HPS or Cool White CFL for seedlings?

[Ataraxia]

I have a K2 seedling under my 250W HPS right now. The light is about 18-20 inches above the small plant so it doesn't get to hot. It seems to be growing alright, but looks like it's stretching. Would I be better off growing it under some cool white cfl's at tis early stage to promote short internode growth? Is the HPS a bit overkill for such a small plant? I plan on getting a MH conversion bulb, but that will be here at the soonest in a week or two. Anybody have any opinions on early growth and what lights suit it best? Also, I forgot to mention, during the daylight hours I have it outside on a balcony in near full sun, and then I bring it inside under the HPS.


any help, comments, suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[BSki8950]

cool white CFl's to get the plant nice and compact .... you can get them nice and close up .. you cant get nearly as close with a HPS they will burn

 

[Firepower]

Dude check your CFL for color temp, with CFL's cool white can also be around the 3000k color temp, i found this out the hard way since packaging of some companies arent too accurate, if you can find NATURAL DAYLIGHT CFL's then you wont have nothing to worry about..

if not,
Yellowish light= flowering
Clear white= vegging

good luck

 

[LaserKittensGoPewPew]

Everyone seems to love CFLs... I strong recommend Lights of America 65w fluorex floodlights. You can get them on ebay for around $30 shipped. Sometimes they start them at $1 and let them go from there. I'm currently vegging 5 plants under 3 of these and they're loving it. Each light puts out 4550 lumens at 6500k.

Here's a couple pics.

 

[Richy-B]

Currently I have three seedlings under cfl's and one seedling 17in under my 250 hps and it hasn't stretched my plant anymore than the three under the cfl's. I also have my first big baby under the hps as well. I started it under cfl's though. atleast till it was 7in tall. Hope I helped

 

[BSki8950]

hey richy how far away do u have ur CFl's on ur plant ????

 

[Ataraxia]

I have some cfls that are "Daylight" and 6500K spectrum. I already know about the warm light for flowering and cool blue light for veg. That's why I want a MH conversion bulb, so I can have the best of both worlds with a single ballast. I was asking which would be better for the plant, the cfl's or the HPS, being that the HPS puts out around 30,000 lumens and the cfl's only put out 1700 lumens per bulb and I have four bulbs, I would think that the HPS is better. I was also asking if the plant actually uses all the 30,000 lumens of light that the HPS is providing, or if it'd be more economical to use the cfl's.
Richy-B, you seem to say that as far as stretching goes, the HPS has nill effect compared to the cfl's, that's what I wanted to know. I just want to grow my plant the best I can at it's current stage with the equipment I have.

Has anyone else grown a side by side with cfl's and HPS? I know that I"m going to be using the HPS later but I'm talking just for new plants, like less than two weeks old.

Thanks everyone for your input and advice

 

[allgrownup]

wow....i used a 400W HPS from veg and i have absolutely no stretching.

i made a vent for my light though and keep my light very low.

in veg you probably want it around 14-18 due to longer lighting cycle. you don't want to bake your plant. if your plant is stretching under that light its to far away. how far is it?

i have yet to see a plant grown under cfl's or flouro's outperform a MH/HPS light in veg.

i moved one of my plants from under HPS to under 8 cfl's and it damn near died on me so, if yoou started under HPS i'd keep it there.

flood lights at 30 bucks a peice and you have 3, you could buy a 400W HPS for almost that price. got mine off HGTSupply.com ebay site for 105 bucks!

You got a great light for vegg'n no need to change man IMHO

 

[Firepower]

I have a K2 seedling under my 250W HPS right now. The light is about 18-20 inches above the small plant so it doesn't get to hot. It seems to be growing alright, but looks like it's stretching. Would I be better off growing it under some cool white cfl's at tis early stage to promote short internode growth? Is the HPS a bit overkill for such a small plant? I plan on getting a MH conversion bulb, but that will be here at the soonest in a week or two. Anybody have any opinions on early growth and what lights suit it best? Also, I forgot to mention, during the daylight hours I have it outside on a balcony in near full sun, and then I bring it inside under the HPS.


any help, comments, suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

well unfortunately i havent been able to purchase an HPS, but if you asked me what i would love to have once i got some exrtra cash, i would have the HPS even though its mostly red spectrum, it will still be strong enough to penetrate the canopy well and give the inner leaves at least some light that the CFL wont be able to do without getting real close to the plants, at the same time the CFLS will give you plenty of blue spectrum, from what ive read around here on peoples experience, this setup will give you some nice juicy buds from all over the plant.. if you got it, use them both..

now if you go with a digital ballast that will do both MHS / HPS youll have the advantage of cooler ballast, less noisy ballast, at the same time HEAT ventilation from either light WILL have to be ventilated good. cost is more expensive but a good purchase... But a strong MHS will do the same effect of the HPS but Mostly blue spectrum..

P.S. if you keep it outside during the day. it will definitely save you some money on electricity, making it easier some strong lights..

 

[LaserKittensGoPewPew]

They do make son agro/ hortilux HPS bulbs that contain 30% blue spectrum. Your plants would veg very well under one of those with very little stretch and tons more lumens.

 

[Richy-B]

Hey Everybody,
I have one. Look at my thread pics under "my first grow". It is a 250 watt hps. 35,000 Lumens. And yes it doeshave a blue spectrum. The box says and quote, "30% blue spectrum combined with red spectrum ceates correct balance for maximum plant growth." I've been trying to tell people about this along time now. LKGPP Knows! He was the only one who said I could use the hps for the entire grow. Thank you!! I'm still experimenting with fluoro's too though! I have three rooted cuttings under the fluoro's and the babies are alot more dense than just my other seedling or rooted cutting(hps). It has stretched a little more than the fluoro's so, I'm going to continue two or three seperate grow stations for different stages.

 

[JohninWI]

I built a 1'x2'x2' tall vegging/cloning box with 2 CFLs and 2 18" tubes at the top. It seemed to work very well. I planted my beans in foam coffee cups that I punched holes in the bottom with. I did cool white tubes and daylight CFLs. It got a little warm in there, so I cut a vent in it and installed a small computer fan.

The guy at the hydro store swears by flouros for root development on the little ones. I mostly did it to keep things on the cheap.