Hi. Ill change my setup and start cloning. Lets pretend that I have: a flower room (probably 2x600w) clones (what lights for clones? CFLs?, fluros? what wattage) vegging plants (thought of using 400W hps) mother plants (again: what lamps to use? 400w hps for 6 motherplants?) the good thing is that i still have 2x400w balasts, bulbs etc. so i wouldnt have to buy them. also is 400w for 6 mothers good to keep them healthy and strong? thanks for help
So many ways to go about answer this question. I'm going to answer it by telling you what I would do, if I was in your current situation. First, if you're thinking about buying 2 - 600w hps, I would reconsider it. Unless you want to flower more than 10 plants at a time, I would use the 2 - 400w HPS that you already have for flowering. For keeping the mothers happy, and starting clones, I really think that CFL's are the best way. HPS's will let the clones and the mother's stretch. You do NOT want stretchy mothers because you'll get a long thick stem, and not as much branching as you would like. CFL's will keep your plants bushy, and be great for taking clones from. The other advantage of using CFLs for vegging is the fact that they cost less to run than the HPS does. I only use my HPS for flowering because in terms of cost, it's less efficient than my CFLs. So, I guess if I already had 2 400 watt HPS lights, I would use them to flower, and then invest some money in some T5s for clones, vegging, and mother plants. Like I said they cost less to run, keep the plant bushy, and aren't as hot. I hope I answered that well.
