@ Collective gardener
I have been sort of torn over getting a metal halide.I have been told by dozens of people for the past year I have been researching/ growing that Metal Halides are crap. So..... I did a bit of research this morning into Mh.
if a 1000watt Mh conversion lamp produces 100k lm and a 32w t8 produces 2800 lm then that would mean that my current setup of 8 lamps would produce 22400 lm ( forgive me if I'm doing the math wrong) using 256watts,
So from that I came to the conclusion that with 4 times my current setup[256 watts/ 8 lamps= 22400 lm] I would end up using 1024 watts to produce 89600 lm as opposed to the 100000 lm from the 1000 watt Mh. Not to mention that it would take 32 t8 fixtures to achieve this same production.
So bottom line is a Metal Halide is for more productive not really by watt/ lm ratio (my calculations were from just two brands I know they vary) but by manor of convenience I would only be using 1 fixture as opposed to 32.
I hope this post can help anyone who has been debating it or heard the same "wastefulness rumor" that I heard
@ Collective gardener
I have been sort of torn over getting a metal halide.I have been told by dozens of people for the past year I have been researching/ growing that Metal Halides are crap. So..... I did a bit of research this morning into Mh.
if a 1000watt Mh conversion lamp produces 100k lm and a 32w t8 produces 2800 lm then that would mean that my current setup of 8 lamps would produce 22400 lm ( forgive me if I'm doing the math wrong) using 256watts,
So from that I came to the conclusion that with 4 times my current setup[256 watts/ 8 lamps= 22400 lm] I would end up using 1024 watts to produce 89600 lm as opposed to the 100000 lm from the 1000 watt Mh. Not to mention that it would take 32 t8 fixtures to achieve this same production.
So bottom line is a Metal Halide is for more productive not really by watt/ lm ratio (my calculations were from just two brands I know they vary) but by manor of convenience I would only be using 1 fixture as opposed to 32.
I hope this post can help anyone who has been debating it or heard the same "wastefulness rumor" that I heard
Personally, if I wanted to use flouros I'd use T-5's. Keep in mind that the cost of 32 T-8's would FAR exceed the 100 bucks for a bulb. You already have the ballast sitting there. Also, the Halide gives you all that light out of a small fixture, concentrating the light. The flouros are very spread out. I grow very large plants so light penetration is important to me. I think you'll be VERY happy with what that halide could do for you. It also will give you a chance to dial in your cooling prior to blooming. I'm not sure where you heard halides were bad. Most growers I know use halides to veg. A few use T-5's to veg.
@ Biologically incorrect
Those plants are nice and have a ton of branches.....look perfect for my scrog, but @ 6 weeks under a t8 24/0 my plants look just as bushy and about 6-8" taller, did you top them? what sort of light cycle have you been running with the MH?
View attachment 1474298
The pots could actually be 2 1/2 gallon, I thought they were 3, but they're pretty sturdy and I was able to drill them for anchor points no problem