Lighting

[Scooter]

People I am new to growing Inside. I have a make shift LED system up and running have gotten two decent harvest out of it. I want to upgrade to Metal Halid for Vegging. Info on light fixtures is what I am looking for. All info is greatly appreciated. I will contiune to flower outside because of the climate I live in so just looking for a fixuter for the vigging stage.
Thanks

[Jacobs528177]

400 watt open wing reflector on amazon for like 120. If you want my opinion though i would go with t5 light because they make for amazingly short internodes which is of course what you want. I have a 2x4 8 bulb t5 that i keep about 12 inches from seedlings and about 4-8 inches while in full blown veg. Make sure you have air circulation above your canopy though. I have used the 400 watt mh and t5 is better

[Scooter]

Thank you for the info. I have a freind who has the same setup and he is having trouble with seedlings. any input. Also Heat is an issue. Any thoughts on LED Lights?

[az2000]

Any thoughts on LED Lights?

You said you only want a light for veg. You don't need a terrific light to veg cannabis. You can buy a cheap LED fixture and it should be ok. (Flowering is where some dissapoint.). Household LED bulbs will work. Rig up some lamp sockets and provide about 20-25w/sq ft of LED lightbulbs. Maybe 3:1 cool white to warm. I've flowered a plant using household LED lightbulbs. I got big, dense buds. But, the crystal and terpene prduction wasn't as good as T5HO or CMH. I flowered at 30-35w/sq ft. I cut the plastic diffusion part off, and use a "ground fault interupter" outlet to protect me from electrocution if I were to touch an exposed surface of the bulb. Phillips 9-10w (60w equiv) are good. GE Brightstick. I used Cree BR30 floodlights (10w, 65w equiv. You don't cut the diffuser off that.). I like to use lower-watt bulbs for this so I can have better coverage, more angles, sidelight, etc. I think that provides better results than all the watts from one point.

Even T8 or T12 fluorescent will veg (I think. I haven't' done it. But, I think I've seen people do it.). Those run cooler than T5HO. You can also buy replacement ballasts that are remote mountable. That can keep more heat out of the tent.

CMH runs cool, and can have remote ballast to reduce heat in the tent.

[Smokesteve]

Not sure why people seem to think you can use any piece of shit light in veg that's just crazy. Metal Halide is a good choice, you want the plants to develope strong thick stems to support the weight of massive buds.

[MJTECH]

People I am new to growing Inside. I have a make shift LED system up and running have gotten two decent harvest out of it. I want to upgrade to Metal Halid for Vegging. Info on light fixtures is what I am looking for. All info is greatly appreciated. I will contiune to flower outside because of the climate I live in so just looking for a fixuter for the vigging stage.
Thanks

You have three options, LED, metal halide with a starter, so it can run sodium vapor, or T5.

If you are growing long term the upfront cost of LED's makes sense due to the amount of power needed for illumination and heat removal.


Next in line is T5, more heat and more power, but the tubes can be changed out to go from vegetative to flowering.


Then there is MH/SV, low cost but more heat than a T5 with solid state ballasts, one of the real upsides to MH/SV is if you live in a area that is prone to lightning, the old school ballasts in a MH/SV fixture can take lightning surges that would smoke a LED or T5 solid state ballast fixture.

Also with LED be careful they're a ton of Chinese LED lights that flat out lie about their wattage, they will make ludicrous claims like rating a light at 2Kw with an input power of only a couple hundred watts, yes LED's are efficient but when the input power, volts times amps is way lower then the rated wattage, shy away from buying that fixture.

MJ

[Scooter]

Thanks for all the input on lighting. I am located in central america so getting specific items is difficult to say the least. I am going to be using LED just because of heat issues here. Next question. I have a light schedule of 18 on and 6 off. I have read that a 6 on 2 off schedule is preferred. again limited on what I can get. so I have a timer with a 24 hour schedule. is 4.5 on and 1.5 hours off something that will be acceptable to the plants? Thanks for the comments.

[Smokesteve]

18 straight hours on and 6 off not broken up is preferred.