I am going to start my own new garden soon This will be my first and so I am stocking up on supplies and now I need to make the step of buying a lighting system. I thought it would be a good idea to read a book on growing (Cervante's Horniculture book) before I actually undertook this project and the main question I have is what lighting system should I get? I know I need a Metal Halide (for veg) and High Pressure Sodium (for flowering) and I want to get a system/ballast that is compatible with both types of bulbs and is reliable/high lumen output. I am probably going to grow probably 4 plants in a 4 x 4 x 7.5 room. I was thinking a 400W system would be good right (should I use higher wattage?) maybe something like this? Any suggestions on a system is appreciated, I don't want something cheap but I am by no means rich. Would a price range around 200-300 get me a good system? Guess I am looking for the best bang for my buck Thanks for any suggestions, Blue
400 should be plenty buy you could go larger. Youll also want to get some good exhaust and intake fans. And one thing that can help out with temps is getting an air cooled hood and you can easly get a 400 for your price range, hell i got my 600 watt mh/hps with both bulbs a balast that can handle both bulbs and the air cooled reflector. Just check around on ebay, and also depending on where you live you can check out craigs list. Here is a 400 watt air cooled 400w Lumatek Radiant 6" Air Cooled + 2 Lamps HPS / MH - eBay (item 200433554332 end time Feb-27-10 18:37:51 PST) And here is a 600 watt Digital 600 watt HPS MH GROW LIGHT 600w AIR COOLED HOOD - eBay (item 390086616799 end time Feb-22-10 11:24:14 PST) If you can get some fans the 600 watt would be awesome its what i have and i have a smaller grow than you. And aout the same price as the 400
So it doesn't seem like you are attached to any specific brand or reflective hood, but primarily wattage and air cooled. Is that a fair way to gauge the system or does the reflection have a lot to do with efficiency/should I worry about that? Thanks for the reply OD420, now you have me considering a 600 haha!
I would also advise u to get an air cooled hood. Heat is gonna b your #1 problem with HID lighting. Most of the a/c hoods r more of your higher end hoods, so the reflective material is pretty much the same, can't go wrong there. All digi ballast are MH/HPS compatible so I'd stick with those if that's what you're lookin for. They also run cooler and quieter so that's a plus. Many good name brands, I usually try to buy hydrofarm or some other well known name brand when I'm makin a rather expensive purchase but that's up to u. And go with the 600w IMO, u can never have to much light and the price difference isn't that much for the lumens you're gonna gain. You're on the right track tho, goin str8 to HID, I like that! Good Luck
I was looking for something along the same lines, but I have decided to scale down for the first shot and use a 250w for my whole grow which hopefully will become a veg/clone box later. Are you planning on having a seperate veg area or just using the 600W for the whole life of the plant? To all those those with experience among us. Anything to worry about with a lumatek? I have decided to put off a little bit larger grow but to start out with a small box with 2-3 plants under a 250W. I was going to go ahead and get a MH and an HPS bulb at one time for the start to finish of the grow, but later I plan on using this as a veg/clone box. Any problems with this? Also, is getting the HPS overkill or should I just do the whole thing under the MH? I would love to help you with some suggestions but that would be like the blind leading the blind as this is my first shot at a well planned out indoor grow. Good luck!
Lumatek makes a great ballast I just recently got mine about a month ago and LOVE IT!! Can't go wrong with a lumatek so far so good imo.
I would get a 90 led check out htg supply they have great products and good prices you can find everything you need to grow on their website