What do I need to do to switch to vert?

So, my current grow is pissing me off. I vegged my plants 2-3 months and they all look like they aint gonna yield much for nothin! They are tall but i'm running out of room in my tent. I wonder if switching to vertical lighting is an option and what I need to do to accomplish this? I just bought a 600w HORT bulb so I would like to use that if I can. Can I just get a vertical bulb holder and use my 600w HORT bulb? Then I could just ditch the 400w or expand the room later...

I'm currently running in a DR150 5'x5'x6.5' tent. I do have a window ac unit in the room. The tent currently has 2 horizontal reflectors (600w and a 400w), but this doesnt seem efficient and I think vert would be better maybe.

It's currently setup like this: room -> tent -> cf in bottom of tent -> duct -> light 1 -> light 2 -> duct -> exhaust fan at top of tent -> attic

See pics of current plants and setup. What do yall think?? Plants are 5ft tall and if you can see...there's about 2-3 ft of clearance in the back I could move the plants around. Does this look doable? And what would I need to make the switch??!?! I'm tired of this setup and think vert may be the way to go. I'm assuming just go to hydro shop and get a vert bulb holder? Can I just use my 600w digital ballast and just change bulb holder? Or maybe just remove reflector and hang the thing vertically in the center?

Forgot to mention, I'm 4-5 weeks into flower. And THANKSSS for all the help in advance!!!

So is this your first run in that tent? There is no reason you shouldn't pull a # to a #.5 in there with your current setup. I would NOT recommend going vert in there as it will be very hard to get to your plants.. and no offense but if you're having a touch time with it like that, its going to be worse if you tried vert.

So if I were you.. I would sit down and try and figure out what went wrong. At first glance.. I can easily see that they are way too crowded. You have all that wasted growth stealing CO2 and nutes from the bud sites. I can't quite tell how many plants are in there..can you do more smaller plants? If it was me, I would do about 12 plants, vegged for about 2-3 weeks at the most. If not.. maybe 6 plants vegd for 3-4. They make sure to trim off the sucker branches and leaves for good air movement.

oh and if you are limited in plant numbers and can only flower 4.. then you just need to do a better job training them to fill an even canopy with LESS veg time. There is no reason to lollipop them if you do a good job training and pruning them.

St3ve said:

So is this your first run in that tent? There is no reason you shouldn't pull a # to a #.5 in there with your current setup. I would NOT recommend going vert in there as it will be very hard to get to your plants.. and no offense but if you're having a touch time with it like that, its going to be worse if you tried vert.

So if I were you.. I would sit down and try and figure out what went wrong. At first glance.. I can easily see that they are way too crowded. You have all that wasted growth stealing CO2 and nutes from the bud sites. I can't quite tell how many plants are in there..can you do more smaller plants? If it was me, I would do about 12 plants, vegged for about 2-3 weeks at the most. If not.. maybe 6 plants vegd for 3-4. They make sure to trim off the sucker branches and leaves for good air movement.

Click to expand...

thank you very much for the response... i was wondering if you can elaborate a little more? I realize its a tight fit in the tent....but what do you mean by wasted growth? I see lots of people growing big plants (like mine), except with bigger buds. what do you mean by wasted growth stealing co2/nutes from bud sites?

What I was thinking about doing was ditch the tent all together and just use the entire room. Would this make a difference this late in bloom?? Also, if I were to switch to the entire room, would it then make ssense to switch to vert?

thanks again

you could try a mini stadium/coliseum with vert lighting. verts cool because it eliminates the need for an even canopy (at least heightwise).
You could have an open end to get in there and mess around with plants. To cool the lights, place a fan underneath blowing up at the bare bulb.

If youd like to look at some threads that have real pics of stadiums in action, try these. some are more ambitious than others:
https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/149998-heaths-flooded-tube-vertical.html
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-room-design-setup/44253-northern-farmer-stadium-grow-vertical.html

There are a lot of great journals of stadium on other forums. I'll let you search for them. But these 2 are a few ideas of what can be done


something like this:

oh yea... forgot to add the drawing..

I pulled 1.5 with 1 600 in a 4x4 tent. Hung vertically. Your current setup might be tough to fit because of the number of plants you have though. I'd run this one out and then change it over. Hang the bulbs bare and just trellis around them to keep your canopy relatively nice and even. Run the 400 and the 600.

OGEvilgenius said:

I pulled 1.5 with 1 600 in a 4x4 tent. Hung vertically. Your current setup might be tough to fit because of the number of plants you have though. I'd run this one out and then change it over. Hang the bulbs bare and just trellis around them to keep your canopy relatively nice and even. Run the 400 and the 600.

Click to expand...

awesome! thats what i'll do...

how to hang BOTH bulbs vertical in the tent...right next to each other? Will I be able to just point a fan upward or do I need to run ducting/cool tube on each bulb?

Whats the best method of growing for vert? lollipop? single cola, multiple plants? stadium?

I guess my thing is...i'm not sure how to setup the ventilation/control temps, etc...what I need to change from a conventional horizontal cooled reflector...there isn't much info on growing vert and certainly no threads/stickies on how to get setup

dimyself said:

awesome! thats what i'll do...

how to hang BOTH bulbs vertical in the tent...right next to each other? Will I be able to just point a fan upward or do I need to run ducting/cool tube on each bulb?

Whats the best method of growing for vert? lollipop? single cola, multiple plants? stadium?

I guess my thing is...i'm not sure how to setup the ventilation/control temps, etc...what I need to change from a conventional horizontal cooled reflector...there isn't much info on growing vert and certainly no threads/stickies on how to get setup

Click to expand...

On top of each other. One for the top of the plant one for the bottom half. Grow taller plants, you seem to be growing fairly tall ones anyway, but you would get away with just one light I think if you had them arranged in a circle/octagon surrounding the light hanging vertically. My own setup would have been better with even just a 5x5 tent, if I added a 600w or 400w there as well I think I would have pulled down a hell of a lot more than I did. Next time I go I am aiming for 1.5gpw.

Good luck. Just a small honeywell fan is enough blowing up from below on the bulbs. Then exhaust from the top. Cooltubes are largely a waste of money unless you're doing a sealed room (which you're obviously not).

You can do it, add a trellis net to control the branches. Drop your verts and fan up slow and exahust heat out the top. Turn em if needed to even growth.

OGEvilgenius said:

On top of each other. One for the top of the plant one for the bottom half. Grow taller plants, you seem to be growing fairly tall ones anyway, but you would get away with just one light I think if you had them arranged in a circle/octagon surrounding the light hanging vertically. My own setup would have been better with even just a 5x5 tent, if I added a 600w or 400w there as well I think I would have pulled down a hell of a lot more than I did. Next time I go I am aiming for 1.5gpw.

Good luck. Just a small honeywell fan is enough blowing up from below on the bulbs. Then exhaust from the top. Cooltubes are largely a waste of money unless you're doing a sealed room (which you're obviously not).

Click to expand...

When you say exhaust from the top, how exactly do I do this? How would I tie a carbon filter into the exhaust? This is the part i'm confused on. I have a CAN 66 with 450cfm fan. I also have another 450cfm fan if it's needed.... I just don't know how to set up

thanks for your help!!!

Badmf said:

You can do it, add a trellis net to control the branches. Drop your verts and fan up slow and exahust heat out the top. Turn em if needed to even growth.

Click to expand...

Thanks man!! I can't wait to try this... What is the best way to exhaust out the top and control smell?

Multiple ways to do it. It's ok to push through the carbon filter, not as efficient, but you should be ok. You can set it up inside the tent on the floor. You can mount it on your ceiling or put it in your attic if you want to pull through it. No easy answer there, putting it in the tent is obviously not the way you want to go given it will eat your square footage. But it will work. And you'll still have more square footage than if you weren't growing vertically.

you can also pull throught you filter, but put your filter inside the tent in place of the reflectors and exhaust out from the inside.

Inside or outside doesn't matter, except inside takes up space. And believe me, you cannot hang any reasonably sized carbon filter from a tent frame and feel secure/safe about it (assuming the entire structure doesn't collapse).

Ideally you pull through as it's easier on the fan and the airflow will be improved in general - however when filtering the faster the air moves the less it has a chance to be scrubbed, so that's one thing to consider. But you can push through as well, it's what I did to avoid mounting my rather large carbon filter anywhere but the floor. As long as he achieving negative pressure, and by the looks of it he's got things dialed in pretty well over there, he will be fine.

St3ve said:

So is this your first run in that tent? There is no reason you shouldn't pull a # to a #.5 in there with your current setup. I would NOT recommend going vert in there as it will be very hard to get to your plants.. and no offense but if you're having a touch time with it like that, its going to be worse if you tried vert.

So if I were you.. I would sit down and try and figure out what went wrong. At first glance.. I can easily see that they are way too crowded. You have all that wasted growth stealing CO2 and nutes from the bud sites. I can't quite tell how many plants are in there..can you do more smaller plants? If it was me, I would do about 12 plants, vegged for about 2-3 weeks at the most. If not.. maybe 6 plants vegd for 3-4. They make sure to trim off the sucker branches and leaves for good air movement.

Click to expand...

I agree, I would not go vertical until you can adequately manage your tent. First you want to figure out the WHY, you can't go to a new method if you don't know why the old failed or you will likely run into the exact same problem. It is not the method that failed it was a step in the method, you follow?

now turn your head sideways lol... i think you should do a badddddass scrog

good info people, so informative!