Should my HID lights hang vertical or horizontal for maximum penetration?

Opm said:

Riddle me this batman:

You hang a bulb verticle and it's light is emitted 360 degrees.
You add a reflector (usually horizontal) So the same light being emitted is now at least concentrated to 180 degrees.

So how can a buble without a reflector have better penetration?

You can say that a non reflected verticle bulb gives better coverage area but not better penetration/lumens.

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Vertically hung bulbs get better penetration because most plants tend to grow vertically more than horizontally. You will never penetrate to the bottom of a plant that's 6ft tall with horizontal bulbs. You can hang 2 vertical bulbs and penetrate all the way to the main stalk with vertically hung bulbs unless your plants are ridiculously huge.

You will get better penetration by hanging your light horizontally.

I would say alot comes down to the type of plant/genetic/ space you have to work with.

Personally ive always saw better results with vertical, tho end of the day all we are really trying to do is recreate a great summers day, the plant dosnt care which way the light is hung , it just wants nice levels of light intensity everywhere for it to grow to its true potential unrestricted, so personally a mix of both would be best.

If restricted tho I would say go vert and circle the light with plants , much more light that way, get full use of all sides of light instead of just half it.

Whats the best bulb for hanging vertically?

i've never even heard of growing like that. is there any disadvantage

GUN1 said:

Whats the best bulb for hanging vertically?

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most bulbs can be hung vertical. the bulb should list that it is used for vertical, horizontal, or universal.

i just use regular hps you buy from home depot, idk whats the best one, but if you check out some grow bulbs that have a full spectrum would be your best bet.

AlaskaHashMan said:

i've never even heard of growing like that. is there any disadvantage

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i am sure there are pros and cons of both vertical and horizontal.

growing vertical without a cool tube can raise the temp in your whole room because the fan blowing straight up at the bulb will blow the heat throughout the room before it can be exhausted out. so your room temp will go up more than just having the bulb horizontal and no fan blowing at it.

Sradium grows have some serious disadvantages.

bird mcbride said:

Sradium grows have some serious disadvantages.

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how do you figure that. more area than a flat grow.

ive always been under the impression the hps light are designed to work just as well hung either way.its does not effect the bulbs performance in terms of lumens out put intensity and thought it was more to do with space heat ect ect and better penetration.

spitsbuds said:

ive always been under the impression the hps light are designed to work just as well hung either way.its does not effect the bulbs performance in terms of lumens out put intensity and thought it was more to do with space heat ect ect and better penetration.

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yes they will work either way of course but the position you hang the bulb along with a reflector or hood or no hood will determine penetration. your style of grow will also determine penetration. i do the vertical stadium grow because i dont have the ceiling height for a tall vertical grow.

lets just use an example and distances are not set for any bulb output.

horizontal bulb hung 2 feet above a flat canopy with optimal lighting to 3 feet. penetration into the plant is 1 foot. so only the top 1 foot of the plants are getting coverage.

vertical grow bulb hung down inside 5 foot plants at 2 feet away surrounding the bulb. the whole side of the 5 foot plants are getting coverage plus 1 foot penetration into the whole side of the plant. even though the tops may be above the bulb they will still get coverage.








going vertical is to try and get the most out of your sweet spot by not using a hood and getting a bigger sweet spot.

ty smoke and choke plus rep. good info wich ive learnt from

any ill or good effect from giving your plant a quarter turn every other day i figure the plants are some what intelligent ,they know when to flower but wondering if it would relly mess with them as they may think wtf is going on with the sun,i know a ficus tree i had would start to weep over if i moved it any where else in the room and had the same amount of light

I did a stadium with em on lite hangers no issues with being level they just hang but be careful they're hot, lol.

TheTimeKeeper said:

S&C; But how about the new Growlite OG Hood? I'm looking into getting one of these for my micro 2x3' scrog setup but finding it hard to get peoples opinion of whether this hood will be beneficial at very close range to the plant canopy.. I've got a horiz air cooled hood now but aiming for a more uniform light to get the most out of the space.. even light spread for big buds all around and not a large sweet spot.. what your thoughts on these hoods?

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thats a sweet looking hood but a sweeter looking grow underneath. i wouldnt mind trying one myself and try something new instead of a vertical stadium grow. only problem i see is having the light too close and bleach your plants. i know people always brag on how close they have their lights, but if i go that close i get bleached leaves.

Hey S&C, that hood in the pics is actually cheap and nasty one I modded to make a bit smaller... google 'growlite og hood' to see what I'm on about, it's what I would like to move to if, in the opinion of experienced, it would be beneficial...

timekeeper ill check it out. i made a couple of different reflectors not air cooled and they worked ok.

i made a couple of cooltubes out of the pyrex bake a round tubes. i used 1 horizontal and it did ok and could get it quite close. only a 400 watt, but after say 2 weeks i could see it starting to bleach the plants. i converted both cooltubes to hang vertical in a stadium grow. they did well, i kept the lights at a good distance. since then i removed the glass from the cool tube but still have the vent connected to the top of the lights hanging vertical.

i wish i could give an opinion on the hood but have never actually used one. like i say maybe i should start and try a scrog. i would want a 600 if only getting 1 light.

i feel that for me doing a stadium grow is best because i am only using a couple of 400's

TheTimeKeeper said:

Hey S&C, that hood in the pics is actually cheap and nasty one I modded to make a bit smaller... google 'growlite og hood' to see what I'm on about, it's what I would like to move to if, in the opinion of experienced, it would be beneficial...

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is the hood your thinking the og vertical hood?

the vertical looks nice but it is inside the hood as a vertical bulb. i am not sure about it reflecting better than horizontal in a hood. so its a vertical bulb for a flat grow.

usually growing vertical is the bulb without a hood and hanging in the middle of the plants.

edit: looking at that vertical light again. to me it would appear that most of the light has to be reflected before hitting the plants. that area at the end of the bulb does not throw out much light. so you go up the bulb a little and its good, then the rest of the bulb needs to be reflected.
i could be wrong but it would seem to me a horizontal in a hood would be better.

Very interesting thread. I'll stay sub'ed.

I'm guess that wearing shades is mandatory for vertical grow don't you think? HPS lights can mess up your eyes EASILY!