Hi. I'm a complete beginner with very little money . I know the basics, but what's holding me back is the money part. I was able to get three MJ plants, two blueberry and one white widow. I haven't had the money to get a 250W or 400W hps system, which is what would be ideal for my growing environment, a 3'x3'. I have a halogen lighting system that's putting out about 5,000 Lumens. I've been keeping the plants in the vegitative state until I have enough money to get a decent lighting system, which doesnt look like it will happen anytime soon, probably not for another 5 weeks. So, I was hoping to just put the plants into flowering and take my chances, hoping to get a big enough yeild to make some money to buy better lighting. So, the question: to flower or not to flower? Any feedback is appreciated.
i just got a halogen light today cuz it was cheap cuz i though i might be able to grow with it, little did i know its not the right spectrum to absorb the light... so... try to find a replacment light as soon as possible... thats what im doin...
If you dont got any money go to wal mart and buy a 48" Flourescent shop light and buy the bulbs that give out the most lumens. That will cost you a total of $12-25 bucks. If you can spend a little more buy 2 of them and if you got like $60-70 bucks you should buy as many CFL's (Compact Flourescent Light) as you can. If you look on ebay or insidesun.com you can get MH or HPS light setup for as low as like $75 bucks. Insidesun has refrubished 150 watt hps for $75
Well heres the story, halogen lights put off around 3000K thats not to bad for flowering, most HPS put out 2200K. The bad part of halogen is they get extremely hot. You want a hid light close as possible with out burning them. With a mh or hps you will get it closer than you could with a halogen light. Remember the farther you get from the plant with the light, the less lumens it will put out. If I remember correctly the formula to judge lumens to a plant would be something like this. Pretend your light outputs 50000 lumens. And you want the light 2 ft from the plant, you take the feet you want squared, then divide into the max lumens your light has. Formula is 50000/2 squared = 12,500 lumens your light will put off at 2ft away from the plant. Far as insidesun they have ripped many people off, their systems use ballast that ususally get refurbished and even the new ones ususally don't last. I've known people who have tried them and their ballast has made frying noises and sizzling then they shut it off and it never comes back on. My first grow was with two 4' fluorecent mixed warm and cool bulbs. I payed 15 bucks and got a little over an ounce. GL and I hope this helps some