space you have to work with and use it most effectively.
However, I shall use the tent examples to make life as simple as possible, with each tent being in the same room.
Tent #1 – vegetative period (1m x 1m x 2m size)
The purpose of Tent #1 is to keep the seedlings or clones in a vegetative state. This basically means they are never allowed to flower. The temperature inside this tent will remain at 75 degrees Fahrenheit (24 °C) with a relative humidity level of 60–75%.
Tent #2 – flowering period (1.5m x 1.5m x 2m size)
Once you have reached the 8-week mark, it is time to take the vegetative plants from Tent #1 and prepare them to flower in Tent #2. This tent will be the biggest of the three in the room and is responsible for producing buds. This means that the lights will be on for 12 hours per day with a temperature of 75 degrees Fahrenheit (24 °C) and a relative humidity level of 40–50%.
Tent #3 – Carbon-filtered drying tent (1m x 1m x 2m size)
After eight weeks of flowering growth, you will be ready to cut down, harvest, and hang dry all the plants from Tent #2 inside Tent #3. This drying tent serves only one purpose. It must remain dark and be as cool as possible (around 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15.5 °C)) with 50–60% relative humidity.
What equipment do I need to harvest cannabis year-round?
Pots
If you plan on filling out your rooms or tents consecutively, you will need to ensure you have plenty of pots on standby. These may be cheap plastic ones or higher-end fabric pots.
Pots with marijuana plants
Growing medium
Filling your pots is the next concern, and that means, depending on how ambitious your indoor garden is, needing hundreds of liters of soil, coco, or rockwool close by.
There are various growing mediums for weed plants. Pictured is an example of a hydroponics and soil medium.
Nutrients
The last thing you want to do is fall short in the nutrient department and cause a break in momentum. Stocking up on plenty of nutrients for the rooting, growing, and flowering stages is key.
Nutrients enter the soil and are then absorbed by the plant’s roots through the water.
Vegetative light (18/6)
This can range from a compact fluorescent (CFL) bulb up to a 250–400 watt metal halide (MH), high-pressure sodium (HPS), or LED. There is no need to use any grow light over 600 watts unless you intend on growing massive plants.
Vegetative lights for growing marijuana plants
Flowering light (12/12)
The flowering light will stay in Tent #2 and will be connected to a timer that you will set for 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness. You may choose to put more than one flowering light inside Tent #2.
Flowering lights for growing marijuana plants
2 x 15-minute segment timers
Timers will allow you to decide how much darkness your seedlings, vegetating, or flowering plants will receive. I personally recommend numbering the timers according to which tent they belong to with a marker pen to make things easy once all the plugs are set up.
Get a timer which you can set to at least intervals of 15 minutes. This will make sure the light turns on and off at the correct moment.
Tent #1 – vegetative period (1m x 1m x 2m size)
This tent or grow space does not need to be huge; 1 m2 is more than enough. Of course, the growing space can be much smaller. A converted cupboard or stealth grow box with T5 light are easy and affordable options.
Tent for vegetative stage of the grow
Tent #2- flowering period (1.5m x 1.5m x 2m size)
The flowering tent will be the biggest tent of all three, and it needs plenty of space for the plants from Tent #1 to grow into large yields. The magic happens in Tent #2. Again, you do not need to use a 1.5-meter tent if you don’t have space. Using a 1-meter tent works fine; the only downside is the total yield.
Tent for flowering stage of the grow
Carbon-filtered drying tent/drying room
Your drying room is where all the plants from Tent #2 will be taken once they are ready for harvest. A grow tent of around 1 m2 fits a drying net inside and allows space for an exhaust fan and carbon filter. Cannabis plants are left in the drying tent for 10–14 days.
Tent for drying stage of the grow
Seeds
Growing indoors using the perpetual harvest method is a numbers game, so that means you better have some feminized seeds ready to fill the tent every eight weeks!
In order to grow cannabis plants, you of course need the seeds to grow them from!
Can I do a perpetual harvest using autoflowering Cannabis seeds?
Sadly, autoflowering cannabis seeds are not applicable when it comes to a perpetual indoor harvest. Autos will simply begin to flower after (approx.) 28 days, so keeping them suspended in a vegetative state is not possible. Using photoperiod feminized seeds or having a healthy mother plant on standby is best.
How do I get the timing right for a perpetual grow?
For me, the easiest and most practical way is to base the rotation on the number of weeks it takes for the plants to flower. I find 8–9 weeks work well, as the strains I like to grow take 56–63 days to flower.
If you are working with a fast-flowering strain, for example, that is ready to chop on day 50; then you know to mark on your calendar every 50 days to rotate the plants over. If you are working with a long-flowering sativa, then you may want to hold back on the vegetative time to avoid growing the plants for 10 weeks or more.
A quick step-by-step timeline for a perpetual harvest
For this example, I will base the timeline on a grower who is using an 8-week flowering strain with the intention of growing ten plants at a time. I have based this on a 12-month timeline to make it clear how long the process takes before becoming a perpetual harvest.
January
Plant 10 feminized seeds in Tent #1 (vegetative tent)
February
Nothing changes
March
Rotate the ten feminized seeds from Tent #1 to Tent #2 (flowering tent). Plant ten new feminized seeds inside Tent #1.
April
Nothing changes
May
Harvest the ten plants from Tent #2 and move them to the drying tent. Now, the ten plants from Tent #1 are ready for flowering, so move those to Tent #2. This frees up tent #1 for 10 new seedlings.
June
Trim and cure the buds
July
Harvest the ten plants from Tent #2 and move them to the drying tent. Plant ten new feminized seeds in Tent #1 and move the plants from Tent #1 into Tent #2 to flower.
August
Trim and cure the buds
September
Harvest the ten plants from Tent #2 and move them to the drying tent. Plant ten new feminized seeds in Tent #1 and move the plants from Tent #1 into Tent #2 to flower.
October
Trim and cure the buds
November
Harvest the ten plants from Tent #2 and move them to the drying tent. Plant ten new feminized seeds in Tent #1 and move the plants from Tent #1 into Tent #2 to flower.
December
Trim and cure the buds.
What strains are best for perpetual growing?
I won’t be naming any specific cultivars, but I will explain the desirable traits that you will want to see among your plants. I may be stating the obvious, but if you can find plants that possess the following characteristics, you will be well on your way to success.
Short and bushy strains
This simply means plants that do not stretch too much and will produce a bushy structure, which is easy to apply plant training techniques to.
Mold resistance
The more resilient your plants are to pathogens and disease, the higher your success rate will be every harvest. Mold can wipe out a crop if not taken care of; however, opting for mold-resistant cultivars will certainly give you an advantage.
Large-yielding varieties
I don’t think anyone has ever complained that a plant has yielded too much! When the aim of the game is to pull a tent full of buds every couple of months, then why not start with large-yielding genetics?
How much electricity will my vegetative tent use?
Now, before you think you need to stick a high-powered grow light inside tent #2 and rack up those electricity bills, think again. What I love about the 3-tent system is that you do not need to use a lot of electricity to maintain healthy, happy, and vibrant plants over the 8-week time frame.
I personally switch everything over from one tent to another, like clockwork, every 56 days to make life as easy as possible. You can always reduce that to a 4–8 week time frame if a full 8 weeks is too long in your eyes, thus further reducing your energy costs.
C.F.L. bulbs produce a soft light, produce low heat, and are energy efficient.
T5 lights are well suited for a vegetative tent and do not take up much space.
LED lights also work well inside the vegetative tent and use little power.
At the vegetative stage, 250-400 watts of high-pressure sodium is a good choice.
250-400 watt metal halide lights are also an excellent option during the vegetative phase.
Is creating a perpetual harvest setup possible without two separate grow spaces?
I guess there are ways to do anything; however, if I am not using tent #1 for vegetating and tent #2 for flowering, then the risk of light breaks is too high. This does not mean that you cannot transform an old clothes cupboard into a lightproof, 2-tier grow chamber, but don’t expect to produce enough bud for every crop to make it worth it in the first place. But when there is a will, there is a way!
An example of weed plants growing in an old closet space.
My final thoughts
When I visit other growers’ houses and get the privilege of seeing some amazing indoor grow spots, those who have mastered the art of perpetual harvesting on a large scale simply crush it every time!
Just ask yourself, “Why use only one tent and wait 4–8 weeks to grow your plants under 18/6, then 8 weeks to flower under 12/12, whilst waiting 2 weeks of drying time before you can even smoke a bud?” That works out 14 to 18 weeks between every harvest, resulting in 3–4 crops per year.
On the other hand, if you can find the space to put three tents in the same location (or in separate spaces), harvests are only 8 weeks away every time, resulting in 5-6 per year.
There may be a point where you’re overwhelmed with the amount of work, maintenance, expense, and stress from harvesting multiple times; however, “ heavy lies the crown,” as they say.
If you are one of many who is fed up with always running low on your home-grown and spending silly amounts of money with the local dealer to get by until harvest time, then download Robert Bergman’s Grow Bible, invest in three tents, and the rest is history. Good luck dialing in crop rotation and spreading the word of perpetual harvest to every beginner grower you meet!
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