what kind of results should i expect vegging with 400 watt hps. ive always used cfls but it would be so much easier if i could do hps from start to finish. untill i find a mother i want. thanks in advance
In a few words: you will notice vast improvements In a few more words, your plants will sex faster, grow more rapidly, and they will build the proper frame work needed to hold up a greater quantity of bud once you do begin blooming. There's no reason you wouldn't want to use a superior light source all the way through, unless you were intentionally trying to inhibit and restrict growth pre-bloom, perhaps due to height issues.
Your plants will stretch a little more under HPS than they would under MH during veg but they'll do fine. I've done it a few times in the past.
wow thanks badkitty i thought so but always hear light spectrum. i just had to start over because of a move Iuse a bubble cloner and mother in past grows but im starting with seedand need to get some new floros to fit my new veg,mother cab. im done with cfls with veg. i just need to get some 2footers in the comming weeks and back in buisness
The HPS spectrum is not ideal for veg which is why your plants will stretch more than they would under MH or CFL's (assuming you had enough CFL's at the right distance from your plants).
I have probably only touched a MH bulb twenty or so times in my career, usually only in gardens I'm volunteering at. Otherwise, I'm using HPS from start to finish Just buy a grow bulb with a touch of the blue spectrum, and not a standard shop bulb, and you're good to go. Don't forget that if you want to, you can use (specific) conversion bulbs to operate a MH style bulb in your HPS ballast during veg, and a HPS bulb during bloom. Every once in a while when I feel like doing something different, I'll buy a conversion bulb.. just to spice things up Otherwise, I use HPS to get these: This bud is on the upper left portion of the plant above.
Nice buds Kitty. I've also done entire grows with HPS and like I mentioned, the only real difference I've seen vs. using MH for veg, was stretchier plants. Yield was about the same. I use 800 watts over 3 or 4 plants at a time.
what height is at now, and what are the temps at the present height? i would adjust accordingly to ^that^, but also keep your light several inches further away than you normally would, when that size, and gradually lower it down once they get a little bigger. i believe that the gradual increasing of lumen help the plant adjust better..