PLANNIN ON BUYING MH or HPS lights.

brokeandwise

New Member
went to an electrical hardware store and they were selling a MH 400 watts for 183.12 .. and the HPS were a lil more around 200. the MH are WHITE... while the HPS are a lil bit yellowish or orange. im in the vegs moment. so which one should i choose? is there something i should look for? should the bulb have a temperature rating? does it matter if it's a flood system or garden system?
If you have to go with one or the other for the entire grow go with the hps.
 

Joe Camel

Well-Known Member
man dont believe this i grow with cfls and it aint shity he dont know wut he is talkin about
I know plenty what Im talking about.
I didnt say it couldnt be done but,
HANDS down
HPS > CFL

i got 6 cfl 24 watt and they dont do nuthin compare to the sun. i want something similar to the sun or much stronger. so im going with a 400 watts system. what i am expecting is for them to outperform the sun. i want to harvest it in 2month from seed instead of 5 or 6
Good luck in fairy land. No Bulb out performs the SUN.

This thread turn into mindless babble.
JC Out.
 

whiterhyno420

Well-Known Member
i got 6 cfl 24 watt and they dont do nuthin compare to the sun. i want something similar to the sun or much stronger. so im going with a 400 watts system. what i am expecting is for them to outperform the sun. i want to harvest it in 2month from seed instead of 5 or 6
nothin is gonna be good comparing to the sun thats why its called artificial light
 

Slater13

Active Member
okay so clear this up for me. from seed to harvest time. no plant could be done by the end of 2 month?
Im growing a Dinafem Road Runner auto flower thats supposed to take 60 days from germ to harvest. It wont yield much but gives another flavor to come from the garden. Great as a filler between harvests and dont take up shit for space.

If you want something fast then look at the auto's.

EDIT:

Also agree with the hps if it's one or the other.
 

highpsi

Well-Known Member
Bosson, you can speed growth, but you can't speed maturity. For example, If we did side by side grows, one with a 1000w HPS and another with a couple of CFLs, they would both take relatively the same amount of time to harvest, the only difference would be that the plant grown with the HPS would be much larger, and have a lot more bud weight. So while it is possible to increase yields in a given length of time with more powerfull lights, it won't change the fact that you'll still need 11 or 12 weeks from seed to harvest, at the very least.

you gotta be F!'in kiddin me. i want it to get bigger quicker than the sun. how do i do that?
You can harvest a plant QUICKER under artificial lighting because you have control over the photoperiod, which means you have control of when the plant will flower, but they certainly won't be BIGGER. Size depends on few factors not in any particular order of importance (assuming that the environment and nutritional requirements of the plant are met): The first limiting factor is the plant being able to form a large root structure. The second limiting factor is time, the longer you veg a plant (given that it has ample room for root growth), the larger it will be. The third limiting factor is light, a 400w HPS may seem bright, and it is, however, it is subject to the inverse square law that states that for every doubling of distance from the light, luminosity is 1/4 of what it was. So indoors, you are limited on how large you can have a plant grow. If you have a plant that's 6 feet tall indoors, the amount of light the plant receives from top to bottom is progressively weaker due to the inverse square law. Outdoors this isn't a problem because, while the inverse square law also applies to the sun, you have to keep in mind that we are 146 million kilometers from the light source, so you'd have to travel another 146 million kms away from the sun to reduce the suns luminosity to a 1/4! So the difference in the sun's power from the top of a 6 foot plant to the bottom is almost immeasurable it's so tiny. The reason you see the huge trees that some people grow outside is due to the fact that the root mass can spread as deep and wide as it wants, you have a light source (the sun) that provides even lighting power from the top to the bottom of the plant, and because people typically plant in the late spring, or early summer, providing a soild 2 to 3 months of veg time.

In summary, you can harvest quicker inside, but not bigger. That's why there are indoor growing techniques like SOG (Sea of Green), where instead of having one or two large plants under a 400w HPS which makes inefficient use of the light (due to the inverse square law I mentioned in the previous paragraph), you have 9 or 10 smaller plants that make efficient use of the available light. The advantage of this is you only have to veg for a short time allowing you to get quicker harvests, and while you may only get a small amount of bud from each plant, there is more total bud because of the larger number of plants and more efficient use of light.
 
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