48 plant verticle grow

[tip302327]

After reading all the great things about vertical grows and having limited space, I decided to build and experiment vertical garden. I have been hand watering in Coco and wanted to include some way to top drip on a timer.

The basics:

Three levels x 16 plants each level.

2000W HPS lamps.

Each level is a 40" ID x 60" OD

Reservior. Wally World kiddy plastic pool. Not in pics

Questions for people top dripping COCO.

I want to harvest every 20 days, one level, 16 plants. This means I will have 3 different age plants in the garden at one time. This creates the problem of different plants needing different PPM's but all out of one reservior. Suggestions please.

tip302327 Reviewed by tip302327 on 07-01-2009. 48 plant verticle grow After reading all the great things about vertical grows and having limited space, I decided to build and experiment vertical garden. I have been hand watering in Coco and wanted to include some way to top drip on a timer. The basics: Three levels x 16 plants each level. 2000W HPS lamps. Each level is a 40" ID x 60" OD Rating: 5

[irydyum]

I want to harvest every 20 days, one level, 16 plants. This means I will have 3 different age plants in the garden at one time. This creates the problem of different plants needing different PPM's but all out of one reservior. Suggestions please.

Try to part the red sea while you are at it. You know all the hydro guys are gonna come around and tell you that one res= one nute setup. If someone says something different, are you gonna believe it because you want to, or because you think there is actually a way? Just curious, i'm one that feels introspection answers more that we would ever admit. Ironic huh?

[tip302327]

Roger that....No, I am rather good about going with whats proven. Worst case here is to put all 48 clones in at once. Down fall of course is harvet time and the time it takes. I read here somewhere where some one had this delima and was feeding with a weak solution and leaf feeding to make up the difference but I dont beleive his plants were that far apart. These are twenty days apart. I may make some adjustments to the design and convert to 3 reservior, 3 timers and 3 pumps to solve the problem. I need info on reservior size to water 16 plants in coco, 1 gallon pots?

[SpaceNeedle]

Instead of one kiddie pool on the floor where you feed all plants from, why don't you put 3 30 gallon bins there instead, and have each level drip into a different bin. You would of course need drain lines going from that level or each plant into one of the bins.

sn

[ForgetClassC]

so is this only for flowering? or how are you going to be separating the flowering from vegging plants? my bad if you said the answer to this and I have misread it. Kool set-up. Why not use a ebb & flow, and start with the lower end of the nute solution, test ppm and ph and such after the flush, then get that water ready for the next batch and so on. Just an idea.

[tip302327]

I decided to run the two lower shelves from the kiddy pool and use a seperate reservior for the top shelf which will be the younger plants.

I have the pump timer set 15 min on evey four hours. I need to find a new timer because i think the on time is to long but 15 min is the minium this timer will go.

The house and garden nutes seem to be working fine so far but I may try a grow later on with Dutch Masters Gold series since I still have some left over. One thing I am not sure of is the PPMs I should be at. I started at 500 with a base water of 70 and havent added any CalMag yet as they seem to be doing fine. Any suggestions on nute strengths? I am very impressed with growth rates using top feed vrs hand watering.

Wont know till I run a full cycle but so far I think this set up will be much more effecient than my 6 x 6 flat garden.

Yes I think that going to 3 seperate reserviors will be the ticket. I am going to finish these plants using just the 2 lower rows as these plants are all the same age.

[tip302327]

ForgetclassC. I am planning on veg and flower both on this setup. My ballast are both switchable so I can go either HPS or Halide or both. The plants I currently have going are from seed so I am unsure how all this is going to work out. Matter of fact I havent grown from seed for so long I have forgotten alot about sexing and what not but here goes.

[tip302327]

Ok, for the peeps that might be interested in a vertical circ, collum grow.

I started this grow from seed. It is a recirc system using H&G fertz @ 500 PPM. Timer started out at 1 min on every 3 hrs from 6am till midnight with the last watering for 5 mins. I ran it this way for a week and was unhappy with the way the plants looked, droopy. I kept backing down the on times and decreased the intervals till now I am 2 mins on in 24 hrs. The plants look better than ever. Mat-o-fact, this so far is my best grow ever. Coco top feed is by far the simplest way to grow that I have tried to date. Prep the coco, maintain PH, feed light and watch them grow. I wouldnt think plants could grow this fast and if I had not seen it I would not believe it. I now have ZERO use for a flat grow. For what little it cost to build the stand, I have 80 sq/ft on a 25 sq/ft area. Vertical really is all they say it is.

anyone interested in more info on the construction, just hit me up. t

[ForgetClassC]

I wish I could have a set-up this legit, lol looking awesome man. My little girl started flowering, shes lookin nice

-C