well i guess i am the guy on the edge i been doing some work here is what i can share with ppl
Metal Halide Bulbs (aka: MH)
Many gardeners recommend metal halide grow lights above all others. The reason being it's excellent spectral distribution. Metal halide bulbs emulate bright summer sunlight and contain all the energy peaks at wavelengths of the visible spectrum. To plants this means quality simulated sunlight and photosynthesis at a level much higher than that which fluorescent lamps can achieve.
Use MH bulbs during the green vegetative stage of your plants' growth cycle.
The spectral output of HID bulbs varies drastically. Metal Halide bulbs come in all spectrums, from specialized MH bulbs that are made specifically for early vegetative growth, to equally specialized bulbs that target the heart of your plants flowering cycle. The higher the "K" (kelvin units) number listed with the bulb, the 'cooler' the bulb spectrum is. Cool spectrum bulbs (6.4k-10k) are best used for different parts of vegetative growth, while warm bulbs (2700-3000k) are better for fruiting/flowering.
To keep it simple, start with bulbs that are in the range of 6400k (this applies to both T5's and HID lights), and finish with a bulb that's near 2700-3000k. (If you want to fully "explore" the science of indoor gardening, we've got customers that change their bulbs as many as 4 or 5 times during one growth cycle, but this is not necessary for good results.) Our best selling vegetative bulbs are
Sunmaster Cool Deluxe,
Hortilux Blue,
Digillux MH, and our
standard MH bulbs.
In addition, metal halide grow lights have good lumen maintenance and long life expectancy. Having good lumen maintenance means that as a lamp ages, its decline in lumen output is very gradual. After 12 months of use at 18 hours per day, a 1000 watt metal halide lamp should be replaced as it is only about 85% as bright as the day you bought it. Halide is the best bulb technology available for achieving the highest level of plant and flower growth. They allow the flexibility of multi-crop, multi-season indoor gardening.
High Pressure Sodium Bulbs (aka: HPS)
High pressure sodium plant lights are the only growlights comparable to metal halide bulbs. They have good spectral distribution, but sodium lights cannot compare to halide in the blue end of the spectrum.
Use HPS bulbs during (or to initiate) the budding, flowering and fruiting stages of your garden.
Sodium grow lights are particularly high in the yellow and red regions of the spectrum. This is the type of light fruiting and flowering plants like best. Because of the focus on red light, some varieties of plants grown with sodium lights alone can become elongated and leggy.
Sodium grow lights do, on the other hand, stimulate flower and fruit production more efficiently than metal halide bulbs, making them an important light source best used in conjunction with metal halide either in addition to, or cycled together. High Pressure Sodium bulbs also have a much longer life expectancy than metal halides, lasting up to two (2) years!
Our best selling HPS (flowering) bulbs are:
Hortilux Super HPS,
Sunmaster Super HPS,
Agrosun Red, and
Digilux HPS bulbs.
Conversion Bulbs
If you have one of these types of grow light systems, but need to move into the other type, you don't have to buy a whole new lighting system!!! We've got conversion grow light bulbs to accommodate your every need!
HID Conversion bulbs make it possible to run a halide bulb from your sodium ballast or a sodium bulb from your halide ballast. So you could run a halide to bring your plants through the vegetative stage then switch to a sodium conversion bulb to finish 'em off through flowering.
Dual-Spectrum bulbs
The newest addition to the HID bulb category is the "Dual-Spectrum" bulbs.
These are very intricately designed bulbs that contain the inner workings of both MH, and HPS bulbs, both artistically installed into the same glass outer housing of a single bulb.
This is a growing category, and we'll be adding more dual-spectrum options over time. When you light one of these bulbs, it's a thing of true beauty. Even with all of the advancement in bulb spectral output technology, this is still the clearest example of a true full-spectrum bulb. Dual-spectrum bulbs can be used in all stages of growth, and will give you excellent results every time. Plants love these bulbs, and grow and develop very nicely as a result.
as for a bulb has anyone used this one