Ok, I've been doing a whole lot of browsing around on the best veg lights and best bulb color temp for veg. From the looks of this chart it seems 6000k and 5500k are better color temps than 6500k. Anyone know anything on this subject? I need a good 400w mh, the one I have is 4k and causes stretching, yellowing of leaves and really slow growth. I already have a 6400k 200w cfl with reflector, but I would like more lumens with a good mh bulb in the perfect color temp to run in my cool tube. Thanks!
It's always been my understanding that 6500K is the best. I'm not sure how much I believe that chart, according to that chart 5000K has very little abosorbtion but I've been having good results with them. IMO 5000K and up is good but anything below 5000K would be sub par. I would personally go with 6500K if you can then maybe throw a little 2700K supplemental lighting in there for a little mixed spectrum.
I always thought 6500k was best too. I used a bunch of little 23w 6500k cfl bulbs before and the plants were damn near perfect during veg. The problem was I had to use a bunch of them (with cords everywhere) and keep them really close to the plant. In keeping them that close to the plant I would have to constantly keep a close eye on them because the plant would end up growing and touching the bulbs, constantly having to adjust everything. I've used mh before also, but they didn't turn out near as nice as when I used the 6500k CFL's. Seems hard to find a really good mh bulb. I've been reading also that certain mh bulbs aren't good to used with certain ballast (magnetic / digital). I have a 400w digital 60hz.
To deal with all the wires what I do is get one of those outlet strips and use adapters to plug my lights into the outlet strip. Only wire is from the strip itself. And its great because it allows them to be on their sides which is the best positioning for CFL: lighting. What I would recommend is use T5's until they get established then put them under the MH.
Yeah, I would take a cord socket and connect three "Y" shaped 2 socket connectors to it creating a 4 bulb socket, but it's still kinda hit and miss with getting the bulbs exactly where they need to be. I used a power bar also with the plug socket adapters plugged into it, but it was still kimd of a pain. I'll post a pic of how I used to make mine in a sec.
I haven't used the T5's yet, but I'm seriously contemplating on trying them out. They only thing is price , for a T5 deal I could probably find a mh bulb with way more lumens for the same price or even cheaper, but the actual color temp "6500k" and PAR Lumens is my concern with the mh bulbs.
Anyone ever used this brand or this actual bulb? http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/sunmaster-400w-cool-deluxe-universal-metal-halide-bulb-p-1425.html
Got a AgroMax MH 6500k and so far it it doing great. The only thing is it will not run on a electronic ballast, had to buy another magnetic ballast to use it, but either way. More light is never a bad thing as long as its the right spectrums. The AgroMax is a 400w with 35,000 Lumens, but I added a 250 EYE Hortilux Super HPS to the mix for extra kick.