CF or MH for Veg area

Alright guys,

I have constructed a small veg area which is 2.5 x 1.5 x 3ft, I propose to fill this space with young plants which will grow to approx 1-1.5ft before moving to a larger flower room. I am think off using a 250w MH light or 300w CF blue spec light. I want to try and keep the heat down but provide an efficent light to cover the area.

What would be the better option?
I will also be using a fan blowing over the top of the plants

Thanks

how many you planning on, never done MH but CFLs work fine but then atleast two 85w CFL with relfectors makes sure veg is taken care of.

go with the cfl, MH is only good if it's the proper color (6500 K) if not the cfl will blow it away.

* i'd go cfl

with your height id use the cfl's defo bud !

Thanks guys cfl it probably is then. I assume i should be going for a blue spec cfl bulb? or do thet do a dual spec which works better.

mh if you can control the heat and not burn the plants, no contest. have you considered an air cooled hood? i can get my plants 4-6 inches from my 400w hps no problem with my aircooled hood. have you bought the light yet? just want to throw it out there that mh bulbs work fine in almost all hps setups so if need be you still have the option of running hps or mh instead of just mh only. imo buying an actual mh system is a bit of a waste.

You cannot compare the performance of a MH (yes with a proper colour spectrum...) to a CFL. MH performs way better and produces way more light and dense canopy. That said I would go for the CFL in your case though cause you won't be able to manage the MH properly in your space and you'll have heat problems unless you use a cooltube. It all comes down to budget at the end. If that is not an issue get a good MH/HPS digital ballast and a cooltube hood and get a MH for vegetation and an HPS for flowering. There is still nothing outhere in the market still that can beat that. LEDs may prove to be the future but not quite there yet... Just my 2p!

Yeh i have 2x 600w HPS lights running through cool tubes in my flowering room and they work great. i just wanted to utilize the space effectively for grow young plants from seedling to about 1ft + tall, by this time the large flowering plants will be finish and the small plants can be transported to the flowering room. I just think i may struggle for space installing an in-line fan, duct, ballast and cool tube. i do have experience with MH and they work great, i just thing cfl might be less messing and still provide good results.

well, let us know what you choose and how it goes. Best of luck brother.

yeh bro will do! thanks for the help

The smaller CFL's don't produce a lot of heat, and they work well (for what they are).

But just remember the CFL have a ballast build into the unit. I have a 315 watt CFL array (actual watts) that works great, but it put's out a lot of heat.

If you use a MH in an Air-Cooled Hood and have the ballast outside of the growing area, it will be much cooler.

Just my $ 0.02