Experts - Is this a good grow light for the money?

I'm currently using a 300 watt CFL (the big envirolight type) and have just finished growing a 60 day wonder in my closet. The results were not as good as we were hoping for as the lower buds were very underdeveloped, probably due to lack of light penetration from the CFL. I am thinking of getting a HPS light and wondered if this is a good choice -

http://www.grotec.co.uk/products.php?DepartmentID=25

It is the second product on the page, the 600w kit with dual spectrum bulb (I presume a 100,000 lumen HPS?).

Any comments, suggestions or advice? The grow space is a closet about 2 x 2 x 3 feet in area but would probably need to add ventilation as I only have a small desk fan in there at the moment.
 

Supaman.420

Member
It's a fair price if that's what your asking. And 600W will be powerful enough for a room that size but those wing reflectors are a pain to ventilate. There are other, although more expensive, options out there that are designed with flanges in place to add ventilation ducting. May I suggest adding a couple 42W (150w) CFL's to the bottom of your plant(s)? These bulbs are less than $10 each and I would use either 8" or 10" clip on work light reflectors, also under $10. You can get the bulbs and the reflectors at Walmart, Home Depot, etc... I have done this to supplement my crop back when I was using just a single 400w HPS. The reflectors have a plug and socket built in and they have spring clips on the bottom, usually somewhat adjustable. Just screw in the bulbs and clip the reflector onto your hydro tray or on something next to your soil pots. You may have to use something such as an empty pot or bucket to clip the lights onto. I dunno, use your imagination! Then just point the reflectors at a nice grouping of lower buds, play around with positions until you find what works best. You can point up from the bottom, which is what I did, or you could just point them straight in from halfway up the plant or so, depending on plant size, of course. Without pics, it sounds to me like this is really all you need, I've seen some nice buds grown with CFL's and just fluoro's in general. The trick is to keep them suckers as close to the plant as possible without burning them. CFL's dont put out a ton of heat, especially compared to HID's, so you can put them closer than you would/could with HID's. But you still shouldnt expect alot of light to penetrate through to lower parts of the plant with any fluorescent lighting. Hope this helped, good luck to you in the future....... :joint:
 
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