Need advice re: lighting please

I decided to go with 2 grow rooms - one for veg and one for flowering.

I have a 600 W hps setup for flowering.

I have a fluorescent light for seedlings for my first grow but plan to switch to cloning after that.

Any advice how to economically enhance my existing fluoros without purchasing another ballast setup?

Heat is an issue in my veg room btw. I looked at led's but they are also pretty expensive.

Any ideas???

Thanks!

jennyj said:

I decided to go with 2 grow rooms - one for veg and one for flowering.

I have a 600 W hps setup for flowering.

I have a fluorescent light for seedlings for my first grow but plan to switch to cloning after that.

Any advice how to economically enhance my existing fluoros without purchasing another ballast setup?

Heat is an issue in my veg room btw. I looked at led's but they are also pretty expensive.

Any ideas???

Thanks!

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You only need 2 rooms if you plan on keeping mothers. Then you would need to keep a room to continue vegging the mothers and flower your clones.

Hmmm. How old should clones be before they are placed in the flower room? (lights on for 12 hrs/ off for 12 hrs).

Soooo much to learn!

jennyj said:

Hmmm. How old should clones be before they are placed in the flower room? (lights on for 12 hrs/ off for 12 hrs).

Soooo much to learn!

Click to expand...

That will all depend on the strain you have, height restictions etc. I top my plants in my cabinet to keep them shorter and bushier. Outside they have lots of room to grow so leave them. But to answer your questions, you can start flowering them when they have 5 or more nodes up the stem. (that means 5 or more branches up the main stem) I flower mine around there or more. I also gradually introduce the 12/12 over 2 weeks by increasing the light 2 hours each day or so until 12/12 is reached. At the end I do the reverse.

I also gradually introduce the 12/12 over 2 weeks by increasing the light 2 hours each day or so until 12/12 is reached. At the end I do the reverse.

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Uhh...do you mean decrease? Or do you really mean it takes you six days to go from no light to 12 hours of light? Right after they have been on 18 hours or 24 hours for the first say month or so?

Jenny, lots of 'ideas' about lighting come to mind. None of them will be intelligant ideas without some idea of space and budget. Pictures are always appreciated. VV