Will 1 400 HPS In My Closet Work ? First Time Vert

This is my first time going vert so im not familiar with how the light distribution works

I have a 400 hps and a 250 hps in my closet but want to know if i can get by with just the 400 ,

My 250 ballast runs both hps and M.H so i would like to run that over my veg and keep the 400 in my closet if i can get by with it

My closet is 5 ft long , 2 ft wide , 7ft high , will hanging the the 400 in the center be enough to cover it all ( even though i have 7ft in height i wont be growing my girls that tall , maybe around 3ft )

The 400 is the bulb on the left in pic and the 250 is on the right

Thanks in advance fellas

proberbly more like 3x3 feet .. but sure .. I would do it that way ..

tho I would for sure get some kind of hood for them bulbs .. your kind a loosing half the light ..

a parabolic one




will help you cover more space and is exelent in spreding the light .. if that is the only goal .. and you have temps under controle ..

or I would get a cool hood of some kind ..


and yes keep em low and with a even canopy .. 400W wont penetrait more then 2-3 feet and you also need to keep a distance from the light ..

View attachment 2322271

What strips are they? T4 or 5

he wants to do vertical brooww.
i think the 400 will be enough if you keep your plants short enough, so definately train them, otherwise you could use your 250 above the 400

a cooltube would be nice too in your small space

Vertical lighting like that works best when you drop the light down there in the middle of the canopy and light the sides of your plants.
If you're going to keep them above the plants, you might want to consider a reflector.

420 , those tubes along my walls are T8`s

I have a cooltube from when i was hanging horizontal but idk how i would work the cooltube hanging vert

I have a 240 cfm inline duct fan , should i mount it to the top of the cooltube sucking the heat out the top ?

Right now i do not have temp problems because im running an a.c in their

Here is a quick vid of how its set up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxFJmrHLAuI

[youtube]LxFJmrHLAuI[/youtube]

Given your tight space a lot of training will be necessary. Your canopy won't be ideally sized. You might consider putting the bulbs closer to one corner and making as large a circle around them as you reasonably can. You will have to play with it (or do some quick math) to figure out your ideal positioning and your largest effective canopy size. 3/4 of a much larger circle might be a lot more than the entirety of a small one (if you opt for more middle positioning).

Granted I have seen it done, with a lot of training and vertical scrogging in a space similar to yours with identical lights (400w stacked above a 250w). And I believe it was all the way around.

Cooltubes aren't necessary for vertical growing and reduce your light output. Just keep control of your plants growth so it doesn't grow into the light and you'll be good. However you can remove the reflector usually and then use them vertically. Just have a lot of airflow and you should be fine with your exhaust mounted up high.

I try to exchange my air 2x a minute.

Watched your vid, looks like if you put the two bulbs stacked in the middle somewhere you could have a couple of fairly large plants, that if you scrogged vertically you could probably have a nice sized canopy. Would be a fair bit of work.

If you had 2x600w's in there instead and a slightly bigger exhaust (just to increase your CO2 intake or perhaps supplementing with it yourself, maybe brew some beer in there) you could have a couple fairly big plants that did well without a whole lot of training just because of the improved light penetration.

Could use those other two lights to veg your trees, or one of em. You might not have a veg setup ideal to keep things going continually. That's the one problem growing trees.

Although a large plant would have quite a bit of supplemental light in the one corner so you might not have to do that much to it to get a good result (no larf on the back etc). It's actually a good setup because it allows you to work less with the plant most difficult to access (if you grew some 5fters which I think you should).

Curious to see how you end up setting things up.

Thanks og

Im just wanting to use only the 400 bulb in their , ( eventually i will get a 600 or 1,000 ) but im just wanting the 1 bulb

The 250 i am wanting to be over my veg girls because i can run a M.H on that ballast and i cannot with the 400

So in the end what im getting at is will that 1 single 400 wt hps bulb be enough to grow out my girls ? I keep my plants short and really only veg for about 2 weeks then go 12/12 and i use the closet for my 12/12 from seed grows also

But i would not mind maybe growing 2 bigger plants in their sometime ( one on each side of the bulb )

in vert you should always try surround the bulb with plants. so lets say 4, 1 on each side each trained or scrogged vertically. this would be the optimum situation.
but yeah ofcourse a 400 is enough, people out there growing with CFLs.
happy growing

try it .. use the 250W MH for Veg .. and the 400W for flowering ..

if you fell it is`t enough I would get a 600W and use boath 400 and 600 together ..

Hey fellas

I did a vid of what iv done so far and could really use some feedback on the best way to get the best results with what i have

If you dont mind please check it out

Thanks in advance fellas

[youtube]Qke8SeK8RDk[/youtube]

I went ahead and hooked my cooltube back up to it but i mounted a 90 cfm fan on the bottom of it to blow the heat up

Im thinking its gonna work out like this , their is a tone of air blowing threw the cooltube with that fan mounted to it

Really don't think you need the cooltube. It's only gonna rob you of lumens and UV. You definitely do need that fan though. And you could stand to hang your bulbs lower (more amongst the plants). They can get shockingly close if you have some airflow pushing or pulling the heat generated from the bulb up to your exhaust.

I think you're gonna be fine for CO2 if you're getting fresh air and exchanging the room's supply at least 1x a minute. 2x a minute is better, but not necessary.

Oh, and looking at your exhaust... it ain't adequate. Those cheapo inline fans don't have the juice to dela with any resistance. The filter provides a tonne of it. You could definitely save yourself some energy cost on AC and increase your CO2 with an axial AC fan. They can be had for close to 50 bucks new. Also the bend increases the resistance. I guarantee that AC is what's keepin the room cool. Probably costs a lot to run. Something to consider. Or you could supplement your CO2 with some homebrew or a little mushroom farm and not stress the fan.

I'd say ideally you'd have a 6" vortex but they're like 200 bucks (and it might be too much fan for your filter depending on how stinky your stuff is). I heard what you said about your cash situation, but when you get the chance make the upgrade.

yoooooooooo! you can go to a farm supply store or pet store and get a 2x2 tray for a rabbit cage and put that under the plants so you don't have to keep rockin them plants over to the tub..... I got a couple from the local rural king for like $13.99

your fine, 2x is basic 3x and you can do 4 plants in a 3x3. I do 4 and they are pretty big, if I did one id have to give it a super cape. and 400w hps is def gonna do the job decent. You should have some kind of ventilation though, if no proper setup then get a BIG FAN and crank it like a foot form the plants.

Corrupted[]Canabis;7977616 said:

your fine, 2x is basic 3x and you can do 4 plants in a 3x3. I do 4 and they are pretty big, if I did one id have to give it a super cape. and 400w hps is def gonna do the job decent. You should have some kind of ventilation though, if no proper setup then get a BIG FAN and crank it like a foot form the plants.

Click to expand...

I should have said im growing tomatos which i am. Ill also say there harder to grow from what ive researched. So ya you should be ok in your closet for sure.