bulb blew.. important ?

[ponics101]

my 400w metal halide conversion bulb just blew(expecting refund since it only lasted a few weeks). anyhow, i put the 400w HPS bulb i have in until I recieve the new conversion bulb i just ordered in a few days. the plants stand only about half a foot tall but very bushy. i have the light about 12" over the plants(6 pots) in a hydroponic/aeroponic setup. also have fans lightly cooling the area and shaking the plants slightly to help them grow a little more sturdy. I just added lines of string to help support some of the branches. but my main concern is using the HPS bulb until the MH comes in. even if it does cause it to start the flowering stage what will happen when i switch back to MH? or should i just leave it in the dark for the next 48hours til the lights in? this is my first grow and i'd appreciate any opinions or interests from you guys. also, ill try to take some pictures of my plants once i figure out a good way considering i dont have a very good camera. anyhow, please leave input. thanks.

[Marc Benson]

It'll be fine with the hps. Not the correct spectrum to veg but at least it's some light. If you had some fluorescents you could throw those in there too. But if the new lights going to be there in a few days the hps will work. Plant won't start flowering just by using the hps. That's going to take a reduction in hours of light per day to do that.

But you mentioned using some string to tie up the branches. All this will do is reduce their size and strength. If they don't have to hold themselves up they won't get stronger. I've seen people tie them up when flowering, but the stems are as strong as they'll get by that phase so it's needed to help them carry the additional weight of the buds. Take the strings off.

[ponics101]

thanks for the quick response. i just setup the strings this morning so i just finished taking them down. very helpful. thanks a lot. another thing.. they're about a foot tall and almost on their 4th week. do you think beginning the flowering stage would be a good idea when they hit about 1.5 ft tall since they double in size usually during the flowering stage? i have them growing in a closet with a nice setup and dont really want them to get over 3-4ft tall. also i heard shorter bushier plants were better than tall spread out ones? im using floragro,floramicro,and florabloom nutrients. i flush and remix nutrients every 7-10 days and currently im using a very strong mix of floragro (N). i built the nutrients up in a couple quick stages so it wouldnt nuke the plants, they seem to be doing very wall and look great, im hoping to determine their sex within this next week. i've grown organicly in the past and noticed the plants stunk to high heaven once they got about a foot tall. these plants are almost a ft tall and they dont have that skunky smell like before? would this be because maybe the difference in strains or is it just how hydro goes? theyre bag seeds from some upper mids and im just now starting to get a very small hint of that skunky smell. i also heard that potent smell usually only is exposed during the flowering stage. any advice?

[SeedKing72]

Who did you get the bulb from?

[Marc Benson]

A lot of people say flower when the nodes start to alternate but to me when you start is more dependent on how much space you have. I started flowering when the plants were only 23 days old. Didn't measure them when I started but they're now right at 40" and 41" which includes the container (3 gallon). Really as tall as I can handle in this situation. If I had to guess I'd say they've doubled in height. Coming up on 60 days old.

Don't know anything about hydro though as I'm a 'dirt farmer'. But these really stunk for a while before flowering, lessened quite a bit about a week ago and now they're smelling again. Don't know what strain as they're bag seed. One sativa and one indica though I believe although they're both about the same height now. The one was just way more bushy and lower.

[ponics101]

i ordered the bulb from 1000bulbs.com its a sylvania.. ive got a new sunmaster HPS bulb and a new MH conversion on the way from some other place(cant remember). hope they do me well. 1000bulbs said they will exchange my bulb for a new one. no refund, but oh well thats fine. spare bulbs are a definate + to have now that ive found out the hard way.