Best vertical light configuration for a 600 and 400hps?

[old blue]

I'm getting ready to add a 600w hps to my current 400w and they're going to be in cooltubes, set up in an inline vertical configuration from floor to ceiling. My grow is in 5gal dwc buckets, surrounding the light. I'm torn about the best way to configure the lights and would love some feedback. Btw, i have 3 females in there vegging for 6 wks right now, and i'll be adding 3-4 clones next wk that'll be thrown in there right into flower(no veg time), so there will be 3 plants that are tall, and 3 or 4 that are much shorter. What would be the best use of lighting for my situation.(ie 400 on bottom with socket facing down and 600 on top with socket facing up?) I can also even out the canopy a lil better by placing the clones on blocks if need be. Please, any help would be greatly appreciated! I've been racking my brain for the last few days bout this.

 

[MindzEye]

Just how you described it makes sense to me... 600w on top for the tops of you big plants, thats where most of your yield is going to be... and sockets facing out, or else you will have a cord making a shadow on your grow...

Nice GJ dude, I will be watching that one, if I were you I would look into circular vertical garden planters, the have them for both soil and hydro, you could be growing a lot more plants around those lights, you have a nice test run going though...

 

[old blue]

Just how you described it makes sense to me... 600w on top for the tops of you big plants, thats where most of your yield is going to be... and sockets facing out, or else you will have a cord making a shadow on your grow...

Nice GJ dude, I will be watching that one, if I were you I would look into circular vertical garden planters, the have them for both soil and hydro, you could be growing a lot more plants around those lights, you have a nice test run going though...

Thanks MindzEye. Do u have any info on those vertical garden planters for hydro? I haven't seen any. Also i only have 5'7" height to work with, so i cant really grow a wall of green, unless i only use clones with no vegging. But i'd prob rather have less plants than more, incase LEO gets a whiff somehow. I'm far too pretty for prison. lol

 

[MindzEye]

One of the big draws to vertical gardening is the amount of plants you can have in a small space. I dont see any reason for doing it other than the numbers of plants you can have..

For vertical gardens these look nice...

hXXp://www.aristabc.com/products.asp

 

[old blue]

One of the big draws to vertical gardening is the amount of plants you can have in a small space. I dont see any reason for doing it other than the numbers of plants you can have..

For vertical gardens these look nice...

hXXp://www.aristabc.com/products.asp

I'm doing it to take advantage of all the height in my growroom, since its kinda limited. I can grow 5-7 monsters to the ceiling, instead of 4-6 3' tall ones.

 

[Oregon Bob]

Hi OB, I'm vertical, stacked 1k's. Coir cut w perlite in 7" pots, shelved, recirc. Should be able to answer a few...

The 6 up top & 4 down low is better for same logic as ME used. You will also be able to place the ones on the floor (smaller ones) a little closer w/o interfering with the larger ladies. 6 socket facing the ceiling, 4 socket facing the floor. You can run the top lamp cord straight down, just run the cord down the side of the CT, taped, & in a fashion that casts the smallest shadow on the plant tops/sides. Won't really make that much of a difference if used down the side. Whichever is easiest ultimately.

Would strongly recommend vertical scrog on all your plants for this set-up. Essentially running a flat screen through the middle of the plant with the center stalk. Train all side branching to the screen & you have a mini, self-contained single "scrog wall of green", if you will. This will eliminate the middle belly of the plant & you can have max saturation along the entire face of the screen. All bud sites angled to one side, facing the light... no need to rotate as such.

Peace brother!

 

[old blue]

Hi OB, I'm vertical, stacked 1k's. Coir cut w perlite in 7" pots, shelved, recirc. Should be able to answer a few...

The 6 up top & 4 down low is better for same logic as ME used. You will also be able to place the ones on the floor (smaller ones) a little closer w/o interfering with the larger ladies. 6 socket facing the ceiling, 4 socket facing the floor. You can run the top lamp cord straight down, just run the cord down the side of the CT, taped, & in a fashion that casts the smallest shadow on the plant tops/sides. Won't really make that much of a difference if used down the side. Whichever is easiest ultimately.

Would strongly recommend vertical scrog on all your plants for this set-up. Essentially running a flat screen through the middle of the plant with the center stalk. Train all side branching to the screen & you have a mini, self-contained single "scrog wall of green", if you will. This will eliminate the middle belly of the plant & you can have max saturation along the entire face of the screen. All bud sites angled to one side, facing the light... no need to rotate as such.

Peace brother!

Thanks so much, OB. I'm gonna do the lights exactly as u said. The only thing i'm gonna do dif is gonna run both cords up and out the top, to have less clutter on the ground. My setup is already gonna be tight. But this time around i'm gonna leave the girls bush out and just rotate 1/4 turn a day, since this is gonna be my 1st time with vertical. I dont wanna change too many things at once, just in case things dont go well. If this vert setup works well, next crop i'm gonna add the v-scrog method. Just wanna change 1 thing at a time. Again, thanks a bunch, my friend.

 

[Oregon Bob]

No worries brother! Sending you the greenest of vibes.

btw, there is anecdotal evidence that rotating the plants stresses them slightly and/or slows their growth due to the fact that hormones are being transferred/activated in differing areas of the plants as you readjust the light source. I'm not convinced of this, but others have stated. Regardless, would only recom rotating x1 per day & just flip sides... 180d rotation, no quarter turns. i do this on some floor plants i hand water/rotate. others in the system don't rotate at all & just fine.

Peace.

 

[old blue]

No worries brother! Sending you the greenest of vibes.

btw, there is anecdotal evidence that rotating the plants stresses them slightly and/or slows their growth due to the fact that hormones are being transferred/activated in differing areas of the plants as you readjust the light source. I'm not convinced of this, but others have stated. Regardless, would only recom rotating x1 per day & just flip sides... 180d rotation, no quarter turns. i do this on some floor plants i hand water/rotate. others in the system don't rotate at all & just fine.

Peace.

Oh, ok bro. I'll flip 180 once a day then. Thanks so much.

 

[old blue]

Got 1 more question now. I've been noticing alot lately bout people raving bout using a hps and mh during flower. Since i'm adding the 600hps to the top of the vertical stack, would it be more beneficial to keep my 400mh in there, instead of changing it out for the 400hps bulb, when i flower??? Im not sure, since the couple clones im adding probably wont be gettin to the height of the 600hps.

 

[Oregon Bob]

I would say do the combo for spectrum. Some claim better resin production, though always used the hps, so can't say from personal experience. You will lose some lumens between the hps & mh, but would go for it anyway.

Better yet, run them both, over 2 crops. Let us know the diff! Peace.