home depot light bulbs vs hydro store light bulb

They work but aren't really geared for growing. The bulbs at the hydro store are spectrum specific for optimal plant growth

 

What do you mean by spectrum specific? What is the ideal spectrum that I should be looking at?

Don't want to highjack any threads, was just wondering and it seems relevant.

 

blah....

unless you're dialed in there is little noticeable difference between standard HIDs and Enhanced .

when you get to peak performance with 30 dollar lamps, then worry about spectrum.

 

an HPS bulb, is an HPS bulb, until, like the above poster said, you've maxxed the potential of everything else.

When you grow, there's 100 factors you can control for. Your light bulb, if it's any kind of hps, will not be the limiting factor in most cases. You'd have to have everything in the world dialed in perfectly, then maybe changing bulbs would make a slight difference. Slight.

Data for this response was compiled from almost 5 years of growing with 4 HID lights. 1000w, 2x600w and a 400w. I've never used anything but the cheapest bulbs.

OP, also, metal halide is best for veg, high pressure sodium is best for flowering.

If you can only get one, get the HPS, it'll work for both. MH sucks for flowering.

Have a good day.

 

[quote name='"Mr Zoot"']

What do you mean by spectrum specific? What is the ideal spectrum that I should be looking at?

Don't want to highjack any threads, was just wondering and it seems relevant.[/quote]

Of course the blue light of the Metal Halide is ideal for vegetative state. High pressure sodium is more in the red spectrum which is better for flower.

As far as the cheap bulb versus a more expensive enhanced bulb. I started growing with a 400w HPS bulb from home depot for I think 25 bucks. I grew with that lamp for 5 months everything was fine. Then I was pretty much talked into buying an Eye Hortilux HPS bulb for 90 bucks. I didn't think it would make that much of a difference. I was wrong. The color alone of the light is more red to orange due to the enhanced blue and red spectrum.

 

Erbalist, it made a difference in that it was more red? Or that you yielded more bud from it?

 

I yielded at a minimum of 35% more dry weight. The buds seemed to be getting smaller but turned out to weight more. Denser buds for sure.

 

That's insane. Was the bulb the only thing that changed from previous grows? Didn't veg longer or change strains? 1/3 more weight from a different bulb? How old was the bulb you replaced!?

 

I was using the home depot one for 4 months. I think they degrade quicker. Once I put in the brand new super HPS my plants didn't stretch as much due to the blue light

Edit: This is all from personal experience and hours and hours of reading on here and all over the net. I have a philosophy " If ur gonna do something, do it right!"

 

I'm getting one. Even though I've debunked a few things here and there. Like for instance, I grow in bubble buckets, and I don't use airstones, just shove 1 air line in the middle of the roots there. Works every time. I've seen people obsess and get scientific about which air stones are better, and how smaller bubbles give you more surface area, and thus more dissolved oxygen and all that, but in the end, all airstones clog, and a single hose in the bucket will grow great plants.

 

I have to agree with you on the airstone thing. I have been looking into "flooming". It's the pretty much the same concept of the air line without stone. The air brings stagnant water from bottom of bucket to get air at the surface and mix back in.

Now flooming is the same concept just using a water pump instead. The theory is that the water pump directs the water at pressure up and braking the surface. Thereby dissolving more oxygen into the bucket.

 

I will be trying that next time, thats a good idea never thought of it.

 

hell yeah

and not only that, "do it right THE FIRST TIME!!!!"

hell, i wish i was lucky enough to have followed that, ended up wasting some decent money on gimmicky stuff

and those gimmicks in turn affected yield, which was a waste of MORE money



anyways, i've used the Super Eye HPS by Hortilux a few times, very awesome....MUCH better than the generic bulbs i've used before.......

this grow i'm trying an Ushio HPS

supposed to be just as good as the Super Eye....we will see

 

yes!

i have also heard of people setting up "water falls" in their control buckets/reservoirs for that exact same purpose

 

Looks like this thread about bulbs turned into an experiment. I am going to side by side use a regular HPS and a hortilux HPS. Let's see the physical side by side. I'm gonna run same nutes, same temperature, same everything. Gonna document it too.

 

I can at least say that I know it's possible to grow dense, frosty nuggets in large quantity with home depot bulbs. If the other ones are better, I'll know next time when I give em a try.