150w hid mh question

[jdflores07]

Hey there guys! I'm not a very experienced grower and I have a question about Mh bulbs.

I'm tying to set up a perpetual grow and was wondering if a 150w mh bulb would be sufficient enough yo grow about 4 plants for 1.5 - 2 month veg period. They would later flower under a 400w hps bulb.
Basically I wanted to know from people who have experience with mh bulbs if 150w for 4 plants is a considerable amount of wattage to veg. Or if 4 plants is too much and maybe 150w is good for only one or two plants at a time.

Any info on the topic is much appreciated!

[Toker1]

At the beginning, 150w will cover 4 plants easily. After a month or so... you will want to go with more wattage. 150w -250w is only recommended for 2x2 ft spaces. Once the plants take up more than a 12”x12” foot print, they will be competing for light at 150w.

[jdflores07]

Yeah, they most likely will an up competing if they veg for 2 months. Maybe one month of veg for 4 plants would be more optimal.

[Ell]

i veg under 150hps.4 plants up to 2 feet is workable.just gotta keep an eye on them. rotate,change positions under light ,ect..

[jdflores07]

Yeah I'm flowering 3 plants under a 400w hps and I find myself rotating and moving them around a lot

[Obi-Wan]

I use 2 cheap 300w LED’s for my Veg tent. They each pull 135w each in a 2x4 space. It works well for perpetual grows. You want to give the plants enough light and space to grow while you’re flowering in your other tent. Less light and space will only result in more Veg time before they hit flower. If you time it right, with enough light and space they take off when you move them to flower.

[jdflores07]

I've been meaning to upgrade to led but they are crazy expensive here in my neck of the woods. I can only do so much on a small budget. As soon as I can I'm gonna get some good leds!

[Gingerbeard]

If you're looking for 'sufficient' I propose t5's. Had I not done a single top at 3 weeks/nodes old, and subsequent LTSing, my plants would be a foot tall after 8 weeks (bag seeds.) I'm in a 2'x3'x4.5' tent. 2'x2' is a flowering chamber with a 350 watt LED. 2'x1' is for vegging with t5's. The plants in the pictures are 6 weeks old and show my dog's feet. When they hit 8 weeks I'm going to put them in 2 gallon pots. The two I have will fit nicely in the 2'x1' space, for a couple weeks, to acclimate to the new pot/soil before LED flowering. This is done with two t5's. Since the veg chamber has a shelf, I could veg four at a time with four t5's.
t5's don't have as good results as HID. Don't get me wrong. It's just an option.
I was actually looking at a 150 watt for my tent, yesterday. Space wise, the one I looked at (read 'one') veg's a 3'x3' space and flowers a 2'x2'. Perfect for me. However, I would have to add cooling/ducting that would take up too much space in my place. Somewhere I read you can keep plants as close as 8" from a 150 watt. Better than my LED by 8". I've had young plants touch t5's with no burn. Just warm leaves. Were my tent 6' tall, I might grab an HID for flowering.
The third picture is 21 days old of the same plants in the veg chamber. You can't see my dog's feet because my dog doesn't willingly fit in the veg chamber.