Light my life up.. So many choics, but idk what lights to buy.

Im looking a a few lights / fixtures. I had planned on buying around 10 CFL 6500K lights i think 27 or 30 W. Each light being around 5 dollars each. I would sepend 50-70 dollars including shipping and tax ( no local stores sales them ).Thats with out the fixture too. Ive looked at amazon and seen 2' 4 bulb T5 for 89$. I dont really know much about HPS or MH? Im probably running a budget around 100-150. trying to grow 6 plants in my flood and drain system already have all of that made up and ready. Have all my nutes and ph up / down. Just need my lighting. Any suggestion for a smaller operation like mine? Dont i need two different lihgts for the flowering and veg stage?

if you get autoflowers you can skip the two different lights, for a first grow i would try them. focus on growing them so you shake out the problems. then your grows after that, you will have some experience. My first grow was short riders but there are a bunch of different autoflower strains.

JP

hey man

i am growing 4 right now, about to add 6 more. i used 6 26w CFL's for vegging and i am using a 600w HPS for flowering. CFL's are generally good for vegging, but you will find that HPS will produce denser, danker, heavier buds than CFL's. i just saw my buddy's CFL grow and it was nowhere near a HPS grow. however the tradeoff you have to make is the cost.. a 600w HPS system will run anywhere from $250 (used) - $400. and then electricity will also go up.. but if dense and dank buds are what you desire.. i would go with HPS.

With that many plants a 400 hps would be nice...htg supply has a 400 hps for 119.00 plus shipping...

LEDWholesalers.com http://www.ledwholesalers.com/store/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=666

400W HPS+MH and digital ballast. I have 2 which gives me a spare bulb for each, and my plants love it.

$165

if you can only have one lamp then a 600w hps would be my choice. plus a couple of 125w white CFL would be handy in vege to reduce stretching, if i could have 3.

Definitely DEFINITELY go HPS. It does cost a little more but CFL just wont give you the dense heavy nugs you want. I used 500w+ of CFL on just two plants and although the very top nugs were decent enough, EVERYTHING else was light airy popcorn nugs because CFL simply does not have the penetration power to reach lower bud sites. I also yielded about a fourth of what I could have potentially yielded had I used HPS instead of CFL. Also, the 300w of CFL you want to buy is really low for 6 plants; I would suggest a minimum of 100w per plant.

If you are determined to use CFL, I would suggest doing some serious LST on the plants to even out the canopy and maximize the light getting to each cola. This will definitely help a lot but still, your best results will be from using an HID system. In the end you may spend an extra $100 but your plants will give that back tenfold.

Go for a 600 watt HPS. Trust me you'll be thanking yourself after harvest for using an HPS instead of CFL's.

So CFL's are ok for vegging? Im looking at a HPS, I thought HPS was for veg and MH was for flowering? im looking at a 400 W now and a few 600w's..

CFL's are okay for clones. They are also okay for veg, but you need a lot of them. Metal Halide is used in vegetation (6500K color) and High Pressure Sodium is used in flowering (2700K color). Go with the 600w HPS. It will have a higher lumen output. And there is nothing wrong with vegging the plants under the HPS. Others might disagree, and if you have access to a MH then go for it, but I only have one HPS light, and it worked perfect through veg.