Question on MH and HPS bulbs.

I don't use a MH, I veg with CFL, but for HPS the Sunmaster Super HPS is a great bulb.... Heavy on the red spectrum and great for flowering

The Eye Hortilux Enhanced HPS is also a great bulb

 

I agree that CFL's are great for veg. But I only use them for the first 2-3 weeks. I have come to notice veg is slow with CFL's. I would suggest that you spend the money and get a Hortilux Dual Arc Bulb. It has the best of both worlds. MH and HPS all in one! Almost everyone would tell you MH or CFL's for veg, HPS for flowering. I believe using both in veg and flowering is better than using only one. The bulb sells for $200-$260 for the 1000 watt model. I always go Hortilux!!!! Very good bulb!

 

Hortilux is supposed to be good, but i just get whatever is cheapest. I would suggest vegging in cfl, or led if you can afford it. Depending on the size of your rooom, 1000 watts for veg might be overkill. I used to veg under HID, but if you just bloom with HID your plants will be plenty big imo, plus your electric bill will improve.

 

Their is something that you should always remember. You get what you pay for!

 

check out Light bulbs, Rope Lights, Halogen and Fluorescent bulb - 1000-Bulbs - The Light Bulb Superstore it has a shitload of choices + deals if u buy multiple bulbs. i got sum hella cheap 1000 watt hps off there. not the best bulb but for $25-30 a bulb, fuck it. i cant afford $100+ a bulb when ur suppose to replace each bulb after 1 harvest

 

Damn dude! How long are your harvests??? A year? A good quality bulb, such as a Hortilux, will easily last over a year. The problem you run into is after so long, the bulb starts using more energy than it's worth to run it. A hortilux bulb has a life of 10000 hours. That means you can turn it on and it will not burn out for 416 days. Thats with running it 24/7. Know what your talking about before you give advice!!! Misleading is the biggest problem with thinking you know everything.

 

Not always.. You might wanna re-think that..

 

Its never failed me in the past. As far as equipment? Yes! Especially when your talking about bulbs.

 

A wise man once said " Give me Hortilux, or give me death!" Oh wait, that wise man is me! LMFAO!

 

Well if that's the case. You should ask him what he can get his hands on. Then do a little research. Find out what MH's he has puts out the fullest blue spectrum of light. Also find out what HPS's he has puts out the fullest red spectrum of light. Then give me this hook up! lol! J/K

 

A lot of people veg with CFL's. People swear by it. It is cheaper as far as setup and energy. I have done CFL's for veg a couple of times. I found the growth to be a little slow. I sped it up by increasing my CFL's, but at that point it was a hassle. I was also using about the same amount of energy as I would with 1 MH bulb. So I switched to MH. My growth increased greatly. So long story short. I have found it easier for me to use MH because it takes up less room, and my plants get bigger faster. The larger the plant is when switching into flowering, the more flowering sites you have on it.

 

hey, greeny, i know what im talking about, most expert growers advocate switching out hps bulbs every harvest or 2, because of diminishing returns, and while the stated hour supply may calculate out to 400 and whatever days..... by the time you reach HALF that, your bulb is no longer opperating at peak effiency, and isnt throwing out the light it says it is..... if you've grown before than you know what im talking about... you take that old bulb out and pop that new one in and its like "shiitttt, who turned on the lights in this bitch" haha, so much brighter with a new bulb than one thats had 5000 hours of use....

don't get me wrong, you can use an hps bulb till it dies and wont turn on anymore.... just saying advanced growers replace their hps bulbs quite often to acheive peak results... which is all anyone cares about with dank maryjane anyways .

i don't use the expensive bulbs tho... so who knows, maybe those 100 dollar plus bulbs do last a while longer.... but shit, id rather get 3 for the price of 1.... idk about you, but power surges and the like can destroy hps bulbs pretty fast, or maybe you accidently break it and what not... id rather have 3 bulbs laying around with extras then drop 100 bucks on a bulb to have it break 2 months into my grow...


if you can, compare 2 1k lights side by side.... leave one on and in for 6 months... and then replace one of the bulbs after 6 months..... you'll see the difference in new bulbs.... even if they are cheaper...

 

What up Herbal!
As you might of read in my post. I pretty much stated what you just did about bulb losing their effectiveness. But as with dank, I would rather have quality over quantity any day of the week. The better quality of bulb equals better light and better life! A good and cheap example would be to go to the grocery store. Buy a package of GE 100 watt incandescent light bulbs and also a package of Generic 100 watt incandescent light bulbs. Take them home and put them in some light fixtures. Then sit back and look at the difference in quality of a light. Wait a couple of weeks and see which one burns out first. Then think to yourself "If I was a life form that had to live off this shit, which one would I rather be under?"

 

IMO... CFL vegges produce bushier plants and your able to start with fewer bulbs and add as required... you get little to no stretch because your keeping the bulbs at about 4" from the plants

But you cant do this with only a few lil CFLs.. I veg with 12 x 42w 6500k bulbs... for a total of 504w and can easily veg 10 plants under that in a 4x4 area.

 

Exactly. In my rural neck of the woods, we get power surges/brief outages all the damned time. I wouldn't want to be blowing a Hortilux every time one of those things happens.

Rumpleforeskin grows a killer SCROG op, and he advocates cheap HPS bulbs. His photos speak for themselves.