SE's vertical basement

[SmokinErb22]

What's up guys? Didn't wanna keep posting my grow in my build/design thread, so figured I'd document my grow here.

Flower room - 15x12. I'm using about 12x8.

Veg room - 11 x 11

I've built some stadium racks that are 12' long. Width is adjustable up to 12ft. 7-8 is probably where I'll end up with it.

Currently running some larger plants, as I don't have the cloning equipment needed to produce ~300 clones. Baby steps, though......don't mind the mess, I snapped a quick pic before I cleaned up after thinning some of 'em out.

Karma Genetics Jack O Nesia

Karma Genetics Anonymous OG

Just built a second cloner, actually, I'm gonna get some more cloner pucks and a new lid for my old one. Like those a lot better. Then I'll be building a 3rd one this weekend - harbor freight has ~265gph pumps on sale for $16.

 

[SmokinErb22]

4000w up and running in flower

Two 12" exhaust fans for ~2x/min air exchange

 

[SmokinErb22]

Jack O Nesia

Larry Smurf

Anonymous OG

Approx half are ~6wks in flower, other half are a week or so.

 

[SmokinErb22]

Got some on the bottom on one of the racks. Getting clones as fast as I can, gotta get ready to fill this thing again ASAP.

 

[coldcanna]

Nice looking stadium brotha.... I think you'd benefit from moving the plants much closer to the light though, losing a lot of lumens bein 4 feet away IMO

 

[SmokinErb22]

I've been doing a little research but have been having difficulty finding any real tests done regarding light spacing in vert. For instance, a 3x3 for horizontal would be a 400 or 600w. Vertically, you'd have to stack 250's to get the same wattage.

So I have my racks set so that the very REAR is at 4ft. The front of the racks is about 2ft from the center line. The plants are roughly 20-25" from bulbs.

Right now I've got 4000w spaced ~30" apart. From the reading I've been doing its looking like 20" spacing might be a bit better? So I'd need to get another 1kw and make it 5k to cover my whole 12ft rack with bulbs 20.5" apart.

 

[Kindest]

Great setup, can't wait to see where this one goes.

 

[Sleeper7784]

Subbed! I've been wanting to go back to stadium. Its really the only way to crush 1gpw! Things look great in the garden! Keep it up bud!

 

[coldcanna]

I'm going off of the lumen chart in HGO's sticky in the vert section "Benefits of Vertical Growing"... It states that the optimal distance for 1k bulbs is 10 inches from the plant, at this range your getting 64,000 lumens as opposed to 16,000 lumens at 20 inches. Powers expensive use all you can haha.

On a side note I am digging the stadium, so you start your younger plants on the bottom and rotate them up top to keep things perpetual?

 

[Ttystikk]

Subbed! I've been wanting to go back to stadium. Its really the only way to crush 1gpw! Things look great in the garden! Keep it up bud!

No, it isn't.

 

[Ttystikk]

I'm going off of the lumen chart in HGO's sticky in the vert section "Benefits of Vertical Growing"... It states that the optimal distance for 1k bulbs is 10 inches from the plant, at this range your getting 64,000 lumens as opposed to 16,000 lumens at 20 inches. Powers expensive use all you can haha.

On a side note I am digging the stadium, so you start your younger plants on the bottom and rotate them up top to keep things perpetual?

The only way to get a plant to survive at ten inches is if the bulb is two years old, lol Option B is windburn, lol

I built my Super Silos to reflect my own experience with thousands watt vertical bare bulb ops; 24" radius was too close, 30" radius with two bulbs spread three feet apart (stacked vertically) was just right.

I pull ten from 4kW regularly, to the point where I think better training techniques can significantly improve performance. That's the thrust of the investigation now, looking for ten # from just 2kW.

Power IS expensive. Use it wisely.

 

[SmokinErb22]

I can't keep my plants at 10", they'd scorch so quickly. I think the best I could do is maybe 15".

Here's the thing with getting them real close though, even if you can....

I'm gonna talk in terms of horizontal gardens, but the same concept applies. I can put a 1000w in a hood 10" from a canopy... I'd guess that'd cover roughly a 3x3 canopy. I'd get a fair amount of some rock solid dense nugs, for sure.

I can raise that light and throw it over a 4x4 and yield even more. Less light intensity, but more light spread.

Works in vert too. I can throw a 600w in a 3x3 vert with some serious training and ventilation. But i'd yield more in a 4x4 with the same amount of light. Why? More sqft of canopy space (a 4ft circle is bigger than a 3ft one).

There's a sweet spot with any light that'll give optimum results in a given area. That's what I'm looking for. HGO's suggestion of 10" may be accurate in terms of ideal light intensity, but I'm looking for efficiency I suppose would be the way to word it.

Anyway, good news guys!

Just germinated 7 new strains! All of it brought to you by....Karma Genetics!

White Biker
White Snake
Polar Bear
Old Grandpa Scratch
Brotherhood OG
D-Kush
C99 x Biker

6 of each taking a swim. Into soil tomorrow.

 

[SmokinErb22]

Well, 100% of the 42 seeds cracked.

Two (1 polar bear, 1 white snake) I lost to dampening off.

All but a handful have broke through the surface of soil so far. D-Kush is the slowest, but oldest batch of seeds by a couple years.

One of my Lady Cane F3's:

one of the faster finishing Jack O Nesia phenos:

Longer running Jack O Nesia pheno:

 

[SmokinErb22]

Blue Amnesia x Dream Lotus: compact and stretchier phenos

Anonymous OG, almost done!

Super Lemon Haze x Blue Sat. 2.2

 

[who dat is]

Nice setup! I'll be sticking around,

 

[DabOnDabs]

The only way to get a plant to survive at ten inches is if the bulb is two years old, lol Option B is windburn, lol

I built my Super Silos to reflect my own experience with thousands watt vertical bare bulb ops; 24" radius was too close, 30" radius with two bulbs spread three feet apart (stacked vertically) was just right.

I pull ten from 4kW regularly, to the point where I think better training techniques can significantly improve performance. That's the thrust of the investigation now, looking for ten # from just 2kW.

Power IS expensive. Use it wisely.

This. You dont want your plants to be 10'' from the lights right now. You want them to be ~12-18 inches when the nugs are finishing..Getting them much closer w/ vert lighting is gonna scorch em.. Trust

From my own experience, 2' on center in a stadium is too close. 3' is about perfect in that regard. Also, hanging the lights at different heights is gonna allow some light to reach lowers better, and some reach the tops better. If you neglect the lowers in a stadium, you're gonna end up w/ some larf. Trust.

As far as crushing a gram/watt in the stadium...Good luck. You're gonna need those 300 plants to do it.

crushing a gram/watt is easy in donuts, with limited plant count.

good luck

 

[SmokinErb22]

This. You dont want your plants to be 10'' from the lights right now. You want them to be ~12-18 inches when the nugs are finishing..Getting them much closer w/ vert lighting is gonna scorch em.. Trust

From my own experience, 2' on center in a stadium is too close. 3' is about perfect in that regard. Also, hanging the lights at different heights is gonna allow some light to reach lowers better, and some reach the tops better. If you neglect the lowers in a stadium, you're gonna end up w/ some larf. Trust.

As far as crushing a gram/watt in the stadium...Good luck. You're gonna need those 300 plants to do it.

crushing a gram/watt is easy in donuts, with limited plant count.

good luck

Thanks for the feedback, man! From what you've said, I gather that my racks probably need to be pulled in about 6" each..... once I'm running SOG.

As for crushing 1gpw (by crushing, I mean 1.5 gpw+) I'd definitely need to be running plants as tightly packed as I could. Fortunately, that's not *quite* my goal.... while I DO want good yields, my set-up will be perpetual, so measuring yield in GPW is a little difficult when you're harvesting every 3 weeks.

I still expect to be achieving roughly 1gpw. I think I'm averaging about .9 gpw my last few harvests. A couple of runs to get used to the training needed to be done for stadiums and I think I can pull off a nice harvest..... my goal it to pull in 12lbs from these racks in a single run - A series of 3 harvests. That'll also be from 5000w, not 4000.

As for larf, I do get some, but I typically prune off the nodes on the insides of the plant, the first 2-3 closest to the main stem. That helps a bunch, but I *really* need to work on my branch training and opening the plants up more. I've just been letting them do their thing, and its costing me in ounces.

 

[SmokinErb22]

Guess its been a minute since I updated huh?

If anyone here knows a guy who goes by ByroteUgly please have him get in touch with me, or just link him to this thread.

The pics I'm about to post are Byrote's work, and I'm *very* impressed. Lost contact with him when TSD went down.

Blue Amnesia x Dream Lotus (3 main phenos, these two will get another run)

 

[SmokinErb22]

Here's another ByroteUgly BAxDL, one of the more blueberry phenos I believe:

Anonymous OG mom that I put in flower. (Kept a clone, of course!)

 

[SmokinErb22]

So. I'm frustrated.

Maintaining these larger rooms is really freakin' hard work. I can completely see why a lot of the guys I look up to strive for complete automation.

My initial thought was "It's a lot easier to grow a 1.5oz plant than a 30 oz plant" which is pretty much true. Problem is I need A LOT of freakin' 1.5 oz plants to keep this thing full.

Basically, I'm a little over in my head here. Half of my flower room is empty. Yeah. I've got 4 bulbs blasting light on 12 feet of rack with not a single plant on it. I've only got enough plants in veg to fill maybe 1/3 of the rack... and most aren't ready for flower yet.

I need to simplify. Right now I *think* my bottleneck in my clone factory is, in fact, my organic soil. I simply cannot mix enough soil fast enough to feed this machine. No-till just doesn't work in 2 gallon containers, I don't care how rich you mix your soil.

Thinking maybe coco DTW for my rack. Then large container, no til, organic bushes on the other half. Will be researching my options tonight.

Needing HALF the number of clones has to help. I mean I filled one rack pretty easy. Problem is that's about the limit of my cloning abilities, I simply cannot produce enough to fill both racks (well, I could... but not before the 1st rack already needs more). Vegging out a few slower-to-root clones that don't make it to the rack for bushes off in the corner only means watering a handful of plants infrequently and a little pruning.

I've got to cut this perpetual bullshit out. Harvesting a handful or two of plants every single week is driving me crazy. It also means I'm prepping new clones every single week... in a cycle that never ends. No more.

New goal is to set the rack and then approximately midflower begin flowering the full other half. So i'd be harvesting every 4-6 weeks instead of weekly. I can do the infrequent bouts of a lot of work to do, what I can't handle is not being able to have a life without falling behind in my garden such is the case now. Hence, half empty room.

worse part is, harvest is already quickly approaching... again. Yay, right? Yeah, well to me it just means its more empty space that I can't fill yet.

maybe I should just do large plants all around, I dunno. less frequent watering, massive buds, just-add-water soils and easy to set-up drip system due to no difference in vertical heights. I just love, love, love those beautiful vertical SOG's. There isn't a garden out there that'll make my face light up like a properly done VSOG.

Mad respect to those that got that down. That's a whole lot of work. My hats off to you.

/towel
/endrant