Just coming over here from one of your questions in the noob thread.
Go led instead of HPS if you can afford it, but saying that how big is your space L" X W" ? Just so i can give a better recommendation, from what i see and am guessing a new good quality LED light in the 100-150w range which are $80-120 would likely rock that 400w HPS your running which im guessing is on a magnetic ballast, will reduce heat significantly as well which also meas less exhaust airflow needed.
… and flip whenever as its already filled out area wise, there gonna be fighting 2 week from flip anyways at this point.
It is a 2x4ft 2meter tall closet, yep it is a magnetic ballast but I will stick to hps, I have one of those cheap led grow lights from china and I just use it to keep mommy’s because it is so week that they grow very slowly.
Appart from heat problems I don’t see a reason to go led, you pay more, have the same power bill, just get less heat and better pictures.
For me hps work well and is way cheaper, even considering changing bulbs and stuff.
But advise me, other points of view and advices are always welcome.
typically the change to led is you can run less wattage for similar output, in your case a more modern 2x4 light or something in the 200-250w range would work, and would run your usage at half the price for similar if not better light as your 400w hps plus mag ballast is probably pulling more from the wall than you think, also led’s are directional so even with reflectors for hps/mh alot of efficiency is lost in that and isn’t accounted for at times, also due to led panel or say bar style light alot of the time the coverage is more even across the canopy than vs single point light sources where you may have to have your light 1m+ over head, also less heat means less exhaust fan if adjustable which is still consuming power which is small but still adds up, plus alot less concerns about fire hazards is another bonus.
Otherwise if you have access to 150hps or 250watters sure just swap bulbs or a ballast change if needed the plants will be craving the light you already have given them though but will grow fine otherwise saying that flipping to flower is gonna reduce your light electrical use by half or 33% just going to 12/12.
Oh no change in lights until the end of this run, I don’t want to ruin the ladies.
Next run will start with 150w, less light but way less heat so I can get the light closer.
See how it runs on 150w and will decide.
But there are 150w that are permanent that is the mommy’s light and fans, 24h.
I think that 200w led doing the same as an 400w hps is something I never heard about, but the end price for a 200w led is high, and for me is usefull only in 1 run a year that is the summer one, and I count the ballast and lamp heat to help regulate the temperature when it drops.
We will see… I hope to get it right, 1st run bad light, 2nd run switched to 400w hps, this is the 3rd run and I found I have too much light, 400w could do a 4x4 room, I thonk ot is too much heat and even light, so I hope I get settled with the 150w, could try with 200w, but power bill is scaring me so might keep it to the minimun needed to obtain acceptable results.
Here are 3 clones and 2 late germ seed plants, today got the 5th and I might need to top the bigger ones since they need to wait more 1 month at least to go veg with a better light source.
Today all ladies have pistils, looks like it was a good call to go on those hermie seeds… But harvest still many waterings away so might be some bananas.
Tomorrow is watering day so I will post a picture.
Today update,
The newborn flowers start to show, just 12 days after flipping, Critical is an amazing strain.
Today I also got the Mars Hydro ts1000, already checked it but only going to start using it in 1 month, to vegg the clones and late germ plants to the oktoberfest run!
Today is watering day, so later there will be a picture later, but for now I assume the sprayed product was effective against the caterpillar infestation because yesterday i Foud a dead one on one leave so…Will be following it closely and by the end of the week I might give it another spray just to be sure.
And yesterday I had to remove 4 branches after remove some foliage because I spoted some bannanas, stranhe thing is this is a fem seed plant, the plants from seeds from older plants don’t have this issue.
