I really need your help...

M

mina

Active Member
Hello to everybody. I have found some great info in this site and I hope that you will help me clear some things and start growing my own plants.
My big problem is the grow box height…I haven’t build it yet but the place I am going to put it is only 75cm (almost 2 ½ ft) however I have no limitations for length or width. So…here is my options, my thoughts and my questions…
I intend to use a 400W HPS Osram plantastar (55000 lm) that I have and place it vertical. If I use this bulb I can surround it with plants. With this plan I can put a screen around my bulb and let the plants grow toward the light. The light of the bulb will penetrate enough the plants but maybe not all the way (or is it enough?) so I think I have two options, to trim the plant at the other side or use some T5’s or something like that for sidelighting around the box. Second plan is to rotate them often and maybe put a screen at every plant to train them sort and bushy. Do you think I am going to need a cooltube (it’s not difficult to find one) and what is the right way to place vertical an HPS, base down or base up?
One other thing that I am worry about is the box I am going to build. Is it ok to be square (much easier) since the plants will surround the bulb or it has to be something like an octagon box so the light to be spreaded the best way? The dimensions of the box is another trouble because I want to have as much lumens as I can in there but in case the plants bleach from the intense light I want to have the ability to move them several inches away from the bulb…
The other option is to go with multiple small HPS bulbs and hang them between the plants but this is not what I want to do if I have the choice to use my 400W HPS…At the beginning I thought that the best solution was a fixture with 8 T5’s and scrog but I put away this idea because the fixture would limit more my cab height…
Any ideas? What would you do under these conditions? I really need your help because I am a new grower and with my limited space I am having a big problem to find similar constructions to the internet since cab height is most of the times not a problem. Thank you in advance and forgive me if you don’t understand everything I am writing because It’s not my mother language.
 
M

mina

Active Member
Nobody..? :-(
At least can you tell me if it is the same to hang my bulb with base up or base down?
 
Brick Top

Brick Top

New Member
mina said:
Hello to everybody. I have found some great info in this site and I hope that you will help me clear some things and start growing my own plants.
My big problem is the grow box height…I haven’t build it yet but the place I am going to put it is only 75cm (almost 2 ½ ft) however I have no limitations for length or width. So…here is my options, my thoughts and my questions…
I intend to use a 400W HPS Osram plantastar (55000 lm) that I have and place it vertical. If I use this bulb I can surround it with plants. With this plan I can put a screen around my bulb and let the plants grow toward the light. The light of the bulb will penetrate enough the plants but maybe not all the way (or is it enough?) so I think I have two options, to trim the plant at the other side or use some T5’s or something like that for sidelighting around the box. Second plan is to rotate them often and maybe put a screen at every plant to train them sort and bushy. Do you think I am going to need a cooltube (it’s not difficult to find one) and what is the right way to place vertical an HPS, base down or base up?
One other thing that I am worry about is the box I am going to build. Is it ok to be square (much easier) since the plants will surround the bulb or it has to be something like an octagon box so the light to be spreaded the best way? The dimensions of the box is another trouble because I want to have as much lumens as I can in there but in case the plants bleach from the intense light I want to have the ability to move them several inches away from the bulb…
The other option is to go with multiple small HPS bulbs and hang them between the plants but this is not what I want to do if I have the choice to use my 400W HPS…At the beginning I thought that the best solution was a fixture with 8 T5’s and scrog but I put away this idea because the fixture would limit more my cab height…
Any ideas? What would you do under these conditions? I really need your help because I am a new grower and with my limited space I am having a big problem to find similar constructions to the internet since cab height is most of the times not a problem. Thank you in advance and forgive me if you don’t understand everything I am writing because It’s not my mother language.
Click to expand...

That sort of growing is not, never has been and never will be my thing so I have no real advice that is based on actual experience but if you care to read my opinion here it is.
　
Buy or make a Cool Tube, do the LST thing or a combination of LST and a form of layering that is normally used as a way to clone various types of plants (not only herb plants) that are difficult to clone.
　
Between a screen and compound (serpentine) layering you should be able to keep your plants low.

Compound (serpentine) layering is similar to simple layering, but several layers can result from a single stem. Bend the stem to the rooting medium as for simple layering, but alternately cover and expose sections of the stem. Each section should have at least one bud exposed and one bud covered with soil. Wound the lower side of each stem section to be covered (rooting compound on each wound is a good idea)(Figure 3).

Use as large of pots as you can and maybe a tub, though for various reasons I am not much in favor of tubs myself, so you have as much space as possible to keep burying new growth to root and to hold down your plants. Start each plant out in the center of each pot as per normal and each time you jump from pot to pot, or move along a tub, you keep moving your plants outward. As they grow bend the soft new growth so you can then run a short length of it into a shallow trench in the closest pot and then use something like a ‘U’ shaped piece of plastic or a piece of insulated wire bent into a ‘U’ to hold it down and cover the section with soil. It will push out roots and then keep repeating the process jumping from pot to pot or pot to tub and back to pot or whatever setup you end up using. You will be able to run them around and around in circles in your grow area and even crisscross them if needed, though I would attempt to avoid that if at all possible.
You may have to make something of a frame to tie your new growth to, to keep it growing/bending in the right direction so you can then get it to the next pot. Something like a coat hanger than is bent into a series of ‘M’ shapes, but not with such a sharp top bend and more of a series of upside down ‘U’ shapes will allow you to keep the new soft growth going where you want it to go so it does not harden off and make it difficult to impossible to make the needed bends.
Combined with a screen your plants will remain low and with a Cool Tube heat should not be an issue.
　
Remember … that is only an opinion of what I would do if I were to attempt a similar grow to yours and not something I have tried myself.
​
 
R

redivider

Well-Known Member
hey what you can do is what he said, use LST, here's a good guide:

https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/6834-how-lst-low-stress-training.html

use that and that will help you keep the plants low (in theory, i'm a noob so I have no experience with this technique) AND will let you get really good yield (again in theory cuz i have no personal experience) .... all i tie the plant for is moving some big leaves out of the way so more light hits the bud site, and i bend the plant very little, nothing like what is proposed above, but supposedly it works well... try it, i'm going to try it my next grow.... right now my space is only 3'4" high, but I can move the plants to a taller closet if needed, but next time i would like to keep the plants in the box the entire time... gd luck
 
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