Hey guys, I'm currently running a single 250w Halogen light, and an 80w flourescent light for 3 small plants, and 3 recently sprouted plants. I never really did the research, and was informed that halogen lamps provide the wrong spectrum of light. I've been running the halogen on 2 grand daddy purp clones for almost a month, and they only grew like 3-4 inches. I just bought a 400w HPS and a 400w mh. I plan on running the mh for 1-2 month of vegging on a new clone, and then switching to the HPS for the 2 monthes of flowering. Should I see a dramatic increase in growth? Can anyone give me an estimate of how much i could yeild off of 1 grand daddy purp clone that is vegged for 1.5 months and flowered for 2 months under these 400w lights? It will also be grown hydroponically if that makes a difference. thanks for any help/advice
From Halogen to Metal Halide you should see quite an amazing difference, specially with 400 watts. Nobody can estimate a yield on a plant without at least some pictures in 4th week of flower or later..
that halogen is just burning up money homie! Get that junk outta there and get that MH or HPS in there ASAP! MH for veg HPS for flowering
you should notice a huge difference. when i switched from cfls to HID my plants exploded with growth all over.
so is it that benificial to switch from MH to HPS to flower? I MH works to flower, from what I have read you get better quality from MH and bigger buds from HPS. Anyone have a comment? I didn't want to start a new thread. Thanks
metal halide promotes vegetation and high pressure sodium promotes budding. if you use metal halide to bud, theyre probably going to stretch looking for the right light spectrum.
That is common knowledge. MH come in the blue spectrum which is best for vegetative growth. HPS come in the red spectrum and work best for flowering. You can get enhanced spectrum in either that will give a little of the lesser spectrum but they are still mainly Blue or Red.
Ive found that if you dont want to switch bulbs out or are on a budget and have to choose one or the other that HPS is the one to go with. Just personal experience so don't quote me.
im back, I got the 400w HPS and MH I immediately put them under the HPS because one of them is flowering, I can't set up very good air circulation, so it got pretty hot, and it made my clones start to turn yellow. So i set it up with the MH, and it cooled off a little. I plan to get a clone today, and run the MH on it for 7 days only, then I'm going to put all of my plants into flowering (yes, i know its early for the clone) with the HPS for the next 2-2.5 months. I definately see a difference in the week I've had it for, the plants are growing much faster, but its too hot. i need to find a way to cool it off without drilling a hole in my closet. so i guess i need like a mini air conditioner or something. My 1 plant that is in flowering right now is my first plant that has VERY stunted and retarded growth. Its been flowering for 1 month, and i plan to keep it up for at least another month, maybe 2. I'll post pictures of it, i can't really tell how long i should expect to have to flower it for b/c of its fucked up growth. Its definately budding though. i've been reading up on this site for a while, all the best grow journals are from here, thanks for all the advice!
you really dont have to do any veg on a clone a week is ok as long as it shows roots you can start it on flower whenever it will just yeild less.
I imagine it's been fun seeing what the right lighting can do for your grow. 400 shouldn't be too difficult to cool, but sorry you'll need to cut a hole sometime to make it work. You should be able to effectively cool a 400 with an air cooled hood and a temp controlled exhaust fan for the room air. So go buy a hole saw for the four hole you need to cut. Repairing drywall is easy.
The door is made of redwood, and I can't cut a hole in it. I have the closet doors open slightly to air it out.
what about the ceiling? can you cut that? As mentioned repairing it is easy: Drywall Repair - Popular Mechanics
what lowgrow said. cutting through the wall will be much easier than the door. You're not going to want to leave the door open when they flower. The whole place will reek.