Stadium Grow with Horizontal light

I got a cool tube thinking I'd be able to press down on the plants closer and nail those lumens in there but I didn't realize how small the hot spot would be against a 4x4 tent. The light doesn't spread even at all and the light was nailing my wall two feet above the plants and wasting light. I read a journal about vscrog where the guy had a horizontal spread a wing the the wings pulled back to hit any canopy that had grown past the light and hood. I figured since my cool tube reflector shoots light out at 90 degrees and that hot spot is so narrow that id build a stadium and stick the tube inside the stadium. I put up two steps on each side and configured about 20-25 plants to all get as close to the light as possible. It's working good for now and I also added my little 400 mh and bent the wing back so the reflector is a reverse V kinda. The light is lower than the side canopy and the reflector bent back to match the taller side growth. So I don't know how I got here. It just kind of evolved this way. But this is my first go at growing and I'm just kind of following the general rules of light distance and lumen drop off and this is what I've got for another month. What do I do next? I'll post some pics if there is anyone that has ever done the stadium growing before. Not vertical. Like stair case type. If there is someone who has done a lot of stadium sea of green out there that can help me with light \ plant configuration in a quasi stadium grow or if there is a better way to go I'm ALL EARS.

Pics so I have a better understanding?

Ill go shoot them now. be back in 30. and thanks in advance.

Please feel free to check out my old journals, there is a step grow in there. I currently grow vertical.

Let me load these pics I just got for ya and then I will definitely go through your old logs. I got a slough of questions about how to get from here to there. This was all a result of going from a 1x2 box with some cfl's into a tent and two cabinets.. with all my gear coming in at various times and working with small town lack of anything at the store plus I moved plus basement flooded and its been snowing with no heat plus I'm a total f.n.g. I can't believe I haven't killed it all. I'll get em up now. thanx

two steps each side 10 inches each step. 18 plants. 5 vegged maybe 5 weeks in the middle row bottom. whole left side vegged like 2 weeks or less. The bottom row and left 2 rows are in the end of week three flower and the right 2 rows are in second week.

ok, step grow. Sorry. is it possible to do a stadium with a vert cool tube or should I just hold what ive got here? it's only a 4x4 tent and it seems like 18 plants of various veg times, strains and flowering start times may make it hard to fit. I just need some help with forward planning. I now have a 3x3 to veg or flower in and have a little cabinet with 3 mothers and 25 clones just starting to root. If I don't plan ahead now I'm gonna be chasing my tail for a good number of months. Should I plan to transfer to stadium or full vert? plant numbers? vegg time? spacing? I just want to get in front of this and quit playing reactionary. Any help appreciated

I would get rid of the dutch barn canopy and hang that tube vertically. This will then take up space in the middle, but those plants can be moved up the side. (i.e elevated).

At the moment (and I know pics are hard to tell, but the plants on the top shelf there don't seem to be geeting the best light spread. This is just my opinion, please take from it what you will.

Peace,

DST

So lose the step shelves and just put the taller plants to the outside? will I have enough room? I have an empty 3x3 so tomorrow night I'm hanging the tube vertical and putting the 400 in another room and hang that vertically as well. I guess it's the obvious choice. I really don't feel like im getting a 1000 watts of growth. breaking it into two rooms and hanging vert will probably help with light distribution. is vert just a more sensible way to go all around? I'll get on it tomorrow night and re post. I didn't know that was called a dutch canopy. I thought I had come up with a revolutionary idea. It made sense on paper but vertical makes more sense. I was just scared it would be hard to manage. I'll give it a go. thanks for the input

I wouldn't loose the shelves, keep them, just hang the light vertically and then all those babes up on the shelfs will be hit directly with light. I believe if you are restricted with space and do not mind having a few plants then vetical is a very efficient way to go. You are increasing your canopy massively by growing vertical.

or, if they are not stuck in place, move them around. the ones in the shade, put them in the light, vice versa. easier than moving the light, just as effective possibly.

Yes I can move then around. it makes sense. I just wish there was a perfect right answer. it seems like growing is easy, growing good is the hard part. I'll get on it tonight after lights on.

can I have some plant lower than the bulb?

If you hang a bulb vertically in a small space, the light spread is greatly increased against hanging a bulb horizontally and having a reflector reflecting the majority of the light onto the footprint of your tent/cupboard. The vertical light spread goes not only onto the footprint, but also along the sides of the tent walls. You can do what I have done below quite easily in a tent. This is 4foot squared 1.2m/squared cupboard....there is another level like this above with about a total height of 9 feet. If you want to grow stadium, go vertical, and grow like this. If you want to keep with a shade and a horizontal bulb, forget the stadium, imo.

ross grew said:

can I have some plant lower than the bulb?

Click to expand...

yes, dropped the light vertical and instantly knew it was the right thing to do. took nine plants and the 400 out and put in the 3x3. I don't have a real even canopy around that cool tube but the plants are receiving tons more light now having those steps helps a lot and turning the light is going to save this grow. I don't think anything is more than eight inches from the light. and the whole side of the plant are getting beamed hard top to bottom. not much shadow cast at all I can tell that an even canopy is crucial so I lst'd everything real good in the other room and in a month when a good portion of the plants harvest from the 600 ill put the ones from the other flat room to the vertical room but all trained with an even canopy. should I switch the mh in the small flowering room to hps. or is it a good idea to to use mh for the first month of flower and hps the second? in the vert grow your showing here is that on steps or is it vert shelving? do you have a space in the middle of the shelf so you can tilt the base towards the light? is that better than steps.? how do I build that? do you have some shelf dimensions. im in a 4x4 as well and would like to copy it. and maybe do the same in the 3 x3. can you tell me more about your vert grow. it looks great and if its pretty easy to manage and move around enough to water and move pots around or get to them for training i'll go build that tomorrow night. I'm finally to where in a month ill start having staggered harvest every two weeks and between two rooms flowering rooms and some good training I think im going to do well. but I've been kinda freestyle and letting it control me. I want to get something good working. if you can help me with some particulars on your shelf and net trellis and how many plants I can get in there , etc. I would really appreciate it. if I design my own itll look good on paper but may or may not work out as this is my first grow vert or otherwise. Taking the crash course ya know. tell me how to get a nice room full of stacked plants like you and mark one onto the good karma board for yourself. Thanks

Room dimensions are 4x4x9 (1.2x.12.x2.7m)
I started with 3 600s in 3 cool tubes (2hps and mh). I now only have 2 x 600's, the 3 were a bit overkill!
I put in a shelf system that allows me to change the height of the shelf depending on plant configuration. There are a few shelving systems that will allow this. Mines are metal strips with insters from the shelf arms.
I think if plant numbers are not a problem then it's the easiest way to get an even canopy. I often use 3.5litre (1 gallon) pots. In my system I can easily fit 12-15 of these in each level. Alternatively I do 3-4 very large pots on each level.
The netting is just tomato netting attached to the walls to allow you to tie back the plants (they love to lean into the light, and I went through a few grows with plants taking sucidal dives off the top shelf (not a nice thing to come into look at!!!)
I do not have any tilting system.
I started off with steps, but now try and keep my plants to the edge of the walls and tend to just use the shelving, this allows an airflow up the centre of the cab and around the cool tube.
If you are using a cab it is often hard to fill it in a complete 360 degree style. So I usually doa few removable plants to put in those space. You can build removable trellis that you can attached to say a larger plant to fill that space up (i.e where you open the door to the cab).
Anymore questions feel free to ask.

Oh, and growing with either mh or hps in flower is cool. First 2 weeks is good as well. A mix ratio through the whole cycle is even better.

Ill b the second member in here to switch horizontal to vert mid-cycle lol.. I guess u vert OG's are good @ converting us young and impressionable novices! Great visual aid DST, looks like a killer setup, I gotta say IMO, you and Prawn Connery have the most simplistic and compact vert grows I've seen. I haven't seen em all but I'm diggin em! I gotta ? Regarding spectral difference.. I guess ud call it... I have a 250w hps hangiin under a 400w hps would I benefit from switchin the 400 to mh or just stick to all hps?

Hi bazookajoe, good question on the MH, I think it depends on your personal situation. Are you growing for yourself? If so I would give the MH a go and see what you think. The resin and trichome production should increase with the MH usage, although you perhaps will miss a little in the weight area. But imagine it like this, when looking at "Vintage" wine years for producers, these arise in times of bad weather, high rain, heavy frost, etc. Basically the overall yield obtained is lower, however the grapes that get through are intense, and produce the best wines. This is a similar analogy I would say to using MH. You are going to get concentrated nugs of more intense weed. Although I am using 2 600 hps, when I was running 3 lights I would have my MH in there for sure. It's the one thing I don't like about my current set up. So in short, yes, why not go for it!

Nice anology DST it makes a lot of sense. But for now I need all the weight I can to hold me over bc ill b moving shortly aftter this cycle is over so ill switch the hps for mh once I'm moved n set back up. Thanks for the knowledge man..