Just some newb questions.

Okay, I'll start off by saying this will be my first grow ever and I'll be growing for personal use between 2 people.

I plan on using the bubbleponic system with the 6 netpots. And I will be using (most likely, still not sure yet) a cabinet or such to grow in.

For lighting I'm still a little back and forth, I can see the CFLs are doing pretty good so I think thats what I may go with.

Now, with the questions:

• With an HPS light, will I absolutely need a hood for it? If I do, anyway of maybe making a hood or something?

• Can you use just an HPS light to vegg and flower? I thought I've seen a few people do it.

• If I do choose CFLs how many would you think I would need for the size of the 6x bubbleponic?

• Would it be okay to use a simple seed starting kit after I get my seeds cracked? (I can't find rockwool and I really hate buying stuff online)

• How much room can you use and grow a x6 bubbleponic system? (Not many people gave specs on the size of their grow space.)

I think thats about it, I have to say though, I love this forum... this has to be the best I've seen so far. I've learned so much in just a week I've been reading peoples journals and projects.

Thanks for reading.

ummmmmm shotgun not reading all of that shit u just wrote.........

CClark56 said:

• With an HPS light, will I absolutely need a hood for it? If I do, anyway of maybe making a hood or something?

• Can you use just an HPS light to vegg and flower? I thought I've seen a few people do it.

• If I do choose CFLs how many would you think I would need for the size of the 6x bubbleponic?

• Would it be okay to use a simple seed starting kit after I get my seeds cracked? (I can't find rockwool and I really hate buying stuff online)

• How much room can you use and grow a x6 bubbleponic system? (Not many people gave specs on the size of their grow space.)

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1. A hood will be needed, but you could probably make something. A cheap hood will only cost around $30.

2. You can use an HPS light from veg to flower, yes.

3. Depends on how much your space is. Figure at least 50 total watts(not equivalent) per square foot.

4. I don't know what a "simple seed starting kit" is, but I believe the Stealth Hydro kit comes with everything you need, no?

5. It's up to you how big your space is. The grow sites on the SH kit are placed really close together so I'm sure you could grow in a 3x3 space, maybe smaller.

Welcome to RIU.

In a box your hood can just be the top of the box.
HPS is always the way to go given a choice, and if you can afford it.
Growing for two is 250--400w hps territory, and yes that's a 2x2 to 3x3 area or so.
Cfl's would be a poor choice for that kind of wattage.

Cr8z13 said:

1. A hood will be needed, but you could probably make something. A cheap hood will only cost around $30.

2. You can use an HPS light from veg to flower, yes.

3. Depends on how much your space is. Figure at least 50 total watts(not equivalent) per square foot.

4. I don't know what a "simple seed starting kit" is, but I believe the Stealth Hydro kit comes with everything you need, no?

5. It's up to you how big your space is. The grow sites on the SH kit are placed really close together so I'm sure you could grow in a 3x3 space, maybe smaller.

Welcome to RIU.

Click to expand...

Wow, I kind of had sticker shock on the hoods for the HPS lights. $30 - $40 is great.

And I plan on making my own SH system, if I do choose that, still on the fence between bubbleponic or just soil for now.

The simple seed starting kit I was talking about is pretty much the tray with the little brown soil-less cubes you wet.
Since I already have about 3 of those I was figuring I could use them up, but now that I think about it, I think it should work fine.

Thank you for the info.

No problem. The seed kit you describe should work fine, I use something similar. Here's the reflector I was talking about:
http://www.htgsupply.com/viewproduct.asp?productID=46343
I think you'll get a better deal if you buy the light from them too. They're a great company, by the way. I recently bought one of their air-cooled reflectors from the ebay store and I'm very happy with my purchase(so are my girls).

CClark56 said:

• Can you use just an HPS light to vegg and flower? I thought I've seen a few people do it.

• If I do choose CFLs how many would you think I would need for the size of the 6x bubbleponic?

Click to expand...

If you're gonna use an HPS all the way through, get one of the bulbs that has 20% blue spectrum.

CFLs work good for soil (about 6 per plant) but I don't know how well they'd work for bubbleponics

Top 44 said:

CFLs work good for soil (about 6 per plant) but I don't know how well they'd work for bubbleponics

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Hmm, well I have been thinking about going soil for now and trying to be as cheap as I can be so I don't have any costly mistakes. When I get the hang of it I'll invest more money.

Now, I've decided about using the CFLs with soil.

I will probably keep around six plants, still thinking and reading about what type of CFLs I need and how I'm going to rig them.

Again, thank you for the help.

CClark56 said:

Hmm, well I have been thinking about going soil for now and trying to be as cheap as I can be so I don't have any costly mistakes. When I get the hang of it I'll invest more money.

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IMO that's a wise decision. I'm not saying cfls won't work for bubbleponics, I've never tried it so I don't know. If you can find a book called "Marijuana buds for less - Grow 8 oz of bud for less than $100" by SeeMoreBuds, check it out. Great guide to growing using cfls. Of course I only grow tomatos, but it's the same principal

Top 44 said:

IMO that's a wise decision. I'm not saying cfls won't work for bubbleponics, I've never tried it so I don't know. If you can find a book called "Marijuana buds for less - Grow 8 oz of bud for less than $100" by SeeMoreBuds, check it out. Great guide to growing using cfls. Of course I only grow tomatos, but it's the same principal

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I think I've seen a few people use CLFs with bubble/hydroponic with some success. But still yet I would like to start off small and get the hang of things before I start with hydro/bubble.

Still trying to figure out the CFL lights though, there is a few sizes and watts, plus there are different ones for growing and budding. I just have a strange feeling I'm going to need a lot for 6 plants.

Well after some figuring, a 400 HPS is definitely out of the question for now... between the ballast, hood and bulb its just too expensive at this point in time. Although, I have seen a few smaller wattage HPS's for pretty cheap but I don't know. CFLs are nice, cheap and easy to get but with around 3 - 6 plants it doesn't seem worth it.

Of course, I got the growing part down. Its just the budding... Could I use the long rod shop light type floros instead of all the CFLs?
Stuff is startin' to give me a headache.

Any ideas? I've read a lot about CFLs, I've read even more about HPS I can't figure it all out.

6500 k for veg, 2700k for flower with cfl or fluoro tubes. You can buy fixtures that have 8 x T8 tubes, they work well for flowering. If you go with T8s, try to find high output (HO) tubes.

CClark56 said:

Stuff is startin' to give me a headache.

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Bro, as long as you've got a minimum of about 3000 lumens per sq ft of whatever light in the right spectrum you're gonna get buds.

Cfl/fluoro doesn't penetrate the canopy as well as hps, so try to surround your plants with them instead of just hanging them straight above.

Okay, today I went down to my upcoming growroom. I measured my space, actually two grow spaces one side for germ/growing and the other for flower/budding.

Both are 54" (4' - 6") long and 18" (1' - 6") wide. Which should equal around 7 square feet.

I just went to Wal-Mart to look at the bulb selection, biggest CFL they had was... I can't remember all I know is it was the equivalent of a 120w incan.

---

Now I have a new question, by the time I get my grow space going, how much more will I be paying on my electric bill, it couldn't be that bad for my space now could it?

Also, if I were to end up getting an HPS system, it would surely be more efficient than the CFL setup, correct?

And I attached a small draw up of my room, I'm getting pretty excited about it.

Yep, hps is a lot more efficient than cfl. You can get up to 150 lumens per watt from an hps. I think cfl puts out about half that. Hps runs hot thought, so you'll probably have to vent your room. For an area your size you could probably usea 250 w hps which will put out 20,000 - 35,000 lumens.

Top 44 said:

Yep, hps is a lot more efficient than cfl. You can get up to 150 lumens per watt from an hps. I think cfl puts out about half that. Hps runs hot thought, so you'll probably have to vent your room. For an area your size you could probably usea 250 w hps which will put out 20,000 - 35,000 lumens.

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Oh, sweet so a 250w HPS would do fine? I figure I will have more than enough space to fit around 4 - 5 plants in that area (I really don't know because I've never grown) Getting a 250w HPS would save me quite a bit from getting a 400w.

Plus, by the time I buy all the CFL lights its going to add up to about the same as an HPS, I figure. Guess I'll save money in the long run using an HPS, plus of course better and bigger buds.

Out of all the things I thought would give me a headache I didn't think about the lights.

Okay, been lookin' around a bit more on eBay, just wonderin' what about a 150w HPS system? How many plants would you think would do OK under a 150w? I could even throw in a few CFLs if its really dire. I mean, I don't need killer bud or anything crazy I'm just trying to pinch pennies here and trying to get a good grow on my first shot.

what about a 250watt mh light ,are they any good????

Also, for future reference and a bump to the questions above.

Do you/can you run multiple HPS lights off of a ballast? Or would you need to get a ballast for each?

Reorganized questions:

I've heard people say you need 6 CFLs per plant. Does this mean I need 6 for vegging and 6 for flowering?
Of course I'm sure that depends on the wattage, biggest one they have at my Wal-Mart is 42w, second is 26w.

And yeah, in your opinion how many plants could you do OK with a 120w HPS light, I'm guessing not much but..