Indoor Vertical Grow Systems 101

[ILIKETOLEARN]

Is there a "how to" on trimming the back side of plants in a stadium set up?

World Peace,

ILL

 

[ILIKETOLEARN]

hey lab,

do you trim your plants at all?

WORLD PEACE,

ILL

 

[labtec]

On my bigger plants I do trim pretty much everything on the backside. If it's not going to get light, trim it off. Try to just not do too much at once so you don't stress it out.

 

[whadeezlrg]

what is the general thought on cool tubes with vert? I'd really like to switch but there is no way i can do it without air cooling the lights as my summers are typically over 100f during the day and in the 80's through the night(i run my lights from 8p-8a) OR I do have a 10k btu a/c already in the room and I have a 6" inline as well as an 8" inline and two carbon filters....I could possibly just vent the crap out of it go bare bulb....but wouldnt the cool air from the a/c just get sucked out of the room? I understand convection and that the cool air will fall but if im pulling 1000 cfm out of an 800 cuft room i just think the a/c really wont be doing anything but running constantly for nothing, but maybe im just trippin and would have to run it to know for sure

 

[Incognegro]

Whadeezlrg, I was/am dealing with same probs... i have 2 bare 1k's in a room with a 12k btu a/c... when i was venting out I was getting okay temps, 80 with lights off/90 on... for teh hell of it and to see what would happen, I sealed the room in, now my temps are 85 when lights are off...not sure what they are when the lights are on...i sealed it to run co2, but i will go back to venting out...

at least until next run, when i get a better a/c..and some other modifications..

 

[whadeezlrg]

Whadeezlrg, I was/am dealing with same probs... i have 2 bare 1k's in a room with a 12k btu a/c... when i was venting out I was getting okay temps, 80 with lights off/90 on... for teh hell of it and to see what would happen, I sealed the room in, now my temps are 85 when lights are off...not sure what they are when the lights are on...i sealed it to run co2, but i will go back to venting out...

at least until next run, when i get a better a/c..and some other modifications..

I ran my room sealed w/ co2 last summer with 3k(air cooled horizontal)temps were in the mid 80's most of the time(thermostat was set to 82 so i could have gotten it even cooler) however i think that if the room wasn't sealed i could have had the temps down a bit without running the a/c and dehuey $$$ but the co2 increased the yield and also added approx another $100 a month to my elec bill(A/C & dehuey) although the added cost was more than made up for by the increase in yield it was a pita trying to control humidity and i live in the desert....also the dehuey made the room even hotter it's a total catch 22 I'm not sure im willing to put my quality on the line for an increased yield. I opened it up for winter and it's very easy for me to seal it back up and give it some boost but I'm really just curious on whether or not I would be able to cool 3k in bare bulbs, I know I could make it happen with cool tubes but i just dont know if it will make the efficiency of the vert setup go down to the point where the benefits are unseen.

 

[Smoking Nomad]

It seems like a very efficient way to grow. It seems methods will always be plentiful.

 

[sneakyheatsig]

Are most people just using existing lamp cords with the reflector removed or has anyone wired up an E40 fitting from scratch? I'm building a rig to hold the E40 and bulb with a fan immediately beneath and not sure how best to do it. Not even sure if the E40 fitting is safe to be exposed?

 

[growingcrazy]

That Was my setup.

Now same with cooltube.

 

[hogs]

WOW Took a couple of days..But I got er done...All 226 of em.Thanks all, Loads of Info..Now On yet another journey...!

 

[Anti]

Vert is the shit.

 

[Onos]

Heey Anti,nice set up,i like your pots,never seen anything similar before,i mean something different than NFT channels,tubes,e.t.c.

 

[2tm23]

..........

 

[PuertoviejoKL]

How deep do those pots go down Anti?

 

[Maj.Cottonmouth]

Here is everything about Anti's setup

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=207356

 

[PuertoviejoKL]

Ahh yes now I remember... Those design plans and final product look excellent. Like the usage of CMH also. Thanks Maj.

 

[klint]

whats the minimal distance between light and screen ?

 

[Aerohead]

I have a question about trimming plants for vertical grows. Last run, first attempt, I waited until later in veg to prune, I chopped massive branches off of the back side and needed to be coaxed to trim them from other members.. They were right and the result was excellent..

My question is, how soon should we begin to trim off the back sides? My plants are about 6 inches tall right now (very early veg) I can already identify branches that need to go, should I trim them off right now?

I am thinking that trimming them late in veg last time wasted alot of growth energy that had to be trimmed, if I trim them early, I can reduce this waste and let the plants put the energy into the branches I am going to keep..

Thoughts???

 

[DaveTheNewbie]

Nice thread. Never done vert, but I do have a question..

While looking at this pattern of a 4 plant grow:

xox
oxo
xox

the thought came to mind.. If you drew lines through this (like a tic tac toe board)..

x I 0 I x
--I--I--
0 I x I 0
--I--I--
x I 0 I x

and then counted the the sides of the plant on each line that was in contact with direct light the sum would be 12..

If you used this configuration:

0 I x I 0
--I--I--
x I 0 I x
--I--I--
0 I x I 0

the sum would also be 12. I am completely non-vert-savvy, but is there any reason to think the outcome would not be the same using four lights instead of five?

I would like to revisit this

With the standard configuration, each plant gets the exact same 3 sides coverage of light.
With your configuration, the four outer plants recieve 2 sides of light, while the center plant has 4 sides of light. So you'll have a giant bush in the middle with 4 smaller bushes outside.

i get that

The five lamp, four tree configuration has stood the test of time. Save yourself the headache of trying to reinvent the wheel, and just focus on dialing in the specifics of your grow.

not so happy with that.
One of the points of vert is to surround the light with plants rather than surround the plant with lights, as someone said in this thread. Effectively the corner lights in the traditional setup are not surrounded by plants, in fact only 90 degrees of the 360 has plants. Doesnt that contravene the idea of :

effectively the room with a reflective surface is a reflector isnt it?

I posted this and other questions on Heaths thread : https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=181239 after reading the whole damn thing. Seems that thread is dead and i found this one

My other question is : given the scenario of 2 lights and 2 plants am i better having the 2 lights above and below each other between the 2 plants or left and right / front and back at the same height?

 

[dieseldrew31]

Aerohead,
My thoughts are unless it's a simple top after say the fourth-sixth node I would let it go at least till the sixth week. I also try to use the same rule in clones. I can't give you the exact answer you need but I know it has to do with auxins and the way they help regulate groth. Besides they are young and maybe you can use it to your advantage as plyable as new groth is try to train the tips to grow wear you need them to be and worry later on the lower groth for triming. Know one ever finished a grow and said i wish I had fewer tops...