12 x 12 Buildout, Perpetual in Coco

[Boozer]

Cheers everyone. After being a long time lurk, and finishing my first run I'm hoping to get a bit of assistance from the friendly pro's. I'm on my second run now and very interested to try out vertical. My first run was a scrog with two 1K watts which we pulled about 2.5lbs from. There were some mistakes made and issues with root rot along the way that I think hurt the yield, but I feel I did fairly decent for my first go around.

Anyhow, for my second run, I rearranged my 4x4 veg tent, switched from ebb & flow table to Botanicare Ready gro coco (aeration formula in smart pots) DTW (no runoff using H&G line, with Orca, aqua flakes, root excel, drip clean, zen, bud xl, top shooter, and amino) and hung a bare 400watt MH around 12 plants. It's only one tier right now (cooling issues won't support 2nd bulb), but it has dwarfed my results vs horizontal in growth and inter node spacing in less time. In 3 weeks from seed they've filled the space completely (even though I changed the medium I still attribute most of the increase in growth to the bare bulb vertical)

I am in the process of building out a new 12 x 12 flower area (Coco dtw in smart pots), my goal is to setup the most efficient use of this space using a two tier perpetual vertical grow using 6 x 600 watt bare bulb hung vertical although I'm not apposed to other methods. I have a 24 plant limit and would like to make use of this completely, but don't necessarily mind doing less if more efficient. So, essentially two stacks of 12, or something of the sort. Keep in mind I must be able to fit a reservoir, hopefully a small shelf for nutes and various tools, and have at least 1.5ft around perimeter to move since I don't want to be cramped while trying to work in my garden.

Since I can't think of an easy way to do a perpetual SCroG without having a massive veg area to fill screens before moving them into the 12x12 flower room, I think vertical will be the best way to go to make the most use out of my allowable numbers and space, as well as wanting to do a perpetual grow. My strain is Marrionberry by TGA subcool.

What I had in mind was some sort of shelf system with one tier on the ground in circular trays & smart pots, with the second tier designed possibly by hanging boards from the ceiling using eye hooks and rope ratchets, then running my drip halos to each pot. Any shelf style system will work really, would prefer to have on wheels for easy access.

Here is the layout I had in mind:

X Plant, O Light - Two tiers, one on top of the other.
. XXXXX
X O O O X
. XXXXX

From what I calculate in final plant size this will only take up maybe 9 x 5 space (8-12 inch spacing from bulb) . Possibly I could do two of these side by side and not worry about a second tier? I'm totally open to all suggestions.

I understand there will be some wasted light essentially by hanging the bulbs side by side like this, but there is also the benefit of the lights overlapping and covering possibly shaded areas that one bulb wouldn't hit? Has anyone tried a setup like this? Any words of wisdom are highly appreciated.

Hope to hear something back! A big thanks in advance.

 

[Boozer]

This is what I have in mind, I'm still decided on whether to run this or to simply do a 8x8 scrog with 6x600 watt gavitas. I cant wrap my head around how to do a perpetual with scrog. The only solution I found was the individual pot scrog nets, seems like this would require a ton of space to veg though?

 

[flat9]

If your area is 12 x 12 and you intend to use it all, you're a good 3000 watts short of what you'd want in terms of lighting. DHF always preaches 50 watts per sq ft, and he's quite he guru, so I'd try to hit that.

If you're going to do donuts, though, just stack bare bulb 600s in 5 x 5 spaces. 1200 watts in a 25 sq ft space is pretty good light and is 48 watts per sq ft. Make four of those, find a nice fast flowering 8 week strain, and harvest a donut every two weeks. You can use the remaining 2 feet to walk around the sides and do some maintenance.

 

[flat9]

Also, no need to have double light on some of the plants. Since plant count isn't a concern, can just replicate this in 5 x 5 squares.

xxx
xox
xxx

I.e., overall layout would be something like

xxx-xxx
xox-xox
xxx-xxx
---------
xxx-xxx
xox-xox
xxx-xxx

with some room to work around the sides.

 

[Boozer]

Thanks for the reply, I agree - too little light for that space. I was I inspired by aeros first vertical thread that's stickied, I think I read he used a 600 over a 400, so thought of doing 4 of those but I can't seem to find if he lists how much space he used/needed. I do have a 24 plant limit, so 4 doughnuts of 6 then. My thought was if I doubled up and lit a few from both sides id save space since I don't have to stack two plants back to back. But I can see in a perpetual id have to basically keep those the same size for the bulb heights to stay proper.

 

[wildgrow]

Check out the vert light mover setup. Might be something that works for you.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=6066444&postcount=140

 

[Ichabod Crane]

I run six plants around two stacked lights in a 5 X 7 room. Really only need about 5 X 5for a doughnut with 6 plants.

 

[Boozer]

Thanks for hopping on, 5x5 was the answer I was looking for! If its 4 5x5 doughnuts back to back, I get 2 foot perimeter for the rezies, dehuey and tanks.

I really liked the design of your screens ich, individual PVC frames with netting and reflective material on the back is probably what I'll end up doing to close in the circles. Netting behind not in front. I wonder if i can use those to tie back the heavier branches instead of these ropes to the ceiling i keep seeing. Two 600s stacked each should get me near the 50watt/ft2.

My girls are about 16-17 inches wide and about an inch taller at 3 weeks veg, it's hard being new to tell how much space ill need through flower for each.

 

[Ichabod Crane]

5X5 is going to be super tight. 5X5.5 fits better with my screens.

As for the width you can loop the braches back into the screen to fill in some voids if you need to. You can do this on the top as well to bring the height back down in a short room.

I let my branches hang towards the light about 8-10 inches. Because of the overlapping light pattern I don't woory about shading as much. If the plant gets to close to the light just pull it back to where you want it and tie it.

 

[Boozer]

I'll be running this round in my current 5x9 gorilla that's pushed out to about 6x10 with positive pressure from the ac intake, not ideal but it was the best solution I had for running semi sealed with having to use a portable ac vented in for cooling. Should give me a good idea of my space reqs. I'll get some pics up before flip n doc the results. Shooting for at least 1.25lb since that's what I pulled from my first run horizontal per 1k. Let's see

So this will be a 3G smart pots botanicare rdy grow aeration on drip halo vertical 1k vs greentrees hydros ebb n gro scrog.

 

[Boozer]

Here are some shots on my first run using a 4x3 Ebb & flow table in veg, ebb & grow (semi)scrog, 2K watts. Plants were topped once, lst'ed down, fim'ed once and then bent over again for the stretch.

Next run I'll be comparing the same wattage in my first vert run to this scrog, same plant count, same room. Difference being using a 400 watt MH vs ~450 T5 in veg, as well as switching to Coco DTW from ebb & flow table.

At Flip

At 60 days