Optimum distance of vertical 1K bulb

I am re-designing my vertical room into a stadium and I wanted to know how to hang my lights. How far away should the furthest plant be? My guess a 3ft radius around the light would be considered optimum range? Or can they only pump out enough light to have a optimum range of 2ft radius?

DHF mentioned this
"[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Do it and start a thread....Set the bare bulbs @ 2 , 4 , and 6' and run plants on 3 walls instead of 2 for increased plant numbers and yield....

57+/- watts per sq ft sounds like a winner to me with environment dialed since the bulbs will easily blast sideways 3 ft and maybe lil more with reflectix bouncin lumens back at em from behind......Good luck and...

Peace....DHF.....

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So that's where I got the idea that 1k lights could illuminate a 3ft radius. DHF seems to be pretty knowledgeable with the vertical stuff. I have some plans drawn to scale I will post later on. I have been struggling with vert because I have been trying pull off illuminating a 10x8ft grow space with only 2K. I now want to throw in one more light and build a stadium around it to get the best results. I would like to do exactly what DHF said to do with using three walls in the post above, instead of two. Please help!!
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I am thinking about putting a plant every ft in a 10ftX5ft two shelf stadium. That would be 50 total square ft and 60 watts per square ft. 42 plants in 3 gallons. But that would only give my two bottom shelves 12'' of space in the middle of them where the lights would be hung. If I have to crawl under shelves to achieve good yields so be it! It will be automated if successful.

Made a big post and it disappeared....I`ll be back later after bongs and some fishin....

Straight up the walls is ok with the plants on top of each other as long as yas fill in the sideways canopy by end of stretch for proper lumen penetration/plant absorption till end of cycle......if.....

It`ll give yas better access to the plants.......Talk later.....and....

We`ll get shit figured out Bro.......

Peace....DHF........

DHF said:

Made a big post and it disappeared....I`ll be back later after bongs and some fishin....

Straight up the walls is ok with the plants on top of each other as long as yas fill in the sideways canopy by end of stretch for proper lumen penetration/plant absorption till end of cycle......if.....

It`ll give yas better access to the plants.......Talk later.....and....

We`ll get shit figured out Bro.......

Peace....DHF........

Click to expand...

your the man! I really appreciate the help. Have a good day fishin bud. I'll post pictures of what I have drawn up before you get back.

configurations to scale

configurations to scale

Fig 1


Okay this one was my first thought. I like that I have lots of room to work on the plants but I don't think the plants will be in good range of the bulbs. This one is pretty much scrap now...

Fig 2


This one is nice because all the plants are within two feet of the lights. However I'm not sure if one bulb not stacked will be able to illuminate 6ft total vertical height? Maybe configure three would solve that?

Fig 3


I like this set up because I have 2 ft in the middle to work. However pvc is easy to run so if figure 2 wld give better yields then that is what I want to go with. Screw me its all about that plants... haha

Fig 4


Its like figure 3 but I would only run the shelf 9ft instead of 10ft so I wld have a foot entrance to access that plants.

Fig 5


So this is a hybrid of figure 2&4. It keeps the plants close to the light. I think this set will be the best but once again I'm worried about one bulb that close being able to illuminate 6ft of wall canopy. IDK if it would work even if I have two feet in the middle. If one thousand watter will only illuminate 4ft of vertical canopy then I will veg the plants to only 2 ft instead of 3tf. Or if it will do 5ft the plants can be vegged to 2.5ft. whatever works is what I will do. So pros please come help me out with dimensions. THANKS

NOTE. This is not a colosseum it is a stadium. The shelves are 1ft in width and are in a stadium like position so the plants have the vertical space they need to grow.

I had a vert set-up that was 5.5ft. wide and 4ft. deep, with 8 ft. ceilings. I had a total of 1000 watts hung in the middle. I had a 600 on top of a 400 and it worked awesome. Even though I had some of the plants almost 24" from the bulbs, they still rocked because I wasn't losing any light to reflection, or refraction. 3000 bare bulb watts in that room should smash it. As long as your moving the air around the bulbs you should be able to keep the plants retarded close to the lights. My 600 used to be less than 12" from the plants and I never cooked them, not even once.

Aight.....Let`s do this........As long as yas got small muffin fans underneath each bare bulb on their lowest speed to gently assist natural heat convection with exhaust/scrubber combo`s directly above the canopy pullin heat and stank out continuously, yas don`t haveta worry bout heat scorch or light bleaching like Frank said above.....

When I was dialin my Chem D`s to find out how long/tall they`d get by end of stretch , I had top colas within 6" of the stacked bare bulbs till end of cycle with no ill effects whatsoever , but it`s not advisable on a regular basis...especially if not monocroppin with an uneven sideways canopy.....now.....

With the tiered back stadium setup , what`s got to happen is by end of stretch the tops of the bottom levels CAN NOT grow above the bottoms of the upper plant "beginning" lower nuggage to create said perfect sideways canopy for proper lumen penetration plant absorption so no flarfy ass popcorn bullshit will be present come Harvey.....and.....

With flat shelf/tiered/stadium setups the backs of the plants will most likely need hacked out where the dominant up front laterals and top colas can have all the vital plant energy to be all they can be after end of stretch for full swellage potential......but....

If walls AND ceilings are covered in reflectix/orca/prodex ftw , maybe lumen penetration will be sufficient in a less wide area like you`re proposing , but only time , trial and error will tell so the learning curve of a new setup takes over till yas dial said environment and proper watts per sq ft.....anyways......

At least yas`re doin yer homework and research before jumpin head first so that`s commendable in my eyes.....Keep up the good work and get this shit goin....

Holler if I can help.....DHF............

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

The bulb chart says anywhere from 10" to 36" from plant. In the old 3.5'x7' closet the ends did well and I was only able to use smaller plants on the sides. I was thinking about 2-3 foot diameter vert on the next round. I would say you can get about a 3-4 ft vertical height coverage on a single 1k depending on the diameter you run. I did run some cfl's on the tops at the ends in that closet so I will know better after the next run how much that influences.

*as DHF states bare the backs to let the tops and fronts get the growth it worked well for me. I am running a single 1k bulb should that matter to any.

Okay great information everyone. It looks like a 3-4ft canopy would be best but I kind of want to experiment a little bit and see if I can illuminate a 6ft vertical canopy with a single 1000w hung at 3ft. So Ill get the lights into position and then get in there with a light meter and do some testing. If there is not enough lighting then I will take the vertical canopy down to what it needs to be. I will make sure the plants on the bottom shelf don't grow into the top ones. I feel like stacked 600w lights would be killer for this set up but I cant finance that atm. Plus I would be using more wattage. But who knows maybe the yields would improve...

I was looking at light meters and saw the quantum one was 200 bucks!! It does the same damn thing as the $45 one... Anyone have experiences with light meters? I'm thinking about getting the $45 one.

I will try to remember to post pictures when I'm done. It won't be for a little bit but I'll share what knowledge I gain with everyone.