I know Im new around here--but let me tell you my story.
This might be a bit of a read...so I hope you don't mind.
When I decided to grow I had a lot of the "usual" ideas about how I was going to do it. I used Youtube and many forums (and I always liked these ones the best
) plus all the various articles. I knew I wanted an Ebb and Flow, A nice size grow tent, and a 400W or 600W HPS. I had a budget of 2K-3k CAD.
I managed to find a low-key Hydroponics store that was close too me. Now, of course, I wanted to tell them what I was growing.....but at the same time .....I kind of didn't. So I thought I would play it careful....see if they catch on (after all flowering...male and female plants...I mean its a distinct plant).
When I first met (I'll call him Dave [ Dave's not here man]) Dave I could almost tell instantly that he was a toker...I mean I could just tell by looking. Him and his wife own and ran this shop and it had very low traffic. Every visit I got some really quality time him (a 5 hour chat-session was our record)...and he is uber chatty...uber knowledgeable....and quickly I discovered he grows what we grow.
He took almost every single idea I had about growing MJ and chucked it right out the window.
His attitude towards HPS and HID?
quote " Yeah that's how I used to grow in the 90's,".......His words not mine.
His philosophy was based on effective-coverage. Which in a way, is more about heat dissipation. It also illustrates a characteristic of a the sun many growers forget to take into account.....shade.
A 400HPS can only get so close to a plant. So at 56,000 lumen light dangling a foot above a plant....is going to give one really nice plant. a few okay plants. The shade and true coverage of a single HPS is what Dave would challenge. ( the loss of Lumens due to distance due to heat control, and shade cascading effects of a single bulb, that's not to mention green spectrum-unusable for growing, plus the cost of removing heat).
Dave has grown everything...because he co-owns a hydro store. He has flat out claimed to have tried every lighting system on the market. The system Im using is the exact same system he uses. A muti-spectrum 8 HO 54(W) (4 T5's are 3000k and 4 T5's are 6500k) for a total of 40,000 lumen. The light system runs soooo naturally cool you can literally have a leaf touching a naked bulb---no problem.
Now I could have spent a lot more money with Dave on cooling and HPS bulbs (I can replace one of my bulbs for about 12.50 each if I get the cheapest). Even if we look at bulb replacement costs--Dave shorted himself by STRONGLY recommending this direction. Which add a lot of cred in his favour.
Dave suggests I can grow as many ounces this way with a Full Spectrum approach by making up the difference in effective coverage. The kicker is that 20k of each spectrum will easily do the trick. That is to say that I'll never have to change the the lighting set up from Vegging to flowering cycles....just my timer and nutes. I suggested that I buy extra 3000k bulbs---for flowering (at least one). But Dave is all like "No man"....you just don't need it. He said "Trust me".
Well how can I
not trust someone talking themselves out of sales? (althought they make most of their revenue on mail order)
So I ve started a grow Journal...Im not saying he's right or wrong....but we will find out soon enough.
....So that's my story ( in a nut shell...believe me)....so no...not everyone will tell you that HID/HPS is the way to go. Especially Dave who has access to an unlimited amounts of them. All I can say is he sold me, and he made it make sense. But we will see. If he's wrong--I'll have some strong words for him. (and I live real close...he knows this)....but he doesn't sound wrong to me.
Everyone says that...
