Vertical growing method is the most efficient way to grow herbs and produce
indoors. Thought the concept has been around for quite a while, it is only recently that
it started to be implemented for commercial produce growing.
Vertical Hydroponic growing system allows you to maximize yields by using both: space and
electricity more efficiently than conventional horizontal grow setups. This optimization of
resource use is achieved via application of several rather simple geometric concepts which
allow for the resources wasted in horizontal setups to be directed to do useful work.
There are three main ways reasons Vertical Method is more efficient:
Vertical Space above the lights:
In most conventional horizontal setups the space above the lights in a grow room is not
used at all.The only way it can be used is by growing plants very tall to fill that space.
Tall plants however are not using artificial light efficiently because of light dispersion phenomena:
Light dispersion:
The intensity of light is decreased exponentially as the distance from the light source increases:
Meaning that only the top leaves of tall plants receive adequate intensity of light, while their
lower foliage never does. The best solution to this problem is growing several short plants,
instead of one tall plant. Instead of growing one 4 foot plant it is more effective to grow four 1 foot
plants over the same area. This way all the leaves will receive the required 10,000 lumens of
light. (See illustration 1)
This solution is called See Of Green (SOG) method. It is extremely effective in dramatically
increasing yields per watt as well as shortening harvest times for photosensitive plant varieties,
as the plants are put into flowering cycle as soon as they enter the system from the cloner.
