Going vertical... 400s, 600s, or 1000s?

Im veging under a 1000w MH after plants get past the t5 fluro stage...

and then ive got a grow room with a 1000w hps reflector... but i want to get away from the reflectors and go vertical.

my gut says tons of 400s is the most efficient way to go, and deliver light as evenly as possible...

however, ive been told that 1000 wat bulbs make denser buds regardless...

so should i average the 2 and go 600s?

i plan on getting as many as it takes...

the 400's i could get 5 and have about the same watts used as 2 1000's

the 600's i could have 3 and have same watts as 2 1000's

so, i think im leaning towards 600's to average the 2 ideals, and also worried 1000's might burn plants.

right now my 1000 is turning leaves a bit yellow that are directly under reflactor, and all the rest of leaves in the room are deep green.

im wondering tho, if my nutes were more concentrated... would this make up for the yellowing leaves? Obviously i cant do it right now or all other plants would suffer...

but if being able to put 1000's close to plants and being able to cure the leaves yellowing somehow... then maybe id consider 1000's as well.

dont worry about heat, ill have a vacuum line above each light. Im not going to go cool tubes tho because every lense a light travels thru steals energy.

how big is the grow area

big, over 10x10x7ft tall

also, i was going to go digital ballasts, any arguments to that?

digital ballast are bomb i would recommend them. and for your room i would go with a 1000watt if u can vent it.

example
400 watt hps is better than
2 250 watts

digital will probally save u a bit on electricity, and heat too. i use a 400 watt digital ballist, and its been good to me. i dont use an AC or vacuun lines or a sealed air cooled hood. to be honest i think a bunch of 600's would do WELL fer wat ur thinkin

yeah, id like to keep the plants close together, and yet get the lights down into the plants.

I understand at each light site, i might have to make a hole, and ditch a plant... but...

im trying to figure out if just lots of 400's all in the plants would be better than the 1000's?

im still leaning towards 600's myself, but just wanted to hear any sound advice either way.

im also thinking of doing a diy reflactor "disc" which would simply be a disk around the cooling pipe, that bounces any light that is on its way up, back down to the plants.

If i got the lights down far enough into the plants tho... i probably wouldnt need this. Time will tell.

Hey Sherryberry!

That yellow of your leaves is bleaching from the intensity of the lights. There's not really much you can do about that, other than move the light further away. But then thats counter productive anyway...

I have seen some really good plants that are grown from 600w lights. But the plants that seem to do the best are ones that are slightly LST'd so that the lower branches are getting good light. A guy named Mblaze posted a journal on here and his plants looked like crazy ass Dr. Seuss trees! He used one 600 per plant and his yeild and bud density were amazing!

I have always been curious how the vertical method would work out. The real question I suppose is how many plants are you lookin to grow in that space? Because if you are going for lots of plants you would need a lot more than just three 600's because it would pretty much be the same as an over head light not being able to penetrate to the lower branches of the plants. If you are growing lots of plants then maybe it would be better to do five 400's....

well, understand... even if i go 1000's, ill still use 4 probably.

but im saying, as far as electricity use goes...

the ratio between the different lights was as i stated up top...

so instead of 4 1000's, i could go 7 600's or 10 400's... so i understand even PAR is more important... but, ive just heard certain people swear by 1000's as well that they just make buds way way denser... so who knows.

the other thing im half contemplating is doing mostly 600's

and maybe 1000 or 2 OVER the plants, but kind of close, to really hit those top buds.

that wouldnt be till later tho.

ihave a feeling 600's will be where i start

look at heaths vertical sog, google that, 83 plants in a roughly 6x6 area with 4 shelves high and 1 600. harvest was 48 ounces dry.. from experaince 600s are the way to go

yea i would deffinatly say the 600s

I like the idea of mixin it up for sure. I saw a lighting layout that someone put together on here (sorry cant remember who...). It was for a 10x10 room. It had one 1000w overhead in the center and then four 600's and I think it had four 400's in the corners of the room. So basically they were arranged in an X pattern. Wish I was in a position to try that one out. lol

I think you just changed my life forever, bca21! I checked out Heath's vert grow and all I can say is HOLY SHIT! That guy is a frickin genious! I love the lunar lander. I am so fuckin amp'd about trying his method that almost seriously considered dumping the 20 plants I have going right now just so I could get a head start. If the OP is serious about going vert, I hope they do check out Heath's action. It is AMAZING!

Cheers!

A 600 at 1 foot (90,000 lumens) is a close match to a 1000 at 2 feet (140,000/2=70,000).. so it depends on cooling also when choosing bulbs..
If you can get 600's really close your better off..