Mh vs Floros vs HPS

[Guest]

Last night I was using a cheap ass light meter to get the most out of my plant placements( raise some here...lower some there) and when I was done I went to my veg room and checked my 400WMH. The light output was not near what the 400W HPS lamp puts out. I then checked my floros...and they were not as bright as the MH...but not real far off either.

I began to wonder if maybe I should just shut the MH down and run a couple of banks of floros, as the girls under my floros seem to grow just as fast as the ones under the MH and alot cooler. Plus the floros give me an even 4x4 spread of even light where as the MH gets weaker towards the sides.

Does anyone else prefer the floros over the MH for vegging? The only other solutions I see are: replace the MH bulb( it's only 6 months old), or switch the veg room to HPS.

Anyone want to help me make up my mind?

Cheers,
SH

 

[Sauce]

It is true that a MH is far less efficient than a HPS. Just check the lumen output, it's like 35k to 50k for a 400w. Fluros work great for vegging (if you have enough) but the light is much less intense than the MH light. When the plants are small the fluros will give a pretty consistent light to the entire plant. Once the plants grow bigger though the light will be far weaker at the base of the plant than the top. Basically it depends on how big you veg your plants and how many watts of fluros you have.

 

[BubbleBoi]

Like sauce said, flo's will do fine while your plant is small but you'll need to flood the veg chamber with quiet a few if you plan on vegging larger plants. Another thing to take into consideration is the spectrum of the MH vs. Flo's. Got a lot more blue light coming off the mh which is suppose to help with vegging. If you dig around the forums I'm sure you can find examples of veg and mother chambers that are entirely flo's though. In my grows I've always just started my seedlings/clones off with a few CFL's and then kicked on my HPS to veg with as well as flower

 

[Maj.PotHead]

never had a MH own a 400w hps and they are the bomb for veg after about 3 wks of age or 3-4 sets of leaves. i have real good luck usen cfls for veg ive seen this and at OG many other cfl grows that blow minds http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=31605 very good reading on DYI rubbermaid grow box pics from construction start to finish and the grow also . you can read my current grow log purple shaq link in my sig to see my success with cfl ussage in veg and 400w hps flowern. if your on a budget then cfl's are a great choice for the whole grow.

as for heat MH/HPS put out alot of heat which needs to be removed from the grow space.

cfl and or T5 lighting dont produce near as much heat about 1/16th the heat but thier heat dose build up over time, also this lighting dosent require near as much exhausting cfm as dose the MH/HPS

i veg with 280w mixed spectrum cfls each fixture has a 25w daylight {blue 5500k} and 45w warm {red 2700k} my plants love it

 

[BubbleBoi]

I remember seeing a lot of nice looking cfl grows as well, as well as the 4ft cool tubes propped up in the corner of the room with the nice looking plants under em, lol... but I also remember although it was nice looking and decent smoke, a lot of people where still getting fluffy nugs using those methods. Either way though, it is a real cheap route to go and you can get some bud off it.