Suppplemental lights used with HPS

[dontinhale]

I use 400 watt HPS in a 2x4 tent. This is for flowering two plants at a time. What is a good choice for supplemental bulbs/lights? I have many CFL'S with a broad range of light spectrums. I heard once that HPS lacks some of the colors of the spectrum?

 

[TanR]

Hi dontinhale.

Quick welcome to 420 Magazine and community of folks that gathers here.

You know, this a really interesting topic and one I've read a bit about. Unfortunately, I've yet to find the definitive "here's the absolute fact of the matter" information. I'll read something pretty scientific sounding, only to then read something else that refutes or modifies it. I suspect you'll get responses, or come across info, that will suggest you should add anything from lower (than your HPS) wattage MH back in, to UVB or blue or green spectrum lighting. I've seen enless debates especially on LED lighting configurations as to how much of what color and at what strength is ideal.

Is it just additional lumens your after or are you looking to fill in the "missing" color spectrum?

Be well and happy growing.

 

[Icemud]

I use 400 watt HPS in a 2x4 tent. This is for flowering two plants at a time. What is a good choice for supplemental bulbs/lights? I have many CFL'S with a broad range of light spectrums. I heard once that HPS lacks some of the colors of the spectrum?

There is a lot of routes you can go for supplemental light, many of which would depend on your budget.

You could add extra: In order of cheapest to most expensive
CFL bulbs
a reptile bulb (for added full spectrum and UV)
CMH 315w-400w
LED panels


A 315 Ceramic Metal Halide by phillips would rock that tent along side the HPS and probably would run you about $500 for a complete hood ballast and bulb combo...

COB led lights would be awesome to add, and you could probably just put a 200w white COB in there for between $600-800 bucks premade from one of 420 magazines sponsored, or if you have the knowhow, you could build one for about $400 or so.

CFL would be the cheapest option but would require quite a few low wattage (house style) CFL's or possibly 2 larger 150-200W ones made for horticulture. The larger 125w ones cost around 70$ each and will add more full spectrum light to your grow area, but not nearly as intense as the first 2 options.

Reptile bulb, adding probably 1-2 of these to your grow area will give you a slight boost in light, and some added full spectrum with UV but this would only be for adding a little bit of light. You don't want to overdo the UV so this would be more purely supplemental for adding UV and some full spectrum, but not make a huge significance in yield but you may see a potency increase from the UV and added blue spectrum.

Really the options depend on your budget.

 

[Kingsnake235]

i've been thinking about this topic for my 4x4 with 600W and from what I've found looking around, adding T5 fluorescents is probably the simplest, but I'm not sure how well it would work. Ideally, i'll build some LED strips one day.

interested to see what others have to say

 

[scruffy420]

It might be good for you to check out growmau5 on youtube. He builds DIY led panels. I think a couple of COB leds would push your tent really far. you could easily build two small panels (2 cobs each, I'd say) and hang one on either side of your HPS. If you drive them at around 1400ma, that'd be another ~200w, and they are full spectrum. I'm a big fan of the results that people say they have with UV lighting vs. the potency of their buds. All-in-all, it'll probably be about the same price as any other option, with the exception of CFLs, but they lack the power of the other options. Just takes a day or two and some video research on youtube, and you could blow your tent up with some full spectrum. But, seriously. Go look at the yield quotas from growmau5. He rocks 1.5-2g/w with the COBs. Cheers!