Blending Light

Hello everybody,

Well I am starting a growbox this weekend (finally) and since my funds for my grow are low I will be using cfl's for now and hopefully invest in at least a 400 watt hps system down the road (next grow). So i was planning on getting one of those bathroom bar light fixture (holds 3 bulbs) and some y-sockets and getting six cfl's, so my question is............

Is is better to use the correct spectrum only or to use both spectrums at the same time?

And if it is better to use both then do you just use more of the blue spectums during vegetative stage( example:6 bulbs= 4 blue and 2 red)

And use more red for flowering(example: 6 bulbs= 4 red and 2 blue)

somebody come up with an answer to this quick, I need to know this to.

k-town said:

And if it is better to use both then do you just use more of the blue spectums during vegetative stage( example:6 bulbs= 4 blue and 2 red)

And use more red for flowering(example: 6 bulbs= 4 red and 2 blue)

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The general view is that a mix of red and blue that closely approximates the spectrum of the sun at the various stages of growth (eg more blue in veg, more red in flower) allows the plant to 'better express it's genetic potential'. The best ratio is usually thought to be around 3:1 of the same wattages, but this does vary on the kind and spectrum of lights you use. So that would be something like 3 blue x wattage bulbs to 1 red x wattage bulb for veg and 3 x wattage bulbs of red to 1 x wattage bulb of blue for flowering.

what about those expensive 150w and 200w full spectrum CFLs we see on Ebay, how great are those? Also I was wondering if say you take a HID light and use that to light the top of your cannopy, but use CFLs to light the inside and lower part, would something like that be recommended?

Purple_Ganja said:

what about those expensive 150w and 200w full spectrum CFLs we see on Ebay, how great are those?

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They have their part to play and can be very effective when used in the right situations and circumstances. The lower wattage ones like the 125w Envirolite allow you to mix and match your colour spectrums quite effectively.

Purple_Ganja said:

Also I was wondering if say you take a HID light and use that to light the top of your cannopy, but use CFLs to light the inside and lower part, would something like that be recommended?

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You can do that, but that kind of lighting setup is normally used will all fluorescents - whether cfl or standard T5's, I'm not sure why you'd want to do it with a HID system. The reason people side light with fluoro's is because they can't get the light intensity depth penetration with fluoro's due to their lower lumen outputs - HID systems don't suffer from this problem as much or at least to a lesser degree - hence the reduced need for side lighting when using HID's.

The general rule is - the more light the better - but there is a point of diminishing return where the additional wattage and output from cfl's being used for side lighting simply doesn't produce sufficent exta yield to justify their extra wattage and consequent additional cost. In that situation it's simply better to upgrade your whole lighting setup.

At the end of the day you have to tailor your resources according to what you want to get out of your grow - if high yield is a priority then you need to be looking at highish wattaged HPS systems, if growing a for a few ozs of high quality home grown bud for personal consumption at an economic cost you'd be looking at a sea of green under compact fluoro's with some side lighting - it's horses for courses - but you need to decide what's important to you and design your system around it.

well i would certainly recommend it my friend...
i mean the '150w and 200w full spectrum CFLs' or 'envirolites' a a bit of an investment, but well worth it in the end. envirolites are gooooood all round, you wont get as much yeild as a HPS but i think it competes well...... plus if you get water on ure HPS it blows up lol.... envirolites just laugh in pity..... ANOTHER plus is energy/money saving.

Happy growing

yeah but if you're using just as many watts of power, might as well go with HID/HPS right? and babygro.... high yield is ALWAYS a priority hun lol. Well anyway, I want to get the most bud out of the least amount of plants with a space about the size of a small hallway coat closet. Sorry to hijack your thread here bro lol, but I've been going nuts trying to figure out what would be the best set-up to get buds the size of footballs. I'm really not TOO worried about electricity cost as long as the yield pays for it. Know what I mean?

yea true purple.....

HEY K-TOWN! THIS IS WHAT I WROTE IN YOUR OTHER TOPIC.

Your knowledge of what spectrum to have in the right stage is correct! VEG=BLUE, FLOWERING=RED. If you can only buy 6 bulbs for your entire grow, then go with 3 in one spectrum and 3 in the other. Mixing the spectrums can be good, but if you do have the money and can buy more bulbs then do what you said. Use 6 blue for veg and 6 red for flowering. IF money is tight then don't fret!! Everything will be fine!! Good luck!!

Purple_Ganja said:

yeah but if you're using just as many watts of power, might as well go with HID/HPS right?

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Er, not necessarily. 400w of nlites cfl's (similar to Envirolites) uses 320w of electiricty. a 400w HPS will use 456w of electricty.

Purple_Ganja said:

and babygro.... high yield is ALWAYS a priority hun lol. Well anyway, I want to get the most bud out of the least amount of plants with a space about the size of a small hallway coat closet. Sorry to hijack your thread here bro lol, but I've been going nuts trying to figure out what would be the best set-up to get buds the size of footballs. I'm really not TOO worried about electricity cost as long as the yield pays for it. Know what I mean?

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Well if yield is a high priority then you need to design your grow space accordingly and HPS is hard to beat if yield is important to you. I'd suggest you look quite carefully at a 250w HPS system with an efficient reflector and digital ballast which would comfortably outperform 400w of Envirolite or equivalents and use less electricity.

For small enclosed spaces where heat build up is an issue a 250w digital ballast HPS with efficient reflector is very hard to beat in my opinion. The 250w digital ballast system won't be cheap and will be more expensive than a magnetic coil 400w system - but don't be tempted to go with the bigger system - it's false economy. Sure you'll get more lumens out of the 400, but you'll pay disproportionatly more for those extra lumens and it will create more heat.

A 250w digital ballast hps should be putting out about 36,000 - 40,000 lumens at 1 foot compared to the 400w which is about 50,000 - 55,0000 lumens, but the 250 HPS digital will only use about 260w of electricity whereas the 400 will use 450w of electricity. That's 138-153 lumens per watt of electricity used for the 250w digital system and only 111 - 122 lumens per watt for the 400. So you're getting more bang for your buck out of the 250w hps and will be about 40% cheaper to run, plus you have less heat build up issues to deal with.

The 250 HPS digital system will more than make up for the purchase price differential over the 400w HPS by the lower running costs.

Geez, not trying to be penny wise and pound foolish but, the difference between the 400w of nlites cfl's and a 400w HPS is only about $3.00 or $4.00 dollars a month, don't you think that's money well spent?
Peace

babygro said:

Er, not necessarily. 400w of nlites cfl's (similar to Envirolites) uses 320w of electiricty. a 400w HPS will use 456w of electricty.

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