Hi everyone out there,
ok so i have three small plants that i have just started to grow. Germinated and already planted in potting soil. I am using a shoplight with two 32w T8 bulbs. I know this is only satifactory to use on small plants which is why im posting this thread, i have to decide soon on a hps or mh. I am only growing these three plants wether they all turn male or not so keep in mind that im trying to save on my electricity bill. What would you do?
peace

well if youa re trying to save. dont get a huge HPS bulb. 150-400w will be fine. use the sunlight as well as your bulbs for the first while. i am doing a CFL grow and it didnt cost me much. although it can get pricey dpeneding on what you want. take alook at my grown, there are quite a few CFL grows on there. if i could i would be using a 150w HPS bulb and my CFL's but i dont have access to HPS Sockets wher ei live. so CFL is turning out to be a very very good comprimise. my link is on my signature at the bottom of this message.

Happy growing

get some CFLs they would use less than HPS for 3 little plants
Also heat would be more of a issue HPS
CFL can get a little costly and all but they do great

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plants are still going good for now, i think you are both right after looking at both yourv grows i have decided to use cfls how many and what wattgedo you think i need for three plants and also my soil doesnt seem to have good drainage is there any household remedies for that

I will be setting up a grow room soon and will be using 42W CFLs. I am just growing one plant at a time and thus will be using three 42W CFLs above and one on each side of the plant, for a total of seven CFLs. For veg all of the CFLs will be 6500K bulbs except one. The middle bulb of the three above the plant will be 2700K just to give a better light spectrum. When moving to flowering, I will switch the bulbs to all 2700K bulbs except the middle, above bulb which will be 6500K.

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As for soil, I would purchase a high quality soil such as Fox Farm Ocean Forest, as it is highly recommended here. You can mix a portion of the soil with Perlite (sp?) to loosen up the soil, though I don't think the FFOF requires you to do this. Make sure the pot has decent-sized holes for drainage. Put stones at the bottom of the pot in a depth of about an inch (depending on the size of the pot). This will help drainage alot. If the rocks are from outdoors, be sure to give them a good bake in the oven before using as you will not want to introduce pests into your indoor grow operation.

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use a 3-1 ration for your Veg state ( 6700k*blue light spectrum - 2700k*red light spectrum). when you go to flower, use the opposite 3-1 (2700k - 6700k) i think it depends on the size of your grow area is as to how many bulbs you should use. a general rule of thumb is you want 10000lumens per sq foot. which is what the sun gives off. but that would be ALOT of CFL's i use 6- 40w CFL's 2600 Lumens each. that gives me about 15000 lumens. ill probably add more int he weeks to come, but it is definately doing the job as you can see in my journal

You can never have too many CFLs and you never have just enough.
Always room for more.
I dont mix specs but yeah a 70/30 split would b fine.

Are you going 12/12¿

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“trust our government officials and just take the damn vaccine!” - NBC puppet Dr. Nancy Snyderman

right now they are only on the second set of true leaves so i still have them on 18/6 sorry guys i will have pictures up soon that will help.

ohh for your soil perlite and/or vermiculite will help drainage, don't use rocks or items from outside.
They usually harbor pests.

__________________
“trust our government officials and just take the damn vaccine!” - NBC puppet Dr. Nancy Snyderman