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lighting Vertical chilli grow indoors 600w MH/HPS lighting

V

Vertically Challenged

Just something I have on the go at the moment some chilli and tomato plants under a MH light mostly but sometimes I swap the HPS in for a couple of days. There's a selection of Chilli plants in here I've found some are more suitable than others for growing indoors under lighting.
 
I forget everything in there but's there's Bird's eye, Naga, Scorpion Morich, Ring of fire and others in there.
 
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These were taken a little while ago (10 days or so) there's been a fair bit of growth since then and some chillies (and all tomatoes) are showing flowers I will start hand pollinating next week.
 
It's costs me £7 a week roughly in electricity lighting is 600w and grow tent is 1.5m. 1/2 the plants are hydroponic in fytocell and the other 1/2 compost fed normal grow shop style soil nutrients.
 
I will remember my proper camera tomorrow and update they have grown quite a bit.
 
These are the tomatoes yesterday (I have now trimmed and netted the tomatoes) unfortunately the pictures of the chillies didn't come out phone cameras are really not suitable for taking photo's under HID lighting.
 
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Thanks these plants are ~6 weeks old from seed I got them about 4 weeks ago as plug plants and vegged them up for 2 weeks (125w cfl) before I put them into the vertical system 14 days ago (The first pics are from then)
 
These were from 2 days ago, growing under lighting it's shocking how quickly they grow in comparison to outdoors (UK) I checked this morning and I have flowers opening up on 40% of the Chillies now I shall start pollinating tomorrow.
 
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The chilli plants look small next to the tomatoes because the tomatoes over grew them before I netted them back I started more plants than I need so I shall simply remove that stack of chillies the vertical grow system  is dynamic so you rearrange to suit the grow area on the fly. My plant to light distance is on average 22"'s (55cm) which is on the limit of how far you should go.
 
I will probably top most of the chillies tomorrow and give them a good trim.
 
Thanks
 
This is my first indoor grow with this setup I already know what I will do differently next time there's plenty of potential for growing plants on the floor as well I was thinking strawberries in a 2 foot tray under the light dead centre of tent and lettuces packing out the rest of the floor space. The longer term goal here is to create more edible food from the tent than I can buy equiv in a supermarket excluding value branded products for the costs of running the tent. It's also nice growing flowering plants over winter feels like you've brought a little bit of summer indoors.
 
I topped some of the chillies today and snipped some leaves off other chillies to see how they respond, I noticed flowers forming on all the chillies I checked, there's too many chillies I will rejig the tent whilst I can still move the tomatoes I want to create 1 wall of tomatoes and 3 walls of chillies I will end up with 1 too many stacks of chillies for the space I will remove the 3 worst plants and restack as need although I need to keep hydro stacks as hydro and soil stacks as soil.
 
Hydro is definetly outperforming the soil both handwatered harder to tell with the tomatoes but with the chillies it's far more prominent.
 
Definately looking good. Excellent use of space, you have already fit more plants in the space than you would have if it were arranged horizontally instead of vertically. The plants will not likely be able to grow as large, but they should be dense and bushy. I forsee quite a bit of trimming, and thick/sturdy bonzai-like branches in the future!

I would be very careful if you plan to save seeds for any of these due to the close proximity of a wealth of flowering peppers.

I have also heard of, and experienced tomatoes turning out spicy from peppers being nearby. This happened with an early jalapeno and yellow pear tomato.
 
Excellent spicy tomatoes sounds like the perfect combination :)
 
If need be I can rearrange the plants and remove stacks as needed to maximise the space and plant growth.
 
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I'd like to do something like I did with my tomatoes but I think I could do going with a larger tent for something like that.
 
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Thanks
Vertically Challenged
 
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I think it's time to up the EC still running at 1.2 thinking 1.4 I might stick with grow formula until chillies are forming them swap them to a bloom formula. Whne I use a bloom formula I was thinking to upping the ec to 1.8. I've read chillies can take it hotter than that but I'm very wary of over feeding them. I've also found keeping the ec's on the low side improves taste at the expensive of yield. I'm certain yield will not be the issue here ha ha ha.
 
I'm moving the plants and resetting the tent in a couple of weeks with scorpion clones (All a clone from the same plant) 36 of them, my friend has agreed to squeeze them in the 1.2m tent and will add another light. Tomatoes will go in heated conservatory with an led supplementing natural lighting.
 
The most annoying thing is something has been eating the plants some form of insect (Looks like caterpiller but shouldn't be any around now) I have no signs of gnats or mites though so could be worse. I'm moving my tent when I strip the plants out as it's getting cold where it is now the other spot I have to put it was far too hot 4 weeks ago but is now becoming very viable once I put a hole in the wall.
 
I think I might go for 60 plants when I reset with 2 600w or maybe push the boat out with 3 600w and 72 pots.
 
I might even get a bigger tent to simplyfy my life or build a plywood room (The best choice) 8 foot*8 foot*8 foot then I can properly seal it up and add co2.
 
I moved some of the plants today we're adding a 2nd 400w lamp tomorrow (We waiting for another cool tube to be delivered).
 
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My tent will get reset took some clones but going to start a load of seeds to cover the bases. I might upgrade to a 2m*2m*2m tent and use both tents I have plenty of space I could easily build a 10m*4m*3m grow room if I wanted BUT I could not afford to light it ha ha ha.
 
slade122 said:
Definately looking good. Excellent use of space, you have already fit more plants in the space than you would have if it were arranged horizontally instead of vertically. The plants will not likely be able to grow as large, but they should be dense and bushy. I forsee quite a bit of trimming, and thick/sturdy bonzai-like branches in the future!I would be very careful if you plan to save seeds for any of these due to the close proximity of a wealth of flowering peppers.I have also heard of, and experienced tomatoes turning out spicy from peppers being nearby. This happened with an early jalapeno and yellow pear
tomato.
Click to expand...
a tomato and pepper can never cross pollinate to make a tomato spicy. This phenomenon of spicy tomatoes is probably what I like to call "ghost heat" where you chop up a spicy pepper clean the utensil and capsaicin being an oil is left behind unknowingly then transfers to your next meal or chopped item. It has happened to me multiple times
 
Fascinating ! I think that gardeners of illegal herbs call this a 'V-SCROG', or 'vscrog' ( acronym for "vertical screen of green ). Growshop suppliers market a prefab product based on this technique called 'The Cage'.

I plan on something like this, but smaller. You might save me months of error. Please tell me : which varieties have performed best in this arrangement for you ?

Would a semi-dwarf strain like 'Yucatan White Habanero' perform well in this ? Photos suggest its growth habit consists of less brittle limbs. This would be handy when you have to work on them in this confined space.
 
We confused the varieties doh! but I can say from experience anything with small leaves seem unsuitable.
 
The first ones in a 1.2m tent were labelled up I will check next time I go up there and give you a better answer.
 
Now I've upgrade my membership I should mention I'm the inventor of these pots and manufacturer I will be selling them shortly (2-3 weeks) just ironing the last bugs out. But I also love chillies of course :)
 
I'm UK based shipping to US would likely be prohibitive with import tax.
 

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Totally awesome! I have for quite sometime contemplated going vertical with my indoor setup. Been working on how to set up the air pots I want to use. This is just to cool! How do like using the 400's?  I'm just setting up my 4x8 tent and running 2  600's. 1 per side. Was really looking at the heat issue. I assume thats why you have the cool tube. Cheers!
 
Hi thanks, the 400w's are in a 1.2m tent (2 of them) and we use cool tubes with them becasue it's an active grow shop (Don't want people burning themselves) when I run them I run bare lamp my gut is telling me 20% yield decrease with a tube when growing vertically but that's pure gut feeling. The UK is getting colder my issue is getting them hot enough not them being too hot.
 
I far prefer my 600w but I have a 1.5m tent (Essential if you go full 360 degree coverage).
 
Of course not all chillies will be suitable although so far I've tried 14 different types of chillies and only the Apache's have HATED the indoor lighting everything else I'm certain I can bring to harvest.
 
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