what r you guys thoughts on T5 lighting, High watt cfl's, or mh/hps lights, im seting up my grow room, ive got every thing else just need a new light setup, what are your thoughts on the three, thanx
Alot depends on the size of your grow area. Do you have a separate veg and flower area? What is the height of your room? What kind of air flow and ventilation do you have? Answer these questions and we will have a better idea of your needs.
a small grow i wud veg with CFLs and flower with a 400-600w HPS..larger (10+ plants) u wanna veg with T5s and MH..then flower under 1000w HPS(or more)..just my thought.
yeah maybe 6 to ten plants, i got plenty of room, 6- 10 is probably max id want to do, i have a separate veg and flower area, 8 foot ceiling, i have an outside airflow coming in and charcoal filter and duct going out, n i got fans on both rooms
I go with a 150 watt hps and 3 t5 @ 6500k hi output fluorescent for veg. In a 3' x 2' area.
In your flowering room you could go with 400 or 600 watt hps depending on temperature.
Usually you would use mh. lamps for veg. They do run hotter though. I came across this by accident. I added the hps lamp to the t5 lamps because I had it sitting around and I couldn't believe the difference. The hps penetrates the plants better than cfls and the plants seems to like the different spectrum.
6-10 plants but what size? if you are growing anything over 2'-3' tall then you need something stronget than cfl's or t5's in my opinion. or you'll need so many of them it just won't be cost effective. figure out what your plant footprint will be and then get hid lighting to match that. for example. if you are gonna grow 8 plants to 3-4' tall in flower and you will top them and do some light lst then they will occcupy about 2sq.ft. per plant in flower. that means that if you put them in 2 rows of 4 then the plant footprint would be 4'x8' which is ideal for 2 600w bulbs.