Seed production cabinet question.

[Mr Celsius]

Preface:

Hi, I'm a little out of the loop when it comes to small cabinets. Because, I have always had at least 6k grows with 16'x8'x8' or bigger grow areas, I don't know what the appropriate choices are.


Info:

I have an area that is 3'L x 2'W x 32"H and will make a cabinet that is the same size. The cabinet will be exclusively for producing auto-flowering seeds for the upcoming outdoor season. I have a 6" inline fan with filter that is rated at 200 cfm. The box is 15 sq ft, so an air exchange will happen every 13 seconds.

The Question:

Which lighting would you use? T-5 fluorescents? CFL's? 250w MH or HPS? Another option?

Really I just need to figure out what lighting is the best choice. I don't care about bud quality, just the amount of seeds.

 

[hedpi]

Is this a one time production or will you split the cab in veg+flower?
If you're splitting you can get t5/cfl on the veg, and a 250hps for flowering, but you'll probably have to get more venting than that one fan.
if it's just that cab for doing a one time seed harvest, i think maybe the MH will be the more reasonable choice. Or maybe getting mixed spectrum CFL's, which also works ok, as long as you keep the lamps really close to the plants.
Check out the envirolites, you can probably get close to 1000w (4x250 or 5x200) and not have heat problems, i had a 200w on a PC case (http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=77072) and it didn't heat up with only 2 pc fans removing air.

 

[Guest]

LOL
Going from a full out grow room to a CFL cabinet, haha, I like that

 

[Mr Celsius]

LOL
Going from a full out grow room to a CFL cabinet, haha, I like that

Ya, its a different type of grow. The big ones still going but thats not for producing seeds.

Thanks for the advice hedpi, but I don't think any HID's will be necessary. I've figured out my own question. I'll be using 3 100w CFL's and I should be able to produce plenty of seeds with that.

 

[Haps]

The quality of the seeds, and resulting weed, will be affected by your lighting choice, and you have chosen the weakest option. The only correct choice for seed production is MH, because uv is needed if you want to keep and or improve on the quality of the genetics.

If you want the absolute best seed, put in an hps and an mh, and run them one at a time to avoid heat issues, but still supplying the full spectrum. This is opinion only, so I could be wrong, but it works as an equation.
H

 

[Guest]

I basically agree with Haps.

 

[Mr Celsius]

The quality of the seeds, and resulting weed, will be affected by your lighting choice, and you have chosen the weakest option. The only correct choice for seed production is MH, because uv is needed if you want to keep and or improve on the quality of the genetics.

If you want the absolute best seed, put in an hps and an mh, and run them one at a time to avoid heat issues, but still supplying the full spectrum. This is opinion only, so I could be wrong, but it works as an equation.
H

I could agree with you, but it would seem that you're making some blanket statements.

When you say that a MH is required, I believe that you are saying that spectrum + intensity will = best quality seeds. Mind you the bud doesn't matter, its solely for the production of seeds. Now I understand that HID's are the most efficient for electricity, but if you overkill the Fluorescents, they actually have better spectrum's and still have UV.

Could you post some relevant info about UV and seed production. I have never heard of this.

I'm quite open to suggestions and appreciate your response.