First vertical donut

[Gil Tokerson]

It's 2 600's back to back in cooltubes, exhausted out of the room. I'm thinking 4 large plants arranged like a square? What do you guys think? What would the optimum canopy distance from the light? I want them far enough away to give me plenty of surface area, but not far enough to hurt density and quality. I'm going to set up a screen. Either in a cylinder on the inside of the donut, or around the outside of the donut. I've seen it both ways, but I'm not sure which will work out better.

Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated! I'll put up some pics when I get my clones in the buckets.
-gil

 

[coldcanna]

Looks like I'll be the first one to jump in here. Why do your lids have 5 holes? As far as canopy management as long as you have fans under the bulbs pushin that heat up and out you can let the plants grow about 8-10 inches away from the bulb. People do the screen in and out and I've seen success both ways, but I feel that with a screen in front of the plants your gonna have a thousand little areas shaded off, may be negligible but who knows.

When it comes to the screen, just from my experience with plastic mesh I wish I would have used that 4"x2" chicken fencing for its rigidity and ability to hold a circular shape. And make sure you build it high enough to crawl under! Hope these snippets help ya out a little bit brotha

 

[Ichabod Crane]

I prefer individual screens behind the plants. That way I can move each plant back to get at the front. Come harvest time you will like that you don't have to pull the plant threw the screen to trim. You can just grab a branch snip it off and trim it with out having to shove your arms into the plant and wonder if you are pulling the right branch back threw the screen.

With multiple lights you can let the branches lean in toward the light and not worry as much about shading.

Go here and read post number 58 to see what I mean about shading.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?p=6220711#post6220711

As for how far to get your plants from the light read this thread for the double stacked 600's. The first post shows a graph for lights and distances from the plants.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=127881

Keep in mind that your plant will stretch and get closer to the light in flower.

 

[Gil Tokerson]

The buckets have the extra baskets from my previous grow. I tried more smaller plants, but they crowded each other. In going to stick with big girls.
Thanks for the tips ichabod crane! I read that whole thread, then went through all of your gallery! Your movable walls have inspired me. I'm going to try to build some platforms on casters so I can roll then out. I can't believe how much you strip them down. It seems to work for you, but I would be scared I would ruin them.
My clones are just about ready for the buckets. I'll put some pics up soon.
Thanks
-gil

 

[DamnUglyDogE]

Sounds like solid learning curves are coming our way...
I like it!... Ride it hard,Gil....

Lurking for the good things to come....

 

[GrowerGoneWild]

Just some thoughts:

1) In that cooling configuration, you would be using the cooltubes as an intake, I think its more efficient to move fast air over the bulbs vs using intake air thats usually slower.

2) I like how you only split the 360 degrees in to 4 distinct areas, you dont have too many plants fighting for light. However you have enough coverage to do another level.. Mebby do a surface area calculation, for watts per sq ft. I think you have plenty of overlap with those 600's..

3) Seeing how you are using individual containers, and you mentioned putting them on castors/wheels.. Just thinking here, water weighs about 8.33 lb/gal. those look like 20-30 gal containers, so you should be able to just spin them around on the carpet, perhaps those furniture sliders instead of wheels. I can only see a few adjustments during the grow.. anyways casters on carpet..... I dunno.. 60 lb load easily spun/moved..

4) Instead of a fixed screen, wrapping the light why not directly attach a screen to the container, so that way you could move the container, Or something like that. if you wanted with a screen fixed to the containter.

Once you weaved into a screen you're kinda stuck.. at least with individual screens you can move for optimum exposure, or move back if you get light burn. More user friendly too.. spin the container around so you can comfortably work the plant.. spin it back towards the light.

Get some veggies in there I wanna see a show!

 

[Gil Tokerson]

Thanks for chiming in everyone! I'm going to try to give you a good show!...or let you see me fall flat on my face!

As for the light cooling, I'm not sure I understand your point? I have a 6in inline fan pulling up through they lights, and out of the room. I see people just pointing fans up, so I figured this should work even better.

As for the movable platform with screen attached, I'm right there with you. After seeing ichabod.'s movable screens,I decided that was the way to go. Check out his gallery, it's nuts!
...more to come.
-gil

 

[flat9]

Gil you lose about 20-30% of your light intensity with cool tubes. See discussion here:

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=277604

 

[flat9]

Also those HPS bulbs look like they've seen some action. When did you last replace them? I've heard the red spectrum goes first...

 

[Gil Tokerson]

One of them is about 6 months old. Probably needs to be replaced. The other is only 2 months old.
I didn't realize the cooltubes reduced the light that much, but I don't think I can do it without them. I live in a hot place, and I'm trying not overload my AC too much.
-gil

 

[GrowerGoneWild]

As for the light cooling, I'm not sure I understand your point? I have a 6in inline fan pulling up through they lights, and out of the room. I see people just pointing fans up, so I figured this should work even better.
-gil

Look at how their fan is blowing, it goes directly over the bulb. What cools better? .. standing in front of a fan or behind it?

 

[frankenstein2]

The way your ventilation exhaust is asin your picture, looks good for exhausting hot air. I would prolly use a 90 degree elbow at the top instead of bending the pipe. Bends like that make the cfm on your fan go down. How's fresh air getting into the room? Looks like you understand what your doing and just want a little reassurance. Keep up the good work, looks great.

 

[GrowerGoneWild]

Also those HPS bulbs look like they've seen some action. When did you last replace them? I've heard the red spectrum goes first...

I see a dark spot on the upper bulb where the element burns.. I'm willing to guess thats from burning in a horizontal position.

 

[Gil Tokerson]

I was thinking the same thing about the elbows. Probably put those in soon.
The bulb was horizontal before. This is my first attempt at vertical. Does horizontal mounting mess up the bulbs?
-gil

 

[Gil Tokerson]

If I put my hand over the intake at the bottom,I can feel some decent suction. I did a test for 12 hours with a thermometer in the canopy area. With a 75° ambient temp, my thermometer got to about 80°. It'll be warmer in the summer, but I think I'll be within a decent range.
-gil

 

[Sqydro]

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=197502

every bit of info i was going to give you youl find here mate

he had bare bulbs and muffin fan under slow collum of air with ur extraction at the top ftw mate

if u can id join all your box's together and make it RWDC ud prob benefit and less workload

refil from one spot etc, and res change etc alot easier ive ran both and RDWC was less hassle once built, 4 big trees around that will be sweet mate best of luck

 

[Gil Tokerson]

That was one of the threads that made want to try the vert donut. It's been a while,I need to go back and re-read it. I'm afraid it gets so hot here, that I need the tubes...but now I'm rethinking it.
I would like to connect the buckets also. My biggest problem is free time. I have to squeeze a little in here and there. Although connecting the buckets odd going to make it harder to pull out each section to work on it.
Keep em coming!
-gil

 

[mojave green]

here's mine. using a 450cfm blower on the bottom. linked bucket flood and drain.

 

[Gil Tokerson]

I figured I had better put some plants in this thread, or everyone would give up on me!
I've got:

2 bluedigiberry f2s in the back
Unknown OG front left and middle
Blueberry muffin pheno of bdb f2 front right


Here's what my normal horizontal scrog looks like:

 

[DamnUglyDogE]

here's mine. using a 450cfm blower on the bottom. linked bucket flood and drain.
View Image

That's how ya get shit done.
Beautiful !

Bare bulb is a tricky bitch yet well worth the effort,
Once lighter meets pipe time.
Getting the correct flow of air is one part and harder than it sound's.

Exchanged air X2 per minute is the easy part. .IMO.
The air flow needs to gently push the heat into the exhaust and out of the room.
If you have a bun fan on it's lowest setting being fed by cool fresh air below,your golden. Add a circulation fan blowing above, below or center mass and you disrupt this vortex of heat, which raises over all temps.
Don't circulate air and VPD issues will come knocking. ..
Tricky stuff, Air flow can be.

If your intake air is 50 deg, your golden with ease...
Feed the tent 70-75-80 deg air, your fried...

But, the same can be said of cool tubes and the only
beny CT having for me was not needing as much over all exhaust.
The loss of light to bud's was not worth the ease of use.
The additional layers of frost are well worth the
learning curve losses had while dialage is achieved.


Once achieved, you'll never go back, they say. Lol
Gains will be had and all is sticky once conVERTed.. Vert BB... FTW. .

2 cents is all...

Dude, gil.. That scrog is off the hook.
Well done, sir..
Looking forward to things to come.