My Vertical grow design setup vsog, diagrams

Hello RIU how its going? Hope y'all are HIGH like me

Ok after reading thread after thread about vertical growing I have decided to give it a go, if done properly you will be using every single lumen from your bulbs, this is what got my attention and lots of nights thinking and planning have brought me here.


Now I know allot of people start threads with what they are 'going to do' and the thread dies, this is not the case I am 100% fully committed and AM going to pull this off, I just need to wait for 1 month as I'm currently moving house.
I have looked at allot of vertical grows and I have took a bit from allot of different setups and also threw in some of my own.


I'm going to build 8 'units' each unit will have 4 shelf's at 4 plants per shelf. Have a look at my pics below. These units will be pulled together so they form an Octagon shape.


There will be 3 x 600w vertically aligned lamps in the centre of this octagon, I won't be using cool tubes as I don't want to wast a single lumen to the glass, instead I am going to put a 50" parabolic reflector on top of the system I'm going to modify the reflector by making the top hole big enough so I can get a RVK fan in there, now as the heat from the 3 x 600's rises it will hit the reflector and be centered and sucked out by the fan, therefore removing all the heat. Has anyone got any comments, tips, or advice about this?


I have managed to find 2.9 gallon pots that are only 6.5 Inches on each side, this means I can fit 4 per shelf and only use up 26".
The lamps will be right in the middle pumping out the juice at 18" from the pots, I have been advised this distance from another vertical grower, the aim is to have them at 10-12" from the bulb when they mature, the same grower told me that some of his baby's are only 8" away from the 600w bulb, only a slight burn to the fan leafs but they have the biggest buds of all.


If I design this correctly I will have a MASS of green when the plants start flowering the bulbs will have a 360o output hitting green all the way around, not like a horizontal grow where 50% of the light AND HEAT is reflected from the hood to the pants, degrading the lumes big time and throwing allot of heat at your plants, with this vertical system you can get the plants closer to the bulbs as all the heat rises up and is also sucked out.


This system holds 96 plants in a small area it is powered by 1800 Watts and the aim is to achieve 1 gram per watt, this leaves an average of 18.75 grams per plant, how achievable is this with my system do you think? I have never hit a gpw yet, the best I got was around 0.75 and I have been growing 7-8 years.


Potential Strains
A high yielding strain is required, it must be 100% or closest, Indica as I want to keep the plants short and Christmas tree like, have you guys got any ideas? I was thinking about a kush, I want to have a good potent Christmas tree plant lol, I was also thinking about northern lights.

Ok if you have any question please post
I want to hear from you all, ps I have also included a lumens chart to show you all how efficient your light is at different distances, with this system you will be able to put your light closer to your plants therefore getting MORE lumens to your plants.

Thanks for taking the time to read all of this and I hope you will share some of your thoughts.
Grow Ops

pps the first pic says that there are 8 shelves per unit, sorry there are only 3 shelves per unit.

great job man! can u give me some advice? im finishin up my first grow soon, seven bagseed under a 600w. i wanna setup a small vert grow using only my 600w. i wanna have about 20-30 or so plants around it. do u have any ideas of the best way to achieve this?

like 4 walls, each wall would be 4' long and have two, possibly three rows of plants.you could also put a few more on ground level. if you fit four plants per shelf, two shelves per wall, four walls is 32 plants all comfortably growing under one 600w.

u have any imput on this idea?

You need to do more studying. No reflector, need cooltube, you can't run 3 600w lamps in a space like that without a cooltube, you don't have the plants arranged optimally or even half optimally better to have them overlap the pots and at an angle. The way you are showing is not even as efficient as a flat garden of any type.

(sorry hope that's not coming across rude, but it's true.)

actually i totally agree with that. u need to have all those plants at an angle (check flojo's journal) and u probably will need cooltubes for those 600s.

did you build it?

i dont use cooltubes and i dont have a heat issue with proper ventilation.. although i am having temp issues when trying to introduce co2..

i would do a couple things.. first of all definitely angle the plants.. if you dont angle the plants, you are only feeding half of the plant with light, so giving only half the plant light, is the same as using a reflector and loosing half the light

second, forget the parabolic reflector on the top, all it will do is trap some heat in, and it will be reflecting light down, not out

also are you doing hydo or soil? either way you need to figure out a plumbing system, because standing water, or having runoff drip down into your lower plants is going to be no good

you are also going to need to figure out how to get proper air ventilation to all the plants.. most likely fans on the inside and the outside

i would put a fan at the bottom pointing upwards to help radiate heat

and how are you going to feed? hand water? how will you get to the middle to prune? these are things you have to think about

for a vert to get working properly, you have to think a little harder about ALL of the variables that you would have in a flat garden, and then some.. you have a basic design set up but you still have a lot of holes in your design.

how are you going to vent the room? intake and exhaust (for the plants)
how are you going to remove the heat from the bulbs?
what are you going to construct your design out of? will it be easy to move?
will you be able to get into the middle easily to prune?
what medium will you use?
how will you feed?
how will you remove the waste?
where will you mount your fans?
how will you hang your lights?
how large do you need your plants to be when you start flowering?
will you veg them in the system?
how will you transplant them into the system?

these are just a few examples of things to think about..

and sayword, check heaths flooded tube vertical thread.. perfect setup for a 600w

word up thanks flojo!! fuckin great post!

damn flo your the master

how has this project worked out? any pics or advice for someone that is about to do the same?

yeah i agree, please let us know i'm attempting a perpetual vertical sog in a large cab. i want to pull 1-3 plants every 1-3 weeks and i want to know how its done like that. hopefully i can utilize space to the fullest

Flo made some very good points.

I'd like to make a few suggestions if I may.

Like myself at one time, many first time vert growers don't take into consideration that even though you start out with much more square footage of grow area per watt, you have to realize that the more the plant stretches as it matures, the effective grow area shrinks and plants have to fight for available light. I solved this by making my grow shelves mobile, as the plants stretch closer to the lights, my grow area is able to expand accordingly.

Also, watering 96 plants by hand is going to be a tall order, I know because I've done it. My system utilizes drip fed/drain to waste, with 2 gallon hempy buckets arranged in a 72 site hexagon.

My advise is to take your time in the planning stage, the best way to perfect your system is to think things out thoroughly before you start the building process, it will save you time, money and many headaches.

Good luck.