VertFarmer
Active Member
I’ve read, reread and then read some more on Heath Robinsons superb grows – the flooded vert in particular. The thread is over 70 pages long and a lot of people keep asking questions that have been answered in the thread. I copy pasted all the relevant answers and comments from Heath into a document for my own overview, but thought it might be useful for some of you guys to have this compact version of Heath’s many golden nuggets of wisdom. So I’ve put the summery into this separate thread for you to view - as sort of a tribute (part I).
Despite Heaths enormous patience with our many questions, there are still some bits of knowledge it would be ever so sweet to pick from his brains. So I’ve boiled my tsunami of questions for Heath down to 10-ish question, in the hope that Heath will stumple upon this thread and perhaps spend a couple of minutes viewing/answering them (part II).
So Heath if you read this, first of all thank you so much for sharing your experiments with the growing community, you’re a huge inspiration for growers all over the world. Secondly, if you have time to answer some of the questions in part II, I would be extremely grateful.
Part I : Summery of comments from Heath, mostly from the 60+ pages flooded vert thread, but a few from other grows as well.
·It holds 86 plants,
·I have grown a lot of KC brains stock and my favorites are KC 36, Leda Uno and Mango hope that helps.
·If you are looking for yield and quality get something from serious seeds, AK47, chronic, white russian and buble gum are all excellent and easy to grow.
·I would suggest a sea of green using spacing’s between plants at a maximum of 12inch spacing.
·at about 3 weeks into flower I usually trim the bottom third of the plants which helps form better buds higher up the plant. In any case you should remove any weak growth.
·Its approx 5 foot tall
·It is 62 inches (155cm) external diameter and the same shape as the inside.
·its very easy to clean, the roots pull out in one piece and any bits can be swilled out into the res, or I can simply pull the ends off each run.
·I never sterilise the systems I run unless I have had a problem.
·we are at week 1 of 12/12 and i have just taken 100+ cuttings off the plants in the vert ready for the next round
·If you keep the nutrient temps below 74f and circulate then the water will stay sweet
·I enter the vert there (where feedline enters) its quite simple to do, I will give the plants a trim in a weeks time and after that I wont enter it again until harvest.
·The plants should end up around 12 to 14 inches tall.
·I am using Vitalink at an EC of 1.0
·A 400l per hour pump is more than enough I run this one on a bypass to reduce the flow,
·I was running the 3K (Sunpulse bulb) last week but have decided to change back to my normal growlux HPS as I was having too much growth and the budding seemed later than normal. I
am running the Sunpulse bulbs on a bush grow and they are fine so it might just be that they aren’t ideally suited to vertical grows?.
·The adjustable collars are there because I like to experiment and they allow me to run the tubes full or empty, they don’t need to be adjustable though because the best way to run the system is flooded to the bottom of the pots. This could be done with a dam which wasn’t adjustable.
·The secret is to recirculate the nutrients quickly and then there will be plenty of DO due to the water surface to air contact. If you want to run it as an nft system then there would be no need for the collars.
·the res is quite small probably 10 gallon or something like. It is topped up automatically from the mains supply. If you couldn’t do that then the res would have to be bigger.
·I don’t need mothers as the cuttings are taken from the plants in the vertical about two weeks into flower.
·Trimming: yes I take off unwanted leaves and small weak shoots throughout the grow until about the 4th week of flower.
·The cuttings are used in this grow were 3 weeks old grown in 1 inch rockwool blocks. I place them into the netpot and fill with hydroton. The water level in the tube touches the bottom of the net pot so there is no problem of them drying out.
·3 weeks as cuttings under fluros and one week in the system, normally i wouldn’t veg in the system but on this occasion I did.
·The system is partially drained once a week and new nutrients added.
·I always use a carbon filter to remove smells and so should you!. The fan at the bottom is to move the air around the grow.
·The intake is passive and I exchange the air in the room twice a minute whatever system I am using.
·To maximise yield you have to surround the bulb, and the optimum internal size is 4ft.
·4 rows 8 inch spacing.
·The smell is easily dealt with by using a good quality carbon filter which is rated higher than the extraction of your room.
·The adhesive is silicone sealer, if you want to make sure that you are buying the right type you can use the stuff they make glass fish tanks out of as its non toxic and lasts forever.
·Contrary to what the nutrient manufacturers want you to believe they are pretty much all the same, I am using Vitalink on this grow but I also use Canna and Ionic which is the easiest to use as it is a one part nutrient.
·The plants stay green because for the first two or three weeks of flower I keep them on veg nutrients to stop premature yellowing and leaf drop at the end of the grow.
·The health of the plants depends on many factors but important ones to consider are ventilation, cool nutrient temps, making sure the roots have plenty of dissolved oxygen, and don’t over feed the plants I typically feed at an EC of 1.2.
·week 6 of 12/12 and everything is running as expected and the EC is still at 1.0.
·the last two pics are of the clones which will be going into the system when these come out. They are in some bread trays which I have modified into a simple ebb and flow!.
·that viking looks alot like northern lights #5,someone gave me a cutting thats from 96 he said it was NL#5 it finishes in about 50 days,it looks a lot like that.
·The harvest was 46 0z (1288g = 2.15g/W!)
·I dry at a relative humidity of approx 62 and temps of approx 72, the stems should crack rather than bend when fully dry
·the buds also need to feel dry to the touch but obviously not too dry that they crumble to dust, a humidity of 62 helps prevent this.
·I never flush in any case as I don't like to feed at high nutrient concentrations.
·I use 600w hps Sylvania Growlux bulbs, I have tried many other makes but I have settled on these, I consider them the best.
·the secret to any clone grow is the ability keep healthy mother plants and be confident that if you take 1000 cuttings you will have 100% success or as near that as humanly possible.
·I keep my big mother plants in water/aquafarms
·the cuttings are rooted in 1" rockwool blocks as these will transplant into any medium once rooted.
·If I grow from cuttings I definitely trim them up as I want them spaced close together and to grow a single cola,
·Growing 12/12 from seed means that the plant grows a single cola without much help so I dont tend to do much on this grow.
·The whole system runs in a full condition the water level is toutching the bottom of the net pots. The pump runs 24/7 so in effect what we have is similar to deep water culture but the main difference is the fast flow rate and I never leave a gap under the net pots
·recirculating deep water culture hybrid system. This sounds complicated but is actually very simple and much more effective than a simple deep water culture system.
From Heath's mini vertical
·it uses one 600w MH and one mj1000 pump. It holds up to 100 cuttings but on this occasion had 70+
·It measures 44" across and stands 30" high
·the yield was 38.4 Oz = 1.8 grams per watt
Enjoy
-- VertFarmer
Despite Heaths enormous patience with our many questions, there are still some bits of knowledge it would be ever so sweet to pick from his brains. So I’ve boiled my tsunami of questions for Heath down to 10-ish question, in the hope that Heath will stumple upon this thread and perhaps spend a couple of minutes viewing/answering them (part II).
So Heath if you read this, first of all thank you so much for sharing your experiments with the growing community, you’re a huge inspiration for growers all over the world. Secondly, if you have time to answer some of the questions in part II, I would be extremely grateful.
Part I : Summery of comments from Heath, mostly from the 60+ pages flooded vert thread, but a few from other grows as well.
·It holds 86 plants,
·I have grown a lot of KC brains stock and my favorites are KC 36, Leda Uno and Mango hope that helps.
·If you are looking for yield and quality get something from serious seeds, AK47, chronic, white russian and buble gum are all excellent and easy to grow.
·I would suggest a sea of green using spacing’s between plants at a maximum of 12inch spacing.
·at about 3 weeks into flower I usually trim the bottom third of the plants which helps form better buds higher up the plant. In any case you should remove any weak growth.
·Its approx 5 foot tall
·It is 62 inches (155cm) external diameter and the same shape as the inside.
·its very easy to clean, the roots pull out in one piece and any bits can be swilled out into the res, or I can simply pull the ends off each run.
·I never sterilise the systems I run unless I have had a problem.
·we are at week 1 of 12/12 and i have just taken 100+ cuttings off the plants in the vert ready for the next round
·If you keep the nutrient temps below 74f and circulate then the water will stay sweet
·I enter the vert there (where feedline enters) its quite simple to do, I will give the plants a trim in a weeks time and after that I wont enter it again until harvest.
·The plants should end up around 12 to 14 inches tall.
·I am using Vitalink at an EC of 1.0
·A 400l per hour pump is more than enough I run this one on a bypass to reduce the flow,
·I was running the 3K (Sunpulse bulb) last week but have decided to change back to my normal growlux HPS as I was having too much growth and the budding seemed later than normal. I
am running the Sunpulse bulbs on a bush grow and they are fine so it might just be that they aren’t ideally suited to vertical grows?.
·The adjustable collars are there because I like to experiment and they allow me to run the tubes full or empty, they don’t need to be adjustable though because the best way to run the system is flooded to the bottom of the pots. This could be done with a dam which wasn’t adjustable.
·The secret is to recirculate the nutrients quickly and then there will be plenty of DO due to the water surface to air contact. If you want to run it as an nft system then there would be no need for the collars.
·the res is quite small probably 10 gallon or something like. It is topped up automatically from the mains supply. If you couldn’t do that then the res would have to be bigger.
·I don’t need mothers as the cuttings are taken from the plants in the vertical about two weeks into flower.
·Trimming: yes I take off unwanted leaves and small weak shoots throughout the grow until about the 4th week of flower.
·The cuttings are used in this grow were 3 weeks old grown in 1 inch rockwool blocks. I place them into the netpot and fill with hydroton. The water level in the tube touches the bottom of the net pot so there is no problem of them drying out.
·3 weeks as cuttings under fluros and one week in the system, normally i wouldn’t veg in the system but on this occasion I did.
·The system is partially drained once a week and new nutrients added.
·I always use a carbon filter to remove smells and so should you!. The fan at the bottom is to move the air around the grow.
·The intake is passive and I exchange the air in the room twice a minute whatever system I am using.
·To maximise yield you have to surround the bulb, and the optimum internal size is 4ft.
·4 rows 8 inch spacing.
·The smell is easily dealt with by using a good quality carbon filter which is rated higher than the extraction of your room.
·The adhesive is silicone sealer, if you want to make sure that you are buying the right type you can use the stuff they make glass fish tanks out of as its non toxic and lasts forever.
·Contrary to what the nutrient manufacturers want you to believe they are pretty much all the same, I am using Vitalink on this grow but I also use Canna and Ionic which is the easiest to use as it is a one part nutrient.
·The plants stay green because for the first two or three weeks of flower I keep them on veg nutrients to stop premature yellowing and leaf drop at the end of the grow.
·The health of the plants depends on many factors but important ones to consider are ventilation, cool nutrient temps, making sure the roots have plenty of dissolved oxygen, and don’t over feed the plants I typically feed at an EC of 1.2.
·week 6 of 12/12 and everything is running as expected and the EC is still at 1.0.
·the last two pics are of the clones which will be going into the system when these come out. They are in some bread trays which I have modified into a simple ebb and flow!.
·that viking looks alot like northern lights #5,someone gave me a cutting thats from 96 he said it was NL#5 it finishes in about 50 days,it looks a lot like that.
·The harvest was 46 0z (1288g = 2.15g/W!)
·I dry at a relative humidity of approx 62 and temps of approx 72, the stems should crack rather than bend when fully dry
·the buds also need to feel dry to the touch but obviously not too dry that they crumble to dust, a humidity of 62 helps prevent this.
·I never flush in any case as I don't like to feed at high nutrient concentrations.
·I use 600w hps Sylvania Growlux bulbs, I have tried many other makes but I have settled on these, I consider them the best.
·the secret to any clone grow is the ability keep healthy mother plants and be confident that if you take 1000 cuttings you will have 100% success or as near that as humanly possible.
·I keep my big mother plants in water/aquafarms
·the cuttings are rooted in 1" rockwool blocks as these will transplant into any medium once rooted.
·If I grow from cuttings I definitely trim them up as I want them spaced close together and to grow a single cola,
·Growing 12/12 from seed means that the plant grows a single cola without much help so I dont tend to do much on this grow.
·The whole system runs in a full condition the water level is toutching the bottom of the net pots. The pump runs 24/7 so in effect what we have is similar to deep water culture but the main difference is the fast flow rate and I never leave a gap under the net pots
·recirculating deep water culture hybrid system. This sounds complicated but is actually very simple and much more effective than a simple deep water culture system.
From Heath's mini vertical
·it uses one 600w MH and one mj1000 pump. It holds up to 100 cuttings but on this occasion had 70+
·It measures 44" across and stands 30" high
·the yield was 38.4 Oz = 1.8 grams per watt
Enjoy
-- VertFarmer
