Seeking Critique on Vert Colosseum SOG concept.

Hundred Gram Oz said:

Your welcome Anti, that's what ICM is all about, sharing information and IMHO the vert forum is the leader in that department.

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The only thing that I can critique right now is the pump, your bottom tier is smaller than the top, if you take in the rise as well, your bottom tier will be saturated before the top, it's not a biggie but I'd use the 2 pumps for a more even feed all around, if they have different pressure rates then simply adjust the inline tap accordingly.

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Have you bought the PVC yet? IMO more smaller drains would be better than a few larger ones, if it was me I'd put in 10 drains on each side +/-, just to be safe.

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I'm looking forward to the build pics if your doing any?

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Anti said:

No doubt. Vert is family. Fambly.

I figure I'm going to end up with two pumps, but I figure that I can hook up one with a tee and see what happens.

My pump is rated for 6' vert so what I was thinking was to bring it out of the 55gal reservoir up to a height slightly higher than the top tier and then tee it off and send one line to the top and one line to the bottom tier. It would all be downhill after that first push. Anything that makes it over the initial climb should continue to run through once the pump kicks off and the siphon breaks (prior to the first tee). Does that make sense?

I think I can picture what your describing but not 100% (stoned ) Give it a good test before you get the plants in there and you'll know what modifications that need done, it shouldn't be a problem.

If that idea fails, I'll remove the tee and keep the line to the top tier and get another for the bottom.

You've already got 2 pumps?

If you have any pointers about what I've just described, feel free to hand 'em out.

Nothing that I can think of right now but I'm a bit red eyed , Anti, you seem to have the concept implanted into your head now Do you have any questions?

I already bought everything, including ordering some more 1/4" elbows so I can get all 100 of my drippers in place.

Dripper Setup Idea #1 (Super Anal OCD way) my plan would be to measure out the space within the troughs and divide that total space by the # of drippers and then space the drippers out accordingly so that the bed is as evenly moist as possible. This would be about 1.4 drippers per plant on both levels.

I'm figuring I'll use 57 drippers up top and 43 drippers on the bottom tier. If I run again with 70 plants in the same spacing that'd be 40 plants up top and 30 down below.

57/40=1.425 drippers per plant on the top tier
43/30=1.43 drippers per plant on the bottom tier

Dripper Setup Idea #2 (Directly on Plant) Or would it be better to put one dripper per plant aimed directly at the base of each plant? (1 dripper per plant)

Dripper Setup Idea #3 (In Between Plants) Or would it be better to put a dripper in the space between two plants, with enough drippers to ensure that each plant had a dripper on either side of it that it shared with the plant to that side? (1 dripper per plant, plus a few extra drippers in the corners so that every plant had a dripper on each side.)

Ok we gotta work this out properly, you are going to be putting in rooted cuts that will have limited roots, we will also be working with limited veg time so it's going to be all about getting a lot of nutrients and root stimulants into your rootzone, bear in mind that coco performs best when it's always moist, if it dries out your PH will fluctuate and salts will build up, so keep it moist to avoid that shit storm. Don't worry too much about the dripper positions because once they get fired up they will saturate everything, place your drippers whatever way looks good to you, test them out and re-position if necessary.


I'll do as many as I can remember to do in the heat of the build. Hopefully that'll be "some".



It now smells (and I'm quoting here) "like someone hit a skunk with a car and it sprayed our living room." whenever I open one of the curing jars. Even though they're fluffier than I'd prefer, i'm starting to be a lil happier with what I see. I will get some nicely cured dried nug shots of what hasn't been smoked by the time I take the pictures. Give me time to bring the table back to life first. Thank you for your patience.

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bobblehead said:

You'll have plenty of drainage. Good work. The stakes with the clips will work just fine. The basket stakes point the flow of water downward and spray it everywhere... but I break every other one b/c they're made cheaply... As long as you can control the flow so that the water doesn't squirt everywhere, you're gonna be fine. If funds allow, you could add 90 degree elbow to direct the water downward.

Keep on rockin.

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DHF said:

As with anything that comes out and innovates while improving juice dispersion , there`s cheaply made knockoffs that turn folks away from using em although Bobbles don`t know his own strength breakin every other 1 , the brute.......but....

I ordered the ones from horticulturesource.com in bags of 1000 and they`re the real deal....You can use em to throw at yer dart board they`re so thick and well formed .....

Never broke the first 1 and why I used em was for #5 smartpots with well over 3 gals of 1/3 coco chunks , 1/3 coco fibers , and 1/3 chunky perlite fed once a day.....

Bobbles is right Anti....those clip ons will be fine as long as they`re open ended and run long enough to fully saturate all the substrate in your channels .......IOW.....

Pump kicks on , tubes piss a stream straight down and it kicks off after x amount of time .....1 minute ?......how much juice has been wasted down the drains till the pump/s kick off..

Only God and you will know as yas dial the setup as to how often ta feed with such small containers/or beds for optimum plant useage/metabolism without wastin too much juice in the process.............

The basket stakes were experimented with to find how deep or shallow ta set em in the medium so they`d spray as much area consistently inside the sp`s till total saturation and sufficient runoff to prevent residual salts buildup back in the day before dripclean......

In your setup they`d be pushed all the way down so juice would spray 360 degrees but in a tight pattern and with as many as you talk about runnin there`d be plenty of overlap for optimu
m dispersion and saturation in less time compared to the straight tubes IME , but I understand about budget.....so....anyways.....

Happy New Year A.....lookin fer good things from yas in da 0 12....

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

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bobblehead said:

Bags of 1000? @ 64 plants a room, that sounds excessive... Mine came in bags of 100. The basket stake itself is strong, it's the top that connects to the drip tubing that I snap, literally everry other one. I have better success when I slow down and take my time, so ya might have a point about the operator error... Haha... @ $0.39ea I'm not too concerned. They just actually cost me $0.78 a basket stake.

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DHF said:

64 plants x 2 x 4 locations = 512 basket stakes at all times with aspirations of doin 4 or 5 more locations till havin ta shutdown.....

Bought 2 bags of 1000 for like 400 bucks if memory serves so that`s like .20 per but never used all of em.......

I think the basket stakes are top shelf....haven`t seen a product that does a better job with substrate like coco that dries out so fast between feeds if dialed properly cuz it spreads the juice outward and down so the perimeter gets the most juice where the feeder roots are anyways at the edge of the bags/sp`s......

You know me....Not excessive for 64 plants but rather upgrading to 8 locations with 1024 at all times fed with Blumat maxi`s if I`d have had my way by now, but at the time the basket stakes were the best product for my application.....

Talk about maintenance free......Blumats......Gravity rules.....

Peace.....Freds........

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Hundred Gram Oz said:

Anti, where ya at?

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bobblehead said:

Oh Freds, you always know how to put thing into perspective... Little old me is still working on 1-2 locations. I bought 300 drip stakes. You know I'll get the blumats one day... but the cost of a blumat feed system in one of my rooms is about $1-1.5k... and I've gotta relamp, so it's just gonna have to wait.

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DHF said:

The smaller blumats are 50 for 200 bucks Bro , and those bags yas got could possibly work with just 1 sensor/emitter for X amounts of plants per bag so prolly not as expensive as yas were thinkin.......but...

Somethin ta work toward and I know you will for true piece of mind working with remote locations from da house in the future......

I`m with Maj....D...all the above....Anti.....flip rooms ftw all in good time.....so update our ass....

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

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