Need Help CFL Veg/Hps Flowering Help

I'm using 46w daylight CFL's for vegitative growth. How tall should i let them get before putting them into flowering which will be done with a 150w HPS? I have 3 plants 2 Nirvana PPP and 1 Duthch Passion Trainwreck. Any other advice would be great.

personally I would be vegging them with the hps, they will grow faster and wont shock when changed to hps to flower. or use both. you should let them grow as tall as you want, or for how much room you have, keep in mind they will double in size in the first two weeks of flower.

I would use the hps as well. Kush made a good point with the shock. I veg under fluro's and flower under hps, two different rooms. Depending on the strain they could even 3 times the size. Keep in mind the strain, more indica, more sativa etc. And your room height. Good luck bro Skunky

I veg with 6500k cfls and flower with a 600wHPS and have not noticed any shock when moving from veg to flower. I used to use a MH and switched to cfls to save energy and did not see any shock there either. I personally want the stretch because the plants get taller and produce more weight. Check out the cfl club post and that should help you out!

thanks for all the info about the lights. Right now my plants are 7 days old and stand at about 3 inches. Is this a good time to add the 150w hps. Can one 150w hps support 3 plants that are 2-3 feet tall? does it hurt to have two different light specturems in the room such as the cfl's and hps at the same time? everyone on this site are great people thanks for all the advice.

imho cfls work best when sprouting seedlings,and tyhe first few weeks of veg...then its best to use the most light as possible so they can grow nice and fast....growing with cfls is like watching a snail go across a field!! also please condier using a 400w hpos to flower....

Weed2die4 said:

thanks for all the info about the lights. Right now my plants are 7 days old and stand at about 3 inches. Is this a good time to add the 150w hps. Can one 150w hps support 3 plants that are 2-3 feet tall? does it hurt to have two different light specturems in the room such as the cfl's and hps at the same time? everyone on this site are great people thanks for all the advice.

Click to expand...

150watts should be good for 3 plants... but why not get a 150 watt MH Conversion bulb to veg ???

CFL's can be used throughout the entire grow, for space considerations there good. I do it all with CFL's and I get a little over a lb in a 3x3x3ft space... That's 11 lbs in a 11.5x5.75 room..not shabby. Go to the CFL forum for info .. Following pics all cfl

will a 150 MH bulb fit in a 150 hps ballast?

I use cfls for side light in my flower room. It is good for the plant to get the dual spectrum. Thats what they get from mother nature. Plus more light is allways better. I have a bud that uses the new 1000w Solarmax bulb that has a 400wMH and a 600w HPS built into one bulb. It cost him $150.00 for the bulb and you use a 1000w HPS ballast to burn the bulb. His results are impressive with the dual spectrum light system.

Thanks Kc and everyone else i will definatly put your advice to full use

Weed2die4 said:

thanks for all the info about the lights. Right now my plants are 7 days old and stand at about 3 inches. Is this a good time to add the 150w hps. Can one 150w hps support 3 plants that are 2-3 feet tall? does it hurt to have two different light specturems in the room such as the cfl's and hps at the same time? everyone on this site are great people thanks for all the advice.

Click to expand...

noooo ! they are way too small for HID lights, your cfl are perfect until they are about a foot to 16" tall, fluoros are only good within 12 inches from the light. So after that, theyre stretching for lumens, but the stretch is really skinny and the branch is floppy and will need to be tied up. Ease them into the hps before flower to get a nice strong stock, with the same amount of stretching or more.
The bigger the spectrum the better, an hps bulb will stretch your plant more than a cfl, and if using both is the perfect amount of lumens for veg, is something like 40 000 with your 250 hps and cfl's are around 30 000 if im not mistaken. Look at your lumen output of your lights, min 20 000 max for veg im pretty sure is under 50 000, and higher potentially for flower. Its also relative to space, how far the lumens are going and the reflectiveness of your walls

KushCanuck said:

Only if the ballast is one designed to fit the MH bulbs, otherwise you would need to invest the cash in a conversion bulb to fit the ballast you currently run. There's a really good article in the indoor forum that discusses light penetration, CFLs to HPS in terms of coverage and range of usable light, and although the CFLs are not nearly as efficient as HPS, lumen output / wattage speaking, the CFLs do offer great short range light; such as seedlings. Once the plant develops foliage and continues to grow vertically the light that the CFL bulbs contain is not as effective at penetrating the dense new growth. This is where the HPS has the edge as it's large light output will far outperform CFLs and will provide a much broader, denser canopy of light; more plant usable energy. If you intend on growing a whole crop with CFLs, you either need a lot of wattage or you need to redirect growth to the top with trimming to the lower third of the plant. Just my two cents, take it or leave it. Happy Growing all

KC

Click to expand...

That's fine if what you want is to start over every time..However for a continual grow, CFL's work the best..imo..Cost of running is less with CFL..I run4.5Kcfl's and the electric is only $15 more a month, with hps, it would run me $50-$75 more a month...at least, at $350 norm,ally, that's too large a jump..

Anotheroldephart said:

That's fine if what you want is to start over every time..However for a continual grow, CFL's work the best..imo..Cost of running is less with CFL..I run4.5Kcfl's and the electric is only $15 more a month, with hps, it would run me $50-$75 more a month...at least, at $350 norm,ally, that's too large a jump..

Click to expand...

I recommend that because I don't believe Weed2Die4 is running perpetually. I start over every time, I find it better to just grow smaller quantities of bigger plants. You need to put money out to get results, that's something I've come to terms with. Where I live there are 6 grows every square KM of my region so the price for electricity doesn't concern me or the authorities. I'm an efficient, environmental person as is and I only use about $62/mth for hydro now.

Anyways, it was just a suggestion, supplemental lighting is never a bad idea, never can have enough light. And nature gives off two spectrums Weed2Die4. Happy growing

KC

Weed2die4 said:

will a 150 MH bulb fit in a 150 hps ballast?

Click to expand...

yea u would have to get a Conversion bulb.. and also depens on your ballast

i have a 400 watt HPS ballast that is also good for 400 watt M/H conversion bulbs