Strapped bulbs

I have a bunch of 400w lights and want to run vert. If i strap 2 or 3 400w bulbs together, will this increase the area covered? Or jus the hot spot...
Would 3 strapped together be roughy the equivalent of 1200w and thus cover more area than a 1000w would?
Logic tells me yes. But need other opinions

Sir KK

you are talking about just stacking them one on top of the other, right? the 3 400's would cover more, but penetrate a little less to a certain extent. no biggie when doing a vertical anyway.

No, side by side tied together by the sockets.

Sir KK

I'm looking at ways to set up my first vert, but i would have thought that setting up lamps 'side by side' would be a bit of a waste of light due to photon's from one lamp hitting the other lamp and not the plants? Not to mention the 'hot spot'...?

Wud the photons not jus pass throu the lights seeing as ther emitted from inside the bulb anyway? And yes, the hot spot increases alot. But thats what the vert scrog is for keep them bitches back!

Sir KK

you sir have a lot of good weed to come back 4 day later taling about strapping bulbs together

if you mean strap the bulbs like glass to glass thats a very bad idea.

yeah 3 bulbs more light put them in there strategically placed. and well vented. seperate areas cover more of the plant/s or use one lage wattage bulbs emitting from one space. 3 bulbs is not more than one when coming from a single source. unless its more wattage thus more heat and less efficiency.

Well, I second that. The bulbs would create a heat mass that would melt the wiring, or blow the bulbs. Which comes first?

Not sure exactly what kind of lights you mean. You have a bunch? 400w is hot, even in CFL.

Lol What? No.. Space them out better air flow, better lumen dispersment. If you want a brighter light within a smaller ace, get a bigger ballast/lamp. Good luck good sir , and good day to you sir!

Kush Killington said:

No, side by side tied together by the sockets. Sir KK

Click to expand...

Two bulbs side by side will run too hot and die an early death. Spacing them apart is more effective for your plants, also.

So side by side is no bueno?
I tried it once but some other issues prevented a relaible comparison. Not to mention they get hot as hell. But i strapped then atop of a 8in 400cfm exhaust fan that i DIY into a bucket to make a fan box thing.

Ill space the bulbs out. Haha i got 8 400w (4cmh 4hps.)

Sir Kk

The best thing you can do is hang them on top of each other. Especially with 400s. If you hang two - or even three - on top of each other, you can increase your vertical height and yield. I have 2x600w bulbs on top of each other and they work well. I've been growing vertically for almost 10 years and have tried many different combinations, but 2x600 works best.

While it's true a 400 won't have the same penetrating power of a 600 or 1000, you don't need the same penetrating power with vertical grows as you need with horizontal grows, because you are not trying to penetrate the same, dense canopy.

If you have the room - and want to use all 8x400w bulbs and ballasts - set up four stations in a square configuration, and hang 2x400 on top of each other. Then place your tallest strains (sativas) around the perimeter, and your shortest strains (indicas) on the inside. The overlapping light will penetrate the thicker indicas in the middle, while the taller sativas on the outside will not need the same light penetration, but will benefit from the extra head height of having 2 bulbs hanging on top of each other.

Here is an example of what I'm talking about. The Sensi Stars on the far left were grown using a single 600w bulb (these are old photos). Of four plants, one yielded half a pound (middle photo), while the others were close (yes, we're talking more than 1.5lb per 600w).

Later, I added another 600w bulb above the original. I was then able to grow haze plants up to 5' tall inside my tiny 4'x4' cabinet. These days, I can fit about six plants around my combined 1200w set-up and I consistently yield 3-4lb per cycle. The combined, overlapping power of the 2x600w bulb set-up actually produces more grams per watt than the single 600w set-up.

Hanging the bulbs vertically inline (on top of each other) allows you to adjust the height of the bulbs as the plants grow. So if you have short, thick plants (like those Sensi Stars), the bulbs are closer together and provide more penetrating power where you need it. However, if you have tall, thin plants (like my hazes), you can space the bulbs out to take advantage of the extra head height with a little less penetrating power (which you don't need, because they are branchy sativas).

I used to have lots and lots of photos of vertical grows that explain all this . . . sadly they were lost along with my old website (planetganja.com) a number of years ago. One day I'll go out the back and take some more pix of my set-up, as I've got it really dialed in over the years.

Vertical growing simply beats horizontal hands down. No horizontal grower in my area gets bigger yields than I do. It can be a learning curve at first, but it is worth the time to perfect.

Thanks fo the advice. I appreciate it. How would yu hang bulbs on top of each other with burning the wires/watever they hangin from (assuming theyr hangin from the same point on the cieling)

Sir KK

Mount two hooks to your ceiling about 2 feet apart (1 foot either side of your centreline, where the bulbs will be hanging). They need to be fairly wide apart because you are going to hang two sets of chains from them. The first set of chains anchors the top bulb to the ceiling. The second set of chains uses the same mounting point as the first, but hangs lower, anchoring the lower bulb. If the two hooks are wide enough apart, the chains - which will hang in a double V formation (each V on top of each other) - will clear both bulbs. The electrical chord for the top bulb goes straight up to the ceiling. The chord for the lower bulb will need to be bent at right-angles and tied (use wire, not plastic or string, which could burn) so that it doesn't spring up and touch the bulb hanging above it. Route the lower electrical chord to one side.

The bulbs can hang quite close together without the top bulb burning the electrical chord of the bottom bulb, as the very bottom tip of the bulb doesn't produce a lot of heat.

I will try to take some photos of my setup later tonight and post them to show you - unless someone else already has some pix?

OK, the first photo shows the hooks mounted to the ceiling.





The second photo is obviously a different view.





The third photo shows how the bulbs line up - note how the chain on the lower bulb clears either side of the top bulb. If your hooks are too close together, the bottom chain will touch the top bulb, because the "V" won't be wide enough to clear it. This is an important consideration. (Lower chains are a bit rusty because they are closest to the humidity of the nutrient-filled coco pots.)

Also note how the electrical chords are bent at 90-degre angles and tied with wire. This prevents the top bulb touching the lower chord.





The last photo shows the bulbs in relation to the floor fan. I cannot emphasise how important it is to have a floor fan! The floor fan is the secret to good vertical growing. Forget about cool tubes - been there, done that. (The cool tubes get dirty very quickly, hurting your lumen output, while the tubes themselves are a pain in the arse to clean!) The floor fan will not only keep your bare bulbs cool by ducting heat away from them very efficiently - allowing you to get you plants VERY close to the light without burning (note there are a few burnt fan leaves in my photos, but the buds are fine - nothing to worry about). Not only this, the floor fan will circulate a lot of air through your grow chamber and prevent mould. The wind will keep the stems of your plants strong, as well. Run the floor fan 24/7. Just like in nature, the wind is always blowing, so there is no need to turn your floor fan off during the dark period - this is another secret to good growing.

Well sheesh thanks i appreciate the pics. Actually helps alot. I plan to just make several columns of 400w lights.
Chains are genius! Haha i been using expensive ass pulleys even thou i had chains laying around. Jus kinda convienant to be able to adjust heights by simply pulling a string and loosening it.

Sir KK

Chains are almost as easy to adjust. And they don't burn.

How big a diameter is your screen around the lights? Do you attempt to keep all or some of the growth outside the screen? Could one put more plants around one set of lights without overcrowding? How tall do you let the plants grow before turning on the upper light bulb? At what vertical distance do you hang the bulbs in relation to the plants? Even with the tops, slightly below, above? Planning my next grow.

The screen (cage) encircles a 30cm (12-inch) floor fan and is about 50cm (just under 2 feet) in diameter. All the plants sit outside (around) the cage - it is used for support and to train or weave the branches around the lamps to fill in any gaps.

The cage is normal fencing wire/trellis and is 120cm (4-foot) high. I usually grow 6-8 plants around it. Up to six hazes or sativas (because they branch out more) or up to 7-8 indicas (if they grow in a column). The more plants, the better the yield. I run both bulbs all the time - 1200w is 1200w, and the plants certainly like it! They grow much quicker with more light.

As for the overcrowding question, it's hard to say, because you need to know your strain: how much it branches, how much it stretches, and how tall it finishes. I like tall plants (up to around 150cm, or 5-feet), and I prefer sativas - especially hazes - as they grow long, sticky branches that are easier to weave around the cage. The lights will penetrate big, fat indicas, but they tend to have more brittle branches than sativas, and are harder to weave.

One trick I like to do is alternate my plants - sativa, indica, sativa, indca etc - as the indicas tend to stay shorter and get most of the benefit of the lower lamp, while the sativas can "fan out" at the top and fill the light gaps directly above the indicas - filling the whole screen. They benefit from the top lamp. You can see a bit of an example of this in the photos above, but it's not a good one as I had harvested most of the other plants when I took the photos and am just starting again. That last remaining haze will be harvested the day after tomorrow.

I generally hang the lower lamp one third up the plants and the top lamp two thirds up - the light overlaps in the middle. I raise the lamps as the plants grow.

Thank you, very helpful.