To Light or Not to Light?

Hi, I've recently bought some feminized seeds from Nirvana, all five have happily sprouted, and are growing under a 20W CFL at the moment, until I get my hands on some real lighting.

Some people will be astonished, I know that is nothing. But the plant is only three days old, so no worries...

Now, on to the question, I have the option of either buying CFLs (the store sells anywhere from 20W to 100W bulbs). However Ive been reading that the higher you go in Watts for CFL, the lower the lumens per meter squared.

So, the store also sells some HPS lights, 70W and one along the lines of 220W, something like that.

The question is, since the setup with the HPS requires me to buy a lamp for it (because they dont screw in at normal sockets right?), a ballast, and a couple of other things that I don't know the name in english, haha. It's expensive stuff.

Is it worth all the money? I have five plants, how many 70W HPS would I need? Could I do with one of 220W? How many CFLs would I need for five plants?

I want a great yield, but I realize that might be a bit expensive. I am a regular smoker and I would need just enough to smoke for myself and my girlfriend everyday, for, hopefully, the rest of my life. Independence would be great, huh?

how big is your grow area ?

If I was you I would save the money and buy good lighting, It is the largest cost to your grow room but also the most beneficial. I would recommend at least a 400w system if you are trying to grow enough for 2 daily smokers. Ebay has great options! I use a 600w system and grow 6-10 plants at all times and it works great. I started out with a whimpy 150 hps light and got wimpy 150w plants. Spend the money, (borrow it if you need) as you will end up doing what I did and spent money on crap lightening and then turned around after a grow and had to drop much more on top of it when I should have saved a little longer and just got the good lightening to start with. You can cut many corners in growing but when it comes to imitating the sun spend the money.

Your correct you will need a HID Balast and a hood with larger socket and the light, (also recommend the $25 light spreader)

Love your comment about being independent, I couldn't agree more my brother.

Happy Growing!

Thanks for your quick replies. My grow room is as big as I need, I could really fit as many plants as I want. But at the moment I have five seedlings. I am planning on taking clones off them and later do a SOG, but thats another story altoghether.

How many plants did you put under a 150W HPS? Were they really just wimpy plants? I know that the quality is in the lights, and I don't want to cheap out but I am quite short on cash and each 220W HPS would be costing me around $100 bucks a piece. I will look on ebay, but really as I have those seedlings under such a crap light (20W CFL as I said earlier) I am looking to buy a good light as soon as possible, and since I am not in the States, I cannot wait the long shipping (if they even ship, i do not know). Thanks again.

basic rule of thumb is at least 50 watts per square foot for HPS.
if you are metric that works out to 600 watts to a square meter

I got my 430w hps from craigslist for a bill...my plants are 4 weeks into flower and the buds are already twice the size of the buds I finished with my first grow with cfl's. You can find great deals on them you just got to find them. Go with hps, you wont be disappointed!

i use 1000w per plant which end up around 1.5m dia and about 40-50cm high

OK, I finally decided on two lamps of 220W, that would amount to 440W, which I think is quite alright for my five young ladies. I know which strains could be in the mix, but it would be quite a guess because they have many indoor strains and it could be any. I'm thinking about later maybe complementing the light with a 70W HPS for the side, or something like that, or in any case, if I do get more plants, Ill have more lights for them. I think 510W of HPS could do pretty well for a SOG, right?


Jason, you grow with 1000W HPS per plant? That's crazy man, how many plants do you grow like that? I didn't understand your 1,5 dia...

Thanks everyone for the head's up.

yeah they love it!
i can fit 4 at a time in the space too flower that big
1.5 dia the plants are 1 1/2 metres in diameter
4-8 main colas and 40-60 other heads
4 weeks veg
yield around 3-4lbs a plant but takes a good 10-12 weeks too flower im in week 9 flowering 2 of them and they still swelling and no trace of milky trichs yet.

Damn bro that sounds awesome, long time for harvest, but if you harvest that amount, it's worth it. May I ask which seeds you're using?

i just flowering the 2 mothers that i have (5 yo) they are skunk 1 and ive got my order from amsterdam seeds jsut put in today