Anyone Have Experience With Metal Halide Lighting

[minutetaker]

Hey

I'm looking into starting my first shrub in my wardrobe and am leaning towards purchasing an MH light at around 250w. I was wondering if anyone has experience with these and could give me some advice on whether or not this is the way to go. I was also interested by LED's and was wondering if this would be a better choice - http://cgi.ebay.com.au/LED-Grow-Light-Super-Harvest-Colors-X-2-LIGHTS-/180562496233?pt=AU_Gardening_Equipment&hash=item2a0a5d0ae9 How do the MH lights go for the flowering period? Anyone yealded solid results with the LED's? Comparitave costs on power? Considering its' only gonna be one plant should aim for something simpler? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Edited October 19, 2010 by minutetaker

[The Hash Nibbler]

Hey Minutetaker =) , mate get a 250w HPS set up and if ya want you can always buy a conversion globe to run on that ballast for MH, you can go 400w but you need Very good ventilation. .

 

I would like to find the makers of those stupid LED panels and slap them for making me answer so many questions on the stupid things , mate save ya money they sound cheap and cheap to run but in the end you will wish you left them on flea bay.

Buy HID lights HPS/MH and you'll never look back, even compact grow fluros (CFL's) are better than LED's.

 

I got a cupboard set up and be glad to help you with ya set-up, but if ya put those damn LED's in there I will disown you and tell people your a pedophile. . just Kidding , but you get the point. Gh72

[minutetaker]

Cheers man,that's certainly the angle I was leaning towards, didn't realise there was such LED hatred out there haha. I reckon I'll take you up on that offer dude, still in the plan formulation stages. Seedwise I'm pretty certain on demon seeds, after a look around here I feel that's the way to go. What ballpark should I be expecting as far as power costs go? And do metal halide emit enough of the red/orange spectrum for the flowering process?

[The Hash Nibbler]

Hey MT, buy a HPS (high pressure sodium ) set up and just run that, you don't get that much more stretch in veg, to be honest my MH globe just sits in the cupboard now.. I veg with a 130w cfl (14000K) cost about $100 with shade and saves power and then flower with the HPS.

. a good MH globe will cost ya $75 so for twenty five more you can save some money on power for a month or so while you veg.

Power wise my 400w HPS sets me back about $40-$50 a month but that includes all the fans and other bits and I have a Veg cupboard and a tent going at the same time. I don't hate LEDS, I just despise them with a passion. . Best of luck dude. Gh72

[Budman2012]

G'day minutetaker ,

I've had limited experience with MH's and they can do a pretty decent job these days as many have an extra red spectrum "engineered" into them so they do a bit better like the Sylvania brand. I've grown decent budz under one of them , however , it was a 1000w lamp so ...

I might be in the market for something similar in the new year so will be interested to see any suggestions. I've used a 150w MH before also to just raise some solid seedlings , (did four at a time to 20cm very well and quite quickly just sitting in a cupboard with a small desk fan blowing for example) , I never really tried to flower much under it. Now I prefer the long Fluro tubes and CFL's for that , no heat to worry about and they are cheap to buy and run and ya can fit more underneath them ... but ofc for flowering they won''t suffice and so you really can't beat HPS for that. If It's in your budget you could buy the conversion globes as suggested. I'm not confident a smaller MH would do as well flowering as say the 1000w globes comparitively but maybe others have had good results from a well kitted out micro-grow? who knows. Rambling am I ...

Just stay away from the LED's for now ... they simply don't have the power needed (and probably never will because well that's the point of them isn't it.)

 

So anyway , just thought I'd chime in ... no worries and good luck with your setup

Cheerz

 

Budman

 

Edit : Doh , am so doped up with painkillers it took me ages to type that and Grasshopper got one in before me heheh ... seems we pretty much agree though so all is good.

Bye now.

Edited October 19, 2010 by Budman2012

[minutetaker]

As I said I'm new to this, CFL? HPS sounds pretty good too, any reccomendations on wattage, brand etc for one cupbaord venture? One thing I did read is that high amounts of orange/red light can cause excessive stem growth during vegetative. No one had any issues with this? Edited October 19, 2010 by minutetaker

[spirit]

As I said I'm new to this, CFL? HPS sounds pretty good too, any reccomendations on wattage, brand etc for one cupbaord venture? One thing I did read is that high amounts of orange/red light can cause excessive stem growth during vegetative. No one had any issues with this?

 

hi minutetaker - i usually stick to this rule of thumb... MH for veg, HPS for flower (MH emits blue, HPS emits red)

 

of course, there is more to it than that but if your new to growing then it can be a bit overwhelming with all the new wording (like a different language at times eh)so try and keep it as basic as you can... you'll be fine

 

good luck

[The Hash Nibbler]

Hey MT =) , hang in there Kitty. . CFL is a compact fluro, like those energy saving globes you get for ya house but bigger and with different light spectrums for Veg Or Flower.

I only use them by themselves to Veg, cheaper to run for 18 hours a day. Use one of these for Veg, save some bucks =) .

 

The extra stretch in Veg from HPS compared to MH is minimal really, but if you use CFL(compact fluro) for Veg you won't need a MH bulb, just a HPS set-up for flowering.

 

This is a grow cupboard set-up:

 

Area for growing, an Odor Sok, a small isolated area for all electrics and Nutes etc-

 

The area where ballast lives, all Nutes and Additives, and is also the where the passive intake is-

 

This Cupboard can run a 400w HPS comfortably, it uses a 200mm centrafugal fan to exhaust air and 250mm passive intake-

 

Sorry there is a lot of weird terminology and stuff, it's just stuff you pick up along the way =) . Hope this gives you a rough idea what you can do. Peace. Gh72

[minutetaker]

Cheers again guys, this is really helpful. I figured what I'd do is study up, read, pester this forum for a few weeks and get a solid idea of everything I'd need to do this well before beginning, i've seen the whole process happen a couple of times so I'm not a full stranger to everything, cheers for the pics though Ghopper. WIth the set ups I've seen the gardening understanding and skill was great, but the interest in the technology wasn't there. What I plan on doing is throwing down a bit of coin on decent lights, food, feminized seeds etc to leave as little room for error as possible. My mate has an aeroponic set up which he's offered to get our seedlings going in as well, which is sick. I couldn't find much on the light spectrum for CFL's, could anyone help out with this? Also what kind of wattage/set up would I be looking at for CFLs during the veg. And is there any way to get an HID unit that you can use MH and HPS bulbs, or is this just too pricey/diffuclet etc? It sounded like they were two sides of the same technology from some of the stuff I read.

[The Hash Nibbler]

Hey Minutetaker =) , me again. . With the CFL's gro-lite do a good unit , the spectrums are 2700K-flower 6400K-grow 14000K-Ultra Blue. Now you would probably want the 6400K Grow or I use the 14000K Ultra Blue because i can do seedlings/clones, Veg and keep mothers under the same light and they don't go too ballistic on me so I run outta room.

 

2 x 130w CFL be plenty for your space, you will get away with one but might get a bit more stretch, but CFL's are great, you can put them real close cause they are not running hot like HID's.

 

You can buy a HPS bulb and Ballast and shade and get a MH conversion globe (about $70) , the phillips ones are great( HPI-T Plus) , run both off the same ballast no problem . The CFL does not need a Ballast to run , will plug straight into the wall socket with a 3 pin adapter running from a standard ballast cable, easy. Take care. gh72