hello agian friends , i have sucessfully started two very short and very bushy girls they are about 10 days old and they are bushy as hell, alright i need some suggestions. first off my buddy gave me a 400 watt hps system, i think it is for gymnasiums because the bulb isnt on its side its up and down and second the reflector isnt a hood its more like a bowl around the bulb. my question is for these two plants would it be better to use this hps from veg to flower or would it be better to use my current setup that includes 4 26 watt daylight cfls and 6 23 watt softwhites? basically which one, all those cfls or one hps that i dont think was intended for growing? i know that was a long question but any and all imput would be appreciated
CFL for vegging and HPS for flowering. you didnt say how many plants you have but most suggest 100 actual watts for the first plant, and about 50 actual watts for each additional [CFLs] so if you had 4 plants: 100w + 50w + 50w + 50w = 250 actual watts which is around 10 bulbs if you use 23-26w CFLs you generally want to use the 65k daylights for flowering, but mixing the spectrum isnt a bad thing, so i think youll be ok with what you have also you can use the soft white bulbs with the HPS during flowering. you can hang them lower to light up the bottom of the plants good luck with the grow
yeah i have just 2 plants under those cfl's. so it would veg alot better under the cfls than the hps? has anyone ever seen a hps system like i described? the converter, balast and everything all hangs as one with the light, thanks for the fast response
yes you would use the CFLs for vegging rather than the HPS. 2 plants will be happy with what you have. when you switch to 12/12 for flowering then use the HPS
alright your the man, also my plans are very short it almost worries me that tey are too short its been 10-12 days. i say about 3 inch's tall and six wide does that sound like it is doing ok? thanks
if it was 3" tall and thin, id be worried. if its 6" wide then your fine. some strains stay short and bushy.
thanks alot man . i was thinking of raising my cfl's like 6 inch's so that maybe they would stretch a bit, i dont know if i want to stress them like that also would, also what lifetime shold be expected from a hps 400watt bulb?, the one i have runs but i dont think it is as bright as it should be, do they start loosing power after a while?
yes they do get weeker over time. you can get a light intensity meter for like 50 or 60 bucks that will let you know what your actually getting out of your bulbs........