Lighting and Seed Questions

Hello,
I am very new to growing anything so bare with me.

I have built 2 basic hydroponic systems similiar to Mr. Green's(I Grow Chronic!) off you tube. I would like to use the exact same lighting.

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VEGGIE

What kind of bulbs do i need to get and ballast. I want to use floresents.
The info I have so far:

T12 Type Bulbs
400watt 3000k warm white 30k lumens
400watt 4100k cool white

Does that sound about what I need and where is the most common place to get these? Or should i go with T8 bulbs? What kind of floresent ballast do I need to look for? Is there a special ballast for these kind of bulbs. I will have 2 4' ballasts 2 bulbs a piece oppisite bulbs in each ballast.

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FLOWER

Now for the flower room i'm lost on the lighting. I want to go with a 430watt HPS blue spectrum bulb. Where would i look for the best bulb at and what will be the numbers for that bulb? Do i go with a 400watt ballast and reflector for that application? What are some name brands for the light equipment that is most commonly used?

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SEEDS

Now where do i get good reliable seeds? I live in the US, is there problems with seeds going through customs? What is the reprocution if they find the seeds? They'll know where it is going.

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I would greatly appreciate any help/suggestions.
Once i get lighting I will post progress with my first grow.:tokie:

Veg-get a metal halide.
Flower-get a high pressure sodium
Seeds-drchronic.com

^yup that.^

Only other advice I have is spend a good month reading the archives in here. Don't ask anyone "out there".

Memorize Rule #1. That's in here. Explained many times. And proven many times.

Good luck.

bombbudpuffa said:

Veg-get a metal halide.
Flower-get a high pressure sodium

Click to expand...

No I want to go with floresents, like i said i'm new and i just want the basic for now. For what I had listed did it sound about right? Can I use any floresent ballast or does it need to be for that amount of wattage?

For the flowering yes a 430watt "HPS" thats what i said i wanted to go with the blue spectrum. How many lumens should i go with on that any specific bulb brand. What kind of hood should i go with a hood type or tube airflow hood? Should i go with a 400watt ballast?

Pot Belly said:

^yup that.^

Only other advice I have is spend a good month reading the archives in here. Don't ask anyone "out there".

Memorize Rule #1. That's in here. Explained many times. And proven many times.

Good luck.

Click to expand...

What archives? You mean the forum posts?

-C@jun- said:

What archives? You mean the forum posts?

Click to expand...

Yes - years worth of info right here. Most are the same basic questions asked over and over and over again. It's not too hard once you understand the basics.

Half of what you learn is what you apply in practice and prove it to yourself.

Pot Belly said:

Yes - years worth of info right here. Most are the same basic questions asked over and over and over again. It's not too hard once you understand the basics.

Half of what you learn is what you apply in practice and prove it to yourself.

Click to expand...

Yes I have been digging through here for 5 hours now. Racking my brain up on info.

I just want to get the right lights. Then I can start learning.
All these different types of lights confuse me. I heard that guy in the video he used the lights i specified in my first post, off that you tube video. He shows how he works his magic. I have constructed a similar set up and want to use the exact same lighting. Say as a stepping stone and advance from there.

400watt cool and warm white for veggie 2 ballasts 4' 2 bulb
430watt HPS (blue spectrum)How many lumens? Can I go with a 400watt ballast? Is that what I go with? For flower.

One more thing is humidity a big problem? I live in the south and it stays around a 40% humidity level. With my hydro system thats more humidity

Is the light levels dangerous for police fly overs with infra red? Do they still do that? Would my set up throw off major infra heat through my house?

430w? No. I have 3 heaters, 2 rated 1500w and 1 rated 1800w that I run all the time. Unless you have 10 1ks in a room you should be fine.

5000 lumens per sq/ft is best, so find out your sq/ft of your vegg room x 5000 and find out the total lumens you need for your size room.

You can use cool white or full spectrum, flro bulbs it doesnt mater what type, , ex. CFL or T5 , T12 .
Ive never seen a 400 watt floro bulb, im sure you dont need anyway.

CFL or T5 would be my first choices and they make nice big CFL lights that put out alot of lumens.

Dont worry so much about the blue spectrum HPS if your vegging under floro bulbs, remember blue spectrum for vegg red for flower.
The standard issue 400 WATT HPS will be fine

HPS or MH can be used for the hole grow with great results.

Good post GD. The 400w fluoro thing made me weary about answering.

OK, go to Walmart and pick up two 4' two bulb ballast over in the light department. They are like $8 a piece. And grab two 2 packs of 4' bulbs. Look for the ones with the highest lumen's "about 3200 lumen's per bulb is what i found" about $4 each. That will work for your veg room. For flower i would suggest a 400 Watt HPS, and a 400 watt HPS Bulb, don't worry about the blue spectrum.... i would look for a local hydroponic shop to get it from, if you cant find one. Then heres a link to some cheap places to buy all your gardening stufff.... LINK
And as far as seeds, order from here LINK I also live in the states and had no prob getting seeds from there.

Also, when you look at lights what you really need to look at is lumen's. Like grow dude sayd, about 3000 to 5000 lumen's per square foot. So if your veg room is 2X3 than you would want 18000-30000 lumen's for that room. And you want CFL's, florescent, or MH for your vegging room, and HPS for flower room... Got it?

Growdude said:

5000 lumens per sq/ft is best, so find out your sq/ft of your vegg room x 5000 and find out the total lumens you need for your size room.

You can use cool white or full spectrum, flro bulbs it doesnt mater what type, , ex. CFL or T5 , T12 .
Ive never seen a 400 watt floro bulb, im sure you dont need anyway.

CFL or T5 would be my first choices and they make nice big CFL lights that put out alot of lumens.

Dont worry so much about the blue spectrum HPS if your vegging under floro bulbs, remember blue spectrum for vegg red for flower.
The standard issue 400 WATT HPS will be fine

HPS or MH can be used for the hole grow with great results.

Click to expand...

Well my flower room is 3'x61/2'. I want to use the HPS light for. Now I thought i needed a majority blue spectrum, light red 430watt bulb? Can i use a 430watt bulb in a 400watt unit and isn't that bulb suppose to be blue spectrum?

My veggie room is in a "L" shape 3'x61/2' and the extra square is a 3x2.
I want a 2x4 foot tray for the back part with 2 4ft T5 2 bulb florescents with a 3000k and 6500k bulb:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...em=130175149546&_trksid=p3984.cTODAY.m238.lVI
In my extra area the 2x3 I want a 2x2 tray with 2 2ft 2 bulb florescents same mix bulbs in each florescent.

What ya think and what are my choises on the flower room light?

In the future could i run 2 400's in that 3x6 flower room? Extra ventalation of course.

CEILING IS 9FT.

-C@jun- said:

Well my flower room is 3'x61/2'. I want to use the HPS light for. Now I thought i needed a majority blue spectrum, light red 430watt bulb? Can i use a 430watt bulb in a 400watt unit and isn't that bulb suppose to be blue spectrum?

My veggie room is in a "L" shape 3'x61/2' and the extra square is a 3x2.
I want a 2x4 foot tray for the back part with 2 4ft T5 2 bulb florescents with a 3000k and 6500k bulb:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEBTOX:IT&item=130175149546&_trksid=p3984.cTODAY.m238.lVI
In my extra area the 2x3 I want a 2x2 tray with 2 2ft 2 bulb florescents same mix bulbs in each florescent.

What ya think and what are my choises on the flower room light?

In the future could i run 2 400's in that 3x6 flower room? Extra ventalation of course.

CEILING IS 8FT.

Click to expand...

T5 lights should work great.
But you dont need a 3000k bulb in it if its for vegg, i would use both 6500 k

Just use a regular 400 watt HPS bulb in flower , any HPS bulb is going to be mostly in the red spectrum, dont waste money on enhanced spectrum HPS bulbs there not needed for flowering, it might help if your going to vegg with them but your not.

OK, the only light you can use for flower is HPS if you want good buds. And for that 3' X 6.5' space, 2 400 watt HPS will work just fine don't worry about trying to put a 430 watt HPS bulb in because "mr.green did" a 400 watt bulb will work just fin. But if you only have one than you can only use half of that space, unless you get a light mover or split it in half and every 12 hrs switch the lamp from one side to the other.... And for your veg room i would just do like i said up above and get 4' florescence's from walmart.

Timmyjg6 said:

OK, the only light you can use for flower is HPS if you want good buds. And for that 3' X 6.5' space, 2 400 watt HPS will work just fine don't worry about trying to put a 430 watt HPS bulb in because "mr.green did" a 400 watt bulb will work just fin. But if you only have one than you can only use half of that space, unless you get a light mover or split it in half and every 12 hrs switch the lamp from one side to the other.... And for your veg room i would just do like i said up above and get 4' florescence's from walmart.

Click to expand...

Well this is my first grow so i wanted to use mr. greens set up because he showed it worked. RESULTS! My tables are similiar except hand built higher to put the resevior under the tables from the side.
Yes in the flower room i have the table/tray pushed to the back wall. 3x3 planter. Thats why i asked about the second light to set up another 3x3. Its gonna be tight quarters but i think i can manage.

What wattage on the walmart florescents and do they give similiar results?
T5 40watt fixtures?

Growdude said:

T5 lights should work great.
But you dont need a 3000k bulb in it if its for vegg, i would use both 6500 k

Click to expand...

Could you please explain in detail why you would go only with 6500k not 3000k as well?

The 3000k would be your warm white. The 6500k would be your cool white.

Mr. Green used warm white and cool white bulbs, but you really only need cool white which put out moor lumen's and less heat. On the walmart ballast they are 3500 lumen's for each bulb, so if you get 2 4' ballast than you have 14000 lumen's. Which will work just fin... trust me bro... And i attached an img is this what you want??

That drawing is to scale... thats exactly how it would be

Exactly to the tee except in flower room i will have lights length wise with room.

What you put as clone/seeding area, that will be a secondard veg area as well. Mainly cloning will be done there.