1) Wasn't hard to keep the plants back from the bulb.I started by tying each plant to a wall,then tying/bending/manipulating branches as they grew ckoser to the bulb.
2) I haven't done a vert-sog yet,and the last time I did a horizontal sog was years ago in a smaller space.
3) I can't comment yet,I have three plants drying,and two plants are still in the tent finishing up.I should have flipped a little earlier as some plants stretched to tall for the light spread of a 400w HPS (which is 3x3 maximum),one plant damn near even 4' with three others around 3"-6" shorter,and one short broad indica.Because it was a mix of random unkown genetics,and lack of proper training,I ended up with an uneven canopy.As with any grow (with dialed environment) mono-cropping (running cuts og the same size,from the same mom) will give best results.This is my first attempt at growing vertical so things aren't as dialed as they could be...but I found a keeper or two out of these bagseed plants and have cuts of all of them.Next run I'll be mono-cropping (nothing but clones of the same size from the same mom),and doing better training....All I can visualize is a flat 3x3 scrog but on a wall instead of the floor,and there's one 3x3 area per wall.
Eventually I will either stack 2x 400w HPS's in my 3x3x6 tent to take advantage of all the vertical space I can leaving no room for larf...one bulb for the bottom half of plants and one for the top half.Or I'll be getting either a 4x4 or 5x5 tent and doing a vertical sog octagon with racks,4shelves per rack with either 2-3x stacked 400w HPS's or 600w HPS's depending on square footage within the octagon.
But there is definitely going to be at least one to two more vert donuts for sure...just waiting to here back from a trusted old head back @ ICmag to give his thoughts on 2x stacked vertical bare bulb 400w HPS's in a 3x3x6 tent...if he says it's not a good idea then It will be another single vertical bare bulb but the height of the canopy will be kept 3' or slightly less but will take up the full 3' of horizontal space per wall.Might even upgrade to just 1x vertical bare bulb 600w HPS for optimal coverage of each 3x3 section of each wall.Not sure if I'll use a screen on the inside of the donut,but I might.
Hope that answers your questions bro...if not just keep firing away.