Lighting

I have a "grow tent" that is 40x40 inches and 78 inches tall. What kind of lighting would be best for 4 plants?

Most likely, (provided you have proper ventilation in your tent, i'd say a 400W HPS (High Pressure Sodium) I have a link to a thread I made about the one I just got recently pretty inexpensive. Lemme track it down for ya.

Found it, here ya go man.
https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/428418-cheap-400w-hpss-wayyyy-cheaper.html

It's got all the specs and info for ya so you can see if it's for you. The cooltube design lets you connect ducting and blow or suck (some blow, some suck ) the hot air from inside the light to prevent the heat from roasting your tent. It's a digital MH/HPS autoswitchable, meaning it auto detects the type of bulb in the socket and adjusts accordingly. You can use this light (provided you get a MH bulb) for both flower and veg. It's inexpensive and very effective. But if you have a bunch of money to throw around, and want something tip top of the line, then just shop around, there's alot of expensive stuff all over. But i'd check amazon first, they have some pretty good deals.
I wouldn't recommend HTG, as they're usually expensive for cheap products...and I know many on this side this i'm speaking blasphemy, and will SWEAR by HTG, but it's just not for me. If maybe it's for you, but buyer beware, they tend to tell bottom of the line equip for average prices.

Good luck in your growing endeavors!!

I would go for an LED for Veg, then add VHO CFL , flower spectrum, for flowering. no heat that way, but good quality spectrum

LEDs are quite expensive...If you have money to burn, then sure, give it a shot I guess...

dajosh42069 said:

LEDs are quite expensive...If you have money to burn, then sure, give it a shot I guess...

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That isa the point dajosh42069, upfront is much higher, but a light that does not lose output power for 5 years? beats hid hands down in the long run. replacing a 200 dollar super blue bulb from hortilux every year adds up..

400w HPS, cheap and effective. I grew 4 prants in a 3.5 x 3.5 x 8 feet for 2 years..... You can get about 1 - 2 oz of good buds per plant man.


My current Grow
https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/406006-1000watt-feminized-barneys-farm-violator.html

ya, but it has been proven that hid bulbs lose not only lumens output, but the quality spectrum bands, after 6-9 months.
so not only is your bulb less "bright", but the plants favorite light is much less

Which is why you replace the bulbs every 2-3 grows. Kinda part of the game.
But as I said, if you have money to burn, grab some LED's, and some CMH's and whatever else you can afford.
All i'm saying is, I don't know ANY beginner grower who's going to go out and buy a COMPLETE LED grow light system thats ANYWHERE as effective as buying the light I linked to and replacing the bulb once a year.
Not to mention, LEDs are mostly used to supplement certain spectrum's while an HID is on...
Pitch LED's all you want, but HID's are still the standard all around.
For the newbie, HID is High Intensity Discharge. Like HPS and MH (High Pressure Sodium, and Metal Halide). Metal Halide is used in veg, and HPS is used in Flower due to the Blue and Red spectrum they emit respectively.

Though the discussion may be pointless, as the OP I believe never stuck around for the answer....

dajosh42069 said:

Which is why you replace the bulbs every 2-3 grows. Kinda part of the game.
But as I said, if you have money to burn, grab some LED's, and some CMH's and whatever else you can afford.
All i'm saying is, I don't know ANY beginner grower who's going to go out and buy a COMPLETE LED grow light system thats ANYWHERE as effective as buying the light I linked to and replacing the bulb once a year.
Not to mention, LEDs are mostly used to supplement certain spectrum's while an HID is on...
Pitch LED's all you want, but HID's are still the standard all around.
For the newbie, HID is High Intensity Discharge. Like HPS and MH (High Pressure Sodium, and Metal Halide). Metal Halide is used in veg, and HPS is used in Flower due to the Blue and Red spectrum they emit respectively.

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I agree man. 400 watt HPS is perfect for beginers. You can get a complete set up for like $115-$150....
Lets say you spend the $130 and get the 400w, and you do about 3 grows....or mabey like 9-10 months and you get about 1 1/2 oz per plant each harvest thats about 15-16oz over 9 months

........then lets say you buy a good CFL set up, maybey (10) 23w CFL bulbs at $4.00 a piece Thats 40$, or if you get (10) 55w CFL at $9 a piece thats $90....Maybey a couple burn out you gotta spend a couple more dollars. So you are growing with CFLs and at harvest you maybey get a 1/2 oz of ok nuggs and maybe 1/4 oz of fluffy shake stuff, so over 9 months you get about 5-6 oz of ok buds and some shitty fluffy nuggs.

so you are roughly 1/3 the yield you would be with a 400watt, and have lesser quality fluffy nuggs. So if you smoke a lot and burn through the 5 oz you got, and had to buy 10 more oz to make up for the 15 you would get with 400watt, and you spend $200-$350 per oz, times 10 oz, thats in theory 2,000 -3,500 $ worth how much better the extra $50-70 you spend to get a 400w instead of CFL..... $50-70 is like an 8th bro..spend an 8th's worth or money to get many oz man.....

Yeah, even CFL's can work. I vegged the plants in my sig with 17x 26W CFL's, @4x 5000°K and 13x 6500°K. Worked wonderfully. But I also used 4 reflectors. Either way, HID's are still more power efficient. 400W's can get you a lot more light from an HID then from CFL's, trust me. I was running over 450W's of CFL's for 1/3 less light output.

dajosh42069 said:

Yeah, even CFL's can work. I vegged the plants in my sig with 17x 26W CFL's, @4x 5000°K and 13x 6500°K. Worked wonderfully. But I also used 4 reflectors. Either way, HID's are still more power efficient. 400W's can get you a lot more light from an HID then from CFL's, trust me. I was running over 450W's of CFL's for 1/3 less light output.

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See what I mean? proof in tha puddin