Need some input on a vertical grow setup

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking here for a while and just want to say thanks to everyone for sharing all that very informative smokable knowledge.

I have started a new vertical setup, basically it's a metallic mesh with 2 inches wide holes in it.

My first setup is a 4x4x6.5 tent and my vertical mesh has 11 inches radius (heat is really not an issue so it should be far enough) and i have put a 1000hps in there. It's hanging vertically without any hood. I have 3 plants that's been vegging around it for about a month at 75% (750watts) and i'll soon put it at 1000watts and switch for 12/12... And it's also looking fucking fabulous right now.

I have another 3x3x6.5 grow tent and I want to do the same. That's where I need your input... In this tent I'll be growing 2 plants... I was thinking of having a 8 inch radius mesh and put 2x600. Should I just get 1x1000 instead of two 600? Or should I switch my 1000hps in this tent and put 2x600 in the other tent?

The whole idea of this setup is that I have a something to harvest every 5 to 6 weeks. This setup is located in a concrete room in the basement. I'm using tents because it gets really cold in there at night and I'm trying to reduce the chances of having temp+humidity+insects issues so that's why i'm running two tents.

I'm growing in coco and using Canna line of nutrients (ab pk rhizo cannazym) FYI.

Thanks for reading this and thanks for taking the time to give in your 2cents!

Cap

I took my setup vert several months ago and never looked back.

I too run thouies and I found that silos a full four feet in diameter still weren't big enough to prevent the occasional leaf burn issue. Eleven inches of radius will be nasty unless no branch ever gets any closer than that. I still think you should do a bigger trellis or lower wattage bulbs.

Adding dimming switches was the biggest disservice ballast makers have done to this industry, because now growers think that running bulbs at other than their design rating is somehow desirable. IT IS NOT. At best, you lose efficiency; running a thouie at 750 watts gets you only 2/3 of the full power lumens- and spectrum is degraded as well. Worse, this leads directly to premature bulb wear and aging. MH are particularly susceptible; run one at 50% and it's lifespan shortens by as much as 90%. Again, while producing inferior levels and quality of light. DON'T DIM HID BULBS. If you feel the need to reduce intensity, either use a lower intensity rig- or just raise your bulb six inches.

Long story short; my first silos were made from 2x2" mesh fencing as you describe, I cut 6.25' sections of 4' fence, makes for 25 ft². Two of these end to end makes a trellis four feet tall by four feet across, with 50 ft² of trellis space. Having run it for awhile, I would say that a thouie in the middle is okay, but to be better it needs to be on a mover or be replaced with two six hundred watt lights for better light distribution. Another problem is covering the trellis; my own plan called for one plant per trellis, but that wasn't effective to fill these because they're 50 percent wider than they are tall, and our favorite ladies like to grow UP more than across.

To solve that problem directly, just grow more plants and flip them when they've filled about 2/3 of the trellis space.

Once you've got your girls trained onto the trellis, don't cram the branches together, keep them spread apart. This will encourage better bud growth and reduce wet dark spots that lead to problems.

The rest of the environment is pretty straightforward, but keep in mind that you need to size your equipment capacity to deal with the square footage of your trellis, not your tent. Once a silo gets rolling, they can really crank out the humidity, fair warning!

Hope this helps, if you have any more questions (lol) I'd be happy to be a sounding board for you.

Hey ttystikk,

Thanks a bunch for your reply. I switched my ballast to 100% again cause shit you scared me lol.

Yes it's my first vertical grow and I love it. This time around i'm trying LSD and I might be stuck with that for a little while since my seed provider got raided by the customs last week.. I was looking into critical kush for next time but i might have trouble getting the seeds.. What strain are you growing?

But now you break my heart and tell me my setup is bound to fail lol. When you talk about leaf burn, you're talking about heat? Look at my setup below, it's running at 1000 and right in front it stays at 27C/80F. If it gets too hot, would putting cooltube be a good solution or the loss of lumens is not worth it? Adding a foot the silo's (thanks i was looking for that word) diameter will leave me 6 inches of room on each side in the tent and I don't think that's enough...





I think i'll just let this one grow like that till harvest and keep a close eye on my temps and next time switch it to 2x600. The canopy starts an about 1-1.5 feet from the ground so I don't really expect more than a 5.5 feet tall canopy.

The whole idea of having two tents is to have a perpetual harvest I can do every 8 to 10 weeks with my two tents. I'd rather keep it low number (5 total) and veg more (because of local laws) cause I can veg as long as 10 weeks if I want.

As for the 3x3 tent, would 3x400 hps work with a 8" radius silo or should i just go U-scrog with my 1000?

It's amazing the planification that goes behind a setup, fuck now i feel like i'm back to square feet number 1.

Again, thanks for the input

Dimmable ballasts are great, Ive been using them several years. I run them at 750 periodically during heatwaves or sometimes during the first week the plants are in the flower room (when theyre smaller and havent filled out). Ive never had problems with bulbs aging prematurely.