Basic Vertical Grow Room Construction

vertical hydroponics gardening grozine erik biksa

Basic Vertical Grow Room Construction

Stacking Yields UP Using Grow Lights in Hydroponics Gardening

Edition TEN Grozine, Biksa’s Grow Room  By Erik Biksa

[quote]Growing hydroponically will give you more cropping potential every 12 months, because with higher levels of dissolved oxygen coupled in an optimal growing environment you can achieve faster growth rates while harvesting and getting planted again quicker with less work.[/quote]

Q:
I have been growing for a while, and like some of the other growers I know, it’s time to change things up a bit to keep up with the times. Collectively, some friends and I have access to quite a large inventory of industrial growing equipment like HID lighting, air conditioners, climate controls, etc. Most of the gear was enlisted for use in growing large plants.We thought we might start off with some vertical cropping experiments-any suggestions forbasic vertical grow room construction, and how best we can adapt what we already have to growing with the times?

veg e systems vertical hydroponics growing

Above: Successful vertical hydroponics crop production via Veg-E-Systems

A:

Great stuff here-sounds like you are most of the way there via your collective thinking out of the box in starting off with basic vertical grow room construction.

It wouldn’t take too much to take some of your existing growing operations and convert them to “double decker” or “triple decker” grows using your existing HID lighting systems as a Finishing Stage.

Obviously, the limitation with HID lighting, especially higher wattages, is the amount of heat they produce and how close you can get vertical racks of tender greens to the HID light source. Air-cooled lighting and dimmable digital ballasts can help here a bit too.

If you already have some T-5 fluorescent units, or better yet some LED or Induction Lighting, you can tighten up things in the earlier stages of plant development by keeping higher linear planting densities and stacking racks of young plants tighter in your vertical space. This will keep your lighting and cooling electrical costs down while making the best use of space available because you are growing with maximum efficiency.

Growing hydroponically will give you more cropping potential every 12 months, because with higher levels of dissolved oxygen coupled in an optimal growing environment you can achieve faster growth rates while harvesting and getting planted again quicker with less work.

Fast crop turn-around times and healthy plants also help to avoid needing to use synthetic or organic controls for pests or diseases, versus conventional agricultural growing methods.

Low in height profile hydroponics systems like NFT or flood and drain are great for getting transplants off to a strong start-and lots of them-in the same space versus soil and container growing methods.

The plants can go through different stages, for example they get moved onto the next stage in 10 day intervals, which allows for more space and more light to keep up with plant development. Ultimately, in the final stages, your existing “big guns” (the HID lighting) can promote a strong finish. If you grow crops for resin contents, check out using Far-Red sources from LEDs, like these “Pontoons” from Inda-Gro. These can be added to existing lighting systems for marked improvements.

Fast growing crops that are proven producers in hydroponics include Genovese Basil, a wide variety of lettuce, edible flowers and an array of nutraceutical crops.

BTW, we’re going to be some of the same here at Grozine, so stay tuned for our updates-and please feel free to check in with yours here too:) Good luck, and good growing.

Highest Regards, Erik Biksa

 

Want to SEE More of what successful vertical gardening looks like?  Visit Veg-E-Systems on FaceBook.
About Erik Biksa 245 Articles
Erik Biksa has been writing about and discussing hydroponics growing, related technologies and cropping methods since 1999 in a variety of professional publications and platforms globally Erik has travelled the world learning and teaching modern growing techniques and technologies and is appreciated by many growers for his informative yet hands on approaches. Presently, he is the Editor at Grozine Hydroponics Mag.