lighting and flowering question?

I have one female growing that is in the early 3rd week of flowering, she is showing the beginnings of several buds and looking good and healthy. My question that I am looking for any advice on is, I just recieved seeds from kindseed.com (badass place by the way 2 weeks recieved, AMS ripped me off ), anyway I have a 400W HPS on 12/12 right now for my one plant, I want to germinate the others and get them started. Should I, 1) Germinate and get them growing switch the lighting to 18/6 and keep my flowering one covered for 12 hours and exposed to light 12. 2) Wait to germinate the others until my one is done. Also, I have an MH conversion lamp, if I am going to go with option 1 should I just let them veg with HPS, would it be bad to switch back to MH after my trial plant is done flowering and harvested? This is all in a 40"x40"x72" grow tent with 400 watt lighting. Originally I thought it would be a good idea to have a trial plant, that way if I screw something up it wasnt the whole crop, but this idea has proven to be a pain in the ass because now I want to keep my trial plant which is from bag seed. Thanks for any help or advice you can give.

Morning tjones
Can you get ahold of some 4ft florecent lights, 20 to 30 bucks at the hardware store, then start your new batch under the floro`s and veg em until your bagseed is done...if not then wait.
Once you switch your lights to 12/12 it`s not a good idea to switch em back the probability of hermies is increased tenfold.
canadiancowboy

Didn't think about that, thanks Cowboy. My only problem with that is space, but I am sure I could find somewhere for a few weeks. Either that or let the plant hermie. Having to put a bag on the plalnt and take it off twice a day would be a real pain and I am sure that I would forget once or twice! Thanks for the advice.

I just had another idea, would there be anything wrong with starting the new seeds outside and then moving them in under the MH lamp after a few weeks?

hey also I have some badass CFL,'s, can I veg all the way through on those? And then move to HPS for flowering? I was just wondering. I have a Medal Halide and a HPS so I have the lights I need but the CFL's are more compact...............just wondering

tjones- yeah you can do that..outside to indoors, just don`t let em get to big outdoors or they`ll want to flower...watch em close.

pjboy31- yes you can veg all the way under floro`s, it`ll take longer than under MH.
I do it all the time...never in a real hurry plus they`re alot cheaper than running the MH, just keep em close to the plant about 1 or 2 inches away.
Hope this helps you guy`s.
Have a good day.
canadiancowboy

thnx bro I appreciate the help....................

thx Cowboy, I appreciate the help