Lighting horizontal or vertical?

[SkatterBrayne]

Hanging your light vertically can actually be significantly superior to hanging it horizontally due to the additional square footage of canopy you can obtain by growing AROUND the bulb instead. So no, you do not NEED a reflector whatsoever. I have transitioned to vertical style growing, and will never look back.

That being said, whether or not your skill level, and strains are conducive to growing vertically is the real question. It requires knowing your strains very well, training, and defoliating to achieve good results. Vigorous sativa hybrids with minimal foliage fair the best.

Check out the "Vertical" sections on some other websites for more information, I have never seen a vertical journal on AFN to my knowledge

 

[H9_Danny]

At the start of your grow, you are better to use a reflector as it will direct all the light downwards. If you hang vertically (at the start) then a lot of the light will be thrown above the plants.
I would start with the reflector & 250/300w lamp and then as they gain height, I would add a vertical lamp as well (even a 125w) for that extra boost.

H9

 

[a senile fungus]

Check out the "Vertical" sections on some other websites for more information, I have never seen a vertical journal on AFN to my knowledge

My lights are vertical, but on the side... and all for one plant

As for light in the center vertical growing, that seems like it would more advantageous for photos IMO because you can control their veg times . it would definitely be cool to see with autos though


@OP

I remember reading a good write up about lumens and PAR and PUR and all that jazz and it showed, with some type of light meter, that CFLs throw more light from the sides than the top. So you want the spirals of the light facing the plant, not the plant looking through a tube. Does that make sense? Think of it like a spring, you want to be able to see the most amount of coils, not look through the spring

 

[SkatterBrayne]

I am currently experimenting with a vertical 600w with autos. I am breeding my strain to try and dial in their height, as well as a growth structure that is conducive to vert (As well as stress resistance to handle training an trimming). It is off to a promising start, and I look forward to posting my results after I dial it in a little bit.

As for the CFL s, you're right. They don't illuminate from the top(or bottom, depending on orientation. Hanging vertically ABOVE your plants will result in ALOT of stretching, and much less lateral growth.

 

[a senile fungus]

I am currently experimenting with a vertical 600w with autos. I am breeding my strain to try and dial in their height, as well as a growth structure that is conducive to vert (As well as stress resistance to handle training an trimming). It is off to a promising start, and I look forward to posting my results after I dial it in a little bit.

As for the CFL s, you're right. They don't illuminate from the top(or bottom, depending on orientation. Hanging vertically ABOVE your plants will result in ALOT of stretching, and much less lateral growth.

I'm very interested in this, but it still seems that autos will be too short to take full advantage. Either way, I'm still liking forward to seeing what you've got going on over there...

Sounds like you've got it under control.

Good luck!