400 watt hps bulb

First thing I wanna say thanks to this site. I'm learning something new everyday!!!
Now on to the 400 watt hps bulb....I found them at a local store for like under $20.00..I thought i was seeing shit..I thought they were more expensive than that???
Now I have a question on cfls...I read on here that if i use only cfls blue spectrum only, my babies will be shorter and takes longer to mature....My question is I also have some 40 watt 3000k laying around i can add to my room is this a no no or is it ok to go ahead and add the lighting? My babies are about 4 weeks old and rather small compared to most on here at that age..I'm currently using daylight 6500 k 26 watt equivalent to the 100 watt regular house light...can somebody tell me if adding the red spectrum cfls will stress my babies out ?..I'm looking for them to grow faster than what they are.....Appreciate all responses...Thx.....

The bulbs really arent the expensive part, its the ballasts.

Dont use incandescents, complete waste of energy. I dont know about the maturing bit, but complete blue spectrum would just be for all around growth, nothing special. I use 4100-4200K fluorescents, which isnt optimal for vegging either (think 3700K is), but they work great for me. My plants are pretty bushy for their size too.

I dont thin the red would hurt, the more light the better, even if its not quite the right color.

How tall are they now, can you take pics?

Thanks for the reply...
oh ok...never checked the ballasts for it....duh lol...as far as light im using the natural light 6500k...not using incandescents at all. they are pretty small...dont know exactly ..maybe 5. 6 inches. I had some problems with them wanting to fall over , so kept packin the soil up around them...They are starting to get bushy , just no height. As far as pics go i can take them, just cant get them to load on puter for some reason.... again thanks

Yeah, sorry misread the 100 watt equivalent bit lol.

Did you top/fim them?

Yeah, pretty small, mine were pushing 9-12 inches at that age, I had 2 4 foot 4100k 40 Watt flo tubes on them for first 5 weeks.

Do you have a small fan you can indirectly blow air around them, it will help strengthen the stems. I also rotate my plants around 1/4-1/5 a turn every 5-6 hours to equalize the light they get, since they lean towards the light naturally, it helps build stem strength too, just not nearly as much as a fan.

Stick a straw or chopstick about 1/2 inch from the plant into the soil, and use a twisty tie to loosely link them together till its strong enough to stand on its own.

this is a first time for me....shoulda read up on it b4 i started lol

first had a grow light on them...then I bought some cfls, but got the wrong ones , so they were actually under the 3000k lights the first 2 1/2 3 weeks..

I have a fan blowing on them now and the 6500 k lights on them now and could tell a change in them the next day...babies perked up and filling out good now. I have a fan blowing them around. They haven't been topped yet...not sure when and how to do that...gonna add the other lights to them tomorrw....just started them tonight on 18/6 had them on 24....thanks

u need ballast and ignitor to start the bulb

Hey Cheetah...

Yeah Thanks....Dont know what I was thinking....this is first time trying to grow.
Sad part is, I dont even smoke anymore..but my hubby does so I thought what the hell ..ya know...I'll give it a try see what happens...Think i picked up new hobby lol....Enjoy the shit out of this sight...thx for the reply...later

I havent smoked any since I was 13, so 9 years ago lol. Brothers smoke the crap out of it though, and I planned on growing salvia for myself and thought it would be good practice lol. Growing stuff is addicting @_@

Hate waiting to see which plants end up male or female >.<