PERPETUAL VERT ADVICE

[Bennyweed1]

Hey people. I will soon attempt a perpetual vertical grow that yields every 30 days or so.

I will use 2 - 600w lamps for flower and 1 400w for veg.

I will veg for 30days cycling plants into my two flower tents every 30 days. I have a strain the finished in 60-63 days so I can harvest every 1 month and I am shooting for a LB every harvest.

My question is will a 400w be sufficient to veg for 6 plants in 5g containers? I want to conserve as much energy as possible while maximizing the output. My 400w is dimmable and I would consider vegging at only 250w if it would do the trick. What are your thoughts?

 

[Bennyweed1]

I would love to use 400w the whole way to keep energy cost down low. I just dont know the potential of 400watter is flower. I know I can do 16oz with a 600w no problem but dont know if I can come close to those numbers using a 400w. Any advice?

Basically I will veg plants for 30 days in the veg tent...then from there they will go into individual bloom tents every thirty 30 days. I have a 60day flowering strain so I will be able to harvest every 30 days with two tents.

 

[HushemFlupskluk]

Hi,

Gotta watch the colour temperatures. Where did I read a regular HPS bulb has 2000K? But 4500K - 9500K is best for Vegetation and clones.

Might get some TL tubes from the local electricity store or a bulb for vegetation.

Good luck, have fun!

 

[mrdizzle]

being an experienced vert guy, If I were you I would scrap the vert Idea, I personally dont think a single 600w for 6plants is going to out perform a 600w hortizonal in a 4x4 footprint. Most people I see doing small vert set ups choke out the light and end up with subpar yeilds

400w can veg 6 plants, I would take cuts when you flip, 2wks to root, 2 weeks to veg in a gallon pot, then one month veg in a 5gal under a 600w, then flower

do proper training during that month of veg, top and get lots of budsites, strip the lower stuff and you can get a great yeild off those 6 plants with no larf

 

[Scrappy-doo]

What's your growing medium?

When I did vert scrog I was using coco in 3 gallon containers, veg for about 30 days, 6 plants per light, average 3-4 oz per plant.

I vegged under a 96 watt ufo led.

Short answer... 250 watts is plenty to meet your goals.

IMO the problem is if you're in soil cause it takes much longer to grow in veg. If so, I'd switch to hand watered coco. It's very similar and you get way faster growth and better yields.

 

[LouDog420]

Hmm... With 2 600w and a 400w...

2 pods with 2 600's stacked vert in each. Ballasts on a flip, so there's your reload every 30 days... Running 1200w continuous

I'd try to fit 10-12 in 3 gal pots in each pod, donut style, get some stretchers... Rock the blumats with those numbers too

400w for veg, no problemo. Could also set it up on a flip or a mover if you're running low on veg space, but that shouldn't be a problem only having to load small pots

 

[Grizz]

vert scrogg. 6 plants will be great, are you using cool tubes or bare bulbs ? the 400 will work great for veg, if it was me i would use 1000's for flower and the 600 for veg, for what you have going it isent going to be that much more $$ and the yields are going to be better and you could do 8 plants per light. thats exactly what im doing with 3 1000 hps, 3 weeks perpetual, 2 t5's vegging clones untill they reach 18 inches then 8 into a tent with a 600 watter then into flower.

 

[Bennyweed1]

I have cooltubes but will be running bare bulbs.

I have 1k lights but I do not want to go over 1600w because I am doing this where I live and I just dont like getting to crazy for safety and security reasons.

Thats why I want to get the max and am going vertical but am not sure if a 600w barebulb is better off being hung vertical or horizontal.

 

[Scrappy-doo]

Vertical all the way.

 

[Bennyweed1]

Vertical all the way.

-word

Just went through a 600w thread and am amazed..

Now I dont know if I want to remain organic or bust out my synthetic nutes again. So tempting.....

 

[prowler]

But why yield on 30 days interval? You can optimize your space much better with constant flow of different sized plants. I mean that you have to watch some wasted light when the other wave is coming in whilst with constant flow you can adjust each plant differently and maximize it all. Specially with blumats or drippers. With hand watering it's a different story. I have my tent full all times this way - no light wasted.

 

[Bennyweed1]

But why yield on 30 days interval? You can optimize your space much better with constant flow of different sized plants. I mean that you have to watch some wasted light when the other wave is coming in whilst with constant flow you can adjust each plant differently and maximize it all. Specially with blumats or drippers. With hand watering it's a different story. I have my tent full all times this way - no light wasted.

I have two individual bloom tents and a single veg tent.

Basically my process looks like this

VEG tent for 30 days

Then the round of plants go into flower tent 1

VEG another 6 plants 30 days

Then that round goes into flower tent 2

VEG another 6 plants for 30 days

and repeat the process. Once I reach 60 days I will harvest tent 1 and refill with a new batch of vegged plants. Then tent 2 will come down in another 30 days....and I repeat.

Once I reach 60 days I will harvest one flower tent and cycle every 30 days.

Does that makes sense? I am stoned and dont know if im explaining myself alright. Sorry.

I like the perpertual harvest, I have a constant supply of bud and most importantly income. Im shooting for 1 LB a month off a 600w HPS. I hit a 1 LB running my 600w horizontal so I know it should be rather easier if I increase the canopy area by going vertical.

I think you thought I was using just one tent? I am all about maximizing my canopy area and power consumption to achieve max out put. Plus I no longer have my dedicated grow house like I had in the past so this little operation will start in my basement until I can expand to larger game.

Lets say I made a poor choice and drove after drinking and almost killed myself. I had to spend 6 months in a county huber dorm for it so I had to loose my old grow op.

I thank Jesus everyday for keeping me on this earth. I could have hurt someone else, it was terrible and I for sure deserve judgement thats why I shared it with ICmag. I promise I am not a bad person though, I did something really stupid and just hope no one has to learn the way I did. Peace ICmag and thanks for the support.

 

[Bennyweed1]

If I can effectively mimic these results which I achieve with a horizontal 600w bulb Ill be looking real pretty.

There are a few from my outdoor grow, I just wanted to show those beauties to the crowd. I love outdoor buds, so beautiful. I couldn't imagine what it would be like if there was no war on Marijuana and they plant grew wildly. This world would be much much different.

 

[Bennyweed1]

A vertical SCROG seems like that best option for my tents.

I didnt know how I would transfer the plants from the veg tent into the bloom tents if I wanted to train them into the screen while in veg. It wouldnt be manageable but I dawned on me.....

Ill just swap the ballast instead of swapping the plants. Much easier right? So ill have have 3 tents of the same size and cycle the 400w MH bulb&ballast veg light between the tents has I cycle through veg and bloom.

 

[Bennyweed1]

Hmm... With 2 600w and a 400w...

2 pods with 2 600's stacked vert in each. Ballasts on a flip, so there's your reload every 30 days... Running 1200w continuous

I'd try to fit 10-12 in 3 gal pots in each pod, donut style, get some stretchers... Rock the blumats with those numbers too

400w for veg, no problemo. Could also set it up on a flip or a mover if you're running low on veg space, but that shouldn't be a problem only having to load small pots

Wow thats a great idea I didnt think of. Would you keep the plants smaller and obviously not veg for 30 days then?

I like the idea but am not sure which would yield more. More quantity of small plants or less quantity of large plants?

Got my wheels turning.....Thank you!

 

[Bennyweed1]

What's your growing medium?

When I did vert scrog I was using coco in 3 gallon containers, veg for about 30 days, 6 plants per light, average 3-4 oz per plant.

I vegged under a 96 watt ufo led.

Short answer... 250 watts is plenty to meet your goals.

IMO the problem is if you're in soil cause it takes much longer to grow in veg. If so, I'd switch to hand watered coco. It's very similar and you get way faster growth and better yields.

Hey there friend. Thanks for your advice! Im on the fence right now.....I have the means to be 100% organic or I have tons of synthetic nutrients.

I just dont know what I want to do. Its a hard choice because I know the yield is greater with synthetic...at least in my experience but I just cant shake the feeling of organic bud and renewable resources.

Organics is much easier when being perpetual though. I can reuse my soil and I do not have to pH anything. I ran drippers but never the blue mats...I have had my eye on them for a year now though.

With those blue mats, do they clog easily?

I know with my drippers I could never run a ACT tea through them because every single one would clog. So I could only run H20 through the drippers and had to hand water the ACT teas....

Would the bluemats allow my to feed teas with out clogging? Thats what I am looking for...Thanks mate.

 

[prowler]

No. If your drippers can't handle it i'm afraid that neither will blumats - but - with blumats and organics your life will still be much easier. <- period.

All you have to do is top dress every now and then and apply ACT tea by hand watering. I'm about to test Bio Sevia with blumats but i've already accepted the fact that i have to hand water the Sevia. Anyway it's going to be much easier than fooling around with synthetic nutrients. Drop a little this and that (guano, lime, beneficials, etc.) while potting up and i don't ever have to worry wether my coco is fresh. I can recycle everything. Leaves and roots included and this is something you can't do with synthetic fertilizers because coco starts to stink and starts causing problems in the root zone.

And it might be that your figures drop for a while but once dialed in to organics i think you won't be disappointed with the figures.

 

[Scrappy-doo]

I don't use blumats personally but I've read up on the a lot. The general consensus with them is that they are not compatible with organics because they clog. There is however a breakaway thread on using blumats with organics...

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=213080&highlight=blumats

As far as your concern with scrogging in veg, I personally never scrogged in veg when running vertical. Too awkward to move them around. Very easy to just place the screen up when they are big enough to flip. Scrogging vertically is very easy and non-stressful. I've even scrogged a plant vertically that was half way through flower just using twisty ties and gently placing the branches where I wanted.

 

[Bennyweed1]

I don't use blumats personally but I've read up on the a lot. The general consensus with them is that they are not compatible with organics because they clog. There is however a breakaway thread on using blumats with organics...

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=213080&highlight=blumats

As far as your concern with scrogging in veg, I personally never scrogged in veg when running vertical. Too awkward to move them around. Very easy to just place the screen up when they are big enough to flip. Scrogging vertically is very easy and non-stressful. I've even scrogged a plant vertically that was half way through flower just using twisty ties and gently placing the branches where I wanted.

I've read a lot of vert threads but havent found this answer. Is it better to hang the screen in front or behind the plants? In front allows the plant to grow into the screen. In back you would have to secure the plant to the screen. I am not sure which is a better method.

 

[Ichabod Crane]

put the screen behind the plant. This way you don't have to get the screen out of the buds. You are less likely to damage them at harvest. Just untie and remove from pot.