Which light should i buy? It can only be 1

I can only afford 1 light prefferably a 250w or 400watter. I want to grow 4 plants at a time and i want a light that will work for the veg stage and the flower stage.

Now i know i wont get HUGE yeilds this way but that doesnt bother me im not a huge toker...just now when i wanna chill out or with mates.

Iv currently got 4 plants under around 100w of clfs and they're doing ok but everyone tells me i have to upgrade so i thought id try a hps or mh. Im growing in a wardrobe with about 1ft deep by 2ft wide.

Any suggestions welcome

Thanks

400w hps system, with a 400w blue spectrum added hps bulb, its a bit more than a normal one but worth it. It outperforms normal metal halide bulbs for vegging and outperforms normal hps bulbs for flowering. Having a dual spectrum is important, cannabis has 2 kinds of chloroplasts and 1 interacts with the red side of the spectrum and 1 interacts with the blue side. Using only 1 spectrum(which is all normal metal halide and hps bulb have) wastes some of your plants ability to make as much energy for growth as possible.

Adding a HID light is going to push temps up. You have to get a ventilation plan together if you don't have one already.

get the 400 and a dual spec bulb..........

go in coco 12-12 from seed under 400 and get 11/2 -2 oz per plant dry...........

del66666 said:

get the 400 and a dual spec bulb..........

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Which one would you recommend? The Plantmax is reasonably priced at $25 w/ shipping...

Depends on the kind of ballast you have. Magnetic usually only do HPS or MH, electronics do both. I think digital is better others will argue, find out the benefits of each, anecdotal reliability, power usage dimmability etc., and go for it. Dual spec bulb recommended such as a hortilux, digilux bulb, magnetic and digital bulbs respectively. the dual spec bulbs are on the pricier side but with a 400W I been growin some fine fat nugs. If your a seasoned grower im sure you can pull at least 8oz dry easy. But as Tommy said your gonna need some air circulation and ventilation to control heat. Chances are that if your going from 100wCFL to 400 HPS you can veg your plants a little longer and then flower for more yield but with a 1 foot by 2 foot area your gonna need more room to best use cuz its overpowered for that area. 400W can do a 3x3 space, what about height you got enough of that? at least 4 feet? but then you can always tie them down.

400 W HPS, works better than Fluoro in every situation. Power is Power, the more power the more green.

I would go for a HPS ballast. you could also burn ceramic metal hylaide bulbs in it. they claim to have as much blue light as a MH and as much red as a HPS.

Hey OG!

Im growing in a wardrobe with about 1ft deep by 2ft wide.

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Even 250w HPS is overkill, in my opinion in this sort of space you should consider T5 fluros, or stick with the CFL's, and increase the reflection in the area.. any HPS/MH is going to throw out alot of heat.. if you wanna go 250-400w you need to move to a bigger grow area, 400w in 2sq ft ... ftw... you wouldn't even fit a reflector in this space! TTK

400 HPS will do everything

dont mess around with cfl

will some one please explain to me the difrence in all the above bulbs mentiond im using a 600w hps at the min is this best????.............

use a 400w - 600w hps lamp. this will flower and veg, if your plants are short in height because of the red spectrum turn your lights off for 12 hours once or twice a week during veg and this will stretch them, you can also increase the distance of the lamp from the plants for a few hours and this will stretch them also.
i have only ever used hps. although i have been told to use metal halide last couple of weeks to increase frost, but i dont know!

Thanks heaps for your help everyone! yeah i was kinda thinking that a 400w hps or somthing like that might be a bit big for my space but the cfls are getting ridicules...specially now my main plant is getting to the flowering stage. I have access to a free magnetic ballast so i might grab that an just give it ago?

Il put up a few photos as a go

Once again, Thanks for the help!! +rep to all