First grow, 4KW Vertical

[Kush09]

Just a little info...

I have had friends who have done small grows, but I have never grown myself. I have become really interested in being able to grow natural medicine. I have been reading as much as I can and learning as much as possible for quite some time now. Finally, I have a chance to setup a grow and here is what I have come up with so far.

These are bagseed that were vegged for 1.5 months under 2 KW with reflectors. I wanted to keep numbers on the lower side and decided to try a vertical setup with larger plants. The males have been removed and they are now just over 2 weeks into 12/12 in 3 gallon pots. There are 4 1KW lights running full spectrum HPS bulbs. I have a large carbon filter hung high to help remove heat, which is attached to a 8" Vortec 747cfm fan exhausting into the large attic. The door is able to be kept open because the house is always occupied during lights on. This lets in lots of fresh air (CO2) and lets heat escape. We haven't run into an issue of the house smelling yet.

I plan to hang mylar on the walls, especially over the dark blanket. I also plan to get small fans under each bulb blowing up toward the ceiling to help remove heat. I will be using tomato cages to help expose all the buds to the light. This room is still being improved and I am continually working on this room and a separate veg room to get everything working as best as I can. I have been reading here for a while and very much enjoy all the people and information on this site. Any suggestions or comments are welcomed.

 

[roughnice420]

wow, that looks like a pretty nice setup. I'm diggin your style.

 

[wwonka]

Damm Nice Setup.

Vertical looks very interesting. are you going to put the tomato cages around your lights?

 

[jtk707]

I always thought vertical grows had bto be colisiums . I like what your doing ive only seen it done in rows . Nice setup and healthy lookin plants good luck

 

[smokesalot420]

looking good so far man! Have you thought of staggering your lights a little bit? I mean have 1/2 of them as high as they are and the other half a little lower or are you getting plenty of light for the lower parts of the plants as is? What about running cool tubes for your verticals, and have 2 in each tube and placing your plants closer to them? I guess I'm just boucing ideas off of you that I would incorporate if I had a bunch of money lying around!

How hot does your room get with the 4-1000's?

Anyways, looks really good, especially for your first time, you can tell you've done your reading/research!

 

[purpledomgoddes]

familiar w/ similar set-up. w/ 2k. 1 sunmaster warm deluxe+1 eye conversion bulb+ uvb/flouro. entire plant becomes canopy when 1 light light lowered slightly.

lowering 1 of the 2 lights in each circle to ~ mid-plant level will penetrate foliage deeper than placed overhead+get the guts of the plant.

adding uvb bulbs (40w reptile type) overhead, or vertically situated increases fruit glands vs. non-uvb applied (control) plants. 1 daylight (blue)+1 uvb per 2 light flouro fixture. maybe a fixture over/in w/ each row (curve of circle).

fan underneath each set of lights (1 ~12-18" fan) will increase laminar air flow vertically, in middle of plants+push up hot air that is laterally emanating from bulbs.

can get them closer to light(s). no restraint from proximity to bulb(s) in similar garden. they get as close as they can grow to them. ~2-3". day temps 78-85 . 60-85 night. depending on diff application.

edit: this may be option for low-cost/easy/moderate c02 enhancement. succesful in similar garden. http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=108618

hope this helps. nice work+healthy garden!

 

[TwinTurboGuy]

I'm running on a similar setup, curious on what kind of yields you might expect.

I'm tuned into this thread. Hope to see some great results!

 

[Kush09]

roughnice420 - Thanks for the compliments.

wwonka - I put the tomato cages around each plant. I have seen other setups where people have put a cage around the light. I think that they will work best around each plant in my situation. I am manipulating all the bud sites to where they receive the most light.

jtk707 - Thanks, I was thinking of doing a stadium setup at first like Northern Farmer, but didn't want to deal with high plant numbers, so I came up with this. We will see how it turns out.

smokesalot420 - It appears that the lower buds are getting plenty of light right now. The plants are an average of 3.5 feet. I thought about cooltubes, but after seeing many other successful bare bulb grows, such as Northern Farmer's stadium, I decided to run like this and see how it turns out. My temps never get to 80 degrees.

purpledomgoddes - Thanks for all the info! I need to get some fans under my bulbs blowing upward. I would be interested to see and hear more about your similar setup.

TwinTurboGuy - I would be interested to see your similar setup as well. As this is my first grow, I have no idea what I will yield.

This is turning out to be alot of fun and I would like to thank everyone again for their comments and suggestions. I hope you guys stick around. I have learned so much!

 

[jtk707]

Good luck bro cant wait for the updates

 

[Che]

Right on, 4K bagseed grow - that's badass! How many plants do you have in there Kush?

Once you hit 75 posts, consider yourself invited to BSGA

 

[smokesalot420]

If you're getting light to the power parts of the plants then I wouldn't change anything.
I am also running 2 vertical no-hood bulbs, but they are 400W CMH's, I wish I had the power to run 4K in lights!
Temps sound like they're good too, hopefully things will stay good and you will have a good harvest!

 

[purpledomgoddes]

no pics of fictitious garden.

light regime as stated ^+16/12, 14/10, 16/8, depending.

5 gal bucket of simple black gold coco blend+coco. lava rock on bottom, perlite mixed in+on top. holes drilled into bottom of bucket w/ small pot spacer between another 5 gal bucket (ala krusty, w/ coco). nylon ropes into medium+out of holes into run-off water held in bottom bucket. basic wick system. @14 days, h20+h202 @ ~1 gal per. @ 7-0 days 0 h20.

gh flora nova bloom+floralicious+kool bloom. ph 5.8-6.2. ppm 600-1000/>1 ec. myco benef bac added. h202 every week. fed/watered 1 time per week, or when the top of the mix gets bone dry. blackstrap molasses+humic acid weekly.

h202 every week. kills un-beneficial bacteria accumulated in bottom bucket. unknown if killed all initial input of myco, but due to survival-of-fittest in nature, some surviving myco bond+thrive in/on roots. +floroalicious has myco.

aggressive foliar w/ all ^ nutes @ ph 6.8, ppm >250 w all ^ weekly. only molasses+kool bloom foliar @ 2 weeks until 14 days remaining. h20+h202 until last week.

initiation of bloom zero diff (same day/night temp ~78-85*f). mid-bloom negative diff (higher night temp ~78-88). late bloom pos diff (cooler night temps ~60-78), depending.

start of bloom low vapor pressure deficit (high rh ~55-75%rh). mid-bloom low vpd (low rh ~35-55%). late bloom slightly higher rh to slow excessive transpiration+concentrate energy on fruit growth/production.

laminate (1 18" fan underneath lights)+turbulent (1 oscillating fan) airflow over leaves. avg daily (24 hr) leaf temp ~78-80*f.

0 exhaust, except for condenser heat from ac.

anne sohie-muter+bach+copland+coltrane+vibes throughout.

tasty imaginary tomatoes in 100 days from seed.

hope imaginary similar garden helps for comparison. enjoy your vegetables!

 

[buffalobubble]

Really unique and clean setup! How many plants total do you have in there?

 

[79towncar]

Nice plants goodluck on the yeild.

 

[Kush09]

Thanks for all the help and advice! Unfortunately, we have found seeds in all plants. After researching, I believe that we pollinated our crop by not quickly killing two male plants. We had two males that were still alive in the other side of the house behind several closed doors, that we had not quickly disposed of and the seeds opened up, releasing pollen. After more reading, it appears that pollen can easily travel over a mile and im pretty sure the pollen could have made it into our room.

I know about hermies, but do not think these are hermies, because ALL 22 plants have seeds. It seems more likely that the crop got pollinated, rather than ALL 22 female plants turned hermies from stress. What do you guys think?

 

[Che]

it only takes 1 Hermie to pollenate the whole room.
If you were carrying the pollen from the other males with you into the flowering room I don't know that the room would be so evenly pollinated... although it is possible. Is your air supply filtered?

 

[Guest]

Thanks for all the help and advice! Unfortunately, we have found seeds in all plants. After researching, I believe that we pollinated our crop by not quickly killing two male plants. We had two males that were still alive in the other side of the house behind several closed doors, that we had not quickly disposed of and the seeds opened up, releasing pollen. After more reading, it appears that pollen can easily travel over a mile and im pretty sure the pollen could have made it into our room.

I know about hermies, but do not think these are hermies, because ALL 22 plants have seeds. It seems more likely that the crop got pollinated, rather than ALL 22 female plants turned hermies from stress. What do you guys think?

I had 10-20 male flowers pop for just 1 to 2 days before I snipped them looks like that whole table is 1/4 pollinated and the rest of the room buds will have 5-10 seeds ... but i'm not complaining as they are all killer croses, and will be feminized ... but my crop size will be hit OF at least 20%.

 

[Indecent]

Have you considered running 4 circles with plants surrounding each bulb? You could arrange them so the lights are used more efficiently while still maintaining some double coverage on plants.

These diagrams may not exactly match your plant count, but hopefully illustrate what I mean. (X = plant, O = light)

Edit: I can't quite get the diagrams to line up in the actual post as I see it when writing/editting my post. If it looks a bit off it's not intentional.

X X X X X X
X O X O X
X X X X X X
X O X O X
X X X X X X

OR (if your room is more rectangular)

X X X X X X X X
X O X O X O X O X
X X X X X X X X

It might not be possible for you change up this run, but it might something to consider on your next go.

 

[WhoMan]

Lots of space

 

[FunkyFarmer]

Not to be a joykill, but you can hardly call this a vert grow. Only thing that's vertical are the lights hanging top to bottom. If you wish to gain the benefits of vertical growing, you should at least have more than a single level of plants (set up in a stadium, coliseum or octagon-thingie). At least don't be disapointed that your yield closer to 1 than 2 g/W not even counting the many watts needed to veg those big plants.

just my 2p worth