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COBs more effective vertical or horizontal?

I have read quite a few impressive vertical grow journals and understand how they maximize the 360* lighting of the bulb. Any vertical COB growers out there?

Do you think they are better suited for horizontal growing?

I did see one grow where someone used quantum boards tilted downward and a trellis wall that he grew massive trees on. Can't remember what site it was or who it was, or else I'd give them credit.

I am running a 12 COB horizontal grow right now and while I did want to see just how much I could fill my space, I did let the girls get a little out of control and had to bend the tops over because they grew too tall. I contemplated the effectiveness of multiple pillars of COBs maybe very similar to how people do it currently with the trellis around the column of light. I feel like I would need a lot more than 12 COBs for this to be effective though, and even then I'm not sure thats the most efficient use of such a large quantity of COBs. Although I'm sure if you weren't limited by budget or electricity, a proper set up would probably get great coverage and great yields.
:joint:
 

Cvh

Well-known member
Supermod
I'm not a led grower. But I think you need to watch out a bit with the cooling on a vertical led setup. Heat moves up. So if your cooling heatsink is calculated on a horizontal setup the heat sink on a vertical setup might not disperse the heat as effeciently. Better then to atleast mount on a fan directly on the heat sink. And hope the chip doesn't over heat.

Just my 2 cents.
 
G

Gr33nSanta

I do both, I ran COBs sideways for years without any issues. You need big plants for side lighting to pay off.
 
Anyone else on here have experience with using COBs in a vertical setup?

I think its only feasible with a very large quantity of COBs. Right now I use 12 COBs to cover a 4x8 space and they do it effectively. You could just angle them at a wall of trellis and I've seen really good results from that, so theoretically my current light just angled downward. But if I were to go vertical I would want to build towers of COBs, sort of mimicking the pillar of light created by bare vert bulbs. Again, I just don't see a way to get really effective coverage doing that without using an egregious amount of COBs. You could make them 4 sided for the sake of simplicity and get okay coverage but IMO 6 sided would be ideal, better overlap. So thats 6 COBs, then you have to decide vertical spacing. For simplicity sake lets say you do 12 inches on center. Right now my ladies are 6.5-7 feet tall(not including the 5gal buckets they're in) so lets say you do 5 levels of COBs to get roughly 5 feet of solid coverage a 4 sided tower would be Qty:20 COBs 6 sided tower would be Qty:30 COBs per tower. Then for a 4x8 I would probably want to stagger 3 good size plants and 3 towers? Not sure, never done vert. But thats 60-90 COBs:noway:.

I don't think heat would be an issue if you made the towers sealed and had a fan at the top and the bottom of the tower. Theoretically pushing air up through the tower, across all the heat sinks and out the top.

There are things you could do to reduce the quantity like stagger them or spiral them or space them differently, but ultimately all of those things are a compromise to the amount of coverage you get out of it.


Which leads me back to tilting my current horizontal light on a 30* angle at a wall of trellis. I could absolutely do this but I just started this new setup and would really like to just get it dialed in. Works great for what I'm trying to do.

How much greater are vert yields?
 
I think the point of the vertical set ups, especially with bulbs which can by design shine 360*, is to increase the direct surface area exposed to the light itself, not light reflecting off of walls, reflectors, reflective mylar, etc.

I believe that's the greatest benefit, is making the most of the bulbs 360* design. Which is why I was originally interested in any growers using COBs in a vertical grow set up. I just don't see it being as good in that style of growing but I was curious and open to hear if anyone had experience doing so.

This is my first run using COBs and I love the results. I'm always just browsing around to see what I could implement into my grow. Was just curious to see some vertical COB results and set ups.
 
G

Gr33nSanta

I put some thought into a similar setup a while back. I still do not think it is as efficient with COBs as it could be with a bulb but that is why I do a mix of both. but having to chose between either horizontal or vertical with COBs Id go horizontal.

If you do plan to go vertical, be prepared to veg big plants... What I was thinking is a line of COBs at the bottom with more blues, either 5000k or 4000k, as the plants grow up the spectrum could change. With the very highest COBs being more like 2700k because at that height they are always over flowers. so like

2700k 2700k 2700k
3000k 3000k 3000k
3500k 3500k 3500k
4000k 4000k 4000k
5000k 5000k 5000k

so the beginning of the cycle only the 5000ks are on and after week 2 of flower all 5000ks would be off.
 

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