Room retooling to vertical need advice.

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enigma182

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In a 80"x 168" room what would be the best layout? I was thinking 600's
11 of them with the outer bulbs hugging the walls a bit at approx 15" out and 50" between the bulbs would that work?
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If this will work what could I expect by using only 600's I know the 2lb is out the window or is it? If this wont work what about this layout with 8x1000? and only 6 plants. Or is this what I would want with the 600's?
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ttystikk

ttystikk

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X = 600W bulb
O = plant

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Mylar around the whole room from knees up. Divide the room into equally sized rectangles; two across by five long. Put your plant stems at the center of each of these boxes. Place one bulb at every corner of every box. Complete and even coverage, with enough space to get between them.
 
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enigma182

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I think that will push the limits of my 100A service beyond what it can handle. So the first step is to spend about 2k on a 200A upgrade then go from there?
 
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enigma182

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Also thank you for the quick and knowledgeable reply ttystikkl
 
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enigma182

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*Sigh* Sorry I have so many questions. I need to work within my 100a service at the moment. Also I would like to use soil/peat mix for this grow with a hot soil mix like super soil. I also use aact and or aact/guano teas. Or is that pointless for trying to grow trees like that?
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

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600W / .95 power factor for digital ballast / 240V = 2.65A ea. Running twenty is only 53A, leaving plenty for hvac and overhead.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

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*Sigh* Sorry I have so many questions. I need to work within my 100a service at the moment. Also I would like to use soil/peat mix for this grow with a hot soil mix like super soil. I also use aact and or aact/guano teas. Or is that pointless for trying to grow trees like that?

You want tees, you have two options; buy lots of soil, buy big tubs, mix a lot of amendments in, water the tubs, grow the plants, wait for them to get really big, harvest, then dig in lots of dirt all over again... OR

Put water in tubs, grow plants, harvest, while every once in awhile you pump water out and pump fresh water in. Yes, they grow faster in hydro. No, it isn't tasteless. It is a lot less work.
 
Capulator

Capulator

likes to smell trees.
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I would put plants on both sides and lights down the middle. 80" is not very wide just 6 and a half feet. Do hedges instead of trees. It will be more efficient. You can hit 1# per plant with the right strain. Double stack 4 rows of 600w lights., do 5 plants on each wall.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

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I'm all for organic approaches to gardening, and RDWC is no exception. I freely confess to running Jacks Professional 5-12-26 with calcium nitrate and epsom salt as my nutrient base at the moment, but I add ACT made with Caps bennies and earthworm castings and I toss a handful of earthworm castings in my hydroton/coco chowmix when I make up each batch, and when I think about it. This definitely helps perk things up and leads me to think that natural hydroponics has possibilities. Segue into a conversation about aquaponics...
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

6,892
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I would put plants on both sides and lights down the middle. 80" is not very wide just 6 and a half feet. Do hedges instead of trees. It will be more efficient. You can hit 1# per plant with the right strain. Double stack 4 rows of 600w lights., do 5 plants on each wall.

I like this. Vertical gardening, using available space.

Mylar on walls above the trellis and overhead on the ceiling, FTW!
 
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enigma182

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600W / .95 power factor for digital ballast / 240V = 2.65A ea. Running twenty is only 53A, leaving plenty for hvac and overhead.
Overhead being the rest of my house such as a well pump, a fridge and a microwave? Sorry that seems like a silly questions but my wife is gonna kill me if I start popping the main breaker and my girls wont care for that either. Im thinking on putting in a couple of 24k mini-splits to cool this but those pull 9.7a of 220 each. Yes being my luck the well pump, the fridge and the deep freezer will kick on while she is making popcorn or something. Hmm im gonna have to get numbers from those units to see what I have for wiggle room. I may just have to sell a kidney and upgrade my main service.

Cap I gotta say you are crazy for those hedges, but I can understand why cause you rock em. I have put a few years into doing scrogs and right now everything gets LST/Multitop etc.

I only have seven foot of height to work with also. Yeah I know, it sucks but it is what it is. Can I stack 600's in that short of a space?
 
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enigma182

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Well I have been reading alot and I see where others are having success with stacked 600's in 7' of vertical space. So given that I would like to know what you think and I will definately have to redraw this many times and wait for stuff to finish up anyways. Thank you for all the information cap and ttystikk.
 
Capulator

Capulator

likes to smell trees.
Supporter
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Overhead being the rest of my house such as a well pump, a fridge and a microwave? Sorry that seems like a silly questions but my wife is gonna kill me if I start popping the main breaker and my girls wont care for that either. Im thinking on putting in a couple of 24k mini-splits to cool this but those pull 9.7a of 220 each. Yes being my luck the well pump, the fridge and the deep freezer will kick on while she is making popcorn or something. Hmm im gonna have to get numbers from those units to see what I have for wiggle room. I may just have to sell a kidney and upgrade my main service.

Cap I gotta say you are crazy for those hedges, but I can understand why cause you rock em. I have put a few years into doing scrogs and right now everything gets LST/Multitop etc.

I only have seven foot of height to work with also. Yeah I know, it sucks but it is what it is. Can I stack 600's in that short of a space?

I bet you could get away with the new 400v 600w bulbs from philips and rock just one without double stacking, and then you will need less AC and you can stress less.
 
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enigma182

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I bet you could get away with the new 400v 600w bulbs from philips and rock just one without double stacking, and then you will need less AC and you can stress less.
OK this has my brain cooked haha. I have been studying micro moles and ppfp etc for a couple hours now. So how many of those 600s do you think in which layout? those gavita setups are a bit spendy hey?
 
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enigma182

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Have you done hydroponics in your place or tested your water? My experiences with running hydro on a well always resulted in root rot. But i wasn't using a UV sterilizer or UC Roots. Possibly some more things to consider in your start up costs
I have done hydroponics and hempy buckets and now I am doing soil because I hate worrying about ph and ppm and all that horse shit, Since I went to organics soiless (LCs Mix) I have been pretty happy and getting decent yeilds especially if I toss in the aact/aact+guano. All of my water is RO water because my well has 300ppm hardness to it which sucks but the RO filters it out nicely. The biggest reason for going vertical is plant count. I am legal to have all that I have but it still makes me nervous to have more than 6 - 12 plants.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

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OK this has my brain cooked haha. I have been studying micro moles and ppfp etc for a couple hours now. So how many of those 600s do you think in which layout? those gavita setups are a bit spendy hey?

All depends on how you buy them. If you get a Gavita 1000 el ballast, it will overboost to 1150 watts. If you then get a splitter and run two of those 400V 600W el bulbs, you now have two lights for the price of one and a bulb! This setup can be bought in pieces on the Internet for about $600, which is very much in line with a conventional digital ballast, horti bulb and magnum style fixture. This is my next equipment purchase.

When I say I plan to put my money where my mouth is, bank on it. Ask me how much coin I got wrapped up in water chillers, lol
 
Capulator

Capulator

likes to smell trees.
Supporter
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All depends on how you buy them. If you get a Gavita 1000 el ballast, it will overboost to 1150 watts. If you then get a splitter and run two of those 400V 600W el bulbs, you now have two lights for the price of one and a bulb! This setup can be bought in pieces on the Internet for about $600, which is very much in line with a conventional digital ballast, horti bulb and magnum style fixture. This is my next equipment purchase.

When I say I plan to put my money where my mouth is, bank on it. Ask me how much coin I got wrapped up in water chillers, lol

Damn I have not hear of one ballast burning two lights.

I am getting 1000's to run the 600's (dim them down), so if later I want to run 1000's I can.

enigma I would say one 600 every 3 feet from the wall. 4 of them in your case.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

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313
Damn I have not hear of one ballast burning two lights.

I am getting 1000's to run the 600's (dim them down), so if later I want to run 1000's I can.

enigma I would say one 600 every 3 feet from the wall. 4 of them in your case.

Solis Tek sells a 'digital splitter' for $70, it's a bit cheaper elsewhere in the 'net. If you like Hydrofarm connectors, Sunpulse has a 'magnetic' splitter. Honestly, I think the only difference between them is plugs and price.

What these do is split the power coming from your thousand watt ballast into two cords, so you can run a 600W bulb on each. Originally designed to allow thousand watt ballasts to run 600W bulbs- @500W apiece.

The new Gavita el ballast has an overboost feature, allowing the user to deliver up to 1150 watts. Split, this would mean 575 watts to each of two 400V el 600W bulbs, or basically perfect. This is also the only way I could think of to get the new 400V technology to go vertical without fuckin' with fixtures.

Internet pricing for the whole deal should be right around $600- not bad for two 600W lights, right?
 

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