400w MH OR 400w hps

greetings guys first let me say its good to be here i have two problems i hope someone can help me with as a new grower ive done a lot of research most areas went very well with the exception of soil as im using for my grow can someone give me a very good yet simple soil formula to follow as a true beginner or should i just go organic and forget the nutes etc. the other thing is im going to be running a closet grow pics coming 3x3x6, 2m mylar around 6" exaust fan 185cfm at top 2x 3" passive intake at bottom one 8" oscilating fan for air circulation my question is i only have the 400w MH light is this lights ok to use from start to finish if so what am i losing by not flowering with hps thanx

come on people i thought this is where to get good advise i cant even get a f*****7g reply

MH is for vegging 18/6

HPS is for Flowering. 12/12

400 is cool. You will do better with a hps.. You will do cool with a mh.

yeah ive read up on that thanks i was simply wondering because im going to be doing 6 lowriders with this set up and since they autoflower i wasnt sure if it would hurt ty dirtyboy.. out! hey no idea about the simplest soil ?

hey thanks for the feed back im going to be doing auto-flowering lowriders 6 at a time thats why i was wondering about the lights ive read that hps helps more with your quantity and that mh helps more with the overall quality of you smoke is this true? anyway ty... anything you can offer on the soil somethimg pretty simple for a starter...

stinkbudd1 said:

i was wondering about the lights ive read that hps helps more with your quantity and that mh helps more with the overall quality of you smoke is this true? ...

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MH bulbs give plants more of the needed light spectrum for vegetative growth. Tighter nodal spacing/less stretching, thicker lush vegetative growth.
　
　
HPS bulbs give plants more of the light spectrum for flowering. More productive bud-sites, larger, thicker heavier more dense buds.


Both are important to your plants at different periods of their growth cycle.

hey thanks for the info bro i guess im just wonering what effect it will have on auto flowering? and do you have any simple soil solutions ? ty

ive also heard that mh is better for quality and hps for quantity is this the truth?

stinkbudd1 said:

ive also heard that mh is better for quality and hps for quantity is this the truth?

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re read what bricktop wrote and that will answer your questions

Metal Halide is best for Vegetative Growth, meaning until you are trying to flower your plants. Once you are flowering the plants you should switch to High Pressure Sodium as it provides better growth for the flowering plants.

If you have to make a choice between Metal Halide or High Pressure Sodium from start to finish, I would choose High Pressure Sodium all the way. Also, if you are using an Auto flowering species perhaps you could consider a Compact Flourescent setup for that situation. If I read correctly, you said you were using Lowryder seeds yes? Those are a perfect candidate for CFL setups, as they are smaller and can more readily deal with CFL lighting, which loses it's luster as plants get larger. You won't have that problem with CFL and smaller plants.

In any case, I'd recommend HPS if it's a choice between Metal Halide and HPS and nothing else.

i've heard people say ya can't beat the smoke out of a 400w mh. you won't get as much yield i hear, but the smoke you get is pretty damn good b/c of the uvb light it puts out. if your broke + only got the mh(no hps conversion bulb) then just do your 400w i mean its still hid lighting(400w not as many lumens as hps..but) it'll STILL PRODUCE. If i was you i would run the 400w mh and if ya got the space throw like 4-6 3000k spectrum cfls around the mh and you got yourself a nice little setup. Its not unheard of to mix spectrums for flowering(throw a 250mh in w/ 400hps). my last 2 cents basically is that the mh will give you danker bud(not proven,depends on conditions...etc) while with some cfls for supplemental light to tighten up the buds. but if ya got money and are going for yield maybe you'd wanna do the opposite (HPS, 6500k cfl suppl. light) idk man hopefully that helps --Loghead

id definitely get an hps

hey thanx my man very much appreciated it took forever for someone to get right down to it hope to keep in touch through out my grow first timer could need you again lol..peace bro if all is well pics soon out...

hey thanx to all that posted on the behalf of a newbie wish me luck and good pulls lol..

Foxfarm soil. Add some perlite to it.

I had a space about the same as yours with a 400w MH in it. I Flowered under the MH along with 2 100w HPS. At the end I wished I purchased a conversion bulb but, It was also my first adventure with HID lighting so I was amazed with the results as is. Good luck. Id love to see some pics

hey wonderblunter how was the quality of the smoke under the mh bulb? i hear it can be more potent. but you had 2 100hps you say too? oh and to stinkbudd1 yeah man your welcome lookin forward to seeing the grow man.

ok guy's here we go with all of your help and input this is what i desided to go with on this grow. first im going to go ahead and try the 400mh from start to finish with my auto lowrider blueberry kush/ diesel imgoing to go with organic mg soil and alaska grow and bloom ferts my closet is completely covered in 2m mylar w/8"oscilating fan for circulation ill be using open door policy for up until flowering by then ill have figured out a way to deal with the smell and intake/outake once the door will be shut.. i forgot to mention that during the flowering stage ill be adding two rows of cfl's to assist in this faze.one row per side of the mh400 the cfl's will have a total output of 22,000lumes @ 600wats 8 bulbs total...now i have a 6' 285cfm exaust fan here brand new i wanted to run a passive intake with this but i dont want to destroy my closet door to put it together this is where i do need you all again for im kind of at a lost i know ill be producing heat when the door is closed so what do i do... all suggestions welcome help needed and soon seeds already germin......thanx