MH vs HPS in bloom

[bigscoot]

Hey Gnome
like med man said great threat u inspired me 2 even do this i needed a hps bulb n i seen this thread 1 day n had a new MH had 2 try it thanx 4 the info

but it seems like every strain I grew under MH is out doin HPS in resin n yield but this is just my experience I've grown the ghost Og,sour dub,pre98BK,suge PK,true Og, n it's a few I'm 4getting but I just did a light of gorilla glue n it's next 2 the GG under the HPS n it just out shines it the MH bulbs r not as hot as HPS so they can be a bit close n not burn them just my experience but the duel arch out shined them both MH n HPS

 

[med-man]

What's up M-man? I thought you like running a mix of different bulbs in your rooms? Or do you mix up different brands of hps bulbs?

hey roll daddy

if i could, i would put 1 mh for every 2-3 hps.

but, its much easier to just go buy and set-up everything hps. i notice mh conversions for 600 either pop fast, or fuck up the electric ballasts
so it really depends

some of the best buds i ever grew were from a shady chinese guy in vancouver. he added more blue then a hortilux super hps, and wow did it make a difference.

med-man

 

[psyphish]

Throw a 942 CDM bulb into the mix. Best, weed, ever (probably?)

 

[Rolldaddy]

Thanks M-man. Since I've been on this thread I've been experimenting by using different bulbs and mixes of them but the most consensus here, is that strain dependent is what makes the biggest effect which kind of light to use. For the last 2 years I've just been running Med-man brand strains, and have had great results with all the bulbs I've used.

This current run I'm pushing to increase yield so I'm basically mono cropping your head-band and only threw in a coulpe of your WCSD treez to have a lil extra verity for my head stash. I mostly vegged with MH only till right before flip I added a couple more hps lights. I still have a couple more lights to fire up and I'm only going to put hps bulbs. So throughout 12/12 I will keep it 30-25% mh and the rest will be hps.

So I expect a little better yield this time but I know the quality will be there either way. As you know your strains I have, are off tha hook no matter what light is used. But the last time I did mostly MH with your kinds I think yield suffered slightly but the tricomes were even thicker. Some of my fan leaves were even getting covered in resin.

Peace fellas, and thanks gnome, vaped and everyone that's brought good info to this thread

 

[Rolldaddy]

PS: M-man

If you look back in this thread some Vaped is doing some nice runs and only using those low K rated sylvania MH bulbs, that I have added a few of those to my toolbox and they do work well.

But another good point stated earlier in the thread about strain dependent to what light works best, touches on what lights were being used during the breeding process of strains and how it could affect what works best with them.

So I'm glad to see on this one. I've always apreciated your input and all the support you've given me over the years.

Peace

 

[med-man]

there def is a uv factor in mh thats good for trichs

bud for growth and mass. nothing can beat a 600 digi pound for pound.

there a big diff between 3 600 over a 4x8 table vs 2 mh. like 25-33% for less power and heat too. thats considering crops per year, veg times, power used, flowering times etc etc

med-man

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

^i'll take my 1000's over 600's any day. better light penetration, more lumens, denser frostier buds.

 

[Rolldaddy]

Thanks M-man.

This has been a great thread and watching the results from many different growers. The first test I did with mh in bloom was a small room that just had 3 x 1000k w switchable ballast. For strains I had your headband, purp headband, conkushion and WCSD. For light I did mh all through veg and stretch, then I ran the middle light w hps to transition in the hps and kept the other 2 mh till mid flower. then I put 1 mh in the middle light and 2 horti hps on the outsides for the remainder of 12/12. IMO yield suffered slightly but those strains were frostier than usual when I run those. All your strains I've run are always very resinous but these were even more covered.

My next experiment was in a room with several more lights but most were 600 lumateks. I got my hands in ipower mh digital bulbs for short so I stocked up. Since I had so many during veg I only used those. Once I flipped to 12/12 I left all the mh as they were and turned on the rest using lumatek 600w hps digi bulbs and kept my lights the same throughout the entire 12/12 part. That time yield suffered even more but buds were even more resinous.

I wanted to post pics on one of your threads, to show some sweet M-man bud strain shots but there was some security issues with a member from an old thread I was active in so I didn't post. I will email them to you if you wanted.

But anyways back to the point of this thread I agree with what a few others have said here that it's strain dependent what light will perform best.

My current run was vegged w mh and I started adding hps before flip. Now in 12/12 and I think 4 hps to 1 mh will be my sweet spot.

All my runs with your strains have been A+ I've got them all down for the most part but I would like to get yield up some. So I'm using a trellis net with TREEZ kinda scrogging so I hope it helps. My ultimate goal is to pull 1.5 unit per 600 light. It's the second run in the location so it's just about dialed in, so I'm making it happen. If not this time then the next

Peace

 

[Rolldaddy]

Zeppelin

I used to have the same thoughts that 1000's is were its at. Until the last year or so all I ever used were 1000. But since I've been using 600's I like them. I believe they are much more efficient. And what really sold me are the lumatek dual 600 ballasts and I'm also liking the digi ballasts. With those ballasts I can power 2 hoods at the same time. In my opinion the lumatek hps work best with them and each one of those bulbs is slightly less powerful than a 1000. IMO those 600's are a bit pricey and I do like using a mix of bulbs so I also bought several ipower 600 mh and hps. The good thing about those ipower bulbs is that on amazon they go for under $30, so they have been great using them here and here to mix up my bulbs.

My bad to keep rambling, but I did want to share that info and my findings

 

[Rolldaddy]

1 last thing I wanted to share since many here think what light to use is strain dependent. A couple years ago is when I got I first Med-man brand strains. Since my first run with them the final product has always been amazing no matter what lights I used. So if any of you are exploring new strains to try check out M-mans arsenal. I've run most of those you see on his sig. Unfortunately I had to reduce the number of mums I could keep, so I kept my 3 faves.

Peace

RD

 

[Stonefree69]

^i'll take my 1000's over 600's any day. better light penetration, more lumens, denser frostier buds.

You have a point, but 2 600's vs 1 1,000 makes the 600's very tempting. But then just look at 2 1,000s if they can fit. I might migrate to 1 1,000 HPS on bottom & 1 600 watt on top in stacked bare bulb vertical. That HPS is definitely gonna amp up the yield & penetrate better where it's needed, and I get more of the right blend of MH/HPS ratio.

 

[med-man]

600 are actually brighter, you can get them way closer, and they are more efficient

1000-watt: lm/W = 140
1 foot (30 cm) away 140,000 lumens
2 feet (60 cm) away 35,000 lumens
3 feet (90 cm) away 15,555 lumens
4 feet (120 cm) away 9999 lumens
1000-watt HP sodium @ 4 feet = 10,000 lumens

4 × 4 = 16 square feet, 1000 watts / 16 square feet = 62.5 watts per square foot.
1000 watts / M2 = 100 watts per cm2

600-watt: lm/W = 150
1 foot (30 cm) away 90,000 lumens
2 feet (60 cm) away 22,500 lumens
3 feet (90 cm) away 9,999 lumens
4 feet (120 cm) away 6428 lumens
600-watt HP sodium @ 3 feet = 10,000 lumens
3 × 3 = 9 square feet, 600 watts / 9 = 66 watts per square foot
600 watts / m2 = 6 watts per cm2

"
Three 600-watt bulbs (1800 watts) delivers more intense light to a garden than two 1000-watt lamps (2000 watts). Three points of light provided by the 600-watt bulbs distributes light better than when generated by two lamps. The 600-watt lamps can also be placed closer to the garden canopy.

Three 600-watt lamps that produce 270,000 lumens from three point sources, instead of two 1000-watt HPS lamps yielding 280,000 lumens from two points, lower total light output by 10,000 lumens, but increases the number of sources of light. Lamps can be placed closer to plants, increasing efficiency even more."

source - grow bible

my solar max super hps also have 95,000 lum

in peak growth my 600 are 12-18 inches from th canpoy. because of heat, i cannot get 1000w closer then 2 feet. the math is here

i would like to say though, in limited space, and bare bulbs, 1000 w are prob superior, but with unlimted space, i can yield more with 600 as you can increase plant numbers and get plants closer with 600 bare bulbs

med-man

 

[med-man]

if anyone is interested though

i know tons of guys in bc whom put the bigger caps on their 1000 watt core n coils. they claim to get up to 1500 watts per bulb output. but you can only use cheapy silvanias or phillips and they need replacing every crop or 2 becuase of the high output

med-man

 

[rives]

if anyone is interested though

i know tons of guys in bc whom put the bigger caps on their 1000 watt core n coils. they claim to get up to 1500 watts per bulb output. but you can only use cheapy silvanias or phillips and they need replacing every crop or 2 becuase of the high output

med-man

This not only sounds foolish, but potentially dangerous. What is "1500 watts output"? Is that the same lumen output as a 1500w lamp, or is it upping the amperage draw on the circuit, or has anyone actually gotten as far as quantifying the impact? I can easily believe that it would adversely affect lamp life - the level of capacitance in the circuit has been pretty carefully worked out by a couple of generations of electrical engineers, and to blithely swap them out to something "bigger" and convince yourself that it now functions better is about as scientific as turning the lid on your air cleaner over and thinking that your car is now faster because you lost the silencing effect that was built-in by the factory. Bad idea.

 

[med-man]

hey rives

brighter light, a bit more heat, guys loved them for s.o.g beds in bc with sativa plants

no lie, 2.5 pounds from 36 plants, 5x5 area, wand fed, gh 3part. bc specials lol

shittiest weed ever. but they only care about output anyway. it is tried and true, for a very long time

med-man

 

[rives]

Hell, it might make the plants respond like Jack's beanstalk, but from a purely electrical standpoint it is damn foolish. Also, if it were to actually cause a fire there could be tremendous liability involved with modifying the circuit if an inspector was sharp enough to go that deeply.

 

[med-man]

hey rives you are right

these were not medical grows that were insured. i know guys that have tried it with no issues.

med-man

 

[Rolldaddy]

if anyone is interested though

i know tons of guys in bc whom put the bigger caps on their 1000 watt core n coils. they claim to get up to 1500 watts per bulb output. but you can only use cheapy silvanias or phillips and they need replacing every crop or 2 becuase of the high output

med-man

M-man

I'm interested in that info. I still have my old 1000 balasts and would love to learn how to to supe them up.

But since I have started using these dual digital 600 balasts I've been very happy. Apart from that info you showed above they run much cooler. Even those dual 600 balasts run cool even to the touch. ATM I have 6 balasts and 12 lights in one room that is sealed and I can keep the temps I want with 1 2ton minisplit. Something else to think about

 

[3rdEye]

Fantastic thread. thank to all the contributors.

the consensus seems to be:

cultivar/strain will determine optimal response to differences in light quality all other environmental parameters being equal.

That mirrors my limited dabbling with light spectrums. I was running cuttings of the same cultivars under different spectrums (eye blue iwasaki and super hps hortilux). Some types had a very pronounced difference in smell and flavor and yield when grown under different lights. Other types did the same under different lights. I do think that mixed spectrum is advisable, more so for producing seed, to switch as many genes to "on" as possible due to epigenetic effects. The sun doesn't put out narrow bandwidths of light and all live on earth has evolved with that broad spectrum.

What i hadn't noticed anyone talking about were the environmental impacts of bulb use and other non-money/yield questions about different lights.

One reason i use the horti super hps is, besides a broader spectrum, it also has a very low mercury content. The lower mercury makes it more agreeable to me, since i am also concerned about long term impacts of using all these lights. I hear some growers are using bulbs for only a few cycles, then tossing them. What about all the metal contamination? Anyone else with concerns?


great information and a lot of real data from real growers

 

[The Hatter]

This is a very interesting thread. I think it's about time I do a little bulb shopping.