My personal experience with HPS

I just wanted to throw my two cents into the interverse, I have always used CFL's for my grow with great success and this last grow I wanted to try HPS to see if I could get more weight or tighter bud structure. Well, the strain I used was DNA's Sour Cream and I must say that there is only a minute difference in weight and bud structure. When you factor in costs for lights, electricity, and cooling issues, CFL's win by a very large margin. Again, this is just my experience but, I believe what I see and not what someone tells me.

Yeah right....

Lol did you use the HPS for veg?that would explain a lot

stick with cfl then.

I just harvested 439g from a 400w hps.


What wattage of cfls were you using?

What wattage hps were you using?

I ask this because there is no way on gods green earth that cfls will produce more or better bud than hps.

Unless of course you used 400w of hps for 1x2ft tall plant.

I grow 4x2ft tall plants under my hps.



J

I've used both & the HPS kicks CLF ass. CFL's great for veg, that's what I have always used, although I jsut started a couple under 400 watt MH. Must be more to the story there for him to have that experience.

I jsut budded under 400 watt MH for 8 weeks & the results were not great. I did it by mistake, put the wrong bulb in when I got them

DONT GROW STONED!

Later

hps should win by a large margin when compared to cfl. How much wattage was the hps you ran vs the wattage on cfl? I can understand you saying the difference in hps vs cfl to cost of operating might not be worth it to you if you only pulled in slightly more. But I would def try running it again and make sure you try a few different strains, maybe you got bad genetics?

Wow....I started with cfl's over 5 years ago & I know that they can produce but, idk....like u I stood by my cfl's until I finally decided to go HPS & never looked back.

I hear ya on the cost but its not that much...hell, I can always find a friend willing to buy a few grams to offset the added expense.
I still use cfl's to veg cuz I can get the light in real close so my branching is tight.

That does it; I'm switching to CFLs!! Anyone know where I can score about 20,000 lamps at a good price?

Simon

A cfl is like growing in the shade compared to an HID.
To make it even remotely comparable you need to invest
in a tonne of bulbs and that in itself is a waste when you could just buy an HID
and be done with it.

There's a learning curve moving from CFL to HPS. Been there done that -> got substandard results with my first HPS grow. Dial that HPS grow in (and hone your HPS growing skills) and *THEN* tell us how CFL trumps HPS.

user error.

you could also go LEDs

I just switch my 600W HPS for this 288W LED light



I don't expect more yield then from a 400W maybe as LEDs don't cover much space, but colors should be better and give a better product, but with less then half the power use, and heat is sumthing in the past, also safety, but lets see just trow my fist plant in under it a week ago

Slipon said:

you could also go LEDs

I just switch my 600W HPS for this 288W LED light

View attachment 2612775

I don't expect more yield then from a 400W maybe as LEDs don't cover much space, but colors should be better and give a better product, but with less then half the power use, and heat is sumthing in the past, also safety, but lets see just trow my fist plant in under it a week ago

Click to expand...

Try to update us. I am interested in LED but I have planned to wait a few more years to give them more time to work out kinks and learn proper spectrums.

yea, a good call, do some research fist, I did a ton, wanted them from the start, but cost and some different opinions on how well they did made me wait to make the purchase, but now I had the extra cash to get a good one as my research also told me not to go cheap here or you end up getting sumthing that will let you down and might only be good for growing some low light plants/vegetables, and I also have a bit more experience with indoor growing after a year and 4 grows and want to continue, I also still have some concerns useing the 600W both for safety and stealth and of course mostly power use so now was the time, and seems like they allready came a long way in that year, I found a trust worthy company in my part of the world, one who would customize it to my liking, as it is to replace my HPS and I still use my T5HO to Veg with I wanted one who would use it watt to the most when it came to a spectrum for flowering, in other words no point in mixing to much "blue" light in when its to replace a HPS for flowering

I ended up with a mix that look like this:

120x3W actualy watt 288
color spectum:

8x620mn
16x630mn
32x640mn
32x660mn
8x700mn inferred (the one you cant see)
and
8x455mn
16x6500K cool white




did really empress me when it come to light output/candle lights



only down side as I see it, is the space they cover, they might perform as a 400W or maybe even close to a 600W as some shops claim, but they wont cover 3x3 or 4x4 ft as a HPS, a few inch`s out to the side of the fixture and light drop fast, but right under it I have no problem keeping +5K candle light at most of the plant at 2 ft distance (at one ft. I get 7K but Im still experimenting) same as with my 600W HPS at 1 ft with a cool hood but I cover more of the spectrum now so I hope that show in the quality

also thinking about a light mover to cover a bit more space, but I guess Im able to keep two small or one big plant under it as it is now, as I can cover 2x1 ft perfectly and ok a few more inch`s in each direction, so fare I have only place one plant under it

View attachment 2612970

I guess it all depend, what is your goal, want a safe low power cost grow that produce good quality Bud and next to no heat to struggle with, it might be the way to go, if you have +400$ to spend on the light and set your expectations right, I don't believe this is for the big scale grower unless they have a hugh amount of money to spend on lights, but for a few plants for personal use Im sure it can work well, atleast that is what I hope for, also why I wanted it specific for flowering, so I can Veg with my T5s and harvest two plants every 8 weeks or so

If CFL (or LED) was the way to go we'd all be using it already. A cliche because it's so true.

Try adding the Gavita Pro 300 LEP (Light Emitting Plasma) if you got some money to spend and want full spectrum.

I'm getting about 3 to 4 zips per plant under 600 hps, the only person I know who uses cfls gets about a quarter per plant.

well that is why I choose the LEDs, as my goal is a simple, low cost grow to provide myself with smoke nothing more, no need for the 600W or the power bill

this thread should be removed so many noobs will get confused/miss informed..they venture out of central...theres 1 here lolll well 1 grow under the belt on 2nd now

I have grown with CFLs and HID and the HID produced better weed. It wasn't even close. The CFL weed all had a slightly spiky texture.