vertical octagon questions? all advice is appreciated

jfart

Well-Known Member
i have a few questions for a vertical octagon that im hoping some of you could answer. first off if anyone knows any good diy journals/threads with a octagon vert please let me know. i would love to see them.

obviously im looking to get the highest yield per watt without pointless amounts of extra light.

1. the octagon must hold around 100 plants.
2. sea of green style or 1 week veg.
3. would like to use c02 for this grow.
4. i would like this octagon to be able to run with or without a cool tube depending on season.
5. the octagon will probably be a nft

questions
1. how many watts hps would be needed for 1 week veg and finish flower?
2. would i be better off using 600watt lights or 1000watt lights and how many of each?
3. what detentions of a octagon would you use for that light set up?
4. is a cool tube necessary if i were to want more then 1 octagon in the same room?

thanks
 

vostok

Well-Known Member
So you know what you want, but don't know how to get it, fair enough ,...but why steal others idea, build you own post to your journal ...ain't hard?
 

jfart

Well-Known Member
oh you got me all wrong here. iv got my own ideas for it. iv been reading in this for months. i have posted 50% of my journals in the past. if im going to make it i want to make it right. i know il have to fine tune it and probably build a second one. i plan on experimenting with this unit. problem is that i dont have any vertical experience or have ever seen one in person. so any advice is appreciated.

i want to use 2 1000w hps. but what i dont know is would 4 600w hps be worth the overhead instead of 2 1000w hps? i hear people getting great gpw off one 1000w hps in one vertical unit. thats to get the highest gpw. but if i were to put 4 600w hps would my yield increase that much better?

lets say i have 4 vertical ocagons and have 1000w hps in each. would that be more efficiency gpw then having 2 vertical units with 2000w hps in each?

then you ask yourself about heat/cool tubes, losing around 400 lumens from the c.t. off a 1000w. is the bare bulb worth the heat? there are so many factors to put into play that it would be nice to have some experienced advice.

the hard part about reading everyone's thread is everyone's thread half of them arent finished and everyone of them has different info. one thread focuses on yield and another about efficiency. if everyone documents correctly and follows the same plant management program we would all have correct answers.

these forums are meant for good people to come together and share free information. not so we can all brag about who's a better grower. we just let evidence prove who deserves the props and respect.

"so who's coming with me, man?" if you have the wisdom vostok, please share. iv read your some of your post in the past and i know you could lend a helping hand
 

Ou8aCracker2

Well-Known Member
3x stacked 600w HPS's in an octagon that is 6' across.

6x6=36 square feet

50w x 36 square feet = 1800w

600x3=1800w
 

Ou8aCracker2

Well-Known Member
Plant count might be better at 64 plants.


Look up Heath Robinson Vertical Octagon.He did a small one with 1x 600w HPS in an octagon about 40" across and 3' to 4' tall.

If you go to ICmag,checkout Bobbleheads vertical octagon,same as I posted...6x6x8 octagon (6' across) with 3x stacked 600's and 64 plants.
 

jfart

Well-Known Member
thanks for the info and threads. i couldnt find the actual threads for bobblehead and heath robinson but did find some knock offs and others. the icmag display has some pretty useful info.

i read one that tested bare bulbs vs cool tubes and i understand that 15% of the lux is lost with a CT. i the whole place is air tight and running co2. when it comes to energy vs yield would it be better to use cool tubes or bare bulb?

if i had two identical 12ft by 10ft flower rooms that had x3 25sqare foot vertical units in each room with co2/ ac units. each unit uses x2 600watt hps. that 3600watts a room. in the hot season its 70 to 110 degrees here and in cold season it gets to negatives some times.

would it be better to run ac and bare bulbs with all of it/ get higher yield or stacked cool tubes pulling in outside air through cool tubes and back outside/less yield?

with a 25 square foot/5ft by 5ft units could i run open bulbs in the cold season and cool tubes in hot season?
 

Ou8aCracker2

Well-Known Member
ICmag is my home and I'm rarely here.

Join up there and look in the vert forum for DHF,he was a good friend of Heath bitd.

I'll find and link bobbleheads thread for ya.
 

Mandingo914

Active Member
I'll tell you about the one I constructed 10 years ago... It was a massive 8 foot diameter by 8 foot high with 3 foot per side. It was 6 rings of 6" PVC with 1/8 bend connectors. the top ring was suspended from ceiling and each successive ring was suspended to the one above it. It was 144 plants with 12" spacing so 3 plants per side x 8 sides x6 rings. My target was to have the plants reach about 12" from the center tube. It was a custom fabricated 6 " acrylic tube that housed (2) 1000 W HPS bulbs. cooling was via a 6" inline fan. The Tube temp was maybe 100 F at the bulb sites and ambient on the rest of tube. I rembering the 6" PVC pipe was maybe 2 bucks a foot but the damn connectors we like 15 bucks a piece. The whole thing was for ultrasonic aeroponics (fogponics) but back in those days the only foggers available had to come from Israel and were 600 bucks a piece. The problem I ran into was the fogger ran dry once and burnt out. The 400 ml/output was no where enough output to maintain the plants but the octagonal ring was a success.

I've seen other designs now that would minimize the build cost compared to mine. but 24 x6 ft x2 bucks a foot was 288 for straight pipe and 15 x8 x6= 720 bucks for the 48 connectors required so round about 1000 bucks in build materials for a ring that would have had 192 square feet of canopy. My target was 2 grams/Watt giving a harvest of 4 kilos or almost 9 pounds.

Now try and answer some of those questions:
Your available space will dictate what kind of dimensions to shoot for. I was of the philosophy that BIGGER is better. With a vertical grow your light intensity will be even to all plants so use the inverse square law to figure out your lumens at a given distance. At 4 feet like mine was the amount the plants receive is 1/16 th so a 1000 W bulb was 140K lumens, so 8750 is what the intensity is at 4 ft. As the plants get closer the intensity rises. My target was to have the plants end up 1 foot from the center so a nice solid 2 foot dense canopy would develop.

You mentioned 1 week veg and then straight to flower.... so you were aiming to have I'd assume maybe 18-24 max height . So for a 2 foot plant and 1 foot from light you would shoot for 6 foot diameter.

Now for the lights I know that (2) 1000 Watt lights CAN be cooled in 1 tube with custom fabrication. But with you mentioning possibly running bare bulb then I would suggest multiple lower watts versus high watts and less bulbs.

If you were doing more than 1 setup then YES use air cooled lights, because somehow someway that heat has to get out of the room.
 
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