Flowering with MH?

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nlmw42

Active Member
hey guys, im using a 400 watt mh for veg currently, the bulb claims its a balanced spectrum, but ive heard people complaining of "airy, non-dense buds" when flowering with it..

imnot sure my ballast will support a HPS bulb, so thats out of the question, do u think il be okay with a MH?


anyone care to share their results with flowering under an MH?

thanks!
 
Al B. Fuct

Al B. Fuct

once had a dog named
Your MH ballast will not start an HPS as the HPS lamp requires a brief high voltage spike, 1.5-4kV, to start the arc. HPS ballasts have an igniter for this purpose.

MH tends to produce smaller, leafier buds than HPS.

You may be able to retrofit your MH ballast with an igniter suiting HPS and a switch to disable it for use with MH, but HPS ballasts are not really too dear, not enough that I'd bother modding up an MH ballast. I can get 400HPS ballasts for about $75. 400HPS lamp tubes are cheap as chips. Shop around.
 
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nlmw42

Active Member
Thanks dude. i wish some hydro shops were around my area!!

I've been looking around on the internet for a conversion bulb, but i couldnt find one that coverted a MH ballast to an HPS bulb, only the other way around.

am i just looking in the wrong place or do they not exist due to the ignitor still being lacked in the ballast?

also im thinking of just adding some red spectrum CFL's around the middle and side branches for flowering. Would this provide any noticeable difference in complement with my 400 MH? or should i not wast my time with that?
 
Al B. Fuct

Al B. Fuct

once had a dog named
Unfortunately, I don't think you're going to find an HPS lamp which will run on an MH ballast, due to the missing igniter. There are MH lamps that are designed to ignore the 4kV pulse from an HPS ballast, just not the other way round. Sorry. :(

Adding CFLs to HID lighting is a lot like adding a model airplane engine to your 747. Bit of a time & money waster as you suggest.

You can flower with the MH but the results just won't be as good as with HPS.
 
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nlmw42

Active Member
yeah im going to pass on the CFL's. haha.

looks like im going to have to see the results of the MH.

im hoping it wont give me completely airy, non-dense buds.
I just want some crystalized, compact buds. What can i expect from MH?
Still nice looking buds and good smoke right?? =D
 
overfiend

overfiend

HeavyMetalHippie
you'll be fine i,ve been using a 400 watt mh for years and get great smoke every time.these are pics from my 400watt mh


 
overfiend

overfiend

HeavyMetalHippie
try keeping the size of the room as small as temps will allow this will help you get the most out of the 400 watter my room is 40" x 60" and 36"tall
 
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nlmw42

Active Member
you say to keep the room as small as temps will allow.. How should I correlate the room size with the temps? My cab is very tolerable.. and very easily cooled whenever needed.
Ive seemed to have misplaced my thermo.. will be getting one in there and giving an update.

Also going to have some pics coming soon. 8 plant DWC at the moment, from some various 60's an eighth bagseed.
plants looking very nice!! cant wait for the end result!!

i hope you guys keep tuning in! i'm going to try and keep you all updated!

Great pics overfiend! all of those on a single 400watt?
 
Al B. Fuct

Al B. Fuct

once had a dog named
The pictured MH stadium grow looks great. Wonder what it would look like with HPS.

Cannabis plants make best use of re-yellow spectrum in flowering as that is the character of late autumn sunlight at temperate latitudes due to the low angle of the sun causing sunlight to pass through a long path through the atmosphere, which filters most blue and shorter wavelength light.
 
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SlikWiLL13

Well-Known Member
Al B. Fuct said:
The pictured MH stadium grow looks great. Wonder what it would look like with HPS.

Cannabis plants make best use of re-yellow spectrum in flowering as that is the character of late autumn sunlight at temperate latitudes due to the low angle of the sun causing sunlight to pass through a long path through the atmosphere, which filters most blue and shorter wavelength light.
Click to expand...
I agree Al, HPS is better for flowering(use one meself). but i think nlmw42 wanted to know if he would need to get more equipment to flower his plants. i just wanted to show him some MH buds and a kick-ass garden to boot.

btw -the guy with the stadium says he uses MH because theyre cheaper(I personally believe penny-wise is often pound-stupid) and he runs like 8 different houses with 6-10 bulbs per house.
 
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nlmw42

Active Member
sorry about the wait on the pics! im taking some tonight and getting them up here as soon as possible! plants r looking great!!! loving the DWC.
 
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nlmw42

Active Member
hey everyone! sorry ive been out of touch lately, my PC went out the other night. Finally got some pics for you guys! Also if i may, id like to fill you all in on the status of the grow and some things i sort of need some direction and opinion in. Here's how it goes..

As you can see in the pics and previously mentioned, im growing 6 bagseed plants in DWC bubbler. I really like the tub i am currently using now. It's just perfect space-wise. the plants are growing beautifuly and loving the hydro. I'm curious of when i should flower, seeing as i dont want to run out of room in the 5 foot tall grow cab. Its 4ft long, 3 ft wide, and 5 ft tall to be exact. I have no way of raising my light any taller than that, so i dont want to be too cramped come harvest time. also take into account the tub sits around 1.5 ft off the ground. So more like 3.5 ft of growing toom. Please check out my grow and let me know about flowering.

Also clones.. This might sound like straight noobieness, but i cant get any clones to survive, i was wondering if any1 could tell me where on the plant to take th cuttings, and how to successfully complete the process?? any help is great.

Also wondering about possible results in this cab with the setup im using, flowering at what height, etc. thanks again all of you!
 

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onthedl0008

Well-Known Member
genius, anyhow i have incorporated an aquatic jbj mh bulb with ballast to my flower room, ballast has an igniter but havent tried to put an hps bulb in it , my point is even during flowering ur plants are going to stretch, i have found that by dropping a couple 2700 k cfls just above the colas kinda remedies that, but not entirely , they still do stretch.
U can pick up a m/h- hps conversion setup and change these out to fit ur particular growing seasons.

like al said tho hps is the latest and best lighting u can offer to ur plants during flowering as he explained it.
 
Eharmony420

Eharmony420

Well-Known Member
i read some guy when i first joined. He was a photgrapher. He said there actually is a benfit to the mh flower. It was somethign like better buds basically. He said for sure it took longer but the potency was increased. Any truth to this?
 
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onthedl0008

Well-Known Member
I have never tried the conversion bulb sir, but my ballast does have an ignitor, however, i would not put an hps lamp on my halide ballast cuz simply i do not want to burn my house down.
i will do more research i guess, but from what i have the conversion bulbs are more incadescent i guess and do not put out the lumens that true hps bulbs do with the proper ballast igniting them.
But hey if i can find a descent hps conversion bulb that will fit my ballast requirements i will fo sho incorporatre it into my grow room set up!
 
caddyluck

caddyluck

Well-Known Member
Eharmony420 said:
i read some guy when i first joined. He was a photgrapher. He said there actually is a benfit to the mh flower. It was somethign like better buds basically. He said for sure it took longer but the potency was increased. Any truth to this?
Click to expand...

I've heard of increased resin production with MH. I don't know if that's true though. bongsmilie
 
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