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MH Lighting For Entire Grow?

washed up

Member
About the only thing beneficial to MH lighting is the transition from veg to bloom triggers preflowers faster. It vegges slower, and is useless in Bloom. I use Horilux red bulbs throughout veg & bloom. 20K more lumens makes for fast vegging. 36 hours of darkness between 12/12 will pre flower em out as fast as switching out MH to HPS. MH belongs in a stadium. a Football or baseball stadium!
 

mean mr.mustard

I Pass Satellites
Veteran
That's because MH grown veg plants are healthier ;)

The red end of the spectrum simulates fall rather than summer sunlight... plants really do use blue light... it is a fact.
 

washed up

Member
MMM I know MH or Blue Flouros that provide UVA & UVB light may increase trichrome production, but at a cost.. YIELD... Plants don't have brains to think about the light they receive or how much of it. they do however "see" nanometers of color, and can feel radiant heat as well as lumens. 119K lumens vs. 147k the plants "see" more color & intensity. Iv'e don it side by side and I will never run a MH in my place unless its to add a security light outside. I can get all the useable blue light from t-5's and CFLs I need
 

wick.96

Member
MMM I know MH or Blue Flouros that provide UVA & UVB light may increase trichrome production, but at a cost.. YIELD... Plants don't have brains to think about the light they receive or how much of it. they do however "see" nanometers of color, and can feel radiant heat as well as lumens. 119K lumens vs. 147k the plants "see" more color & intensity. Iv'e don it side by side and I will never run a MH in my place unless its to add a security light outside. I can get all the useable blue light from t-5's and CFLs I need

EXCATLY.
 

mean mr.mustard

I Pass Satellites
Veteran
I'm saying that the blue light is good for utilizing iron and the like while building chloroplasts. Of course trichome production is also a good thing. :jump:
 

*mistress*

Member
Veteran
About the only thing beneficial to MH lighting is the transition from veg to bloom triggers preflowers faster. It vegges slower, and is useless in Bloom. I use Horilux red bulbs throughout veg & bloom. 20K more lumens makes for fast vegging. 36 hours of darkness between 12/12 will pre flower em out as fast as switching out MH to HPS. MH belongs in a stadium. a Football or baseball stadium!
ever tried a sunmaster warm deluxe? they can definitely make denser flowers than hps alone (in imaginary opnine).

light from sun is ~450 par watts, of full spectrum light. leaves reach saturation @ ~300 par watts. a 1k @ 1 ft will generally get saturation; @ 5,000 lumens/50,000 lux.

sm warm deluxe claims 345 par watts on box; proabaly will only get to ~150-250 though. plants do like blue light (~350-550nm), which includes uvb. the 660-760 nm of red is also good for chlorophyll stimulation. far red can be supplied by mere party lights and send strong flower signal. purple party lights can stimulate dusk, and/or aurora borealis.

chlorophyll a & b have absorption peak @ 440nm, or violet region; however 680nm is seemingly most effiecient, @~ 40 kilocalories per mole.

plants require ~20 photons to make+store 1 molecule of sugar.

best regimine seems to mix all possible available spectrums.

however, is ultimately preference of gardener.

enjoy your garden!
 

washed up

Member
I think Dual arc and "gold" lamps are quite gimmicky. If I wanted better light distribution and 600 of HPS and 400 of MH, I would run them seperately. However I just run agrosun reds, horti reds, gavitas, SON-T-AGROS SON-AGRO C or USHIO red... because I think theres just enough blue and plenty of red!
 

Lazyman

Overkill is under-rated.
Veteran
I just finished a run with 4 Eye Hortilux Super HPS and 4 Hortilux Eye Daylight Blue MH, and frankly I like the MH better.

Though the HPS does put out more overall lumens per watt, it is ALL in a very narrow range of yellow light. The MH puts out WAY more blue AND way more red (around 650nm) than the Super HPS, so even though fewer overall lumens, much more PAR light.

I'm not going to use them again after the next round though, the digital ballasts are killing the Hortilux bulbs off way too fast. Switching to Ushios...
 
so i have a 400w metal halide...
which bulb would be best for the entire grow start to finish?
which would be for flower
wwhich bulbs will work on my ballest?
 

*mistress*

Member
Veteran
so i have a 400w metal halide...
which bulb would be best for the entire grow start to finish?
which would be for flower
wwhich bulbs will work on my ballest?

sunmaster warm deluxe.
WDX-spect-chrt.jpg

sunmaster neutral deluxe
NDX-spect-chrt.jpg



have generally always used a sm in the garden w/ a hps. however, a sm warm deluxe will easily take you thru the entire grow w/ fine results.

have recently switched the warm out for the neutral deluxe during last 4 weeks. more uv light...

sm warm more silver pieces than neutral, but note similar spectrums... used to exclusively use sm warms, but neutral works wonders for reproductive galnd production @ end of season... for less than a warm. both good for veg.

already supplement w/ uvb, but final fruit only gets better w/ proper spectral absorption. not targeting for weight, but quality of fruit. mixed spectrum lights only foster greater fruit terrior and texture.

whatever selection made, would supplement opposite spectrum, if even in small amounts. plants can sense different spectrums of light and respond in turn.

enjoy your garden!
 

washed up

Member
mistress. I hear ya, but one thing I noticed over the years....
healthier plants produce bigger, more aromatic, and more potent fruit in general. the longer you can slow the maturation of flowering, the bigger and better your quality of fruit will be. I dont believe there is such thing as higher quality and smaller yields. they come as a package when everything goes as planned.
 

*mistress*

Member
Veteran
mistress. I hear ya, but one thing I noticed over the years....
healthier plants produce bigger, more aromatic, and more potent fruit in general. the longer you can slow the maturation of flowering, the bigger and better your quality of fruit will be. I dont believe there is such thing as higher quality and smaller yields. they come as a package when everything goes as planned.
dont post relevant to y.eld. not statin imaginary garden may harves more/less fruit.
just stating that mh seems to add quality to the final fruit. whether or not yi.ld is affected, is not measured.
have simply found, over time warps in imagination, that mh+uvb bulbs+colored lights, etc. ultimately combine to create a superior flower/fruit than any single light source alone.
plants seem to be healthier w/ a broader photon spectral input...
different gardeners may have different initial goals, fruit criteria, etc. good to hear you are happy w/ your own appliances used+results w/ them.

keep enjoying your garden!
 

washed up

Member
mistress, I think you are misunderstanding my point. yields improve with quality. you cant have better quality and smaller yields. it doesn't work like that except on the genetic level. elite strains tend to yield less than typical generic strains, but growing a plant to its fullest potential no matter what strain will give you better quality and bigger yields. you enjoy your garden too!
 

BudZad7

Active member
Lights vs potency!!??

Lights vs potency!!??

Hi All !:wave: Very interesting thoughts by you all.....I personally listen to the people that partake of the herb and base that info, to dial in a certain strain
that responds to various light setups.....The people I talk of are the BEST GROWERS in this area....High Times caliber growers that give herb to the Celebritys and Stars.....anyway by accident one side had HPS light only, and
the other side had HPS light and around the perimeter was flouros 48" with
wide spectrum tubes Phillips 32w 5000K and OTTlite 40w tubes 5900K, this side
produced Killer OG Kush,and the other side was the same OG Kush and also very
good, but these people noticed the difference....so back in the 80's most growers used MH indoors and the people LOVED the Herb better..so who knows?

Try it and see the difference....Peace!
 

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