Just trying to plan a first grow and having a little difficulty with the lighting. Ok, so im planning on growing 4 plants in a continuous cycle... That means 4 in flower in one box and 4 in veg in another - seperate boxes so to speak, 8 total at all times. Trying to veg with CFLs first. Then a HPS for flowering. What wattages would I be looking for in CFLs for the veg cycle? Would 2 25w bulbs be good for each plant? Less than that? Would I need a ballast for the hps? What wattage for the flowering? Leave your input! Gracias
i'd go for about 250w-300w for veg, yes you will need a ballast, and using hps causes heat so it really depends on what area you are working with and if you can keep it cool and well ventilated, but generally speaking you want a minimum 250w hps for 4 plants but id go with a 400w but that's just my opinion.
Yeah when flowering your going to want 100watts per plant, so for your 4 flowering plants a 400watt hps would do fine Sent from my C6506 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Alright, how about for 2 plants each, 4 in total? A 250w hps for flowering those two? And is a MH bulb better than using CFLs in this case for vegging? If so whay wattage for the MH and has how may it compare to vegging with just CFLs?
yeah that would work you could even put 3 under that, imo mh & hps are better than cfl's but i'm sure there will be someone to disagree but as i said its just my opinion, i'd get a 250w mh and do 3 and 3.
Awesome, thank you for the input man So now my question is, will I need two ballasts, one for each light? & How much would those two lights themselves impact the bills?
yes you'll need 2 ballasts, i think ballasts use about 40w then 250w for the light then say 75w for each fan, during veg with 1 light 1fan and 1ballast on 24 hours a day at the rate of 13p per kilowatt will cost around £1.25 a day then when your flowering you'll be using the same amount for half the amount of time so around 70p so your looking at around £2 a day roughly in the uk dont know what the rates are in the us if your from there.
I'm new as well but to me it seemed that even 500w was barely enough (running 1000w ballast at 50% capacity). I have a 125 watt compact fluorescent grow light which does wonders on anything else; I got from Hibiscus to Orchids from seed until maturity with only that light but when I had 2-3 weeks old, 4-5 inch tall weed plants at just a few inches from the light, even that didn't seem to be doing much as the plants grew only maybe 2-3 cms in a week. I got my whole ballast kit, 1000w ballast, 1 MH and 1 HPS bulb, a huge umbrella with the light socket, a timer, and the hanger thingies for the fixture, and the whole package cost around 220 dollars on sale. I've seen similar setups for 400 and 600 systems as low as low 100's. I think it's really worth it especially if you are going to be using them on a regular basis. Of course it would be too much for a single cycle use but I think it was worth every penny for me as I plan on continuing to grow year round. I had 2 400w ballasts before and never had a need for anything higher but I'm glad I I got the 1000w one. One died a couple of years back and if it hadn't, I would have probably given 2x400w a shot but I jumped at the 1000w when I saw the deal.
I have a 4ft x 4ft partition I made that's 3.5ft high with mylar sheets hanging, and the 1000w is illuminating just that area. The whole room is lights up like my grandma's birthday cake but that's where I have the plants So far I have 2 in 7gallon containers but may be adding 3 to 6 more soon. I have 3 that are about to get out of seedling phase soon and 3 that are just starting to develop. The umbrella is 42 by 13 inches and covers that area quite well. If the plants were tall and my ceiling was high enough, I think I could use the whole room from wall to wall