Hi fellow gc members. Been an avid reader on here for a long time and am finally{fingers crossed} close to starting my first grow,was ready before but we had to move house etc Anyway my problem is i only have a hps 600 watt bulb,i have read that its ok to go through veg and flower with this and although it might seem like a stupid question im just wondering should i set my ballast at 600 for the veg or 400 and then up it during 12/12? thanks for your help in advance guys,ive been searching for an answer but no luck
i suppose you could. personally i would just give them all 600w for the entire grow but thats just my opinion. do you think it will help speed things along? or what exactly is the purpose of doing that? im not knockin' it cause i have never tried it, im just curious now :-D lol.
Thanks for the help guys. Im not sure if it will speed it along or not,just assumed they needed more wattage during flower as mh bulbs only seem to go up to 400,as i said its probably a really stupid question but just want to get everything right for my grow and cant find an answer,i think ill just blast those babies with all the light i can give them
I don't know where your looking, but metal halide bulbs go up to and over 1000 watts. I know, I have one. Did you want a 600 watter for it?
Anywhere ive looked they just have 400mh bulbs but im not living in us so maybe its just my retailers! In your opinion do you think using the hps all the way through will effect yield/quality much?
the only reason to tone it down would be if you cant control temps or get close enough without scorching the babies
Like he said, too close an you can end up hurting the babies. I have a 600 watt metal halide an hps with a dimmable ballast, right now running at 75% my plants that are a couple of Weeks old love the light but my seedlings wont pop out under this light strength, so now im putting my babies in the windowsill. I had germinated alot of seeds and the ones I put in the window are sprouting first an they were planted a coupled of days later. IMO you should be at full strength on the plants about half way into your plats veg cycle
thanks guys for the replies,i really appreciate it,excited now im getting closer to my grow! how far do you keep those girls from the light at 75%,i think ill go with that method for first few weeks,thank you ive tried before with bagseed but have had problems but im hoping this time it will click
Right now I have my light 16 inches from the tops of the plants. But I had my seedling in there an didnt sprout as fast as it should have so I had to put in the windowsill.