Best Light for Flowering?

[kingjustin]

What is everyones preference as far as flowering lights go? I was going to use a 400w HPS light for vegetation and haven't decided on flowering lights yet.

kingjustin Reviewed by kingjustin on 07-06-2006. Best Light for Flowering? What is everyones preference as far as flowering lights go? I was going to use a 400w HPS light for vegetation and haven't decided on flowering lights yet. Rating: 5

[icebelowfreeze]

some people use HPS threw the whole process, i would say get cfl or Metal Halide for VEG and then High Pressure Sodium for Flowering.
u want more or a blue spectrum for Veg and Red for Flowering.

[mendokid]

600 Watt HPS Hortilux Eye

[stinkyattic]

I was going to use a 400w HPS light for vegetation and haven't decided on flowering lights yet.

Pick up another 400 or 600 HPS, plus a 400 MH. Use the MH for veg. Use both HPS together for flower.

Or if you're cramped for space, a 250-400MH + your 400 HPS will be okay. I fit 12 plants in 12x12 square 3-gal pails under each of my 400w lights in the flower room. Any more, the plants around the edges just don't get that great light.

So it depends how much space you've got to work with, or how many plants you're aiming to have.

[Jerrodg]

Or a 1000 Watt Lumatek Electronic Ballast with the Hortilux Eye HPS bulb..

[paulinator]

I got one plant under 200W CFL (6400K) and 400W MH (4000K) in my closet. I will switch to a 360W HPS to flower her. I will keep my cfl on during flowering also.

However, there are some nice 125-200W cfl bulbs that are 2700K. I can get them at my local grow shop. I love talking to them about tomatoes .

Anyways, CFL have better color rendering properties than HPS, although the color temperature is estimated at 2700K, the entire spectrum is much more efficiently distributed with a CFL than HPS. However, the lumens/Watt for HPS is more than CFL. CFL also do not have more than 1-2 FT (talking about 200W here) of good growing depth, whereas an HPS of the same wattage would give a greater grow depth. Due to the crappy color properties of HPS, people do supplement theirs with another light system. Metal Halides are slightly less efficient at distributing all colors than CFL but much better than HPS. However, due to the increase in lumen/Watt for MH bulbs, people prefer these since the higher brightness outweighs the color rendering of the light.

So in conclusion, use HPS for flowering, and if you want you can supplement with MH. flowering under HPS only gives excellent herb.

[oldnslow]

Hps works thru the whole grow {veg & bloom} just fine. Some folks swear that metal halide is best, some use a combination of each. I personally dont think it makes that much difference in the end yield.

More important is to have your envrionmental conditions dialed in. Maintaining the right ph/ppm, temps, nute strength, humidity, etc will do much more for a successful end result than choosing between hps or mh light. Cfl's dont have the lumens output to get the photosynthesis going in high gear. They will grow plants, but dont have the "penetration" or strength to grow big buds and colas unless you have a whole bunch of them, and floro grown buds are always smaller. High pressure sodium {hps} gives off more initial lumens than a metal halide. A good rule is to use the biggest lite you can get as long as you can control the heat output. We use a 1000w hps in winter when it is cooler. Then during the summer we use a 400w hps when heat is more of a problem. good luck

[Bachelorpads]

If money is no object and you really want the best, the only way to go is a dual spectrum setup. One hood with a 600HPS/400MH. The color spectrum is covered as well as it can be.

If you have the choice, I would not recommend using anything other then HID lights for flowering. Using flouro/CFL are fine for cloning and maybe veg but, i recommend a HID for veg as well.

A digital ballast would make the dual spectrum light pretty awesome btw.

So, the best light i can think of is a dual spectrum 600hps/400mh air cooled hood with electronic ballasts. If you want the best it is going to be very difficult to beat that.

[cjcsr1]

ok guy's i'm newbie and in my flower stage with northernlights cross,so what you are saying is that it is ok to use both hps and cfl light together.(400 watt hps)