Choosing Lights for first grow

So I'm pretty new to the forum and would like try to do my first grow. I've been looking around a little and this place looks like a wealth of info. I wanna try having 3-4 plants to start and was thinking of vegging with some 6500k CFLs(probably 42w) and then budding with a HPS, but im not sure what wattage to purchase and also how many CLFs would I need? What would be some good bulbs to use and a place to purchase them from. I've been looking at 1000bulbs for CFLs. Also I'm not to sure where to get a good ballast for the HPS light. Thanks.

wow??? lumens....w/sf.....FC.....color spectrum.....all to remeber

eddywho said:

wow??? lumens....w/sf.....FC.....color spectrum.....all to remeber

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I'm not sure what FC and w/sf are sorry.

SCbud831 said:

I'm not sure what FC and w/sf are sorry.

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w/sf means watts per square foot. I don't know what FC is either.

As for your light selection- how big is your room? What size pots are you growing in? How long are you vegging? All these would determine the lights I would use. IMO 4 plants in a 4x4 room is prefect for a aircooled 1000w hid with the right ventilation as long as it is tall enough. If you are using the same room for veg/flower than I would just get a swithcable ballast and veg under mh.

As for where to get them, I bought mine from a hydro store, but there all over the internet and craigslitst.

SCbud831 said:

I'm not sure what FC and w/sf are sorry.

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s/f = square foot, not too sure on thef/c thing either, from what I have read and heard they say that the 65 watt is the best value for what you are getting. I would go with a digital ballast, you pick the wattage again the say the 600 is the best value when it comes to the lumens (avg85-95000) per $/watt, vs 140000 for the 1000 watt, not a great value for the extra 400 watts, buy two 600's instead or supplement with your cfl's just change the color temp to 2700-3000k. how big is your grow space gonna be? HPS lamps put out a lot of heat so your gonna need some venting as well, all these things should be thought out 1ST!! don't do what I did ... killed the first ones cause it got waaayyyy too hot!!! Figured it out now and have 5 real nice plants going again so listen, and remember there is no dumb question, only the one that was not asked

If you are thinking about keeping it at 2-3 plants tops I would recommend a convertible Sun Systems 250W. This was you can utilize it for your Veg with MH and Flower with HPS. I'm loving it and makes things simple.

First of all thanks for all the info. The room is 8x11 and I'm gonna use some 5 gal. pots. Hopefully this can be a pretty quiet set up becasue its close to my backyard fence and neighbors.

Then imo go with the 2 600 watt set-up that way you can still burn a halide while flowering if you wish, or go all out 2000 watts then flower with HPS in both you should get some good results, or halve the room and make 1 veg and 1 flower always have a crop going cause your gonna clone and always have females around

I think i'd like to go with a switchable 400w or 600w ballast. If i did this where would be a good place to purchase one from and also will the MH bulb be fine for all the vegging process?

Check out Ebay or craigs list, there are some deals to be found out on the internet... Found some of my set up there, and yes it would be fine, I have a 600 watt dig ballast, and then built a 8 light set up out of pvc tubing, and wired it up and hung it with some chains as added light & lumens with the 600 MH bulb in my hid light .... homemade shit but it appears to be working...lol we will see

Ok I've been looking around and this seems to be a good set up for what I need. And I've heard HTG is a good place to buy from. http://www.htgsupply.com/viewproduct.asp?productID=47981