Lighting Question

[theonionspeel]

Okay first post. Hope someone can help.

I was thinking about getting a 400 watt MH light for veg in a 2x4 grow box and I already have a 1000 watt hps for flowering in another room. My question is whether this is enough light for veg to grow my plants just about 12 inches quickly (I plan on growing about 6 to 8 plants at this point by the way). The situation is that I'm trying to get the fastest yield possible. I know that a lot of people say to wait for 8 weeks or whatever, but I am just going to wait long enough for it to get about 12 inches and makes sure that it has at least 4 or 5 nodes. I am not too concerned with cloning at this point. Thanks guys. If this is confusing let me know.

theonionspeel Reviewed by theonionspeel on 04-30-2008. Lighting Question Okay first post. Hope someone can help. I was thinking about getting a 400 watt MH light for veg in a 2x4 grow box and I already have a 1000 watt hps for flowering in another room. My question is whether this is enough light for veg to grow my plants just about 12 inches quickly (I plan on growing about 6 to 8 plants at this point by the way). The situation is that I'm trying to get the fastest yield possible. I know that a lot of people say to wait for 8 weeks or whatever, but I am just Rating: 5

[hudson88]

You're 400w mh will be good for vegging. Just be aware that you can have problems flowering before they are mature, the switch to flowering will probably take a little longer and you're harvest will be lighter. If you're gonna wait till they get to 12" they're probably gonna be close to maturity anyway, why not wait another week or two if they're not alternating nodes at 12"?

[theonionspeel]

Yeah you're right. Might as well wait for the week or two. I don't think it'll be that long. I just don't want them to get much taller than 12 inches because then I'll have to consider space issues. So the 400 watt MH is definetly enough to veg up to 8 plants? Would it be beneficial to have more light? Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it.

[Weedhound]

400w mh will work fine for you....it will cover about a 4 x 4 foot area so if your six-eights plants will fit in there (and I think they will) you should be good.

Flower them whenever you're ready.....there's no set rule to follow. You can flower them when they're an inch high if you want....they're YOUR plants.

PS....Like your screen name.

[justanotherbozo]

first, you can save some money and veg with CFL's rather than the MH.
second, waiting for the plant to mature is the right thing to do.
if headroom is an issue, grow out the seeds, take clones, flower clones, shitcan male clones and parents, save parents of the best producing fems and start taking cuttings that you can flower as soon as they are firmly rooted.
do that and you are almost guaranteed as many female plants as you need and they will all grow at the same rate (being genetically identical) plus, they should all have the same potency, all other things being equal

[hudson88]

If you're concerned with height problems look into LST (low stress training) I'm trying it for the first time now and touch wood it's pretty easy. Basically you tie the plant down (you can do it lots of different ways, string, wire clothes hangers etc) and force it to grow short and bushy rather than straight up. Apart from it helping problems with limited height it also makes the plant grow several colas instead of just one and makes for more efficient use of you're lighting as the canopy of buds is more even.

[theonionspeel]

haha. my screenname.... i'm a writer so my "masterpiece" is of course called the life and times of an onion's peel.
but beyond that, i have thought about all this and this is going to be my first grow so i want it to be kind of basic but at the same time be ready for whatever comes later. there are a lot of questions running through my head and i have thought about using LST, but like i said ,first grow, so i don't know if i should be trying every technique yet. i might give it a try as long as you're saying it isn't too rough. just don't want to completely ruin my first grow.
also i thought about using cfl's but i keep hearing they don't work as well. so i might consider it. i've heard that light won't make a difference in time necessarily but results in a smaller yield later.
i really appreciate the help guys, seriously. went to some other forums and got almost no help with my questions at all. so thanks.

[hudson88]

Understand you want to keep it simple, I've done a couple grows already and have only just started to LST, but trust me it's real easy, the only way you could ruin it is if you're very very rough and snap the plant but thats unlikely and is almost impossible if you start it early before the stem gets too thick and firm. Do a search for LST (there's a good how to LST guide on here (think it's by dubman if i remember right) and my current grow log will show you how i'm doing mine)

The lighting decision is difficult, without question hps and mh are far more efficient than cfl watt for watt but i've seen some great grows on here with cfls but they seem to have an awful lot of lights. Also cfl light doesn't penetrate very far so you need to keep as even a canopy as possible. A problem with the HID's is they get hot and you've got to have a good extraction system to keep the grow area cool.