MH Lighting

siLky joHNsoN

Well-Known Member
i saw a 45 dollar MH light at a hardware store that said its 300 watt equivalent...would this be sufficient lighting for 2 plants? i have heard HPS is best for vegging and MH are better for flowering, but i thought this sounded like a good deal and wondered if i could use it...anybody that can help + rep...i will also be scattering CFLs around the plant for extra lighting...thanks.
 

OregonMeds

Well-Known Member
Sounds fishy. Metal halides are not listed as "300w equivalent". If it's really a 300w halide then sure, buy it and it will work great but be sure you know what you're really getting. 250w is a more common size for halides, but maybe it's a pulse start or something?

I grow with only halides and it's more than fine, huge improvement over cfl and pretty comparable yields to hps.
 

jesus420

Well-Known Member
it's prolly a 70watt. a 70w mh is about 5k lumens, so good enough for a 1'x1' area. so it will grow 1 plant.

there you go.
 

frmrboi

Well-Known Member
i saw a 45 dollar MH light at a hardware store that said its 300 watt equivalent...would this be sufficient lighting for 2 plants? i have heard HPS is best for vegging and MH are better for flowering, but i thought this sounded like a good deal and wondered if i could use it...anybody that can help + rep...i will also be scattering CFLs around the plant for extra lighting...thanks.
commercial, off the shelf MH have 4100 K bulbs, they are poor grow lights. You want a 6500 K MH for vegging (expensive but worth it) You would be better off with just 6500 K cfls for vegging. Add a 150 watt HPS later for flowering,
 

tryintogrow

Well-Known Member
i use an MH all the way through and am seeing some pretty decent results compared teh CFLS i have used before. just be sure to get a mixed spectrum bulb, like an agrosun gold or hortilux makes one tooo.......
 

OregonMeds

Well-Known Member
commercial, off the shelf MH have 4100 K bulbs, they are poor grow lights. You want a 6500 K MH for vegging (expensive but worth it) You would be better off with just 6500 K cfls for vegging. Add a 150 watt HPS later for flowering,
Way way wrong advice here, you clearly have not compared MH to CFL. I don't care how shitty of a halide bulb you use it'll walk all over cfl's. I have used and am using general purpose 250w halide bulbs atm, phosphor coated no less, and have grown amazing spider mites and even some decent weed and they work far far better than flouro's and especially cfl's.

The color spectrum isn't so all important as people think when you're throwing serious lumens. Halides and HPS do throw serious lumens and grow some serious shit no matter what stage of growth you use either in or if you're off on the optimal spectrum for each stage of growth. CFL's throw some lumens, but nothing like HID lights.
 

frmrboi

Well-Known Member
i use an MH all the way through and am seeing some pretty decent results compared teh CFLS i have used before. just be sure to get a mixed spectrum bulb, like an agrosun gold or hortilux makes one tooo.......
that's what I'm saying, too not some crap $20 white MH.
 
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