Is this enough light!????

HustleMan said:

man i definitely need some help. I bought a basic clamp light with porcelain socket that holds up to 300w of light power & also bought a 150w High Pressure Sodium light bulb. When tried to put both together and plug in my light bulb, it did not light up. Is that the wrong light bulb for that clamp light socket??? If so, what other kind of light bulb should i buy to replace it in order to have enough light on my plant? Whats the best alternative light buld to use for it?

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you need to have a ballast with hps lights

if your shopping at lowes look at security lighting they should have some kick ass cfls along with metal halides and hps's

hps and mh bulbs require a ballast to kick on the bulb. you can build your own or purchase a security fixture . do not mix mh and hps bulbs in different ballasts. and definitely no more sticking hps bulbs in 110v sockets. get a y splitter,, and y split the cfls , you can create quite a chain with em. or do soemthing like this. it was my old setup.

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z22/firebrand18rjr/grow%20cage/Picture005.jpg

this is an example of a security fixture from home depot or lowes.

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z22/firebrand18rjr/grow cage/Picture006.jpg

your able to start all these babies with it.

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z22/firebrand18rjr/grow cage/Picture001.jpg

and once you start savin up some cash upgrade to a 400w ballast bulb reflector setup. then move to a 1000w , like this . 1000w mh and 400w mh

Video of right before flowering - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

than switch to hps lighting for flowering stage

Video of almost done1 - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

D@mn, ya'll reply fast than mutha-f@%ka, thats whats up though. I'm lost already, the only thing i caught was buy a ballast for my hps, but do not mix an mh and hps bulb with a ballast, and no hps's in a 110v socket, and get a y splitter to split the cfl's. It feels like a math problem, lol!! So, for under $20, whats the best cfl light to use, you gotta bare with me, I'm new to this. "First timer"- i started to ask a sales rep for help but didn't know how to explain what it was for- maybe i can say a science project!!!

So for right now, I'm in the "trying to get my plant a little bit taller & looking better" stage. I'll try to take pics of it with my camera phone. Thats bout the best i can do for right now.

go to your local home depot. look for a package of cfls that say 100w and 6500k . those are the same spectrum as a metal halide bulb . i was saying do not put mh bulbs in a hps ballast. or vise versa. y splitters make it so you can have 2 bulbs in one socket. they screw in then you screw a bulb into those. you can chain them and have a ton of cfls going as long as you dont reach the sockets max output. do not ask a associate for help , they will know whats going on if you start sounding weird. its a blue packaged bulb that say daylight spectrum. and when your done vegging for a month of so go buy the warm white 2700k spectrum bulbs. if they have equivalents of more than 100w buy em. but those usually have their own ballsts in the bulb. when you do start growing keep the seed in the dark till it pops up . it has to fight for light, than get the cfl about an inch to 2 inches away . and keep it that distance as it grows. add more around the sides when it starts to fill out. any more help let me know, was a big fan of cfls at first , but those are childs play when you start getting into high intensity discharge lighting.

do not force your plant to do anything. give it what it needs and it will do the rest of the work. mke sure your lights arent too far away than it will tend to stretch and stem will end up being so weak it will snap. trust me go get the daylight bulbs. from what i rememeber your using the soft white bulbs. those are really weak

get rid of the soft whites. those are for regular house lighting. cool daylight for veg and warm white for flowering simple as that.

Hey Friebrand? Can you tell me what kind of light set-up this is? This looks good to me, but I have no idea what the fixture is.

Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket


Thanks. I got a lot of good info from your posts (and gave you a rep).

thats just the link for photobuckets home page. try again . you need a minimum of a 75w mh for each plant to mature from sprout.

oh ok, well, i just took it in my own hands and bought a 200w CFL spiral light bulb before i read your reply(my bad), I dont if thats a bad thing or good thing, but it only pulls 40w of power. Plus, i have two small flourescent lights on each side of it. Hopefully it will do alright now. My grow area is not that great right now, but i'm learning more and more. I think i need some good water nutrients now to water them. I've been using regular bathroom sink water. I know that has to be bad for it.

depends on whats its ph level is. stay between 6.5 and 7.5 , get some strips or a digital tester.

firebrand18rjr said:

thats just the link for photobuckets home page. try again . you need a minimum of a 75w mh for each plant to mature from sprout.

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Hmm, that's strange. I copied your link. Well, anyway, I'm talking about the light set up you have that shows a good number of CFLs all hooked up to one fixture? It's not a Y splitter. I don't know what it is, but it looks like what I'm interested in doing.

I know that the whole debate between HPS and CFLs is a heated one, but I've decided, based on what I've read, to go the CFL route. And if I could find out how you got so many of them in one fixture, I'd be very gratetful.

Thanks!

Ah-ha. Now realizing how naive that remark about CFLs sounds. If you're going to do it, do it right? HPS lights are the way to go, which I now realize after looking through a bunch of growing journals.

Now I'm looking for the best light that I can get, at the best price, of course, and my question has now evolved into this: Given that HPS is the obvious winner in lighting for the flowering stage, are CFLs okay for vegging, or should I just go for the big bucks (as in electric bill) from the beginning? And IF it's a decent enough choice to use CFLs for vegging, then how on earth was that set up by Firebrander made?

And if this sounds really dumb? Please excuse me. I'm new to all of this. (Also extending my apologies if my posts here are considered highjacking a thread. It's sometimes hard to tell what sort of online etiquette is okay, and which is considered rude.)

lose the foil on bottom of the plant...peace

yea no foil. mylar or flat white paint. the fixture i have is a regular multi socket security fixture i just added onto and wired all the cfls into. easy to do just use your imagination. now on the hps and cfl debate. hps is by far the best way to go for flowering. so please dont say go cfl. that is the cheapest way to grow, will give light fluffy buds, and not near the amount of a hid bulb. . the only good part about cfls are the light is the closest spectrum to the actual sun. but the intensity of a mh or hps is far greater and gives better results. only use a cfl when sprouting to 3 weeks into veg. will save your electric bill from the constant usage of a mh bulb. a 400w is about 20-30 a month to run depending on lighting schedule.