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Heath Robinson Vertical Garden Racks: Part 1

Heath Robinson Vertical Garden Racks archived from the HG420 Forums  12th April 2007, 05:06 AM

 

Heath Overgrow.png

Here is my latest vertical creation, its still work in progress and wont be up and running until the middle of next week.
It will hold 80+ plant sites, using 7.5 litre square pots. The lighting is 2 x 600w Hps hung vertically and the internal area is 4 ft x 6ft. The pots will be fed by individual drippers.
Hope you like!

Heath Robinson Vertical Garden Racks

 

Heath Robinson Vertical Garden Racks 1

How the pots will sit in the frame

 

How the pots will sit in the frame 1

 

Next two pics show hangers for guttering which returns nutrient from the bottom of the pots
to the res.

Next three pics show hangers for guttering which returns nutrient from the bottom of the pots to the res.

Next three pics show hangers for guttering which returns nutrient from the bottom of the pots to the res. 1

Return guttering in place at the corner of the vertical.

The next two pics show how the return guttering is connected to the lower level.

The next two pics show how the return guttering is connected to the lower level.

The next two pics show how the return guttering is connected to the lower level. 1

And the pots in place waiting for me to connect the drippers.

And the pots in place waiting for me to connect the drippers.

And the pots in place waiting for me to connect the drippers. 1

19th April 2007, 05:56 AM
I will try and answer a few of the questions,

 

FOE
the corner plants will still receive over 20,000 lumens so I am hoping that they will do ok.

 

Kilo,
The pots are 6.5 litre and the feed pipes are open ended with no drippers fitted, I am mostly
growing from seed under 12/12 so hopefully they will “lollypop” themselves.

 

Bannan,
I have about 30 AKxO Misty cuttings I want to run through, the rest are from seed I have
sprouted about 60 NLxG13W S1’s and the next seeds I will run are Critical Mass feminised.

 

doctordubs,
The room is 6ft high but the hight of the vertical is about 4 ft, there will be two 600w hps
hung side by side. I will post up more detailed pics when it is fully up and running.

 

Hash
I thought those hoops would be great for growing outdoors in soil, it has got to be worth a go!

 

P-Unit
The system looks complicated but is in fact very simple, the pots are fed through dripper pipe
which enters through the top wall of the pot (the latest pics show this better than I can
explain. The nutrient falls through the pot and is collected in the gutter. This in turn runs to
the gutter below, until eventually returning to the reservoir where it is pumped back to the
drippers to start the cycle once again.

 

Moggs ,
Wickes actually for the wood its a bit cheaper! lol.
There are four sides to it with a 18 inch opening to get into it. The inspiration comes from my
m8’s green house where he has them stacked on shelves back to back in the center of the
greenhouse.

 

n3w,
The feed pipe actually enters about a third of the way down the pot, I had to do this as I didnt
want to use dripper spikes (can block) and because the pot is on an angle you cannot fill it to
the top with pebbles.

 

PederseN,
The capillary action of the hydroton is very good if you water with enough flow all the
pebbles will be wet. I will let the roots do their own thing.
This vertical was designed to allow me to grow out a lot of seeds, I am looking for a perfect
strain which would grow from a cutting to a decent hight and yield well under 12/12 of
lighting without a veg period.
Here are some more pics, I am a bit annoyed with myself as I took some detailed pics of the
setup in the dark and didnt realise that they were all out of focus! so you will have to make do
with these until I get chance to take some more.
I have run into a slight problem as my 4000l pump isnt good enough to run all the drippers so
I am getting a better one today and hopefully will be able to show you a full system on the
next update.

 

Feed pipes running:

Feed pipes running:

On the bottom row you can see how the water saturates the pebbles, the two pots on the left
hand side have had 5 mins of water the two on the right have just been put in:

On the bottom row you can see how the water saturates the pebbes, the two pots on the left hand side have had 5 mins of water the two on the right have just been put in:

heath_vertical_Page16_Image1

And finally some of the V3 S1’s grown under 12/12 from birth, waiting patiently to
go into the system:

And finally some of the NLxG13/W S1's grown under 12/12 from birth, waiting patiently to go into the system:

19th April 2007, 08:33 AM
Cheers greekgrower,
Hi stackin,
The S1 means “selfed” I reverse sexed my NLxG13/W and pollinated an identical clone of the NLx so in effect it was self pollinated. The pollen from a reversed sex female has no Y chromosome so all the resulting seeds are female. The Critical Mass which I will be running later was produced using two separate CM females, I reverse sexed one of them and pollinated the other, so in this case they are feminised seeds. hope that made sense.

 

Hi POT, great questions m8.

 

I have made the sure that the return guttering has a slight slope on it so there is no standing nutrients in the system. You are right about me using pots so I can move them around if I need to,

I will take a closer pic of the pot and feed pipe and you will see that it enters the pot through a small hole, it is very easy to slide the tube out and back in again. I need to be able to juggle these pots around due to the uneven growth I would expect from seeds. It literally takes about 10 seconds to place the pot and fit the tube.

 

Hi Soul,
I am pleased you like the NLxG13/W, I really like it too!. I have already grown out 60 of these S1’s 12/12 from seed and they did very well if a little on the short side. So I might have to play around with the veg times and possibly give them a few days veg before 12/12 but we will see.

 

Hey kopite,
No varnish on this grow, if I have got it wrong you will be able to see it self destruct before your very eyes! lol.

 

Hi POT,
I am hoping this will be a good way of growing out lots of seed using very little power. There should be plenty of root space even with the small amount of medium. I nearly built this system just to take 3 inch rock wool blocks because I know they will support a decent plant.

So with the block and the 5L of Hydroton I should be ok. I rarely use drippers as I prefer to water quickly and I don’t trust the slow drippers not to clog, the only downside in using open pipes is you need a much larger pump to supply them.
Hi Pete ,
I have seen the “Maze” it looks a good idea if a little pricey (£3000 for the system and you have to fit your own dripper system). Do you know how the used nutrients are collected?. I would love to do a grow in a Pi rack and see how I did, I have seen a couple of grows with them but they didn’t turn out too well, I would like to see if it was grower error or if the system is flawed.

 

GD,
I hope from the latest pics you will see how it works, I have taken some detailed shots to help understand the system better. I prefer concrete floors as they stay cool and are good to sit a res on but other than that no reason, if I was growing in a bedroom for example I would just sit the system on a pond liner. Whenever I build any system I try to make it as reliable as possible, if you look at the latest pics you will see the main feed pipes are sat in the gutter, this is to eliminate the chance of leaks where the feed pipes are joined to it by nipples.

 

Nowthen Cone ,
Yes the female used for the seeds is the same one you have, I have already done a test run and they turned out really nice, the only issue for me is growing 12/12 from seed I might have to veg for a couple of days to get the hight right.

The AK x Omisty is a cracking plant, I have run her quite a lot. The two mature plants which are in the latest picks are the AK x omisty. I like her that much I have reversed her sex and am in the process of making S1 seeds to run through this system.

 

Heath.

Reversed Female:

 

Hey GG,
When you told me of your idea of the shoe racks and looked at them I thought what a brilliant idea! lol. I cant wait to see yours up and running!. I use the blue drippers in my Wilma systems and you are right they are a lot better than the slow ones. The reason I didn’t use them here is I wanted the feed pipe the come through the side of the pot and be an interference fit so there was no danger of it falling or getting pulled out.
Good to see that someone else has crazy ideas, i dont know if mine are as crazy as your underground grow but they come close!!

Here are the latest pics, showing a bit more detail of how the system works: Here is the feed pipe entering the pot, it is a tight fit so it shouldn’t fall out:

 

 Here is the feed pipe entering the pot, it is a tight fit so it shouldn't fall out:

 

another view of the feed pipe

 

 

And with the plant in place:

 

I love this pic! it shows the pots draining into the return guttering

 

Click Here For Part 2 

One Comment

  1. Are these v3’s a thing of the past or can one still get a cd with their music playing? One of my favorite systems to come back and look at.

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