CFL or 150 HPS for Veg

Hey guys, second grow and previously I had used CFLs all the way through. I basically got some popcorn buds (about 1/3 oz dry) from one plant, so this year I've decided to go with a 150W HPS for my two plants. The one shown here is about 3 weeks old (previously outside on my patio)

Is it better to have CFLs than the HPS light during the veg. stage? I had them both on but the plant seemed to respond more to the CFL light than the HPS light. The other plant I had seemed to veg out fine with the CFL lights, but the internode growth was crappy.

Would I be better off using both kinds of lights? Electricity isn't free so if I can just use my CFLs until I switch to 12/12 that would be tits.

Here is the setup (2 CFLs bottom, HPS top)

 

Hairy Bob

Well-Known Member
I'd say get 3-4 42w, 6500k cfls per plant for veg, then use the hps to flower. They will grow best if they get 7-10,000 lumens per sq ft of plant. The hps will poot out about 16,000 lumens, so depending on how big you grow the plants, you may want to add some supplementary lighting around the sides.
Are you cooling the hps bulb? If you extract air away through the hood, you will be able to keep the bulb closer to the plants without them experiencing heat stress.
 
Right now just a fan...it's really not too hot but I have to keep it about a foot away. It's in an open area so it gets alot of ventilation (I leave my A/C on). I'm gonna throw some more CFLs on there. The plant seemed to like it more than the HPS.
 
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