Seeking Critique on Vert Colosseum SOG concept.

[Crusader Rabbit]

The bottom tier is too narrow to allow light to shine laterally on the plants. If you were to redesign this thing to allow more space for the bottom tier, the most cost effective approach might be to use your top section as the new bottom tier, and build a new larger top section.

But this design is limited in root space because the original design constraint was that each trough be narrow enough to fit a tall slim tree pot snugly.

 

[greenmatter]

when you do your rebuild you should think about using plywood Anti. not being limited by standard lumber sizes would give you some more possibilities and they will cut plywood for you at home depot if you bring in a cut list.

it is a good idea to "help" whichever orange clad yo-yo does the measuring, because they don't try to make things accurate IME, they are more about "close enough" ......

the plywood would also be easier on your wallet, and the end product would be much lighter.

 

[Anti]

when you do your rebuild you should think about using plywood Anti. not being limited by standard lumber sizes would give you some more possibilities and they will cut plywood for you at home depot if you bring in a cut list.

it is a good idea to "help" whichever orange clad yo-yo does the measuring, because they don't try to make things accurate IME, they are more about "close enough" ......

the plywood would also be easier on your wallet, and the end product would be much lighter.

I built my microcab out of plywood and it warped (even though it was painted) after using it for a few years.

I built this one out of 2x8s and 2x4s because they are 2" thick.

The cost of wood for the table was under $50.

If I rebuild, I'm going to rebuild all the way, cuz like Crusader pointed out, this thing was never built to be a soil bed. It was meant to hold those containers.

I do agree that plywood is lighter.

When I had them do the cuts for my microcab at the store, I handed the guy $20 and said, "Please take your time and get my cuts right." and he measured everything twice.

Rebuilding even the bottom tier would require taking the table out of circulation while it was rebuilt. I think I like the idea of running top tier only just to keep the next harvest from being delayed (even if it is a lower yielder) while I use funds from the currently-upcoming harvest to redesign the chamber.

Some of the plants on the top tier are FAT. I want all my plants to be that fat.

That's going to require me building a better apartment for the moms to live in so that I can root many, many clones so that only the best of the best clones end up in the final cab.

If all of them ended up like this one I've got, it'd be amazing. (It's at least 6"-7" in diameter.)


Anyway.. updates... NOW.

 

[Anti]

*** UPDATE WITH PICS! Round II (WEEK VIII of 12/12) ***

*** UPDATE WITH PICS! Round II (WEEK VIII of 12/12) ***

WEEK VIII

^^^ Whole Cab ^^^

^^^ Close Up - Front and Center ^^^

^^^ Sad Little Girl in Front-Left Corner. She Didn't Get No Light! ^^^

^^^ Back Row - Plant on Left Got a Lil Close to Light and Got Tied Back ^^^

^^^ Close-Up of Bottom Tier Top ^^^
​

Notes:

So the bottom tier doesn't look as sad as that sad little girl in picture #3, but is nowhere near as full or dense as the top tier.

There are a handful of plants on the bottom tier that look pretty good, but they're still half as FAT as the top tier who are getting much more direct lighting.

Direct lighting + "Best-Of-Best Clones" + Plant Count + no downtime = Yield Nirvana


If I was going to rebuild this current table, I'd do as bobble (and others) suggested and make the bottom tier the same as the top. But that would be almost as much work as simply rebuilding from scratch - AND - would require downtime while it was built.

Also, even if the bottom tier were directly under the top tier, the plants would still have to grow INSIDE the space left by the top tier... and I've already got them tied to the walls of the top tier.. so 90% of the bottom tier plants would be just as close to the lights if I did things that way as they are now. (Look at pic #4 for examples of this. The buds you see at the bottom of the picture are the tops of bottom tier plants. They are within a few inches of the stalks of the bottom tier plants.)

My current plan is to have something flowering in the current setup while I build its replacement. That way I don't have to spend any time stressing the fuck out with no herb (the way I did this run.)
​

 

[benjuanman]

Sweet as Anti. Your making some great progress bro. Really enjoy this thread, your definately improving each run which is great to see. So it's day 56 now, how long till chop then?

 

[GP73LPC]

you might wanna round off the corners and eliminate this position altogether...

more of a staduim layout, so everybody can see the game/light

 

[silver hawaiian]

Looking marvy Anti! Congrats dude - looks like it's gonna be a great harvest, .. And an educator too, which is always good

I'm with GP - I'd round out those corners next time 'round, .. I've got the same thing happening in my room actually - one of the corners, I was forced to "round" out because of a support post in the room.. The other corners are basically 90-s. Turns out the rounded corner works out much better, as the deepest parts of the corner itself don't get much light once things get a'growin..

Looks great!

 

[Highlight]

Deleted

 

[Hundred Gram Oz]

Great grow Anti, whatever modifications you make next can only make it better. Tis looking real good already, well done bro, take it to the finish line brother!

HGO

 

[Anti]

I just realized that there was some info I have forgotten to share.

I've noticed that some of the drippers near the end of the main line (right where the runt in the corner is) don't always have enough pressure to drip. I have been hand watering those sections since I noticed it, but I have a feeling that the reason is that I'm not getting enough pressure in the line. This means that there's probably a lot more water going to plants on the back row than the front row because that's the way the lines are run.

From those with experience, would elevating my reservoir add much in the way of pressure? Currently, my res is basically on the floor. If I i were to put it up another 3 or 4 feet in the air, that would mean that all water going into the table would be entering after a 3-4 ft. vertical drop. (Currently it pumps up out of the reservoir and basically straight across with a few inch decline into the table's top tier.)

Alternatively, I considered hooking two pumps to the table at the corner or just upgrading my pumps.

Of course, if I rebuilt with square/octagon tiers that would cut the length of the feeder tube in at least half, so each pump would probably be more than sufficient.

Ideas and thoughts and ass-kicks are always appreciated.



I mention this problem with the pumps so that anyone considering a similar dripper setup can factor this in.

(And it was mentioned that length and # of drippers might be an issue long before I did it by the likes of DHF and others. )

 

[supermanlives]

looking good man. been a while since i checked in.

 

[Maj.Cottonmouth]

My concern with raising it would be starting a siphon and draining the res.

 

[silver hawaiian]

Good point - I'm not sure how your pump/rez getup is rigged Anti. I don't have the siphon issue myself, but not sure how similar our setups are. I go from a big, main rez on the floor, pumped up into a smaller "feed" rez on to a shelf. Blumats are connected directly to this smaller "feed" rez.

Overflow drains out the top, smaller fed rez back down into the main rez. But, in the line from the main rez into the feed rez, I've got a hole just below the bucket-level, to break the siphon. So, if the pump does fail, the siphon will stop the flow, to leave the main feed rez damn near full (which is about 4.5 gallons).

y'dig?

 

[Airnut]

You are right about the pump will increase the preassure if you raise the res.

Oh yea.. Go for the octagon No wimps hidding in the corners.

 

[DHF]

Bigger pumps and control valves with a bypass to set pressure and flow to each level and plantsites.....

Peace...DHF.........

 

[B. Self Reliant]

Lookin' good in here. Making your improvements while the current rig is blooming is a great idea. No one wants to work on a grow space without bud to keep your head straight!

I'm anxious to see what you come up with next.

 

[Anti]

So i've been looking at light meters. There are really cheap ones like the Hydrofarm unit for $20:

and then there are the more expensive ones like the Apogee ($299):

In the course of my reading on the subject, I'm coming up with one basic problem.

I've done searches, but nobody seems to be using light meters on IC (or at least making threads about it) and the few I've found all seem to be using relatively cheap meters that measure LUMENS.

The more expensive "quantum" meters actually measure PAR, which is the info we really need to make informed decisions.

I know that there are "rules of thumb" like 50w/sq. ft. or 5000 lumens, but I'm thinking that for "ideal" conditions it would be good to use the quantum meter since the quantum meter will tell me exactly how much USABLE (for photosynthesis) light the plants are receiving at a given distance.

The cheapest quantum meter I have found is this one:

It's currently up on eBay for $200.

Have any of you owned or used light meters and would anyone like to chime in with opinions?

CMH are supposed to have a higher PAR rating than the equivalent HPS lamps. So the "perfect" distance from an HPS might not be the perfect distance from the CMH at all.

 

[heady blunts]

the PAR meters are cool, but you're not measuring the effectiveness of different light sources.

since you've already committed to a type of bulb (CMH right?), you'll still be able to measure the relative light intensity each plant/position is receiving within your system with the cheaper lumen meter.

if you've got the $$ go for the cooler quantum meter, but the 20$ one should be adequate for gauging how evenly your plants are getting lit.

 

[bobblehead]

I got a meter that reads lumens and fc because i figured most people would buy that type of meter, and i wanted to be able to compare my measurements with other growers.... Imo it doesn't matter if you have a better meter if you can't get feedback from others. Measuring light intensity also lets you know when it's time to replace your lamps...

 

[DHF]

The only reason I ever used my cheapass light meter was to know when to change my bulbs as Bobbles made clear , cuz I knew how many watts per sq ft it took for dialage....

Bein a tightass and havin ta buy bulbs by the case , I wanted to know how far I could take my bitches without compromising lumens for that happy "medium" and consistent returns since I was runnin 14400 watts at separate locations 24/7/365 in fliprooms.....and....

I`ve heard folks say they change bulbs out every run , but I couldn`t bring myself to shitcan my eye horti`s till I absolutely knew if I ran em any longer the yields would suffer , and well.......

Ya` ll know I swapped the bulbs and used the dead un`s for target practice...

Peace...DHF.........