Metal halide in flowering

kingzt

kingzt

Well-Known Member
Hey everyone, I was thinking about putting some metal halides in replace of hps bulbs I have running in flower. I have read over the web and in Ed Rosenthal's book that is ripens the bud properly and increases resin and terpenes. I was just curious on who here uses mh's successfully in flower. Also what is the best bulb for the extra uv rays? I was looking at Ultra Sun 1000 watt 10,000. I use the company's hps with great results. Any advice or tips would be awesome, just looking for some guidance by peeps who have used them. Thanks, peace>

http://www.ultrasunlamps.com/products/metal-halide-lamps/ultra-sun-mh-blue-enhanced-lamps.aspx
 
sno capz

sno capz

Well-Known Member
I currently run an ultrasun 400w 10,000k Blue enhanced MH for veg and i love it! Although I've never used it for flower i can say it's a great bulb for veg phase. Im not sure you'll find many if any people here flowering with MH but i could be wrong

kingzt said:
Hey everyone, I was thinking about putting some metal halides in replace of hps bulbs I have running in flower. I have read over the web and in Ed Rosenthal's book that is ripens the bud properly and increases resin and terpenes. I was just curious on who here uses mh's successfully in flower. Also what is the best bulb for the extra uv rays? I was looking at Ultra Sun 1000 watt 10,000. I use the company's hps with great results. Any advice or tips would be awesome, just looking for some guidance by peeps who have used them. Thanks, peace>
http://www.ultrasunlamps.com/products/metal-halide-lamps/ultra-sun-mh-blue-enhanced-lamps.aspx
http://www.ultrasunlamps.com/products/metal-halide-lamps/ultra-sun-mh-blue-enhanced-lamps.aspx
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innerG

innerG

Well-Known Member
I'm running MH for the first two weeks of flowering to keep the stretch down. Going to switch over to HPS but might do MH the last week of flowering to see if it boosts resin.
 
DirtyMcCurdy

DirtyMcCurdy

Well-Known Member
Thought of trying this myself, and started flowering a few under MH, but had other issues and needed to rearrange my lighting so I abandoned the experiment. I like using a way lower spectrum with my bulbs. I go with 4000k or 3500k bulbs. The 3500s are a little hard to find. Gives them some more red spectrum.

As far as UV lighting, I would try T5's. They make uv bulbs for those. This is something else I've wanted to try as well but we know how that goes. Lots of things I'd like to do just lack the resources most of the time.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
DirtyMcCurdy said:
I have seen these bulbs mentioned before but never looked into them. I didn't know they made ceramic bulbs that can be ran off a regular old magnetic ballast. I will maybe give one a shot. I like my old thousand watter but fucker puts off a shit load of heat.
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These don't put out so much heat, more like a 600. Yes, these MUST be run on a 1 kW magnetic ballast set for MH, and they MUST be oriented vertically.

The first requirement actually make them a lot Lee expensive than a lot of other high CRI options out there, if not quite as efficient.

The second requirement makes them ideal for vertical growing, but might present a challenge over a flatlander grow. There are some good reflectors that mount the lamp vertically inside, could be an option.
 
DirtyMcCurdy

DirtyMcCurdy

Well-Known Member
ttystikk said:
These don't put out so much heat, more like a 600. Yes, these MUST be run on a 1 kW magnetic ballast set for MH, and they MUST be oriented vertically.

The first requirement actually make them a lot Lee expensive than a lot of other high CRI options out there, if not quite as efficient.

The second requirement makes them ideal for vertical growing, but might present a challenge over a flatlander grow. There are some good reflectors that mount the lamp vertically inside, could be an option.
Click to expand...
I have some old luminaire hoods-warehouse style lights. I took the ballast off the top and wired a cord to them so they aren't above the hood anymore. I still have extra ballast and hoods laying around, got a deal on a bunch, but I also have a single 1000 watt xtrasun ballast just sitting there. The luminaires are like 36" diameter but not sure how well they reflect light downward.
The main problem I've had with verticle bulbs is the focused beam of light out the bottum. I haven't noticed any negatives from it but try to keep plants out of the beam.
 
DirtyMcCurdy

DirtyMcCurdy

Well-Known Member
ttystikk said:
These don't put out so much heat, more like a 600. Yes, these MUST be run on a 1 kW magnetic ballast set for MH, and they MUST be oriented vertically.

The first requirement actually make them a lot Lee expensive than a lot of other high CRI options out there, if not quite as efficient.

The second requirement makes them ideal for vertical growing, but might present a challenge over a flatlander grow. There are some good reflectors that mount the lamp vertically inside, could be an option.
Click to expand...
You can see one of the luminaires in this photo. It only has a 400 watt bulb/ballast running it.
 

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kingzt

kingzt

Well-Known Member
Thanks everyone!
Carolina Dream'n said:
Solis tek 10k for last 2 weeks. Solis tek 6k for first 2 weeks. Mixed hps and mh the rest of flower.
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These look pretty cool thanks for the suggestion, they emphasize the amount of uva and uvb they produce. What kind of differences do you notice after using these the last two weeks, opposed to finishing with a hps. I want to see if it's the worth the expense if they do really finish the bud properly.
 
kingzt

kingzt

Well-Known Member
I don't think I can actually use those Solis Tek bulbs because use magnetic ballasts unfortunately. I think I might just go with the Ultra Sun. They emit lots of blue light and they are relatively inexpensive.
 
whitebb2727

whitebb2727

Well-Known Member
whitebb2727 said:
http://rollitup.org/t/mh-all-the-way.879401/
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kingzt said:
I don't think I can actually use those Solis Tek bulbs because use magnetic ballasts unfortunately. I think I might just go with the Ultra Sun. They emit lots of blue light and they are relatively inexpensive.
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That link is a good read.

I use t5. My first couple runs I used all 6500k bulbs that came with the light. I like the final product better. My personal opinion is that blue makes more frost. Some strains will be a little more leafy under all blue.

I like to run a mix. I run 50/50 of 6500 and 3000 kelvin bulbs.
If you run blue for flower and you get a real leafy strain I would take the aforementioned advice and run blue for veg, stretch, and the last bit of flower with a hps in the middle few weeks of flower.
 
DirtyMcCurdy

DirtyMcCurdy

Well-Known Member
ttystikk said:
That would be a good reflector to use. You can raise or lower the lamp in order to change the pattern of light thrown by the reflector.
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I am hoping they work fairly well, I have quite a few laying around and slowly implementing a couple into my grow. They are light weight and easy to work with. The bulbs are rated at a slighly higher lumen out when verticle? But they do put out a focused beam out the bottum of the bulb.

I've been looking at cdm/cmh bulbs and noticed they also have 330 watt bulbs to replace 400 watters. The 860 is probably more for the money but it has me thinking. I like to use multiple, less wattage, lights as opposed to one main source of light. But it would be cheaper to just try one 860 for now and see how I like them.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
DirtyMcCurdy said:
I am hoping they work fairly well, I have quite a few laying around and slowly implementing a couple into my grow. They are light weight and easy to work with. The bulbs are rated at a slighly higher lumen out when verticle? But they do put out a focused beam out the bottum of the bulb.

I've been looking at cdm/cmh bulbs and noticed they also have 330 watt bulbs to replace 400 watters. The 860 is probably more for the money but it has me thinking. I like to use multiple, less wattage, lights as opposed to one main source of light. But it would be cheaper to just try one 860 for now and see how I like them.
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The 860W CDM would do very well in one of those bell type reflectors... well enough that you'd want it up higher to cover a bigger footprint than the smaller lamps. Or, think of it as your high intensity peak blooming lamp, lol
 
DirtyMcCurdy

DirtyMcCurdy

Well-Known Member
ttystikk said:
The 860W CDM would do very well in one of those bell type reflectors... well enough that you'd want it up higher to cover bigger footprint than the smaller lamps. Or, think of it as your high intensity peak blooming lamp, lol
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I think that's what I'm going to try first. Is an 860 above one of my tables to flower with. At least I can get some more use out of that boat anchor 1000 watt mag ballast lol. I have some about to make the flip but still finishing up a few in the flower room. I will have to order one of those bulbs here shortly.
 
Richard Drysift

Richard Drysift

Well-Known Member
I'm trying to run a 600w metal halide for flowering too this run. In the past I've always switched to the HPS like errybody do but I've even reading accounts from exp growers that the blue-er spectrum of the mh helps plants uptake nutrients in living organic soils...supposedly a metal halide bulb closer matches the full spectrum of the sun than high pressure sodium. Not sure the validity if this claim so that's why I'm trying it but I also use some cheapass LEDs for side lighting. Curious to see your results here's a couple pics of my flower room:
 

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