New Indoor grow - is this lighting adequate? YouTube seems to think so...

[sap_boy]

I'm constructing my indoor grow and have a dilemma. I was going to use MH for veg and HPS for flower, but due to space limitations, I'm going to be eploying the Sea of Green method. I was told that for vegetative growth, I could just use flourescent tubes. This was confirmed by a Youtube video entitled "I grow chronic," which can be watched by clicking this link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=8KVO26htvoQ This guy uses 4-foot flourescents to grow his mothers and clones. Then, he puts them under HPS for flowering. The problem is, I've always heard that flouros are useless. however, this guy seems to be pretty successful.

If I'm growing 4-6 plants, can I use the flourescent tubes for vegetative and a 250 watt HPS for flower? Should I just put the tubes close to the tops to prevent them from stretching?

Any help is appreciated.

[50bud]

No, flouros are not useless by no means, t5's seem to be the favorites by many, obviously your not going to get results like you would with a an HPS if you use from veg through flowering but many people use their t5's for veg and then an HPS for flower there has been alot of substantial and impressive growth with t5's through veg cycle. Not to mention flouros save you money in the longrun, on your electric bill especially, and do not raise the temps like an HPS or Metal Halide lights do in your grow area.

[sap_boy]

But if I'm using 4 40-watt flouros, I'd only be consuming 90 watts more, which comes out to about 5 bucks per month. Is this 5 bucks worth using a 250W MH instead of 4 40W flouro tubes?

[50bud]

no see, flourescents put out more light while consuming about half of what say a metal halide or hps would use, those 4 40 watt tubes would be great for your veg cycle but when flowering comes if you want the real results you need an hps.

[sap_boy]

So, you'd recommend four 4-foot flourescents over one 250W MH?

[50bud]

Heres a thread from a while back this entire grow was with t5 flourescents from veg through flowering and he got really good results, so you can imagine how well it works for the veg cycle, plus flourescents put out more of the blue spectrum lighting which is key for green growth to help the plant mature before flowering, where an HPS uses the red spectrum for flowering and budding.

http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17173

[sap_boy]

Sorry, can't see it. Did you forget to paste?

[50bud]

So, you'd recommend four 4-foot flourescents over one 250W MH?
If you wouldnt care to pay about an extra 30 bucks on your electric bill a month for your MH then yes i would prefer it over flourescents, there are pros and cons to every kind of lighting you use, with flouros you might not get an equal amount of growth compared to say if you were using a metal halide light but you get your bang for the buck, you save money in the long run and results are close but i would say metal halide would produce more growth. People with more experience can probably tell you their results and compare.

[sap_boy]

I may be a moron, but I'm still confused:

Four 4-foot flourescent bulbs @ 54 watts and 5,000 lumens each = 216 watts of power and 20,000 lumens.

One Metal Halide bulb @ 250 watts and 27,500 lumens = 250 watts of power and 27,500 lumens.

This is a difference of 34 watts. How would 34 watts cost an extra $30.oo per month?

[50bud]

Once again t5's use less energy then what they are given, maybe 30$ a month is an exaggeration depending on where you live(dont tell me) but heres a link to show you what a metal halide would use a month depending on how many hours u are using it but just roughly using a scale here, take whatever your final cost is a month and take about 2/3 of it, thats how much its gonna cost to run a t5 compared to a metal halide. Listen man just tryin to help everyone is entitled to their opinion, me? Im kind of a tight wad personally lol i like to save money when at all possible, just something to think about. http://www.hydroponics.net/learn/hid_lamp_op_cost.asp

[50bud]

If you really want some good growth you could get an MH light and use those flouros as a good source of side lighting, that would be some very good growth and would fill the plant out nicely. I mean its pretty obvious, more light/lumens equals more growth you cant have to much its always gonna be good in the long run.