HID bulbs at Lowes

[THE PUMPKINHEAD]

Anyone ever see the hps or metal halide bulbs they sell at lowes stores? They had Phillips brand bulbs up to 400 watt for about 25-30 bucks. I been using my eye hortilux bulbs for veg and flower but am curious if the 400 watt metal halide is any good,and/or would be better then using the hps for veg. . Hell for that price i may just try one out during my next run. I don't necisarily have ay problems with using the hps for veg but would like to compare and see what the point of using two bulbs is.

TIA!!!!

 

[2supra4u]

if your using a hps bulb for veg, and your ballast is switchable....I would def say get a MH for veg

I'm sure you'll see a noticable difference to your vegging plants, as they will be getting the spectrum they need for vegging.

stick to hps for flowering

 

[Senseimilla]

It is definitely worth it to get a MH for veg. If ballast isn't switchable you can also get a conversion bulb online. The MH at home depot is just fine but it will be standard spectrum MH not in any way optimized for plants like the hortilux, but standard MH spectrum is fine for veg and better than HPS. You'll get less stretching and tighter internodal distances. If you're not worried about stretching at all, you can just stick with the hortilux HPS you've got as that's the only main difference I'm aware of between the two lights. If you've got a hortilux hps it's got a wider spectrum and you may not get all that much less stretching with an MH.

 

[THE PUMPKINHEAD]

Thanx for the quick responses. I do have a little bit of stretch i think but since this is just my 2nd grow i'm not to sure what to compare it to. I will look into it more.

 

[kermit2692]

personally to avoid the stretch i just dont use an hid at all until about 2-4 weeks after i plant them...you can keep the flouros soooo close comparitively...cuts down on electric too a bit and in the seedling stage you dont need all that light anyway

 

[Warlock1369]

I think the ones a HD and lowes use regular sockets. So you would need a way to go from mogul to standard. I could be wrong on the 400. Haven't looked at them

 

[roidrage152]

personally to avoid the stretch i just dont use an hid at all until about 2-4 weeks after i plant them...you can keep the flouros soooo close comparitively...cuts down on electric too a bit and in the seedling stage you dont need all that light anyway

Never had any issues with stretch from my MH bulb, though i noticed it significantly vegging under an HPS for about a week. My seedlings however under my MH that I've done for the first time (normally did clones) are stretching like crazy even under the MH. Was thinking I should have done them under my flouro.

 

[alphawolf.hack]

lowes bulbs are mogul based those are decent bulbs to start with. but as you move on better bulbs are very important. growth increases of at least 10% with a good balanced spectrum. imo agrosun gold mh, hortilux super hps, and ushio metal halilde conversion bulbs are the best in a mixture. the best single bulb is phillips CMH.

 

[roidrage152]

lowes bulbs are mogul based those are decent bulbs to start with. but as you move on better bulbs are very important. growth increases of at least 10% with a good balanced spectrum. imo agrosun gold mh, hortilux super hps, and ushio metal halilde conversion bulbs are the best in a mixture. the best single bulb is phillips CMH.

My only experience with the more expensive bulbs is with Hortilux. If you buy the standard MH from them which is like $80 it will probably be the same light spectrum (around 5000k) as any off the shelf MH bulb. The daylight optimized (6500k color spectrum) actually costs about twice as much. For MH bulbs at least from my research in this optimized color spectrum seem to be quite expensive and only available from the well known name brand manufacturers. I haven't gotten a 6500k Bulb since learning this difference myself, but they are supposed to be better. I haven't had any issue with the 5000k ones, and I paid the $80 for the Hortilux brand, I just wouldnt do it again. I would either go cheap for any 5000k which I have done with success, or pay the premium on the 6500k spectrum bulb from a name brand manufacturer.

 

[alphawolf.hack]

agreed hortilux mh is just a regular overpriced mh. but agroson gold is the best halide around as far as adding into flowering with hps. ushio metal halide is super good in the blues and uv because of unprotected envelope and t-15 design bulb design. as far as hotilux hps bulbs digilux is the only other one that compares hortilux hps has a higher output than most other hps bulbs and a slightly better spectrum