Lights and Strain Advice for First Time

hey im a newbie too and have recently asked the same question, people have recommended CFL lights as a cheap way to go. otherwise i picked up 2x 150w MH lights off ebay for like $50 so keep an eye on there too. what sort of price are you looking at for the lighting?

Since you want to grow sativas, or sativa dominant crosses, unless you hardly veg them at all and LST them and top them, tie them down, SCROG, etc., which many sativas and sativa dominant crosses do not relish, you will need some serious lighting to be able to supply the light penetration you will need.

Nothing less than a 400-watt HID light will be sufficient, and that would just barely be enough if you want decent or better lighting, and a 600-watt HID or 1000-watt HID would be better.

Save a little longer until you have another few hundred dollars or so to spend so you can have a good lighting system and ability to keep temperatures down. You won't save money by under buying some lower wattage HID lighting or going with some kiddiewinkie Rube Goldberg CFL setup with lights strung all around and at different levels and using more wattage to get less usable light, and then after a grow or two when you realize your terrible error pay for a second light system to replace your inadequate one. Considering that you can purchase a digital ballast 600-watt dimmable HID light for $219.95 (plus shipping and any extras you might want) it is pointless to go with less. Heck, stepping down to the same light in 400-watts would only save you $15.00.

While I am not a major fan of CoolTubes, if you wanted one for reasons of temperature control in either case if would only be a $35.00 upgrade fee.

Lighting is not a place where someone wants to skimp when putting together a setup to grow with. Many people say that genetics are everything or that genetics are 90% of your final result. But that's not true. Genetics are roughly half, 50%, and the other half, 50%, is growing environment. Top genetics are not a guarantee of top quality. They are a guarantee that you can achieve top quality if you provide the very best growing environment you can, and of course do not screw up during the grow.

For every step down in quality your growing environment takes your product's final quality will take a corresponding step down in quality.

If you cannot go with something like a Lumatek you can save some money and still have a good digital ballast light system where you can use both metal halide and high pressure sodium bulbs by going with the Digital Greenhouse Dimmable 600 Watt Grow Light. ($219.95 + shipping and any extras/upgrades.) The Digital Greenhouse Dimmable 400 Watt Grow Light is $204.95 (plus shipping and any extras/upgrades.) The Digital Greenhouse Dimmable 1000 watt Grow Light is $333.95 (plus shipping and any extras/upgrades.) Digital Greenhouse Digital ballasts offer a 5 YEAR WARRANTY (3 year full warranty, 2 year pro-rated)

To compare those to Lumatek products the 400-watt HID is $274.95 (plus shipping, extras/upgrades.), the 600-watt is $298.95 (plus shipping, extras/upgrades.) and the 1000-watt is $462.95 (plus shipping, extras/upgrades.). Those prices are not for dimmable ballasts and the warranty is the same, a 5 YEAR WARRANTY (3 year full warranty, 2 year pro-rated).

You can go with a generic magnetic ballast light and save roughly $100.00, but it will not be dimmable, the standard reflective hood will be no where near as good as the standard reflective hood on the others, any upgrades cost more that with the other lights and you will be using a metal halide conversion bulb rather than an actual metal halide bulb and lose efficiency. So in the long run the better money is spent by stepping up to the digital ballast model.

www.bulkhydro.com 600 watt dimmable Lumatek for under 175.00 with free shipping. Eye Hortilux enhanced spectrum 600 HPS bulbs for under 85.00 with free shipping.....