Upside-down growing

So, I know that it makes no sense to actually put a put plant upside to grow it toward the ground because of geotropism, so I was wondering about planting the plants right-side up but putting them on a scrog where the light is underneath and the buds grow towards them.

the plants would grow from the sides in regular hydro buckets, clipped to the top of the screen, with a 1000watt hps on the floor.

I want to do this for a couple reasons. Foliar feeding (Most stomas are on the underside of the leaves). Easier than maintaining an 8-10ft half-circle scrog pointing upwards.

Comments?

electrocution

Not even close.

Maybe the water will drop on the hps screen.... causing hotspots....

dunno try it..

you would have to keep moving the plants up as the buds grew down, seems kinda tricky but try it

why would I move the plants up? Why don't I just have it up to begin with?

Im only on my second grow, but doesnt it seem funny that nbody grows like that? I would imagine that its not the way to go simply by observing that you dont read about great harvests by growing with a light upside down.

Saying not to do something because no one does it when there is no evidence that it wouldn't work, isn't a great statement.

The reason no one has tried it is because most people have tried to put the entire plant upside down, which doesn't work like I said because of geotropism

so why would people who grow vegitables or other sunloving plants with HID's use the method your talking about? It doesnt take a genious to think of your idea. You want to tie down your crop and see what happens when you put the lamp upside down?
Ive personally havn't heard of this except for that stupid ad in high times that has that carocell/vertical light thing. I cant think of a bigger waste of money. I just wouldnt want you to ruin your crop trying a bunk idea just because no one know anything, supposedly.
But please correct me if im wrong. Have you tried searching the forums yet? I know Ive seen shit about growing upside down but have never bothered with the idea just because the simple basics of plant growth and maintaining a healthy crop, i dont have any interest in subverting that process. I would think that if it was efficacious in any way, even to cannabis you would know of it. thats just my guess.

Something like this....but bigger.

yeah no it's cool, I'm not sure about it so I don't think you're wrong, the thing is, I don't know if you're right either. The only reason I want to do this is for height restrictions(with a big dished scrog), I also wanted to know if geotropism affects the buds too. If not, the buds themselves might be a little bigger.

I guess it will depend on which force is grater geotrophism or phototrophism. the plant is going to have two different growth tendincies working against eachother. seems like a lot of stress to put a plant through. however just my opinion. only way to know for sure is to try it.

I remember seeing this on an infomercial the other night... I dunno if this will open up ideas for u or if it helps at all.. just something i saw... they growing "tomatoes" too.. lol Its called "Topsy Turvy"




What you all think? Dont think I'd be doing it though.
Phrasty.

Phrasty said:

I remember seeing this on an infomercial the other night... I dunno if this will open up ideas for u or if it helps at all.. just something i saw... they growing "tomatoes" too.. lol Its called "Topsy Turvy"

What you all think? Dont think I'd be doing it though.
Phrasty.

Click to expand...

You could use it, stick a rooted clone in one of those holes on the side of that thing, put a light under it shining towards the ceiling and it will grow upside down. It's been discussed before.....

Phrasty said:

I remember seeing this on an infomercial the other night... I dunno if this will open up ideas for u or if it helps at all.. just something i saw... they growing "tomatoes" too.. lol Its called "Topsy Turvy"

What you all think? Dont think I'd be doing it though.
Phrasty.

Click to expand...

dude there's a journal with fdd doing this already. Search topsy turvy. Or better yet someone link it for them .. I don't have a cut and paste on my phone.

Just a thought,....for what it's worth.....with heat rising, would the heat radiated from a HID be to intense passing by the plant as it was raising? My thought would be to try it and see what happens....keeping the temps down during "lights on" may be the biggest challenge possibly... It's worth a shot though to see what happens. ~Outlaw~

ha, its funny that you're asking this question.

Just on the science aspect...you're (as you've already stated) pitting gravitropism against phototropism. I did a similar experiment with pea plants growing in agar. ultimately gravity won, and the plants grew upwards and spread out along the surface of the agar. I can only assume they would have grown up further if the dishes had been placed on their side instead of directly upside down.

so, what happened first was that the seeds were sprouted till about an inch high. I then inverted the dish (called a magenta box, even though its clear) and blocked out the light except coming from below. so the plants had to choose between light and gravity.

what happened was that they stressed out, their growth was much delayed, they turned upwards and grew away from the light, got kind of chlorotic, and the abaxial (lower side) leaf surface was facing the light...not the greatest thing, the palisade mesophyll under the adaxial (upper) side of the leaf is most efficient for photosynthesis, lots of chlorophyll all in one spot. just look at the color difference from the top of the leaf to the bottom.

the lowest bend of their stem before they turned back upwards sprouted roots, which traveled downwards towards the light. they simply arent able to ignore the gravitropic response. since the light still got to them even though they grew upwards...it wasnt as determining as gravity.

hope this helped at all.


oh, also, obviously if your HPS is under your plants...you're gonna have to have it covered with a pane of glass, you cant have stuff falling on the light.

Here's a quick little diagram in paint of what I mean.

The rectangles on the outside are my hydro buckets, the spray paint represents the plants and buds growing over a half-circle screen. The circle in the middle surrounded by the triangle is my bulb with a modified reflector. I didn't feel like drawing in the fans, but they will be there.

Foliar feeding would be done on the top , with the leaves pointing down the stomas are wide open for feeding and since they aren't being hit by any light.

Geotropism and Phototropism don't work against each other, they are separate. If you put an entire plant upside down geo tropism will make the bud grow up and the roots try to grow down which fucks a lot of stuff with bud plants. With my thing the plants would be growing more horizontally with the buds hanging down towards the light.

mmmmm get high stay high mmmm