Lighting budget - best bargain for 3 plants?

I plan on growing 3 plants and i was wondering which lighting system would be the cheapest and be the most productive? what wattage should i get and should i go t5, hps, or mh?

anyone know any suggestions? which website would be best to get these?


i was looking into the hps rebuild kits, it doesn't seem too hard to put together, would this be the best route? it's only ~$50 for the 250w, and ~$15 for the bulb.

welcome to the forum. Sounds like you have done some research.
Get 'the book' for this, "Marijuana Buds For Less". Author grows, show, and explains, with pictures: Start to harvest, 8oz of buds, three female plants, 8-42 watt cfl's. Available at Barnes & Nobles, $16.95 and Borders I have been told for $17.95. Its in the Gardening section, ask for help finding it, this will help remind them they have it. Ask if they are going to carry any of SeeMoreBuds other books, this will make them think about doing so. His total cost for the grow is less than $100. Garden Knowm has a link to it, which if fine since he wrote it. VV

VictorVIcious said:

welcome to the forum. Sounds like you have done some research.
Get 'the book' for this, "Marijuana Buds For Less". Author grows, show, and explains, with pictures: Start to harvest, 8oz of buds, three female plants, 8-42 watt cfl's. Available at Barnes & Nobles, $16.95 and Borders I have been told for $17.95. Its in the Gardening section, ask for help finding it, this will help remind them they have it. Ask if they are going to carry any of SeeMoreBuds other books, this will make them think about doing so. His total cost for the grow is less than $100. Garden Knowm has a link to it, which if fine since he wrote it. VV

Click to expand...

Would that be the first book or what................

No it would be the last one he has published. He has new one in the works. This is the only one I own right now, I will get them all. GK is working out details for the rollitup folks for all of the books and videos. He has a couple of posts right now where you can win an autographed copy of Ed Rosenthals latest book. If I knew how to link things I'd enter, you folks all should.
"Marijuana Buds For Less" was born right here, in my opinion. He brought the plant knowledge and sceintific advancements in light brought us better cfl's. Folks asking how to grow inexpensivly married the two, and this book is the result. I don't grow in soil and I'm not using cfl's. If I had this book when I started, I could have been comfortable by now. He shows you how to clone, so all you would have to do is take clones and ditto the space, lights etc. No mothers. Perpetual. $400.00 or less, 2# of bud!!
Their was a need for this information and he filled it. He deserves the recognition he is getting.
(SORRY< I DIDN"T MEAN TO JUMP THE THREAD)

alright thanks

I just got a 250w HPS+MH light for $160 and am intending to grow 3 or 4 plants. I was looking around at lights and considered CFLs, but realized I'd end up spending almost a hundred bucks to get enough lights and lamps to fully cover that many plants. It seemed worth it to spend the extra 60 bucks and go with HID lighting. 400w HPS wasn't too much more expensive, but that also requires a lot more cooling, and I don't want to have to spend a lot on fans and ducting.

This is what I got: http://cgi.ebay.com/250-WATTS-HPS-MH-DIGITAL-GROW-LIGHT-GIANT-HOOD-BALLAST_W0QQitemZ300406438641QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item45f19e7af1

The advantage to this is it also comes with a reflector. Separately the cheapest I could find was 70 or 80 bucks, but I'm sure theres gotta be cheaper ones out there. It has a timer too, which is another 10 bucks.
Coming with both HPS and MH means I don't have to get another light for flowering or veg, or have inefficient lighting for either stage.

And although I'm sure that's a great book and very informative, if you're trying to spend as little as possible, why spend another 20 bucks on a book telling you how to do it when this website has all the information as long as you have the time to sort through everything to find it.


Edit: Haha, I just realized this thread is three years old. I guess I must have come across it when searching for something. Oh well I hope this post still helps someone

lol i was searching around about my 250w hps i just got which should arrive today. i got the exact same thing as you theSinned! throwing out the ghetto cfls