Vertical lighting

I’ve had another brain fart. Is there a specific bulb or hood for vertical lighting or can a horizontal fixture be mounted vertically I ask because I have a spare horizontal hood, hps bulb and ballast with no space up top to mount them. Looked at it last night and it looked so wrong to the point of being dangerous. Obviously CFL or led lend themself to this but HPS or MH just looked and felt wrong

You already have a HPS hood?

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I believe they can be run vertical, I have never had an issue with it, as long as the distance from the plant is maintained.

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It’s more of a heat vs moisture issue for hps.

Those bulbs get to a point where if you hit them with any water they will practically explode. All I can say is becareful

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I bought a vented hood recently and swapped it for my existing unvented hood. I thought about using it vertically but didn’t look right

Good point about the moisture. I’m thinking that a CFL would be a better choice as exploding arc lamps don’t sound too appealing

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Yeah, I’ve seen HPS hoods that have shield glass protecting the bulb. The have vents in the hood, so my only concern would be making sure they didn’t accumulate heat due to the new orientation.

Of course, mounting would be a little more complicated too.

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I keep fans on my ballasts to keep their temp down and it works really well with just a 6" fan. It should keep too much moisture from collecting as well. Couldn’t you do the same with an HPS, or am I missing something here?

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Any moisture on a hps bulb could potentially cause it to explode, don’t know about yours but water builds up naturally thru the humidity levels in the air throughout my grow space.

I would be worried the humidity levels could cause a hps light that is installed sideways up the wall to collect droplets on its surface this causing a catastrophic failure of the unit.

Misting or foliar spraying could also cause this potential hazard… get a led light bar and call it a day

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Are you planning on growing vertical? Why not go without hood and run canopy around the bulb?

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Hang the bulb like a conventional light bulb and wrap my plants around it ?

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Mounting was the issue I faced. It just looked wrong. Been a few good suggestions about light bars, pharmerbob raised a good point about moisture build up as well. Good idea with the fan on the ballast. Another good shout was removing the hood completely and hang the bulb like a conventional bulb

Ya. Have you looked into vertical farming?

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I have looked at this type of design before but have never implemented one. The idea being more canopy surface area. Would love to hear any first hand accounts of this growing method.

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It’s what I thought you were looking to do when I read topic. If not, sorry.

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it wasn’t my topic, not sure if that was what he was looking for? I have run them vertical focusing in on a single plant, but not in the middle shining out to a SOG

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This is my second grow and I’m just looking at options to maximize my lighting. The vertical growing looks interesting. I have 7 plants that are 2 weeks old and looking to put things in place just now. I like the idea of side lighting hence the post

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Not sure why you wouldn’t just run horizontally if you’re running pretty standard grow?

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Just exploring my new hobby really. My 7 seedlings are grow number 3 and I found myself looking at the benefit of using spare lighting as side lighting as there is currently no space up top. I have an 8x4x6 tent and right now I’m only using half, hence the spare hood. I have one monster clone top in flower right now with 3-4 weeks still to go and my 7 seedlings are in a makeshift tent with 2 LED flood lamps on 18/6. I can’t partition my tent because it needs nuked due to mites. Can’t harvest because it’s way too early so just looking at options right now. If I can push my clone on using side lighting then that’s what I will do so I can go back to a conventional grow again. Hence the post :sunglasses:

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That’s answered my question regarding hanging my bulb vertically. It can be done but to do it safely it needs to be protected by a sleeve.

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