yes, using both light types WILL give you more flowering, but halides put red light out too. if you look it up using keywords like "halide spectrum pheno THC" up, you can find articles that talk about why fuller spectrum halides are better, and if you try "halide sativa" you should find more info. there's an article in here somewhere where either DJ shorts, i think, or if not him, TGA sub cool talks about using halides exclusively for sativas. there's a saliva strain called "metal haze" that's named after THAT breeder (dutch flowers, i think) using halides for their hazes.
i learned that halides are better for QUALITY back in the 80s with one of the earliest editions of jorge cervantes' AWESOME grow guide "indoor marijuana horticulture" which had more useful info in it than my other two guides combined! if memory serves me right, he also mentions that sodiums run hotter for the same wattage, probably because more of their orange spectrum is in the infrared range.
i don't have any of the links anymore as i don't have my own computer, but the info is very easy to find regarding why halides are better. from my own experience, my joey weed C99s & barney's LSD had hints of grape in their phono under the halide i used foy my first grow and my short stuff super cali haze tasted like straight up grape juice! trolls here wanted to argue about my flavors, but they were very likely growing under the same old sodiums cash crapping troll haters use. when i started my 3rd grow, i decided to start out using my second light, a sodium in a second generation luminaire 6 hood (great hoods!), and the SCH x C99 cross i made that should have had at least some grape flavor was merely fruity like the rest of my hazes, jacks and thais that leaned towards fruity with little variation.
i'm positive i got the superior flavors with the fuller spectrum. plants need blue for vedge, and UV for THC besides one or two other plant functions in other spectrums.
i'm just never using sodiums again. i don't like their hellish orange color even.
sea of green wastes space between plants where SCROG catches much more light and at closer range. that's why low branch popcorn sucks compared to tops. SCROGging gives you better coverage, is ideal for containing sati vas, as well as getting even coverage in multiple strain grows. you just vedge your plants out until your screen is full, then flip them. topping will give you more budding sites. SCROG is more labor intensive, but it gives you much more consistent bud quality and it's been claimed more weight. buds need light, as you see in that pic, ALL of the buds are NICE sized, and densely packed.
it's up to you to decide what techs you want, but for me, nothing will do but halide scrog. i've never got a screen set up yet, but can see why it's a good idea, especially after loving the tops of my haze x skunk more than the lowers, and it's so freakin' bushy, scrog would contain it better. you can fill your screen up with as many plants as you want. the idea is to just fill your screen up, then flip. it would take practice to get used to doing it with sativas which will still stretch into flowering, but they're less dense, so you could always overlap some too, and maybe adjust from time to time to reveal shade leaves.
you'd get better answers from someone whose done it, but i've already done the annoying "jacking your pots up to compensate for stretch thing" every day, and to me, that seems like much more work redecorating your garden every day and accidentally tipping stuff over. SCROG is more of a set and forget thing.
It's still a seedling, in fact; and growing pretty slowly. But, it'll get there! Super good choice IMO; I'm excited to see what my phenotype reveals!! Good luck! I'm glad to see a Diesel in there and the Cotton Candy could be delicious.
. You're right on how I wanted this to be a low cost endeavor. I'm gonna save the more costly quality beans for order #2.
