True 600w MH?

Hey everyone, Im stumped on this, Ive been searching for a 600w MH that is not a "conversion bulb" Im trying to get the colour spectrum one would use for vegetative growth, and I have a specific plan for this bulb so im not looking for anything with a corrected colour spectrum, just a plain 600w MH with a K rating between 6000 and 7000. Does this even exist? my search has been fruitless so far so if anyone knows a bit about this id love to hear
Thank you

Why not a conversion bulb? It's a true MH. I am running one, an Ushio and it's doing the job to my complete satisfaction.

<edit> It's an Opti Blue with a listed color temp. of 7500ºK, so it probably won't do for your special app. I am curious what that is ... cn

Hey well that sounds about right 7500k is a good number for what Im planning to do
the word conversion just worries me because Im thinking its going to put out more red than I want despite having the 7500k rating(as that is just the average colour temp)

So what is this conversion bulb stuff? Can I plug what is called a MH conversion into a HPS ballast or does it have to be a MH/HPS ballast? I know I did see one that specifically said it could be plugged right into an ordinary HPS ballast which I found surprizing, is that the case for all the MH conversions?

The application is that I want to minimize stretch on my sativa strain and Ive been advized that If I run an MH for the first two weeks of flower, or as long as the stretch period lasts, than I can limit my stretch, HPS(red) light encourages the plant to stretch out. So I dont want something thats "colour corrected" or otherwise putting out a good amount of red or ill just be wasting my efforts and end up with a plant that needs to be topped endlessly...

cheers, thanks for the reply

check out sunpulse 600 6.4k mh

I have a digilux. I believe its a true 600w MH that is made for digital ballasts.

I just bought a plantmax 600w metal halide conversion bulb. It doesnt even tell me the colour rating which is kinda stupid. I was looking at those sunpulse bulbs, they look like the best option but they didnt have them at my hydro store, I might order some of those online next time around. Thanks for the helps guys, glad I got this taken care of

There are no "true" 600w MHs. It's just not a wattage they come in. Conversion MHs are MHs that run at 600w - everything else about them is a MH but they happen to run at 600w, a wattage at which they don't make dedicated MH ballasts. You'll notice you cannot find a "true" dedicated 600w MH ballast either...

Don't be scared of the word conversion.

weird that you "NEVER" run a MH on an HPS ballast and vice versa, but now they have these "conversion" bulbs that can do it. I guess the only difference is you pay more money for the conversion bulbs

Thedillestpickle said:

weird that you "NEVER" run a MH on an HPS ballast and vice versa, but now they have these "conversion" bulbs that can do it. I guess the only difference is you pay more money for the conversion bulbs

Click to expand...

You can run a 400w or 1kW MH on most any HPS - there's just no thing as a 600w MH ballast. MH ballasts come in 250w, 400w, 750w, 1000w. HPS ballasts come in 250w, 400w, 600w, 1000w. Due to HPS being standard in 600w and MH being standard in 750w they aren't convertible - thus the 600w conversion bulb. If you had a 400w digital HPS you could run a standard MH bulb in it - same with 1000w.

oh I didnt know this, Im guessing that is ONLY with Digital ballast? is there a difference between an electronic ballast and an electronic digital ballast? or is that the same thing.

Are 10000K MH bulbs any good for growing under? maybe for vegg? They are sold as ripening lamps for the final maturation stage of fruits, cannabis bud is a fruit, so would it be good to use this for the last 2 weeks of flower? might just have to start a new thread for that question...

also do MH bulbs put out significant UVB? I know they have a UV filter just not sure how much gets through. Can you use MH to boost UV along with HPS lighting to increase resin concentration?

http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/digilux-600w-enhanced-spectrum-metal-halide-grow-bulb-p-2983.html

Digilux offers a 600MH lamp; it's the only one I know of. I actually tested a pair in my veg room. Some of the slowest growth I've seen. Ever.

Simon

you can actually run a mh bulb off a hps ballast, its just (eh something like the mh doesnt need the ignitor or whatnot)

but most newer ballast just autoswitch for you (relatively simply technology)

but yeah, mh doesnt come in 600w since there are no 600w mh ballasts.

so, basically its just a normal 600w mh... just called conversation cause of the previous mentioned details.

SimonD said:

http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/digilux-600w-enhanced-spectrum-metal-halide-grow-bulb-p-2983.html

Digilux offers a 600MH lamp; it's the only one I know of. I actually tested a pair in my veg room. Some of the slowest growth I've seen. Ever.



Simon

Click to expand...

Weird... slow growth? was that in Vegg or flower? It claims 75000 (initial)lumens which is really impressive for a 600w MH, The plantmax I just bought claims 57000 lumens. It also says it has "more" of the red spectrum which isnt really what I wanted but thats what I got anyways. Why would your plants grow slow under that? seems like a good bulb

Thedillestpickle said:

Weird... slow growth? was that in Vegg or flower? It claims 75000 (initial)lumens which is really impressive for a 600w MH, The plantmax I just bought claims 57000 lumens. It also says it has "more" of the red spectrum which isnt really what I wanted but thats what I got anyways. Why would your plants grow slow under that? seems like a good bulb

Click to expand...

Seemed like a good lamp to me, as well, but it's not. lol

Simon

Fuck now Im thinking I shouldnt have gotten this PlantMax bulb... all their bulbs are Colour corrected or something like that, so their HPS have more blue and the MH have more red... fuckers... I dont want that. I want a "true" MH and a true HPS, seems thats all they offer me when I go to the hydro store though... shit

Thedillestpickle said:

Fuck now Im thinking I shouldnt have gotten this PlantMax bulb... all their bulbs are Colour corrected or something like that, so their HPS have more blue and the MH have more red... fuckers... I dont want that. I want a "true" MH and a true HPS, seems thats all they offer me when I go to the hydro store though... shit

Click to expand...

FWIW, I pull 2.5-3.25oz (dry/cured) for every square foot of my garden. My clones go from 4" to 12-14" LST'd plants with 6-7 main stems in ~3 weeks, unless I'm using Digilux MH lamps <grin>. You want to know what lamps I usually use? GE 600HPS and Sylvania 1000HPS. The GEs cost $20 and the Sylvanias are $35. Both see a ~5% drop in outout over 12 months with Galaxy and Quantum (digital) ballasts. Don't get me wrong; there's nothing wrong with quality enhanced spectrum lamps. Having tested my share, they won't make or break your grow. Good luck.

Simon

Yes but for what Im wanting to do, I think it would have been better to just get Digital ballast instead of a magnetic one like I was sold. Now I cant run the 600w MH that do exist(there are a few but they dont run on magnetic ballast). With digital ballast I can run any bulb I want, MH HPS, or conversions. and the bulbs are cheaper because I wont need to buy conversion bulbs, I can change my K rating from 3000, to 7500, to 10000, at my leisure and with cheaper bulbs. Im going to try to explain this to the hydro guy tommorrow and see If I can exchange my magnetic ballast for a Digital one and If im really lucky he will even let me take the 600w MH convesion bulb back.. but I doubt that seeing as I have had it on for a couple hours now. but hes been pretty good with letting me take stuff back for store credit, I am one damn picky customer!

Also are you saying you flowered under the MH conversion bulb? If so I wouldnt be blaming the bulb for your lower yeild!!

just how much less than your roughly 3 ounces per square foot were getting with the conversion bulb?

I use a 600w MH conversion bulb for veg and have excellent results with it.

The 600w Digilux MH is a conversion bulb.

I just turned on the PlantMax 600 conversion and Its visibly less blue, looks more like daylight, kinda a nice white light.

Its find for most people but Im trying to prevent stretch in sativas during the first 2 weeks of flowering, I want to use just plain old MH light as Ive been told this will stop the stretch, after the first couple weeks of flower Ill go to HPS, If that makes sense, im not sure if it really works or what just some advice Ive been given

edit: I turned the bulb on a few hours ago just to clarify, so I know its showing its true colour

Might try a solarmax - kept my sativas fairly short. Going to really have to step it up to 1kW or down to a 400w to see the true variety in MH bulbs - its rough being a 600w grower. Or get a 600w dimmable digital ballast - you could run any of the 400w MHs with your light dimmed.