[Power13]

I am interested what everyone's opinion is as to the distance from the bulb in a vertical scrog. The reason this question is asked, is because we need to know the radius for our vertical circle (octagon, etc). The bigger this radius, the more screen area to fill in, and the more potential yield.

Another related question, does using a vertical stack of lights, affect this distance? If so, how and why?


Here is my opinion

250: 12 inches

400: 18-24 inches

600: 24-30 inches

1000: 30-36 inches


I think that if you use vertical stack of lights, you should stick with the further distance, since your overall lumens are increased due to the lights bring close to each other.

[Hundred Gram Oz]

Hey Power whats up bud? I have a few questions first, how many plants are you looking to grow? How many levels will your octagon have? Will you have a fan under your bulb? Just trying to get an idea of your setup

Here is a good chart for information regarding distance from the bulb, remember one of the main advantages of vertical growing is that you have the ability to put plants much closer to the bulb without burning them, thus boosting your yield, you will be able to put put plants much closer that what you have written but I also understand that the bigger the radius means more plants being able to fit around the bulb....... Take a look at these 2 charts.



If you have a 600w bulb with a fan below it you can get your plants as close as 6 inches from your bulb, but at this distance the bulb will bleach your plants from too much intense light, I prefer to keep the canopy 9-10 inches from the bulb.

In reference to the chart above a 600w at 24-30" away from your canopy will give you 7-10 w/SF, if you compare this to 10" you will see that it's 70 w/SF.

Chart 2


A 600w bulb at 24-30" away from your canopy will give you, 7,321 - 4,686 directed at your plants which isn't much, Especially when you consider if you had your bulb 10" away from your canopy, which would give you 42,170 directed at your plants.

What I'm trying to push is that Lumen's quickly diminish the further distance they travel and since your going vertical you may as well get the most out of them BUT it's your decision and every grower will do what they feel is right for them.

[Hundred Gram Oz]

Yeah obviously the lumen's don't disappear but the point that I was trying to make is when you spread them out over a larger area your hitting you plants with less effective light, I don't think anyone would disagree with that? The whole point of growing vertically is to be more efficient in the way you use your light, so you can max it out and get a higher gpw. The next big benefit is the space it saves you, which some might consider an even bigger benefit.

[Power13]

Hundred Gram OZ,

Thanks for the reply bud, big props for the pretty posters.

My setup is detailed in a thread I have in the vertical forum, its basically a collosal cage setup with 6 foot diameter between tubes (mine can be moved in or out if needed to create more space, or make less). I have 3 digital 600's in cool tubes lighting up about 7 feet of height. I have thought of upgrading to 1k's for this space, but we'll see. With cool tubes, and proper air extraction, heat is not a problem anywhere near the cool tubes. I can safely put my hand on the tube, and hold it there with no problems, the glass is cool to the touch, barely even warm.

As for a little more info about my thought process here. I think to fully take advantage of vertical, you need to fill in as much space around the bulbs as you can get. I think that a plant thats scrogged will still stretch past the screen, at least the way I have grown it. I haven't tried in vertical, so I'm not sure how far this stretch will be, but I think its safe to assume 6" of stretch on most strains.

Thus wherever we place the screen, the actual buds will be closer to the lights.

Based on your top graphic, it seems to suggest placing the buds at 12 inches from a 600 watt, in order to get 50 watts/SF. So to me, the scrog screen itself, should be at least 6" back from that, this puts it at 18" from the light itself. Somehow this still seems close. My reasoning is based on personal experience and growing plants in scrog.

I think that 24" or 2 feet, allows up to 1 foot of stretch from the scrog screen for the buds to get optimal light, this seems like a good compromise.

What do you think?

[Hundred Gram Oz]

Power I gotta run Buddie but I'll more than likely be online tonight to ans all your questions

smokinshogun I think your just a troll, I noticed that you are one of the 3 people that voted against ICM having a vertical section, is there any reason in particular why you voted against the members having their own vertical section to forum?

You know whats funny with the 1K's IME is that you can put your hand on the tube and its cool but take your hand 6" to 12" away and you can feel the heat radiating, thats why i feel its really important to have a good fan below pushing that air/heat up away from the canopy.

600's different story havnt ran those in a long time, so i dont know if you have had similar experiences with it.

cant see any of smoking shoguns comments, did he delete his post?

Here is my take on light distances in vertical setups. When H G 4 2 0 . com was still around, I had my chance to speak to Heath Robinson about his light setup. His key to superior yields was to use bare 600 watts over 1000. Because the 600s radiate less heat, the closer you can have your plants. Cool tubes are not necessary in a setup like this, and the glass diffuses plenty of the light.

Most successful growers stack 600s rather than 1000s. Although 1000s can have more coverage in a dense canopy, 2 600s would definitely put out more overall. Not only it can cover more plant matter, but both bulbs radiate heat in two different areas, as opposed to a 1000 that is concentrated into one bulb. This concentration of heat really limits to how close you can bring your plants, and a cool tube might be needed in such a situation. There may be some exceptions to keeping a farther distance from the bulb if you use multiple 1000 watters to overlap each other (one example is a stadium setup).

Of course, overtime, it takes awhile to understand how close you can put them as one grower can adjust to it and what temps the plants are accustomed to.

true, but i have always loved the girth/bud density of 1K's, not that I havn't gotten huge colas of my 600's i just prefer the 1k's. Plus that amount of extra money spent on 600's i cant justify, just to use 400 watts less than 1ks when running close to 9,000 watts. I understand 600's radiate less heat but you almost end up spending double cause 600's are 10 bucks less than 1K's retail for. Also I have noticed a lot of europeans and canadians use the 600's.

I do like the idea of spreading out the concentration of the light/lumens more with the 600's.

I have thought about running a couple of 600's just for fun cause its been awhile.

IME to each their own, whatever works for you.

[Power13]

Guys, this room will have aircooled lights in cool tubes, because its a sealed room with co2, a/c, dehumi, etc.