Why HPS to start with?

+1 rep dude. way to catch that. I even read it earlier and for some reason red flags didnt go off.

Hps ballast can fire MH bulbs, but the bulbs dont last as long (like a lot shorter)

A MH ballast cant fire a HPS bulb because it doesnt have an igniter.

Also I have seen many people just use MH bulbs all the way through harvest just fine.

IN fact did you know a plant uses blue light for quality and red light for quantity.

some of the best indoor herb is grown off sativas using purely MH light.

ganjagoddess said:

Hps ballast can fire MH bulbs, but the bulbs dont last as long (like a lot shorter)

A MH ballast cant fire a HPS bulb because it doesnt have an igniter.

Also I have seen many people just use MH bulbs all the way through harvest just fine.

IN fact did you know a plant uses blue light for quality and red light for quantity.

some of the best indoor herb is grown off sativas using purely MH light.

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quantity vs quality...havent heard it that way before....very interesting. maybe just use both for flowering...I know its been done a million times

Most use MH at a ratio of 1 to 3 bulbs in larger flowering setups.

The study was posted in popular science mag.

ganjagoddess said:

Most use MH at a ratio of 1 to 3 bulbs in larger flowering setups.

The study was posted in popular science mag.

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ha ha popular science...I used to subscribe to that as a kid. my brother and I were dorks. you are just full of info GG.

I love popular science!! guess Ima dork then haha.

ganjagoddess said:

I love popular science!! guess Ima dork then haha.

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dork power....! I would rather read something I can learn from than something fictional any day. I love me some learnin

For some reason I really cant stand fiction.

Kinda a Knowledge trap of sorts me brain is...

ganjagoddess said:

For some reason I really cant stand fiction.

Kinda a Knowledge trap of sorts me brain is...

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OMG....did I actually find another person in the universe that thinks fiction is a waste of time? oh if so...then yay yuh. I mean...I can watch lord of the rings...but I would rather read a history book and learn about something that actually affects or has affected the universe...lol...maybe it's just me but hobbits are gay...lol...not that there's anything wrong with that. sam and frodo sittin in a tree

wow, this is a neat thread now, i just got through reading The Praetorian Guard, and Hegemony or Survival by Noam Chomsky, i too cant stand fiction. BUT, i just started a new book Called The Road, its fiction and it is a slow starter but i think ill end up liking it. Even when i was younger and i read fiction it was authors like Tom Clancy, Dale Brown, and James A. Michener. These are all authors that write fiction based on reality, they tend to get really technical about machines and history and politics in their books.

I think its so funny that i checked back in this thread and i saw one of my cliche lines written up top "i hate fiction"! I hate T.V. more, and i hate Wikipedia the most.

honkeytown said:

um yeah...I have to agree with this statement. I got your back on this one homie

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I have to disagree. I bought an HPS ballast and bulb then realised I needed an MH for vegging, I bought the bulb and plugged it straight into the HPS ballast. I didn't know at the time you should not do this.
The HPS is a far more complex bulb than the MH. But I KNOW you CAN put MH into an HPS ballast.
What probably wouldn't work is putting HPS bulb into a MH ballast.

So Im not sure that dirtyboy is an idiot or mistaken.

Barking Mad said:

I have to disagree. I bought an HPS ballast and bulb then realised I needed an MH for vegging, I bought the bulb and plugged it straight into the HPS ballast. I didn't know at the time you should not do this.
The HPS is a far more complex bulb than the MH. But I KNOW you CAN put MH into an HPS ballast.
What probably wouldn't work is putting HPS bulb into a MH ballast.

So Im not sure that dirtyboy is an idiot or mistaken.

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yeah the light will come on....doesnt mean your house will be there when you get home from work...thats all I am sayin.

honkeytown said:

wait wait wait....what? are you serious?

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Yes i am. I have a 1000 watter. I did not know that i could not switch bulbs. I did any ways with out knowing. I did it for 3 grows. I just put a hps bulb in when it was time to flower. No problems!

Barking Mad said:

I have to disagree. I bought an HPS ballast and bulb then realised I needed an MH for vegging, I bought the bulb and plugged it straight into the HPS ballast. I didn't know at the time you should not do this.
The HPS is a far more complex bulb than the MH. But I KNOW you CAN put MH into an HPS ballast.
What probably wouldn't work is putting HPS bulb into a MH ballast.

So Im not sure that dirtyboy is an idiot or mistaken.

Click to expand...

My ballast is an hps.

I am no idiot.

I had to do more research on this and this is what I found...seems safe to me now...doesnt mean it's a good idea but it wont kill ya.

as long as the wattages are the same, then there is 0% chance anythings gonna blow up or catch fire, even with different wattages then there is still a pathetically low risk of anything dramatic happening.

the only real dangers i would say are over powering halide lamps, i.e. a 250w halide lamp in a 600w ballast for example. halides run hotter and are more prone to cracking the outer glass tube, if this happens they emit a lot of short wave uv which will give you terrible sunburn and damage your eyes

hps lamps can handle overpowering much better and if they are overpowered too much then the lamps will just cycle on and off, not good for the lamp but not gonna burn your house down

other than that, too high a wattage lamp on too small a ballast is bad for the ballast, as the ballast draws too much current, which can cause winding failure.

too small a lamp in too high a wattage ballast will as said cause damage to the lamp.

as a general rule of thumb if the wattages are the same there should be no problem, although some mh lamps may struggle to strike and run on an hps ballast and vice versa

these pieces are on sale to the general public, and manufacturers have a commitment to ensure they're safe, even when operated wrongly by the unknowing, as that is who they are often selling too

I have recently seen pics on here of people flowering with MH. They really looked good. I would suggest a test grow with your MH and see what happens. If you and your plants are happy then save your money.

Buy a hps ballast. Put an mh bulb in the same wattage when vegging. When ya flower put the hps bulb in.

it may be okay but why when you can just have a veg area and a flower area

The MH bulbs will burn out faster though, alot faster.

Better to buy a conversion bulb that is designed to handle the igniter.