Vertigrow: Utilizing Vertical Space In Hydroponics

What is the spacing on your levels?

Those trays rock!

OH MY GOD! odysseus is the SHIT! my homey in town is growin this, or recently was and it smells like STRAIGHT STRAWBERRY! I believe it is from stoney girl farms, and is a white rhino, strawberry cough cross

cowell said:

What is the spacing on your levels?

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I keep about 5 or 6" in between each level. This is just enough space to move a plant in/out without having to lift a tray.
The plants grow up those 5" and onto the inside of the next tray.
Ideally, you'd get the best light coverage and penetration with less spacing... but I've moved twice with this setup, and it's such a pain in the ass that I'll wait for next run around.
If you work it right (closer spacing), you can get just as good light coverage with 3 tiers as I'm currently getting with 2.
The trick is angling your clones on one edge of the pot, and this will enable them to more easily grow inward on the inside of the next tier.

How big are the plants when you are putting them into flower for that spacing? I'm sorry - I'm sure you've posted it before, just don't recall seeing it.

You are running 2 teirs/light - but 3 would be BETTER? That's awesome if I'm reading that right.
Sorry, for the questions, I'm building my own vertical set-up and yours is about as close as I've seen to what I have in mind.

Can I PM you for some input?

I built the grow box for this system a little too small. It's hard to get in here and do any work or get nice pics. And I have to keep moving, disassembling and reassembling....
Thats why you see some pics where it's outdoors/in that little square box.
Next run I'll build a new box and give myself some more workspace. maybe a 4x6 to make room for a CO2 tank...

Here are some pics for now: Most plants are giant colas all the way up. bout a foot to 1.5 feet tall. I need to figure out a way to deal with this because the stems arent really strong enough to hold them up.... some are leaning over under the weight of the buds

cowell said:

How big are the plants when you are putting them into flower for that spacing? I'm sorry - I'm sure you've posted it before, just don't recall seeing it.

You are running 2 teirs/light - but 3 would be BETTER? That's awesome if I'm reading that right.
Sorry, for the questions, I'm building my own vertical set-up and yours is about as close as I've seen to what I have in mind.

Can I PM you for some input?

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yea man feel free to pm me... not really sure how PMs work on this site but how hard can it be...
I vegged some of the clones for about 2 weeks while waiting for others to take root.
You can run 3 tiers instead of 2 without sacrificing any lighting, just run the trays closer together.
The only down side to this is you cant take plants out of the trays if you run them that tight. But if you're not running a perpetual, it shouldnt be a problem.

sweet trays....subed i want to see the outcome.

vertigrowsystems.com! check it out

They way they show em on the site isnt the best way to grow pot... gotta stack em closer together to get the best lighting.

This is a totally sweet thread man; I like your battleship! Hey, I got two questions, purely out of curiosity; first, how much did the entire setup cost? I am talking the whole shindig - the vertigrow system, pots, nutrients, etc? How much dry weight do you believe your first harvest will yield?

Noobskienator said:

This is a totally sweet thread man; I like your battleship! Hey, I got two questions, purely out of curiosity; first, how much did the entire setup cost? I am talking the whole shindig - the vertigrow system, pots, nutrients, etc? How much dry weight do you believe your first harvest will yield?

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I think the trays/stand were ~500$. but I'm only using half of it right now... I bought 4 trays because you get them for cheaper when you buy more.
ballast (digital 600w phantom) and bulbs (digilux MH and eye hortilux hps) were probably around 250 350ish. Nutrients are cheap. I use foxfarm 1part base nutrients (grow big and tiger bloom). CAP 6" valuline fan. a box fan I had sitting around.

The only thing I got NEW for this grow was the eye hortilux, ballast, and vertigrow system. I was running a home made vertical system before, but I opted to go for the vertigrow because theres a LOT less potential for leaks. My old ones were gutters/pvc and it's a pain in the ass to keep them from leaking.

I think this should pull 1lb. vegged for about 1-2 weeks while some straggler clones were still rooting.

Next run it'll yield more because I'll be running 3 tiers closer together.

So I switched to digital ballasts last week and also consequently to Sun Master bulbs. Apparently hortilux says that their bulbs are a no-go in digital ballasts, while Sun Master certify that theirs are a go..

what do you think?

tommyo3000 said:

So I switched to digital ballasts last week and also consequently to Sun Master bulbs. Apparently hortilux says that their bulbs are a no-go in digital ballasts, while Sun Master certify that theirs are a go..

what do you think?

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I'm running an old style Eye Hortilux in the phantom (used to run it on the dimmer, too) and no problems so far.
I hear a lot of the problems come from using low quality digital ballasts, too. (sorry lumatek and lumatek knockoffs) I think you'd be ok with a quantum or hydrofarm digital ballast.
dont use a ballsts with an "overdrive" or "superlumens" mode. it'll fuck your bulbs.

and just a heads up, Eye Hortilux recently released a new line of HPS bulbs to be used in digital ballasts.
Check your local stores!

Well shit, I purchased nextgen 1000s, which offer good warranty, but not the best warranty which is the Badass Ballast.

I will report on Sunmasters as I have been a devotee of Hortilux up until now.

Very interesting to see some reviews. I was looking into their setup as well as I have my first two grows under my belt finally. I was just worried I'd have to switch over to hydro with the vertical setup as I don't have any experience with it. Looking at their trays though, I should be able to do what you're doing and then switch over to hydro when I'm more comfortable.

I just hope they don't go out of business (possible?) before I get enough guts to switch over a few months down the line.

I'm just kind of confused still on the vegging time as it seems like I veg forever (2+ months) and it doesn't seem to get much bigger on my first grows =P

trep said:

Very interesting to see some reviews. I was looking into their setup as well as I have my first two grows under my belt finally. I was just worried I'd have to switch over to hydro with the vertical setup as I don't have any experience with it. Looking at their trays though, I should be able to do what you're doing and then switch over to hydro when I'm more comfortable.

I just hope they don't go out of business (possible?) before I get enough guts to switch over a few months down the line.

I'm just kind of confused still on the vegging time as it seems like I veg forever (2+ months) and it doesn't seem to get much bigger on my first grows =P

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You can definitely run these in soil. I'd attach a ball valve to the lower flood/drain fitting. Close it when you water. Fill up the tray to about 2". Your pots would drink the water via capillary action. (from the bottom, up). Then when you're done you can just open up the valve and drain the excess. This would eliminate having to water every pot by hand. You can just water a whole tray at a time, instead.

I'm sure they'll stay in business. They have a really good product, just not a lot of people are using it yet.

As for veg time, my plants were all vegged from 0-2 weeks. A lot of them are budding too fat to even hold themselves up anymore... Need to put up a cage next time

Thanks for the quick response! Sorry if any of the questions I have are dumb. Just trying to get a feel for it all before jumping into it.

-Is there any reason you use the pots instead of their custom predrilled tray lids? You can fit 2 extra there and you can see what's going on.

I bought my system early... before they were manufacturing the tray lids.

Otherwise I probably would have bought them.
I might buy uncut lids though, and drill the holes a little closer to the center.
That way I could angle the plants inwards and allow closer spacing between trays.

I've seen these systems grown out with the lids, though.
They were growing tomatoes with the aero system, and the root zone looked PRIME. like, explosive rootgrowth compared to the RDWC. (It was a side by side comparison)

Odyssey are finally getting close to finished.
Some of em are so fat that they can't support their own weight... going to need to add in a cage next time.

I had a few indica plants (purps?) that I had thrown in here, and they are done now.
I love the purple strains, but they are such a pain to propagate. They've got a high propensity to mold!

pics or it didnt happen? ok here it goes.

Me likey very cool.