Question for 2k Vertical set-up/First post

[Any2cards]

Hello to all the vertical growers! First post and became a member today because of the awesome content of vertical growing on this site and I am excited about building my 2k vertical set-up.

I have a space of 15.5 x 7.5 x 8 and will be using (2) 1k HPS bulbs in some vertical fashion but wanted to get some advice on the the most efficient use of lights/space.

One idea was to arrange milk crates in an octagonal shape with 3 tiers total with use of the floor as the first tier for a potential 24 plants per octagon side by side and 1 light for each octagon in a doughnut fashion.

Or:

Using the stadium concept with the same 3 tiers also using milk crates or plastic shelving or a combination of both. Thus the lights would have some overlap and each end filled as well.

Both ideas I think will work but in the first scenario the lights are not really working togther as they are in the second. Looking at maximizing yield and having access to the plants for watering and routine foliar applications. It will be a soil/air exchange grow for now.

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

Any2

 

[hawkwindzoo]

Wisk you good luck with the vert grow Any2cards

 

[Ichabod Crane]

I would stack the lights.

Ventilation is in one place and easier to draw the heat off with one fan just above the lights.

When you stack them you don't lose the light from the side facing another bulb which is also losing the light facing the first bulb. The weakest light comes from the end of the bulb. When you stack them you get crossing light pattens and less shading because of this crossing pattern. In my experiance this crossing will result in a good yield increase.

I run my plants tied to a screen and I can remove any plant I want to. This makes it easy to work on.

 

[otis33]

I did this with my milk crates

 

[Skyrancher]

I agree with setting up a donut configuration. With only 2 lights, the donuts will use the available light most efficently. You don't have enough lights cover your rooms square footage in a stadium .

If you upgrade with more lights later and want to use a stadium, shoot for the magic 50w per square foot. With a 15.5 x 7.5 room, which are good dimensions for a stadium by the way, you have just over 116 square feet.
116 x 50 = 5800 watts of light needed to use your entire space at the optimal light levels.

Go for the donut !! Best use of your 2k lighting.

Sure looks like Otis has a great idea. Nice setup Otis!! I would be setting up one of those.

 

[otis33]

yea, it's pretty much two donuts stacked on one another. it's brought me many great harvests. my gpw had hovered around .7-.8, but this last run I harvested 1830 grams or something close to that. I've also done interlocking donuts addy my other house where the donut is connected to the other donut by a shared plant that is lit from both lights. this may be the way to go. easy peasy. get a good stretchy strain, grow it to about 26-36 inches then flip. be thinking of a way to support the massive nugs that will be snapping your branches. you are going to knock it our of the park, I got a good feeling about this one. don't make me eat my words. it's time to grow some killer plants. good luck!

 

[Any2cards]

Thanks everyone!

I really like the stacking idea as opposed to 2 side by side donuts or the stadium hybrid and yes you are right Sky I would not have enough lights for the entire room for a stadium but was going to shorten it up from the room size.

Very impressive #s Otis and that is on 2k? Wow........nice work. I am sold on vert ever since I stumbled upon the idea. Still in planning phase and I am really looking forward to it. Yes I have thought about the support issue lol. Going with lower counts bigger plants so I was wondering where you end up starting from 26-36".

Thanks again,

Any2

 

[Ichabod Crane]

Here is a grow I did with a double stacked light set up. It is a 1K over a 600. Yield was .85 GPW. That is with mites going into flower and problems with water. Should give you some ideas on how to set up a doghnut with 6 plants.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=242646

 

[otis33]

Thanks everyone!

I really like the stacking idea as opposed to 2 side by side donuts or the stadium hybrid and yes you are right Sky I would not have enough lights for the entire room for a stadium but was going to shorten it up from the room size.

Very impressive #s Otis and that is on 2k? Wow........nice work. I am sold on vert ever since I stumbled upon the idea. Still in planning phase and I am really looking forward to it. Yes I have thought about the support issue lol. Going with lower counts bigger plants so I was wondering where you end up starting from 26-36".

Thanks again,

Any2

1600..1000 on top 600 on bottom

 

[Stonefree69]

yea, it's pretty much two donuts stacked on one another. it's brought me many great harvests. my gpw had hovered around .7-.8, but this last run I harvested 1830 grams or something close to that. I've also done interlocking donuts addy my other house where the donut is connected to the other donut by a shared plant that is lit from both lights. this may be the way to go. easy peasy. get a good stretchy strain, grow it to about 26-36 inches then flip. be thinking of a way to support the massive nugs that will be snapping your branches. you are going to knock it our of the park, I got a good feeling about this one. don't make me eat my words. it's time to grow some killer plants. good luck!

Yeah I call 'em Double Donuts! I like stacked HPS/MH in flower too. My only question is how much light I want to use: 2 - 600's, 1-600 & 1-1,000 or 2-1,000's.

Because I wasn't set on a certain size hexagon to make my light reflecting panels with, I decided to make them adjustable. So i bought some 4'x8' 1 1/2" thick foam insulation panels, Orca grow film, glue, roller for applying glue, 1"x2" 8' long boards (to glue to panel sides to make them rigid, also 2" thick foam boards seem more rigid & could do away w/support strips).

Cutting vents 1'x2' wide on top & bottom of each panel. The 1"x2" boards are actually 1 1/2" thick and a perfect fit to make foam boards more rigid & durable (for adjusting). The panel sides should have 3” of Orca grow film sticking out on 1 side (lengthways from floor to ceiling) so all panels can fit perfectly for size of grow needed. Shims are for making panels snug with 8' ceiling after I cut to fit them.

Now whatever stage my grow is in, I can adjust the sq ft of my grow to whatever lights I'm using in veg or flower rooms. Here's some pics of the materials I gathered already (got everything @ Lowes cept for the Wobble Wedges online):

 

[Stonefree69]

And 2 more pics that wouldn't fit in above post:

 

[Stonefree69]

Hello to all the vertical growers! First post and became a member today because of the awesome content of vertical growing on this site and I am excited about building my 2k vertical set-up.

I have a space of 15.5 x 7.5 x 8 and will be using (2) 1k HPS bulbs in some vertical fashion but wanted to get some advice on the the most efficient use of lights/space.

One idea was to arrange milk crates in an octagonal shape with 3 tiers total with use of the floor as the first tier for a potential 24 plants per octagon side by side and 1 light for each octagon in a doughnut fashion.

Also "plant count dictates yield". I believe if you had 2 x 1,000 watts stacked with 6 plants in a hexagon vs 2 x 1,000 watt lights with 1 each in a hexagon of 6 plants (12 plants total in the 2 hexagons) the latter would outyield with the same lights.

I do what I can with my 12 plant limit. Since I have 6 in veg & 6 in flower I use a "double donut" with 2,400 watts of light. My 6 plant double-donut in late flower, plants are X and O's are stacked bare bulbs (top 600w MH & bottom 600w HPS):

X.... X

.. O

X.... X

.. O

X.... X


Early on in flower under HID all 6 are in 1 donut & 1,200 watts or 2-600 watts stacked. With 50 watts/sq ft I make my grow hexagon 24 sq ft. The 2,400 watt double donut hence is 48 sq ft. Each plant gets 8 sq ft or fits OC in a 2' 10" square. I could also expand to 3,600 watts & 4,000 watts (72-80 sq ft total canopy).

 

[Any2cards]

I would stack the lights.

Ventilation is in one place and easier to draw the heat off with one fan just above the lights.

When you stack them you don't lose the light from the side facing another bulb which is also losing the light facing the first bulb. The weakest light comes from the end of the bulb. When you stack them you get crossing light pattens and less shading because of this crossing pattern. In my experiance this crossing will result in a good yield increase.

I run my plants tied to a screen and I can remove any plant I want to. This makes it easy to work on.

I love the light stand! I am going to make me one! I like the idea of pointing the ends of the bulbs towards each other. Great ideas on this site! Thanks all.

 

[Ichabod Crane]

If you go to the vert section at the top sort it by rating you will get all the post based on highest rating on down. Just click the rateing columm at the top to do this. Lots of great threads to read and pick what works for you best.

 

[Mister_D]

If you go to the vert section at the top sort it by rating you will get all the post based on highest rating on down. Just click the rateing columm at the top to do this. Lots of great threads to read and pick what works for you best.

 

[Any2cards]

Also "plant count dictates yield". I believe if you had 2 x 1,000 watts stacked with 6 plants in a hexagon vs 2 x 1,000 watt lights with 1 each in a hexagon of 6 plants (12 plants total in the 2 hexagons) the latter would outyield with the same lights.

I do what I can with my 12 plant limit. Since I have 6 in veg & 6 in flower I use a "double donut" with 2,400 watts of light. My 6 plant double-donut in late flower, plants are X and O's are stacked bare bulbs (top 600w MH & bottom 600w HPS):

X.... X

.. O

X.... X

.. O

X.... X


Early on in flower under HID all 6 are in 1 donut & 1,200 watts or 2-600 watts stacked. With 50 watts/sq ft I make my grow hexagon 24 sq ft. The 2,400 watt double donut hence is 48 sq ft. Each plant gets 8 sq ft or fits OC in a 2' 10" square. I could also expand to 3,600 watts & 4,000 watts (72-80 sq ft total canopy).

What about 12 plants, stacked lighting, 1 hexagon(double donut) vrs 2 hexagons side by side, 6 plants each(12 total, maybe interlocking like Otis's idea?) where plant counts are the same. I like the idea of cross lighting like Ichabod suggested using the lighting together. But accessability to the plants also play a big factor in being able to include a regimen of lots of foliar applications in a soil/high brix application.

So I want to know which of the 2 would yield more and if the stacked double donut is the choice how much would be the loss in yield if I chose the side by side?

Again...thanks everyone!

Peace,

Any2

 

[otis33]

I think s tacking lights yields more, but since this is your first run, don't count on a huge crop. I have had great success with my" stacked donuts", it is, however,a pain in the ass to get in there when the thing is in fulll flower. it has been said time and time again that plant count dictates yield, so more often than not more plants= more yield. it may be easier to manage two donuts side by side, and the plant being lit up on both sides should yield very well. you are just going to have to get growing and find out what works for you. there is no way to really know what is going to yield best until you actually do it. maybe you should start out with single level donuts to get a feel for vert growing and get a feel for training your plants and how much they elk stretch and what not. good luck!

 

[Ichabod Crane]

In my grows stacked yielded more with higher quality. With One bulb you will get more shading and therefore more fluffy buds. With stacking you have less shading and the larf turns into denser buds. These buds may not be the larger buds you get at the branch tips but they will be much more solid because of the better light penitration.

If you run the screens like I show in the linked thread you should be able to pull a plant out when ever you want too. This will allow for a staggered harvest or room to mantain a plant if you need to. The draw back to the scrrens with stacked is that you will need to veg for a longer time. In my case this works out to my advantage because of the plant counts I have to maintain.

With the screens I run I am now routinely getting 4 pounds every ten weeks. This is with 8, 9, and 10 week plants. This gives me about a pound and a half to trim per week for three weeks. With this schedule I can keep my on hand amounts with in my legal limits.

As for the stadiums and such I have no experience so I can not say what is better a doughnut or a stadium. You will most likely have to run a couple different ways to find what works best in your grow.

 

[coldcanna]

A little off the main topic here, but as you are going for yield I'd really consider leaving the soil behind. Coco is a pretty easy shift to from dirt, looks and feels similar and is easier than hydro, it allows you to feed them more and trust me the results are very apparent.

As far as arranging your room you can't argue with results and Icky and Ottis are 2 very good growers so I'd stay with one of their ideas. I was curious, did you have a certain plant count to stay under, and did you have a max wattage you would cut off at for one reason or another? If around 2k is your goal I'd go with 4x600, your going to be able to blast them from more angles and having more bulbs allows you some flexibility to try out different floor plans.

 

[Ichabod Crane]

I too noticed a increase in yield when I switched to coco.