where should my priorities lie?

regarding the whole process start to finish where should my priorities lie in terms of grow room set-up. lets say i can make 3 big buys, currently been using a dual spec 300w cfl in soil. had minimal results. i wanna get a 400w HPS and veg under cfl then flower under hps. will that really improve my yield??? been using dutch pro nutes no booster or stimulator as such.

so if u were me...what would you buy?

will that really improve my yield???
does a bear shit in the woods? j/k but yeah, you'll be shocked. let me say this though, if possible get the 600w instead. you'll end up wishing you would of if you dont. i sure did and i know alot of others who did too. you can get a 600w electronic ballast cool tubed hps for around$200(the lots vary a bit, i paid $190 for mine) w/free shipping off ebay. it is worth it for sure.

How large is your space? Imo you need a veg light (MH or CFls or T5s or...), a bud light (Gimme a light. ... ) (HPS is supreme for this), fan&filter for controlling temp&odor; I think those are the bigs. Lotsa little stuff: white paint or reflective film for the grow space, TDS meter, Netflix to take your mind off the ssslllooowww grow...
cheers 'neer

<edit> I must have had a grower's moment there ... you already have CFls. An HPS is definitely worth having.

darkdestruction420 said:

does a bear shit in the woods?

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not a polar bear

VanishingToaster said:

regarding the whole process start to finish where should my priorities lie in terms of grow room set-up. lets say i can make 3 big buys, currently been using a dual spec 300w cfl in soil. had minimal results. i wanna get a 400w HPS and veg under cfl then flower under hps. will that really improve my yield??? been using dutch pro nutes no booster or stimulator as such.

so if u were me...what would you buy?

Click to expand...

moved the thread to the right area

i should of gone into that, got myself a dehumidifier and a stand alone tower fan, the room i'm using is about 3m by 2m and 6ft tall with a slanted roof like an attic. i had 8 plants all about 2 ft tall all happy and healthy under that cfl but planning on doing two rounds of 3 plants next. i've also go 3 pretty sizable wall mirrors around the plants like a box and the windows blocked out with white paper newspaper and bin bags. works a treat lol

robert 14617 said:

not a polar bear

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damn, ya got me. lmao.

with that kind of space my priority would be lights and ventilation

let me also say you should use a hps bulb with added blue spectrum, it is really worth it. having both spectrums allows your plants to reach their full potential.

because of the slanted roof the doorway is without a door into that room, i created a polythene door and velcro'd it in place, the window also has a vent above the handle i can open, what kind of ventilation would you go for?

Wait - so you had a 300w cfl covering 8 plants in a 3 meter (9ft) by 2 meter (6ft) room? That's 54 square feet, and at the bear minimum you want 3000 lumens per square foot. For the bear minimum in that room you need 162,000 lumens man. A 1000w HPS doesn't even have that much light. A 300w cfl puts out 30,000 lumens MAX. I have 26,000 lumens in my 2.5 square foot box. I'm guessing you didn't SCROG or LST since you didn't mention it. Those techniques are a must when doing cfl grows.

I'm shocked that your plants stayed alive long enough to make it to harvest - and I'm not saying that in an asshole type way. I'm honestly surprised how little light cannabis needs to keep itself alive.

Doing a cfl grow the right way is what makes the difference between people on here saying, "Yeah, cfl's suck. Get a HPS if you expect decent results." and, "Holy shit dude! You grew those with Cfl's?!?!"


With a room that big even a 400w HPS will not provide very good results. They'll be better than the CFL's, but only because it'll be pumping out twice as much light. Assuming you already have your seeds, light should be your #1 priority, but it needs to be based upon your room size. Fans should be #2 - but again, they're based off of room size.

Idealy, if I were you, I'd use the set-up I use, and that's a 400W MH AND three 250W HPS. I have that in a closet that's 2X4X8, and my God, I've ended up with pound and a half harvests many, many times and that's approx 1.7 grams per watt, and by anyone's measure, that's a perdy dang fat harvest. But, back to lighting in particular, I have found the when you provide a "full-spectrum" meaning MH and HPS, the results are just eye-poppingly obvious what the best is. And that ratio of 1 MH per 3 HPS is fairly universally accepted I think. If not, screw it, 'cause I know it kicks ass! This set-up can be bought at a lighting supply house for probably less than $450 and will reap you far, far more than what you will invest initially. Good luck with sorting out the priorities.

VanishingToaster said:

regarding the whole process start to finish where should my priorities lie in terms of grow room set-up. lets say i can make 3 big buys, currently been using a dual spec 300w cfl in soil. had minimal results. i wanna get a 400w HPS and veg under cfl then flower under hps. will that really improve my yield??? been using dutch pro nutes no booster or stimulator as such.

so if u were me...what would you buy?

Click to expand...

VanishingToaster said:

i should of gone into that, got myself a dehumidifier and a stand alone tower fan, the room i'm using is about 3m by 2m and 6ft tall with a slanted roof like an attic. i had 8 plants all about 2 ft tall all happy and healthy under that cfl but planning on doing two rounds of 3 plants next. i've also go 3 pretty sizable wall mirrors around the plants like a box and the windows blocked out with white paper newspaper and bin bags. works a treat lol

Click to expand...

Ventilation needs 3x the area of your room. Your room is 324 cubic feet. You need at the very least a 972 cfm fan to vent that room, or a couple that add up to that much.


Here's a link for a 600w Lumatek digital ballast which can run 600w, 400w, and 360w bulbs both MH and HPS - an air cooled reflector - hangers for the reflector - and a Hortilux 600w bulb for $350.00. It's more than you'd pay on ebay, but it's not made in China either. You'll get more than two grows out of it without it breaking down. It's made in the UK so the quality is good.

http://www.greners.com/high-performance-grower-600w-grow-light-package.html



.

the plants were probably in a 4ft square area boxed in with the massive mirrors, a bit of light escaped yea, but they had plenty light, jus not quite breaking the 2oz mark

GanjaGod420000 said:

if I were you, I'd use the set-up I use, and that's a 400W MH AND three 250W HPS. I've ended up with pound and a half harvests many, many times and that's approx 1.7 grams per watt, and by anyone's measure, that's a perdy dang fat harvest.

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400+250+250+250=1150watts
1.5 lbs = 672 g
672 divided by 1150 = .584 grams/watt

Quick and easy and very cost-effective= Go to a lighting supply house, buy a core and coil kit for a 400W hps, making sure the starter is included, one Mogul-base lamp-holder(socket), and buy one 400W hps lamp, and one 400W mh lamp. You can use the same ballast to run either type lamp. U cannot buy a mh kit and have same results. A hps kit will fire both hps, and mh, given they're the same wattage. U can easil veg under the mh and flower under the hps, and u will do fine with 2-3 plants, given u use reflectors and proper super-cropping, and/or tie-down methods for retarding vertical growth and maximizing horizontal growth, thusly, ending up with more medicine in the end. The set-up I just described, shouldn't cost you more than $150 and will last you long enough to make plenty of $$$ off what yer doing and buy better shit, u dig?

UnderCurrentDWC said:

400+250+250+250=1150watts
1.5 lbs = 672 g
672 divided by 1150 = .584 grams/watt

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Yeah, that soundz about right. Thatz an average projection tho. Last one, I pulled in 3.7, from 6 very logistically, super-cropped ladies, all different strains. So, I think my percentage may have gone up since the 1.5 lb crop. I think ittz a beautiful thing, no matter what the figures, as long as we all keep out growin' Uncle Sam!

GanjaGod420000 said:

Idealy, if I were you, I'd use the set-up I use, and that's a 400W MH AND three 250W HPS. I have that in a closet that's 2X4X8, and my God, I've ended up with pound and a half harvests many, many times and that's approx 1.7 grams per watt, and by anyone's measure, that's a perdy dang fat harvest. But, back to lighting in particular, I have found the when you provide a "full-spectrum" meaning MH and HPS, the results are just eye-poppingly obvious what the best is. And that ratio of 1 MH per 3 HPS is fairly universally accepted I think. If not, screw it, 'cause I know it kicks ass! This set-up can be bought at a lighting supply house for probably less than $450 and will reap you far, far more than what you will invest initially. Good luck with sorting out the priorities.

Click to expand...

400W hps core, coil, and starter kit + 1-400W hps lamp +1 400W mh lamp + 1- mogul-base lamp-holder(socket)...Just carefully follow the wiring diagrams...I am a Journeyman Union Electrician, so I can do 'em in my sleep, but they can be quite confusing to the non-trained person. Just have to make sure your capacitor and starter are all wired-in series like they will show on the diagram. Make sure u use the correct voltage "tap" if u get a multi-tap kit. Shouldn't cost u more than $150 r so for all that.

wow, i'm on my second grow, while i can understand everything its taking some work for me to follow it. i bought a ballast and reflector and a dual spec 400w HPS. got a magnetic ballast in that kit and that alone cost me £100, couldn't believe how hot it ran and found it they were a bit dodgy, so had to shell out another 80 quid on a digital ballast.

my CFL blew so i'm vegging under my hps, not ideal but it being dual spec, figured it would do till next month and i pick up another cfl bulb for vegging. but thats only a provisional idea atm. i dont have the height to get up a 1.8m grow tent and was thinking about 1.6 but i dont know if its going to be much better than what i've got currently by the time i weigh out the pros and cons.

currently i've got a clothes rail like you'd find in a shop surrounded by big mirrors, sitting in the spare room. the lights hanging over the top and the bar its suspended from is height adjustable right to the top of my height restrictions the mirrors are only a meter tall lying down but i can raise and angle them as the plants grow, granted i can't really release CO2 into that enviroment but being a bigger area its easier to control and gives me more time before any drastic changes occur. my biggest yielder on my 1st grow was only about 3quarters an oz, noob with a CFL what more can i say.

as for my competency with electicity the last time i changed a fuse i couldn't even put the plug back together, earth wire seemed to not be there (triple pronged uk plugs) and the top prong never sat right and that tv never worked again. i'm really lax to go messin round too much lol