Results of CFL vs HPS

I got a few seeds and germinated then planted them. When they came up I put all but 2 under my 1000w HPS. The other two I put under 4 26w CFLs each giving them a little over 100w a piece. It has been about a month and the ones under the HPS are easily twice as large as the ones under the CFLs. I have never used CFLs to grow before and I am trying to find out if this is normal. Does growing under CFLs cause slower growing or is it that they are not enough wattage? The plants are in the same closet side by side with the CFLs hanging in a cross pattern about 4 or 5 inches above the tops of the plants. They are on 18/6 and being fed sensi-grow 3ml per liter every other day.

With those CFL 's u can get alot closer to the plants

It's both the amount of light and the light spectrum, the Kelvin range, the color, that makes a difference. You didn't mention what the CFLs were, as in 6500K or what, but you did say HPS. Well, 1000-watts or not you should be giving seedlings and plants in the vegetative stage of growth 6500K light, or in other words you should be using a 6500K metal halide bulb, if your 1000-watt ballast will let you. High pressure sodium (HPS) gives a flowering light spectrum.

But even with the correct Kelvin range HID lighting will always outdo CFL lighting or any other form of fluorescent lighting unless you have the absolute lowest wattage HID lights against a massive number of CFLs/fluorescents.

Additional:

It takes a lot more wattage using CFLs/fluorescent lights to
get the same amount of usable light as HID lighting.

Brick Top said:

It's both the amount of light and the light spectrum, the Kelvin range, the color, that makes a difference. You didn't mention what the CFLs were, as in 6500K or what, but you did say HPS. Well, 1000-watts or not you should be giving seedlings and plants in the vegetative stage of growth 6500K light, or in other words you should be using a 6500K metal halide bulb, if your 1000-watt ballast will let you. High pressure sodium (HPS) gives a flowering light spectrum.

But even with the correct Kelvin range HID lighting will always outdo CFL lighting or any other form of fluorescent lighting unless you have the absolute lowest wattage HID lights against a massive number of CFLs/fluorescents.

Additional:

It takes a lot more wattage using CFLs/fluorescent lights to
get the same amount of usable light as HID lighting.

Click to expand...

Yeah, my ballast does support it but I have spent so much already. It was only recently that I got the license to legally posses, smoke and grow. The same day I went out and got the 1000w HPS light, soil, rockwool, a 32 plant aeroponics system (I will only be used 30 sites), six fans, nutes, two bubble cloners with air pumps and stones and ordered 5 Super Lemon Haze, 1 AK47, 1 White Widow, 1 Purple Haze, 1 Pineapple Express and 1 Bubble Kush. Needless to say I spent quite a bit of money and I will probably wait at least until next month to get a metal halide. As a side note everything but the bubble kush came up and are doing excellent, they are going to give some awesome clones.

I haven't had the opportunity to get a MH light either. Minus the first week under a florecent I have grown from start to finish with an HPS and my plants (White Widow) look great. Hopefully the finished product is great as well.

If I remember right pot guru Ed Rosenthal has said that contrary to popular belief there is no real advantage to using metal halide (over HPS) during vegetative growth.

I don't know if he's right or not, but he does have the credentials so that I think he deserves to be taken seriously. I can say for sure that its absolutely possible to go from seeds to completed bud with just HPS and have an excellent result.

On a watt-for-watt basis, HPS lights are about 30% better than fluorescent, purely in terms of lumen output.

Then on top of that, HPS also offers a better spectrum (especially for flowering). So all else being equal, yeah, you'd expect much better results from an HPS than from fluorescent bulbs.

Only real advantages of CFL over HPS are small size and low startup cost. But once you get past literally the smallest of grows, HPS is the clear winner.

Brick Top said:

It's both the amount of light and the light spectrum, the Kelvin range, the color, that makes a difference. You didn't mention what the CFLs were, as in 6500K or what, but you did say HPS. Well, 1000-watts or not you should be giving seedlings and plants in the vegetative stage of growth 6500K light, or in other words you should be using a 6500K metal halide bulb, if your 1000-watt ballast will let you. High pressure sodium (HPS) gives a flowering light spectrum.

But even with the correct Kelvin range HID lighting will always outdo CFL lighting or any other form of fluorescent lighting unless you have the absolute lowest wattage HID lights against a massive number of CFLs/fluorescents.

Additional:

It takes a lot more wattage using CFLs/fluorescent lights to
get the same amount of usable light as HID lighting

Click to expand...

.

Click to expand...

I agree it wasnt a very fair contest huge 1000w hps V's a couple of 26w cfls.Thats like king kong V's a kitten.

hid this... my cfl ww

how can you compare 1000w HPS to 100w CFL?

i found with my cfls i can get shorter bushier plants with tight node spacing then any hid plants i have seen on here. But i'm using a 300w (10 30w) light rig, so is that really worth it for one plant? we'll have wait for the yield. 1 oz maybe not 3oz+ i think so.

Talk about a thread about apples and oranges.