HPS for Vegetative state?

I am a first time grower and would like to know something. I understand most people use a florecent light during the Vegetative state then switch to HPS for flowering & budding. I have 2 1000 watt HPS lights with 15 plants. I dont have the money to spend on more lights so i was wondering if its ok to use my HPS lights during the whole process? Please help. I have heard that there is not much of a difference but wanted a 2nd opinion. thank you.

HPS isnt as effective for vegings as a MH, I have used HPS for veging and yes you can veg with them. You have 2 1000watt lamps there big lights and will cerntly put out enough light for your whole grow.

hps in veg works fine. temps are crucial tho(from what i've seen). you got to keep the temps between 78-83f with an hps veg. hps light will cause greater internodal spacing than mh light as it is, excessive heat will add to this effect. but hps for veg is fine, i know people who claim they strictly veg under hps because it brings them a heavier yield but i have no evidence to back that up

if your hps lacks the blue spectral speaks for chlorophyll the plants will stretch. Whether that is an issue or not is up to you. Most hps lamps are red/yellow heavy, and low on everything else, but there are more broad spectrum hsp lamps avail, you'd just have to shell out for a new bulb. You could also add cfl's or flo's to get blue, and it wouldn't take a whole lot with the hps as the primary light source (and red/yellow is slightly more effective for photosynthesis anyway). Just noticed you have 2 hps, you could get a blue bulb for one, in fact I think I remember hearing about conversion bulbs, use a blue spectrum in one, and leave the other with a standard hps bulb.

medicalsb420 said:

hps in veg works fine. temps are crucial tho(from what i've seen). you got to keep the temps between 78-83f with an hps veg. hps light will cause greater internodal spacing than mh light as it is, excessive heat will add to this effect. but hps for veg is fine, i know people who claim they strictly veg under hps because it brings them a heavier yield but i have no evidence to back that up

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I dont know about this... I vegged with an HPS and I have VERY tight node spacing compared to alot of MH veg grows I see on here

gobbly said:

if your hps lacks the blue spectral speaks for chlorophyll the plants will stretch. Whether that is an issue or not is up to you. Most hps lamps are red/yellow heavy, and low on everything else, but there are more broad spectrum hsp lamps avail, you'd just have to shell out for a new bulb. You could also add cfl's or flo's to get blue, and it wouldn't take a whole lot with the hps as the primary light source (and red/yellow is slightly more effective for photosynthesis anyway). Just noticed you have 2 hps, you could get a blue bulb for one, in fact I think I remember hearing about conversion bulbs, use a blue spectrum in one, and leave the other with a standard hps bulb.

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Is that speculation or proof? I have an UltraSun HPS bulb (cheap) that has no added blue spectrum (as far as I know) and my plants were far from stretched (see above pic ^)

Believe it or not but the hps bulb promotes growth better than mh because it produces more lumens





https://www.rollitup.org/newbie-central/357800-blue-dream-grand-daddy-purple.html

purplehazin said:

I dont know about this... I vegged with an HPS and I have VERY tight node spacing compared to alot of MH veg grows I see on here

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I don't doubt that in the least... I've seen great veg results under hps lights. i have seen it work best in good temps. if you dont have stretching problems, i suspect heat is not an issue in your garden. respect

HPS is fine for veg, most bulbs have some sort of dual spectrum, Son T's for example.....

those USHIO bulbs are juiced!

REALSTYLES said:

Believe it or not but the hps bulb promotes growth better than mh because it produces more lumens





https://www.rollitup.org/newbie-central/357800-blue-dream-grand-daddy-purple.html

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Although it puts out more lumens they arent the only thing needed for growth mh puts out more blue spectrum then a hps witch puts out more red spectrum, blue spectrum better promotes veg while red promotes flowering.

Hps actually produce less heat because more of the energy is converted into lumens instead of heat. Mh and hps both use 1000w bulbs but u get more lumens out of an hps. I've seen the node length increase under hps compared to a mh, but it wasn't a lot. They also make mh conversion bulbs made to run off an hps ballast if your worried about it.

purplehazin said:

Is that speculation or proof? I have an UltraSun HPS bulb (cheap) that has no added blue spectrum (as far as I know) and my plants were far from stretched (see above pic ^)

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My statement was from vegging clones under an HPS, and under an HPS and MH, side-by-side. This has been my experience, as well as many others (a google search will pull up a lot of posts about it, several on RIU, many of them showing side-by-sides). To post a pic of a plant and say that it shows otherwise is silly, without a side by side you have no idea if you would have had tighter node spacing if you had used a different light (I could show you a picture of a sativa growing next to an indica and they would look different on node spacing, not because of light, but because of genetics). Also just because you have an HPS doesn't mean you lack blue's. You have to look at the spectral breakdown for the bulb, you could quite possibly have a full spectrum bulb in an HPS which provides the blue. Again, I didn't say this will ruin his endeavor, how tight you want your nodes is strongly influenced by opinion, and there are many other factors besides light spectrum, I was simply giving him as much info as I could on the subject so he can make a more informed decision of what will work best for him.

Edit: not happy with my lack of references, so I'll give you a little writeup on stretching. You can do more research on shade avoidance, it's a general subject in horticulture: http://www.stonerforums.com/lounge/growfaq/671.html. This is also interesting, but not really a source (though it links to sources): https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/294561-eye-horitulux-hps-veg-2.html

Thank you so much for all the advice guys, its great to see how many people actually read these & are willing to help out. Much appreciated.

HPS is fine for vegging. You may or may not get a little stretchy, mostly that depends on the variety you're growing, be it indica or sativa.
Definitely do-able though.

glad you put this thread up i was thinking same thing as you lol

ok. The thing is that my 15 plants are small cloans now and have them all under 1 1000 watt HPS for now, then will turn on the other 1000 watt once they are a bit bigger. So, i think you may be right on another bulb because i dont have a bulb in my 2nd light anyway. So, are you recomending another HPS light with "BLUE SPECTRUM"? The bulb i have now is slightly yellow, so if i get a BLUE one, that is fine to use together over all 15 plants? ALSO, the cloans are small in size now, so how close am i supposed to have the light? I have the light adjusted to about 3 feet above the plants, is this too far? maybe 2 feet only. I just dont want to burn them.

Cool, now does stretchy mean once it flowers it not bushy? Like skinny, flacid and wont produce much? If this is the case I would rather buck up & buy the metal hallide bulb no? I have heard both though, some people say more yield under HPS lights the whole time, and some say flourecents for vegging, then HPS for flowering. Will have them veg longer bring higher yield too? I heard the longer the veg, the bigger and better. In fact I was thinking of topping the plants about a week before I get them to flowering stage? what do you think? Doesnt that make it bushier and fuller too? thanks for all the help & advice my man.

Well I had a 100W MH HID and my growth was mediocre. My 100W MH was putting out about 18k lumens in the mostly blue spectrum. The heat was unbearable though as it was a self ballasted system (see pic). I needed to lower heat and on a budget so I went looking for some cheap cfl's.

I found a box of 6 cfls at walmart for only $3 I quickly made several fixtures and dropped them in place. My plants are on HYPERDRIVE! lmfao, I cannot slow them down. the reduction in heat and added lumens is phenominal! So the new cfl fixtures (14 bulbs in all) pump out about 24k lumens which is helpful. The funny thing is all the bulbs are in the 2700k spectrum and they are doing great. What I learned is that how much light in lumens or watts is more important than the color of light. though I will add that when I first started growing I had some shop tubes with the residential color in them (like 4000k i think) and they did nothing. I felt like I was watching grass grow. My new lights are different however.

Every time I look at them they put a smile on my face. You can actually see the difference in the leaves if you look at the lower part of the plant vs. the new growth. The lower was getting burned because of heat issues. The new growth is twice as large, a better color, and growing without heat burn.

Anyway, just set em up and start to grow. Your plants will usually tell you if there is a problem.

In your case I might be more worried about heat than light color or output.

Getting the usual contradictory views again.

Us outdoor growers manage with the same light all through the grow.