Hi. I went to Home Depot to buy a Metal Halide bulb, which I believe is needed for marijuana growing. I asked them there if I could put it into a normal lightbulb socket, tried it there, and failed. I then proceeded to buy a cheap 500W Halogen worklight to grow with. I had sprouts growing under sunlight but it's getting cold and I need to improvise by moving indoors. I have a concrete crawlspace with electricity I can use. The 500W Halogen worklight killed my sproutlings. They had barely gotten their first pointy leaves out and when I found them the next day they were dry and wilted, dead in the soil, which was damp btw. I found another light in my house that was originally used to light/warm a reptile cage. There are pictures of it below. Will it work as an alternative growlight? Even though you can't really see it in the second picture, it gives sort of a warm, orange-yellow light. It also has a mirrored shade.
Depends on what type of lightbulb is inside that thing...but I would guess "no" Go back to home depot and grab some CFL (compact flourescent) bulbs...Daylight variety...largest wattage you can find. They screw into a regular socket and will work well for plants. Do a search here for tons of more info. Heh, return that Halogen light too...use that money to buy the CFLs. A Metal Halide bulb requires a ballast to run. That's basically a small battery for it...Home Depot won't have it, I believe, your best bet to find one is to order online or go to a hydro/grow shop
hey man, Okay first off you can't grow with halogens, at all. They don't put out any sort of useful light for growing. Also, a MH light will not work in a normal 120V socket. It needs to have a ballast, which I won't explain but you can find info on them and other lights on here. As far as the reptile light goes, doesn't look very substantial as far as a grow light, but it will do better than te halogen. It's probably 2700K if the color of the light is orange. You'll need 6500K "daylight" lights for growing, and the 2700K for flowering. Look at CFLs if you don't wanna go with Ballast MH/HPS light route. Best of luck man! -Kyung Yi
FYI, when it comes to CFLs, the "actual" wattage is what to pay attention to, not the "incandescent equivilant" wattage. Basically, the smaller number is what matters. You'll need at least one 26w CFL (that's 100w equivilant..) for ONE plant...at least, and even with that you won't have a decent yield. General rule is 100w for first plant, add 50w for each one after that. http://forum.grasscity.com/general-indoor-growing/122824-kamels-cfl-guide.html CFL sticky...read ALL stickies on this board before growing, by the way. You will be glad you did.
hi, as mentioned halogens dont work also nither will the reptile light as its a heat lamp, you dont need to use lights that produce lots of heat, infact alot of people have trouble keeping temps down, ideal temps for MJ growing are 75-79f, CFL's are a good cheap route to go