I have an HPS light. I heard that since the HPS light has red spectrum it doesnt really make the plant grow until its full potencial. I read that a fluorescent fixture is better for it. I went to Home Depot and seen this light in 200wat and i want to know if its any good. I also seen a fluorescent noncompact light made for plants, I believe it is 17watts would this one be better or should i just use my HPS light for vegetative growth even though i want to get the maximum yield possible.
Fluorescent light
- Thread starter Ceelo
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tronix
New Member
there are only three spectrums of light
Red, Blue and Ultraviolet. Orange is a weak red and not a spectrum unto itself.
But there are HPS lights with both. Son-Agro lighting is 400 Watts of red, and 30 watts of Blue. By that figure, the blue doesn't need to be anywhere near as strong..so the Flouros will probably work fine, as long as you use it in conjunction with the red HPS's..
P.S. I followed the link, and it does take you to homedepot.com, it doesn't take you to the image you were looking at when you saved the link. It was a bunch of pictures of sheds and other bs.
Red, Blue and Ultraviolet. Orange is a weak red and not a spectrum unto itself.
But there are HPS lights with both. Son-Agro lighting is 400 Watts of red, and 30 watts of Blue. By that figure, the blue doesn't need to be anywhere near as strong..so the Flouros will probably work fine, as long as you use it in conjunction with the red HPS's..
P.S. I followed the link, and it does take you to homedepot.com, it doesn't take you to the image you were looking at when you saved the link. It was a bunch of pictures of sheds and other bs.
One Three
New Member
Orange/Yellow means is it towards the red spectrum. Rather than a sun in mid day, it's more like, an autumn/fall day.
The reason some HPS boxes show a wide variety is becaue they are wide spectrum bulbs. The Son Agro HPS bulbs mentioned above add Blue Spectrum (30 watts) to a normally Red Spectrum bulb. You get 53,000 lumens out of the Son Agro.
The benefit to MH lighting has always been the small internode spacing and mature times, but the Son Agro now does this too. I decided to pick one up and internodal spacing is TIGHT. The plants were all very tight, compact, and bushy.
The reason some HPS boxes show a wide variety is becaue they are wide spectrum bulbs. The Son Agro HPS bulbs mentioned above add Blue Spectrum (30 watts) to a normally Red Spectrum bulb. You get 53,000 lumens out of the Son Agro.
The benefit to MH lighting has always been the small internode spacing and mature times, but the Son Agro now does this too. I decided to pick one up and internodal spacing is TIGHT. The plants were all very tight, compact, and bushy.
tronix
New Member
Visable light is essentially, a perfect blending of all three spectrums. If you had that, the light they would produce would be white. Plants dont need all the spectrums to function. thats why various types of lights can be manipulated and used for growing.
Without the Blue and Ultraviolet spectrums present the light doesn't turn red in color, to our eyes it looks orangish, or yellow if you have a weak light. Its normal, but it is red spectrum, none the less. A blue spectrum has purple light within it, but our eyes cant perceive that by itself. its the blending of all light within the blue spectrum that we see. Its hard to understand, but lets just say its like looking at a math problem where you cant see the 2 or the other 2, but you can see the 4 that the two 2's equal. You see the result, not the parts that make up the result. MH costs less to run, but isn't nearly as effective during the growth phase.
You cant see the 30watts of Blue spectrum with your eyes. I dont think humans are capable of it..I believe they can change the percentage of gases used to make the light to alter the visable color slightly, perhaps that color scale you mentioned shows you where exactly your light will fall. Son-agros were designed to be used to grow plants so they will have the correct spectrum every time.
Without the Blue and Ultraviolet spectrums present the light doesn't turn red in color, to our eyes it looks orangish, or yellow if you have a weak light. Its normal, but it is red spectrum, none the less. A blue spectrum has purple light within it, but our eyes cant perceive that by itself. its the blending of all light within the blue spectrum that we see. Its hard to understand, but lets just say its like looking at a math problem where you cant see the 2 or the other 2, but you can see the 4 that the two 2's equal. You see the result, not the parts that make up the result. MH costs less to run, but isn't nearly as effective during the growth phase.
You cant see the 30watts of Blue spectrum with your eyes. I dont think humans are capable of it..I believe they can change the percentage of gases used to make the light to alter the visable color slightly, perhaps that color scale you mentioned shows you where exactly your light will fall. Son-agros were designed to be used to grow plants so they will have the correct spectrum every time.
tronix
New Member
Growing slow said:
Now I get to make you sick.
There are ZERO girls in there. they both turned out to be male.
your right there are two plants, and its an 18 gallon rubbermaid tub. Those pictures were taken at 1 month 2.5 weeks old. I had just changed the light schedule and nutes to induce budding when I took these. ( a week later it was clear they were male.) I didn't pre-flower them because I thought the seeds i bought were feminzied, they wasn't.
I have started over, and I'm waiting for the germ to complete, hence the "Updated pics" comment in my signature..I should have them by tommorow or the next day.
Lilstinky420
New Member
WOW, so that Son Argo light must be elite lol!
One Three
New Member
It's very nice. The major selling point for me was that it fits in a regular HPS ballast.
Torco
Well-Known Member
From what i have read the 430 watt sonagro bulb should only be ran in a 430 watt ballast. you should not run a 430 watt bulb in a 400 watt ballast.
I could be wrong about this.
I could be wrong about this.
tronix
New Member
torco55 said:
nope you aren't wrong. You do need the 430watt ballast. But if you have the 430watt ballast, you can run a standard 400watt HPS on it, without a problem. Not that you'd want to, after you had the son-agro..but its worth the few extra bucks you spend intially.
I spent just over $200 for my light with ballast. and a beautiful hood. thats not that bad really or that much more than a new standard 400watt HPS..
- Thread starter
- #10
Thanks for your answers. Okay so im gonna go with starting my California Orange Bud with fuoros first, and then when its flowering time im gonna switch to HPS. What wattage is the best on compact fluoros for two or three plants?Can any of u guys recommend me to a site where i can buy good compact fuoros for my grow?
GreenThumbsUp
New Member
visible light is a continuous spectrum from the least energy (the red just before humans call the spectrum infra-red) to the most energy (violet just up to the point that it becomes hotter and ultra violet).
Red/Green/Blue are the most common way that mankind uses to simulate a continuous spectrum by using only varying intensities of RGB (printing uses the same technique but it uses pigments cyan, megenta, yellow, and black to get the simulation of a continuous spectrum we call light). It all goes into frequencies and harmonics and crap that is really cool to look at visually and very stoned...
I suspect the new sun agro has a red filament that generates the red tones, and then they popped in either high green or low blue filament to pop out some more color similar to how computer screens use rgb pixels. Except, of course, a filament is continuous, not discrete like a pixel...
doh..man, you guys got me all rambling again...
When you see the response curve on a light bulb, it is telling you the distribution of it's output across the continuous band of frequencies we call visible light.
Red/Green/Blue are the most common way that mankind uses to simulate a continuous spectrum by using only varying intensities of RGB (printing uses the same technique but it uses pigments cyan, megenta, yellow, and black to get the simulation of a continuous spectrum we call light). It all goes into frequencies and harmonics and crap that is really cool to look at visually and very stoned...
I suspect the new sun agro has a red filament that generates the red tones, and then they popped in either high green or low blue filament to pop out some more color similar to how computer screens use rgb pixels. Except, of course, a filament is continuous, not discrete like a pixel...doh..man, you guys got me all rambling again...
When you see the response curve on a light bulb, it is telling you the distribution of it's output across the continuous band of frequencies we call visible light.
- Thread starter
- #12
Okay, I got some some compact spiral fluorescent lights. They are 100watts, warm white lights, and each and produce 1600 lumens. I am going to start of with 5 seeds and i am hoping to get two females with these lights. I am going to use two of these bulbs. Are theses lumens enough to grow 2 succesful plants during vegetative time? I am then going to switch them to a 400watt HPS light.
GreenThumbsUp
New Member
That is what I do for veg stage (granted, I only veg in 1.5 feet of vertical space But my CFL's really encourage short plants. They are about 1.5 months old now, and only 6" tall pushing out the 8th leaf set and are pre-flowering! I have for sure from 4 seeds, 2 girls, 1 boy. The other I'm not sure of yet, it is a few days behind the others in pre-flower.
I also have 4 clones in there that are veging nicely and will be put into flowering in a week or two.
I flower under HPS and in about 4 feet of useful vertical space.
But my CFL's really encourage short plants. They are about 1.5 months old now, and only 6" tall pushing out the 8th leaf set and are pre-flowering! I have for sure from 4 seeds, 2 girls, 1 boy. The other I'm not sure of yet, it is a few days behind the others in pre-flower.I also have 4 clones in there that are veging nicely and will be put into flowering in a week or two.
I flower under HPS and in about 4 feet of useful vertical space.
- Thread starter
- #14
tronix
New Member
nope. you'll do good to get through seedling stage with those. By the time, you start getting the second leaves (three tips) they will already be stretching for light. You can use the big light by that time anyway, just keep it about 30" away to begin with..
- Thread starter
- #16
SmokeSessions
Well-Known Member
Compact flourecents won't produce enough light. Metal Halides are ideal for vegetative growth, while High Pressure Sodium are generally used for flowering. I know someone that uses BOTH for flowering to get the best of both worlds and he claims that it works wonders and produces more.
Just using Flourecents, I find cause the plants to stretch. You can use them in ADDITION TO Metal Halides if you'd like.
Just using Flourecents, I find cause the plants to stretch. You can use them in ADDITION TO Metal Halides if you'd like.
tronix
New Member
Ceelo said:
You can, but no need to really, light doesn't destroy light, it just washes it out to where humans cant see it. I wouldn't bother with the CFL's once you switch to the HPS though because it isn't going to add that much..If you can score a metal hallide light to go with your HPS, you'll have an ideal setup.
use the CFL's for clones and seedlings, use the HPS and MH for growth and flowering..
- Thread starter
- #19
I got layed off of my job, so I can't really afford to buy a MH right now.By the time i start my second grow I will for sure have the MH.As for right now I am stuck with two types of lights, the CFL's I just mentioned and my HPS 400watt. So theres two options, either use the HPS for veg or the CFL's I have. I wouldn't know which one would cause more stretching but once i find out I'll stick to the one which causes less stretching. I am new to this if i would have known from the beginning i would have bought a ballast that can hold both HPS/MH.
- Thread starter
- #20
But whats the point in putting the HPS if it wont serve any purpose because red spectrum isnt needed in veg or would it serve a purpose?
