Downsides Of Vertical Growing?

So, I've basically just rigged up a soil-based version of Heath's vertical grow. I have been having trouble deciding on light wattage though.

My setup is 3x3x3 structurally. I am expecting plants to be 3ft or so themselves, so I am accounting for 6ft vertically rather than just 3, resulting in an end-result of 72sq.ft. With 2000w I am only getting something like 3888 lumens per sq.ft. That's far from ideal, right?

My question here is for those who grow vertically. Do you guys have similar problems, or do different 'laws' apply to vertical setups? What are some other issues I may run into?

im not sure exactly what you mean, just hanging the lights up the side of the room?

Nothin, eh guys?

Vertical growing is really taking off around here at the hydro stores. From conversations I've had, you do not calculate it the same. Since the bulb is hanging free, you are not aiming the light in one direction like you would with a reflector. The only weakness to a point is the light shining more upwards. Since your structure is just I'm assuming (length x width x height) 3' x 3' x 3', I do not think you are going to want too much wattage in there. Properly lined with mylar / orca film or similar, I think a 400W bulb would be mighty bright in a 3x3x3 box.

well actually ive been really getting into lattitudinal growing, yeah thats where you arrange your light exactly along the 39th parallel (you know east to west), yeah it automatically adds another 5,000k to you light output on 600w hps.

oh and when I really wanna give my girls a boost durring budding I put highttimes stickers on the fan leaves.

the reality is if your doing a vertical grow just make sure that the light is lower than if your light was horizontal, the horizontal orientation provides even lighting over a slightly larger main "foot" area, a vertically hung light w/ parabolic is going to have a circular rather than square focal point similar to a flashlight, what I think is probably most affective is to hang the vertical light just even or slightly below the tops so that the light can spread evenly throughout the room for maximum light penetration.

I have two lights in a cool tube, running you guessed it...vertically. I'm not simply hanging lights vertically. That's why I have so much more square footage to work with. I either need a whole bunch more lights or some magic way to up my lumens per square foot.

Ponicengineer said:

From conversations I've had, you do not calculate it the same.

Click to expand...

Do you know how it is calculated, by chance? Thanks man.

since your running it in cool tubes with a back reflector it would be calculate the same, if you are using a bulb hanging freely it will depend entirely on the shape of the bulb and the shape of the filaments in the bulb,

dont bother trying to calculate lumens per square foot, because you will have so many lumens at 3" from the bulb and much less further away,

you want to get a little Lumen/ light reader, i got a cheapo for 10 bucks, and I use that to measure how much light is hitting the different parts of my plants, that way, I can move my plants around to use the light most efficiently,

Haha wow, good call. I couldn't tell you how, but somehow I completely overlooked the idea of a light meter.
*hangs head*

Yup you need a light meter.....

I saw your pic and thats one hellova setup.

Im guessing the Health Canada grow your speaking of was the same one im looking at now from the July 2011 High Times Magazine article on Vertical Growing in Canada where they are cranking out 4 pounds per 1000w of light used.

I'm designing a manual system of my own that is almost exactly the same as their's... 6inch PVC with a buncha 45 degree Y angle peices attached in daisy chain fill the tube with coco and plant the plant at a 45 degree angle and hang the PVC tubes in a circle around the vertical 1000w HPS.... im designing mine for a Sun Hut 4x8x7tall hut where I can have the hut split with 2 of these vertical setups in each 4x4 section of the Hut.

The biggest issue you are going to have is not the Lumens it is going to be the heat.

And this is mentioned in the High Times article, you need to have a housing around that light with a fan blowing over that bitch exhausting the heat out of the grow area.

As far as the lumens go, you need a light meter.... when growing you veg with 1000 lumens and bloom with 2000 lumens or more, as long as youre not burning your tops you can force as many lumens across the plants as possible and this will give you bigger yeild deffinitely.

a typical 1000w HPS bulb will shine 4 foot square onto your canopy of plants below if installed in a typical air cooled reflector... like a sun system blockbuster.....

so at a minimum the 1000w bulb should cover a 4 foot plane.... with the bulb totally exposed to shine 360 degrees you should be covering a 4 foot tall area two feet up from the middle of the bulbs placement in the room and two feet down 360 degrees.

again you would need to adjust the placement of the bulb using a light meter.... so far my biggest issue is going to be building the cooling chamber for the bulb. I've been looking for something already made like a cool tube but all I can find has all kindsa fucking aluminum all over it blocking most of the bulbs capability to shine 360.... im gunna have to fabricate something on my own. the PVC along for the setup is going to cost me $1,050 US for each 4x4x7 area to grow 32 plants....

the pics and info in that July 2011 high times is rediculous, if I can replicate this and have 3-4 p's per 1000w this setup would be the bomb!